Queenston and Brock's Monument.
From a photograph by Wm. Quinn, Niagara-on-the-Lake.
It is fruitless to imagine what might have been the trend of events in Canada but for the daring decision made by Brock to move upon Detroit; his courage in running in the teeth of the wind and trusting to Providence to fetch the quay by hook or crook, is the very quality of the human heart that mankind most delights to honour; it is remarkable that the imbecility of Hull could have so completely blinded our American eyes to this display of splendid daring of Brock's, which ranks with Clark's bold march through the drowned lands of the Wabash, or Wayne's attack on Stony Point. The capture of Hull and Detroit unquestionably saved Upper Canada to England; for though American arms were successful to some degree beyond the line, as we shall see, the successes did not count toward conquest and annexation as would have been the case, perhaps, had they come at the outbreak of the war. All Canada felt the heartening effect of Brock's inexplicable victory; thousands who had feared instant and ruthless invasion now felt strong to repel any and all invaders; and the effect extended to the Indian allies and across the ocean to the home-country, as well. Had Clay's theory been true and the war had to be settled by land battles, Detroit would have delayed the end for many years; but America was soon to show a power on the sea as surprising as the stupidity of some of her commanders on shore and play England at her own sea-dog game with her own weapons and gain the victory.
The General's letter to his brothers is interesting as exhibiting the man's private views on his great success:
I have received [he writes] so many letters from people whose opinion I value, expressive of their admiration of the exploit, that I begin to attach to it more importance than I was at first inclined. Should the affair be viewed in England in the light it is here, I cannot fail of meeting reward, and escaping the horror of being placed high on a shelf, never to be taken down. Some say that nothing could be more desperate than the measure; but I answer, that the state of the province admitted of nothing but desperate remedies. I got possession of the letters my antagonist addressed to the secretary of war, and also of the sentiments which hundreds of his army uttered to their friends. Confidence in the General was gone, and evident despondency prevailed throughout. I have succeeded beyond expectation. I crossed the river, contrary to the opinion of Colonel Proctor, . . . etc.[34]; it is, therefore, no wonder that envy should attribute to good fortune what, in justice to my own discernment, I must say, proceeded from a cool calculation of the pours and contres.
General Brock, along with most other British leaders who operated along the American frontier, has been accused of using the savages to fight in savage ways the battles of white men against fellow whites. Rossiter Johnson, in his War of 1812, to cite one of the careful students who has thus referred to Brock, in speaking of the minute-guns fired on the American shore during Brock's funeral, says:
There was perhaps no harm in this little bit of sentiment, though if the Americans remembered that two months before, in demanding the surrender of Detroit, General Brock had threatened to let loose a horde of savages upon the garrison and town, if he were compelled to capture it by force, they must have seen that their minute-guns were supremely illogical, not to say silly.[35]
One who has any reason to know how much basis Washington had for his sweeping remark that most of the trouble the United States had with the western Indians was due to the demeanour of British officers to them, could only with difficulty become prejudiced in favour of any British officers who had actual dealings with the Canadian Indians and actually led them in person to battle. And yet the present writer has found sufficient ground in Brock's correspondence for holding that Brock was above reproach personally on this score—that he was a gentleman here as elsewhere, a true nobleman. We cannot here enter into a lengthy discussion of such a difficult problem. A letter extant, written by Brock to General Prevost, shows his attitude in this delicate matter during those desperate days when Harrison was fighting the wily Tecumseh:
My first care, on my arrival in this province, was to direct the officers of the Indian department at Amherstburg to exert their whole influence with the Indians to prevent the attack which I understood a few tribes meditated against the American frontier. But their efforts proved fruitless, as such was the infatuation of the Indians, that they refused to listen to advice.
It will always be an open question how much control the responsible men, either American or British, had over their red-skinned "brothers" compared with their half-renegade, forest-running underlings who dispensed the powder, blankets, and fire-water and directed affairs much as they pleased.