The War of 1812

by Donald R Hickey

  31. Benjamin Waterhouse to James Monroe, July 21, 1813, in Monroe Papers (LC), reel 5; Nicoll Fosdick et al. to JM, January 6, 1814, in WD (M222), reel 11.

  32. JM to SW, May 24, 1814, in Madison Papers (LC), reel 27.

  33. Jirah Isham to John Cotton Smith, May 16, 1814, and Smith to Isham, September 21, 1814, in Harlow et al., John Cotton Smith Papers, 3:62 and 4:89.

  34. Quoted in Jirah Isham to John Cotton Smith, May 16, 1814, ibid., 3:62.

  35. John Cotton Smith to Thomas H. Cushing, August 4, 1814, ibid., 182.

  36. Jirah Isham to John Cotton Smith, August 22, 1814, ibid., 221; Thomas H. Cushing to SW, September 8, 1814, in ASP: MA, 4:888.

  37. Jirah Isham to John Cotton Smith, August 18, 1814, in Smith Papers (CHS).

  38. John Cotton Smith to Augustine Taylor, August 27, 1814, in Harlow et al., John Cotton Smith Papers, 4:12.

  39. Augustine Taylor to Levi Lusk, September 11, 1814, ibid., 44.

  40. Quoted in Levi Lusk to John Cotton Smith, September 14, 1814, in Smith Papers (CHS). See also Augustine Taylor to John Cotton Smith, September 11, 1814, and [September 12, 1814], ibid.

  41. Augustine Taylor to John Cotton Smith, [September 12, 1814], ibid.

  42. Order of P. P. Schuyler, September 12, 1814, in ASP: MA, 1:621.

  43. Jacob Ulmer to SW, September 26, 1812, in WD (M221), reel 49; Caleb Strong to SW, August 5 and 21, and September 10, 1812, and Statement of Massachusetts Militia in U. S. Service, January 30, 1828, in ASP: MA, 1:324–25, 610–11, and 3:922–23.

  44. William Bainbridge to Arnold Welles, April 6 and 20, 1814, and Report of Third Auditor’s Office, August 1, 1825, in ASP: MA, 3:77–78, 87, 179; Bainbridge to Henry A. S. Dearborn, September 27, 1814, in ND (M125), reel 39; Ingersoll, Historical Sketch, 2:121; Alden Bradford, History of Massachusetts, 3 vols. (Boston, 1822–29), 3:184; Henry A. S. Dearborn, The Life of William Bainbridge, ed. James Barnes (Princeton, 1931), 192–93.

  45. Sarah Dearborn to Henry Dearborn, September 1, 1814, in Dearborn Papers (MeHS).

  46. SW to Thomas H. Cushing, June 2, 1814, in WD (M6), reel 7; Caleb Strong to John Brooks, June 12 and October 1, 1814, and Alden Bradford to Brooks, November 22, 1814, in ASP: MA, 3:13–14, 78–79.

  47. Henry Dearborn to SW, July 14, 1814, in WD (M221), reel 61.

  48. Rules and Regulations of the Army of the United States, May 1, 1813, Henry Dearborn to Caleb Strong, July 8, 1812, Strong to Dearborn, July 12, 1812, Report of House Committee, March 10, 1818, and Alden Bradford to John Brooks, November 22, 1822, in ASP: MA, 1:433, 612, and 3:13–14, 84; William H. Sumner, A History of East Boston (Boston, 1858), 739; speech of John Davis, March 25, 1826, in RD, 19–1, 1778–79.

  49. Henry Dearborn to SW, September 5, 1814, in WD (M221), reel 61; Caleb Strong to SW, September 7, 1814, in ASP: MA, 1:613.

  50. Henry Dearborn to SW, September 26, 1814, in WD (M221), reel 61; Dearborn to Caleb Strong, September 4, 1814, James Lloyd and William Sumner to George Graham, February 3, 1817, Report of House Committee on Massachusetts Claims, March 10, 1818, Report of Third Auditor’s Office, July 28, 1825, in ASP: MA, 3:63–64, 84, 179, 881; speech of Peleg Sprague, April 7, in RD, 19–1, 2115–16; Bradford, History of Massachusetts, 3:185.

  51. Commissioners for Seacoast Defense to William Sumner, September 10, 1814, and Caleb Strong to William Sumner, September 10, 1814, in ASP: MA, 3:890–91.

  52. Selectmen of Portland to SW, [Spring, 1813], in WD (M222), reel 9.

  53. William Sumner to John Brooks, September 15, 1814, Report of Third Auditor’s Office, May 11, 1825, in ASP: MA, 3:171, 896–97; Sumner, East Boston, 734–42.

  54. William Sumner to John Brooks, September 19, 1814, and Brooks to Sumner, September 24, 1814, in ASP: MA, 3:897–98.

  55. Alford Richardson to William Sumner, September 24, 1814, Sumner to John Brooks, September 22 and 28, 1814, Alden Bradford to Brooks, November 22, 1822, in ASP: MA, 3:13–16, 897, 899–900; Alden Bradford, Biography of the Hon. Caleb Strong (Boston, 1820), 24n.

  56. Pelatiah Smith et al. to Alford Richardson, September 24, 1814, and Richardson to William Sumner, September 24, 1814, in ASP: MA, 3:898–99.

  57. For the political character of Oxford County, see election results in James M. Banner, Jr., To the Hartford Convention: The Federalists and the Origins of Party Politics in Massachusetts, 1789–1815 (New York, 1970), 359.

  58. Sumner to John Brooks, September 25 and 28, 1814, in ASP: MA, 3:899–900.

  59. William Sumner to Alford Richardson, September 30 and October 1, 1814, in ASP: MA, 3:900.

  60. John Brooks to William Sumner, September 27, 1814, in ASP: MA, 3:899.

  61. SN to JM, April 25, 1800, in ASP: NA, 1:87; Henry Dearborn to Samuel L. Mitchill, November 20, 1807, and SW to William Branch Giles, January 20, 1810, in ASP: MA, 1:220, 258; John O. Creighton to SN, October 6, 1814, in ND (M147), reel 5.

  62. Petition of the inhabitants of Newport, [Summer, 1814], in WD (M221), reel 66. See also Jeremiah Howell and [Arthur?] Fenner to SW, June 27, 1814, ibid., reel 62.

  63. See Cochrane to Viscount Melville, September 3 and 17, 1814, in Dudley and Crawford, Naval War, 3:269, 289.

  64. William Jones to SW, September 8, 1814, in ASP: MA, 1:622; Report of Rhode Island Assembly, November 5, 1814, in Niles’ Register 7 (November 26, 1814), 180–81; Clarence S. Brigham, “History of the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations,” in Edward Field, ed., State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations at the End of the Century: A History, 3 vols. (Boston, 1902), 1:299.

  65. SW to William Jones, October 4, 1814, in WD (M6), reel 7.

  66. William Plumer to Henry Dearborn, June 24, and July 6 and 20, 1812, in Plumer Papers (LC), reel 2; Turner, William Plumer, 209–13, 219.

  67. Gilman to SW, May 20 and June 30, 1814, in WD (M221), reels 53 and 61. Quotation from May 20 letter.

  68. Thomas H. Cushing to SW, May 21, 1814, ibid., reel 60; Ingersoll, Historical Sketch, 2:120; John N. McClintock, History of New Hampshire (Boston, 1889), 502.

  69. Henry Dearborn to SW, September 26, 1814, in WD (M221), reel 61.

  70. Order of Martin Chittenden, November 10, 1813, in Niles’ Register 5 (November 27, 1813), 212.

  71. Niles’ Register 5 (December 4, 1813), 229.

  72. Vermont militia officers to Martin Chittenden, November 15, 1813, in Niles’ Register 5 (November 27, 1814), 230.

  73. John L. Heaton, The Story of Vermont (Boston, 1889), 123–24; Richard Hildreth, The History of the United States, rev. ed., 6 vols. (New York, 1854–55), 6:452–53.

  74. Hartford American Mercury, November 30, 1813.

  75. Speech of Solomon Sharp, January 6, 1814, in AC, 13–2, 859.

  76. Quoted in Samuel Elliot Morison, The Life and Letters of Harrison Gray Otis, Federalist, 1765–1848, 2 vols. (Boston, 1913), 2:64–65.

  77. Resolutions of New Jersey Legislature, February 12, 1814, in Niles’ Register 6 (March 5, 1814), 11. See also Resolutions of Pennsylvania Legislature, ibid. 5 (February 26, 1814), 423.

  78. James Wilkinson to Martin Chittenden, April 5, 1814, and Alexander Macomb to SW, April 19, 1814, in WD (M221), reels 55 and 58.

  79. Samuel Mackay to Alexander Macomb, April 24, 1814, ibid., reel 55.

  80. Alexander Macomb to SW, May 24, 1814, ibid. Pennsylvania also had trouble over reorganization. According to the governor, William Duane’s “rudeness & tyrannical conduct” in reorganizing a regiment “so disgusted the officers and influenced the men that he was obliged precipitately to retreat from the camp, where he never after showed himself.” Simon Snyder to SW, January 16, 1815, in WD (M221), reel 66.

  81. Chittenden to John Newell, September 4 and 5, 1814, in Niles’ Register 7 (Supplement), 103; Proclamation of Martin Chittenden, September 19, 1814, ibid. (October 15, 1814), 65.

  82. Resolution of Vermont Council, October 28, 1814, ibid. (Supplement), 105–6.

  83. Report of Connecticut Comptroller, October 31, 1816, Statement of Militia Claims, Janua
ry 13, 1817, and Report of Third Auditor’s Office, January 30, 1828, in ASP: MA, 1:667, 3:926–27, and 4:878–82.

  84. See A. Stetson to SW, September 12, 1814, in WD (M221), reel 66; John O. Creighton to SN, December 12, 1814, in ND (M147), reel 5; and documents in ASP: MA, 3:901–8, 4:883.

  85. SW to governors of Massachusetts and Connecticut, September 17, 1814, ASP: MA, 1:614.

  86. Newport Mercury, September 17, 1814; Victor S. Clark, History of Manufactures in the United States, 2 vols. (Washington, DC, 1916–28), 1:538; Brant, James Madison, 6:236.

  87. Newport Mercury, November 12, 1814; Ebenezer Huntington to John Cotton Smith, September 14, 1814, Andrew Kingsbury to Smith, September 20 and November 30, 1814, Smith to Elizur Goodrich, November 9, 1814, and Goodrich to Smith, November 25, 1814, in Harlow et al., John Cotton Smith Papers, 6:61, 85, 167–68, 196, 204; Adams, History, 2:1118–19.

  88. Chauncey Goodrich to [Timothy Pitkin], January 10, 1815, in Pitkin Papers (HL); William W. Woolsey to John Cotton Smith, January 11, 1815, in Harlow et al., John Cotton Smith Papers, 4:241; Dwight, Hartford Convention, 339.

  89. Goodrich, Recollections of a Lifetime, 1:493.

  90. Chauncey Goodrich to [Timothy Pitkin], January 30, 1815, in Pitkin Papers (HL).

  91. State of Connecticut, Public Records, 17:171, 281–83, 285–86; Chauncey Goodrich to Timothy Pitkin, February 6, 1815, in Pitkin Papers (HL).

  92. Statement of Militia Claims, January 13, 1817, in ASP: MA, 1:667.

  93. King to Jeremiah Mason, September 2, 1814, in King, Rufus King, 5:414.

  94. Quoted in Timothy Pickering to Samuel P. Gardner, November 23, 1814, in Pickering Papers (MHS), reel 38. See also N. Everett to SW, September 29, 1814, in WD (M221), reel 61.

  95. Boston Gazette, September 1 and 15, 1814; Boston Weekly Messenger, reprinted ibid., October 17, 1814; Boston New-England Palladium, September 30, 1814; Hartford Connecticut Mirror, August 29, September 12, and October 3, 17, and 24, 1814.

  96. Salem Gazette, September 23, 1814. For similar sentiments, see Hartford Connecticut Courant, September 13, and December 6 and 13, 1814; Frank M. Anderson, “A Forgotten Phase of the New England Opposition to the War of 1812,” Proceedings of the Mississippi Valley Historical Association 6 (May, 1913), 178–79.

  97. Morison’s Harrison Gray Otis still has the best account of the Hartford Convention although it understates the importance of the defense problem. This study should be supplemented with Morison’s shorter revised study of Otis, Urbane Federalist, and with Banner’s Hartford Convention, and my article, “New England’s Defense Problem and the Genesis of the Hartford Convention.” These works are sympathetic to the Federalists. For a hostile view, see Adams, History, and Richard Buel, Jr., America on the Brink: How the Political Struggle over the War of 1812 Almost Destroyed the Young Republic (New York, 2005).

  98. For details on these convention movements, see L. Nash to Daniel Appleton White, July 24, 1812, in White Papers (EI); Worcester National Aegis, September 23, 1812; James T. Adams, New England in the Republic, 1776–1850 (Boston, 1926), 270; Morison, Harrison Gray Otis, 2:4–13, 59–61, 85–95; Morison, Urbane Federalist, 305–11, 342–43, 355–56; and Banner, Hartford Convention, 303–6, 308–10, 313–21.

  99. Joseph Lyman to Noah Webster, January 2, 1835, in Emily E. F. Ford, Notes on the Life of Noah Webster, ed. Emily E. F. Skeel, 2 vols. (New York, 1912), 2:498.

  100. Noah Webster, “Origin of the Hartford Convention in 1814,” in A Collection of Papers on Political, Literary and Moral Subjects (New York, 1843), 311.

  101. Address of Joseph Lyman, January 5, 1814, in Ford, Noah Webster, 2:125–28. Quotation from p. 128.

  102. Banner, Hartford Convention, 314–17.

  103. Petition of Newbury, January 31, 1814, in Niles’ Register 6 (March 5, 1814), 8.

  104. Francis Baylies to William Baylies, January 24, 1814, in Miscellaneous Bound Collection (MHS); Morison, Harrison Gray Otis, 2:89.

  105. Putnam to Timothy Pickering, February 11, 1814, in Pickering Papers (MHS), reel 30.

  106. Putnam to Timothy Pickering, February 12, 1814, ibid.

  107. Boston Columbian Centinel, February 23, 1814; Report of the Massachusetts Legislature, February 18, 1814, in Niles’ Register 6 (March 5, 1814), 4–8.

  108. Worthington C. Ford, ed., “A Letter of Noah Webster to Daniel Webster, 1834,” American Historical Review 9 (October, 1903), 103; Morison, Harrison Gray Otis, 2:95; Banner, Hartford Convention, 320–21.

  109. Webster, “Origin of the Hartford Convention,” 314; Ford, “Letter of Noah Webster,” 103; Morison, Harrison Gray Otis, 2:96.

  110. Morison, Harrison Gray Otis, 2:99.

  111. Otis, quoted ibid., 101–2.

  112. Strong to Massachusetts Legislature, October 5, 1814, in Niles’ Register 7 (October 29, 1814), 113–14.

  113. Report of Massachusetts House, October 8, 1814, ibid. (November 12, 1814), 149–51. See also John Phillips and Timothy Bigelow to New England governors, October 17, 1814, ibid. (November 26, 1814), 179.

  114. Morison, Harrison Gray Otis, 2:103–5.

  115. Smith to Connecticut Legislature, October, 1814, in Niles’ Register 7 (November 19, 1814), 162–63.

  116. Report of Connecticut Legislature, October, 1814, in State of Connecticut, Public Records, 17:182–86. Quotations from pp. 183–85.

  117. Morison, Harrison Gray Otis, 2:106.

  118. Jones to Rhode Island Legislature, November 1, 1814, in Niles’ Register 7 (November 26, 1814), 177–78.

  119. Report of Rhode Island House, November 5, 1814, ibid., 180–81; Morison, Harrison Gray Otis, 2:107.

  120. Keene Newhampshire Sentinel, December 10, 1814; Morison, Harrison Gray Otis, 2:107–8.

  121. Otis to Christopher Gore, December 3, 1814, in Samuel Eliot Morison, ed., “Two Letters of Harrison Gray Otis on the Hartford Convention, 1814–1815,” Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society 60 (November, 1926), 27.

  122. Speech of Francis Blake, October 7, 1814, in Synopsis of Debates in Massachusetts Legislature, 5.

  123. Ibid., 6; Resolutions of Innkeepers and Retailers of Hampshire, Franklin, and Hampden Counties, December 28, 1814, in Hartford Connecticut Courant, January 3, 1815.

  124. Resolutions of Reading Meeting, January 5, 1815, in Salem Gazette, January 10, 1815.

  125. Pickering to John Lowell, Jr., November 28, 1814, and to James Hillhouse, December 16, 1814, in Pickering Papers (MHS), reel 15.

  126. Boston Columbian Centinel, December 21, 1814.

  127. Ibid., November 9, 1814.

  128. Edmund Quincy, Life of Josiah Quincy of Massachusetts, 4th ed. (Boston, 1868), 358. For similar sentiments, see John Lowell, Jr., to Timothy Pickering, December 3, 1814, in Pickering Papers (MHS), reel 30.

  129. Pittsburgh Gazette, October 26, 1814.

  130. John Stanly to William Gaston, November 11, 1814, in Gaston Papers (UNC), reel 2. See also Robert Goodloe Harper to William Sullivan, November 2, 1814, in Harper Papers (MdHS), reel 2; Georgetown Federal Republican, November 9, 1814, and January 11, 1815.

  131. Plumer to Jeremiah Mason, December 29, 1814, in Plumer Papers (LC), reel 2.

  132. Joseph L. Smith to [Thomas Jesup], December 26, 1814, in Jesup Papers (LC).

  133. Worcester National Aegis, December 28, 1814. For similar sentiments, see Bennington Green-Mountain Farmer, November 28, 1814; Hartford American Mercury, December 13, 1814; and Lexington Reporter, December 31, 1814.

  134. William Pope to James Monroe, October 28, 1814, in Monroe Papers (NYPL).

  135. SW to Thomas Jesup, November 26, 1814, in WD (M7), reel 1.

  136. SW to Daniel Tompkins, November 26, 1814, and to Jacob Brown, November 26, 1814, ibid.; Brown to SW, December 29, 1814, in Brown Papers (LC); Memorandum of Tench Ringgold, January 10, 1815, in Monroe Papers (NYPL).

  137. For the peace rumors, see chapter 9: The Crisis of 1814.

  138. Morison, Harrison Gray Otis, 2:130–37; Morison, Urbane Federal
ist, 358–62.

  139. Lowell to Timothy Pickering, December 3, 1814, in Pickering Papers (MHS), reel 30.

  140. Otis to Christopher Gore, December 3, 1814, in Morison, “Two Letters,” 27.

  141. Lowell to Timothy Pickering, December 3, 1814, in Pickering Papers (MHS), reel 30. For similar sentiments, see Pickering to Samuel Putnam, February 3, 1814, ibid., reel 15.

  142. Nathan Dane, quoted in Robert C. Winthrop to Henry Cabot Lodge, August 23, 1878, in Lodge, George Cabot, 602.

  143. Cabot, quoted ibid., 519.

  144. Ingersoll, Historical Sketch, 2:233.

  145. Letter from Hartford, December 16, 1814, in Boston Gazette, December 19, 1814. See also letter from Hartford, December 16, 1814, in Concord New-Hampshire Patriot, December 22, 1814; Goodrich, Recollections of a Lifetime, 2:53

  146. Jesup to SW, December 15, 1814, in Jesup Papers (LC). See also Hartford American Mercury, December 20, 1814.

  147. Otis to Sally Foster Otis, [December 22, 1814], in Morison, Harrison Gray Otis, 2:190.

  148. Secret Journal of the Hartford Convention, December 15, 1814, in Dwight, Hartford Convention, 383.

  149. Zilpah Longfellow, quoted in Morison, Harrison Gray Otis, 2:140.

  150. Calvin Goddard to David Daggett, January 3, 1815, in William E. Buckley, ed., “Letters of Connecticut Federalists, 1814–1815,” New England Quarterly 3 (April, 1930), 327. See also Concord New-Hampshire Patriot, January 3, 1815.

  151. George Ticknor Curtis, Life of Daniel Webster, 2 vols., 4th ed. (New York, 1872), 1:136.

  152. The Secret Journal of the Hartford Convention is printed in Dwight, Hartford Convention, 383–98.

  153. Goodrich to [Timothy Pitkin], January 10, 1815, in Pitkin Papers (HL).

  154. Stephen Longfellow, Jr., to Zilpah Longfellow, December 22, 1814, in Morison, Harrison Gray Otis, 2:189.

  155. Secret Journal of the Hartford Convention, December 16 and 24, 1814, in Dwight, Hartford Convention, 386–87, 392.