enemy's plans. The British army, numbering twelve thousand, came in a fleet of fifty vessels from Jamaica. Sir Edward Packenham, brother-in-law of the duke of Wellington, was commander of the invading forces. On the 10th of December the squadron entered the outlet of Lake Borgne, sixty miles north-east of New Orleans. Four days afterward a flotilla of gun-boats which had been placed to guard the lake was captured by the British, but not until a severe loss had been inflicted on the enemy.

On the 22d of the month Packenham's advance reached the Mississippi nine miles below the city. A detachment was sent to the western bank of the river, but this operation was checked by a counter movement on the part of the Americans. On the night of the 23d General Jackson sent a schooner down the Mississippi to bombard the British camp, while at the same time he and General Coffee advanced with two thousand, Tennessee riflemen to attack Packenham's camp in front. After a bloody assault Jackson was obliged to retire, the enemy losing most in the engagement. On the following day Jackson fell back and took a strong position along the canal, four miles below the city. Packenham advanced, and on the 28th cannonaded the American position with but little effect. On New Year's day the attack was renewed. The heavy guns of the British had now been brought into position; but the Americans easily held their ground, and the enemy was again driven back. Packenham now made arrangements to lead his whole army in a grand assault on the American lines. Jackson was ready. Earthworks had been constructed, and a long line of cotton-bales and sand-bags thrown up for protection. On the morning of the memorable 8th of January the British moved forward. They went to a terrible fate. The battle began with the light of early morning, and was ended before nine o'clock. Packenham hurled column after column against the American position, and column after column was smitten with irretrievable ruin. Jackson's men, behind their breastworks, 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, trying to rally his men, was killed; General Gibbs, second in command, was mortally wounded. General Keene fell disabled; only General Lambert was left to call the shattered fragments of the army from the field. Never was there in a great battle such disparity of losses. Of the British fully seven hundred were killed, fourteen hundred wounded, and five hundred taken prisoners. The American loss amounted to eight killed and thirteen wounded.

After the battle Jackson granted a truce for the burial of the British dead. That done, General Lambert recalled the detachment from the west bank of the river and retired with his ruined army into Lake Borgne. At Fort Bowyer he received the news of peace. Jackson marched into New Orleans with his victorious army, and was received with unbounded enthusiasm. Such, so far as operations by land were concerned, was the close of the war. On the ocean hostili

ties lingered until spring. On the 20th of February the American frigate Constitution, cruising off Cape St. Vincent, caught sight of two hostile vessels, gave chase, and after a severe fight captured them. They proved to be British brigs-the Cyane, of thirty-six guns, and the Levant, of eighteen. On the 23d of March the American Hornet, commanded by Captain Biddle, ended the conflict by capturing the British Penguin off the coast of Brazil.

Already a treaty of peace had been made and ratified. Both nations had long desired such a result. In the summer of 1814 American commissioners were sent to Ghent, in Belgium, and were there met by Lord Gambier, Henry Goulburn and William Adams, ambassadors of Great Britain. The agents of the United States were John Quincy Adams, James A. Bayard, Henry Clay, Jonathan Russell and Albert Gallatin. Several months were spent in negotiations; and on the 24th of December, 1814, a treaty was agreed to and signed. In England the news was received with deep satisfaction; in the United States, with a delight bordering on madness. Before the terms of Bettlement could be known, the people broke forth in universal jubilee. Nobody stopped to inquire whether the treaty was good or bad, honorable or dishonorable. The Federalists found abundant reason for rejoicing that a war which they had persistently opposed as impolitic and unjust, was at an end. The Democrats sent up a double huzza, shouting first for Jackson's victory and afterward for peace. Nor could the country well be blamed for rejoicing that a conflict which had cost the United States a thousand six hundred and eighty-three vessels and more than eighteen thousand sailors, was ended. The war-cloud rolled away like an incubus from the public mind. The long blockaded, half-rotten shipping of New England was decked with flags and streamers, and in one day the dock-yards were ringing with the sound of saw and hammer. On the 18th of February the treaty was ratified by the Senate of the United States, and peace was publicly proclaimed. It was in the interim between the conclusion of the treaty and the reception of the news in the United States that the battle of New Orleans was fought. A telegraph would have saved all that bloodshed.

There never was a more absurd treaty than that of Ghent. Its

only significance was that Great Britain and the United States, having been at war, agreed to be at peace. Not one of the distinctive issues to decide which the war had been undertaken was settled or 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. The rights of neutral nations were left as undetermined as before. Of "free trade and sailors' rights," which had been the battlecry of the American navy, no mention was made. The principal articles of the compact were devoted to the settlement of unimportant boundaries and the possession of some petty islands in the Bay of Passamaquoddy. There is little doubt, however, that at the time of the treaty Great Britain gave the United States a private assurance that impressment and the other wrongs complained of by the Americans should be practiced no more. For the space of sixty years vessels bearing the flag of the United States have been secure from such insults as caused the war of 1812. Another advantage gained by America was the recognition of her naval power. It was no longer doubtful that American sailors were the peers in valor and patriotism of any seamen in the world. It was no small triumph for the Republic that her flag should henceforth be honored on every ocean.

At the close of the conflict the country was burdened with a 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 in the following years the other banks of the country were obliged to suspend specie payment. The people were thus deprived of the currency necessary for the transaction of business. Domestic commerce was paralyzed by the want of money, and foreign trade destroyed by the enemy's fleet. In the year after the close of the war a bill was passed by Congress to recharter the Bank of the United States. The measure being objectionable, the President interposed his veto; but in the following session the bill was again passed in an amended form. The capital was fixed at thirty-five million dollars. The central banking-house was established at Philadelphia, and branches were authorized at various other cities. On the 4th of March, 1817, the new financial institution went into operation; and the business and credit of the country were thereby greatly improved. Meanwhile, the United States had been engaged in a foreign war.

During the conflict with Great Britain the Algerine pirates renewed their depredations on American commerce. As soon as the treaty of Ghent was concluded the government of the United States ordered Commodore Decatur, commanding a fleet of nine vessels, to proceed to

the Mediterranean and chastise the Barbary sea-robbers into submission. On the 17th of June, Decatur, cruising near Gibraltar, fell in with the principal frigate of the Algerine squadron, and after a severe fight of twenty minutes compelled the Moorish ship to surrender. Thirty of the piratical crew, including the admiral, were killed, and more than four hundred taken prisoners. On the 19th Decatur captured another frigate, bearing twenty guns and a hundred and eight men. A few days afterward he sailed into the Bay of Algiers, and dictated to the humbled and terrified dey the terms of a treaty. The Moorish emperor was obliged to release his American prisoners without ransom, to relinquish all claims to tribute, and to give a pledge that his ships should trouble American merchantmen no more. Decatur next sailed against Tunis and Tripoli, compelled both of these states to give pledges of good conduct, and to pay large sums for former violations of international law. From that day until the present the Barbary powers have had a wholesome dread of the American flag.

The close of Madison's troubled administration was signalized by the admission of Indiana-the smallest of the Western States-into the Union. The new commonwealth, admitted in December, 1816, came with an area of nearly thirty-four thousand square miles, and a population of ninety-eight thousand. About the same time was founded the Colonization Society of the United States. Many of the most distinguished men in America became members of the association, the object of which was to provide somewhere in the world a refuge for free persons of color. Liberia, on the western coast of Africa, was finally selected as the seat of the proposed colony. A republican form of government was established there, and 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 in the presidency. At the same time Daniel D. Tompkins of New York was chosen Vice-President.

Ν

CHAPTER LII.

MONROE'S ADMINISTRATION.

1817-1825

IN its political principles the new administration was Democratic. The policy of Madison was adopted by his successor. But the stormy times of Madison gave place to many years of almost unbroken 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 the House of Representatives; a senator; governor of Virginia; envoy to France; minister to 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. The animosities and party strifes of the previous years were in a measure forgotten. Statesmen of all parties devoted their energies to the payment of the national debt. It was a herculean task; but commerce revived; the government was economically administered; population increased; wealth flowed in; and in a few years the debt was honestly paid.

In the first summer of Monroe's administration the attention of the United States was directed to the little kingdom of Hayti in the northern part of St. Domingo. Christophe, the sovereign of the country, was anxious to secure from America a recognition of Haytian independence; for he feared that Louis XVIII., the restored Bourbon king of France, would reclaim Hayti as a part of the French empire. The President met the overtures of Christophe with favor, and an agent was sent out in the frigate Congress to conclude a treaty of commerce with the kingdom. But the Haytian authorities refused to negotiate with an agent who was not regularly accredited as a minister to an independent state; and the mission resulted in failure and disappointment.

In September of the same year an important treaty was concluded with the Indian nations of what was formerly the Northwestern Territory. The tribes mostly concerned were the Wyandots, Delawares, Senecas, and Shawnees; but the Chippewas, Ottawas, and Pottawattamies were also interested in the treaty. The subject discussed was the cession, by purchase and otherwise, of various tracts of land, mostly in Ohio. The Indian title to about four millions of acres, embracing the valley of the Maumee, was extinguished by the payment to the tribes concerned of fourteen thousand dollars in cash. Besides this, the Delawares were to receive an annuity of five hundred dollars; while to the Wyandots, Senecas, Shawnees and Ottawas was guaranteed the payment of ten thousand dollars annually forever. The Chippewas and Pottawattamies received an annuity of three thousand three hundred dollars for fifteen years. A reservation of certain tracts, amounting in the aggregate to about three hundred thousand acres, was made by the Red men with the approval of the government. For it was believed that the Indians, living in small districts surrounded with American farms and villages, would abandon barbarism for the