During the funeral of General Brock, minute guns were fired by the Americans on the eastern bank of the river, "as a mark of respect to a brave enemy." There was perhaps no harm in this little bit of sentiment, though if the Americans remembered that {060}two months before, in demanding the surrender of Detroit, General Brock had threatened to let loose a horde of savages upon the garrison and town, if he were compelled to capture it by force, they must have seen that their minute guns were supremely illogical, not to say silly. Brownell, in one of his best poems, expresses the true sentiment for such a case:= ```"The Muse would weep for the brave, ````But how shall she chant the wrong? ```When, for the wrongs that were, ````Hath she lilted a single stave? ```Know, proud hearts, that, with her, ````'Tis not enough to be brave."= CHAPTER V. WAR ON THE OCEAN. {061} _The President and the Little Belt--The President and the Belvidera--Hull's Race--The Constitution and the Guerriere--Effect of the Victory--The Wasp and the Frolic--The United States and the Macedonian--The Constitution and the Java--Nelson's Prediction._ |While the year 1812 brought nothing but disaster to the land forces of the United States, on the ocean it was fruitful of victories that astonished the world. It is greatly to the credit of President Madison that he followed the advice of Captains Stewart and Bainbridge, in opposition to his entire Cabinet, to develop and use the navy, instead of laying it up. That was not only the wise but the appropriate thing to do. This was pre-eminently a sailors' war, entered upon chiefly for the purpose of protecting American seamen from impressment in a foreign service, and its ultimate result would be a settlement of the question whether American ships were to be at liberty to sail the high seas at all, or whether, as a poet of our day puts it, the Atlantic Ocean was to be considered merely John Bull's back yard. It was the wise thing to do, because, if a na{062}tion determines to go to war at all, it should do it in earnest; and the most effective war is made when the earliest and most persistent blows are directed at the enemy's vital part. Of all Great Britain's possessions that could be reached by balls or bayonets, her ships at sea were the most important to her. Canada might be overrun, or even conquered, and she would hardly feel its loss--or at least she could exist without it; but anything that weakened her navy and deranged her commerce would make every Englishman feel the penalties of war.