University of Virginia Library

26. CHAPTER XXVI.
DECLARATION OF WAR.

On Monday, the first day of June, one thousand
eight hundred and twelve, a confidential message
was received, in both chambers of Congress, from
the president of the United States, which was
read with closed doors, and referred to a select
committee by the senate, and to the committee
of foreign relations by the house of representatives.
Without the capitol walls, but one opinion
prevailed respecting the character of this message—no
one believed it to be pacific, but with
respect to its influence on the members of the august
body to whom it was addressed, many conjectures
were afloat—different parties maintaining
different opinions.

In the mean time a very animated debate on
the subject was supported within doors, under an
injunction of secrecy. The message was indeed
far from pacific. It recounted, in a manly style,
the various, repeated, and continued aggressions
of Great Britain, on the rights and interests of
the United States, contrary to the known, established,
and acknowledged laws of nations. It
dwelt, in particular, on the subject of their impressing
American seamen, and compelling them

to serve in the British navy, and asserted that
“thousands of American citizens, under the safeguard
of public law and of their national flag,
had been torn from their country, and from every
thing dear to them; had been dragged on
board ships of war of a foreign nation, and exposed,
under the severities of their discipline, to
be exiled to the most distant and deadly climes,
to risk their lives in the battles of their oppressors,
and to be the melancholy instruments of taking
away those of their fellow-citizens.” This
important document next adverted to the “violation
of the rights and peace of the American
coast by British cruizers, who had been in the
practice of hovering over to harass departing
commerce, and who had wantonly spilt American
blood within the sanctuary of territorial jurisdiction.”
Under pretended blockades, “without
the pretence of an adequate force, and sometimes
without the practicability of applying one, American
commerce had been plundered in every sea,
the great staples of the country cut off from their
legitimate markets, and a destructive blow aimed
at the agricultural and maritime interests of
American citizens.” After animadverting at some
length on the injustice of the orders in council,
and the inhumanity of exciting the savages to hostilities,
the message concluded with recommending
to the early deliberation of both houses, this
solemn question: “Whether the United States
should continue passive under these progressive
usurpations and accumulating wrongs; or opposing
force to force in defence of their natural rights,
should commit a just cause into the hands of the
Almighty disposer of events?”

The committee to whom this message was submitted
in the house of representatives, made a
long report on the Wednesday following, in which
they travelled over the same ground of aggressions,
usurpations, &c. and ended by recommending
an immediate appeal to arms.

Mr. Calhoun, chairman of this committee, then
presented a bill “declaring war between Great
Britain and her dependencies, and the United
States and their territories,” which was warmly
opposed and obstinately debated in secret session,
for two days, when it passed the house by a
majority of thirty. It was then taken up in the
senate, where it underwent a very enlarged discussion,
and met with much opposition; but finally
passed that body also, on the seventeenth of
June, by a majority of six.

Three different positions were assumed by
the different opposers of this bill; one class attempting
to prove its injustice, another its inutility,
and a third its impolicy. The first of these
maintained that the aggressions of England were
not, in quality or extent, such as would justify an
appeal to arms on the part of the United States;
that the former had been compelled by imperious
and peculiar circumstances to the obnoxious measures
which were the subject of complaint; and
that she was ever ready and willing to do the injured
party ample justice, when those circumstances
should cease to control her. The second
class contended that, however justifiable might be
a resort to the sword, the measure would fail in its
object, and adduced many arguments to prove
that the injuries complained of were not of such a
nature as could be redressed by war in the then
existing state of the world. A third party admitted

that the aggressions of Great Britain were such
as would justify a declaration of war against her,
and that redress was attainable by such a measure,
provided her adversary was sufficiently powerful
to persevere in her claims, and maintain the
contest with vigor. But the resources of the
United States, they contended, were too limited
for so vast an undertaking. A similar opinion is
expressed by the dauphine of France, in Shakspeare's
play of Henry V.

The bill declaring war received the signature
of the president on the eighteenth of June, and
was the next day publicly announced by the
following proclamation:

“By the President of the United States of America.

“A PROCLAMATION.

“Whereas the Congress of the United States,
by virtue of the constituted authority vested in
them, have decided by their act, bearing date the
eighteenth day of the present month, that War
exists between the United Kingdom of Great Britain
and Ireland, and the dependencies thereof,
and the United States of America and their territories:
Now therefore I, James Madison, President
of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim
the same to all whom it may concern: and I
do especially enjoin on all persons holding offices,
civil or military, under the authority of the United
States, that they be vigilant and zealous in discharging
the duties respectively incident thereto:

And I do moreover exhort all the good people
of the United States, as they love their country;
as they value the precious heritage derived from
the virtue and valor of their fathers; as they feel
the wrongs which have forced on them the last
resort of injured nations; and as they consult
the best means, under the blessings of Divine
Providence, of abridging its calamities; that
they exert themselves in preserving order, in promoting
concord, in maintaining the authority and
the efficacy of the laws, and in supporting and invigorating
all the measures which may be adopted
by the constituted authorities, for obtaining a
speedy, a just, and an honorable peace.

(L.S.) “In testimony whereof, I have hereunto
set my hand, and caused the seal of the
United States to be affixed to these
presents.

“Done at the City of Washington, the
nineteenth day of June, one thousand
eight hundred and twelve, and of the
Independence of the United States the
thirty-sixth.

(Signed) “JAMES MADISON.

“By the President.

(Signed) “JAMES MONROE.”

In a few days after the publication of the above
document, the members of the minority in congress,
united in a long and animated address to
their constituents, in which they entered their
most solemn protest against the declaration of
war. In this address they insisted, that “though
the wrongs of which the United States had to
complain were, in some respects, very grievous
to their interests; and in many, humiliating to

their feelings, yet these wrongs were of a nature
which either would not justify war, or which, at
that time, war would not remedy.” After using
many arguments to prove the correctness of this
position as it respected impressments, blockades,
and orders in council, the addressers concluded
by appealing more directly to those affections of
the heart, which in their operation seldom wait
for the sanction of the understanding. “How
(asked they) shall a nation, like the United States,
happy in its great local relations; removed from
the bloody theatre of Europe; with a maritime
border opening vast fields for enterprise; with
territorial possessions exceeding every real want;
its firesides safe; its altars undefiled; from invasion
nothing to fear; from acquisition nothing to
hope; how shall such a nation look to heaven for
its smiles, while throwing away, as though they
were worthless, all the blessings and joys which
peace and such a distinguished lot include? With
what prayers can it address the Most High, when
it prepares to pour forth its youthful rage upon a
neighboring people, from whose strength it has
nothing to dread, from whose devastation it has
nothing to gain?

“If our ills were of a nature that war would
remedy, if war would compensate any of our
losses, or remove any of our complaints, there
might be some alleviation of the suffering in the
charm of the prospect. But how will war upon
the land protect commerce upon the ocean? What
balm has Canada for wounded honor? How are
our mariners benefited by a war which exposes
those who are free, without promising release to
those who are impressed?

“But it is said that war is demanded by honor.
Is national honor a principle which thirsts after

vengeance, and is appeased only by blood, which,
trampling on the hopes of man, and spurning the
law of God, untaught by what is past, and careless
of what is to come, precipitates itself into
any folly or madness to gratify a selfish vanity,
or to satiate some unhallowed rage? If honor demands
a war with England, what opiate lulls that
honor to sleep over the wrongs done us by
France?” &c.

To this address there were thirty-four signatures.

Government had long been aware that, sooner
or later, things must come to this issue, and had
accordingly made such arrangements to meet the
crisis as were within their power. It was necessary
that a competent force should be stationed in
the Michigan Territory, for the protection of the
inhabitants against the incursions of the enemy,
or for acting offensively, should policy require
such a measure. For this purpose, the governor
of that territory had been at Washington to consult
with the secretary of war upon that subject,
and had finally made arrangements for conducting
a considerable force to Detroit.

The name of this gentleman was Hull—whose
military services during the revolutionary war are
well known to his countrymen. He was born at
Derby, in the state of Connecticut, and received
his education in Yale college, where he graduated
about the time that the American colonies
first took up arms in opposition to the tyrannical
usurpations of the mother country. He then entered
the army as a volunteer, and served as aid-de-camp
to the commander in chief in several
eventful campaigns. He married a young lady
of family and fortune, in Massachusetts, about

the same time that major Willoughby led our
hero's mother to the altar. He had been, for
some time, governor of Michigan Territory, and
was lately appointed a brigadier-general in the
army.

General Hull held an elevated place in the
opinion of his fellow-citizens. In college he had
been famed for his classical attainments, and ever
since had ranked high as a scholar. He was uncle
to captain Isaac Hull, of the frigate Constitution,
on board of which Aylwin was sailing-master.

Having made the necessary arrangements some
time previous to the declaration of war, and digested
a plan of the projected campaign, the
general, with a few regular troops under his command,
repaired to Dayton, a small town in the
state of Ohio, situated near the mouth of Mad
river, which is a branch of the Great Miami.
Here he unfurled the standard of the “Northwestern
Army,” and was soon joined by above
twelve hundred volunteers from the adjacent
towns, and most of those brave lads who had
reaped a laurel harvest on the banks of the Wabash.
With this force he took up his line of
march towards Detroit, a well fortified town on
the western bank of the strait which unites Lake
St. Clair with the waters of Erie—separated
only by a small river from the British territory.