, go to the theatre where those
rights can be defended.... There the united wishes and exertions of the
nation will go with you. Even our party divisions, acrimonious as they
are, cease at the water's edge.... In protecting naval interests by
naval means, you will arm yourself with the whole power of national
sentiment, and may command the whole abundance of national forces."
Taking now in one view the events of those years, it is easy to see in
our generation how mad were Madison and his party to turn deaf ears to
such considerations as these. Their force and wisdom had already been
proved by eighteen months of disaster on land, which had made the war
daily more and more unpopular; and by brilliant success for a time at
sea, when each fresh victory was hailed with universal enthusiasm. "Our
little naval triumphs," was the President's way of speaking of the
latter; and the only importance he seems to have seen in them was, that
they excited some "rage and jealousy" in England and moved her to
increase her naval force. How could Mr. Madison expect that the whole
and not a part only of the nation could uphold an administration which,
after eighteen months of fighting, could be reproached on the floor of
Congress with not having launched a ship since the war was begun? Or did
he only choose to remember that the navy, which alone so far had brought
either success or honor to the national arms, was the creation of the
Federalists in spite of the Jeffersonian policy? It surely would have
been wiser to try to propitiate New England, with which he was in
perpetual worry and conflict, by enlisting it in a naval war in which it
had some faith. A large proportion of her people would have been glad to
escape idleness and poverty at home for service at sea, though they were
reluctant to aid in a vain attempt to conquer Canada.

[Illustration: _Battle of Lake Erie_]

Even to that purpose, however, Massachusetts contributed, in the second
campaign of 1814, more recruits than any other single State; and New
England more than all the Southern States together. New England could
have given no stronger proof of her loyalty, if only Mr. Madison had
known how to turn it to advantage. He was absolutely deaf and blind to
it; but his ears were quick to hear and his eyes to see, when he learned
presently that the New Englanders were seriously calculating the value
of the Union under such rule as they had had of late. It was not often
that he re