THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA DECLARES WAR.
It came at last! On June 18th, 1812, after weeks of preparation, placing
an embargo on shipping, putting 100,000 militia on a war footing on the
pretence of hostilities among the Indians, calling out the volunteers
and raising a special public fund, Congress under President Madison
declared war against Great Britain.
This did not end Brock's suspense. Not until five weeks later did he
receive official notice from Prevost. Despite opposition from many
states, which declared their detestation of an alliance with Bonaparte,
after a stormy debate behind closed doors at Washington, Congress voted
for war against England, with Canada as the point of attack. The United
States placed itself on record as approving of "forcible invasion of a
neighbouring peaceful country and its rights, and of taking property on
which it had no shadow of claim."
The offensive "right of search" of American ships by British warships
for deserters was, of course, given as the excuse for war. The United
States Government contended that a nation's flag protected the cargoes
of the vessels of that nation. To search for contraband or for deserters
on such ships, President Madison declared, was a violation of
international law. In direct violation of the United States' own
interpretation of this decree, her war-frigate _President_ blew the
British gunboat _Little Belt_, half her own size, almost out of the
water because of the refusal of her commander to allow such search.
It is interesting to remember that while the United States contended
that Britain had no right to search the ships of other nations, she
actually allowed her own officials, in the case of an American sailor
who had become a citizen of France and an officer in the French navy, to
search the foreign vessel upon which he served and arrest him as a
deserter. A more flagrant violation of the principles she professed is
difficult to imagine. She insisted that this officer was still a citizen
of the United States, for he could not become a citizen of another
country without the consent of the government of his native country. So,
when it suited her purpose, and in direct defiance of her own
proclamation, she did not hesitate to accept England's contention and
adopt the "obnoxious doctrine"--thus practising the identical principle
against which she had declared war. Truly glaring inconsistency.
While these were the chief of the alleged reasons for war, the whole
world knew that the real cause was the jealousy and hatred felt for
England by a certain class of United States citizens who "were bound to
pick a quarrel with John Bull, excuse or no excuse." That there were
many and irritating faults on the part of England cannot be denied. In
the light of subsequent events it is not difficult to realize that both
governments were in the wrong. The wisdom born of bitter experience and
the sincere friendship of the two nations to-day, sensibly founded on
mutual respect, happily renders a repetition of such regrettable scenes
outside the pale of possibility.
Strange to say, England had revoked the objectionable Order-in-Council
authorizing right of search of American ships for deserters by British
men-of-war the very day _before_ war was declared by the United States.
There was no ocean cable in those days. Had there been, this story might
never have been written. The removal, however, of this one reason for
_war_ was not--when letters duly arrived from England announcing the
fact--accepted by the United States as a reason for an immediate
declaration of _peace_. This proves that the reasons advanced by the
United States for going to war were from first to last not genuine, but
mere excuses. Canada was as Naboth's vineyard, and Ahab, in the person
of the United States, coveted it. England hesitated to draw the sword on
a people "speaking a common tongue, with institutions based upon her
own," but she could not always be expected to "turn the other cheek to
the smiter."
The United States called out an army of 15,000 men for purposes of
attack on the Niagara frontier, and commanded General Wadsworth--of
course, on paper--"to feed and cherish them." How well he executed this
command remains to be seen.
What of Canada? Her yeomen forsook ploughshare and broadaxe, seized
sword and musket, and rallied to the standard of Brock. In Upper Canada
there was an active force of 950 regulars and marines and 550 militia.
This little army had to defend the seven forts of Kingston, York,
George, Erie, Chippewa, Amherstburg, and St. Joseph, not one of which
was a fortress of strength, to patrol the lakes and protect a most
vulnerable frontier. It was the opinion of leading military authorities
that Canada could never be held against such an enemy.
Brock was at York when the news reached him. He at once sent part of the
41st to Niagara by lake, crossing himself with his brigade-major,
Evans, and Macdonell and Glegg, his aides, and, as usual, in a batteau,
with eleven men. At Fort George he bade adieu to some American officers,
guests of the mess, and sent them across the river. He was eager to
storm Fort Niagara, whose capture might have changed the entire
situation, but alas! what of his instructions?
He called out more militia, though he had only a few tents and many of
the men were drilling without shoes. One hundred Tuscaroras under Chief
Brant answered his summons. He divided his augmented Niagara force into
four divisions--at Fort Erie 400 men, at Fort Chippewa 300, at Queenston
300, at Fort George 500. Of these, 900 were militia.
The rattle of the matchlock was as familiar as cockcrow. Every man
became in fact, if not in deed, a volunteer. If the musket was not
strapped to the tail of the plough, it leaned against the
snake-fence--loaded. The goose-step, the manual and platoon took the
place of the quadrille. Every clearing became a drill-hall, every log
cabin an armoury. Many of the militia were crack shots, with all the
scouting instincts of the forest ranger. In the barrack-square, in
scarlet, white and green, the regulars drilled and went through wondrous
evolutions with clock-work precision--fighting machinery with the
tenacity of the bull-dog, though lacking the craft of the woods that had
taught the volunteer the value of shelter and the wisdom of dwelling on
his aim.
Apart, stolid and silent, but interested spectators, lounged the dusky
redmen, forever sucking at their _pwoighun-ahsin_ (stone pipes) and
making tobacco from the inner bark of red-willow wands, watching and
wondering. The foot soldiers carried fire-locks, flints and cartridge
boxes. These smooth-bore flint-locks had an effective range of less than
100 yards, and could be discharged only once a minute. Very different to
the modern magazine rifle, which can discharge twenty-five shots in a
minute and kill at 4,200 yards, while within 2,000 yards it is accurate
and deadly. The mounted men were armed with sabres and ponderous
pistols.
Our hero addressed the militia. The enemy, he told them, intended to lay
waste the country. "Let them be taught," he said, "that Canadians would
never bow their necks to a foreign yoke." As the custodian of their
rights, he was trying to preserve all they held dear. He looked to them
to repel the invaders.
Brock was placed in a most peculiar position, for while the passive
Prevost was still instructing him--nearly three weeks _after_ the
declaration of war--"to take no offensive measures, as none would be
taken by the United States Government," General Hull, with a force of
2,500 tried soldiers, was on his way from Ohio through the Michigan
forests to occupy Detroit and invade Canada. Hull reached Detroit, and
four days later, with his entire command, crossed the river and occupied
Sandwich. But the trip was attended with serious mishap to his army, for
Lieutenant Roulette, of the British sloop _Hunter_--a brother of the
famous fur-trader--in a small batteau, with only six men, captured the
United States packet _Cayuga_, with a detachment of five officers and
thirty-three soldiers, as she was coming up the river. The _Cayuga's_
treasure consisted not only of valuable stores and baggage, but Hull's
official correspondence with the United States Secretary of War. The
contents of this decided Brock, though he had no idea Hull's army was so
strong, to attempt the reduction of Fort Detroit without a moment's
delay.
The very hour he knew that war was declared he had notified the officer
at St. Joseph. Our hero, whose root idea of a soldier's craft was
"secrecy in conception and vigour in execution," had no taste for
Prevost's mad doctrine that the aggressed had to await the convenience
of the aggressor. Brock had been taught to regard tolerance in war as an
"evil of the first magnitude," and so had already instructed the
commander at St. Joseph that if war was proclaimed he was to attack
Mackinaw at once, but if attacked, "defend your post to the last."
Prevost at the same time had ordered this officer "in case of necessity
to effect his own retreat," never dreaming he would dare attack
Mackinaw. What a contrast the despatches of these two men present! The
one full of confidence, fight and resistance, the other shrinking from
action and suggesting retreat. Brock's despatch was of later date and
more palatable to the fighter at St. Joseph. He started at once for
Mackinaw, fifty-five miles distant, with 45 of the 10th Royal veterans,
180 Canadians, many of whom were traders and voyageurs, and convoyed by
the brig _Caledonia_, owned by the North-West Fur Company.
He landed before daybreak. By noon of that day the Union Jack was
floating above the basalt cliffs of the Gibraltar of the north, and also
over two of the enemy's vessels laden with furs. It is not on record
that Captain Roberts was recommended by General Sir George Prevost for
promotion! The Indians at Amherstburg were now ready to support the
British. Foremost among these was the great Shawanese warrior, Tecumseh.
General Hull, having meantime billeted himself in Colonel Baby's big
brick house at Sandwich, issued a proclamation to the "inhabitants of
Canada." As a sample of egotism, bluff and bombast it stands unrivalled.
He told the inhabitants of Canada that he was in possession of their
country, that an ocean and wilderness isolated them from England, whose
tyranny he knew they felt. His grand army was ready to release them from
oppression. They must choose between liberty and security, as offered by
the United States, and war and annihilation, the penalty of refusal. He
also threatened instant destruction to any Canadian found fighting by
the side of an Indian, though General Dearborn, in command of the United
States forces at Niagara, had been authorized by the United States
Secretary of War "to organize the warriors of the Seneca Indians" _for
active service against Canada_.
The United States Secretary of War wrote to Hull, saying his action
respecting Canadian Indians "met with the approval of the Government."
Evidently ashamed, upon reflection, of Hull's threat, that same
Government later instructed its commissioners at the Treaty of Ghent,
when peace was restored, "to disown and disavow" their former Indian
policy.
Hull's extraordinary production, which proved a boomerang, was really
the work of Colonel Lewis Cass, his Chief of Staff; but while Hull and
Cass were "unloading their rhetoric at Sandwich," our hero was "loading
his guns at Mackinaw."