The Second War with England, Vol. 2 of 2

by Joel Tyler Headley

Nine days after, Lord Castlereagh, elated with his success as English minister to the headquarters of the allied armies, on their way to Paris,—exulting over the downfall of Napoleon, and representing in himself the intoxication of the English people at the overthrow of their rival—haughty, unscrupulous, and overbearing, swept into Ghent with a train of twenty carriages, on his way to the great Congress of Vienna, where European diplomacy, in all its monstrous deformity and rottenness, was to be exhibited to the world.

The next day the embassies met, and the reply of the English government was rendered. In the first place, the Indian boundary question was declared a sine qua non. The question then arose, what would become of the hundreds of American citizens residing at that time within the limits thus to be drawn. The reply was, they must shift for themselves.

In the second place, the entire jurisdiction of the northern lakes, extending from Lake Ontario to Lake Superior, where our squadrons were riding victorious, must be surrendered to the British government, the United States not being permitted to erect even a military post on the southern shore, on their own soil, nor keep those already established there. As a backer to this insolent demand, the legation affirmed that the United States ought to consider it moderate, since England might justly have claimed a cession of territory within the States. Beyond Lake Superior, the question of boundary was open to discussion. Another item in this protocol required the surrender of that part of Maine over which a direct route from Halifax to Canada would necessarily pass. When asked what they proposed to do with those islands in the Passamaquoddy Bay, recently captured by the English, they replied, these were not subjects of discussion, belonging, of course, to Great Britain. They farther informed the American Legation that this extraordinary and magnanimous offer, on the part of his majesty, was not to remain open for any length of time—that if delay was demanded till instructions could be received from across the ocean on the one single question of Indian boundary, it would be considered withdrawn, and the English government feel itself at liberty to make other and less generous demands, as circumstances might indicate.

To such arrogant claims but one answer could be given, and Gallatin, in sending them home, wrote that all negotiations might be considered at an end, and that no course was left for the United States but "in union and a vigorous prosecution of the war." Mr. Clay accepted an invitation to visit Paris, and Mr. Adams prepared to return to St. Petersburgh.

While this news was slowly traversing the Atlantic in the cartel John Adams, the victories of Brown, Macomb, and Macdonough, were electrifying the nation.

Oct. 10.

On the 10th of October the President transmitted a message to Congress, with the despatches received from Ghent, and the protocol of the English legation. Their reading was listened to with breathless silence, and as the extraordinary claims set forth by England became one after another clearly revealed, the astonishment of the members exceeded all bounds, and they gazed at each other incredulously. The Federalists were paralyzed with disappointment. The party had never received such a blow since the commencement of the war. Their arguments were prostrated. They had always represented England as desirous of peace, fighting only because she was forced to by a reckless, unprincipled administration and party. Towards the nation at large she cherished no hostile feelings, and entertained no ultimate sinister designs. But the mask was now snatched away, and she stood revealed in all her arrogance and injustice. If any thing more than the ravages on our coast was needed to bind the nation together in one determined effort, it was furnished in these despatches. As the news spread on every side, the passions of men were kindled into rage. What, burn up our victorious war-ships on those great mediterraneans, the command of which had been gained by such vast expenditures and such heroic conduct—abandon forts standing on our own soil, around which such valiant blood had been shed? "Never, never," responded from every lip.

Scarcely less excitement was produced by the discussion of the Indian boundary question. Stripped of its false pretences, it looked solely to the prevention of all settlement on our part, of the North-western territory, and designed to bar us forever from acquiring possessions in that quarter. To give some show of fairness to the transaction, it was proposed that both countries should be restricted from purchasing the land of the Indians, but leave the market open to the whole world beside. In short, that vast territory, including a large portion of Ohio, all of Michigan, Illinois and Indiana, must not only be surrendered by us, but placed under the complete control of the British government, whose ships of war were alone to sail the waters that washed its northern limits, and whose fortifications were to awe the inhabitants that occupied it. Never before had the cry of war rung so loudly over the land, and the nation began to prepare for the approaching conflict with an earnestness and determination that promised results worthy of itself and the cause for which it struggled. The Federalist journals came at last to the rescue, declaring that the terms offered were too humiliating and degrading to be entertained for a moment. Only one paper in Boston was besotted enough to assert that they were honorable and ought to be accepted.

Congress, after the reception of this protocol and the accompanying despatches, took a different tone, and when the question of ways and means for the coming year was taken up, a spirit was exhibited, that since the declaration of war, had never been witnessed in its deliberations. The fear and hesitation which were weighing it down, vanished, and it began to assume the character and exhibit the qualities belonging to it, but which the spirit of faction had kept in abeyance. The Legislatures of the different states responded to the sentiments of the commissioners—declaring that the terms proposed were insulting and disgraceful, and called for a vigorous prosecution of the war. New York voted a local force of 12,000 men, and Virginia followed her example.

It was a grand stroke of policy, on the part of the administration, to fling those despatches at once into Congress and thus before the nation. Their sudden publication took the British Ministry by surprise, for it exposed their extraordinary demands to the whole realm, and they remonstrated against such undiplomatic conduct.