by a
narrow piece of wood. Having despatched this intelligence to Gen.
Brown, he advanced upon the enemy, and the action commenced at six
o'clock in the afternoon.... Gen. Scott had pressed through the
wood, and engaged the British on the Queenston road.... The battle
continued with little intermission, from six in the afternoon until
twelve at night.... Col. Miller's achievement, in storming the
battery, was of the most brilliant and hazardous nature; it was
decisive of the events of the battle, and entitled him and his corps
to the highest applause.... The battle was fought to the west of,
and within half a mile of the Niagara cataract. The thunder of the
cannon, the roaring of the falls, the incessant discharge of
musketry, the groans of the dying and wounded during the six hours
in which the parties were engaged in close combat, heightened by the
circumstance of its being night, afforded such a scene, as is rarely
to be met with, in the history of human slaughter. The evening was
calm, and the moon shone with lustre, when not enveloped in clouds
of smoke from the firing of the contending armies. Considering the
numbers engaged, few contests have ever been more sanguinary.

This was one of the most severe and bloody battles, which was fought
during the war. The British force engaged in this battle amounted to
5,000 men: many of their troops were selected from the flower of
Lord Wellington's army.]

The measures of the president relative to the war were of such a nature
as greatly to draw upon him the approbation and gratitude of the nation.
He early began to turn his mind to a contemplation of the general
politics of his country. He, therefore, became advanced in the requisite
qualifications to assume and maintain the important station he held over
it. He had imbibed an attachment for civil liberty almost from his
infancy, which influenced his every action. He was of a pacific
temperament, and pursued those measures as long as they would answer.
But when it became actually necessary for him to recommend to congress
to pursue a different course, it was then that the benefactor of his
country endeavoured to concert measures still to preserve America as an
asylum for civil and religious liberty. He possessed qualities well
calculated to fulfil the duties of his high station with honour to
himself and justice to the community. He was dignified in his
deportment, kind, genero