ey's fleet on
Lake Champlain. Before the year closed and peace was proclaimed, Fort
Erie was evacuated, the stars and stripes were driven from Lake Ontario,
and all Canadian territory except Amherstburg was free from the invader.
The capital of the United States had been captured by the British and
its public buildings burned as a severe retaliation for the conduct of
the invading forces at York, Niagara, Moraviantown, St. David's and Port
Dover. Both combatants were by this time heartily tired of the war, and
terms of peace were arranged by the treaty of Ghent at the close of
1814; but before the news reached the south, General Jackson repulsed
General Packenham with heavy losses at New Orleans, and won a reputation
which made him president a few years later.

The maritime provinces never suffered from invasion, but on the contrary
obtained some advantages from the presence of large numbers of British
men-of-war in their seaports, and the expenditure on military and naval
supplies during the three years of war. Following the example of the
Canadas, the assemblies of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia voted large
sums of money and embodied the militia for active service or general
purposes of defence. The assembly of New Brunswick, essentially the
province of the Loyalists, declared in 1813 that the people were "ready
and determined to repel every aggression which the infatuated policy of
the American government may induce it to commit on the soil of New
Brunswick." But the war was so unpopular in the state of Maine and other
parts of New England that the provinces by the sea were comparatively
safe from aggression and conflict. Soon after the commencement of
hostilities the governors of Maine and New Brunswick issued
proclamations which prevented hostilities for two years along their
respective borders. In Nova Scotia there was much activity during the
war, and letters of marque were issued to privateers which made many
captures, and offered some compensation for the losses inflicted on the
coasting and fishing interests by the same class of American vessels. In
1814 it was decided by the imperial authorities to break the truce which
had practically left Maine free from invasion, and Sir John Sherbrooke,
then governor of Nova Scotia, and Rear-Admiral Griffith took possession
of Machias, Eastport, Moose, and other islands in Passamaquoddy Bay.

The people of the United States generally welcomed the end of a war
which brough