been fresh in the recollection of the forces employed on that occasion, and would have justified a retaliation on their part, their forbearance was strongly manifested, and the directions his excellency had given to the commander of that expedition so scrupulously obeyed, that scarcely can another instance be shewn in which, during a state of war, and under similar circumstances, an enemy so completely under the power, and at the mercy of their adversaries, had so little cause of complaint.

“During the course of the same summer, forts Schlosser and Black-rock were surprised and taken by a part of the forces under the command of Major-general de Rottenburgh, on the Niagara frontier, at both of which places personal property was respected, and the public buildings were alone destroyed.

"It was certainly matter of just and reasonable expectation, that the humane and liberal course of conduct pursued by his excellency on these different occasions would have had its due weight with the American government, and would have led it to have abstained, in the further prosecution of the war, from any acts of wantonness or violence, which could only tend, unnecessarily, to add to its ordinary calamities, and to bring down upon their own unoffending citizens, a retaliation, which, though distant, they must have known would await and certainly followed such conduct. "Undeterred, however, by his excellency's example of moderation, or by any of the consequences to be apprehended from the adoption of such barbarous measures, the American forces at Fort George, acting, as there is every reason to believe, under the orders, or with the approbation of their government, for some time previous to their evacuation of that fortress, under various pretences burned and destroyed the farm-houses and buildings of many of the respectable and peaceable inhabitants of that neighbourhood. But the full measure of this species of barbarity remained to be completed at a season when all its horrors might be more fully and keenly felt by those who were to become the wretched victims of it.

"It will hardly be credited by those who shall hereafter read it in the page of history, that in the enlightened era of the nineteenth century, and in the inclemency of a Canadian winter, the troops of a nation, calling itself civilized and Christian, had wantonly, and without the shadow of a pretext, forced 400 helpless women and children to quit their dwellings, and to be the mournful spectators of the conflagration and total destruction of all that belonged to them.

"Yet such was the fate of Newark on the 10th of December, a day which the inhabitants of Upper Canada can never forget, and the recollection of which cannot but nerve their arms when again,

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that day, the American troops, under Brigadie.- BOOK XI. general M'Clure, being about to evacuate Fort George, which they could no longer retain, by an CHAP. XI. act of inhumanity disgraceful to themselves and to the nation to which they belong, set fire to upwards of 150. houses, composing the beautiful village of Newark, and burned them to the ground; leaving, without covering or shelter, those innocent, unfortunate, and distressed inhabitants,' whom that officer, by his proclamation, had previously engaged to protect.

"His excellency would have ill-consulted the honor of his country, and the justice due to his majesty's injured and insulted subjects, had he permitted an act of such needless cruelty to pass unpunished, or had he failed to visit, whenever the opportunity arrived, upon the inhabitants of the neighbouring American frontier the calamities thus inflicted upon those of our own.

"The opportunity has occurred, and a full measure of retaliation has taken place, such as it is hoped will teach the enemy to respect, in future, the laws of war, and recall him to a sense of what is due to himself as well as to us.

"In the further prosecution of the contest, to which so extraordinary a character has been given, his excellency must be guided by the course of conduct which the enemy shall hereafter pursue. Lamenting, as his excellency does, the necessity imposed upon him of retaliating upon the subjects of America the miseries inflicted on the inhabitants of Newark, it is not his intention to pursue further a system of warfare so revolting to his own feelings, and so little congenial to the British character, unless the future measure of the enemy should compel him again

to resort to it.

"To those possessions of the enemy along the whole line of the frontier which have hitherto remained undisturbed, and which are now within his excellency's reach, and at the mercy of the troops under his command, his excellency has determined to extend the same forbearance and, the same freedom from rapine and murder which they have hitherto experienced; and from this. determination, the future conduct of the American government shall alone induce his excellency to depart.

"The inhabitants of these provinces will, in the mean time, be prepared to resist, with firmness and courage, whatever attempts the resentment of the enemy, arising from their disgrace and their merited sufferings, may lead them to make; well assured that they will be powerfully assisted, at all points, by the troops under his excellency's command, and that prompt and signal vengeance will be taken for every fresh departure, by the enemy, from that system of warfare which ought alone to subsist between enlightened and civilized

BOOK XI. It is with regret that we are obliged to conclude our account of the American campaign CHAP. XI. with the notice of some retaliatory measures, in addition to those mentioned in the above pro1818. elamation, which, if they had been persisted in, would have stamped a character on the war highly inconsistent with the supposed improve ment of the age in the practice of justice and humanity. The peculiar circumstances under which the United States are placed with respect to emigrants from foreign countries, on whom their population was originally founded, and to whom they are still indebted for large accessions of useful citizens, had made them desirous of introducing a new principle into the code of nations, that of the right of individuals to transfer their allegiance from the country of their birth to that by which they are adopted, and, in consequence, the right of nations to accept and support that transfer. This maxim being contrary to that of all the European governments, it is evident that frequent disputes must arise from putting it in practice, especially in time of war; and Great Britain being the country from which America derives the greatest part of its emigrant population, in every quarrel the two states must be involved in angry contention from this source, until some common rule of decision is agreed upon between them. The actual existence of such a difference, with its lamentable effects, are made known in the general orders issued by the commander of the British forces from Montreal on October the 27th. The facts stated are, that twenty-three soldiers of the infantry of the United States, being made prisoners, were sent to England, and held in close confinement as British subjects; that General Dearborn had been instructed to put into similar confinement twenty-three British soldiers as hostages for the safety of the former; that the prince regent had given directions to put in close confinement, forty-six American officers and noncommissioned officers, to answer for the safety of the last twenty-three soldiers; and also to apprize General Dearborn, that if any of them should suffer death in consequence of executing the law of nations upon the first twenty-three confined as British subjects, double the number of the confined American officers should immediately be selected for retaliation; and, moreover, that the commanders of his majesty's armies and fleets had received orders to prosecute the war with unmitigated severity against all the cities, towns, and villages of the United States, in case their government should persist in their intention of retaliation. In this dreadful state of mutual menace, affairs remained at the close of the year.

The Congress of the United States met at Washington on the 7th of December, when they received the following message from the presi

dent, which is a most important and interesting document.

"Fellow-citizens of the senate and of the house of representatives,-In meeting you at the present interesting conjuncture, it would have been highly satisfactory if I could have communicated a favorable result of the mission charged with negociations for restoring peace. It was a just expectation from the respect due to the distinguished sovereign who had invited them by his offer of mediation,-from the readiness with which the invitation was accepted on the part of the United States, and from the pledge to be found in an act of their legislature for the liberality which their plenipotentiaries would carry inte the negociations, that no time would be lost by the British government in embracing the experiment for hastening a stop to the effusion of blood... A prompt and cordial acceptance of the mediation on that side was the less to be doubted, as it was of a nature not to submit rights or pretensions on either side to the decision of an umpire, but to afford merely an opportunity, honorable and desirable to both, for discussing, and, if possible, adjusting them for the interest of both.

"The British cabinet, either mistaking our desire of peace for a dread of British power, or misled by other fallacious conclusions, has disappointed this reasonable anticipation. No communication from our envoys having reached us, no information on the subject has been received from that source; but it is known that the mediation was declined in the first instance, and there is no evidence, notwithstanding the lapse of time, that a change of disposition in the British councils has taken place, or is to be expected.

"Under such eircumstances, a nation, proud of: its rights, and conscious of its strength, has no choice but an exertion of the one in the support of the other.

"To this determination, the best encouragement is derived from the success with which it has pleased the Almighty to bless our arms, both on the land and on the water.

"Whilst proofs have been continued of the enterprise and skill of our cruisers, public and private, on the ocean, and a new trophy gained in the capture of a British by an American vessel of war, after an action giving celebrity to the name of the victorious commander; the great inland waters, on which the enemy were also to be encountered, have presented achievements of our naval arms, as brilliant in their character as they have been important in their consequences.

"On Lake Erie, the squadron under command of Captam Perry having met the British squadron, of superior force, a sanguinary conflict ended in the capture of the whole. The conduct of that officer, adroit as it was dating, and which was so well seconded by his comrades, justly en

titles them to the admiration and gratitude of their country; and will fill an early page in its naval annals, with a victory never surpassed in lustre however it may have been in magnitude. "On Lake Ontario, the caution of the British commander, favored by contingencies, frustrated the efforts of the American commander to bring on a decisive action. Captain Chauncey was able, however, to establish an ascendancy on that important theatre; and to prove, by the manner in which he effected every thing possible, that opportunities only were wanted for a more shining display of his own talents and of the gallantry of those under his command.

"The success on Lake Erie having opened a passage to the territory of the enemy, the officer commanding the north-western army transferred the war thither; and rapidly pursuing the hostile troops, fleeing with their savage associates, forced a general action, which quickly terminated in the capture of the British, and dispersion of the savage force.

This result is signally honorable to Majorgeneral Harrison, by whose military talents it was prepared; to Colonel Johnson and his mounted volunteers, whose impetuous onset gave a decisive blow to the ranks of the enemy; and to the spirit of the volunteer militia, equally brave and patriotic, who bore an interesting part in the scene: more especially to the chief magistrate of Kentucky at the head of them, whose heroism, signalised in the war which established the independence of his country, sought, at an advanced age, a share in hardships and battles, for maintaining its rights and its safety.

"The effect of these successes has been to rescue the inhabitants of Michigan from their oppressions, aggravated by gross infractions of the capitulation which subjected them to a foreign power to alienate the savages of numerous tribes froni the enemy, by whom they were disappointed and abandoned; and to relieve an extensive region of country from a merciless warfare, which desolated its frontiers, and imposed on its citizens the most harassing services.

"In consequence of our naval superiority on Lake Ontario, and the opportunity afforded by it for concentrating our forces by water, operations, which had been previously planned, were set on foot against the possessions of the enemy on the St. Lawrence. Such, however, was the delay produced, in the first instance, by adverse weather of unusual violence and continuance, and such the circumstances attending the final movements of the army, that the prospect, at one time so favorable, was not realized. The cruelty of the enemy, in enlisting the savages into a war with a nation desirous of mutual emulation in mitigating its calamities, has not been confined to any one quarter. Wherever they could be turned

CHAR. XI.

against us, no exertions to effect it have been BOOK XI. spared. On our south-western border, the Creek tribes, who, yielding to our persevering, endeavours were gradually acquiring more civilised habits, became the unfortunate victims of seduction. A war in that quarter has been the consequence, infuriated by a bloody fanaticism recently propagated among them.

"It was necessary to crush such a war, before it could spread among the contiguous tribes, and before it could favor enterprizes of the enemy into that vicinity. With this view a force was called into the service of the United States, from the states of Georgia and Tennessee, which, with the nearest regular troops, and other corps from the Mississippi territory, might not only chastise the savages into present peace, but make a lasting impression on their fears.

"The progress of the expedition, so far as it is yet known, corresponds with the martial zeal with which it was espoused; and the best hopes of a satisfactory issue are authorised by the complete success with which a well-planned enterprise was executed against a body of hostile savages, by a detachment of the volunteer militia of Tennessee, under the gallant command of General Coffee; and by a still more important victory over a larger body of them, gained under the immediate command of Major-general Jackson; an officer equally distinguished for his patriotism and his military talents.

"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 advantages they have occasionally gained in battle, chiefly to the number of their savage associates; and who have not controlled 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 honorable war.

"For these enormities, the enemy are equally responsible, whether, with the power to prevent them, they want the will; or, with the knowledge of a want of power, they still avail themselves of such instruments.

"In other respects the enemy are pursuing a course which threatens consequences most afflicting to humanity.

"A standing law of Great Britain naturalizes,

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as is well known, all aliens complying with condi'tions limited to a shorter period than those required by the United States: and naturalised subjects are, in war, employed by her government in common with native subjects. In a contiguous British province, regulations promulgated since the commencement of the war, compel citizens of the United States, being there under certain circumstances, to bear arms, whilst of the native emigrants from the United States, who compose much of the population of the province, a number have actually borne arms against the United States within their limits; some of whom, after having done so, have become prisoners of war, and are now in our possession. The British commander in that province, nevertheless, with the sanction, as appears, of his government, thought proper to select from American prisoners of war, and sent to Great Britain for trial as criminals, a number of individuals, who had emigrated from the British dominions long prior to the state of war between the two nations, who had incorporated themselves into our political society, in the modes recognised by the law and the practice of Great Britain, and who were made prisoners of war, under the banners of their adopted country, fighting for its rights and its safety.

"The protection due to these citizens requiring an effectual interposition in their behalf, a like number of British prisoners of war were put into confinement, with a notification that they would experience whatever violence might be committed on the American prisoners of war sent to Great Britain.

"It was hoped that this necessary consequence of the step unadvisedly taken on the part of Great Britain, would have led her government to reflect on the inconsistencies of its conduct, and that a sympathy with the British, if not with the American sufferers, would have arrested the cruel career opened by its example.

"This was unhappily not the case. In violation both of consistency and humanity, American officers and non-commissioned officers, in double the number of the British soldiers confined here, were ordered into close confinement, with formal notice, that in the event of a retaliation for the death which might be inflicted on the prisonersof-war sent to Great Britain for trial, the officers so confined would be put to death also. It was notified at the time, that the commanders of the British fleets and armies on our coasts are instructed, in the same event, to proceed with a destructive severity against our towns and their inhabitants.

"That no doubt might be left with the enemy of our adherence to the retaliating resort imposed on us, a correspondent number of British officers, prisoners of war in our hands, were immediately put into close confinement, to abide the fate of

those confined by the enemy; and the British government has been apprised of the determina tion of this government, to retaliate any other proceeding against us, contrary to the legitimate modes of warfare.

"It is as fortunate for the United States, that they have it in their power to meet the enemy in this deplorable contest, as it is honorable to them, that they do not join in it but under the most imperious obligations, and with the humane purpose of effectuating a return to the established usages of war.

"The views of the French government on the subjects which have been so subjects which have been so long committed to negociation, have received no elucidation since the close of your late session. The minister-plenipotentiary of the United States at Paris had not been enabled, by proper opportunities, to press the objects of his mission, as prescribed by his instructions.

"The militia being always to be regarded as the great bulwark of defence and security for free states, and the constitution having wisely committed to the national authority a use of that force, as the best provision against an unsafe military establishment, as well as a resource peculiarly adapted to a country having the extent and the exposure of the United States; I recommend to Congress a revision of the militia-laws, for the purpose of securing, more effectually, the services of all detachments called into the employment and placed under the government of the United States.

"It will deserve the consideration of Congress also, whether, among other improvements in the militia-laws, justice does not require a regulation, under due precautions, for defraying the expense incident to the first assembling as well as to the subsequent movements of detachments called into the national service.

"To give our vessels of war, public and private, the requisite advantage in their cruizes, it is of much importance that they should have, both for themselves and their prizes, the use of the ports of friendly powers. With this view, I recommend to Congress the expediency of such legal provisions as may supply the defects, or remove the doubts of the executive authority, to allow to the cruizers of other powers, at war with enemies of the United States, such use of the American ports and markets as may correspond with the privileges allowed by such powers to American cruizers.

"During the year ending on the 30th of September last, the receipts into the treasury have exceeded 37,000,000 and a half of dollars, of which 24,000,000 were the produce of loans. After meeting all the demands for public service, there remained in the treasury, on that day, near 7,000,000 of dollars. Under the authority "con

tained in the act of the 2d of August last, for borrowing 7,000,000 and a half of dollars, that sum has been obtained on terms more favorable to the United States than those of the preceding loán made during the present year. Further sums to a considerable amount will be necessary to be obtained in the same way during the ensuing year; and from the increased capital of the country, from the fidelity with which the public engagements have been kept, and the public credit maintained, it may be expected, on good grounds, that the necessary pecuniary supplies will not be wanting.

"The expences of the current year, from the multiplied operations falling within it, have necessarily been extensive. But on a just estimate of the campaign, in which the mass of them has been incurred, the cost will not be found disproportionate to the advantages which have been gained. The campaign has indeed, in its latter stages, in one quarter been less favorable than was expected; but in addition to the importance of our naval success, the progress of the campaign has been filled with incidents highly honourable to the American arms.

"The attacks of the enemy on Craney Island, on Fort Meigs, on Sackett's Harbour, and on Sandusky, have been vigorously and successfully repulsed: nor have they in any case succeeded on either frontier, excepting when directed against the peaceable dwellings of individuals, or villages unprepared or undefended.

"On the other hand, the movements of the American army have been followed by the reduction of York, and of Forts George, Erie, and Malden: by the recovery of Detroit, and the extinction of the Indian war in the West; and by the occupancy or command of a large portion of Upper Canada. Battles have also been fought on the borders of the St. Lawrence, which, though not accomplishing their entire objects, reflect honour on the discipline and prowess of our soldiery, the best auguries of eventual victory. In the same scale are to be placed the late successes in the south, over one of the most powerful, which had become one of the most hostile also, of the Indian tribes.

"It would be improper to close this communication, without expressing a thankfulness, in which all ought to unite, for the numerous blessings with which our beloved country continues to be favoured; for the abundance which overspreads our land, and the prevailing health of its inhabitants; for the preservation of our internal tranquillity, and the stability of our free institutions: and above all, for the light of divine truth, and the protection of every man's conscience in the enjoyment of it. And although among our blessings we cannot number an exemption from the evils of war, yet these will never be regarded

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as the greatest of evils by the friends of liberty 800K XI. and of the rights of nations. Our country has before preferred them to the degrading condition CHAP. XI, which was the alternative, when the sword was drawn in the cause which gave birth to our national independence: and none who contemplate the magnitude, and feel the value of that glorious event, will shrink from a struggle to maintain the high and happy ground on which it placed the American people.

"With all good citizens, the justice and necessity of resisting wrongs and usurpations no longer to be borne will sufficiently outweigh the privations and sacrifices inseparable from a state of war. But it is a reflection moreover, peculiarly consoling, that whilst wars are generally aggravated by their baneful effects on the internal improvements and permanent prosperity of the nations engaged in them, such is the favoured situation of the United States, that the calamities of the contest into which they have been compelled to enter, are mitigated by improvements and advantages, of which the contest itself is the source.

"If the war has increased the interruptions of our commerce, it has at the same time cherished and multiplied our manufactures, so as to make us independent of all other countries for the more essential branches, for which we ought to be dependent on none; and is even rapidly giving them an extent which will create additional staples in our future intercourse with foreign markets.

"If much treasure has been expended, no inconsiderable portion of it has been applied to objects durable in their value, and necessary to our permanent safety.

"If the war has exposed us to increased spoliations on the ocean, and to predatory incursions on the land, it has developed the national means of retaliating the former, and of providing protection against the latter; demonstrating to all, that every blow aimed at our maritime independence, is an impulse, accelerating the growth of our maritime power.

"By diffusing through the mass of the nation the elements of military discipline and instruction, by augmenting and disturbing warlike preparations applicable to future use, by evincing the zeal and valour with which they will be employed, and the cheerfulness with which every necessary burden will be borne; a greater respect for our rights, and a longer duration of our future peace, are promised, than could be expected without these proofs of the national character and resources.

"The war has proved, moreover, that our free government, like other free governments, though slow in its early movements, acquires in its progress a force proportioned to its freedom; and. that the union of these states, the guardian of