was completely able to afford, and of
seeing the country ravaged, our towns burnt, the inhabitants
plundered, abused, murdered, with impunity from the same cause.

The War of 1812, besides being hampered by short enlistments, confused
authority, and incompetent officers, was fought by a country and an army
divided against itself. When Congress authorized the enrollment of one
hundred thousand militia, the governors of Massachusetts and Connecticut
refused to furnish their quotas, objecting to the command of United
States officers and to the sending of men beyond the borders of their
own States. This attitude fairly indicated the feeling of New England,
which was opposed to the war and openly spoke of secession. Moreover,
the wealthy merchants and bankers of New England declined to subscribe
to the national loans when the Treasury at Washington was bankrupt, and
vast quantities of supplies were shipped from New England seaports to
the enemy in Canada. It was an extraordinary paradox that those States
which had seen their sailors impressed by thousands and which had
suffered most heavily from England's attacks on neutral commerce should
have arrayed themselves in bitter opposition to the cause and the
Government. It was "Mr. Madison's War," they said, and he could win or
lose it--and pay the bills, for that matter.

The American navy was in little better plight than the army. England
flew the royal ensign over six hundred ships of war and was the
undisputed sovereign of the seas. Opposed to this mighty armada were
five frigates, three ships, and seven brigs, which Monroe recommended
should be "kept in a body in a safe port." Not worth mention were the
two hundred ridiculous little gunboats which had to stow the one cannon
below to prevent capsizing when they ventured out of harbor. These craft
were a pet notion of Jefferson. "Believing, myself," he said of them,
"that gunboats are the only water defense which can be useful to us and
protect us from the ruinous folly of a navy, I am pleased with
everything which promises to improve them."

A nation of eight million people, unready, blundering, rent by internal
dissension, had resolved to challenge an England hardened by war and
tremendously superior in military resources. It was not all madness,
however, for the vast empire of Canada lay exposed to invasion, and in
this quarter the enemy was singularly vulnerable. Henry Clay spoke for
most of his countrymen bey