Nullifica- occurred in Connecticut and Massachusetts.

Connecti

chusetts.

The

tion in legislatures of those states passed acts in direct cut and conflict with a recent statute of the United States Massa- regarding the enlistment of minors. So far was this contradicted by the measures in question, that the parties engaged in enlisting minors were subjected to fine and imprisonment, (January, 1815.) It was not the first time that these states had set themselves against the Union. Both had taken ground against the embargo, Connecticut by statute and Massachusetts by her judicial tribunals. Massachusetts had more lately resisted the measures of the government, as we shall see, in relation to British prisoners. Nullification was far beyond the doctrines of the Convention. That body had declared itself in this wise: "That acts of Congress in violation of the Constitution are absolutely void is an undeniable position. It does not, however, consist with the respect and forbearance due from a confederate state towards the general government, to fly to open resistance upon every infraction of the Constitution." But passions were high, and nullification came naturally to New England.

Defence

iana.

Late in the summer preceding the Hartford Conof Louis- vention, a British party landed at Pensacola, whose Spanish possessors were supposed to be inclined to side against the United States. An attack, in the early autumn, upon Fort Bowyer, thirty miles from Mobile, was repelled by the small but heroic garrison under Major Lawrence, (September 15.) A month or two afterwards, General Jackson advanced against Pensacola with a force so formidable that the British withdrew, Jackson then resigning the town to the Spanish authorities, and repairing to New Orleans, against which the enemy was believed to be preparing an expedition, (November.) There he busied himself in raising his forces and providing his defences,

until the British arrived upon the coast. After capturing a feeble flotilla of the Americans, they began their advance against the capital of Louisiana, (December.) They were ten thousand and upwards; the Americans not more than half as numerous. Jackson, on learning their approach, marched directly against them, surprising them in their camp by night, and dealing them a blow from which they hardly seem to have recovered, (December 23.) They soon, however, resumed the offensive under Sir Edward Pakenham, advancing thrice against the American lines, but thrice retreating. The last action goes by the name of the battle of New Orleans. It resulted in the defeat of the enemy, with the loss of Pakenham and two thousand besides, the Americans losing less than a hundred, (January 8, 1815.) The British retired to the sea, taking Fort Bowyer, the same that had resisted an attack the autumn before, (February 12.) Louisiana had been nobly defended, and not by the energy of Jackson alone, nor by the resolution of her own people, but by the generous spirit with which the entire south-west sent its sons to her rescue.

Martial

Orleans.

Jackson had hesitated at nothing in defending law at New New Orleans. Upon the approach of the British, he proclaimed martial law; he continued it after their departure. The author of a newspaper article reflecting upon the general's conduct was sent to prison to await trial for life. The United States district judge was arrested and expelled from the city for having issued a writ of habeas corpus in the prisoner's behalf; and on the district attorney's applying to the state court in behalf of the judge, he, too, was banished. On the proclamation of peace, martial law was necessarily suspended. The judge returned, and summoning the general before him, imposed a fine of one thousand dollars. The sum was paid by Jackson, but

*

was offered to be repaid to him by a subscription, which proved public opinion to sustain his determined course. It was characteristic of the man and of his adherents in

after years.

Reappearance of

While these events were going on by land, the sea was for a time abandoned, at least by all nathe navy. tional vessels. Privateers continued their work of plunder and of destruction a work which, however miserable to contemplate, doubtless had its effect in bringing the war to a close. But the navy of the nation had disappeared from the ocean. It presently reappeared in the shape of its pride and ornament, the Constitution, which, under her new commander, Stewart, got to sea from Boston, (December, 1814.) The President, Hornet, and Peacock did the same from New York, the President being immediately captured, though not without a severe combat, by the British cruisers, (January, 1815.) Her loss was avenged by the sister vessels; the Constitution taking two sloops of war at once the Cyane and the Levant-off Madeira, (February 20 ;) the Hornet sloop taking the Penguin brig off the Island of Tristan d'Acunha, (March 23;) and the Peacock sloop taking the Nautilus, an East India Company's cruiser, off Sumatra, (June 30.)† All these actions were subsequent to a treaty of peace.

The war had not continued a year when the administration accepted an offer of Russian mediation, and despatched

* Refusing to receive the subscription, he was reimbursed, near thirty years afterwards, by order of Congress.

+"Thus terminated at sea," says the British historian Alison, towards the close of an account by no means partial to the American side, "this memorable contest, in which the English, for the first time for a century and a half, met with equal antagonists on their own element; and in recounting which, the British historian, at a loss whether to admire most the devoted heroism of his own countrymen or the gallant bearing of their antagonists, feels almost equally warmed in narrating either side of the strife."

Peace

naries.

envoys to treat of peace. The chief points to be prelimi provided for, according to the instructions, were, first, impressments, of which the settlement had been facilitated by an American law prohibiting the enlistment of British seamen in the service of the United States, and next, the matter of blockades, the only part of the anti-neutral system which had not been abandoned by the British, (March, 1813.) Great Britain declined the mediation of Russia, but offered to enter into negotiations either at London or at Gottenburg. The American government chose the latter place, and appointed five commissioners - John Quincy Adams, James A. Bayard, Henry Clay, Jonathan Russell, and Albert Gallatinto negotiate a treaty, under much the same instructions as before, (January, February, 1814.) But on the news of the triumph of Great Britain and her allies over Napoleon, the demands of the United States were sensibly modified. The opposition alleged it to be from fear of the foe, whose power was so much increased by the issue of the European war. But the administration and its party declared that the pacification of Europe did away with the very abuses of which America had to complain; in other words, that there would be no blockades or impressments in time of peace. At all events, the envoys were directed to leave these points for future negotiation, confining themselves at present to the conclusion of a general treaty. They were also authorized to treat at London, if they thought the arrival of British commissioners at Gottenburg was likely to be delayed, (June.) The new instructions found the commissioners of both nations in session at Ghent, (August 8.)

Treaty of

Four months and a half elapsed before coming to Ghent. terms. The British demands, especially on the point of retaining the conquests made during the war, were

66

altogether inadmissible. Fortunately, they were yielded; the disposal of the American question being desirable in the uncertain state of European affairs. "Some of our European allies," wrote Lord Liverpool, British premier, to Lord Castlereagh, British ambassador at the Congress of Vienna, then in session, "may not be indisposed to favor Americans, and if the Emperor of Russia should be desirous of taking up their cause, we are well aware that there is a most powerful party to support him." The command of the British forces in America was pressed upon the Duke of Wellington. He consented in case the war should be continued, but advised peace, being satisfied, as he said, that there was no vulnerable point of importance belonging to the United States" which could be held by the British "except New Orleans." Nor even this, as Sir Edward Pakenham soon afterwards found. Castlereagh wrote from Vienna that the American war made little sensation there. But when it was terminated by the negotiations at Ghent, those at Vienna were carried forward with much less difficulty than Great Britain had previously experienced. The treaty of Ghent restored the conquests on either side, and provided commissioners to arrange the boundary aud other minor questions between the nations, (December 24.) As for the American objects of the war, according to the declarations at its outbreak, they were not mentioned in the articles by which it was closed; yet the United States did not hesitate to ratify the treaty, (February 18.) Within a week afterwards, the president recommended "the navigation of American vessels exclusively by American seamen, either natives or such as are already naturalized;" the reason assigned being "to guard against incidents which, during the periods of war in Europe, might tend to interrupt peace."