A full and correct account of the Military Occurrences of the late War between Great Britain and the United States of America, etc

Front matter

■- I a < A FULL AND CORRECT ACCOUNT OP THE MILITARY OCCURRENCES OF THE LATE WAR BETWEEN GREAT BRITAIN AND THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA; WITH AN APPENDIX, AND PLATES. By WILLIAM JAMES, Yv. AUTHOR OF " A FULL AND CORRECT ACCOUNT OP THE CHIEF NAVAL OCCURRENCES, &C." Alterum alterius auxilio eget. Sallust. IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. I. UonDort : PRINTED FOR THE AUTHOR: AND SOLD BY BLACK. KINGSBURV, PARBURY, AVD .A I.LEN, LEA DENHALL-STREET; JAMES M. RICHAnOSON, CORNHILL ; JOHN BOOTH, DOKE-3TRE£T,~ FOKTLA.VD-PLACE; AND ALLOl'HEtt BOOKSELLERS. 181S. Printed by Joyce Gold, 103, Shoe-lane, London. J TO LIEUT.- COLONEL JOHN HARVEY, C.B DEPUTV-ADJUTANT-GENERAL OF HIS MAJESTY'S FORCES IN THE CANADAS J WHO, BESIDES DISTINGUISHING HIMSELF ON SEVERAL OTHER OpCASIONS, DURING THE LATE AMERICAN WAR, DID, AT MIDNIGHT, ON THE FIFTH OF JUNE, 1813, LEAD THE ADVANCE OF AN ATTACK, PLANNED BY HIMSELF, IN WHICH SEVEN HUNDRED AND FOUR ERITISH SURPRISED, AND, AFTER A SHORT STRUGGLE, DROVE FROM THEIR FORTIFIED ENCAMPMENT NEAR STONEY CREEK, IN UPPER CANADA, THREE THOUSAND FIVE HUNDRED AMERICANS: AN EXPLOIT WHICH TENDED, IN A HIGH DEGREE, TO THE SAFETY OF TWO VALUABLE BRITISH PROVINCES; THIS WORK IS MOST RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED, DY THE AUTHOR.

A. Abbott, w_. esq. Adair, A. esq. Arlington, Thomas, esq. Admiralty, the hon. lords commissioners of the, 20copies. Allen, John, esq. Anglesey, lieutenant-general the marquis of, G.C.B. Arbuthnot, lieutenant-colonel the honorable Henry. Arrowsmith, Aaron, esq. B Baker, John, esq. Banks, William, esq. Barnes, William, esq. , Thomas, esq. Bartholomew, D. E. esq. captain R'.N. and C.B. Bathurst, the right honorable earl, K.G. and F.A.S. Beazley, Charles, esq. Beresford, rear-admiral sir John Poo, bart. Black, Kingsbury, Parbury, and Allen, 100 copies Blake, J. esq. Booth, Mr. John, 20 copies, Brisbane; major-general sir Thomas, K.C.B. Broke, sir Philip Bowes Vere, bart. captain R. N.- and K.C.B. 3 copies. ■, lieutenant-colonel sir Charles, K.C.B. ', major, 58th foot. Brown, John, esq. Bowdery and Kerby, Messrs, 6 copies.

Brace, Edward, esq. captain R.N. and C.B. C. Campbell, John, esq. Canterbury, his grace, the lord archbiship of. Carter, J. esq. Chambers, S. esq. Christie, captain Brath. 5th dragoons guards Cockburn, rear-admiral sir George, K.C.B. Cole, sir Christopher, captain R.N. K.C.B. Collins, Enos, esq. Halifax, Nova Scotia. and M.P. ■, and Allison, messrs. ditto. 30 copies. Cradock, general sir John F. G.C.B. and K Clarke, Thomas, esq. Upper Canada. C. Clinton, W. B. esq. D. Davis, Thomas, esq. Dennis, major, 49th foot. Digby, Stephen Thomas, esq. captain R.N. Donaldson, J. esq. Drummond, John, junior, esq. E. Eaton, Mr. George, Halifax, Nova Scotia. Ellis, John, esq. 25 copies. Eppes, William J. esq. F. Fisher, William, esq. , captain. Fitton, Michael, esq. V SUBSCRIBERS' NAMES. Forbes, John, esq. Fraser, William, esq. Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Preface

. JL HE length of time that has elapsed since the appearance of the work to which this bears so close a relation, has arisen out of the delays and difficulties experienced by the author in collecting materials ; few of which were in his possession, when he promised the public to extend his labors, beyond the naval, to the military, occurrences of the late American war. Immediately on the publication of his former volume, he transmitted copies to some of the principal reviewers in the United States; hoping to have it in his power, through the medium of the present Avork, to correct any mistatements that he may have made, upon a topic so interesting to the two nations. Beyond one or two newspaper paragraphs, first misnaming, and then calumniating, the

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. author, nothing of the kind has yet reached him. He has, however, been favored with the sight of an American periodical work, entitled, — ' Analectic Magazine and Naval Chronicle;' which contains, among its pages, some very copious remarks upon an article in the British ' Naval Chronicle,' headed — * Synopsis of naval actions between the ships of his Britannic majesty and of the United States, during the late war; by a British naval officer on the american station:' the latter consisting of extracts from a series of letters, signed * Boxer,' forwarded by the author, (but who had neither designated him self as, nor can claim the honor to be, ' a British naval officer,') from Halifax, Nova Scotia ; and becoming, afterwards, the ground work of the author's pamphlet in Halifax,* and subsequent volume in this country. As the present is a military work, the author, after bestowing a passing glance of admiration upon the flashy vignette of * ' An Inquiry, 8ic.'

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. XIII gamboling dolphins, tridents, wreaths of laurel, &c. displayed, as if in terrorem, at the com mencement of every fresh quotation from the 1 Synopsis,' will digress no further, than till he has exposed some half a dozen of the American reviewer's mis-statements ; thence submitting, as a fair inference, what degree of credit is due to the remainder of that gentleman's assertions. Not being a ' naval officer,' the author could have no esprit de corps to bias his judgment. All inuendoes on that head, and pretty numerous they are, may therefore be blotted out of the piece. The same fate, for (as one may suppose) the same reason, must attend the commencing charge, that the c pro duction came abroad under -the sanction of the admiralty.'* Any railing at the author's * affected arith metical precision'-*}- can but create a smile, when the American reviewer is compelled, * Analectic Mag. and Naval Chronicle, Vol VII. p. 295. t Ibid. 302.

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. for lack os argument, to ' pass by the cy phering business.'* It is that \ cyphering business,' that ' debtor and creditor account/t in the naval warfare between the two coun tries, that is fast withering the laurels, with which one of them has, of late, so strutted in caricatura. Who it is that < weighs balls with the most minute precision,';]; let American naval officers and American naval histories tell.§ The author, although he is nc ' naval officer,' would be ashamed to be convicted of having stated, that the loss of a ship's 'jib-boom* is equal, in point of importance, to the loss of a brig's ' main-yard.' || But, in truth, was the Wasp without her jib-boom ? If so, as she carried it away three days before the action,^ her officers and crew must have been very negligent * Analectic Mag. and Nav.

Chron. Vol. VII. p. 307. f Ibid. 302. % Ibid- P- 3°4 § Naval History of the United States,- Vol. I. p. 179 — American Naval Monument, p. 141. 181. — James's Naval Occurrences, p. 10. 124. oQo. || Analectic Mag. aud Naval Chron. Vol. VII. p. 388. 51 Naval Monument, p. 13.

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. XV in not having rigged a fresh one ; and ' M. Corne,' the Boston painter, and his employer, ' A. Bowen,' the Boston engraver, are charge able with unpardonable inaccuracy, for*, having given to the Wasp, in their representation of the Frolic's capture,* a 'jib-boom/ and no short one either. After stating that the Wasp's crew ' consisted, in reality, of only 110,'"f" the writer does not proceed far in his ' magazine of wonders,';]; before he introduces the following paragraph: ' They (the American captain and one of his officers) testified, on oath, that the whole number of persons on board the Wasp, previous to the action, was 137;' § — actually within one of the author's statement.^ In the very teeth of American official papers,j| does' this American writer allege, that ' no complaint' was made, ' when several * Naval Monument, p. 13. -j- Analectic Mag. and Nav. Chronicle, Vol. VII. p. 387- X Ib. 582. § Ib. 487. 5f James's Naval Occurrences, p. 152. || Nav. Monument, p. 63. — James's Nav. Occurr. p. 223.

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. of the crew of the Chesapeake were killed, by firing down the gangway.'* To the ' fabulous account,' that the vessel said to have declined engaging the President off Sandy Hook, was not ' a small frigate,' the Loire, -jbut the ' Plantaganet 74,' nothing was wanted but ' the trial of her commanding officer.'j; tr"ial our ' candid' reviewer is 'authorized to affirm' took place at Ber muda. By way of corroborating, what must appear to all but him and his party as, an ' absurd and ridiculous story,' he brings to his aid — ' the express admission of an officer of marines, then in the squadron cruizing off New York, and now a cousul in one of our ports.'J Who can this be but lieutenant Patrick Savage, at that time of the Narcissus frigate, and now, or lately, consul at Norfolk, Virginia? — It is to be hoped that the state ment will meet his eye, if only to afford * Analectic Mag. and Nav. Chron. Vol. VII. p. 388. f James's N aval Occurrences, p. 324. X Analectic Mag. and Nav, Chron. Vol. VIII. p. 136.

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. XVII him an opportunity of doing justice to his brother-officers late of the Plantaganet. After, in several instances, flatly contradict ing his own official accounts, the American reviewer puts European gravity to the test, by declaring, first, that his government made war ' in defence of the universal rights of man,'* and next, that the ' modest,' or, as recently and more truly styled, ' arrogant,' commodore Perry, when he filched the commencing words of Nelson's letter, $ ' was paying his lordship a high compliment.'f Had the writer in the American 'Naval Chronicle' employed less ' acrimony,' and more research, in his calling, he might have received the author's thanks for pointing out several real 'inaccuracies,' particularly as to th§ size and armaments of the American ships. But these ' inaccuracies,' along with the hated ' cyphering business,' he has let ' pass by,' to * Analectic Mag. and Nav.

Chron. vol. Vill. p. 185. f Ib. 145. X James's Nav. Occurr. p. 294. b VOL. h PREAFCE. 3CV1U be rectified by the author himself, in his two works, that followed, in quick succession, that little hastily-drawn sketch, which, the American reviewer, not having seen those works, is pleased to say, ' appears to contain all that has hitherto been urged, as well as every thing that can be urged, in extenuation of the numerous disasters of England during the last war;1* but, as he more truly than consistently adds, ' which is in reality an indifferent production.'-f* If so, therefore; and if the ' production' teems with ' admissions,' such as ' British officers' ought to ' feel mortified at,' why is the American reviewer, in his ' candid' examination of it, so extremely irritable ? Even his own countrymen, the ' gentle' readers for whose entertainment he has labored and sweated so much, will attribute his anger to the dilemma into which he is placed, by the ' novel' way of ' weighing and measuring, by the pound and by the foot, 'J ' battles' that have turned out so * Analectic Mag. and Nav. Chron. Vol. VII. p. 289. t Ib. p. 295. X Ibvol- VII. p. 307.

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. XIX lucrative to the American press, in general, and to the American ' Naval Chronicle,' in particular. What language contained in the ' Synopsis,' written when the two countries were at war, equals, in falsehood, absurdity, or intended ' severity,' the assertion, made while the two countries are at peace, that ' American officers are more brave than their rivals' ? * How much moderation, ' candour,' and discernment, the writer of the American review can bring into discussion, when his country is a party, may be gathered from his com paring, — without meaning it in irony, — ' the battle of New Orleans,' with 'the battles of Cressy and Agincourt.'-f* This sudden change from naval to military warfare recalls the author's attention to the subject immediately before him. The first point he would press upon the reader's attention is, that the system of tactics adapted to the * Analeetic Mag. and Nav. Chron. Vol. VII. p. 306. + lb. p. 294. b2 XX

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. cultivated plains of Europe cannot be practised amidst the wild regions of America. Woods, precipices, creeks, and morasses, are tra versed with ease by native troops, while a body of the best disciplined foreigners is either opposed in its advance by insurmount able obstacles, or led into an ambush, where the more ardent the courage, the greater is the slaughter, the more certain the defeat. The British soldier can seldom trace his acquaintance with fire-arms beyond the day of his enlistment; but the American soldier has been accustomed, from his infancy, to the free use of the most destructive of all fire-arms, the rifle. No laws have interfered to restrain him from amusing his fancy, or furnishing his table, with the game that so abundantly surrounds his home ; and the daily toils of the huntsman, while they have fitted his body for enduring, without fatigue, the longest marches, have familiarized him to the intricacies of his native forests. Where bush-fighting can be practised, he is truly

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. XXI formidable: an open country, and a struggle with the bayonet, he alike avoids, as the bane of his hopes. Nearly the whole of the military contests treated of in these volumes were carried on amidst the thinly inhabited, and, of course, but slightly cultivated, parts of North-America. The reader whose mind is filled with the justly celebrated fame of British troops must, therefore, be careful how he forms an opinion upon the merits of the combatants. He should recollect, that the American troops fought their battles upon their own ground ; and obtained, in consequence, a decided local superiority over the British sent out against them. Viewed thus, it cannot be objected, if all estimates of relative force between British and American troops, other than where batteries are concerned, be founded upon the principle of — not a presumed inequality of powers, but — man for man, or unit for unit. The historian may describe, in the most im passioned language, the meeting of two armies,

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.. their furious onset, and long and bloody con flict; how this side fled and that pursued ; yet, if he fail to impress upon the reader's mind a clear conception of the quantum of force which each party brought into the field, he shall employ his labors to very little purpose. Of the many printed narratives of battles, by far the greater number are deficient in this important particular. With due acknowledge ment to the American reviewer for the hint, the author produces, as a prominent example, the celebrated battle of Azincour. Hume gives no figures, but states that the ' enemy was four times more numerous.' * ' Monstrelet says six times.' -f* 'P. Daniel says three times.' *f* Different French writers make their own force ' 100000 ;' ' 140000 ;' ' 150000, the third part horse;' ' 150000 horse.' -j- Other historians say, that ' the French amounted to 150000, and the English but to 9000 ;'f which is nearly 1 7, instead of ' six,' ' four,' or even * Hume, Vol. III. p. 100. f Rapin (folio edit.) Vol. I. p. 512.

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. XXIII 8 three, to one, — of all, the most probable proportion. In detailing the operations of the British and American armies, a clear and satisfactory account of the force engaged will, next to the immediate result of the battle, form the most important object. As the fairest means of ascertaining this, each party will be considered as unquestionable authority for the amount of his own numbers; unless an evident contradiction, or attempt to deceive, discovers itself. In that case, reliance will be placed upon the positive assertions of the opposite party. A British official account of every military action has appeared in the Gazette; and copies of the whole, as well as of such Ameri can official accounts as have been published, or could be procured, are given in the Appen dix. The deficiency on the American side is compensated by the ample details, and, upon some points, apparently authentic information,

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XXIV contained in three very recent American publications on the events of the late war. As these works are rarely to be met with in this country, and will be frequently quoted in the progress of our enquiries, the reader is here presented with their respective title-pages: i: t Historical Sketches of the late War .between the United States and Great Britain ; blended with Anecdotes illustrative of the individual bravery of the" American Sailors, Soldiers, and Citizens, embellished with Portraits pf distinguished Naval and Military Officers ; and accom panied by Views of several Sieges and Engagements. By John Lewis Thomson. Third Edition. Philadelphia : published by Thomas Desilver ; 1816.' * An Impartial and Correct History of the War between the United States of America and Great "Britain ; com prising a particular Detail of the Naval and Military Operations, and a faithful Record of the Events produced during the Contest, froni its Commencement, June 18, 1812, to the Treaty of Peace, ratified at the City of Washington, February 17, 1815.

By T. O'Connor. Fourth Edition, revised and corrected. Carefully compiled from Official Documents.- J New York : printed and published by John Low, No. 62, Vesey Street, 1817.' 'History of the United States, from their first Settler ment as English Colonies, in 1607, to the Year 1808, or the Twenty-Third of their Sovereignty and Indepenr

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. XXV deuce. By David Ramsay, M.D. Continued to the Treaty of Ghent, bv S. S. Smith, D.D. and LL.D. and other Literary Gentlemen; in Three Volumes. (8vo.) Philadelphia: published by M. Carey, 1817.' The first of these books is dedicated ' to the Honorable James Munroe, secretary of state of the United States ; ' and the third edition was published a very short time before the writer's patron attained the honors of the president's chair. This work, therefore, may be regarded as a demi-official performance; and, in some cases, especially where the American official letters have not been obtained, or prove deficient in particulars, Mr. Thomson's very minute details may be profitably employed. The ' History of the War,' till the third, if not the fourth edition, was an anonymous work. At last, the people of the United States gave so loud and unequivocal proofs of the value of the writer's zealous, if not ' impartial' labors, that Mr. O'Connor must have possessed a very blameable degree of

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. modesty, indeed, not to have avowed himself the author. How far, in so doing, he has consulted his reputation, will appear in the sequel. The ' History of the United States' bears, upon the face of the title-page, the stamp of respectability. An ' M.D.' a ' D.D. and LLD.' ' and other literary gentlemen' as the authors, without ' James Munroe,' and ' The navy department,' among a numerous list of subscribers, afford reasonable grounds for hoping, that, at last, a candid history has appeared from the press of the United States. That the author may not, as often as a battle occurs, have to repeat remarks upon, what, without reference to the fair promises just noticed, may be termed, the staple commodity of American historians, a few words on the subject will not be out of place here. Our old enemy in Europe has at all times been ready to do justice to the valor of our

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. XXVII troops. A Frenchman is contented to boast, that the best soldiers of his country have beaten an equal number of ours. But an American historian will gravely tell you, that ' about 200 raw, undisciplined, American militia, entirely routed 600 veteran British regulars ;' aye, and that ' with the bayonet ' too : or, if the Americans are described as the routed party, it is, — ' after a desperate struggle with five times their number.' None of these gentlemen think it worth their while to advance any authority for even the most improbable fact. In despite of our reason we are to credit their naked assertions ; and to confess, that the heroes of the new, are giants in prowess, compared to the heroes of the old world. Scarcely is a battle recorded, wherein the superiority of numbers was not on the British side; unless, indeed, an opposite state ment would serve to heap disgrace upon a certain commander, because he happens to differ, in political tenets, from that party, to

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. whose sinister purposes the writer has devoted his talents and his conscience. When a national officer does, as he always should, explicitly state the amount and quality of his own force, no one has a right to dispute his word ; but his assertions respecting the force of an enemy, unless nearly the whole number that engaged him became his prisoners, ought to be received with caution. A general may find it convenient to show an extended front, of only one or two files deep ; and thus deceive his opponent. A few stragglers in a wood may be considered as part of a larger body ; or a severe unexpected repulse may induce the retreating troops, from their fears alone, to magnify the number of their foes. For this reason chiefly it is, that the author has resolved to take each party's positive enumeration of his own force, in preference to the loose state ments and vague conjectures, too often admitted into the opposite official accounts. In a work of details like the present, many

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. XXIX facts must be admitted, having no official foun dation on either side. Here the reader, beyond the rule of probability, has only the author's veracity to trust to. Upon that point, he deems it proper to state, that, in his military, as in his naval work, his unofficial facts are the result of direct applications to officers of rank and respectability; but whose names (as must be obvious) he is not, in all cases, at liberty to disclose. Should, however, any mistatement have incautiously crept into his narrative, military or naval, the author would be happy to receive, and, when an opportunity offers, to make public, an authenticated correction. A woody battle-ground is not the best cal culated for a display, even on paper, of military evolutions ; the author, therefore, in selecting his plates, has, in most cases, preferred a sketch of the country traversed by the con tending armies, to a plan of their fluctuating positions during an engagement. One impor-

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. tant exception is the battle near New Orleans. Here, without a plan of the natural, as well as artificial, military obstacles, the most minute verbal description would fall short. Fortu nately, he can present Plate VII, with confi dence in its general correctness ; not weakened, he trusts, by his having wholly framed it out of the engravings in two American publications on the subject*. For Plates I, III, V, and VI, he is indebted, also, (some slight alterations excepted,) to an American work, major general James Wilkinson's ' Memoirs of my own Time,' published in 1816; a work that will be frequently consulted in the course of the investigation. As Great Britain and the United States of America are now, happily, at peace, a strong motive exists for describing the events of the late war between them, in language, if not courteous, temperate at least ; and this, without any reference to the notorious fact, * Latour's War in Louisiana, and Eaton's Life of Jackson.

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. XXXI that all American histories, from general Wilkinson's huge ' Memoirs ' down to the 'Grub-street'* 'Analectic,' pursue quite an opposite course. The author, much as he has, while scrutinizing the American accounts, endeavoured to command his feelings, may, upon unravelling any design of marked atrocity, have been betrayed into a warmth of expression below the dignity of an historical subject. To the general reader, in that case, some apology is due: as to the American, let him vent his rage upon those of his country men, who, disgracing the name of ' historians,' are the authors or abettors of all the calum nies which gave the provocation. He who shall succeed in teaching American writers to venerate truth, as much as their readers idolize vain-glory, will have achieved, for the republic of America, a ten-fold greater service, than the whole pantheon of demi-gods, * Analectic Magazine and Naval Chronicle, Vol. VII. p. 246.

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. whose 8 romantic'* feats, instead of being allowed to shine forth, bedizened out as — ' Sir Tristian,' ' Don Belianis,' ' the Peers of Charlemagne, ' * or any other tale of ' fiction' or mock-heroic, are presented to the world under the specious garb of ' faithful history.' * Analectic Magazine aud Nav. Chron. Vol. VII. p. 296. v • -3, . r London, May lb*th, 18X8. MILITARY OCCURRENCES, &;c. Sec.

Chapter I

Origin of the late war with the United States — President's message— American declaration of war — Pacific views of the British — Determined hostility of the Americans — Prince regent's muni* festo in answer to the president's message- — Impressed Americans — Native and naturalized citizens — Case of Elijah Clarke — A resident in the Canadas shot as a deserter by an American officer — Acquittal of the officer — An opposite principle afterwards broached by the American government — Cause of Indian hatred to the Americans. X HE defensive measures adopted by the British government, in contravention of the Berlin and Milan decrees, no longer permitting the subjects of the United States, under the disguise of neu trals, to be the carriers of France, the ablest poli ticians in the republic were engaged to prepare a VOL. I. •■ specious manifesto, representing the United States as the aggrieved, and Great Britain as the aggressing party.

A moment of continental pressure upon the latter was deemed the fittest for promulgating this angry state-paper. Accord ingly, on the 1st of June, 1812, Mr. Madison, the American president, sent the following mes sage to the two bouses of congress : " Without going back beyond the renewal, in 1803, of the warin which Great Britain is engaged, and omitting unrepaired wrongs of inferior magnitude, the conduct of her government presents a series of acts hostile to the United States, as an independent and neutral nation. " British cruisers have been in the continued practice of violating the American flag on the great highway of nations, and of seizing and carrying off persons sailing under it ; not in the exercise of a belligerent right, founded on the law of nations, against an enemy, but of a mu nicipal prerogative over British subjects.

Bri tish jurisdiction is thus extended to. neutral Ves sels, in a situation where no laws can operate but the law of nations, and the laws of the country to which the vessels belong ; and a self redress is assumed, which, if British subjects were wrongfully detained and alone concerned, is that substitution of force for a resort to the responsible sovereign, which falls within the de- GREAT BRITAIN AND AMERICA. finition of war. Could the seizure of British subjects, in such cases, be regarded as within the exercise of a belligerent right, the acknowledged laws of wars, which forbid an article of cap tured property to be adjudged, without a regular investigation before a competent tribunal, would imperiously demand the fairest trial, where the sacred rights of persons were at issue. In place of such trial, these rights are subjected to the will of every petty commander.

" The practice, hence, is so far from affecting British subjects alone, that under the pretext of searching for these, thousands of American citizens, under the safeguard of public laws, and of their national flag, have been torn from their country, and from every thing dear to them ; have been dragged on board ships of war of a foreign nation, and exposed under the severities of their discipline, to be exiled to the most distant and deadly climes, to risk their lives in the battles of their oppressors, and to be the melan choly instruments of taking away those of their own brethren. " Against this crying enormity, which Great Britain would be so prompt to avenge, if com mitted against herself, the Linked States have in vain exhausted remonstrances and expostula tions. And that no proof might be wanting of their conciliatory disposition, and no pretext B left for a continuance of the practice, the British government was formally assured of the readiness of the United States to enter into arrange ments, such as could not be rejected, if the re-» covery of British subjects were the real and the sole object.

The communication passed without effect. " British cruisers have also been in the practice of violating the rights and the peace of our coasts. They hover over and harass our enter ing and departing commerce. To the most in sulting pretensions they have added the most lawless proceedings in our very harbours, and have wantonly spilt American blood within the sanctu ary of our territorial j urisdiction. The principles and rules enforced by that nation, when a neutral nation, against armed vessels of belligerents hovering near her coasts, and disturbing her commerce, are well known. When called on, ne vertheless, by the United States, to punish the greater offences committed by her own vessels, her government has bestowed on their commanders additional marks of honour and confi dence. " Under pretended blockades, without the presence of an adequate force, and sometimes without the practicability of applying one, our commerce has been plundered in every sea ; the great staples of our country have been cut off CJREAT BRITAIN AND AMERICA. 5 from their legitimate markets ; and a destructive blow aimed at our agricultural and mari time interests.