he President then
opened its batteries and in less than fifteen minutes had overpowered
the British corvette. To his surprise and disappointment, Rodgers then
learned that his antagonist was not the Guerriere, but the Little Belt,
a vessel far inferior to his own and carrying only twenty guns. When the
new British Minister arrived in Washington, he found the Administration
singularly indifferent to the historic Chesapeake affair. In the opinion
of the American public, the President had avenged the Chesapeake.

While Congress was vacillating between non-intercourse and partial
non-intercourse, in the early months of 1810, with a strong inclination
toward the path of least resistance, one voice was raised for war. Henry
Clay was then filling out an unexpired term in the Senate upon
appointment by the Governor of Kentucky. Born in Virginia, thirty-three
years before, he had sought his fortune as a young lawyer in the new
communities beyond the Alleghanies. Closely identified with the
aggressive spirit of his section, he voiced a growing sense of
humiliation that his country should be buffeted by every British
ministry. The people of Kentucky and Tennessee had little patience with
half measures in defense of national rights. The petty diplomacy of
closet statesmen did not appeal to the soul of the frontiersman who was
accustomed to hew his way to his goal. The people of this section,
imperial in its dimensions, were prepared for large tasks done in a bold
way. Their ideas of the Union transcended the policies of Eastern
statesmen, whose eyes saw no farther than the tops of the Alleghanies
and whose ears listened all too readily to the admonitions of European
chancellors. Clay spoke heatedly of the "ignominious surrender of our
rights"--heritage of the heroes of the Revolution. He would have
Congress exhibit the vigor of their forbears. "The conquest of Canada is
in your power," he cried. "I trust I shall not be deemed presumptuous
when I state that I verily believe that the militia of Kentucky alone
are competent to place Montreal and Upper Canada at your feet." This was
a new and unfamiliar style of oratory in the Senate of the United
States.

At this moment, however, the United States seemed far more likely to
acquire the Floridas than Canada. In the summer of 1810, Americans who
had crossed the border and settled in and around the district of West
Feliciana rose in revolt against the Spanish governor at Baton Rouge,
an