The Southern leaders, Clay of Kentucky and Calhoun of South Carolina, were most inimical to England, and succeeded in forcing Madison to agree to a declaration of war, as a condition to his re-election to the presidency. The consequence of this successful bargain was the passage of a war measure by Congress as soon as Madison issued his message, and the formal declaration of hostilities on the 18th of June, 1812. On the previous day, England had actually repealed the obnoxious orders in council, but it was too late to induce the war party in the United States to recede and stop the progress of the forces, which were already near the western {320} Canadian frontier when the governor-general of Canada, Sir George Prevost, a military man, heard the news of the actual declaration of hostilities. With the causes of the War of 1812 the Canadian people had nothing whatever to do; it was quite sufficient for them to know that it was their duty to assist England with all their might and submit to any sacrifices which the fortunes of war might necessarily bring to a country which became the principal scene of conflict. Ontario, then Upper Canada, with a population of about eighty thousand souls, was the only province that really suffered from the war. From the beginning to the end its soil was the scene of the principal battles, and a great amount of valuable property destroyed by the invading forces. "On to Canada" had been the cry of the war party in the United States for years; and there was a general feeling that the upper province could be easily taken and held until the close of the struggle, when it could be used as a lever to bring England to satisfactory terms or else be united to the Federal Union. The result of the war showed, however, that the people of the United States had entirely mistaken the spirit of Canadians, and that the small population scattered over a large region--not more than four hundred thousand souls from Sydney to Sandwich--was animated by a stern determination to remain faithful to England.