tion, from which they were
debarked in fleets down the river Garonne, and across the Atlantic to
their destinations in America. An English officer with these troops
expressed the sentiment of the soldiers and seamen, and of the average
citizen of England at this time, in this language: "It was the general
opinion that a large proportion of the Peninsular army would be
transported to the other side of the Atlantic, that the war would there
be carried on with vigor, and that no terms of accommodation would be
listened to, except such as a British general should dictate in the
Republican Senate."

Overtures for the negotiation-of a treaty of peace had been interchanged
between the two nations at war as early as January. By April the
American Commissioners were in Europe, though the arrival of the English
Commissioners at Ghent for final deliberations was delayed until August.
Meanwhile, several thousands of these Peninsular troops were transported
to reinforce the army in Canada. On the sixteenth of August a small
fleet of British vessels in Chesapeake Bay was reinforced by thirty sail
under the command of Admirals Cochrane and Malcombe, one half of which
were ships of war. A large part of this flotilla moved up the Potomac
and disembarked about six thousand men, under command of General Ross.
The battle of Bladensburg was fought on the twenty-fourth, followed
immediately by the capture of Washington and the burning of the
Government buildings there. A few days after, the combined naval and
military British forces were defeated in an attack on Baltimore, General
Ross, commander-in-chief, being among the slain. About the same date,
Commodore McDonough won a great and crushing victory over the English
fleet on Lake Champlain, while the British army of fourteen thousand
men, under Sir George Prevost, was signally defeated by the Americans,
less than seven thousand in number, at Plattsburg, on the border of New
York.

Such was the military situation in the first month of autumn, 1814.
Seemingly, the British plenipotentiaries had a motive in reserve for
delaying the negotiations for peace. England yet looked upon the United
States as her wayward prodigal, and conjured many grievances against the
young nation that had rebuked her cruel insolence and pride in two wars.
She nursed a spirit of imperious and bitter revenge. A London organ,
recently before, had said: "In diplomatic circles it is rumored that our
military and naval