l be a mere matter of marching, and will
give us experience for the attack on Halifax, the next and the final
expulsion of England from the American continent."

Unfortunately for the success of these dreams, the policy of the
Republican administrations had been such as to set up {218} insuperable
difficulties. The regular army, reduced under Jefferson's "passion for
peace" to a bare minimum, was scattered in a few posts; the War
Department was without means for equipping, feeding, and transporting
bodies of troops; the whole mechanism of war administration had to be
created. Further, the Secretary of the Army and nearly all the
generals were elderly men, veterans of the Revolutionary Army, who had
lost whatever energy they once possessed. The problem of war finances
was rendered serious by the fact that revenue from the tariff, the sole
important source of income, was sure to be cut off by the British naval
power. The National Bank had been refused a new charter in 1811, and
the government, democratic in its finances as in other matters, relied
upon a hundred odd State banks of every degree of solvency for aid in
carrying on financial operations.

The temper of the American people was exactly what it had been in
colonial days. They regarded war as a matter to be carried on at the
convenience of farmers and others, who were willing to serve in defence
of their homes, but strongly objected to enlisting for any length of
time. On the more pugnacious frontier, the prevailing military ideal
was that of the armed mob or crowd--a body of fighters following a
chosen leader against Indians. {219} Everywhere the elementary
conceptions of obedience and duty were unknown. The very men who
wished for war were unwilling to fight except on their own terms.

Still more fatal to military efficiency was the fact that the
Federalists, and many of the northern Republicans, inhabiting the
regions abutting on Canada, were violently opposed to the war, wished
to see it fail, and were firmly resolved to do nothing to aid the
administration. The utmost the Federalists would do was to defend
themselves if attacked, but they would do that on their own
responsibility and not under federal orders.

The only exception to this prevailing unmilitary condition was to be
found in the navy, where, through cruising and through actual service
against the Barbary corsairs, a genuinely trained body of officers and
men had been created. Unable