The War of 1812

by Donald R Hickey

  93. Bayard to Erick Bollman, October 29, 1814, in Donnan, Papers of James A. Bayard, 351.

  94. Clay to SS, October 26, 1814, in Monroe Papers (LC), reel 5.

  95. See chapter 9: The Crisis of 1814.

  96. Nicholas Vansittart, quoted in Perkins, Castlereagh and Adams, 99.

  97. See London Times, September 27, and October 18 and 19, 1814; LL to SSWC, September 30, 1814, in Bickley, Manuscripts of Earl Bathurst, 294–95; LL to FS, October 21, 1814, in Wellington, Dispatches of the Duke of Wellington, 9:367.

  98. Goulburn to SSWC, October 21, 1814, in Wellington, Dispatches of the Duke of Wellington, 9:366.

  99. LL to FS, October 28 and November 2, 1814, ibid., 383, 402.

  100. Speech of Samuel Whitbread, November 18, 1814, in Parliamentary Debates, 29:364.

  101. London Morning Chronicle, November 17, 1814. See also ibid., November 3, 1814.

  102. SSWC to Henry Goulburn, September 12, 1814, in Goulburn Papers (UM), reel 1.

  103. LL to George Canning, December 28, 1814, in Charles D. Yonge, The Life and Administration of Robert Banks, Second Earl of Liverpool, 3 vols. (London, 1868), 2:74–77; Perkins, Castlereagh and Adams, 100–101.

  104. LL to George Canning, December 28, 1814, in Yonge, Earl of Liverpool, 2:76.

  105. LL to FS, November 4, 1814, and to Wellington, November 4, 1814, in Wellington, Dispatches of the Duke of Wellington, 9:405–6.

  106. Wellington to LL, November 9, 1814, ibid., 425–26.

  107. LL to FS, November 18, 1814, ibid., 438.

  108. Adams, Memoirs of John Quincy Adams (November 28, 1814), 3:71–76; SSWC to Henry Goulburn, November 21, 1814, and Goulburn to SSWC, November 26, 1814, in Goulburn Papers (UM), reel 2; John Quincy Adams, Remarks on a Paper Delivered by Mr. Jonathan Russell, May 3, 1822, in ASP: MS, 2: 947–56.

  109. See Updyke, Diplomacy of the War, 466–78. Although the British retained access to the Mississippi River, this right had never been very important, and the rapid decline of the fur trade, coupled with the development of an improved transportation network east to Montreal, destroyed whatever value it had. The British effectively abandoned the right when this part of the Canadian-American boundary was defined in the Convention of 1818. See John Quincy Adams, Remarks on a Paper Delivered by Mr. Jonathan Russell, May 3, 1822, in ASP: MS, 2: 947–56.

  110. The treaty is printed in ASP: FR, 3:745–48.

  111. Ibid., 746. Great Britain later paid $1.2 million (£244,000) for slaves carried off at the end of the war. For the history and settlement of these claims, see John Bassett Moore, History and Digest of the International Arbitrations to Which the United States has Been a Party, 6 vols. (Washington, DC, 1898), 1:350–90.

  112. Treaty of Ghent, in ASP: FR, 3:747. This clause was a dead letter from the beginning. See Colin G. Calloway, Crown and Calumet: British-Indian Relations, 1783–1815 (Norman, 1986), 240–48.

  113. The commissions rendered their decisions between 1817 and 1842. See Updyke, Diplomacy of the War, 421–36.

  114. Treaty of Ghent, in ASP: FR, 3:748.

  115. Ibid., 746, 748; FS to British commissioners, July 28, 1814, and Henry Goulburn to SSWC, December 30, 1814, in Goulburn Papers (UM), reels 1 and 2; Worthington C. Ford, ed., “Intended Instructions [to the British commissioners at Ghent],” Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society 48 (December, 1914), 161; Perkins, Castlereagh and Adams, 121.

  116. FS to LL, January 2, 1815, in Wellington, Dispatches of the Duke of Wellington, 9:523.

  117. Edward Cooke (an undersecretary in the Foreign Office), quoted in LL to SSWC, January 16, 1815, in Bickley, Manuscripts of Earl Bathurst, 324.

  118. London Courier, reprinted in Washington National Intelligencer, February 16, 1815; Naval Chronicle 33 (January-June, 1815), 70–71; Annual Register for 1814 [Preface], v; G. C. Moore Smith, ed., The Autobiography of Lieutenant-General Sir Harry Smith, 2 vols. (London, 1902), 1:251.

  119. London Morning Chronicle, December 27, 1814.

  120. London Times, December 27 and 30, 1814. See also London Globe, reprinted in Niles’ Register 7 (February 25, 1815), 407.

  121. Speech of Marquis Wellesley, April 13, 1815, in Parliamentary Debates, 30:589 and 598. See also ibid., 205–6, 209, 500–33, 587–607, 649–52.

  122. Ibid., 513–14, 533, 600, 607.

  123. London Morning Chronicle, December 31, 1814.

  124. Adams, Memoirs of John Quincy Adams (December 11 and 14, 1814), 3:104, 118.

  125. Albert Gallatin to SS, December 25, 1814, in Gallatin Papers (SR), reel 27; Henry Clay to SS, December 25, 1814, in Monroe Papers (LC), reel 5; James A. Bayard to Andrew Bayard, December 24, 1814, in Donnan, Papers of James A. Bayard, 364; John Quincy Adams to Louisa Catherine Adams, December 23, 1814, and January 3, 1815, and to Abigail Adams, December 24, 1814, in Ford, Writings of John Quincy Adams, 5:245–46, 248, 260–61.

  126. SSWC to British commissioners, December 26, 1814, in Goulburn Papers (UM), reel 2; Perkins, Castlereagh and Adams, 142.

  127. Benjamin Russell to Jonathan Goodhue, February 11, 1815, in Boston Columbian Centinel, February 15, 1815; 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), 4:275.

  128. Boston Yankee, February 17, 1815; Hartford American Mercury, February 21 and 28, 1815; Washington National Intelligencer, February 18 and 20, 1815; Updyke, Diplomacy of the War, 365–66; Sarah M. Lemmon, Frustrated Patriots: North Carolina and the War of 1812 (Chapel Hill, 1973), 200–201.

  129. Otis Ammidon to Jonathan Russell, February 20, 1815, in “Letters of Jonathan Russell,” Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society 54 (November, 1920), 78.

  130. Washington National Intelligencer, February 16 and 17, 1815; Hartford Connecticut Courant, February 21, 1815; Boston Gazette, February 13 and March 6, 1815; Georgetown Federal Republican, February 20, 1815; Updyke, Diplomacy of the War, 368–69; Adams, History, 2:1224–25.

  131. LL to FS, December 23, 1814, in Wellington, Dispatches of the Duke of Wellington, 9:495.

  132. Washington National Intelligencer, February 14, 15, and 18, 1815; Senate Journal, 2:618–20; Parliamentary Debates, 30:218.

  133. Gore to Caleb Strong, February 18, 1815, in Henry Cabot Lodge, Life and Letters of George Cabot, 2nd ed. (Boston, 1878), 563.

  134. Robertson to Timothy Pickering, February 14, 1815, in Pickering Papers (MHS), reel 30.

  135. JM to Congress, February 18, 1815, in AC, 13–3, 255.

  136. Story to Nathaniel Williams, February 22, 1815, in William W. Story, Life and Letters of Joseph Story, 2 vols. (Boston, 1851), 1:254; New York National Advocate, February 20, 1815.

  137. Washington National Intelligencer, February 23, 1815; Worcester National Aegis, February 22, 1815. For similar sentiments, see Boston Yankee, February 17, 1815; Richmond Enquirer, February 18, 1815; Philadelphia Aurora, February 20, 1815; Trenton True American, March 6, 1815; Concord New-Hampshire Patriot, March 7 and April 11, 1815; Address of Massachusetts Republicans, February 23, 1815, and Address of John Dickinson, March 18, 1815, in Washington National Intelligencer, March 27, 1815; speech of John C. Calhoun, February 27, 1815, in AC, 13–3, 1236; Niles’ Register 8 (March 4, 1815), 417–19.

  Conclusion

  1. Speech of Daniel Sheffey, January 3, 1812, in AC, 12–1, 627.

  2. Calhoun to James Macbride, April 18, 1812, in Meriwether et al., Papers of John C. Calhoun, 1:99–100; Charles J. Ingersoll to James Monroe, June 8, 1814, in Monroe Papers (LC), reel 5; letter from a congressman, January 8, 1815, in Lexington Reporter, February 8, 1815.

  3. Richmond Enquirer, December 24, 1812; William A. Burwell to [Wilson Cary Nicholas], February 1, 1813, in Nicholas Papers (UVA).

  4. Annapolis Maryland Gazette, October 15, 1812.

  5. Robert B. Atkinson to John B. Floyd, February 22, 1858, in NASP: MA, 5:339; U.S. Congress, Report of the Third Auditor relative to the Officers, Non-Commissioned Officers, and Soldiers of
the Militia, Volunteers, and Rangers of the Late War, [U.S. Serial Set, #302] (Washington, DC, 1836), 78–79.

  6. U.S. Department of Defense, Selected Manpower Statistics ([Washington, DC], 1974), 19.

  7. Ibid., 63.

  8. See Edmund P. Gaines to SW, August 11, 1814, and Moses Porter to SW, July 25, August 10, and September 10 and 21, 1814, in WD (M221), reels 61 and 65; James Wilkinson to SW, August 16, 1813, in WD (M222), reel 9; Dr. G. Proctor to F. K. Huger, July 31, 1813, in Lowndes Papers (UNC), reel 1; Alexander Smyth to Henry Dearborn, November 9, 1812, Report of Hospital Surgeon, 1814, and George Izard to SW, November 8, 1814, in Cruikshank, Niagara Frontier, 2:298, 452–53, and 4:187; William Henry Harrison to SW, September 8, 1813, in Esarey, Messages and Letters of William Henry Harrison, 2:538; James Mann, Medical Sketches of the Campaigns of 1812, 13, 14 (Dedham, 1816), 66, 89, 125; McAfee, History of the Late War, 183–86; Gilpin, War of 1812 in the Northwest, 230; Sarah M. Lemmon, Frustrated Patriots: North Carolina and the War of 1812 (Chapel Hill, 1973), 44, 51, 89, 91, 199.

  9. Isaac A. Coles to Richard Rush, November 16, [1812], in Monroe Papers (NYPL); Shelby to Susannah Shelby, October 28, 1813, in Shelby Papers (LC); Izard to [SW], June 25, 1814, in Izard, Official Correspondence, 38. See also Samuel Huntington to SW, October 1, 1812, in WD (M221), reel 45.

  10. J. C. A. Stagg, “Enlisted Men in the United States Army, 1812–1815: A Preliminary Survey,” William and Mary Quarterly, 3rd ser. 43 (October, 1986), 624.

  11. This figure must be taken with a grain a salt because Stagg’s 2.5 ratio is for the regular army, and it may have been different for the militia and other classes of land troops.

  12. John S. Hare, “Military Punishments in the War of 1812,” Journal of the American Military Institute 4 (Winter, 1940), 238; Benjamin Homans to Isaac Chauncey, December 19, 1814 in ND (M149), reel 11. Andrew Jackson’s military courts handled a particularly large number of desertion cases. See Proceedings of General Court Martial Held at Nashville, October 19, 1814, in Jackson Papers (LC), reel 64.

  13. In Don’t Give Up the Ship, 297, I scaled back my estimate to 15,000, but I now think my original figure of 20,000 is closer to the mark.

  14. For a fuller discussion of this matter, see Hickey, Don’t Give Up the Ship, 296–99.

  15. U.S. Department of Commerce, Historical Statistics of the United States, 2 vols. (Washington, DC, 1975), 2:1140.

  16. New York Times, January 16, 1946, p. 17, and January 17, 1947, p. 10; President’s Commission on Veterans’ Pensions, The Historical Development of Veterans’ Benefits in the United States (Washington, DC, 1956), 100.

  17. George C. Whiting to J. Thompson, March 2, 1858, in NASP: MA, 5:341.

  18. See U.S. Department of the Treasury, Report of the Secretary of the Treasury on the State of the Finances for the Year 1866 [U.S. Serial Set, #1287] (Washington, DC, 1866), 304. My estimate assumes that all the money was borrowed at 6 percent and redeemable in thirteen years, which was the norm during the war. In 1830 the House Ways and Means Committee issued a report estimating that the administration got only $34 million in specie value. That seems too low to me, but if correct, the administration’s interest rate was over 20 percent, and this does not factor in the payment mandated by Congress in 1855 to compensate the early subscribers to the war loan in 1814 who paid a higher price than later subscribers. See Report of Ways and Means Committee, April 13, 1830, in RD, 21–1, Appendix, 115; and Chapter 9: The Crisis of 1814.

  19. This is actually a loose paraphrase of what a Canadian historian said over a half century ago. See C. P. Stacey, “The War of 1812 in Canadian History,” Ontario History 50 (Summer 1958), 153.

  20. See, for example, Christopher Duffy, Borodino and the War of 1812 (New York and London, 1972).

  21. Davis, Jeffersonian America, 5; letter from an Englishman, July 21, 1815, in Niles’ Register 9 (October 28, 1815), 156.

  22. Bradford Perkins, Castlereagh and Adams: England and the United States, 1812–1823 (Berkeley, 1964), 160–62.

  23. See Bradford Perkins, The Great Rapprochement: England and the United States, 1895–1914 (New York, 1968).

  24. For more on the war’s impact on Great Britain, see Hickey, Don’t Give Up the Ship, 317–20.

  25. For more on the war’s impact on Canada, see Hickey, Don’t Give Up the Ship, 312–17.

  26. See Isaac J. Cox, The West Florida Controversy, 1798–1813: A Study in American Diplomacy (Baltimore, 1918), ch. 16.

  27. Report of the Secretary of War, December 5, 1818, in ASP: IA, 2:183.

  28. See Paul A. Gilje, “Free Trade and Sailors’ Rights,” Journal of the Early Republic 30 (Spring, 2010), 1–23; and Gilje to author, July 11, 2011.

  29. JM to Congress, February 18, 1815, in AC, 13–3, 255–56.

  30. See AC, 13–3, 297–98, 1272–73, 1934–35; AC, 14–1, 363, 1374, 1886–87; Edward M. Coffman, The Old Army: A Portrait of the American Army in Peacetime, 1784–1898 (New York, 1986), 43. The Senate preferred an army of 15,000 men, and the administration favored 20,000. See AC, 13–3, 286; and SW to William Branch Giles, February 22, 1815, in Monroe Papers (LC), reel 5. The force level adopted did not survive the revenue shortfall that followed the Panic of 1819. In 1821 Congress cut the size of the army to 6,200 men. See Coffman, Old Army, 140; Allan R. Millett and Peter Maslowski, For the Common Defense: A Military History of the United States of America, rev. ed. (New York, 1994), 128.

  31. K. Jack Bauer, “Naval Shipbuilding Programs, 1794–1860,” Military Affairs 29 (Spring, 1965), 34; C. Gratiot to John Eaton, March 8, 1830, in ASP: MA, 4:305. See also Board of Engineers to John C. Calhoun, February 7, 1821, ibid., 2:305–12; speech of Samuel Smith, March 9, 1820, in AC, 16–1, 1620. The revenue shortfall of 1820s slowed down the naval construction program, and most of the larger ships were taken out of service to save money. See Millett and Maslowski, For the Common Defense, 124.

  32. Jefferson to William Short, November 28, 1814, in Jefferson Papers (LC), reel 47.

  33. Walter M. Whitehill, ed., New England Blockaded in 1814: The Journal of Henry Edward Napier (Salem, 1938) (May 29, 1814), 20.

  34. AC, 13–3, 285, 1271, 1945–49. For the renewal of this act, see AC, 14–2, 1343–45.

  35. Harrison to John Vincent, November 3, 1813, in Esarey, Messages and Letters of William Henry Harrison, 2:592–94. See also Georgetown Federal Republican, March 31, 1813.

  36. Annual Register for 1814 [General History], 205; and Reginald Horsman, “The Paradox of Dartmoor Prison,” American Heritage 26 (February, 1975), 14. The United States held about the same number of British prisoners. See Anthony G. Dietz, “The Prisoner of War in the United States during the War of 1812” (PhD dissertation, American University, 1964), 106–7.

  37. Samuel Davis to mother, March 10, 1814, in Niles’ Register 8 (Supplement), 120. For similar sentiments, see A Narrative: A Short and Thrilling Narrative of a Few of the Scenes and Incidents That Occurred in the Sanguinary and Cruel War of 1812-’14, between England and the United States (Norway, ME, 1853), 24–32.

  38. Niles’ Register 8 (April 22, 1815), 127.

  39. Robert Malcomson, Historical Dictionary of the War of 1812 (Lanham, MD, 2006), 330–32.

  40. Boston Patriot, March 25, 1815. See also Salem Essex Register, April 5, 1815; statements of W. L. Churchill et al., and of Ebenezer A. Lewis et al., in Washington National Intelligencer, April 6, 1815. See also ibid., April 7, 1815; and Short and Thrilling Narrative of a Few of the Scenes and Incidents, 48–62.

  41. Letter of J. Odiorne, November 1, 1814, in Niles’ Register 8 (March 25, 1815), 56. See also Horsman, “Paradox of Dartmoor,” 13.

  42. Resolutions of William Harmon et al., August 31, 1815, in Niles’ Register 9 (October 28, 1815), 154.

  43. Perkins, Castlereagh and Adams, 165–66. For the official report, see Report of Charles King and Francis S. Larpent, April 26, 1815, in Niles’ Register 8 (July 22, 1815), 354–57.

  44. The prisoners’ reports are printed in Niles�
� Register, 8 (June 17, 1815), 269–71, (July 8, 1815), 321–28, and (August 5, 1815), 389–92.

  45. Richmond Enquirer, June 17, 1815. See also Washington National Intelligencer, May 31 and June 1, 1815. The British usually sought to follow international law, but a student of the subject has concluded that in the War of 1812 the Americans did a better job. Robin F. A. Farbel, “The Laws of War in the 1812 Conflict,” Journal of American Studies 14 (August, 1980), 199–218.

  46. Report on Spirit and Manner in Which the War is Waged by the Enemy, July 31, 1813, in ASP: MA, 1:339–82.

  47. Niles’ Register ran a column entitled “War Events” for eight months after the war and continued to publish this kind of material long after the column had been discontinued.

  48. Henry Adams, History, displays the same anglophobia that is evident in the writings of John Adams and John Quincy Adams.

  49. See John William Ward, Andrew Jackson: Symbol for an Age (New York, 1955).

  50. Bennett H. Young, The Battle of the Thames (Louisville, 1903), ch. 8; Stagg, Mr. Madison’s War, 330n.

  51. Story to Nathaniel Williams, February 22, 1815, in William W. Story, Life and Letters of Joseph Story, 2 vols. (Boston, 1851), 1:254.

  52. See Richard Archer, “Dissent and the Peace Negotiations at Ghent,” American Studies 18 (Fall, 1977), 5–16.

  53. Boston Yankee, March 3, 1815.

  54. Theodore Dwight, History of the Hartford Convention (New York, 1833), 4, 382.

  55. Statement of Rufus King, [1814?], in King, Rufus King, 5:405. For similar sentiments, see speech of Daniel Webster, January 14, 1814, in AC, 13–2, 942.

  56. Address of Boston Federalists, February 27, 1815, in Boston Gazette (Supplement), March 2, 1815.

  57. Speech of Charles J. Ingersoll, February 16, 1815, in AC, 13–3, 1159, 1161. See also Dwight, Hartford Convention, 381.