Slike strani
PDF
ePub

of Maryland, and one of general Wayne's favourite pupils; having commanded the cavalry, in his decisive battle with the Indians, in 1794.

Of the killed, on the field, were lieutenants Hunter, Olmstead, and William W. Smith; the last an excellent officer of the light artillery. Of the wounded, besides general Covington, were brigadier-general Swartwout, adjutant general Cumming, colonel Preston, assistant adjutant general Chambers, major Noon, five captains, and six subalterns.

Opposite to Cornwall, general Wilkinson had expected to meet general Hampton: but there he received a communication from him by colonel Atkinson, assigning the reasons why he declined a junction, and was retracing his steps to Lake Champlain. General Wilkinson immediately laid his letter, accompanied with the explanations of colonel Atkinson, before a council of his principal officers, who gave it as their unanimous opinion, that, in the actual circumstances of the advancing army, the attack on Montreal should be suspended for the present season; and that the troops should immediately go into winter quarters, at the French Mills.

Shortly after the departure of general Wilkinson from Niagara, general Harrison arrived from Detroit, and took command. Fort George was placed under the charge of general M-Clure, of the New York militia; and general Harrison then descended with the regulars to Sackett's Harbour; where he resigned the command in that quarter, and proceeded by the way of Washington to Ohio. Fort George was soon afterwards abandoned, and blown up by Gen. McClure.

In the month of January, 1814, a body of the enemy crossed over to the American shore: and, through the negligence of captain Leonard, the commanding officer, Fort Niagara was surprised and captured. About the same period, another body crossed above the falls, and laid waste the village of Buffalo, and all the settlements on the American side, for several miles from the river. The enemy garrisoned and held possession of Fort Niagara, until the close of the war.

[blocks in formation]

CHAPTER L.

First and second sessions of the thirteenth Congress; Internal Taxes; Creek war; Naturalized Citizens; New England militia; Finances of 1814; Embargo; Proposition for Negociation at Gottenburgh, &c.; Repeal of Embargo and NonImportation acts; Extension of Blockade, &c.

On the fourth Monday of May, 1813, the thirteenth congress convened; and, on the next day, received a congratulatory message from the president. As an encouragement to persevering and invigorated exertions, to bring the war to a happy result, he represented the progress of the arms of the United States, to have been propitious both by land, and on the water; and stated, that the improvements of the national armament, as authorised by the last congress, were advancing towards completion. The loan of sixteen millions was contracted for, at an annual interest, not less than seven and a half per cent. and a million of the money paid into the treasury, on the 1st of April, 1813. The receipts into the treasury, from the 1st of October, 1812, up to the 31st of March, 1813, were about equal to the expenditures for the same period.

The president's sketch of the finances of the nation, while it shewed that due provision had been made for the current year, evinced, at the same time, by the limited amount of the actual revenue, and the precarious dependence on loans, the necessity of providing, more adequately, for the future supplies of the treasury. A well-digested system of internal taxes, in aid of existing revenue, was recommended, to lessen the amount of necessary loans, place the public credit more satisfactory basis, and improve the terms on which loans in future were to be obtained. In calling for a system, of revenue, adequate to the expenditures occasioned by th war, the president made an animated appeal to the people

and urged considerations well calculated to command, for the government, the most liberal support, from the abundant resources of the nation. His message concluded in the following terms:

"The contest, in which the United States are engaged, appeals for its support, to every motive that can animate an uncorrupted and enlightened people; to the love of country; to the pride of liberty; to an emulation of the glorious founders of their independence, by a successful vindication of its violated attributes; to the gratitude and sympathy, which demand security from the most degrading wrongs, of a class of citizens, who had proved themselves so worthy the protection of their country, by their heroic zeal in its defence; and finally, to the sacred obligation of transmitting entire, to future generations, that precious patrimony of national rights and independence which is held in trust by the present, from the goodness of Divine Providence."

The communication of the president having principally suggested to the deliberation of congress, an adequate system of internal revenue; an act was passed, to lay a direct tax, of three millions of dollars, upon the United States; also acts laying duties on sugar, refined within the United States; on carriages for the conveyance of persons; on licences to distillers of spirituous liquors; on sales at auction of merchandise, ships, and vessels; on licenses to retailers of wines, spirituous liquors, and foreign merchandise; on notes of banks, bankers, and certain companies; on notes, bonds, and obligations, discounted by banks, bankers, and certain companies; on certain bills of exchange; and an act to impose a duty on imported salt. In addition to the preceding fiscal measures, an act was passed authorising a loan for a sum not exceeding seven millions five hundred thousand dollars; which was shortly afterwards executed, on terms somewhat more favourable than the last loan of sixteen millions.

During this session of congress, several acts were passed in relation to naval and military affairs; the most prominent of which were those, authorising the president to cause to be built barges, for the defence of the ports and harbours of the

United States; making an appropriation of two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, to enable him to hire or purchase hulks, to be sunk for the greater security of ports and harbours; to raise a corps of sea-fencibles; and an act to raise five regiments of infantry, to be enlisted for and during the war, and employed in the defence of the seaboard of the United States.

One other subject claimed the attention of the national legislature. The spirit and enterprise of the commanders of private armed vessels, in annoying the commerce of the enemy, demanded a favourable regard to their interest. In consideration thereof, two acts were passed; one reducing the duties payable on prize goods, captured by private armed vessels; the other allowing a bounty, of twenty-five dollars, to the owners, officers and crews of vessels, commissioned as letters of marque, for each and every prisoner captured and brought into the United States.

On the first Monday in December, 1813, the thirteenth congress commenced its second session, which many circumstances combined to render memorable. At its opening, the president announced that the British government had declined to accept and negociate thro' the mediation of Russia; and that, in consequence, there was no course left to the United States, but to exert their strength to support their rights. In the several victories of general Harrison and commodore Perry, both by land and on Lake Erie, there were encouragements to a vigorous prosecution of the war. At the moment, when the president was enabled to announce the rescue of the inhabitants of the north-western frontier, from their late exposure to wary, active, and merciless enemies, he had to communicate, that the Indians on the south-western border, who, under the persevering endeavours of the government of the United States, had gradually acquired more civilized habits, had become the unfortunate subjects of seduction by the agents of Great Britain. The Creek tribes, infuriated by a bloody fanaticism, recently propagated among them, had renounced their friendly intercourse with the people of the states in their vicinity, and commenced a war, marked more strongly by desperation, than any before waged by them. To pre

vent such a war from spreading among the contiguous tribes, and facilitating military enterprises of the enemy in that section of the Union, the president, in the recess of congress, had called into service a force, collected from the states of Georgia and Tennessee, which, united with the military corps of the Mississippi territory, and a few companies of the regular troops, would not only chastise the savages into peace, but make a lasting impression on their fears. Already had the Tennessee volunteers, under generals Coffee and Jackson, made successful expeditions into their territories, and obtained victories over large bodies of them, assembled under their ablest and boldest leaders. In communicating the very unexpected hostility among tribes, who had experienced the great benefits of an advanced civilization, under the generous policy of the United States, the president well remarked, that, "The systematic perseverance of the enemy, in courting the aid of the savages in all quarters, had the natural effect of kindling their ordinary propensity to war into a passion, which, even among those best disposed towards the United States, was ready, if not employed on our side, to be turned against us. A departure from our protracted forbearance to accept the services tendered by them, has thus been forced upon us : but in yielding to it, the retaliation has been mitigated as much as possible, both in its extent, and in its character; stopping far short of the example of the enemy, who owe the advantage they have occasionally gained in battle, chiefly to the number of their savage associates, and who have not controled them, either from their usual practice of indiscriminate massacre on defenceless inhabitants, or from scenes of carnage, without a parallel, on prisoners to the British arms, guarded by all the laws of humanity, and of honourable war."

The president also communicated, in detail, a controversy between the United States and Great Britain, which originated in a principle held by the latter, in opposition to a power delegated to congress, by the constitution of the former. In Great Britain, the allegiance of a subject is held to be indefeasible. In the United States,

« PrejšnjaNaprej »