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February 6th, 1812.

In addition to the regu- Recruits came in slowly-at the ratio of one lar troops, the President thousand in six months-notwithstanding the liberal bounty which

March 28th.

was offered. It is curi

was authorised to employ 25,000 volunteers for twelve months, who were to form a body of men intermediate between the regulars ous to observe the comparative coldness with and the militia, resembling the latter in which at this time Congress addressed themmost points, but differing from them in selves to promoting the efficiency of the being liable to foreign service. Their cloth- navy,—that arm of the service which cering was to be provided by themselves; their tainly did the republic most credit during arms were to be furnished by the govern- the war. A subsidy of only $300,000 was ment. Rapidly, however, as the forces of voted for repairs; and a further sum of the United States, at this crisis, accumulated $200,000 annually, for rebuilding certain on paper, and ardent as the votes of Congress ships. What was proposed to be accomwere for military preparation, the actual plished by this paltry sum, was to repair and enlistment was anything but enthusiastic. fit out the Constellation, Chesapeake, and

"That an humble address be presented to his royal highness the Prince Regent, representing that this house has for some time past been engaged in an inquiry into the present distressed state of the commerce and manufactures of the country, and the effects of the Orders in Council issued by his Majesty in the years 1807 and 1809;* assuring his Royal Highness that this house will at all times support his Royal Highness to the utmost of its power in maintaining those just maritime rights which have essentially contributed to the prosperity and honour of the realm-but beseeching 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 the rights and dignity of his Majesty's

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ance. The great body of merchants held the same opinion. Four-fifths of those of Glasgow had petitioned in support of the orders; those of Bristol were unanimous in their favour; and so were a majority of those of Liverpool: there was no petition from London against them, whilst a great number of London merchants had petitioned in their favour.

Mr. Baring, after a warm eulogy of the enlightened view of the subject taken by the honorable mover, said that the house had two questions to decide: 1. whether these distresses were attributable to the Orders in Council? 2. Whether any benefits had arisen from them in any other quarter to compensate for these calamities? Mr. B. made a number of particular observations relative to these two points; and concluded with giving it as his conviction, that by our Orders in Council we lost the most substantial commercial advantages for an object we could never obtain-that of forcing our trade with the continent.

Mr. Rose acknowledged that a very considerable degree of distress did exist among our manufactures, but would not admit that it was so much owing to the Orders in Council as the hon. gentleman had represented. He corrected Lord Castlereagh began with lamenting the several statements made by him, and showed precipitation of the hon. gentleman in bringing that the commerce of France had suffered in forward this motion, and pressing to hasty dismuch greater proportion from the effects of cussion a question than which none more vital these Orders. Our shipping interest, he asserted, ever came before the consideration of parliahad been benefitted by them, and if they were ment. He deprecated any interference on the repealed, the Americans would come in for a part of the house in a question in which comlarge share of our carrying trade, especially to mercial considerations were mixed with those South America. Upon the whole, he would not of maritime right, and, pending a delicate nedeny that our manufactures were likely to ob-gociation, dictating to the executive governtain 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 would be more prejudicial than their continu

ment the course it ought to pursne. After various observations in defence of the policy and justice of the Orders in Council, and in answer to some of the mover's statements, the noble lord came to the point by saying, that Great Britain would consent to suspend her Orders in Council, provided America would suspend her non-importation act. The experiment There was a modification of the Orders might then be tried of the practicability of re

in April, 1809.

storing things to their ancient system. Under

Adams frigates; and with the annual sub-power like Great Britain, must always be sidy, to rebuild three other frigates of the terribly severe.

old navy, too rotten to be repaired. The In this Congress (the twelfth) the celetruth was, the war mania originated, mainly, brated Henry Clay, then a young and ardent with men who cared little or nothing about man, made his first entrance on the great commerce as they did not live by it,--and world of politics. He was a fervent advocould contemplate its ruin without concern. cate for war; and his remarkable talents, The politicians of the back-woods, who combined with his sanguine and impetuous formed so strong and so stern a section of spirit, soon enabled him to outstrip the old the violent faction seem to have hardly given champions of war, who raised him to the a thought to the sufferings in store for the Speakership of the House of Representacommercial cities on the sea-coast,-suffer- tives, and tacitly acknowledged him for ings which, in any contest with a naval their leader.

these circumstances he trusted that the house would not consent to the address-and he moved the order of the day.

Mr. Whitbread then begged the noble lord to say precisely what he proposed to do with respect to America.

Lord Castlereagh said, that he meant that a proposition should be made to the American government to suspend immediately the Orders in Council, on condition that they would suspend their non-importation act.

house on the prospect of speedily getting rid of these Orders, hoped that the noble lord would withdraw his motion for proceeding to the orders of the day, and explain more distinctly what was the exact intention of the govern ment.

The final result was, that Mr. B. and Lord Castlereagh severally withdrew their motions on the understanding that an official instrument on the subject should appear in the next Gazette.

It was a remarkable circumstance in this debate, that Mr. Stephens, the most strenuous defender and promoter of the Orders in Council, was not present: a certain proof that ministers were already prepared to make the sacrifice which the voice of the country rendered inevitable.

Mr. Whitbread was of opinion that if this proposition were to be sent out to America, and it was expected that the house and country should wait till they received an answer, it was the greatest delusion that had ever been attempted; and he proceeded to express in strong terms the urgency of the distress felt by the manufac-a turers, and the necessity of giving the intended relief without delay. Mr. Ponsonby also spoke against the measure proposed, as calculated to create delay.

Lord Castlereagh, in further explanation, said that it was never meant that there should be any delay in suspending the Orders in Council: the intention was that they should be suspended for a definite time, and that this circumstance should be communicated to the American government for the double purpose of ascertaining whether it would, in consequence, abrogate its non-importation act; and also that it might apply to France to return to the ancient system of belligerents.

On June 23rd, there appeared in the Gazette declaration from the Prince Regent, absolutely and unequivocally revoking the Orders in Coun cil as far as they regarded American vessels; with the proviso, that if after the notification of this revocation by our minister in America, the government of the United States do not revoke their interdictory acts against British commerce, the same, after due notice, shall be 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. We cannot, however, refrain from expressing Mr. Wilberforce objected to the mode proposed our astonishment, that during the debates there by the noble lord, because it showed an unwil-appeared so little consciousness that the queslingness to do that which, in fact, he intended to do.

Mr. Canning, in giving a kind of middle opinion on the subject, contended that revocation was better than suspension.

tion of repealing or continuing the Orders in Council, was a real question of peace or war with America; and that deferring the decision In fact, before the news of the repeal reached so long, was rendering it altogether unimportant, the United States, they were actually at war with

Mr. Brougham, after congratulating the Great Britain.

CHAPTER III.

CONTENTS.

Papers relating to Henry's Mission communicated to Congress by the President, on the 5th March.-Ninety Days' Embargo; 4th April.-President's Message; 1st June. War declared on the 18th, and persisted in, although intelligence subsequently arrives of the Repeal of the Orders in Council.-The War of 1812, '13, and '14, a War of Aggression, on the part of the United States.-The War declared simultaneously with the Invasion of Russia. The British North American Provinces the main object of the War.

Papers relating to Henry's Mission communicated to Congress by the President, on the

6th March.

In the year 1809, about the time of the first embargo, Mr. Madison told the British Minister at Washington that, in his estimation, such had been the conduct of Great Britain, that the United States would be justified in declaring war at any moment, and without further notice. The newspapers, at that time, were boiling over with invective against Great Britain, and the invasion of her North American Colonies was, even at that early period of the dispute, publicly talked of and discussed as a very feasible and very effectual measure of retaliation. Halifax and Quebec were both mentioned as points on which the attack might be advantageously commenced. As the President's language, taken in conjunction with the popular animosity, seemed to threaten an immediate assault, intelligence was despatched to Sir James Craig, the Governor of Canada, who, lest the Province under his command should be taken by surprise, sent an embassy into the Eastern States, for the purpose of procuring information. The instructions given to that agent were not

inconsistent with the Governor's honourable character. All that he contemplated was,to ascertain the real state of affairs in the United States; how far the war-spirit had spread; with what amount of success the resistance of the federal party would probably be attended; and, generally, to acquire such information as might assist him in putting the Province under his charge into a proper state of defence. Sir James Craig, however, was unfortunate, as it proved, in his choice of the person employed. This person was a Captain John Henry, a clever and active, but, as circumstances afterwards showed, a purely mercenary and unprincipled man. He was an Irishman by birth; had come to the United States as an adventurer; became a captain in the army of 1798; and ultimately settled on an estate in Vermont, close to the frontier. According to his own account, the attention of Sir James Craig was drawn to him by essays which he had written in newspapers against republican government, which he professed to hold in utter detestation. By some means or other, however, the Governor of Canada had heard of him, invited him to Montreal, and from thence despatched him to Boston early in 1809, for the purpose we have already described. After remaining in Boston about three months, during which period he wrote Sir James Craig's secretary fourteen letters, embodying information of no great value, as we think, he was recalled, on the apparent settlement produced by the Erskine arrangement. In 1811 he visited England, and applied at the Foreign Office for a reward for his services; but was referred back to Sir James Craig's successor in the government, as better able to appreciate the ability and success with which his mission had been executed. Henry did not

66

on some.

like this; and so, instead of returning to at all events; for the minds of the multiCanada, proceeded to the United States, tude were in that heated state which renders where, in the genuine temper of an unfaith- the appeal of an unpopular minority to the ful hireling, he presented himself before bar of public opinion a perfectly hopeless Mr. Madison; told the tale of his mission; affair. During the debate in Congress on and offered to sell his papers. Mr. Madison the correspondence, a Mr. Johnson delivered closed with the profferred bargain, and paid himself of the sensible and elegant sentihim out of the secret service fund the large ment, that "he considered Canada as rogues' sum of $50,000 for the papers; apparently harbour, and saw in the correspondence having only a general notion of their con- additional reasons for attacking it." A tents, and not imagining-as we must argue vehement onset was made on the British from the handsome price he paid for them- Ministry in the House of Commons on this how little they contained. He expected, no head; but, whilst they stated that Henry's doubt, when he made the liberal offer of mission was Sir James Craig's own act, $50,000, that the correspondence thus pur- unknown to them until all was over, they chased would furnish disclosures highly defended it on the ground that its object serviceable to the Administration, both by was nothing more than legitimate informablackening the character of the British tion, very desirable at so critical a time; government and by bringing suspicion and though they admitted that the transaction odium generally on the opposition in Con- was not in all its circumstances managed gress, perhaps by fixing a charge of treason with perfect discretion. Poor Sir James was His disappointment, then, must then in his grave; but, although his own have been extreme, on discovering that the voice was not raised in self-defence, we may British agent had received no authority or venture to assert that his memory, which is commission to offer bribes in any shape; that of a straightforward, honest, and fearthat neither his letters nor the replies less man, has not suffered even from the sketched out any plan of insurrection; and baseness of the agent whom it was his misthat the correspondence did not implicate, fortune to employ. Alison's brief allusion or even name a single citizen of the United to this transaction involves a slight error as States. Still, having got the papers into to date, representing it as following the his hands, and paid dearly for his bargain, ninety days' embargo, of which we are about the President determined to make all the use to speak. He uses, too, the words,—" cerof them that he could. He accordingly tain documents found on a Captain Henry," transmitted them to Congress, accompanied from which the general inference would be, by a message, putting upon the whole affair that Henry was detected, whereas he sold the bitterest interpretation he could devise,- himself, as we have shown above, to Mr. representing it as an effort, on the part of Madison. 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" whom he may have hoped to detect in Congress, nothing material was effected in favour of the Administration. The opposition were not silenced; for not one of their number was caught in the trap. Had the result been different; had there been grounds for suspicion against them, it would assuredly have gone hard with them--as to their influence

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 House of Representatives by 70 to 41; but the term was extended in the Senate to 90 days, with which extension it passed both branches of the Legislature. This was a committal of the Administration to war; for it was admitted by the Government party,

were

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$24,814,249

Mercantile loss, ......
Deteriorated value of surplus

produce and waste,

40,196,028

Loss sustained by the revenue, 9,000,000

Total direct national loss,..... $74,010,277
Or, $6,167,523 per month.

President's Message,

that, as a peace-measure, the embargo could months duration, would be, according to never have been entertained. Still the oppo- statistical calculation, as follows:— sition-notwithstanding the serious alarm they felt-professing themselves unable to believe that the Government would commit so rash and so "treasonable" an action as that of plunging the nation, utterly unprepared, into war, suggested that the embargo was intended to serve the interests of Buonaparte, by stopping the export of provisions to Spain, where the British arins beginning to be triumphant. The measure, The same moment, therefore, that the however, was undoubtedly designed as pre- nation is called upon to aid their governparatory to war, for the declaration of which, ment with a loan of 11,000,000 dollars, this at the expiration of the ninety days, the government, without any single openly Government had now made up their minds, avowed or obviously beneficial purpose, at Mr. Alison describes the object of the the bare suggestion of expediency on the measure only in part, when he represents it part of the Executive, destroys, by an emas intended to "prevent intelligence of their bargo of three months, national wealth to preparations from reaching Great Britain, the amount of $18,502,570, not to reckon and to furnish them with the means, from the indirect and collateral mischief, of their extensive commercial navy, of manning enormous magnitude, with which the same their vessels of war." Its main object was measure is pregnant." to remove from the ocean as many of their merchant-ships as possible, and thus place them out of the reach of British ships of war, when the proclamation of hostilities 1st June. should become known. The passing of the embargo was conducted under an injunction of secrecy; but the secret was divulged; and the commercial cities which gained intelligence of it improved the few days allowed them in lading and despatching ships with extraordinary ardour and celerity. The Democratic journals were infuriated. Flour, by hundreds of thousands of barrels, they said, had been exported selfishly and unpatriotically, to feed the British troops in Spain. It was nothing to them that those troops were fighting in the noblest cause which God has ever blessed with success; fighting side by side with the soldiers of an oppressed people,-groaning beneath the exactions, the massacres, and the odious rule of a French usurper. These embargoes exhibited, in a remarkable manner, the blind rage of an irritated democracy, bent on inflicting vengeance on an enemy even ate the certain risk of greater damage to themselves. "The direct national injury," says a writer in the American Review, of April, 1812, "caused by an embargo of twelve

War declared on the

18th, and persisted in,
subsequently arrives of
in Council.
the repeal of the Orders

although Intelligence

On the 1st June, "the President sent a confidential Message to Congress, in which he recapitulated all the causes of complaint against Great Britain;" and on the 18th a bill, declaring war against Great Britain, passed the House of Representatives, by a vote of 79 to 49; and the Senate, by 19 to 14. Hostilities were therefore immediately ordered to be commenced. "Nor did the American Government," writes Mr. Alison, "make any attempt to recede from these hostile acts, when intelligence arrived a few weeks after this resolution, and before war had commenced, that, by an Order in Council,

*

"Mr.

No blow had as yet been struck. Madison," as the London Quarterly, of January, 1814, humourously observed, "had forged his thunderbolts; but held them yet unlaunched in his red right hand." The pleasure of hurling especially as the British standard in Canada them, however, was not to be resisted; more was to be utterly shivered and annihilated by them.

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