8945. WAR OF 1812, Acrimonious.—
The exasperation produced * * * by the
late war * * * is great with you [Great
Britain], as I judge from your newspapers; and
greater with us, as I see myself. The reason
lies in the different degrees in which the war
has acted on us. To your people it has been a
matter of distant history only, a mere war in
the carnatic; with us it has reached the bosom
of every man, woman and child. The maritime
ports have felt it in the conflagration of their
houses and towns, and desolation of their
farms; the borderers in the massacres and
scalpings of their husbands, wives and children;
and the middle parts in their personal labors
and losses in defence of both frontiers, and the
revolting scenes they have there witnessed. It
is not wonderful, then, if their irritations are
extreme. Yet time and prudence on the part
of the two governments may get over these.—
To Sir John Sinclair. Washington ed. vii, 23.
(M.
1816)
