not only the domain of
Louisiana, but that of Florida also. Had it not been that she was
engrossed with her military and naval forces in the turbulent wars in
Europe, during the ascendant period of Napoleon, the British Government
would most probably have employed her armies and navies mainly in the
accomplishment of these aims of territorial aggrandizement. Her invasion
of the Northwest territory from Canada, at the opening of the War of
1812-15, which so disastrously ended with the destruction of the British
fleet by Commodore Perry on Lake Erie, and the annihilation of the
British army by General Harrison at the battle of the Thames, was but an
entering wedge to her deep designs. After the fall of Napoleon and the
pacification of Europe relieved her armies and navies of further service
on that side of the ocean, she, in her pride and insolence, believed
that she would be invincible in America. Her cherished dream might now
at last be realized by the conquest and permanent possession of
Louisiana. We have mentioned the significant fact that overtures for
peaceful negotiations had been mutually arranged as early as January,
1814, and commissioners soon after appointed to meet at Ghent. When the
capitulation at Paris and the exile of Napoleon to Elba occurred within
a few brief months, repeated excuses for the delay of negotiations by
the British envoys were made. The United States wanted peace on
equitable terms, for she had nothing to gain by continuing the war.
England dallied and delayed; meanwhile marshaling her military and naval
forces for a final crushing blow on her American foe. When articles of
peace were signed on the twenty-fourth of December, the British
Government knew that information of the event would not reach the
belligerents in the Gulf of Mexico until some time in February. But His
Majesty, the King of England, and his councilors, confidently believed,
as did the officers in command of the English army and navy in this
expedition, that the victorious invaders would eat their Christmas
dinner in the subjugated city of New Orleans, and there to stay.

Gleig, an educated officer with the army of invasion, who became the
chief English historian of the campaign, in his "Narrative," has to
say:

The primary cause of our defeat may be traced to a source more
distant than I have mentioned; I mean to the disclosure of our
designs to the enemy. How this occurred, I shall not take upon me to
dec