ND GUERRIERE

An old print, illustrating the moment in the action at which the
mainmast of the _Guerriere_, shattered by the terrific fire of the
American frigate, fell overside, transforming the former vessel into a
floating wreck and terminating the action. The picture represents
accurately the surprisingly slight damage done the _Constitution_: note
the broken spanker gaff and the shot holes in her topsails.

ISAAC HULL

Painting by J. W. Jarvis. In the City Hall, New York, owned by the
Corporation.

WILLIAM BAINBRIDGE

Painting by J. W. Jarvis. In the City Hall, New York, owned by the
Corporation. Reproduced by courtesy of the Municipal Art Commission of
the City of New York.

A FRIGATE OF 1812 UNDER SAIL

The _Constellation_, of which this is a photograph, is somewhat smaller
than the _Constitution_, being rated at 38 guns as against 44 for the
latter. In general appearance, however, and particularly in rig, the two
types are very similar. Although the Constellation did not herself see
action in the War of 1812, she is a good example of the heavily armed
American frigate of that day--and the only one of them still to be seen
at sea under sail within recent years. At the present time the
_Constellation_ lies moored at the pier of the Naval Training Station,
Newport, R. I. Photograph by E. Mueller, Jr., Inc., New York.

JACOB BROWN

Painting by J. W. Jarvis. In the City Hall, New York, owned by the
Corporation.

THOMAS MACDONOUGH

Painting by J. W. Jarvis. In the City Hall, New York, owned by the
Corporation.

CHAPTER I

"ON TO CANADA!"

The American people of today, weighed in the balances of the greatest
armed conflict of all time and found not wanting, can afford to survey,
in a spirit of candid scrutiny and without reviving an ancient grudge,
that turbulent episode in the welding of their nation which is called
the War of 1812. In spite of defeats and disappointments this war was,
in the large, enduring sense, a victory. It was in this renewed defiance
of England that the dream of the founders of the Republic and the ideals
of the embattled farmers of Bunker Hill and Saratoga achieved their
goal. Henceforth the world was to respect these States, not as so many
colonies bitterly wrangling among themselves, but as a sovereign and
independent nation.

The War of 1812, like the American Revolution, was a valiant contest
for survival on the part of the spirit of freedom. It was