CHAPTER XIX The war had no more than begun when the question of peace was being considered. The United States had gone to war for two causes: the “Orders in Council” which bore so heavily upon our shipping; and the impressment of our seamen. The former were revoked on June 23d, five days after the declaration of war by Congress; peace was to be made without even a mention of the latter. Actual steps toward peace were taken through Russia even as early as September, 1812. The whole is a long story, but on November 4th a direct negotiation was offered by England which was accepted by the United States on January 5, 1814, and commissioners were appointed, with Ghent as the place of meeting. It is well that action was thus early, for by April Great Britain’s hands were largely free in Europe, and she could turn her efforts more freely upon America, and this she did in the expedition against Louisiana (which was to end in almost unequalled disaster), and in the abortive invasion turned back by Macdonough’s victory. The British state of mind was expressed in a letter from Gallatin, then in London, to Monroe, the Secretary of State: “You may rest assured,” he said, “of the general hostile spirit of this nation, and of its wish to inflict serious injury upon the United States; that no resistance can be expected from Europe; and that no better terms will be obtained than the _status ante bellum_.” And so it turned out. On Christmas Eve, 1814, peace was signed, and though impressment was ignored, it was never again to be attempted. Nor was there cause, for there was not to be a naval war upon the ocean in which Britain was to be engaged for a hundred years. Before hostilities on the water came to an end there were, however, to be several notable naval events, one of the most remarkable being the defence on September 26, 1814, of the privateer _General Armstrong_, Captain Reid, at Fayal, Azores, against a boat attack from three British ships, the _Plantagenet_, 74; _Rota_, 38; and _Carnation_, 18. The British were repulsed with the loss of 34 killed and 86 wounded. The next day the _Carnation_ stood in to attack alone, and was driven off; but with a 74 present besides two other ships, the question of saving the little vessel was hopeless, and she was scuttled, the crew escaping ashore. In those days news travelled slowly, and thus it was that after the peace the _President_, one of a squadron under Commodore Decatur, separated from her consorts, was captured, after she had driven off the _Endymion_ frigate, by the squadron accompanying the latter. On February 20, 1815, the _Cyane_ and _Levant_, sloops-of-war, were captured in a night action, 300 miles from Madeira, by the _Constitution_, Captain Stewart, who was to be the instrument of trouble many years after to Britain, through his grandfatherhood of Charles Stewart Parnell.