ll make ample and honorable provision for the
heirs of the brave tars who fell on this occasion, as well as for
those that survive."[463] Another abortive movement toward crossing
was made a few days later, and with it land operations on the Niagara
frontier ended for the year 1812. Smyth was soon afterward dropped
from the rolls of the army.

In the eastern part of Dearborn's military division, where he
commanded in person, toward Albany and Champlain, less was attempted
than at Detroit or Niagara. To accomplish less would be impossible;
but as nothing was seriously undertaken, nothing also disastrously
failed. The Commander-in-Chief gave sufficient disproof of military
capacity by gravely proposing to "operate with effect at the same
moment against Niagara, Kingston, and Montreal."[464] Such divergence
of effort and dissemination of means, scanty at the best, upon points
one hundred and fifty to two hundred miles apart, contravened all
sound principle; to remedy which no compensating vigor was
discoverable in his conduct. In all these quarters, as at Detroit, the
enemy were perceptibly stronger in the autumn than when the war began;
and the feebleness of American action had destroyed the principal
basis upon which expectation of success had rested--the disaffection
of the inhabitants of Canada and their readiness to side with the
invaders. That this disposition existed to a formidable extent was
well known. It constituted a large element in the anxieties of the
British generals, especially of Brock; for in his district there were
more American settlers than in Lower Canada.[465] On the Niagara
peninsula, especially, climatic conditions, favorable to farming, had
induced a large immigration. But local disloyalty is a poor reed for
an assailant to rest upon, and to sustain it in vigorous action
commonly requires the presence of a force which will render its
assistance needless. Whatever inclination to rebel there might have
been was effectually quelled by the energy of Brock, the weakness of
Hull, and the impotence of Dearborn and his subordinates.

In the general situation the one change favorable to the United
States was in a quarter the importance of which the Administration had
been slow to recognize, and probably scarcely appreciated even now.
The anticipated military laurels had vanished like a dream, and the
disinclination of the American people to military life in general, and
to this war in particular, had sh