our gun-practice and the better discipline of our crews. One of the British captains won success by training his men after the American method. On the 1st of June, 1813, the British frigate Shannon, Captain Broke, captured the American frigate Chesapeake, in a severe battle near Boston harbor. The Americans lost 148 men, and the British 83; and the Chesapeake suffered more damage than her antagonist, though the disparity was less than in the case of the American victories above mentioned. The extreme jubilation in England served as an index to the chagrin which had been caused by the six successive defeats. On the 14th of August, the American brig Argus was captured in the British channel by the brig Pelican, and for a moment it might have seemed as if the spell of American success was broken. But a few weeks later Lieutenant Burrows, in the brig Enterprise, captured the brig Boxer, off Portland, Maine. In the spring Captain Porter, in the frigate Essex, had sailed around Cape Horn into the Pacific Ocean, where he made a famous cruise and did immense damage to British commerce. In March, 1814, he was attacked in the harbor of Valparaiso by two British frigates, the Phabe and Cherub, and after the bloodiest fight of the war, the Essex surrendered. In April, 1814, the American sloop Peacock captured the brig Epervier, off the coast of Florida; in May the Wasp captured the sloop Reindeer, and in September the sloop Avon, both actions taking place in the British channel. In both there was the same prodigious disparity of loss as in earlier fights. The Reindeer and Avon were completely destroyed, the one losing 65 men, the other 100, while in the former action the Wasp's loss was 26, in the latter only three. On the 20th of February, 1815, the Constitution, now commanded by Captain Stewart, capped the climax by capturing the frigate Cyane, and the sloop Levant, in an action of forty minutes near the island of Madeira. The two British ships together were barely a match in strength for the Constitution, but were very skilfully handled; and the victory of "Old Ironsides" was as brilliant as any recorded in naval annals. A few weeks later the Hornet captured the brig Penguin, off the Cape of Good Hope, and in the Indian Ocean the Peacock closed the long tale of victory by

overcoming the weaker Nautilus. These last three victories occurred after peace had been declared.

Thus out of sixteen sea-combats, with approximately equal forces, the Americans had been victorious in thirteen. The record of our privateers was not less remarkable. During the war we took about 1700 British vessels, while the British took about an equal number from us. Considering that the American navy in 1812 consisted of about a dozen ships, while the British navy numbered more than a thousand, and that the Americans had not a single line-ofbattle ship afloat, these results might well be called marvellous. No other nation has ever won such laurels in contending against the "mistress of the seas." The moral effect upon Europe was prodigious. Henceforth the United States ceased to be regarded as a nation that could be insulted with impunity.

The War in the Northwest. Except for the moral effect of these splendid sea-fights, the United States gained comparatively little by the war. On land the offensive operations of the army were feeble and ineffectual. The army was small and poorly trained, and too much under the control of politicians. Hence we began with defeats. The military object of the Americans was to invade Canada, and conquer it if possible. The military object of the British was to invade the United States, and either detach a portion of our northwestern territory, or secure positions which might prove valuable in bargaining for terms of peace. The most important frontier town, Detroit, was held by William Hull, governor of the Michigan Territory, a gallant veteran of the Revolutionary war. When war was declared he marched into Canada, but was driven back to Detroit by a superior force under General Brock. After a short siege Hull was obliged to surrender the town, thus throwing open to the enemy the whole region northwest of Ohio. In the fit of unreasoning rage and disappointment caused by this grave disaster, Hull was tried by a court-martial and sentenced to death, but was pardoned by Mr. Madison on account of past services. Subsequent research has shown that the verdict was grossly unjust; and the reputation of this brave but unfortunate man is now redeemed. In October a small force crossed Niagara

river and foolishly attacked the British in their strong position on Queenstown Heights; it was defeated with heavy loss. Harrison, who had succeeded to the command in the northwest, now attempted to recover Detroit; but his advanced guard, under General Winchester, was defeated at the river Raisin on the 22d of January, 1813, by the British and Indians under General Proctor, and all the prisoners were cruelly massacred by the Indians. Harrison was then driven back to Fort Meigs by Proctor, who besieged him there, but unsuccessfully.

The War on the Lakes. During the summer of 1813 both British and Americans were busily engaged in building fleets with which to control Lake Erie. On the 10th of September the two fleets met in battle, the British commanded by Commodore Barclay, the Americans by Commodore Perry. The forces were nearly equal. The battle, won by magnificent skill and daring on the part of the American commander, ended in the surrender of the whole British fleet, and turned the scale of war in the northwest. Ferried across the lake by Perry's fleet, Harrison's army now entered Canada, and inflicted a crushing defeat upon Proctor at the river Thames (October 5). This was a severe blow to the Indians also, for their famous leader, Tecumseh, was killed. As a consequence of the victories of Perry and Harrison, the Americans recovered Detroit, and the British were driven from our northwestern territory.

Next summer the Americans again invaded Canada, under command of an excellent general, Jacob Brown, with whom served an officer presently to become famous,- Winfield Scott. They crossed the Niagara river, and defeated the British in four wellfought battles at Chippewa (July 5), Lundy's Lane (July 25), and Fort Erie (Aug. 15 and Sept. 17); but in spite of these successes, they obtained no secure foothold in Canada, and retreated across the river before cold weather. While these things were going on, the British were planning an invasion of northeastern New York, by the route which Carleton and Burgoyne had followed. To this end it was necessary to gain control of Lake Champlain, as Carleton had done in 1776. Fleets were built, as on Lake Erie the year

before, and on the 11th of September a decisive battle was fought not far from Valcour Island, where Arnold had maintained such a heroic struggle. The British fleet was annihilated by Commodore Macdonough, and the British enterprise was abandoned. But while this attempt upon New York was a failure, the British succeeded in seizing the unoccupied wilds of Maine east of the Penobscot river, and thus creating a panic in New England.

The War in the South. The region west of Georgia and south of the Tennessee river was then a wilderness with no important towns except Natchez and Mobile. The principal military power in it was that of the Creek Indians, who took the occasion to attack the frontier settlements, and in August, 1813, began with a terrible massacre at Fort Mimms, near Mobile. This brought upon the scene the formidable Tennessee militia, commanded by Andrew Jackson, who as a youth had served under Thomas Sumter in the Revolutionary War. After a bloody campaign of seven months, Jackson had completely subdued the Creeks, and was ready to cope with a very different sort of enemy.

In March, 1814, Napoleon was dethroned and sent to Elba, and thus some of Wellington's finest troops were detached for service in America. In August some 5000 of these veterans landed in Chesapeake Bay, took the defenceless city of Washington, and burned the public buildings there, which was not much to their credit. They then attempted Baltimore, but were defeated, and retired from the scene to take part in a more serious enterprise. This expedition against Washington was designed chiefly for insult; the expedition against New Orleans was designed to inflict deadly injury. It was intended to make a permanent conquest of the lower Mississippi, and to secure for Great Britain the western bank of the river. In December the British army of 12,000 men, under Sir Edward Pakenham, landed below New Orleans. To oppose these veterans of the peninsula, Jackson had 6000 militia of that sturdy race whose fathers had vanquished Ferguson at King's Mountain, and whose children so nearly vanquished Grant at Shiloh. He awaited the enemy in an entrenched position, where, on the 8th of Jan

uary, 1815, Pakenham was unwise enough to try to overwhelm him by a direct assault. In less than half an hour the British were in full retreat, leaving Pakenham and 2600 men behind them, killed or wounded; the American loss was 8 killed and 13 wounded. The disparity of loss is perhaps unparalleled in history. Treaty of Ghent. News travelled so slowly in those days that the victory of New Orleans, like the three last naval victories, occurred after peace had been made. From the first the war had been unpopular in New England. Our victories on the sea made little difference in the vast naval force of Great Britain, which was able to blockade our whole Atlantic coast. Now that Napoleon was out of the way, it would be necessary for the United States to fight single-handed with Great Britain. In view of these things, and provoked by the invasion of Maine, the Federalists of New England held a convention at Hartford, in December, 1814, to discuss the situation of affairs and decide upon the proper course to be pursued. As there was much secrecy in the proceedings, a suspicion was aroused that the purpose of the convention was to break up the Union and form a separate New England confederacy. This suspicion completed the political ruin of the Federalist party. What might have come from the Hartford convention we do not know, for on the 24th of December the treaty of peace was signed at Ghent. The treaty left things apparently just as they had been before the war, for England did not explicitly renounce the right of search and impressment. But in spite of this it had been made evident that European nations could no longer regard the United States as a weak nation which might be insulted with impunity. Partly for this reason, and partly because of the long European peace which followed, the British claim to the right of search and impressment was no longer exercised, and at length in 1856 was expressly renounced.

$ 3. RISE OF THE DEMOCRACY.

The Era of Good Feeling. In the presidential election of 1816, the Federalist candidate, Rufus King, received only 34 electoral votes, against 187 for the Republican candidate, James Mon