THE

ANGLO-AMERICAN MAGAZINE.

VOL. II. TORONTO: MARCH, 1853.-No. 3.

HISTORY OF THE WAR

BETWEEN GREAT BRITAIN AND THE

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,

ment. Rapidly, however, as the forces of the United States, at this crisis, accumulated on paper, and ardent as the votes of Congress were for military preparation, the actual enlistment was anything but enthusiastic.

DURING THE YEARS 1812, 1813, AND 1814. Recruits came in slowly-at the ratio of one

CHAPTER II. CONTINUED.

February 6th, 1812.

March 28th.

thousand in six months-notwithstanding the liberal bounty which was offered. It is curiIn addition to the regu- ous to observe the comparative coldness with lar troops, the President which at this time Congress addressed themwas authorised to employ 25,000 volunteers selves to promoting the efficiency of the for twelve months, who were to form a body navy,-that arm of the service which cerof men intermediate between the regulars tainly did the republic most credit during and the militia, resembling the latter in the war. A subsidy of only $300,000 was most points, but differing from them in voted for repairs; and a further sum of being liable to foreign service. Their cloth- $200,000 annually, for rebuilding certain ing was to be provided by themselves; their ships. What was proposed to be accomarms were to be furnished by the govern- plished by this paltry sum, was to repair and

"That an humble address be presented Mr. Rose acknowledged that a very considerable to his royal highness the Prince Regent, degree of distress did exist among our manurepresenting that this house has for some time factures, but would not admit that it was so past been engaged in an inquiry into the present much owing to the Orders in Council as the hon. distressed state of the commerce and manufac- gentleman had represented. He corrected tures of the country, and the effects of the several statements made by him, and showed Orders in Council issued by his Majesty in the that the commerce of France had suffered in years 1807 and 1809;* assuring his Royal much greater proportion from the effects of Highness that this house will at all times sup- these Orders. Our shipping interest, he asserted, port his Royal Highness to the utmost of its had been benefitted by them, and if they were power in maintaining those just maritime rights repealed, the Americans would come in for a which have essentially contributed to the pros- large share of our carrying trade, especially to perity and honour of the realm-but beseech-South America. Upon the whole, he would not ing his Royal Highness that he would be graciously pleased to recall or suspend the said Orders, and adopt such measures, as may tend to conciliate neutral powers, without sacrificing

* There was a modification of the Orders in April, 1809.

VOL. II.-P

deny that our manufactures were likely to obtain some relief from the repeal, but government was placed between difficulties on both sides, and it was their duty to adopt the measures which would be least detrimental. In his opinion, the preponderance of argument led to the conclusion that the repeal of the Orders

fit out the Constellation, Chesapeake, and could contemplate its ruin without concern. Adams frigates; and with the annual sub- The politicians of the back-woods, who sidy, to rebuild three other frigates of the formed so strong and so stern a section of old navy, too rotten to be repaired. The the violent faction seem to have hardly given truth was, the war mania originated, mainly, a thought to the sufferings in store for the with men who cared little or nothing about commercial cities on the sea-coast,-suffercommerce-as they did not live by it,-and ings which, in any contest with a naval

power like Great Britain, must always be combined with his sanguine and impetuous terribly severe.

spirit, soon enabled him to outstrip the old In this Congress (the twelfth) the cele- champions of war, who raised him to the brated Henry Clay, then a young and ardent Speakership of the House of Representaman, made his first entrance on the great tives, and tacitly acknowledged him for world of politics. He was a fervent advo- their leader.

cate for war; and his remarkable talents,

Papers relating to Henry's Mission communicated to Congress

by the President,on the 5th March.

CHAPTER III.

In the year 1809, about United States; how far the war-spirit had the time of the first spread; with what amount of success the embargo, Mr. Madison resistance of the federal party would probatold the British Minister bly be attended; and, generally, to acquire at Washington that, in his estimation, such such information as might assist him in had been the conduct of Great Britain, that putting the Province under his charge into the United States would be justified in a proper state of defence. Sir James Craig, declaring war at any moment, and without however, was unfortunate, as it proved, in further notice. The newspapers, at that his choice of the person employed. This time, were boiling over with invective person was a Captain John Henry, a clever against Great Britain, and the invasion of and active, but, as circumstances afterher North American Colonies was, even at wards showed, a purely mercenary and that early period of the dispute, publicly unprincipled man. He was an Irishman by talked of and discussed as a very feasible birth; had come to the United States as an and very effectual measure of retaliation. adventurer; became a captain in the army Halifax and Quebec were both mentioned as of 1798; and ultimately settled on an estate points on which the attack might be advan- in Vermont, close to the frontier. Accordtageously commenced. As the President's ing to his own account, the attention of Sir language, taken in conjunction with the James Craig was drawn to him by essays popular animosity, seemed to threaten an which he had written in newspapers against immediate assault, intelligence was des- republican government, which he professed patched to Sir James Craig, the Governor of to hold in utter detestation. By some means Canada, who, lest the Province under his or other, however, the Governor of Canada command should be taken by surprise, sent had heard of him, invited him to Montreal, an embassy into the Eastern States, for the and from thence despatched him to Boston of procuring information. The early in 1809, for the purpose we have purpose instructions given to that agent were not already described. After remaining in Bosinconsistent with the Governor's honourable ton about three months, during which period character. All that he contemplated was,- he wrote Sir James Craig's secretary fourto ascertain the real state of affairs in the teen letters, embodying information of no

commerce, the same, after due notice, shall be We cannot, however, refrain from expressing null and of no effect.

Mr. Brougham, on this occurrence, declared the full satisfaction of himself and his friends with the frank and manly conduct of government in the mode it had adopted; and both sides of the house seemed happy in the prospect of the amicable intercourse which this proceeding would restore between the two countries.

our astonishment, that during the debates there appeared so little consciousness that the question of repealing or continuing the Orders in Council, was a real question of peace or war with America; and that deferring the decision so long, was rendering it altogether unimportant. In fact, before the news of the repeal reached the United States, they were actually at war with Great Britain.

himself of the sensible and elegant sentiment, that "he considered Canada as rogues' harbour, and saw in the correspondence additional reasons for attacking it." A vehement onset was made on the British Ministry in the House of Commons on this

great value, as we think, he was recalled, whom he may have hoped to detect in Conon the apparent settlement produced by the gress, nothing material was effected in Erskine arrangement. In 1811 he visited favour of the Administration. The opposiEngland, and applied at the Foreign Office tion were not silenced; for not one of their for a reward for his services; but was number was caught in the trap. Had the referred back to Sir James Craig's successor result been different; had there been grounds in the government, as better able to appre- for suspicion against them, it would assuredly ciate the ability and success with which his have gone hard with them-as to their influence mission had been executed. Henry did not at all events; for the minds of the multilike this; and so, instead of returning to tude were in that heated state which renders Canada, proceeded to the United States, the appeal of an unpopular minority to the where, in the genuine temper of an unfaith-bar of public opinion a perfectly hopeless ful hireling, he presented himself before affair. During the debate in Congress on Mr. Madison; told the tale of his mission; the correspondence, a Mr. Johnson delivered and offered to sell his papers. Mr. Madison closed with the profferred bargain, and paid him out of the secret service fund the large sum of $50,000 for the papers; apparently having only a general notion of their contents, and not imagining—as we must argue from the handsome price he paid for them-head; but, whilst they stated that Henry's how little they contained. He expected, no doubt, when he made the liberal offer of $50,000, that the correspondence thus purchased would furnish disclosures highly serviceable to the Administration, both by blackening the character of the British government and by bringing suspicion and odium generally on the opposition in Congress, perhaps by fixing a charge of treason His disappointment, then, must have been extreme, on discovering that the British agent had received no authority or commission to offer bribes in any shape; that neither his letters nor the replies sketched out any plan of insurrection; and that the correspondence did not implicate, or even name a single citizen of the United States. Still, having got the papers into his hands, and paid dearly for his bargain, the President determined to make all the use of them that he could. He accordingly transmitted them to Congress, accompanied by a message, putting upon the whole affair the bitterest interpretation he could devise,representing it as an effort, on the part of the British Government to foment disaffection in the United States, and to bring about the separation of the Eastern States from the Union. His end, however, was not answered. A momentary excitement, it is true, was produced; but, as he was unable to hold up to public indignation any of the "traitors"

on some.

mission was Sir James Craig's own act, unknown to them until all was over, they defended it on the ground that its object was nothing more than legitimate information, very desirable at so critical a time; though they admitted that the transaction was not in all its circumstances managed with perfect discretion. Poor Sir James was then in his grave; but, although his own voice was not raised in self-defence, we may venture to assert that his memory, which is that of a straightforward, honest, and fearless man, has not suffered even from the baseness of the agent whom it was his misfortune to employ. Alison's brief allusion to this transaction involves a slight error as to date, representing it as following the ninety days' embargo, of which we are about to speak. He uses, too, the words,—" certain documents found on a Captain Henry," from which the general inference would be, that Henry was detected, whereas he sold himself, as we have shown above, to Mr. Madison.

Ninety days' embargo, 4th April.

War having been determined upon by the Administration, the President sent a confidential message to Congress, recommending, "under existing circumstances and prospects," an embargo for sixty days. A bill to that effect passed the