tion; and the
adoption of numerous measures to the injury of our interests--had fully
prepared the public mind in the United States, with the exception of a
small minority, to enter upon this war with zeal and enthusiasm.

With occasional reverses, general success attended our arms in every
direction. On land and on sea, the American eagle led to victory. The
combatants were worthy of each other. Of the same original stock--of the
same stern, unyielding material--their contests were bloody and
destructive in the extreme. But the younger nation, inspirited by a sense
of wrongs endured, and of the justness of its cause, bore away the palm,
and plucked from the brow of its more aged competitor many a laurel yet
green from the ensanguined fields of Europe. In scores of hotly-contested
battles, the British lion, unused as it was to cower before a foe, was
compelled to "lick the dust" in defeat. At York, at Chippewa, at Fort
Erie, at Lundy's Lane, at New Orleans, on Lake Champlain, on Lake Erie,
on the broad ocean, Great Britain and the world were taught lessons of
American valor, skill, and energy, which ages will not obliterate.

This war, though prosecuted at the expense of many valuable lives, and of
a vast public debt, was, unquestionably, highly beneficial to the United
States. It convinced all doubters that our government was abundantly able
to resent aggressions, and to maintain its rights against the assaults of
any nation on earth. This reputation has been of great service in
protecting our commerce, and commanding respect for our flag, throughout
the world. But the chief benefit of the war was the development of our
internal resources, which, after all, form the great fountain of the
wealth, strength, and permanence of a nation. Deprived by the embargo, the
non-intercourse act, and the ensuing hostilities, of all foreign
importation of goods, the American people were compelled to supply
themselves by their own industry and ingenuity, with those articles for
which they had always before been dependent on their transatlantic
neighbors. Thus was laid the foundation of that system of domestic
manufactures which is destined to make the United States the greatest
productive mart among men, and to bring into its lap the wealth of the
world.

CHAPTER V.

MR. ADAMS' ARRIVAL AT ST. PETERSBURG--HIS LETTERS TO HIS SON ON
THE BIBLE--HIS RELIGIOUS OPINIONS--RUSSIA OFFERS MEDIATION
BETWEEN GREAT BRITAIN AND THE UNITED STA