The War of 1812

by Donald R Hickey

  160. Washington National Intelligencer, July 8, 1812. For similar sentiments, see New York National Advocate, May 22, 1813.

  161. See, for example, the long editorial in the premier issue of the New York National Advocate, December 15, 1812.

  Chapter 3. The Baltimore Riots

  1. Samuel G. Goodrich, Recollections of a Lifetime, 2 vols. (New York, 1856), 1:439. See also Richard Sedgwick to Henry D. Sedgwick, June 20, 1812, in Sedgwick Papers (MHS); Henry Lee to Andrew Cabot, January 20, 1813, and to Patrick Tracy Jackson, January 30, 1813, in Kenneth W. Porter, The Jacksons and the Lees : Two Generations of Massachusetts Merchants, 1765–1844 (Cambridge, 1937), 2:1071, 1076.

  2. Charles J. Ingersoll to Alexander Dallas, June 23, 1812, in Ingersoll Papers (HSP).

  3. James W. Hammack, Jr., Kentucky and the Second American Revolution: The War of 1812 (Lexington, 1976), 14–15.

  4. Thomas Rogers to Jonathan Roberts, June 21, 1812, in Roberts Papers (HSP); Niles’ Register 2 (July 11, 1812), 305.

  5. Gerry to JM, July 5, 1812, in Madison Papers (LC), reel 14. See also Richard Rush to Benjamin Rush, June 29, 1812, in Richard Rush Papers (SR), reel 1.

  6. Christian Ellery to JM, June 24, 1812, in Madison Papers (LC), reel 14; John Bach McMaster, A History of the People of the United States, From the Revolution to the Civil War, 8 vols. (New York, 1883–1913), 3:550.

  7. Theodore Sedgwick, Jr., to Henry D. Sedgwick, June 30, 1812, in Sedgwick Papers (MHS); G. Terry Madonna, “The Lancaster Federalists and the War of 1812,” Journal of the Lancaster County Historical Society 71 (Trinity, 1967), 146–47.

  8. Gilbert to Sarah Hillhouse, June 20, 1812, in Alexander-Hillhouse Papers (UNC).

  9. Philadelphia Freeman’s Journal, reprinted in Chillicothe Supporter, July 4, 1812. For similar sentiments, see Oration of William Winder, July 4, 1812, in Wilmington American Watchman, July 15, 1812; B. D. Rounsaville to citizens of Rowan County, July 1, 1812, in Raleigh Minerva, July 10, 1812; Resolutions of Fayetteville County (NC), June 27, 1812, in Charleston Courier, July 10, 1812; Address of Isaac Auld, quoted ibid., July 21, 1812; Baltimore Federal Gazette, reprinted in Chillicothe Supporter, July 11, 1812.

  10. James Lloyd, quoted in Richard Rush to Benjamin Rush, June 29, 1812, in Rush Papers (SR), reel 1.

  11. Lloyd, quoted in Charles J. Ingersoll to Alexander Dallas, June 23, 1812, in Ingersoll Papers (HSP).

  12. Trenton True American, July 13, 1812.

  13. Address of Massachusetts House, June 26, 1812, in Niles’ Register 2 (August 29, 1812), 417–18; Declaration of Connecticut Assembly, August 25, 1812, ibid., 3 (September 12, 1812), 24. See also Boston Gazette, June 29, 1812; Boston New-England Palladium, June 9–26, 1812; Hartford Connecticut Courant, July 7, 1812; Hartford Connecticut Mirror, August 17, 1812; and sermons printed in Providence Gazette, July 25 and August 8, 1812.

  14. Otis to John Rutledge, Jr., July 31, 1812, in Rutledge Papers (UNC). For similar sentiments, see Boston Columbian Centinel, July 11, 1812; Address of Middlesex County (MA) Convention, August 10, 1812, in Providence Gazette, August 22, 1812; William Ellery Channing, “Extracts from Sermons,” in The Works of William E. Channing, 6 vols. (Boston, 1841–43), 1:682.

  15. Address of Massachusetts House, June 26, 1812, in Niles’ Register 2 (August 29, 1812), 418.

  16. Baltimore Federal Republican, June 20, 1812; Alexandria Gazette, June 20, 1812; Philadelphia United States’ Gazette, June 23, 24, 25, 26, 29, 1812; New York Evening Post, June 29, 1812. The Charleston Courier reversed itself, initially calling for everyone “to rally around the Rulers of the Nation,” but later upholding the right to criticize policy and calling for the election of men who would restore peace. See issues of June 25, and August 5 and 10, 1812. For other anti-war sentiments, see Address of New Jersey Federalist Convention, July 4, 1812, in Newport Mercury, August 8, 1812.

  17. The address was usually referred to as the “Address of the Minority to Their Constituents.” The citations that follow are to the version in AC, 12–1, 2196–2223. For the pamphlet editions, see Ralph R. Shaw and Richard H. Shoemaker, American Bibliography: A Preliminary Checklist for 1812 (New York, 1962), 6–7.

  18. “Address of the Minority,” 2196. The previous question was used several times to end debate in the War Congress; both houses employed secret sessions when the pre-war embargo and the war bill were under consideration; and Federalists thought that House Republicans had treated an anti-war resolution offered by John Randolph arbitrarily in May 1812. For an excellent contemporary sketch of the history of the previous question, see speech of William Gaston, January 19, 1816, in AC, 14–1, 699–718. For Randolph’s motion, see AC, 12–1, 1451–78.

  19. “Address of the Minority,” 2196, 2218–19.

  20. Ibid., 2220–21.

  21. “Review of an Address of . . . Members of the House . . . on the subject of war with Great Britain,” in Washington National Intelligencer, July 18 and 23, and August 1, 1812.

  22. Speech of Felix Grundy, May 6, 1812, in AC, 12–1, 1410; Washington National Intelligencer, May 14, 1812.

  23. Niles’ Register 1 (December 7, 1811), 251; Thomas J. Rogers to Jonathan Roberts, May 16, 1812, in Roberts Papers (HSP). For similar sentiments, see Philadelphia Aurora, April 7, 1812; Richard Rush to Benjamin Rush, May 16, 1812, in Rush Papers (SR), reel 1; Republican sources quoted in Alexandria Gazette, November 4, 1811, and May 7 and 15, 1812, and in Baltimore Federal Republican, June 4, 1812; Simon Snyder, quoted in Madonna, “Lancaster Federalists,” 143; speech of John Randolph, May 6, 1812, in AC, 12–1, 1400.

  24. Washington National Intelligencer, June 27, 1812; Address of Massachusetts Senate, June 26, 1812, in Niles’ Register 2 (July 11, 1812), 309; Augusta Chronicle, quoted in John E. Talmadge, “Georgia’s Federalist Press and the War of 1812,” Journal of Southern History 19 (November, 1953), 493. See also Thomas Rogers to Jonathan Roberts, June 21, 1812, in Roberts Papers (HSP).

  25. Baltimore American, July 16, 1812; Wilmington American Watchman, June 26, 1812; John G. Jackson to JM, June 26, 1812, in Madison Papers (LC), reel 14.

  26. Speech of Robert Wright, May 6, 1812, in AC, 12–1, 1413.

  27. Jefferson to JM, June 29, 1812, in Madison Papers (LC), reel 26 (also in Jefferson Papers [LC], reel 46). Although this letter is readily available, the quoted portion has been discreetly omitted from the older published works of Jefferson and Madison and continues to be ignored by their biographers. See also Jefferson to William Duane, August 4, 1812, in Jefferson Papers (LC), reel 46.

  28. Boston Yankee, May 15, 1812. See also Baltimore Sun, reprinted in Wilmington American Watchman, July 4, 1812; Niles’ Register 2 (June 27, 1812), 284; Governor William Plumer to New Hampshire legislature, November 18, 1812, ibid., 3 (December 5, 1812), 210; New York Military Moniter, reprinted in Washington National Intelligencer, March 24, 1813.

  29. My understanding of Baltimore is based on the following sources: J. Thomas Scharf, History of Baltimore City and County (Philadelphia, 1881); Clayton C. Hall, ed., Baltimore: Its History and Its People, 3 vols. (New York, 1912); Hamilton Owens, Baltimore on the Chesapeake (Garden City, 1941); Gary L. Browne, Baltimore in the Nation, 1789–1861 (Chapel Hill, 1980); James W. Livingood, The Philadelphia-Baltimore Trade Rivalry, 1780–1860 (Harrisburg, 1947); Frank R. Rutter, South American Trade of Baltimore (Baltimore, 1897); William T. Howard, Jr., Public Health Administration and the Natural History of Disease in Baltimore, Maryland, 1797–1820 (Washington, DC, 1924); [Jared Sparks], “Baltimore,” North American Review 20 (January, 1825), 99–138; Clarence P. Gould, “The Economic Causes of the Rise of Baltimore,” in Leonard W. Labaree, ed., Essays in Colonial History Presented to Charles McLean Andrews by His Students (New Haven, 1931), 225–51; and Seth Rockman, Scraping By: Wage Labor, Slavery, and Survival in Early Baltimore (Baltimore, 2009).

  30. George Rogers Taylor, “Comment,” in David T. Gilchrist, ed., The Growth of the Seaport Cities, 1790–1830: Proceedings of a Conference Sponsored by the Eleut
herian Mills-Hagley Foundation, March 17–19, 1966 (Charlottesville, 1967), 39.

  31. By contrast, there were 99 females for every 100 males in New York, 104 for every 100 in Philadelphia, and 107 for every 100 in Boston. See Seybert, Statistical Annals, 49. All figures are from the 1810 census.

  32. Irish editors aside, Wright was probably the leading anglophobe in the country. For his pardon (issued on January 28, 1809), see Interesting Papers Illustrative of the Recent Riots at Baltimore [Baltimore, 1812?], 80–81. For the history of rioting in Baltimore, see Scharf, History of Baltimore, 778–94; Thomas Scharf, History of Maryland, From the Earliest Period to the Present Day, 3 vols. (Baltimore, 1879), 2:503–4, 590–91; L. Marx Renzulli, Jr., Maryland: The Federalist Years (Rutherford, 1972), 107–11, 167, 253n; Frank A. Cassell, Merchant Congressman in the Young Republic: Samuel Smith of Maryland, 1752–1839 (Madison, 1971), 88, 257–59; Francis F. Beirne, The Amiable Baltimoreans (New York, 1951), 222; and W. Bird Terwilliger, “William Goddard’s Victory for the Freedom of the Press,” Maryland Historical Magazine 36 (June, 1941), 139–49.

  33. Niles’ Register 3 (September 19, 1812), 47.

  34. Katharine J. Gallagher, “Alexander Contee Hanson,” in DAB, 8:231; Clarence S. Brigham, History and Bibliography of American Newspapers, 1690–1820, 2 vols. (Worcester, 1947), 1:235; Scharf, History of Baltimore, 88. Hanson’s father was chancellor of Maryland, and his grandfather was president of the Continental Congress.

  35. Benjamin Merrill to Timothy Pickering, January 14, 1815, in Pickering Papers (MHS), reel 30.

  36. Baltimore Whig, June 6, 1812.

  37. Richmond Enquirer, June 26, 1812; Baltimore Whig, reprinted ibid., June 30, 1812. See also Salem Essex Register, October 2, 1813.

  38. Gallagher, “Alexander Contee Hanson,” 231.

  39. Renzulli, Maryland, 248.

  40. The most valuable source for the Baltimore riots is Report of the Committee of Grievances and Courts of Justice of the House of Delegates of Maryland, on the Subject of the Recent Mobs and Riots in the City of Baltimore (Annapolis, 1813) (hereafter cited as Maryland Legislative Report). The report itself is only 12 pages long and was widely reprinted in the press, but the official edition has over 300 pages of depositions appended. Other sources are “Report of the Baltimore City Council,” August 6, 1812; A. C. Hanson et al., “An Exact and Authentic Narrative of the Events Which Took Place in Baltimore on the 27th and 28th of July Last”; “Narrative of John E. Hall”; “Narrative of John Thomson”; and “Narrative of Otho Sprigg.” These accounts were widely reprinted in the press and were collected (along with other papers bearing on the riots) in two contemporary pamphlets: Interesting Papers Illustrative of the Recent Riots at Baltimore [Baltimore, 1812?], and A Portrait of the Evils of Democracy (Baltimore, 1816). (The citations that follow are to the first of these pamphlets.) Another source is Henry Lee, A Correct Account of the Baltimore Mob (Winchester, VA, 1814). I presented a shorter account of the riots in “The Darker Side of Democracy: The Baltimore Riots of 1812,” Maryland Historian 7 (Fall, 1976), 1–19. For other treatments, see Thomas Boyd, Light-horse Harry Lee (New York, 1931), ch. 18; Frank Cassell, “The Great Baltimore Riot of 1812,” Maryland Historical Magazine 70 (Fall, 1975), 241–59; and Paul A. Gilje, “The Baltimore Riots of 1812 and the Breakdown of the Anglo-American Mob Tradition,” Journal of Social History 13 (Summer, 1980), 547–64.

  41. Deposition of Isaac Caustin, in Maryland Legislative Report, 318. See also deposition of James P. Heath, ibid., 284; Alexandria Gazette, November 4, 1811, and May 15, 1812.

  42. Baltimore Federal Republican, June 1, 1812.

  43. Baltimore Federal Republican, June 20, 1812.

  44. Depositions of William Gwynn, William Merryman, Edward Johnson, and Isaac Caustin, in Maryland Legislative Report, 22, 107, 174, 318.

  45. Deposition of William Gwynn, ibid., 21; Hanson et al., “Exact and Authentic Narrative,” 26–27; Georgetown Federal Republican, July 27, August 3, and October 19, 1812.

  46. Deposition of Peter L. White, in Maryland Legislative Report, 66.

  47. Deposition of John Worthington, ibid., 241.

  48. Deposition of Samuel Hollingsworth, ibid., 336.

  49. Although two prominent Federalists were assaulted during the night of violence, the only serious casualty was one of the rioters, who died when he fell from the upper story of the Federal Republican building.

  50. Depositions of William Stewart and William Gwynn, in Maryland Legislative Report, 22–23, 63.

  51. Depositions of James Sterett, Samuel Sterett, and William Barney, ibid., 200, 203, 278.

  52. Deposition of David R. Geddes, ibid., 50; Boston New-England Palladium, July 3, 1812; New York Commercial Advertiser, reprinted in Hartford Connecticut Mirror, July 20, 1812.

  53. Depositions of Nixon Wilson, Edward Johnson, and John S. Abel, in Maryland Legislative Report, 149, 163, 307; David Hoffman to Virgil Maxcy, July 11, 1812, in Galloway-Maxcy-Markoe Papers (LC).

  54. Maryland Legislative Report, 3.

  55. Deposition of John Worthington, ibid., 242.

  56. [Henry Lee] to Hanson, July 20, 1812, in Niles’ Register 2 (August 8, 1812), 378. Jefferson’s actual words were: “The mobs of great cities add just so much to the support of pure government, as sores do to the strength of the human body.” See Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia, ed. William Peden (Chapel Hill, 1955), 165.

  57. John Hanson Thomas to Hanson, [June 28, 1812], in Niles’ Register 2 (August 8, 1812), 375.

  58. Hanson to Robert Goodloe Harper, July 24, 1812, in Harper Papers (MdHS), reel 2.

  59. Depositions of John Howard Payne and Peter L. White, in Maryland Legislative Report, 14–15, 68; sublease of Jacob Wagner, July 23, 1812, in Interesting Papers, 10.

  60. Deposition of John Howard Payne, in Maryland Legislative Report, 15–16; Lee, Correct Account, 5–6. See also John Lynn to Hanson, July 19, 1812, and [Lee] to Hanson, July 20, 1812, in Niles’ Register 2 (August 8, 1812), 376, 378.

  61. Georgetown Federal Republican, July 27, 1812. This editorial was partially reprinted in Niles’ Register 2 (August 8, 1812), 378.

  62. Hanson et al., “Exact and Authentic Narrative,” 28; “Report of Baltimore City Council,” 2.

  63. Deposition of Peter L. White, in Maryland Legislative Report, 70. See also “Narrative of John Hall,” 53.

  64. Hanson et al., “Exact and Authentic Narrative,” 28; Maryland Legislative Report, 4–5.

  65. Deposition of John Howard Payne, in Maryland Legislative Report, 16.

  66. Deposition of James P. Heath, ibid., 282–83; Hanson et al., “Exact and Authentic Narrative,” 29. There were additional injuries on both sides during the night. A spectator in the street was shot to death, and a number of Federalists who left the house were beaten and one was nearly hanged. See depositions of William Stewart, Dennis Nowland, James Gittings, William Barney, and Middleton B. Magruder, in Maryland Legislative Report, 64, 189, 235, 259, 305; Hanson et al., “Exact and Authentic Narrative,” 29; James W. Williams to John W. Stump, July 28, 1812, in War of 1812 File (MdHS).

  67. Deposition of Peter L. White, in Maryland Legislative Report, 71.

  68. Stricker had the authority to call out the militia without such an order. See letter of Governor Robert Bowie, August 21, 1812, in Annapolis Maryland Gazette, September 3, 1812.

  69. Depositions of John Howard Payne, William Gwynn, George H. Steuart, and William Barney, in Maryland Legislative Report, 16–17, 24–26, 216, 256–62. Barney was the son of Joshua Barney, the naval hero of the Revolution and War of 1812.

  70. Hanson et al., “Exact and Authentic Narrative,” 29.

  71. Testimony of Richard H. Owen, in Georgetown Federal Republican, October 23, 1812 (emphasis omitted).

  72. Hanson et al., “Exact and Authentic Narrative,” 30.

  73. Testimony of Richard H. Owen, in Georgetown Federal Republican, October 19, 1812.

  74. Deposition of John Stone, in Maryland L
egislative Report, 98; Georgetown Federal Republican, August 31, 1812. See also deposition of William Gwynn, in Maryland Legislative Report, 27.

  75. Hanson et al., “Exact and Authentic Narrative,” 30–31; deposition of Middleton B. Magruder, in Maryland Legislative Report, 304–5.

  76. Quoted in Boyd, Harry Lee, 319.

  77. Lee, Correct Account, 10–12; “Narrative of John Hall,” 55–56; “Narrative of John Thomson,” 43–44; deposition of William Barney, in Maryland Legislative Report, 271–73.

  78. Depositions of Joel Vickers, Thomas Buchanan, and James P. Heath, in Maryland Legislative Report, 41, 104, 283; “Narrative of John Hall,” 56; “Narrative of Otho Sprigg,” 49.

  79. Baltimore Whig, reprinted in Georgetown Federal Republican, August 5, 1812 (emphasis omitted).

  80. Deposition of Edward Johnson, in Maryland Legislative Report, 169, 174. See also ibid., 7; and deposition of Thomas Buchanan, ibid., 105.

  81. John Stricker to governor, August 6, 1812, in Niles’ Register 2 (August 22, 1812), 405–6; depositions of William Gwynn and William Barney, in Maryland Legislative Report, 50, 273–74.

  82. Deposition of Edward Johnson, in Maryland Legislative Report, 169–70. Wooleslager probably took part in the tarring and feathering of the British shoemaker in 1808. One of the people pardoned for the crime was “George Wallaslagar.” See pardon of Governor Robert Wright, January 28, 1809, in Interesting Papers, 81.

  83. Depositions of William Merryman and Thomas Robinson, in Maryland Legislative Report, 111, 347; Hanson et al., “Exact and Authentic Narrative,” 37–38; “Narrative of John Hall,” 57–58.