been in a considerable
degree suspended. The Admiralty replied that the only certain
protection was by convoy. This they were ready to supply but could not
compel, for the Convoy Act did not apply to trade between ports of
the United Kingdom.

This was the offensive return made by America's right arm of national
safety; the retort to the harrying of the Chesapeake, and of Long
Island Sound, and to the capture and destruction of Washington. But,
despite the demonstrated superiority of a national navy, on the whole,
for the infliction of such retaliation, even in the mere matter of
commerce destroying,--not to speak of confidence in national prowess,
sustained chiefly by the fighting successes at sea,--this weighty blow
to the pride and commerce of Great Britain was not dealt by the
national Government; for the national Government had gone to war
culpably unprepared. It was the work of the people almost wholly,
guided and governed by their own shrewdness and capacity; seeking,
indeed, less a military than a pecuniary result, an indemnity at the
expense of the enemy for the loss to which they had been subjected by
protracted inefficiency in administration and in statesmanship on the
part of their rulers. The Government sat wringing its hands, amid the
ruins of its capital and the crash of its resources; reaping the
reward of those wasted years during which, amid abounding warning, it
had neglected preparation to meet the wrath to come. Monroe, the
Secretary of State, writing from Washington to a private friend, July
3, 1814, said, "Even in this state, the Government shakes to the
foundation. Let a strong force land anywhere, and what will be the
effect?" A few months later, December 21, he tells Jefferson, "Our
finances are in a deplorable state. The means of the country have
scarcely yet been touched, yet we have neither money in the Treasury
nor credit."[257] This statement was abundantly confirmed by a
contemporary official report of the Secretary of the Treasury. At the
end of the year, Bainbridge, commanding the Boston navy yard, wrote
the Department, "The officers and men of this station are really
_suffering_ for want of pay due them, and articles now purchased for
the use of the navy are, in consequence of payment in treasury notes,
enhanced about thirty per cent. Yesterday we had to discharge one
hundred seamen, and could not pay them a cent of their wages. The
officers and men have neither money, clothes, nor c