THE BALTIMORE PRIVATEERS. 135 to the execution of this my proclamation. And I do hereby caution and forbid the ships and vessels of all and every nation, in amity and peace with the United States, from entering or attempting to enter, or from coming or attempting to come out of any of the said ports, bays, creeks, rivers, inlets, outlets, islands, or seacoasts, under any pretence whatsoever. And that no person may plead ignorance of this my proclamation, I have ordered the same to be made public in England. "Given under my hand, on board the Chasseur, day and date as above. "(By command of the commanding officer), “THOMAS BOYLE. "J. J. STANBURY, Secretary."1 On the 8th of April, 1815, Captain Boyle, after a successful cruise, arrived at Baltimore in the Chasseur with a full cargo of the enemy's spoils. On entering the port, the Chasseur saluted Fort McHenry in a handsome manner, and upon reaching the dock, her brave captain and crew were welcomed by all classes of the community. During the three years of the war, Great Britain lost about two thousand ships and vessels of every description, including men-of-war, two-thirds of which number were captured by the American privateers and private armed vessels. And although Baltimore was frequently blockaded by the British fleets, she took the lead in fitting out these vessels, and was more active and patriotic in annoying the enemy, than any other city in the Union. In testimony of this fact, Mr. Coggeshall says: "When I call to mind the spirit and acts of the Baltimoreans during our last war with England, I am inspired with a feeling of esteem and veneration for them as a brave and patriotic people that will endure with me to the end of my existence. During the whole struggle against an inveterate foe, they did all they could to aid and strengthen the hands of the general government, and generally took the lead in fitting out efficient privateers and letters-of-marque, to annoy and distress the enemy, and even to 'beard the old lion in his den,' for it is well known that their privateers captured many English vessels at the very mouths of their own ports in the British Channel. When their own beautifui city was attacked by a powerful fleet and army, how nobly did they defend themselves against the hand of the spoiler! The whole venom of the modern Goths seemed concentrated against the Baltimoreans, for no other reason but that they had too much spirit to submit to insult and tyrannical oppression. Many of the eastern people made a grand mistake in counting on the magnanimity of the British nation to do them justice by mild and persuasive arguments. In making these remarks in praise of Baltimore, I do not mean to disparage the noble patriotism of many other cities of our glorious Union; but I do mean to say that if the same spirit that fired the hearts and souls of the Baltimoreans had evinced itself throughout our entire country, it would have saved every American heart much pain and mortification, and would, in my opinion, have shortened the war." 1 Coggeshall's History of American Privateers, p. 361. Chronicles of Baltimore, pp. 354-374. 2 Thomas Boyle was born at Marblehead, on the 29th of June, 1776; married at Baltimore, on the 6th of October, 1794; and died at sea, on the 12th of October, 1825. He commanded a ship when only sixteen years old; married at eighteen, and died when forty-nine. Mr. Coggeshall says: "He possessed many of the elements of a great man; for in him were blended the impetuous bravery of a Murat with the prudence of a Wellington. He wisely judged when to attack the enemy, and when to retreat, with honor to himself and to the flag under which he sailed. Had he been a commander in the United States navy, his fame and deeds of valor would have been lauded throughout the country; but, as he only commanded a privateer, who speaks of him?" The whole number of privateers and private-armed ships that were commissioned as cruising vessels, and all others actively engaged in commerce during our war with Great Britain in the years 1812, 1813, and 1814, were two hundred and fifty sail. They belonged to the different ports in the United States as follows: From Baltimore, fifty-eight; from New York, fifty-five; from Salem, forty; from Boston, thirty-two; from Philadelphia, fourteen; from Portsmouth, New Hampshire, eleven; from Charleston, ten; from Marblehead, four; from Bristol, Rhode Island, four; from Portland, three; from Newburyport, two; from Norfolk, two; from Newbern, North Carolina, two; from New Orleans, two; from New London, one; from Newport, Rhode Island, one; from Providence, Rhode Island, one; from Barnstable, Massachusetts, one; from Fair Haven, Massachusetts, one; from Gloucester, Massachusetts, one; from Washington City, one; from Wilmington, North Carolina, one; from other places belonging to Eastern ports, three. Total, two hundred and fifty. The defeat of the British before Baltimore hastened the conclusion of peace, as it was among the first in that brilliant series of events that illustrated the truth that a united nation of freemen battling for the right are invincible. The American commissioners who were in Europe endeavoring to make an honorable peace with Great Britain, met in Ghent on the 24th of December, 1814, when a treaty was signed. Mr. Christopher Hughes, Jr.,' of Baltimore, who was then our chargé d'affaires at Stockholm, and secretary to the commissioners, arrived in Annapolis on the 13th, in the schooner Transit, and immediately set out for Washington. The tidings of peace which Mr. Hughes brought to Maryland were as welcome as they were unexpected. Cannon thundered, bells rang, bonfires and illuminations lighted up the towns and cities, and marked the public satisfaction. In Annapolis, the State House and other buildings, were brilliantly illuminated, and joy was felt throughout the city. Baltimore followed in the same spirit, and in accordance with the proclamation of the mayor, there was a general illumination on the evening of the 15th of February. Upon the ratification of this treaty of peace on the 10th of April, 1815, a large meeting of the citizens of Baltimore took place in the city, at which Joseph H. Nicholson, Nathaniel Williams, William Wilson, John McKim, Jr., James Hutton, Levi Hollingsworth, William McDonald, George Stiles, John Owen, Nathaniel F. Williams, Jesse Eichelberger, William Krebs CHRISTOPHER HUGHES. 1 Christopher Hughes was torn in Baltimore, and was a gentleman of education and culture, and held the following diplomatic appointments: secretary of legation to England in 1814; same to Sweden and Norway in 1816; acted as chargé d'affaires in 1817 and commissioned as such in 1819; from 1825 to 1830, chargé d'affaires to the Netherlands, with special instructions to Denmark; from 1830 to 1840 he was chargé d'affaires to Sweden and Norway; re-commissioned in 1842, and returned to this country in 1845. Mr. Hughes represented the United States SUCCESSFUL TERMINATION OF THE WAR. 137 and Edward G. Woodyear, were appointed a committee to forward to President Madison a congratulatory address upon the successful termination of the war, and an expression of their admiration for the "enlightened wisdom and patriotic firmness" by which his conduct was distinguished during the extraordinary trials to which our country had been exposed. In summing up the results of the war, the committee say: "That struggle has revived, with added lustre, the renown which brightened the morning of our independence; it has called forth and organized the dormant resources of the empire; it has tried and vindicated our republican institutions; it has given us the moral strength which consists in the well-earned respect of the world, and in a just respect for ourselves. It has raised up and consolidated a national character, dear to the hearts of the people, as an object of honest pride and a pledge of future union, tranquillity and greatness. It has not, indeed, been unaccompanied by occasional reverses; yet even these have had their value, and may still be wholesome to us, if we receive them as the warnings of a protecting Providence against the errors of a false confidence, and against intemperate exultation in the midst of more prosperous fortune. Many of our citizens, too, have fallen in this conflict, and it becomes us to mourn their loss; but they have fallen that their country might rise; they have cemented with their blood the fabric of her happiness and glory; and although death has snatched them from us, they will still live in their example and in the grateful remembrance of their countrymen." The President, in his reply, dated April 22d, said: "For the success which has placed us on the high ground which calls for our common congratulations, too much praise cannot be given to the warriors, who, on both elements, have fought so gloriously the battles of their country; nor to the great body of citizens, whose patriotism has borne every sacrifice and braved every danger. "In the varied scenes which have put to the test the constancy of the nation, Baltimore ranks among the portion most distinguished for devotion to the public cause. It has the satisfaction to reflect, that it boldly and promptly espoused the resort to arms, when no other honorable choice remained; that it found in the courage of its citizens a rampart against the assaults of an enterprising force; that it never wavered nor temporized with the vicissitudes of the contest; and that it had an ample share in the exertions which have brought it to an honorable conclusion."1 longer than any other American, at several European courts, in successful diplomatic intercourse and uncommon personal familiarity with many of the monarchs and great numbers of elevated personages, from the commencement of his valuable services as a diplomat. A writer, in speaking of him, said: "He is the best known man in the world, from New York to Kamtschatka," and was remarkable for "saying more wise things, strange things, droll things, than ever tongue uttered or mind conceived." His personal popularity made him a most skillful CHAPTER XXXVII. THE war of 1812-14 terminated without any formal settlement of the questions which had occasioned it. The alleged right of searching American vessels for English sailors, which was a mere pretext for impressment of Americans, carried out under circumstances of intolerable wrong to individuals, and outrage to the country, had been the main cause impelling our government to declare war, and yet the treaty of Ghent does not mention or allude to the subject-the first time, perhaps, in modern history, in which war was terminated by treaty without any stipulation derived from its cause. Notwithstanding this fact, the war was not without its advantages, in the indirect results which followed. It dissipated the fallacious idea, then current abroad, that our love of gain, and commercial enterprise, had extinguished our spirit of patriotism and independence; and showed that our forbearance was not timidity nor servility, and that we were not to be wronged nor insulted with impunity. Our flag was now respected on every sea; and the United States took a position among the nations of the world, which they have ever since maintained. This war also introduced several changes, and made a number of new points of departure in American policy, and, among the rest, the establishment of a second national bank. From this era we may also date the origin of our rapid growth of domestic manufactures; "protective" policy; the development of internal improvements; the doctrine of secession; slavery agitation, and many other questions of national importance. The successful defence of Baltimore, and the repulse of the British fleet, was a most fortunate circumstance, for if the enemy had succeeded, Philadelphia would probably have fallen the next victim, and the war prolonged for another year, with the most calamitous results, at home and abroad. It was as we have seen, extremely distasteful to the members of the federal party, and particularly of New England, where the discontent culminated in the famous Hartford Convention, which met on the 15th of December, 1814, and to which the design of secession has been imputed. This question, however, and that of a collision between a part of the States and the federal government, grew out of the war of 1812, and were hushed by its sudden termination; but they reappeared in a different quarter, and became a practical question almost fifty years later. The first ceased to exist in 1811. THE MARYLAND FEDERALISTS. 139 Chief Justice Roger B. Taney, in a letter, makes the following reference to the course of the Maryland Federalists, after the war of 1812: "When the war was over, the federal party, as it existed before, was dissolved by the events of the war. This is not the place to show why it was dissolved. But it may not be improper to say, so far as Maryland is concerned, that during the war the deepest dissatisfaction was felt by the greater number of the prominent federalists of the State, with the conduct of the Boston federalists. For while the enemy was in the midst of us assailing our cities and burning our houses, and plundering our property and the citizens of the State, without distinction of party, were putting forth their whole strength and blending in its defence, those with whom the Maryland federalists had been associated as political friends in the Eastern States, and whom they had regarded and treated as the leaders of the party, were holding the Hartford Convention, talking about disunion, conferring with one another in secret conclave; demanding from us one of the Southern States, a surrender of a portion of the political weight secured to us by the Constitution; making this demand, too, in the hour of our distress, when the enemy were upon us. They were moreover, using every exertion in their power to destroy the credit and cripple the resources of the general government, feeble as it then was, and leaving us to defend ourselves as well as we could by our own resources. "It will readily be imagined that after this the federalists of Maryland would hardly desire to continue the party association and continue the lead in hands which appeared to be not only indifferent to the sufferings of our citizens, but ready to take advantage of the peril in which the State was placed to extort from it the surrender of a portion of its legitimate power. We thought it time that the party connection should be dissolved. "There was no general concert of action between the members of the old federal party in relation to the general government, after the close of the war. Mr. Monroe was elected without opposition. Nor was there any organized opposition to him during his administration. Indeed, some of the federalists of the Eastern States, who had been most prominent and active in the reprehensible proceedings which I have just mentioned, seemed anxious to enroll themselves under his banner, and to be recognized as his political friends." 1 1 Much attention had been drawn to Baltimore by her gallant defence; and upon the ratification of the treaty of peace her unequalled local advantages began to be generally recognized, and merchants and men of business. flocked to the port to engage in commerce and other branches of industry. Her ships were collected from the ports where they had been dispersed and sheltered during the war, while large accessions were made to her tonnage from her numerous privateers and the many prize ships captured from the enemy. Trade with China, Batavia, Bengal, the West Indies and European ports was extensively resumed. Great Britain had lost her war monopoly, and America had ceased to be carrier for the world. They were now reduced to the level of peace competition; and were compelled to contend in foreign markets with the skill and ingenuity of France and Italy, the patient industry and perseverance of the United Netherlands, the rival labors of Denmark, Sweden, Russia and the commercial parts of Germany, and also the efforts of Spain and Portugal. Maryland's commerce, which, during the war, was reduced to the lowest point of depression, upon the return of peace, was raised 1 Memoir of R. B. Taney, p. 158. |