1808. James Madison elected President. Embargo Act repealed. Non-intercourse Act passed, forbidding commerce with Great Britain and France. 1809. Recall of British minister asked by American government. 1810. Napoleon orders sale of captured American vessels, worth with their cargoes $8,000,000. 1811. General Harrison defeats Tecumseh at Tippecanoe. Fight between the United States frigate _President_ and the British sloop-of-war _Little Belt_. 1812. Admission of Louisiana into the Union. The United States declares war against Great Britain. The Americans, under Hull, invade Canada. Surrender of Hull at Detroit. The _Constitution_ captures the _Guerrière_; the _Wasp_ takes the _Frolic_; the _United States_, the _Macedonian_; and the _Constitution_, the _Java_. James Madison re-elected President. General Smyth makes a futile attempt to invade Canada. 1813. The British are victorious at Frenchtown. The _Hornet_ captures the _Peacock_. The Americans take York (Toronto), and the British are repulsed at Sackett’s Harbor. Capture of the _Chesapeake_ by the _Shannon_. The _Boxer_ taken by the _Enterprise_. Commodore Perry wins the battle of Lake Erie. 1814. General Jackson defeats the Creek Indians. The _Essex_ surrenders to the _Phœbe_ and the _Cherub_. The Americans are victorious at Chippewa and Lundy’s Lane. Battle of Lake Champlain. In Europe the year was chiefly notable for the entry of the Allies into Paris, the abdication of Napoleon, and his withdrawal to Elba. X THE BATTLE OF LAKE ERIE, 1813 The opening of the nineteenth century brought years of humiliation, in which American ideals of a neutral commerce, to be unrestricted except by incidents of actual war, collided with the passions of two nations engaged in a death-grapple between “the elephant and the whale”--the French army and the English navy. The established principles of international law were set aside, and fifteen hundred American merchantmen were made prize under a series of iniquitous Orders in Council and Decrees. American sailors were seized by British cruisers on the high seas, even on a duly commissioned American man-of-war. President Jefferson discovered that great nations at war are not moved by ideals of permanent self-interest, and that the rights and the friendship of little powers are not trump-cards. Then the country entered into the War of 1812 at the inopportune moment when the snows of Russia were about to overwhelm Napoleon. In the war the Americans held a talisman which could sway even proud Albion: the victories of American cruisers, combined with the heroism of the privateers, convinced the English that, after all, David was a likely youth, whose sling might disturb the peace of the nations; and they agreed, in the Peace of Ghent, in 1814, to terms highly favorable to the United States. From that time down to the Civil War the United States had the respect of all European nations.