British were repulsed]

This disagreeable chapter in our military history was due to the fact
that the government had made no sufficient preparation of men or
materials, and was obliged to rely upon untrained volunteer militia.
These were men of personal courage and intelligence; and under such
commanders as Jacob Brown and Andrew Jackson they showed that they had
the instincts of soldiers. Nevertheless they were poorly drilled and
equipped. In one campaign they stopped short when they reached the
Canadian line, because they said they were not constitutionally bound to
fight, except for the defense of their own country.

[Illustration: JAMES MONROE

Secretary of State, 1811-1817. He also acted as Secretary of War in
1814-1815. President, 1817-1825. From the portrait by John Vanderlyn]

The result was that, starting with a regular army of only 7,000, which
finally included about 50,000 men, 400,000 additional recruits were
raised during the war. The total number of Canadians and British troops
engaged in the war was not over 20,000. The Americans lost 30,000 men;
and when the war was over the United States was not in possession of one
foot of Canadian territory, while the British were occupying about half
of the present state of Maine.

This heartbreaking result ought not to be charged to the soldiers so
much as to the administration. John Armstrong, Secretary of War, allowed
the British to land 5,000 men on the Chesapeake and to march fifty miles
overland to Washington. Within a distance of two days' land travel from
that city lived nearly 100,000 able-bodied men, most of them accustomed
to handle a gun. Yet the British force was allowed to capture
Washington, to burn the public buildings, and to retire to its fleet
almost without losing a man. Till James Monroe became Secretary of War
the whole administration was slack and incompetent.

[Illustration: ANDREW JACKSON

Victorious leader at the Battle of New Orleans. President, 1829-1837.
From a drawing from life by J.B. Longacre]

WAR AT SEA

A proof that the defeats of the War of 1812 were not due to lack of
fiber among the American people as a whole, was the brilliant success of
the operations on the high seas. Jefferson and Madison both thought the
navy would do more harm than good. The British had twice seized the
little navy of the Danes, and it seemed as though our ships would only
be a whet to the appetite of the British naval giant. Against our 18
s