of this squadron, on September 10, 1813, reversed the conditions of war on that frontier. General Harrison now crossed to the Canadian side and occupied Malden, at the mouth of the river, which Proctor had abandoned. The evacuation of Detroit by the British, its reoccupation by the Americans, the pursuit of Proctor, and the victory of the Thames soon followed. These successes practically closed the contest on that frontier, so far as civilized warfare was concerned. Harrison returned from the Thames to the Detroit, and sailed with the regular troops under his command for Buffalo.

All this year war raged on the Niagara and the St. Lawrence, with alternate successes and defeats. Late in the season two armies began to move upon Montreal, one down the St. Lawrence under General Wilkinson, the other down Lake Champlain under General Hampton, but both expeditions were abandoned long before they reached their destination. Commodore Chauncey, our naval commander on Lake Ontario, rendered services less brilliant than Perry's, but still efficient and valuable.

In 1813 England established an efficient blockade along our whole ocean front. An ingenious writer has likened the navigable waters that stretch up into Virginia to “fingers of an ocean hand, ready to bear to all the world the produce of the soil"; they gave equal opportunities for the operations of war, as the history of three wars well shows. Early in the year the British seized the wrist—that is, the entrance to Chesapeake Bay-and prepared to make the most of their success. But the principal events in that quarter came the following year.

1814. The tide of battle at the North now took a favorable turn. The Americans won important advantages on the Niagara. The most notable occurrence was the formidable military and naval expedition that was sent from Canada to effect a purpose like the one that Burgoyne had attempted in 1777. It advanced to Plattsburg; but Commodore Downey was compelled to strike his colors to Macdonough, and

then Sir George Prevost, commander of the land force, beat a hasty retreat to Canada.

The same year the enemy prepared to strike a fatal blow in the Chesapeake region. Here the important events were the British march upon Washington, the battle of Bladensburg, the capture of the city, the unsuccessful bombardment of Fort McHenry, and the battle of Baltimore. These operations over, Admiral Cockburn established his headquarters on Cumberland Island, off the Georgia coast. In 1813, also, a British force seized Maine as far west as the Penobscot, with a view of changing the boundary on that frontier on the conclusion of peace.

At the South events may be treated consecutively. In 1810 Louisiana had a population of 76,000; the Southwest Territory, now Alabama and Mississippi, 40,000; Tennessee, 261,000; and Kentucky, 406,000. The powerful Creek Confederacy occupied an extensive region north of the Gulf. In that year the United States took possession of Mobile, although Spain claimed it as lying within her territory. In 1813 the Tennessee militia were called out, under General Jackson, to overawe the Creeks, but as the savages appeared peaceable the troops were disbanded. Then followed the bloody massacre of Fort Mimms, near Mobile, in which nearly five hundred men, women, and children were slaughtered. Jackson now marched into the Indian country and inflicted upon the Creeks a series of defeats that effectually broke their power. About this time some British forces arrived on the Gulf coast, and there ensued the bombardment of Fort Bowyer and the affair of Barrancas. Jackson also seized Pensacola, because, as he said, the Spaniards gave aid and comfort to the Indians.

In 1814 the British ministry took advantage of the lull of war in Europe to send to Canada, to the Chesapeake, and to the Gulf of Mexico strong forces. The objects of the powerful expedition sent to the Gulf were two in number: to seize the mouth of the Mississippi, so as to cut the interior off once more from the sea, and to occupy and hold valuable

territory that would give them an advantage in treating for peace. Instructions issued to the commanders recommended attempts to seduce the people of Louisiana from their allegiance to the United States and to effect the return of that territory to Spain. These were large plans. Before they could be executed, however, the treaty of peace negotiated at Ghent adjourned them indefinitely; but had it not been so, General Jackson's brilliant victory at New Orleans would have made them impossible.

In the negotiations at Ghent the British commissioners, acting under instructions, sought at first to secure large territorial advantages. They demanded (1) that a neutral belt between the United States and Canada should be established for the perpetual occupancy of the Indians, upon which neither party should be permitted to encroach, thus keeping the two countries asunder; (2) that the international line should run along the southern side of the Great Lakes; and (3) that a strip of Maine should be ceded such as would give England a road from Halifax to Quebec. In the end the boundaries of 1783 were re-established, and commissions were appointed to settle all disputed points respecting them, as will be explained in the next chapter. The Treaty of Ghent bears the date, December 24, 1814.

CHAPTER XX.

THE TERRITORIAL GROWTH OF THE UNITED STATES.

References.-I. General View. Johnston: Lalor's Cyclopædia of Political Science (Annexations); Walker: Statistical Atlas of the United States, Ninth Census; Winsor and Channing: Narrative and Critical History of the United States (Appendix to Chap. VII., Vol. VII.); Donaldson: The Public Domain; Hart: The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol. I., pp. 169, 251 (The Disposition of our Public Lands), The Epoch Maps; Reclus: The Earth and its Inhabitants, North America, III. (The United States, Chap. I.); MacCoun: Historical Geography of the United States; McMaster: History of the People of the United States, Vol. II. (map showing land acquired by the United States from 1783 to 1885).

II. Treaties. Government publications: Treaties and Conventions between the United States and other Powers; The Statutes at Large of the United States; Charters and Constitutions (edited by Poore); The Resolution to admit Texas, Statutes at Large, Vol. IX., p. 108, and Poore, Vol. II., p. 1764.

III. Territorial claims made by Congress at the Revolution. The Secret Journals of the Congress of the Confederation, Vol. II., pp. 225, 326, 445; Vol. III., p. 155; Winsor: Narrative and Critical History, Vol. VII. (editorial notes to Chap. II.).

IV. Negotiations at Paris, 1782-'83. Diplomatic Correspondence of the Revolution, Vol. X., p. 7 (report made by the American commissioners); id., Vol. VIII., pp. 21, 129 (Jay's Letters); Bancroft: History, Vol. V., Chaps. V.-VII.; Jay: The Peace Negotiations of 1782, 1783, an address delivered before the New York Historical Society, November 27, 1883, Narrative and Critical History, Vol. VII., Chap. II. (The peace negotiations of 1782–83); Winsor: Narrative and Critical History (editorial notes to Vol. VII., Chap. VII.);

Wharton International Law of the United States, Vol. III., Appendix; (Peace negotiations of 1782-'83 with Great Britain); Angell: Narrative and Critical History, Vol. VII., Chap. VII. (The diplomacy of the United States); Lyman: The Diplomacy of the United States, Vol. I.; Lecky: History of England in the Eighteenth Century, Vol. IV., Chap. XV.; Lord Fitzmaurice: Life of William Earl Shelburne, Vol. III., Chaps. IV., VI.; John Adams: Works, Vol. I. (Appendix 6).

V. Louisiana. Adams: History of the United States of America, Vol. I., Chaps. XIV.-XVII., Vol. II., Chaps. 11.-V. (the best existing account); McMaster: History of the People of the United States, Vol. II., Chap. XIII.; Hart: The Formation of the Constitution; Von Holst: Constitutional and Political History of the United States, 1750-1828; Lyman, Angell, Hildreth, and Schouler: as before; Jefferson's writings, Vol. IV.

VI. Florida. Adams, Lyman, Hildreth, Schouler, Angell, Von Holst, and Hart: as before; Morse: John Quincy Adams; Gilman: James Monroe; Sumner: Andrew Jackson.

VII. Texas. Schurz: Henry Clay; Roosevelt: T. H. Benton; Von Holst: The Constitutional and Political History, 1828-246, John C. Calhoun; Benton: Thirty Years' View (passim); Greeley: The American Conflict, Vol. I.; Yoakum: History of Texas; Wilson: Division and Reunion; Schouler: as before.

VIII. The first Mexican annexation. Schurz, Roosevelt, Benton, Greeley, Schouler, and Wilson: as before; Von Holst: Constitutional and Political History of the United States, 1846-'50, John C. Calhoun.

IX. The second Mexican annexation. Schouler and Wilson: as before; Von Holst: Constitutional and Political History, 1850-'54.

X. Oregon. Barrows: Oregon; Greenhow: History of Oregon and California; Benton: Thirty Years' View; H. H. Bancroft: History of Oregon; Curtis: Life of James Buchanan, Life of Daniel Webster.

XI. Alaska. H. H. Bancroft: History of Alaska; Sumner: Works, Vol. XI., p. 181 (The Cession of Russian America to the United States).

IN 1783 the United States contained eight hundred and twenty thousand square miles of territory. At present they contain three million five hundred thousand square miles.