INDEXToC

A year after the conclusion of peace, a weighty opinion as to the effect of the War of 1812 upon the national history was expressed by one of the commissioners, Mr. Albert Gallatin. For fifteen years past, no man had been in closer touch with the springs of national life, national policy, and national action; as representative in Congress, and as intimate adviser of two consecutive Presidents, in his position as Secretary of the Treasury. His experience, the perspicuity of his intellect, and his lucidity of thought and expression, give particular value to his conclusions; the more so that to some extent they are the condemnation,regretfully uttered, of a scheme of political conduct with the main ideas of which he had been closely identified. He wrote: "The war has been productive of evil and of good, but I think the good preponderates. Independent of the loss of lives, and of the property of individuals, the war has laid the foundations of permanent taxes and military establishments, which the Republicans[526]had deemed unfavorable to the happiness and free institutions of the country. But under our former system we were becoming too selfish, too much attached exclusively to the acquisition of wealth, above all, too much confined in our political feelings to local and state objects. The war has renewed and reinstated the national feelings and character which the Revolution had given, and which were daily lessening. The people have now more general objects of attachment, with which their pride and political opinions are connected. They are more Americans; they feel and act more as a nation; and I hope that the permanency of the Union is thereby better secured."[527]

Such, even at so early a date, could be seen to be the meaning of the War of 1812 in the progress of the national history. The people, born by war to independence, had by war again been transformed from childhood, absorbed in the visible objects immediately surrounding it, to youth with its dawning vision and opening enthusiasms. They issued from the contest, battered by adversity, but through it at last fairly possessed by the conception of a national unity, which during days of material prosperity had struggled in vain against the predominance of immediate interests and local prepossessions. The conflict, indeed, was not yet over. Two generations of civic strife were still to signalize the slow and painful growth of the love for"The Union"; that personification of national being, upon which can safely fasten the instinct of human nature to centre devotion upon a person and a name. But, through these years of fluctuating affections, the work of the War of 1812 was continuously felt. Men had been forced out of themselves. More and more of the people became more Americans; they felt and acted more as a nation; and when the moment came that the unity of the state was threatened from within, the passion for the Union, conceived in 1812, and nurtured silently for years in homes and hearts, asserted itself. The price to be paid was heavy. Again war desolated the land; but through war the permanency of the Union was secured. Since then, relieved from internal weakness, strong now in the maturity of manhood, and in a common motive, the nation has taken its place among the Powers of the earth.

[473]Monroe to Russell, Aug. 21, 1812. American State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol. iii. p. 587.

[474]Ante, vol. i. p. 390.

[475]American State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol. iii. p. 590.

[476]Correspondence between Russell and Castlereagh, Sept. 12-18, 1812; and Russell to Monroe, Sept. 17. American State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol. iii. pp. 591-595.

[477]Russell's italics.

[478]The correspondence relating to the Russian proffer of mediation is to be found in American State Papers, vol. iii. pp. 623-627.

[479]American State Papers, vol. iii. pp. 621-622.

[480]Ibid., pp. 695-700.

[481]American State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol. iii. p. 701.

[482]Ibid., p. 703.

[483]Ante, p. 266, and note.

[484]Writings of Albert Gallatin, edited by Henry Adams, vol. i. pp. 586, 592.

[485]Ante, p. 332.

[486]Writings of Albert Gallatin, vol. i. p. 603.

[487]Ibid., vol. i. p. 629.

[488]A similar consciousness appears to the writer discernible in a letter of Wellington to Castlereagh, of May 25, 1814. To procure "the cession of Olivenza by Spain to Portugal, we could promise tobindNorth America, by a secret article in our treaty of peace, to give no encouragement, orcountenance, or assistance, to the Spanish colonies" (then in revolt). Memoirs and Correspondence of Lord Castlereagh, series iii. vol. ii. p. 44. The italics are mine.

[489]Castlereagh to the British commissioners, July 28, 1814. Castlereagh's Memoirs and Correspondence, series iii. vol. ii. p. 69.

[490]Ibid., Aug. 14, 1814, pp. 88, 89.

[491]Castlereagh to Liverpool, Paris, Aug. 28, 1814. Castlereagh Memoirs, p. 101.

[492]Note of the British commissioners, Aug. 19, 1814. American State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol. iii. p. 710. My italics.

[493]Castlereagh to Liverpool, Aug. 28, 1814. Castlereagh Memoirs, series iii. vol. ii. p. 100.

[494]Liverpool to Castlereagh, Sept. 2, 1814. Castlereagh Papers MSS.

[495]Castlereagh Memoirs, etc., series iii. vol. ii. p. 101.

[496]American State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol. iii. pp. 711-713.

[497]Castlereagh to Liverpool, August 28. Memoirs, etc., series iii. vol. ii. p. 102.

[498]Liverpool to Castlereagh, September 2, Castlereagh Papers MSS.

[499]American State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol. iii. p. 713.

[500]American State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol. iii. p. 717.

[501]Bathurst to Castlereagh, Sept. 16, 1814. Castlereagh Papers MSS.

[502]Castlereagh Memoirs, series iii. vol. ii. p. 138.

[503]Liverpool to Castlereagh, September 27. Castlereagh Papers MSS.

[504]September 23. Ibid.

[505]Castlereagh Memoirs, series iii. vol. ii. p. 148.

[506]Liverpool to Castlereagh, Sept. 27, 1814. Castlereagh Papers MSS.

[507]Ante, p. 385; and 384, note.

[508]Liverpool to Castlereagh, Oct. 28. Castlereagh Papers MSS.

[509]Liverpool to Castlereagh, Oct. 21, 1814. Ibid.

[510]Bathurst to Castlereagh, Oct. 21, 1814. Castlereagh Papers MSS.

[511]Castlereagh Papers MSS.

[512]Castlereagh to Sir H. Wellesley, Sept. 9, 1814. Memoirs, series iii. vol. ii. p. 112.

[513]Liverpool to Castlereagh, Nov. 2, 1814. Castlereagh Papers MSS.

[514]Wellington to Liverpool, Nov. 9, 1814. Castlereagh Memoirs, series iii. vol. ii. p. 187.

[515]Castlereagh to Wellington, Nov. 21, 1814. Castlereagh Memoirs, series iii. vol. ii. p. 205.

[516]Wellington to Liverpool, Nov. 7 and 9, 1814. Ibid., pp. 186, 190.

[517]Liverpool to Castlereagh, Nov. 4, 1814. Castlereagh MSS.

[518]Wellington to Liverpool, Nov. 18, 1814. Castlereagh Letters, series iii. vol. ii. p. 203.

[519]Wellington to Liverpool, Nov. 9, 1814. Castlereagh Memoirs, series iii. vol. ii. p. 189.

[520]Liverpool to Castlereagh, Nov. 18, 1814. Castlereagh MSS.

[521]Bathurst to the commissioners, Dec. 6, 1814. Castlereagh Memoirs, series iii. vol. ii. p. 214.

[522]American State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol. iii. p. 735.

[523]Castlereagh Memoirs, series iii. vol. ii. p. 188.

[524]Liverpool to Castlereagh, Nov. 18, 1814. Castlereagh MSS.

[525]Ibid., Dec. 23, 1814. Castlereagh MSS.

[526]The contemporary name of the political party to which Jefferson, Madison, and Gallatin belonged.

[527]Writings of Gallatin, May 7, 1816, vol. i. p. 700.

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