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ESSAY 
 
 ON THE 
 
 Influence of the War of 1812 
 
 IN THE 
 
 C0W^0LIDi\Ti0pI OF TpE UJfllOW. 
 
 W. T. LA WS O N, 
 
 Class of ’82, 
 
 COLUMBIA COLLEGE, NEW YORK. 
 

 I 
 
 
 
 
ESSAY 
 
 5 o 
 
 o 
 
 Very few of the present generation have any just conception 
 of the great changes which were wro ught in the nat ure and 
 politic al character of the United States by the War of 181 2. In 
 fact, the history of that conflict, which made the American 
 people a nation, is almost forgotten in the splendor of the 
 more imposing events which, in peace and in war, have since 
 then illustrated the progress of the republic to imperial great- 
 ness. Those who have been dazzled by the victories of the 
 Mexican War and the great deeds of Grant and Lee and 
 of Sherman and Stonewall Jackson can hardly discover the 
 misty forms of the captains who seventy years ago led the 
 American armies to victory after victory over the British and 
 their savage allies; and Perry, and Hull, and Decatur, and Law- 
 rence are forgotteu in the achievements of Farragut. Yet it 
 was the War of 1812 which made possible t he co n que sts of 
 Taylor and Scott , and gave to the Government that strength 
 which upheld and preserved the Union and made Grant Presi- 
 dent of an unbroken, republic. Though the War of 1812 wa s 
 inconc lusive in that the treaty of peace which terminated 
 it did not formally establish the princ iples for the mainte- 
 nance of which it had been waged by the United S tates : and 
 t hough, to the superficial observer, it may seem to have been 
 u nhappily begun and ingloriously ended, it was, in fact, 
 a most fortunate event, for it converted a Confederation of 
 thir teen discordant States into a Union whic h is now the ob- 
 ject of. reverence and affection, and laid broad and deep the 
 foundations of its prosperity and grandeur. 
 
4 
 
 In simple truth, the Union which we know — that thorough 
 and complete Union of all the States which to-day has almost 
 effaced State lines and made the United States one great com- 
 monwealth, one republic, one nation — hardly existed except in 
 theory and in the semblance of a government on the 18th 
 of June, 1812, when war was declared against Great Britain. 
 
 To ascertain the truth of this statement there is need only 
 to glance at the history of the Union, and the condition of the 
 country from the end of the Revolutionary War to the begin- 
 ning of Madison’s administration in 1809 — a period seemingly 
 uneventful, and but little known and understood to-day. 
 
 When, having done this, we shall compare the Union of that 
 day with that which existed in 1846, when the war with 
 Mexico was begun, we can discern the great and beneficent or- 
 ganic changes which were wrought in the Union by_the War of 
 1812, and also the unifying, consolidating, and nation alizing 
 forces which were set in motion by that war, forces which have 
 b een consta ntly operating since then with increas ing vitality 
 andjmergy. It is to these forces, indeed, that we owe the war 
 with Mexico, the immense acquisition of territory resulting 
 from that war ; above all, we discover in them that strength 
 and power of the National Government, and that devotion 
 of the people to the Union, which together triumphed over 
 secession and made* us what we are — a homogeneous and 
 united people — 
 
 “Distinct as the waves; but one as the sea.” 
 
 Clearly recognizing the changes which were wrought in the 
 political structure of the Union by the War of 1812, we shall try 
 to ascertain how these changes were brought about and how 
 the war produced them. 
 
 The treaty of peace by which Great Britain acknowledged 
 its rebellious colonies to be free, sovereign, and independent 
 was signed on the 3d of September, 1783. During the war 
 the colonies had been held together under the Articles of 
 Confederation, and by common dangers and necessities. 
 
5 
 
 When, however, war — the vivifying and solidifying influence 
 which gave strength to the Articles of Confederation — ceased, 
 the colonies began to fall apart, and men could no longer say 
 in the patriotic words of Patrick Henry, “The distinctions 
 “ between Virginians, Pennsylvanians, New Yorkers, and New 
 “ Englanders are no more. I am not a Virginian ; I am an 
 ‘ •' Am erican . ” 
 
 Those disti nctions no t fenlv existed , but they became broader 
 and deeper ev ery day, as the d iffe rences in the character, and 
 pursuits, and i nterests of the i nha bi tan ts of the several colonies 
 b ecame mo re pronounced and antagonistic. The Congress— 
 which was the Government, the only external symbol of the 
 Union of the States, and the only depository of the powers con* 
 ferred upon the General Government by the Articles of Con- 
 federation— was fast sinking into contempt. Its own members 
 had become indifferent to their duties, and so remiss in their 
 attendance upon its sessions that it was often impossible to get 
 a quorum for the transaction of business. 
 
 Imbecility on the part of a government always and inevita- 
 bly leads to the assumption of its functions by unauthorized 
 individuals or associations; for, in all civilized societies there 
 are duties to be discharged by some governing power, and if 
 these duties be not discharged by those upon whom they are 
 lawfully devolved they will be undertaken by others. This is 
 exemplified in lynch law and vigilance committees, and in 
 mining camps and other forms of provisional government. 
 
 The growing impotence and incapacity of the Congress 
 under the Articles of Confederation encouraged the several 
 States, and, indeed, associations of individuals in different 
 States also, to usurp its unused powers, to perform its neglected 
 duties, and to arrogate to themselves other powers — all of 
 which were exercised for the advantage of the usurpers, and 
 not for the common good of all the States. 
 
 The tendency and the immediate influence of these usurpa- 
 tions were to widen the breach between the States and to 
 
6 
 
 hasten the complete disruption of the ties of sentiment and 
 policy which had held them together during the struggle for 
 independence. 
 
 Not only was the Confederation in process of rapid disin- 
 tegration, but the States themselves began to disintegrate. 
 The western counties of North Carolina separated themselves 
 from the rest of that State, and proceeded to organize into a 
 new State to which they gave the name of Frankland. Ken- 
 tucky declared its independence of Virginia, to whom it right- 
 fully belonged. Maine tried to throw off the authority of 
 Massachusetts. Nor was this all. In nearly every State 
 Committees of Public Safety were formed and threatened to 
 usurp the powers of the State Governments; whilst in Massa- 
 chusetts there was an armed rebellion known in history as 
 Shays’s Rebellion. From the impending ruin the Union was 
 saved by the Conv enti on which met in Philadelphia in 1787. 
 Then was framed that Constitution the adoption of which by 
 the several States transformed the dying Confederation into 
 what has proved to be a living and indestructible Union of 
 States. The first Congress under this Constitu tion met at 
 New York on the Gth of April, 1789, and the new Govern- 
 ment was finally put in operation on the 30th of April by the 
 inauguration of the first President, George Washington. 
 
 That the Union thus formed and established was “more per- 
 fect” than that which had theretofore existed is plain enough; 
 but it was made still more complete by the consummate 
 wisdom, the lofty patriotism, and the unrivaled statesmanship 
 of the men who founded and organized the new Government 
 and administered it during the first decade of its existence. 
 Yet i t was a combination of political organizations rather 
 than a union of peoples ; something devised to secure peace at 
 home, to prevent foreign domination, and chiefly to develop 
 and protect commerce and trade; it had no root in the hearts 
 of the people, who had again become New Englanders, New 
 Yorkers, and Virginians, and had ceased to be Americans. It 
 
7 
 
 was a Union as unlike the Union of to-day as the England of 
 Alfred was unlike the England of Victoria. 
 
 The stre ngth of any political compact is based, not upon its 
 conditions and stipulations, but upon the affection and respect 
 of those who are governed by it; it is founded upon those com- 
 plex feelings which Ave call patriotism. 
 
 No such sentiment brought together the Convention of 1787. 
 No such feeling induced the several States to adopt the Con- 
 stitution which that Convention framed. No such feeling 
 bound together the States which Avere united under that Con- 
 stitution. 
 
 Yet, under the benign influence of Washington the Union 
 began to win the admiration, the confidence, and the affection 
 of the people. Men began to perceive its beneficent influences, 
 and to feel that it promoted their individual interests and the 
 common good. It had, however, none of that sacred character 
 with which a century has since clothed it. Its dissolution Avas 
 contemplated without anxiety, and there Avere many who Avere 
 open and earnest disunion! sts. 
 
 With the accession of Adams to the Presidency in 1797 
 parties Avliich had kept silent in the august presence of Wash- 
 ington sprang into conflict — the one under the leadership of 
 the President, the other under that of Jefferson. The enact- 
 ment of the Alien and Sedition Iuavs by the Federalist majority 
 in Congress enraged and alarmed the Republicans; Virginia 
 and Kentucky at once declared through their Legislatures that 
 those acts Avere unconstitutional, and they called upon the 
 other States to co-operate Avith them in “maintaining unim- 
 “ paired the authorities, rights, and liberties reserved to the 
 “ States respectively and to the people;” and Virginia folloAved 
 up these declarations with actual preparation of the means 
 for supporting them Avith force. 
 
 Happily, by a change of administration, carrying Avith it 
 a change of governmental policy, by the election of Jefferson 
 to the Presidency in 1800, a peaceful revolution Avas effected, 
 
 - 
 
and all fancied justification for a resort to arms was taken 
 away. There was then a lull for a few years. But when the. 
 United States purchased the Territory of Louisiana from 
 France (30th of April, 1803,) the storm burst forth as 
 furiously as ever. 
 
 The Federalists, whose strength lay chiefly in the North, 
 opposed with all their power the acquisition of this immense 
 territory. They thought that they saw in it the establishment 
 of the supremacy of the South, and consequent ruin to the 
 trade and commerce and other interests of the North. George 
 Cabot, a distinguished citizen of Massachusetts, who had 
 represented that State in the United States Senate, held it to 
 be sufficient reason for the dissolution of the Union. Timothy 
 Pickering also threw all of his great influence in favor of the 
 peaceable secession of the Northern States from a Union 
 which they could no longer hope to control. On the 24th 
 of December, 1803, writing to a friend, he says : 
 
 “ I will not despair. I will rather anticipate a new confederacy, ex- 
 “empt from the corrupt and corrupting influence of the aristocratic 
 1 ‘ democrats of the South. There will he (and our children at farthest will 
 “see it) a separation. The white and black population will mark the 
 “ boundary.” 
 
 These were the feelings and opinions of an undoubted pa- 
 troit — a New England patriot who loved Massachusetts and 
 all New England, a man who had fought for the independ- 
 ence of the States, who had for years held high office in the 
 Federal Government, and had been the confidential adviser of 
 Washington, but who believed that the acquisition of the Ter- 
 ritory of Louisiana would give to the South a preponderance 
 in the Union which would be fatal to the prosperity of his 
 own section. 
 
 Another New England Senator said : “ Admit this western 
 “ world into the Union and you destroy at once the weight and 
 “ importance of the Eastern States and compel them to estab- 
 lish a separate, independent empire.” . 
 
 The fact that such sentiments were openly and constantly 
 
9 
 
 expressed and did not provoke any indignant dissent shows 
 that they were not only generally entertained, but that “ love of 
 the Union ” was a very feeble sentiment in the hearts of men 
 ■ — that our nationality Avas in a strictly rndimental condition, 
 that there was not yet an American people, and that the peo- 
 ple of the States Avere still very loosely bound together. 
 
 But, also, at this period of our history the malcontents did 
 not stop at Avords. They not only expressed their wishes for 
 a dissolution of the Union, but devised formal plans to ac- 
 complish that object. As a first step, they undertook to dis- 
 rupt the Republican party in New York. Aaron Burr was 
 made the candidate of the Federalists, and of his wing of the 
 Republican party, for Governor of New York. But this scheme 
 Avas thwarted by Alexander Hamilton; Burr Avas defeated, and, 
 as ahvays happens, the coalitionists Avere temporarily ruined 
 by the failure of their intrigue. Yet the antagonism bettveen 
 the sections lost nothing of its strength and bitterness, and 
 the strife Avas soon to be reneAved more fiercely than ever. It 
 reached its climax during the closing year of Jefferson’s ad- 
 ministration, Avlien the maritime States of the North, driven 
 to desperation by the ruinous operation of the embargo, seemed 
 about ready to resist the further execution of that disastrous 
 measure by force of arms. Jefferson gave way. The embargo 
 Avas raised and the danger averted. 
 
 In 1811. ensued a fierce struggle betAveen the sections for the 
 possession of the Federal Government. The point then i n 
 controversy was the admission of Louisiana into the Union as 
 a State. In the course of the debates which took place in 
 Congress threats of a dissolution of the Union by the seces- 
 sion of the Northern States were constantly made. We find 
 them calmly and boldly uttered in the following extract from 
 a speech of Josiali Quincy, a man of eminent ability and 
 patriotism : 
 
 “If this bill passes it is my deliberate opinion that it is virtually a 
 “dissolution of this Union ; that it will free the States from their moral 
 
10 
 
 “ obligations, and, as it will be the right of all, so it will be the duty of 
 “some, definitely to prepare for a separation, amicably if they can, 
 “violently if they must.” 
 
 Mr. Quincy was called to order. The Speaker, Mr. Varnum, 
 of Massachusetts, decided that the suggestion of a dissolution 
 of the Union was out of order. From this decision an appeal 
 was taken to the House, and the decision was reversed, show- 
 ing that in the opinion of a majority of the members of the 
 House the dissolution of the Union was a debatable question. 
 
 While these were the feelings and sentiments of the States 
 upon the Atlantic seaboard, similar feelings and sentiments 
 were to be found among the new States of the West. The 
 mysterious expedition of Aaron Burr lacked neither sympathy 
 nor followers in the Mississippi Valley, and the newspapers of 
 Ohio argued strongly in favor of the separation of the Western 
 States from the Union. 
 
 At the same time the contempt in which the Government at 
 Washington was held by foreign powers is illustrated by the 
 mischievous schemes of Citizen Genet for the organization in 
 North Carolina and Georgia of an expedition against the 
 Spanish colony of Florida, and the projection of a like move- 
 ment from Kentucky against New Orleans. 
 
 It thus appears that the Union as it existed in 1813 was 
 a mer e confederation of sovereign States, loosely bound together 
 by purely selfish interests, by the fancied necessities of trade, 
 by their fears of foreign domination, and by little , else. He 
 was still a patriot who loved his own State or section and none 
 other; who was readiest to promote the welfare of his own 
 section at the expense of the others, who loved Massachusetts 
 and Virginia, and distrusted and intrigued against the Union, 
 or denounced it openly and sought its dissolution. 
 
 How different such a Union from that of to day — a Union 
 so complete, so firmly bound together, that the greatest rebel- 
 lion that history records could not dissolve it, could not disrupt 
 it, could not even weaken it ! What has wrought this great 
 
ii 
 
 change in the Government of our fathers ? How did the War 
 of 1812 help to do it ? 
 
 War was declared on the 18th of June, 1812 — a date which 
 marks the transfer of the Federal Government from the gener- 
 ation which achieved our independence and established the 
 Union to a generation which had grown to manhood, not un- 
 der the crown of England, but under the flag of the re- 
 public. T he r epeated insults heaped by Great Britain upon 
 th at flag during the preceding four or five years, the brutal 
 attack of the Leopard upon the Chesapeake, the insolent claim 
 of Great Britain to board our war vessels and search them for 
 d ese rters, the undisguised conte mpt of both that country and 
 France for the pusillanimous young republic which had been 
 weakly pav ing tribute to the piratical Barbary States, at last 
 fired the hearts and aroused the patriotism of this new genera- 
 tion. This outburst of indignant patriotic feeling found 
 fit leaders in two young men — Henry Clay and John Caldwell 
 Calhoun — the one endowed with matchless eloquence and a 
 mastering will, the other with resistless logic and the loftiest 
 character, both Americans, every inch Americans, and filled 
 with the most ardent love of their country and with a fervent 
 devotion to the Union of the States. 
 
 With their advent upon the scene of action as the leaders of 
 the war party begins the real history of the American people 
 and the firm and lasting establishment of the American Union. 
 Backed by George Clinton, of Hew York, and James Monroe, 
 of Virginia, these, young Americans forced Mr. Madiso n, the 
 P resident, to ad vise C on g ress to declare war, and, in spite 
 of t he fierce a nd determined opposition of the Federalists and 
 the Peace Republicans, they carried that measu re triump h antly 
 thro ugh ■■Congres s, and by that act welded the Union indis- 
 solubly together. 
 
 It was the W ar of 1812 which thus gave the control o f 
 the Federal Government into the hands of Americans, as 
 distinguished from Virginians, and Hew Englanders, and Hew 
 
 
12 
 
 Yorkers, and which drove from public life every man whose 
 fidelity to the Union was not unquestioned and unquestionable. 
 The stigma left by the mysterious Hartford Convention was 
 sufficient for the political ruin of its members, and the words 
 “ Blue-light Federalist” became a term of political opprobrium. 
 
 The events of the war quickly brought into conspicuous 
 action a host of other young men whose eloquence and wisdom 
 in the council chamber, and brilliant achievements on the high 
 seas and on the battlefield, inflamed the hearts of the people 
 everywhere and roused the whole country to the highest pitch 
 of patriotic enthusiasm. Clay, and Calhoun, and Clinton, and 
 Monroe were no longer distinct from the throng of statesmen and 
 soldiers and captains who stood by their side in the defense of the 
 honor of the Union. The country then passed into the keep- 
 ing, and remained for a generation under the guardianship, of 
 Clay, Clinton, Calhoun, Monroe, John Quincy Adams, Daniel 
 1). Tompkins, William Henry Harrison, Lawrence, Decatur, 
 Perry, Lewis Cass, Winfield Scott, Andrew Jackson, and their 
 adherents. 
 
 The War of 1812 would have contributed more largely to 
 create a nation than any one event in our earlier history had 
 it done nothing more than bring these true patriots before the 
 public eye, and lift them into the high places of Government — 
 men who had awakened by their ardor, and had made imperish. 
 able by their achievements, a love of country coextensive with 
 its domain, and thus had shaped the fortunes of this continent. 
 
 It did, however, something more. It ma de the States a 
 nation in interests, in associations, in sentiment — a nation 
 f ree .fr om the entanglements of European politics, with a Navy 
 strong enough to maintain its neutrality, to protects its foreign 
 commerce, and to defend its rights upon the seas ; and with an 
 Army which, though it had passed through shameful disasters, 
 had dis tinguished itself finally in Scott’s brilliant achievements 
 and in the crowning victory of the war at New Orleans. The 
 war ta ught the people to love the Union, for were not Tippe- 
 
13 
 
 canoe, and Lundy’s Lane, and New Orleans, and the victories 
 of our young Navy the common heritage of all ? Neither 
 Scott, nor Clay, nor Adams, nor Calhoun, nor Tompkins, nor 
 Clinton sought to confer invidious honors upon the com- 
 munities, the States, from which they came, but dutifully 
 wreathed their blended offerings in an aureole for the majestic 
 front of young Columbia. 
 
 In the blaze of patriotism which was enkindled in the hearts 
 of all disunionism and secessionism and sectionalism were 
 utterly consumed, and for, years b oth North and South forgo t 
 t heir r ivalries and antagonisms, their selfish interests, and their 
 ignorant prejudices. The cardinal principles of the Federal . 
 party — the preservation and perpetuity of the Federal Govern- 
 ment — had been quietly accepted and adopted by the Republi- 
 cans, while the Republican principle of limiting the powers 
 and duties of the Federal Government had been adopted by the 
 Federalists when the Federal Government had fallen into 
 Republican hands. The whole pe ople composed one party 
 whose principles were neither those of the original Federal 
 nor t hose of the original Repu blican party, but a combination 
 of both, and the country rejoiced in that “era of good feel- 
 ing” which makes the administration of James Monroe mem- 
 orable in our annals. 
 
 Thus, while we regard the change wrought by the war in the 
 sentiments and affections of the people — the birth of patriotic 
 devotion to the Union — as an important result of the war, there 
 were other results hardly less important. 
 
 To the States then, as now, was largely committed the pro- 
 tection of the life and liberty and property of the citizen. It 
 had been hoped by the Republicans and feared by the Federal- 
 ists that the several States would continue to be the fountains 
 of honor and profit, and that the General Government, having 
 comparatively little patronage, and dealing only with the less 
 important interests of the people, would never attract to its 
 service its abler and more ambitious citizens, or win the affec- 
 tion of the people from their local organizations, 
 
14 
 
 But the wa r mul t i pli ed an hundred -fold the powers and 
 o pportunities of the National Government and. made it the 
 very source of honor, emolument, and distinction. Its 
 strength, aside from, its indirect influences, never seemed great 
 or potential until it was developed by the war. To it hoav the 
 patriotic and the nobly ambitious, as well as those greedy for 
 power and pelf, looked for the gratification of their desires. 
 Every officer in the Army, every officer in the Navy, every 
 soldier and sailor, fought its battles and drew its pay; every 
 contractor courted its favor and grew rich upon its bounty, 
 and every man who administered the Government, from the 
 President down to the humblest clerk, every Senator, every 
 Representative, every Minister to a foreign court — afl _ the se 
 thought, and worked, and fought for the Union, and so 
 learned to love it and to make it worthy of the love of their 
 countrymen, respected abroad and revered at home. 
 
 Every departm ent of the Federal Government was strength- 
 ened by the war; not only the executive and legislative depart- 
 ments, but the judicial as well. The vast increase in the busi- 
 ness of the Federal courts, growing out of the decision of the 
 admiralty cases brought into them by the fo rtunes of war , and 
 which during the next decade occupied so great a space in their 
 reports, drew the attenti on of the country to the learning, the 
 ability, and the integrity of the eminent judges who presided 
 over them and made them thenceforth the chosen forum for 
 most of the important cases over which they had concurrent 
 jurisdiction with the State courts. And f rom that time to 
 this they have been steadily and rapidly widening their juris- 
 diction and increasing their power, until now, their importance 
 which before the War of 1812 was insignificant, equals, and 
 perhaps exceeds, that of the State tribunals. And this very 
 fact strengthens the Federal judiciary still more by attracting 
 to its bench the ablest, the most learned, and the purest men 
 in the land, thereby endowing it with a moral force equal to 
 its actual power over the persons and property of fifty millions 
 
15 
 
 of people — a power which is molding the laws and shaping 
 the institutions and transforming the Government, not only 
 of our generation, hut for generations to come. 
 
 The legislative department felt the invigorating influence of 
 the war as sensibly, and perhaps more sensibly, than the judi- 
 cial. The duties of Congress became all-impor tant, an d every 
 m an of abili tv-who longed to serve his country, or to win for 
 himself a name, saw Unit it was in the councils of the Union 
 that lie -must seek for the attainment of his purpose, and not 
 in the provincial Legislature of New York or Virginia, of 
 Massachusetts or of Georgia. Hence Washington became the 
 centre of the Union, and thither turned the eyes and hearts of 
 American politicians and statesmen. Every subject of legis- 
 lation which had before attracted its attention occupied it in a 
 still greater degree now, and new measures of transcendent im- 
 portance began to give to its deliberations an interest which they 
 had never before possessed, and which made it the cynosure of 
 every eye. How trivial seemed the commonplace deliberations 
 of the State Legislatures, with their petty interests, compared 
 with the deliberations of a Congress which had in its hands 
 t he issues of -peace and war, which was raising and equipping 
 armies and navies, and controlling the destinies of a continent; 
 which was levying taxes, to carry. on a great military contest ; 
 which was disbursing tens of millions of dollars ; which next 
 had to consider the terms of peace ; and which, after the con- 
 clusion of hostilities, had before it those vital questions of 
 finance which a costly war had left for solution — treaties with 
 powerful Indian tribes ; the settlement of the foundations of 
 society in the boundless West, legislation made necessary by 
 the victories of Harrison, and Jackson, and Shelby; the begin- 
 ning of those great works of internal improvement to which 
 the West owes its unparalleled growth in population and in 
 wealth — and other subjects of equal weight ! All th is. ga ve t o 
 the legislative department of the Government a power and an 
 influence^ utterly unknown before the war, an importance 
 
16 
 
 which was greatly increased by the character of the men 
 whom these vital matters brought into its councils. The 
 dignity, the power, the supremacy, thus conferred upon Con- 
 gress have never been lost, but have grown with the growth of 
 the country and with the magnitude of the interests confided 
 to Congressional discretion. 
 
 But it was the executive department which re ce ived the 
 greatest accession of power through the war. Then for the 
 first time the Preside nt seemed to be clothed with a new 
 quality which almost equaled the dictatorial powers of the 
 Roman Consuls when the Senate decreed that they should see 
 that no detriment came to the republic. 
 
 The patronage of the President was enormously increased 
 not only by the multiplication of the Army and Navy lists, 
 and by the i mmense increase of the civil list, but also by the 
 firm grasp he was enabled to take of the purse and the sword — 
 not the light purse which the liberty-loving Jefferson had so 
 sedulously kept empty, nor the harmless sword which that 
 hater of tyrants was beating into a pruning-hoolc, but a purse 
 filled with the proceeds of heavy taxes and a high tariff, and 
 the two-edged sword of the Army and Navy. 
 
 The Treasury became a resistless power through the multi- 
 tude of persons who were employed in the collection and 
 disbursement of the revenues which the war made necessary, 
 and in the management of the finances of a nation which was 
 organizing, and supplying, and equipping an Army, building 
 and supporting a Navy, and waging war on land and on sea 
 against Great Britain, Canada, and the savage Indians of the 
 Son th and West. 
 
 The Army, which was at the outset of the war, insignificant 
 in numbers, poorly armed, and badly officered, was largely in- 
 creased, and, before the war ended, had become well-disciplined 
 soldiers, and, under the leadership of Scott and of Jackson, 
 was able to cope successfully with the veterans of Great 
 Britain. It added incalculably to the pomer of t he President, 
 
17 
 
 who was its Commander-in-Chief, who commissioned its 
 
 its. movements, and wielded its strength. 
 
 The Navy, .contributed s till more to the power of the Presi- 
 dent andJxLtke. prestige. of the Union. Tt. can hardly be said 
 to hav e existed , befor e, the War of 1812. It is true that a 
 Navy Department had been organized in 1792, and our seamen 
 had won glory in the war with Tripoli, but the President, Mr. 
 Jefferson, wisely regarding it as one of the strongest elements 
 of national power, and a constant danger to the States, began 
 to break it up as soon as the Tripolitan War was concluded, 
 and had almost crushed it out of existence before his term of 
 office expired. The War of 1812 called it into being again, 
 created it anew, and whitened the ocean with its sails. 
 Decatur, Lawrence, Perry and their dashing comrades by the 
 splendor of their achievements effaced the shame which was 
 brought upon the Union by its armies during the first year of 
 the war. The Navy became, the pride and the glory of the 
 people, and it was pre-eminently the Navy of the Union. 
 The Army, whose defeats and disgraces were so keenly felt, 
 was composed largely of the Militia of the several States, but 
 the Navy belonged to no State — it was the creature of the 
 Union. Whatever shame there was might be chargeable to 
 the States, while the glory belonged to the Union. 
 
 The Navy is pre-eminently loyal to the Union, its officers 
 are unfalteringly true to their flag. Army officers seldom lose 
 interest in the fortunes of their States because they are never 
 wholly separated from them, but the officers and men of the 
 Navy, living under the flag, bearing it over every sea, and into 
 every foreign port, isolated from the communities in which 
 they were born and reared, forget their States in their devotion 
 to the flag of the Union, and cease to be anything but Ameri- 
 cans. They, therefore, are peculiarly obedient to the will and 
 the wishes of the President, who is at once their Commander- 
 in-Chief and the impersonation of their country. It is this 
 
18 
 
 which makes the Navy more dangerous to the liberties of the 
 republic than is the Army, and at the same time a surer 
 defense to the extent of its ability. 
 
 I n a more natural way the war did much to consolidate the 
 Union and to bind it fast together. The experience of the 
 time had shown the absolute necessity for making military 
 roads through every part of the country, and to this fact is 
 due the inauguration of the system of internal improvements 
 —the making of roads, plain dirt roads at first, then mac- 
 adamized pikes, then the complex net-work of railroads, which 
 last saved the Union in the war of secession, and now binds 
 every part of the country to the other by the lasting ties of 
 interest, neighborhood, and constant intercourse. 
 
 To the War of 1812 we also owe the conversion of New . 
 England into a manufacturing. Union-loving community. 
 Prior to the war many of its people, who were then chiefly 
 engaged in shipping and commerce, felt that the Federal 
 Government, which was controlled b} r the agricultural States 
 of the South, was a curse rather than a blessing to them, and 
 many of the purest and most patriotic statesmen of that sec- 
 tion felt that its highest interest would be subserved by its 
 withdrawal from the Union. The war increased the demand 
 for home prod ucts and cut off foreign imports and competi- 
 tion, and though the stimulus to manufacturing industry 
 was fitful and uncertain, the enterprises then established exist 
 to this day. The capital and energies which had been em- 
 ployed in shipping and commerce were set free and diverted 
 to manufactures. Protected by the absolutely prohibitory 
 tariff that the war established, from that hour to this New 
 Englanders have felt the blessings of the Union, and have 
 been among its most eminent and bravest defenders. 
 
 But, after all, the most important result of the war was the 
 acquisit ion of the exclusive right to the navigation of the 
 Mississippi River. It is not too much to say that the Union 
 exists to-day because the people of the West would not con- 
 
19 
 
 sent that the control of the traffic of the greatest river of the 
 continent and the world should be divided with any other 
 power, whether European or American. It is the st rongest of all 
 the material bonds which hold the States together in an in- 
 dissoluble Union. No one who understands clearly the forces 
 which prevented the dissolution of the Union in 1861 will 
 hesitate to say that of all those forces the Mississippi River 
 was the most powerful. At the time of the declaration of the 
 war in 1812 Great Britain was entitled to the free navigation 
 of the Mississippi River under the treaties of 1763, 1783, 1794. 
 The, War of '12 consumed the treaties, and the American Com- 
 missioners who negotiated the treaty of Client were urged by 
 the representatives of the Crown, month after month, to con- 
 cede the continuance of the privilege to Great Britain in re- 
 turn for fishing privileges to be granted to the United States. 
 To this entreaty Henry Clay would never listen. Sustained 
 by the President, the concession was firmly refused, and the 
 Union becam e entit led to the exclusive navigation of the 
 great river. According to Prof. Guyot the area drained by it 
 and its tributaries is 1,244,000 square miles. Never before in 
 the world's history had commerce upon so grand a scale, and 
 through regions so vast, differing widely in soil, climate and 
 c onditi on, been f reed from restriction. Before the purchase 
 of Louisiana the partial control of this great highway by 
 France and Spain successively had occasioned serious and 
 alarming discontent among the people of the West, and was 
 the stimulating influence that gave life and vigor to the 
 schemes of Aaron Burr and the machinations of Genet. When 
 Great Britain, in 1814, sent the brother-in-law of Wellington, 
 Sir Edward Packenham, and his Peninsular veterans to capture 
 New Orleans, the inspiring motive was to seize and hold the 
 mouth of the Mississippi, and thereby deal a deadly blow at the 
 growth and power of the country. The victory of the 8th of 
 January, 1815, thwarted this far-reaching scheme, and con- 
 firmed to the Union the most productive region of the globe. 
 
20 
 
 The Congress of the Confederate States also early under- 
 stood the value and importance of the great river and the 
 difficult problem its commerce presented, and among the earlr 
 est and wisest enactments of that body was a law by which 
 the free navigation of the stream was dedicated to all Ameri- 
 cans. 
 
 This policy was intended to remove -one cause of assured 
 hostility, and placate the inhabitants of the North Western 
 States. These fertile regions had been settled by men from 
 the older States of the Union. They left their former State 
 love behind them in the homes of their youth. The time had 
 been too short to awaken a fresh pride in the young common- 
 wealths of their new residence, and on the banks of the mon- 
 arch stream they became the hardy sons of the Union and its 
 most stalwart defenders. Pouring along its course from 
 Itasca to the Gulf a tide of valor as resistless as its own waters, 
 they cleaved in twain the dominion of the Confederate States, 
 and gave to the Union the first and most important victories 
 in the war for its preservation. 
 
 All those centralizing and nationalizing forces are still at 
 work, givin g to the General Government ajn expan sion of 
 power which the extending area of the country and its grow- 
 ing population and wealth and diversified interests make 
 necessary for the common good. Great as these forces are, 
 they would not have sufficed to hold the Union together if it 
 had not become en shrined in the hearts of the ne oole 
 by the blessings it has conferred upon all classes and 
 conditions of men. T he War of 1812 m ade it a real entity 
 and not a mere political expression. What was there in its 
 history prior to that time to excite the imaginations, to arouse 
 the pride, to stir the hearts, and to win the affections of its 
 people ? No genuinely patriotic feeling could thrive in the 
 midst of the controversies which agitated the country during 
 the administrations of Adams and Jefferson ; it could not find 
 kindly soil or a friendly atmosphere amid the stormy passions 
 
21 
 
 of that period which brought forth the Alien and Sedition 
 laws, the resolutions of ’98 and ’99, the quarrels of Hamilton 
 and Burr, and Burr’s conspiracy and trial, or in the antagon- 
 isms which then began to array section against section. 
 
 But the war change d all this. The flag of the Union was 
 no longer an unmeaning thing. It became lustrous with the 
 victories of Scott, and Jackson, and Harrison, of Decatur and 
 Perry. It became a sym bol of a country able and willing to 
 p rotec t its citizens ; a country honored abroad and worthy to 
 be loved at home. 
 
 In its stipulations and agreements, as has been said, the 
 Union as it existed before the war of 1812 remains substan- 
 tially unchanged ; but as the Rhine upon which Caesar looked 
 is unlike the Rhine of the nineteenth century, clad with those 
 varied charms with which history and romance and legend 
 and story have invested its people and its scenery, so is trans- 
 figured the great republic of the West, its glories “thick 
 inlaid,” its resplendent history filled with deeds of greatness, 
 its banner fretted with innumerable stars, and its indestructi- 
 bility assured forever against “ domestic malice or foreign 
 levy.” 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
Sofum6ia College, JVew tJoH*. 
 SENIOR 0EA8S ESSAY, 1882,