There are no reports that anyone starved to death, but certainly times were hard for ordinary people. Homes and barns, livestock and crops, mills, businesses of various kinds, and even furniture and clothing were lost. Jacob Wood of Oxford County, for example, had his house, furniture, barn, hay, grain, and carpentry shop and tools destroyed. He was given two hundred dollars by the Loyal and Patriotic Society. Henry Lestor “lost his grain, fences, and potatoes”; he was given fifty dollars.11
Military rites: the reburial of American soldiers from Fort Erie.
[Courtesy of Richard W. Roeller.]
The government continued its efforts to catch and punish traitors. The assembly agreed, at Drummond’s request, to strengthen the laws against treason, including, among other changes, the authority to seize the property of traitors. At least seventy people from the western and Niagara areas were charged with treason but most had fled to the United States. Still, several treason trials were held, the largest being at Ancaster in May and June, 1814. Here nineteen men were tried in Rousseau’s Union Hotel because it was the largest building in town. Among the men found guilty were Aaron Stevens, who had been employed by the government in the Indian Department but who confessed that he had spied for the Americans; Samuel and Stephen Hartwell who had joined Hull when he invaded in 1812 and who had tried to capture loyal citizens; Isaiah (or Jonah) Brink who had joined American raiding parties, as had Benjamin Simmons (or Simmonds).12 Although fifteen defendants were convicted and sentenced to hang, only eight were actually executed. The others were reprieved but given prison sentences. One later escaped, three died in prison of disease, and the rest were pardoned on condition they leave Upper Canada and never return.
Clearly, 1814 was the most difficult year for both government and people. The trials and executions of traitors showed that the government was determined to act firmly against any threat from within the province.
The assembly approved stronger measures to defend Upper Canada. It voted more money to improve roads for military use and amended the militia law so that the government could organize battalions of incorporated militia and keep them in service up to a year. This meant a heavier demand on the manpower of the province and more money for their training. All these developments indicated a hardening of the people’s will to continue to fight. This is one way in which a sense of nationalism begins: resistance to an external enemy.
The problems of treason and invasion did not trouble Lower Canada or the Maritime colonies. The main changes people there saw were increased numbers of soldiers and sailors and more government spending. For a time, merchants of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick were not allowed to trade with their American neighbours. Their businesses suffered, but when the British occupied eastern Maine they were able to renew their trade with the Americans. The New Brunswick assembly asked for a change in the boundary with Maine, but a final decision on that — as on other matters — depended upon the peace negotiations in Europe.
— 5 —
OUT OF WAR TO A LONG PEACE
As with the start of the War of 1812, so with its ending, much depended upon decisions and events in Europe. While Napoleon was being defeated, both the Americans and the British had to consider how much Britain could increase her forces in North America. To Madison and his cabinet, stronger British forces meant invasion and possible defeat of United States armies. To the British prime minister, Lord Liverpool, stronger forces meant security for Canada plus the possibility of a peace settlement favourable mainly to Britain.
But Liverpool could not simply send all his troops and ships to North America. Many countries were involved in the negotiations that followed Napoleon’s defeat. It took a long time for them to agree on a peace settlement. For a while, late in 1814 and early in 1815, there was even a possibility of fighting among the allies, and some British troops had to be kept available. Thus Wellington had to stay in Europe with part of his army, and the British government had to devote a good deal of attention to problems there. As well, some warships had to be kept in home waters to defend British merchant vessels from venturesome American privateers.
The government also had to consider the mood of the British people. For over twenty years they had endured the burdens of fighting against France. Continued war against the United States could soon become very unpopular.
The situation in Europe had a major bearing on British-American peace negotiations.
A LONG AND DELICATE PROCESS
During the negotiations each side had to recognize what was vital to the other and, therefore, what could be demanded. Both sides wanted not only to end the war, but to make a peace that would last. This further complicated negotiations, and many issues were left unsettled when the peace treaty was finally signed.
As conditions changed in Europe and North America, the delegates of each side had to consult their governments. The American representatives were required to send messages to Madison and wait for replies, a very slow process in the days of sailing vessels. It is easy to see why the negotiations took up most of 1814. At first, the American government made severe demands on Britain in return for peace. This may be seen in the government’s instructions to its delegates in January 1814. Harking back to the reasons that the President had stated in 1812 for going to war, the delegates were to insist that the British end impressment from American ships and the blockade of the Atlantic coast. They were to press Britain to accept United States naval dominance of the lakes, to pay for American losses resulting from the blockade as well as from raids along the coast and, even, to hand over Canada to the United States. These instructions remained their guide until June. It then became clear that Britain would not agree to such harsh terms, and Madison’s government began to soften its demands. For example, by the time formal talks began in August, the United States had dropped any reference to the causes of the war.
Initially, the British made tough demands also. One was for the creation of an Indian nation south and west of Lake Erie, a domain that would cover most of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Michigan. The British proposed that the boundaries of such a nation be permanent, meaning that American settlers could not cross them. But there were already about a hundred thousand Americans pioneering beyond the suggested boundary line. The American delegates rejected this demand.
The other main British proposals were equally unacceptable to the Americans. They included a change in the boundary line between the United States and British North America, an end to American rights to fish off the east coast of British North America and to dry fish on the shores, and the removal of American naval forces and fortifications on the Great Lakes.
The British hoped to hear of victories against the United States and were encouraged by the news of the capture of Washington and the thrust against Baltimore. On their part, the Americans were unwilling to give up huge amounts of territory or to accept an independent aboriginal state. The fall of Washington did not shake their resolve and they soon learned of the British rebuff at Baltimore and Macdonough’s victory on Lake Champlain. Eventually both sides recognized that the only way they would reach agreement would be by moderating their demands. By September, the British had dropped the insistence on an Indian nation but still asked that the Indian position be restored to what it had been before the war. The Americans took until October to agree.
The British continued to insist on their proposed boundary changes, which would have given Canada part of Maine, a strip along the east side of the Niagara River, and Michilimackinac Island. In fact, the British already held eastern Maine and Fort Niagara, and with the help of their Indian allies they controlled the vast territory west and south of Michilimackinac. The American government and its delegates were nonetheless unanimous in their refusal to give up any American land. The deadlock on this issue was ended by the British because of the sudden danger of war in Europe and the advice given by the Duke of Wellington.
Wellington was asked by the government to take over command in North
America. He refused, explaining that without superiority on the Great Lakes, changing the commander or sending more troops would make no difference. As long as the Americans controlled lakes Champlain and Erie and had a fleet on Lake Ontario, they could invade Canada and threaten any British army invading the United States. Wellington went on in his letter, “. . . it is my opinion that the war has been a most successful one and highly honourable to the British arms; but from particular circumstances, such as the want of naval superiority on the Lakes, you have not been able to carry it into the enemy’s territory . . . .”1 After pointing out that the Americans still held parts of Canada, he argued that the British could not insist on the United States giving up territory unless they were prepared to surrender Canadian territory. The government, he suggested, might as well make peace “now.”
Downie’s defeat on Lake Champlain and Prevost’s retreat were events that supported the Duke’s argument. But for the British to gain total control of lakes Champlain, Ontario, and Erie would have required a tremendous expenditure of money and effort — without any guarantee of success. The British failure at Plattsburgh was thus an important reason why Liverpool softened British demands.
The British delegates stopped insisting that the Americans give up territory. With that obstacle removed, the two sides soon agreed on a treaty. The Treaty of Ghent was signed on December 24, 1814. When the news reached the United States in February, people rejoiced. In contrast to the vote for war, which had divided the Senate, not a single senator voted against the peace treaty. The people of British North America, however, were not as happy with the terms that had been agreed upon.
The Treaty of Ghent ended the war and obliged each side to return what it had conquered. That was about all it actually settled. There was to be no independent Indian nation and nothing was said about impressment, blockade, or neutral rights — issues stated in Madison’s war message. Commissions were set up to decide the boundary question.
Yet the treaty was very important. It began a new kind of relationship between the United States and Britain, one in which they settled their disagreements by negotiation rather than by war. Never again did the United States make war on Canada. Later, after Canada became independent, it negotiated for itself with the United States. The two countries have had their differences and still have, including disagreements over fisheries, but ever since the Treaty of Ghent they have managed to settle problems peacefully.
THE TREATY OF GHENT AND THE INDIANS
The people who had the most to gain or lose were the Indians south and west of the Great Lakes. The British had proposed that they be a party to the peace treaty, but the Americans refused. Thus the Indians had no one to speak for them at Ghent.
After the signing of the treaty, the Americans were eager for the British to get their troops out of Prairie du Chien and Michilimackinac so that the Indians would not hope for outside support against the United States government. The British withdrew first from Prairie du Chien and finally, in July, from Michilimackinac. The Americans then pulled out of Malden.
View of Buffalo Harbor, 1825. This frontier town, fully recovered
from its destruction during the war, was on the threshold of its
first major boom with the completion of the Erie Canal to
nearby Tonawanda.
[Courtesy of the Buffalo and Erie County Historical Society.]
The Indians had been preparing to continue fighting, but most gave this up when the British withdrew. Representatives of the tribes in the old northwest began negotiating with the United States. Treaties meant to restore Indian-American relations to what they had been in 1811 were signed. But neither side could go back in time. Thousands more American pioneers were pushing westward into territory that the Indians regarded as their own. The Indians would continue to resist but much more weakly than before 1812; and they no longer had a European ally to help them.
In April 1816 the United States Congress passed a law forbidding trade between Indians within American territory and foreign traders. This meant the end of contacts between Canadian traders and Indians beyond the United States border. From then on, if Indians wanted manufactured goods they would have to get them from Americans. If they had furs to sell they would have to deal with American traders. This development marked the end of a fur trade between Canadians and Indians south and west of the lakes that went back almost two hundred years. Such a change would have come about eventually, but the War of 1812 hastened it.
Most Indians in Canada continued to live peacefully on the lands they had held before the war. They had been vital to the defence of Canadian territory. Their loyalty and their contributions continued to be remembered, and many Indians still take pride in their ancestors’ bravery during the War of 1812.
DISARMAMENT ON THE LAKES
The shipbuilding contest on Lake Ontario had become a very large, expensive, and dangerous competition by the end of 1814. The two new ships started at Kingston that year were to be even more powerful than the Royal Navy’s ocean-going vessels. The two big ships the Americans started would have been as powerful and even larger. They would have been the biggest warships in the world if they had been completed!
There were other plans both for shipbuilding and the development of naval bases. Dr. Dunlop wrote graphically about one proposal made at the end of 1814 and its consequences:
. . . it was proposed to build a large ship on Lake Huron . . . that would be able, from her size, and the weight of her metal, to cope with the small vessels that composed the American flotilla on Lake Erie. As there is a channel through Lake Saint Clair, and the Rivers Detroit and Saint Clair, by which she could pass from one lake into the other, an inlet, called Penetanguishene, was selected as the proper site of a new dockyard, and a better site could hardly have been selected . . . it was a narrow-mouthed, deep bay, with plenty of water for any size of craft, and a fine bold shore, easily defensible against any ships that could approach; but unluckily, Penetanguishene was in the woods, thirty miles from Lake Simcoe; and before a ship of the line could be built, a road must be cut, and stones broke along it.
. . . in the early part of December, I volunteered my services, and, as nobody else envied the job, they were accepted; and a company of the Canadian Fencibles, with about the same number of militia, under the direction of Colonel Cockburn of the Quarter Master General’s Department, was despatched up to the north, with instructions to have the road cut at all hazards.
Things went on pretty much the same till we had nearly completed our business; no labour had been spared in perfecting our work. Bridges had been thrown across streams in the depth of winter, when officers and men had to stand for hours up to the middle in ice-cold water; ravines had to be bridged when the logs had to be dragged out of swamps through four feet of snow. The month of March was far advanced when we promised ourselves a pleasant summer in the comfortable quarters that we meant to build for ourselves at Penetanguishene, when all our anticipations were set aside by the arrival of the appalling intelligence that peace had been concluded between his Majesty and the United States. This showed half pay staring us in the face; however, soldiers have nothing to do but obey — we were withdrawn — all the expenditure incurred went for nothing; we were marched to Toronto (then York,) and sent to join our respective regiments.2
It did not make sense in peacetime to try to keep up the tremendous pace of shipbuilding. The Americans suggested that both sides reduce their naval forces on the lakes to a minimum. In effect, neither side would maintain a navy there, only a few armed vessels to deal with smugglers or other lawbreakers. They argued that the best security for both Canada and the United States was to have no means of attacking each other on the lakes.
The British agreed to the American suggestion and negotiations followed during 1816. The treaty, reached in April 1817, is known as the Rush-Bagot Agreement after the men who signed it: Richard Rush, American acting Secretary of State, and Charles Bagot, British minister to Washingto
n. The two countries agreed to have only two armed vessels on the lakes above Niagara Falls, one on Lake Ontario and one on Lake Champlain. These would be small vessels, each armed with one cannon. Immediately, both sides reduced their fleets.
Most of the British ships on Lake Ontario survived until the 1830s when they were either sold or sunk in the lake near Kingston. The United States vessels also were left to decay. The Rush-Bagot Agreement is still in force and undoubtedly has prevented clashes between Canada and the United States that might have led to wider conflicts.
Despite disarmament, each side was concerned about security in case of another war. For example, the American Secretary of War, James Monroe, in February 1815, prepared a plan for an attack on Canada which would avoid the mistakes of the previous three years. His idea was to leave only militia on the Niagara and Detroit frontiers, while concentrating all the regulars that could be collected, along with about thirty thousand militia, against the St. Lawrence between Montreal and Kingston. The dynamic Major-General Brown would be in full command of the campaign. This very sensible plan from the American point of view put the emphasis where it should have gone from the beginning of the conflict.
For some years after the peace, military roads were constructed, one running east from Sackets Harbor and one west from Plattsburgh. However, forts were not kept up and Brown’s idea of a fort on the American bank of the St. Lawrence (which could have seriously threatened movement up the river) was never put into effect.
On the Canadian side, the authorities continued to worry about security. One measure they took was to establish a naval base at Penetanguishene in 1818. Another was the building of the Rideau Canal, at a total cost of over a million pounds, the biggest and most expensive military work that the British government undertook in all of British North America. A third was fortifications at Kingston where the first Fort Henry was erected by 1820. It was later demolished and the present Fort Henry was finished twenty-eight years after the end of the war. The naval dockyard at Kingston lasted for several decades.
The War of 1812 Page 11
