ch vessels on the ocean, searching them for deserters, and if found
they were taken away. Sometimes she took Americans, because she knew
they were good seamen, and, to excuse her action, she declared they were
deserters from the British navy.

[Illustration: IMPRESSING AMERICAN SAILORS.]

This action was against the law of nations. She had no more right to
molest an American vessel than she had to land a force on our coast,
march inland and search the house of a private family. We protested, but
she paid no attention. It happened more than once that when our vessels
refused to be searched the English fired into them and killed and
wounded some of the American crews. If any nation acted that way toward
England to-day she would declare war at once, and so would any other
nation.

Finding there was no peaceable way of stopping the unbearable conduct of
Great Britain, our country, in the month of June, 1812, declared war
against her, and it lasted until the early part of 1815.

There was one feature of that war which it is not pleasant for Americans
to recall. It opened with a cowardly surrender by General William Hull
of Detroit to the English army, and for two years our land forces did
very little to their credit. They set out to invade Canada several
times, but in every instance were beaten. The leading generals were
"poor sticks," quarreled among themselves, and for a time failed to gain
any advantage. The trouble was not with the soldiers. They were among
the best in the world, but their leaders were of no account. By and by,
however, the poor officers were weeded out and good ones took their
places. Then something was accomplished in which we all could feel
pride.

It was just the other way on the ocean. From the very start our naval
vessels and privateers won the most brilliant of victories. This was the
more remarkable when several facts are kept in mind. Great Britain had
been at war so long that she had the most powerful navy by far in the
world. It numbered one thousand and thirty-six vessels, of which two
hundred and fifty-four were ships-of-the-line, not one of which carried
less than seventy guns of large calibre. This prodigious navy was manned
by one hundred and forty-four thousand sailors, and eighty-five of her
war vessels were on the American coast, equipped and ready for action.

In amazing contrast to all this, we had only twenty large war vessels
and a number of gunboats that were of little accou