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1994.NOTES ON
THE LITERATURE OF
THE WAR OF 1812NOTES ON THE
LITERATURE of the WAR OF 1812
By FRANK H. SEVERANCEi
The subject assigned to me in your programme is “Collec-
tions of Historical Material Relating to the War of 1812”
Two constructions, I think, may fairly be put on the
subject. It seems to call for an account of existing collec-
tions in public or private libraries relating to the War of
1812; it also may be treated with propriety by submitting
an analysis of the material which makes up the literature of
this subject. The first method of treatment would be brief;
the second method, properly followed, would of necessity be
long and elaborate. For our present purpose it appears
best, first, merely to glance at the collections on this subject:
as contained in notable libraries, and secondly, to survey, so
far as time permits, several phases presented in the general^
field of literature of this war.
I need hardly remind you that outside of books much;
“material” is to be found which has true educative value.
Our historical museums are many of them rich in relics, ,
pictures and other reminders of this war. This is especially
true in communities which during that war were the scene*
1- Paper prepared for and presented at the annual meeting of the Ontario
Historical Society, 1912. The reader will understand that the sketch, prepared for
the entertainment of a miscellaneous audience, makes no pretense of being
exhaustive or of«fillhig the field of a bibliography. It is, however, an attempt to
make known some striking features of the literature of the war, the centenary of
which still holds a place in public attention. The reasons for including the paper
in the Publications of the Buffalo Historical Society are obvious.
193194
LITERATURE OF THE
of special activity. In New England, New York, through-
out the seaboard States, especially at Baltimore, and at New
Orleans, are preserved many reminders of this conflict.
The regions about Lake Champlain and the Great Lakes
are peculiarly rich for the student, not only in relics pre-
served, but in associations. Buildings and battlefields are
other sorts of “material” which teach, often more effectively
than the document or the printed page. But it is not with
this phase of the subject that I am to deal. My especial
theme is the literature of the War of 1812.
I have made some effort to learn what is contained in
great libraries on this subject. The replies from experi-
enced librarians are those which all library workers would
anticipate. I am told in effect by the Librarian of Congress,
by Doctor Thwaites of the State Historical Society of Wis-
consin, by the Librarian of Harvard University, and by the
custodians of other notable historical collections, that it is
impossible to say with definiteness how much material they
have on this subject. While every library has numerous
works brought together under its classification system
relating to the War of 1812, that same classification system
refers to other headings and departments a vast amount of
material bearing on the same subject. It is enough to
remind you that all the general classifications of a large
library, such as biography, individual or collected; periodi-
cals; naval history; general military history; poetry, etc.,
would naturally embrace much material important to the
student of the War of 1812 period. Hence it might follow
that a library, the catalogue of which showed by title com-
paratively few books or pamphlets or papers on this subject,
might still contain far larger and more important collections
on the general subject than another library which had in its
catalogue cards a larger list under the 1812 classification.WAR OF 1812.
195
With this general reminder, it is hardly necessary to
specify further along this line. Naturally the great libraries
of our country are strongest in War of 1812 as in other
collections. Perhaps first in any list should be named the
Library of Congress, which is all-embracing. After that,
and possibly the New York Public Library, the student of
this subject would turn to the great New England deposi-
tories: the Library of Harvard University, the Boston
Public, and the Antiquarian Society at Worcester. Other
important regional literatures have been brought together
by the Maryland Historical Society at Baltimore, and I
believe by the Library of Tulane University at New Or-
leans. So far as I am aware, the best collection of periodi-
cal literature on this period is to be found at Madison, Wis-
consin, in the library of the State Historical Society.
It is a matter of record, to be mentioned now without
comment or preachment, that two of the most notable col-
lections on the subject, supposedly housed in secure deposi-
tories, were turned to smoke and ashes by the conflagrations
in the Parliament Buildings at Toronto and the State
Capitol at Albany. I had some acquaintance with these col-
lections and am of the impression that both ranked high in
value relating to the 1812 period.
There is in Buffalo a little library, not at all to be men-
tioned with the great book collections of America, in which
is to be found an exceptionally comprehensive collection on
the period we are considering. The Buffalo Historical
Society had already a good representative collection on this
subject when, a few years ago, there was turned over to it
a larger collection, the formation of which had been for a
long period one of my diversions. As a result, the Buffalo
Historical Society now has what I believe to be one of the
best collections on this subject. A card list which I pre-196
LITERATURE OF THE
pared some time ago enumerates some nine hundred titles,
not including perhaps twice as many entries of papers and
studies of special phases of our subject contained in local
histories, in periodical publications, and especially in the
transactions of learned societies. While this does not tally
accurately with the material in our possession, it is still
fairly representative. As it is this collection I am best
acquainted with, it seems appropriate for me to consider
it in passing to the second phase of my subject.
Our collection, then, contains, as must any collection
which aims to be comprehensive in the literature of the
War of 1812, books and pamphlets which fall into the fol-
lowing classes: Events leading up to the war, especially the
embargo and non-intercourse; general naval histories of
the United States and of Great Britain; general military
histories; official gazettes, journals and like publications;
periodicals, not official; special histories of the period of
the war; biographies; memorials, including transactions of
institutions relative to the erection of monuments and the
observance of anniversaries; controversial publications,
both political and personal, the latter as to the service of
this or that officer, etc.; claims, either for Government pro-
motion for service rendered, pensions, or for damages and
losses sustained by non-combatants; sermons, in which
political doctrines were promulgated in the guise of reli-
gious instruction; poetry, drama, fiction, juvenile litera-
ture, and, omitting much, modern philosophical studies in
which it is explained how things might have been other-
wise.
This list could still be considerably extended and classi-
fied. There are numerous works pertaining to our subject,
which consider chiefly the financial aspect of the times.
There are others dealing with special phases of the causesWAR OF 1812.
197
that led up to the war, as, for instance, the violation of
neutral rights and the impressment of seamen. There is a
considerable literature of wanderers’ narratives, including
some of the curiosities of our history; and there is also a
considerable literature of brag and bluster, contributed to,
perhaps, in equal proportions by all the contending parties.
That what is commonly referred to by American writers
as “our second war with Great Britain” has enlisted the
pens of able students is seen when we glance at the title
pages of many of the best known works. To this period
belong writings of Thomas Jefferson, James Madison,
James Fenimore Cooper, George Bancroft, A. J. Dallas,
Richard Hildreth, Alexander H. Stephens, General James
Wilkinson, Governor Daniel D. Tompkins, Major-General
George W. Cullum, Henry A. S. Dearborn, George Cary
Eggleston, Benson J. Lossing, J. C. Gilleland, Solomon
Hale, J. T. Headley, T. W. Higginson, Robert McAfee, R.
B. Mitfee, Charles J. Ingersoll, Major A. L. Latour, T.
O’Connor, James Parton, Theodore Roosevelt. These
among the Americans. Among the English authors, very
notably, William James, John Symons, Frederick Brock
Tupper, Major-General Sir Carmichael Smith, G. R. Gleig,
the Marquis of Wellesley, and many others.
Of Canadian authors in this field, again omitting many
of note, I may mention G. Auchinleck, Robert Christie, Col.
Ernest Cruikshank, Capt. F. C. Denison, Col. George T.
Denison, William Kingsford, William Kirby, Capt. W. H.
Merritt, D. B. Read, Charles Roger, Thomas Rideout,
Matilda Edgar, and especially Major John Richardson,
whose “Narrative of the Operations of the Right Division
of the Army of Upper Canada, during the American War
of 1812,” printed at Brockville in 1842, is one of the rarest
of Canadians.198
LITERATURE OF THE
The student of this period cannot neglect certain very
able chapters in works of wide scope, such as C. D. Yonge’s
“History of the British Navy,” Von Holst’s “Constitutional
and Political History of the United States,” G. Bryce’s
“Short History of the Canadian People,” and numerous
other works of general character.
Let us glance briefly at some of the books which we have
referred to some of these classes. The literature which may
be entitled “Causes leading up to the war,” is surprisingly
large and important. I do not need to remind this audience
that no period in history can be separated from what has
gone before, or what follows, and ticketed off as complete.
To embrace all of the causes of this second war thoroughly
and conscientiously would mean to include much of the
story of America. For library purposes, however, it is
possible to draw the lines with fair satisfaction, so that they
shall include such studies as Alexander Baring’s “Inquiry
into the causes and consequences of the orders in Council,
and an examination of the conduct of Great Britain towards
the neutral commerce of America,” published in London in
1808. For some years earlier even than that date these
subjects occasioned many pamphlets and many discussions
in Parliament. Of importance, too, for this period is James
Stephen’s “War in Disguise, or the Frauds of the Neutral
Flags,” a London publication of 1807. Many others of this
character might be mentioned.
Then we have a surprisingly large contemporary litera-
ture that might be gathered about the single word “Em-
bargo,” ranging, to mention only American authorship, from
William Cullen Bryant’s juvenile work, “The Embargo,”
printed in 1808, to Thomas Jefferson’s voluminous writings,
ending with his life in 1826.
The personal phase of this period is picturesquelyWAR OF 1812.
199
brought out in numerous narratives of impressment; such,
for instance, as that by Joshua Davis, “who was pressed
and served on board six ships of the British,” etc.; or the
harrowing tale of James McLean, who at Hartford, in 1814,
published his “Seventeen years’ history of Sufferings as an
Impressed Seaman in British Service.” There are numer-
ous narratives of this character which, taken together, make
up an exceedingly lively prelude to the war itself.
The political shelf of our 1812 library must contain, not
only long series of debates in Parliament and speeches in
Congress, but a number of important serial or periodical
publications, some of them official, such as the London
Gazette, which through many years contains in bulletin
form precise data invaluable to the student; The Royal
Military Calendar; Dodsley’s Annual Register; and, in
America, The United States Army Register; Niles’ Regis-
ter; The Portfolio; the periodical entitled The War, and
scores of others of varying value.
Of controversial works, especially pamphlets, there is no
end, many of them illustrating, better than the fuller and
more deliberate histories, the temper of the time. It was a
period when for one reason or another anonymity was
thought to be an essential of political discussion. Some of
you no doubt can tell me who was the author of the letters
of “Veritas,” first published in the Montreal Herald, after-
wards brought together and printed in Montreal in 1815, in
which is given a narrative of the military administration of
Sir George Prevost during his command in the Canadas,
“Whereby it will appear manifest that the merit of preserv-
ing them from conquest belongs not to him.” In the guise
of “A New England Farmer,” John Lowell, of Massachu-
setts, bombarded President Madison with numerous
pamphlets. In earlier years, “Juriscola,” in a series of200
LITERATURE OF THE
IS letters, had done his best to annihilate Great Britain; and
“Don Quixote,” in a most remarkable publication, “Ichneu-
mon,,J labored as a patriot to settle internecine strife.
Perhaps better known are the papers of “Touchstone,”
who, it appears, was DeWitt Clinton. I could go on in this
field at great length. It is a piquant and a tempting one to
the bibliographer in its variety and its occasional dis-
coveries.
I doubt if any period in our history has developed more ♦
literature that may be summed up as curios. Many of them
are trifling in historical value, but our library must have
them. Here, for instance, is the treatise entitled “The
Beauties of Brother Bull-us, by his Loving Sister, Bull-a.”
Who would think of finding essays on the War of 1812
hidden under such a title as C. W. Hart chose for his work
printed at Poughkeepsie in 1816, “Colloquy between two
Deists, on the Immortality of the Soul” ? Better known and
more amusing is the work ascribed to Israel Mauduit,
“Madison Agonistes, or the Agonies of Mother Goose,” a
political burletta represented as to be acted on the American
stage. Among the dramatis personae are Randolpho and
Adamo, Members of Congress, etc. I may also mention
“The Federal Looking Glass,” published in 1812, which
pictures General Hull’s “surrender to the Devil.”
Surely to this class belongs “The Adventures of Uncle
Sam in Search After his Lost Honour,” by Frederick
Augustus Fidfaddy, Esq., who announced himself as
“member of the Legion of Honour, Scratchetary to Uncle
Sam and Privy Counsellor to Himself.” The title-page
motto in “Merino Latin”—“Taurem per caudem grabbo”
—sheds light on the serious character of the work.
More serious, but I think also more amusing, is the work
entitled “An Affecting Narrative of Louisa Baker, a NativeWAR OF 1812.
201
of Massachusetts who in disguise served three years as a
Marine on board an American Frigate.” This is a Boston
imprint of 1815, but is not unique as a record of a woman
disguised serving in this war, for we have still another work
with the following title: “The Friendless Orphan. An
affecting narrative of the Trials and Afflictions of Sophia
Johnson, the early victim of a Cruel Stepmother, whose
Afflictions and Singular Adventures probably exceed those
of any other American Female living, who has been doomed
in early life to drink deep of the cup of sorrow,” etc., etc.
Sophia experienced her sorrows in part at Buffalo, Fort
Erie and elsewhere on the frontier disguised as a man, and
lost an arm at the Battle of Bridgewater, of which an extra-
ordinary engraving is given. Sophia, sans arm, is also por-
trayed.
I will merely mention G. Proctor’s “Lucubrations of
Humphrey Ravelin, Esq., Late Major in the .	. . Regi-
ment of Infantry.” This is a London publication, giving
some account of military life and Indian warfare in Canada
during the 1812 period. Another curious work is Gilbert
J. Hunt’s “Historical Reader,” of which numerous editions
were published. The narrative is a poor imitation of the
style of Chronicles and other historical books of the Old
Testament.
Perhaps rarest of these curios, at least in the original
edition, is “The War of the Gulls, an Historical Romance
in Three Chapters,” reputed to be by Jacob Bigelow and
Nathan Hale, published at the Dramatic Repository, Shake-
speare Gallery, New York, in 1812. This work has been
recently reprinted, an honor which it quite deserves.
Among the curios, too, should have place sundry plays
and dramas based on the war. I mention but two of them;
one by Mordecai Manual Noah, a Hebrew journalist of202
LITERATURE OF THE
New York, who undertook to establish a modern Ararat
and refuge city for the Jews on Grand Island, in Niagara
River, but whose contribution to this field of letters is
entitled: “She would be a Soldier, or the Plains of Chip-
pewa; an Historical Drama in Three Acts.” Major Noah’s
play was enacted for a time on the New York stage. Half
a century later Clifton W. Tayleure produced another play
of this period, “The Boy Martyrs of September 12th, 1814,”
which with little literary merit and seemingly less dramatic
possibilities, was staged for a time in New York.
Under the heading of “Prisoners’ Memoirs” there are
numerous publications relating to the war, which fall into
two classes. First, the narratives of men who shared in
Western campaigns, usually American pioneers who were
taken by British and Indians. An example is the narrative
of William Atherton, entitled “Narrative of the Sufferings
and Defeat of the Northwestern Army under Gen. Win-
chester; Massacre of the Prisoners; Sixteen Months’ Im-
prisonment of the Writer and others with the Indians and
British,” etc., a prolix title, the work itself printed at
Frankfort, Kentucky, in 1842. Still other chronicles of this
character are to be gathered.
A wholly different field of experience was that of Ameri-
cans who underwent imprisonment at Dartmoor in England.
Perhaps the best known of these memoirs is the volume by
Charles Andrews, “Containing a Complete and Impartial
History of the Entire Captivity of the Americans in Eng-
land from the Commencement of the Late War . . .
until all prisoners were released by the Treaty of Ghent.
Also a particular detail of all occurrences relative to that
horrid massacre at Dartmoor, on the fatal evening of the
6th of April, 1815.” Andrews’ tale was printed in New
York in 1815.WAR OF 1812.
203
The next year, at Boston, Benjamin Waterhouse pub-
lished “A Journal of a Young Man of Massachusetts, late
a Surgeon on board an American privateer, who was cap-
tured at sea by the British, in May, 1813, and was confined,
first at Melville Island, Halifax, then at Chatham, in Eng-
land, and last at Dartmoor Prison.”
In 1841 appeared “A Green Hand’s First Cruise,
Roughed out from the Log Book of Memory of 25 years
standing, together with a residence of five months in Dart-
moor.” This two-volume work, one of the scarcest books
of the War of 1812, was published at Baltimore by “A.
Younker,” probably a pen-name.
As late as 1878 appeared still another contribution to this
class of works: “The early life and later experiences and
labours of Joseph Bates,” who records that in early life he
was a sailor, was captured by the English in the War of
1812 and confined in Dartmoor prison. In later life he
became an anti-slavery agitator.
The phrase “Wanderers’ Narratives” fairly describes
numerous works which the student of our subject will
encounter; books, for instance, like Richard J. Cleveland’s
“In the Forecastle; or Twenty-five Years a Sailor.” His
sailing days were from 1792 to 1817, and he saw much and
records much of privateering during the War of 1812.
Another “wanderer” was Patrick Gass, whose “Life and
Times,” first published, I believe, at Wellsburg, Va., in
1859, has in recent years been reprinted. When he wrote
his memoirs, Gass claimed to be the sole survivor of the
Lewis and Clark overland expedition to the Pacific of 1804
to 1806. He was also a soldier in the war with Great
Britain, 1812 to 1815, and fought at Lundy’s Lane. About
50 pages of his book relate to this war, mostly to events on
the Niagara.204
LITERATURE OF THE
In this class may perhaps be mentioned a well-known
work, Captain David Porter’s “Journal of a Cruise made in
the Pacific Ocean in the United States Frigate Essex, in
the years 1812, ’13 and 914."
Much less known is P. Finan’s “Journal of a Voyage to
Quebec in the Year 1825, with Recollections of Canada
during the late American War, in the Years 1812, 1813.”
In the second part of his book Mr. Finan gives his personal
experiences in the war. He was with his father, an officer,
at the burning of Toronto, April 27, 1813. As an eye-
witness his record of that and other events is important.
I may dismiss this special phase of our subject with the
mention of but one other work, “The Travels and Adven-
tures of David C. Bunnell.” After a life suspiciously full
of romantic adventure, some none too creditable, Bunnell
joined the American navy under Chauncey, served on Lake
Ontario, 1812-13, and left Fort Niagara July 3, 1813, in
Jesse Elliot’s command, going from Buffalo to Put in Bay
in open boats. According to his narrative, he was on the
Lawrence during the Battle of Lake Erie, and afterwards
was put on the schooner Chippewa, as second in command,
and ran her between Put in Bay and Detroit “as a packet,”
being finally caught in a gale, blown the whole length of
Lake Erie and driven ashore upon the beach about a quarter
of a mile below Buffalo Creek. He landed safely, remain-
ing in Buffalo until Perry and Barclay arrived and were
given a public dinner, on which occasion, he says, “I man^
aged a field piece and fired for the toasts.” His account of
his services and adventures on the Lakes appears to be
veracious, which is more than can be said of some portions
of his romantic but highly entertaining chronicle. It may
be noted that his book was issued in the same year and ap-
parently from the same press as the rare first edition of theWAR OF 1812.
205
Book of Mormon, being printed at Palmyra, N. Y., by
Grandin in 1831.
A considerable shelf, perhaps “five feet long,” could be
filled with stories of the War of 1812. My studies of
American history have well-nigh convinced me that that
war was fought, not to maintain American rights on the
high seas, but to stimulate the development of American
letters by supplying picturesque material for budding ro-
mancers. The only drawback to that theory is that the
straightforward unadorned record of the old sea duels, like
that of the Constitution and the Guerriere, has more thrills
in it than the romancers can invent. But for well-nigh a
century the novelists have hovered about this period, like
bumble-bees in a field of clover. The war on the Lakes
and the Niagara frontier has had a share of their attention.
There are boys’ books with Perry for a hero—always with
the introduction of things more or less impossible to the
character. The events of 1812-14 on the Niagara have
been much used by Canadian story-writers. There is
“Hemlock,” by Robert Sellars (Montreal, 1890), which
follows many of the events of the war in our district and
is none the less worthy of American readers because its
point of view and sympathies are so notably Canadian. A
work of greater merit is “Neville Trueman, the Pioneer
Preacher, a Tale of 1812,” by W. H. Withrow, published
in Toronto in 1886. The fictitious characters mingle with
the real, at Queenston Heights, Fort George, the burning
of Niagara, Chippewa and Lundy’s Lane. It is a simple
tale, with no affectations; and it makes a record which we
are glad to have of high character and worthy impulses.
There were true patriots in Canada in those days, and it is
wholesome to read of them, no matter on which side of the
boundary one may live. In this class belongs Amy E.206
LITERATURE OF THE
Blanchard’s tale, “A Loyal Lass; a Story of the Niagara
Campaign of 1814.” The list might be much extended.
If this war has inspired the production of fiction, it has
also proved, at least in the earlier years, an unfailing fount
of inspiration for the poets. I do not know of much poetry
produced in England on this account. The affair does not
appear to have presented a poetic aspect to British authors.
But to many an American, especially of the type easily fired
to extravagant patriotic expression, it was provocative of
wonderful results. Some worthy poets produced true
poetry with this war as the theme. Some of the patriotic
songs of Philip Freneau deserve the place they have held in
American literature for a century. Samuel Woodworth’s
“Heroes of the Lake,” a poem in two books, contains ex-
cellent lines. So long a production could hardly fail of
being good at intervals. Many of Woodworth’s poems,
odes, songs, and other metrical effusions were based on in-
cidents in this war. So was John Davis’ “The American
Mariners,” vouched for on the title page as “A moral poem,
to which are added Naval Annals,” a delightful combina-
tion of the flight of Pegasus and the most uninspired of
statistics. This work, first published at Salisbury, Eng-
land, in 1822, has had at least two or more editions.
I can only mention such works as the “Court of Nep-
tune and the Curse of Liberty,” New York, 1817; the
“Columbian Naval Songster,” and other collections, con-
taining numerous songs celebrating the exploits of Perry,
Macdonough and others; and “The Battle of the Thames,”
being an extract from the unpublished work, entitled
“Tecumseh,” the author veiling his identity as “A Young
American.”
Thomas Pierce’s “The Muse of Hesperia, a Poetic
Reverie,” appeared in Cincinnati in 1823. A note inWAR OF 1812.
207
Thomson’s Bibliography of Ohio says of this work: “For
this poem the author was awarded a gold medal by the
Philomanthic Society of Cincinnati College, in November,
1821, but he never claimed the prize.” It relates mainly to
the events of the War of 1812 in the Northwest, and con-
tains notes relating to persons and events mentioned in the
text.
In Halifax, in 1815, there appeared “A Poetical Account
of the American Campaigns of 1812 and ’13, with some
slight sketches relating to Party Politics which governed
the United States during the War and at its Commence-
ment,” dedicated to the people of Canada by the publisher,
said publisher being John Howe, Jr.
“The Year,” a poem in three cantos, by William Leigh
Pierce, was published in New York in 1813. Appended to
the poem are 70 pages of historical notes, the whole pro-
duction being intended as a poetical history of the times,
including the War of 1812 so far as it had then progressed.
A poetical curio is “The Bladensburg Races,” written
shortly after the capture of Washington City, August 24,
1814. The poem ridicules the flight of President Madison
and household to Bladensburg, and the erudite author adds
an illuminating note: “Probably it is not generally known
that the flight of Mahomet, the flight of John Gilpin
and the flight of Bladensburg, all occurred on the 24th of
August.”
The local bibliophile1 or collector would wish me to men-
tion “The Narrative of the Life, Travels and Adventures of
Captain Israel Adams who lived at Liverpool, Onondaga
County, N. Y., the man who during the last War [1812]
surprised the British lying in the Bay of Quoenti; Who
1. The meeting at which this paper was read was held at Napanee, near the
Bay of Quinte.208
LITERATURE OF THE
took by strategem the Brig Toronto and took her to Sack-
ett’s Harbor, and for whom the British offered a reward of
$5°°”
Of peculiar local interest to those of us who live on the
Niagara is David Thompson’s “History of the Late War,”
etc., published at Niagara, Upper Canada, in 1832; one of
the earliest of Upper Canada imprints and a better one, I
venture to say, than old Niagara could turn out today. It
is not a soothing book for a thin-skinned American to read.
If it should fall into the hands of such a singular, not to say
exceptional, individual, he could find balm, if not, indeed,
a counter-irritant, in James Butler’s “American Bravery
Displayed in the Capture of 1,400 vessels of war and com-
merce since the Declaration of War by the President.”
This volume of 322 pages, published in 1816, did not have
the unanimous endorsal of the British press.
As I survey the literature of this- period I find no bolder
utterance, no fiercer defiance of Great Britain’s “Hordes,”
than in the sonorous stanzas of some of our gentle poets.
Iambic defiance, unless kindled by a grand genius, is a poor
sort of fireworks, even when it undertakes to combine pa-
triotism and appreciation of natural scenery. Certainly
something might be expected of a poet who sandwiches
Niagara Falls in between bloody battles and gives us the
magnificent in nature, the gallant in warfare and the loftiest
patriotism in purpose, the three strains woven in a triple
psean of passion, 94 duodecimo pages in length. Such a
work was offered to the world at Baltimore in 1818, with
this title-page: “Battle of Niagara, a Poem without Notes,
and Goldau, or the Maniac Harper. Eagles and Stars and
Rainbows. By Jehu O’Cataract, author of ‘Keep Cool.’ ”
I have never seen “Keep Cool,” but it must be very different
from the “Battle of Niagara,” or it belies its name. The*WAR OF 1812.
209
fiery Jehu O’Cataract was John Neal, or “Yankee Neal,”
as he was called.
The “Battle of Niagara,” he informs the reader, was
written when 'he was a prisoner; when he “felt the vic-
tories of his countrymen.” The poem has a metrical in-
troduction and four cantos, in which is told, none * too
lucidly, the story of the battle of Niagara, with such flights
of eagles, scintillation of stars and breaking of rainbows,
that no quotation can do it justice. In style it is now Mil-
tonic, now reminiscent of Walter Scott. The opening canto
is mainly an apostrophe to the Bird, and a vision of glit-
tering horsemen. Canto two is a dissertation on Lake
Ontario, with word-pictures of the primitive Indian. The
rest of the poem is devoted to the battle near the great
cataract—and throughout all are sprinkled the eagles, stars
and rainbows. Do not infer from this that the production
is wholly bad; it is merely a good specimen of that early
American poetry which was just bad enough to escape
being good.
A still more ambitious work is “The Fredoniad, or Inde-
pendence Preserved,” an epic poem by Richard Emmons, a
Kentuckian, afterwards a physician of Philadelphia. He
worked on it for 10 years, finally printed it in 1826, and in
1830 got it through a second edition, ostentatiously dedi-
cated to Lafayette. “The Fredoniad” is a history of the
War of 1812 in verse. It was published in four volumes;
it has 40 cantos, filling 1,404 duodecimo pages, or a total
length of about 42,000 lines. The first and second cantos
are devoted to Hell, the third to Heaven, and the fourth to
Detroit. About one-third of the whole work is occupied
with military operations on the Niagara frontier. Nothing
from Fort Erie to Fort Niagara escapes this metre-machine.
The Doctor’s poetic feet stretch out to miles and leagues,210
LITERATURE OF THE
but not a single verse do I find that prompts to quotation;
though I am free to confess I have not read them all, and
much doubt if anyone, save the infatuated author, and per-
haps a long-suffering proofreader, ever did read the whole
of “The Fredoniad.”
I have already mentioned several very rare books and
pamphlets; but if asked to designate the rarest of all on
the War of 1812, I should name a 15-page pamphlet, pub-
lished without title-page at the Regimental Press, Bunga-
lore, India, dealing with the relations between British
agents and Indians in the Northwest after the Treaty of
Ghent. But 20 copies were printed. It contains letters
from Lieut.-Col. McDowell to His Excellency Sir F. P.
Robinson, Drummond Island, September 24, 1815, and
later dates; and an account of the proceedings of a court
of inquiry held to investigate charges, preferred by the
United States Government, that the Indians had been stim-
ulated by the British agents to a continuance of hostilities
since the Peace. This publication, issued three-quarters of
a century or so after the event, from a regimental press in
India, is an effort to show that the Indians were not so
stimulated; all the stimulus they received from the British
agents, it may be presumed, was of an entirely different
kind.
The field of biography in its relation to our general sub-
ject is vast. Around such figures as Andrew Jackson and
William Henry Harrison there has developed a mass of
literature which, if thoroughly listed and analyzed, would
constitute a considerable bibliography in itself. There are
biographies and memoirs of most of the British admirals
and other naval and military commanders in active service
during this period. In our list must be included the life
stories of Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, Lewis Cass,WAR OF 1812.
211
Joshua Barney, Commodore Baimbridge, Winfield Scott,
Oliver Hazard Perry, Thomas Macdonough, Henry Clay,
Josiah Quincy, John Quincy Adams, George Cabot, and
many other makers of American history.
Of the British and Canadian officers we have admirable
biographies, including those of General Brock, Admiral
Broke, Admiral Sir Edward Codrington, and others.
The Treaty of Ghent is the subject of numerous publi-
cations. An excellent account of the proceedings of the
commissioners, and especially of the difficulties met and
overcome by the American representatives, is by Thomas
Wilson, in the Magazine of American History, November,
1888. A most interesting work on this subject is the scarce
quarto, published in London in 1850, entitled “Memoires
d’un Voyageur qui se repose ” It is the private journal and
correspondence of a diplomatist in the secret service of
England. He is here designated by the pseudonym of
“Miller,” and appears to have been entrusted with four sepa-
rate special missions to America, one of which, in 1814-15,
was to exchange the ratifications of the Treaty of Ghent.
The volume contains a mass of private information on
diplomatic relations between Great Britain and the United
States, including a journal of the signing of the Treaty of
Ghent.
A noticeable, not to say notable, feature of much of this
literature is its partisanship. Especially in statistical mat-
ters, such as the numerical strength of the contending
forces, the number of guns or the weight of metal—matters
which one would suppose would have been settled by the
official reports—there has existed for a century, and still
exists, utterly irreconcilable divergence. The unbiased
student of this period, who seeks only to learn the facts, is
still bewildered and in doubt when he compares American212 LITERATURE OF THE WAR OF 1812.
with Canadian or English accounts. If the bitterness and
rancour of the old books has abated in these later days of
courtesy and fair speech, the divergence of record, though
perhaps dispassionately stated, still exists. An instance is
the battle of Lundy’s Lane, which at last accounts was still
being fought.
It may not be a wholly whimsical proposition to suggest,
as a feature of our centenary of peace, the establishment of
an international commission—by this Society, say, on the
one hand, and the American Historical Association on the
other—whose task should be, if possible, the production of a
simply-told history of the War of 1812, which should meet
with equal commendation as a truthful and unprejudiced
chronicle on both sides of the border. But perhaps I sug-
gest the impossible.
I could say much of the ever-lengthening list of modern
studies of this or that phase of the war; such, for instance,
as Nicholas Murray Butler’s “Influence of the War of 1812
upon the Consolidation of the American Union,” Captain
A. T. Mahan’s “Sea Power in its Relation to the War of
1812,” and very many others, usually revealing a better
grasp of the significance of events than the earlier works,
and usually, too, written in a better temper. Not least
among these modern studies is the notable group of papers
which at this meeting we listen to with great satisfaction.