hope
of conquest was undisguised. "Agrarian cupidity," declared Randolph,
"not maritime right, urges the war. Ever since the report of the
Committee on Foreign Relations came into the House, we have heard but
one word,--like the whippoorwill, but one eternal monotonous
tone,--Canada, Canada, Canada!" Military considerations, however,
probably determined the campaign of 1812,--so far, indeed, as any
well-considered plans were worked out. A general advance was to be made
along the route by Lake Champlain to Montreal. Three expeditions were
also to be sent against Sackett's Harbor, Niagara, and Malden. All were
strategic points on the Lakes; but Malden was particularly important as
the center of British influence among the Indians of the Northwest.

The expedition against Malden, which was entrusted to General William
Hull, not only failed to accomplish its purpose, but terminated in the
most humiliating reverse of the war. For reasons that have never been
adequately explained, Hull laid siege to Malden instead of attacking it
at once with his superior force; and when British reenforcements
appeared, he not only abandoned the siege, but on August 15, surrendered
Fort Detroit without firing a shot. The army, the fort, and the
undisputed control of the Michigan country passed into the hands of the
British. On the same day occurred the surrender of Fort Dearborn and the
massacre of its garrison by the Indians.

The other military operations on the northern frontier were scarcely
less inglorious. The failure of the attack upon Queenston, October 13,
was due largely to the incompetence of the commanding general. Nowhere
did the American troops pierce the Niagara or Lake Champlain frontier.
The Duke of Wellington was well within the truth when he declared the
American campaign of 1812 "beneath criticism."

The smart of these humiliating failures was only relieved by the series
of stirring naval victories which began with the duel between the
Constitution and the Guerriere. The frigates met on August 19, some
three hundred miles off Cape Race. "In less than thirty minutes from the
time we got alongside of the enemy," reported Captain Hull of the
Constitution, "she was left without a spar standing, and the hull cut to
pieces in such a manner as to make it difficult to keep her above
water." The effect of this victory was electric. When the Constitution
reached Boston Harbor, even Federalists broke into exultation. The cry
in e