her hostile attitude
for some time, the "Constitution" hoisted her anchor, and left the
harbor.

The time of the formal declaration of war was now rapidly approaching.
The long diplomatic correspondence between the two nations had failed
to lead to any amicable solution of the difficulties that were fast
urging them to war. Great Britain still adhered to her doctrine that a
man once an Englishman was always an English subject. No action of
his own could absolve him from allegiance to the flag under which he
was born. Upon the trade of the United States with France, the English
looked with much the sentiments with which, during our civil war, we
regarded the thriving trade driven with the Confederacy by the British
blockade-runners. Upon these two theories rested the hateful "right of
search" and the custom of impressment.

It is needless to say that the views of the United States on these
questions were exactly contrary to those of the English. Such vital
differences could, then, only be settled by war; and war was
accordingly declared in June, 1812. It was a bold step for the young
nation, but there was enough of plausibility in the English claims to
make it evident that they could never be set aside by diplomacy; and
so, with hardly a thought of the odds against her, the United States
dashed in to win justice at the muzzles of her cannon.

That the odds were tremendous, is not to be denied. Of the military
strength of the two nations, it is not the purpose of this book to
treat. Indeed, a recountal of the land battles of the war of 1812
would hardly be pleasant reading for Americans. It was on the sea that
our laurels were chiefly won. Yet, at the time of the declaration of
war, the navy of the United States consisted of twenty vessels, of
which the largest carried forty-four guns, and the majority rated
under thirty. For years this navy had been a butt of ridicule for all
the European naval powers. The frigate "Constitution" was scornfully
termed by an English newspaper "a bunch of pine boards sailing under a
bit of striped bunting." Not long after the publication of this
insolent jeer, the "Constitution" sailed into an American port with a
captured British frigate in tow. Right merrily then did the Americans
boast of their "bunch of pine boards."

This miniature navy of the United States was about to be pitted
against the greatest naval power of the world. The rolls of the navy
of Great Britain bore at this ti