The Rise of Canada, from Barbarism to Wealth and Civilisation. Volume 1Roger, Charles
History
The Rise of Canada, from Barbarism to Wealth and Civilisation. Volume 1
Roger, Charles
Canada -- History
When the _Guerriere_
surrendered, it was only to permit her gallant commander, her other
officers, and the men, the wounded and the untouched, to be transferred
for safety from a watery grave to the _Constitution_. Captain Hull, the
conqueror, told his government that the _Guerriere_ had been totally
dismasted and otherwise cut to pieces, so as to make her not worth
towing into port. With four feet of water in her hold, she was
abandoned and blown up. The _Constitution_ had only the Lieutenant of
Marines and six seamen killed, and two officers, four seamen, and one
marine wounded.
On each side there was now something to be proud of and something to
regret. If the British exulted over the fall of Detroit and the
surrender of General Hull, and the United States viewed these
occurrences with indescribable pain and a sense of humiliation, the
Americans could now boast of the success of their arms at sea, while
Britain regretted a disaster upon that element, on which she had long
held and yet holds the undisputed mastery. There was now no room for
the American government, on the ground of having been too much
humiliated, to refuse peace if it were offered to her. Yet peace was
refused. Soon after these occurrences the news of the repeal of the
Orders in Council reached this continent, and the ground of quarrel
being removed, peace was expected, and an armistice was agreed to
between the British Governor of Canada, Sir George Prevost and General
Dearborn, the American commander-in-chief, on the northern frontier.
But the American government, bent upon the conquest of this province,
disavowed the armistice and determined upon the vigorous prosecution of
the contest. It was then that the Northern States of the American
Union, who were the most likely to suffer by the war became clamorous
for peace. The whole brunt of the battle, by land, was necessarily to
be borne by the State of New York, and the interruption of the
transatlantic traffic was to fall with overwhelmingly disastrous
pressure upon Massachusetts and Connecticut. Addresses to the President
were sent in, one after another, from the Northeastern States,
expressing dissatisfaction with the war and the utmost abhorrence of
the alliance between imperial France and republican America. They would
have none of it, and if French troops were introduced into their
States, as auxiliaries, New England would look upon them and would
treat them as enemies. Nay, the Northern States went still further. Two
of the States, Connecticut and Massachusetts, openly refused to send
their contingents or to impose the taxes which had been voted by
Congress, and "symptoms of a decided intention to break off from the
confederacy were already evinced in the four Northern States,
comprising New York, and the most opulent and powerful portions of the
Union."[17]
[17] Alison's History of Europe, page 662, vol. 10.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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