lkinson, and assigned Scott to a brigade in his command.
These officers, full of zeal and vigor, infused new life into an army
that had been beaten and battered for two years. In twelve weeks,
during July, August, and September, the British met stubborn
resistance at Chippewa, Lundy's Lane, Fort Erie, and Black Rock, and a
repulse as disgraceful as it was complete at Plattsburg. But before
Brown could establish the new order of things along the whole Canadian
border, the British took Oswego, with its abundant commissary
supplies, and their navy inflicted a wound, in the destruction of the
_Chesapeake_ and the _Argus_, that turned the Perry huzzas into
suppressed lamentations.

Following this calamity, occurred the April elections of 1814. The
uncertain temper of the people gave Tompkins little to expect and much
to fear. He believed it had only needed a bold and spirited forward
movement to demonstrate that the United States was in a position to
dictate terms to England; but existing conditions indicated that
England would soon dictate terms to the United States. Tompkins may be
fairly excused, therefore, if he failed to discern in the struggle for
political supremacy the slightest indication of that victory so long
prayed for. Events, however, had been working silently--differently
than either Federalist or Republican guessed; and, to the utter
amazement of all, the war party swept the State, electing assemblymen
even in New York City, twenty out of thirty congressmen, and every
senator, save one. Under these circumstances Tompkins lost no time in
summoning, in September, an extra session of the newly elected
Legislature, which began turning out war measures like cloth from a
loom. It raised the pay of the militia above that of the regular army;
it encouraged privateering; it authorised the enlistment of twelve
thousand men for two years and two thousand slaves for three years; it
provided for a corps of twenty companies for coast defence; it assumed
the State's quota of direct tax, and it reimbursed Governor Tompkins
for personal expenditures incurred without authority of law. Some of
these measures were drastic, especially the conscription bill; but the
act showing the determination of the Republican party to fight the
war to a finish, was that allowing slaves to enlist with the consent
of their masters, and awarding them freedom when honourably mustered
out of service.

There was certainly much need for an active