19th of August, the forces of General Ross were landed at Bene- * dict. Commodore Barney was obliged to blow up his vessels and take to the shore. From Benedict the British advanced against Washington. At Bladensburg, six miles from the capital, they were met, on the 24th of the month, by the forces of Barney. Here a battle was fought. The militia behaved badly; Barney was defeated and taken prisoner. The President, the cabinet, and the people betook themselves to flight; and Ross marched unop posed into Washington. All the public buildings except the Patent Office were burned. The unfinished Capitol and the President's house were left a mass of ruins.

7. Five days afterward, a portion of the British fleet reached Alexandria. The inhabitants purchased the forbearance of the enemy by the surrender of twenty-one ships, sixteen thousand barrels of flour, and a thousand hogsheads of tobacco. After the capture of Washington, General Ross proceeded with his army and fleet to Baltimore. The militia, to the number of ten thousand, gathered under command of General Samuel Smith. On the 12th of September, the British were landed at the mouth of the Patapsco; and the fleet began the ascent of the river. The land-forces were met by the Americans under General Stricker. A skirmish ensued, in which General Ross was killed; but Colonel Brooks assumed command, and the march was continued. Near the city, the British came upon the American lines and were brought to a halt.

8. Meanwhile, the British squadron had ascended the Patapsco and begun the bombardment of Fort McHenry. From sunrise of the 13th until after midnight, the guns of the fleet poured a tempest of shells upon the fortress.* At the end of that time, the works were as strong as at the beginning. The British had undertaken more than they could accomplish. Disheartened and baffled, they ceased to fire. The land-forces retired from before the entrenchments, and the siege of Baltimore was at an end.

9. On the 9th and 10th of August, the village of Stonington, Connecticut, was bombarded by Commodore Hardy; but the

*During the night of this bombardment, Francis S. Key, who was detained on board a British ship in the bay, composed The Star Spangled Banner.

British, attempting to land, were driven back. The fisheries of New England were broken up. The salt-works at Cape Cod escaped by the payment of heavy ransoms. All the harbors from Maine to Delaware were blockaded. The foreign commerce of the Eastern States was totally destroyed.

10. From the beginning, many of the people of New England had opposed the war. The members of the Federal party cried out against it. The legislature of Massachusetts advised the calling of a convention. The other Eastern States responded to the call; and on the 14th of December the delegates assembled at Hartford. The leaders of the Democratic party did not hesitate to say that the purposes of the assembly were disloyal and treasonable. After remaining in session, with closed doors, for nearly three weeks, the delegates published an address, and then adjourned. The political prospects of those who participated in the convention were ruined.

11. During the progress of the war the Spanish authorities of Florida sympathized with the British. In August of 1814, a British fleet was allowed by the commandant of Pensacola to use that post for the purpose of fitting out an expedition against Fort Bowyer, on the bay of Mobile. General Jackson, who commanded in the South, remonstrated with the Spaniards, but received no satisfaction. He thereupon marched a force against Pensacola, stormed the town, and drove the British out of Florida.

12. General Jackson next learned that the British were making preparations for the conquest of Louisiana. Repairing to New Orleans, he declared martial law, mustered the militia, and adopted measures for repelling the invasion. From La Fitte, a smuggler, he learned the enemy's plans. The British army, numbering twelve thousand, came from Jamaica, under Sir Edward Packenham. On the 10th of December, the squadron entered Lake Borgne, sixty miles north-east of New Orleans.

13. On the 22d of the month, Packenham's advance reached the Mississippi, nine miles below the city. On the night of the 23d, Generals Jackson and Coffee advanced with two thousand Tennessee riflemen to attack the British camp. After a bloody assault, Jackson was obliged to fall back to a strong position on the canal,

four miles below the city. Packenham advanced, and on the 28th cannonaded the American position. On New Year's day the attack was renewed, and the enemy was driven back. Packenham now made arrangements for a general battle.

14. Jackson was ready. Earthworks had been constructed, and a long line of cotton-bales and sand-bags thrown up for protection. On the 8th of January, the British moved forward. The battle began with the light of morning, and was ended before nine o'clock. Column after column of the British was smitten with irretrievable ruin. Jackson's men were almost entirely secure from the enemy's fire, while every discharge of the Tennessee and Kentucky rifles told with awful effect on the exposed veterans of England. Packenham was killed; General Gibbs was mortally wounded. Only General Lambert was left to call the fragments of the army from the field. Of the British, seven hundred were killed, fourteen hundred wounded, and five hundred taken prisoners. The American loss amounted to eight killed and thirteen wounded.

15. General Lambert retired with his ruined army into Lake Borgne. Jackson marched into New Orleans and was received with great enthusiasm. Such was the close of the war on land. On the 20th of February, the American Constitution, off Cape St. Vincent, captured two British vessels, the Cyane and the Levant. On the 23d of March, the American Hornet ended the conflict by capturing the British Penguin off the coast of Brazil.

16. Already a treaty of peace had been made. In the summer of 1814, American commissioners were sent to Ghent, in Belgium, and were there met by the ambassadors of Great Britain. The agents of the United States were John Quincy Adams, James A. Bayard, Henry Clay, Jonathan Russell, and Albert Gallatin. On the 24th of December, a treaty was agreed to and signed. In both countries the news was received with deep satisfaction. On the 18th of February, the treaty was ratified by the Senate, and peace was publicly proclaimed.

17. The only significance of the treaty was that Great Britain and the United States agreed to be at peace. Not one of the issues, to decide which the war had been undertaken, was even mentioned. Of the impressment of American seamen not a word was said.

The wrongs done to the commerce of the United States were not referred to. Of "free trade and sailors' rights," the battle-cry of the American navy, no mention was made. The treaty was chiefly devoted to the settlement of unimportant boundaries and the possession of some small islands in the Bay of Passamaquoddy.

18. The country was now burdened with a war-debt of a hundred million dollars. The monetary affairs of the nation were in a deplorable condition. The charter of the Bank of the United States expired in 1811, and the other banks had been obliged to suspend specie payment. Trade was paralyzed for the want of money. In 1816 a bill was passed by Congress to re-charter the Bank of the United States. The President interposed his veto; but in the following session the bill was again passed in an amended form. On the 4th of March, 1817, the bank went into operation; and the business and credit of the country began to revive.

19. During the war with Great Britain the Algerine pirates renewed their depredations on American commerce. The government of the United States now ordered Commodore Decatur to proceed to the Mediterranean and chastise the sea-robbers into submission. On the 17th of June, Decatur fell in with the principal frigate of the Algerine squadron, and after a severe fight, compelled the Moorish ship to surrender. On the 19th, Decatur captured another frigate. A few days afterward he sailed into the Bay of Algiers, and obliged the frightened dey to make a treaty. The Moorish emperor released his American prisoners, relinquished all claims to tribute, and gave a pledge that his ships should trouble American merchantmen no more. Decatur next sailed against Tunis and Tripoli, compelled these States to give pledges of good conduct, and to pay large sums for former depredations.

20. The close of Madison's administration was signalized by the admission of Indiana into the Union. The new commonwealth was admitted in December, 1816. About the same time was founded the Colonization Society of the United States. Many distinguished Americans became members of the association, the object of which was to provide a refuge for free persons of color. Liberia, in Western Africa, was selected as the seat of the proposed colony. Immigrants arrived in sufficient numbers to found

a flourishing negro State. The capital was named Monrovia, in honor of James Monroe, who, in the fall of 1816, was elected as Madison's successor. Daniel D. Tompkins, of New York, was

chosen Vice-President.

RECAPITULATION.

Scott and Ripley capture Erie.-Battles of Chippewa and Niagara.--Siege of Fort Erie.-Winter quarters at Black Rock.- Wilkinson invades Canada.-Is defeated at La Colle.-McDonough's squadron on Champlain.-The British advance to Plattsburg.-Attack by land and water.-And are defeated.-Cochrane and Ross in the Chesapeake.- Battle of Bladensburg.-Washington is captured by the British.-Public buildings burned.-Alexandria pays a ransom.-Siege of Baltimore. -Ravages in New England.-Tue Federal peace party.-The Hartford Convention.-Jackson captures Pensacola.-Takes command at New Orleans.— Approach of the British.-Skirmishing and fighting.-The decisive battle.- Ruin of Packenham's army.-Sea-fights afterward.- The treaty of Ghent and its terms. -Condition of the country.-Re-chartering of the United States Bank.— The Mediterranean pirates again.-Decatur sent out against them.---He captures Moorish ships.- And dictates the terms of peace.-Indiana is admitted.--Liberia founded.-Monroe is elected President.

THE

CHAPTER L.

MONROE'S ADMINISTRATION, 1817-1825.

The

HE policy of Madison was adopted by his successor. stormy times of the war gave place to many years of peace. The new President was a native of Virginia; a man of great talents and accomplishments. He had been a Revolutionary soldier; a member of Congress; governor of Virginia; envoy to France and England; secretary of state under Madison. The members of the new cabinet were, -John Quincy Adams, secretary of state; William H. Crawford, secretary of the treasury; John C. Calhoun, secretary of war; William Wirt, attorney-general. Statesmen of all parties devoted their energies to the payment of the national debt. Commerce soon revived; the government was