1809 eral nominations were New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and Delaware. The Choctaws ceded to the United States their lands which formed the southern part of Mississippi. A large part of Michigan was purchased from the Ottawas, Chippeways, Wyandots, and Pottowatomies. By a report of the Secretary of the Treasury, it appeared that a great number of roads were built in the Eastern and Middle States, while few had been constructed south of the Potomac. The roads were chiefly turnpikes, varying in cost from less than a thousand dollars a mile to fourteen thousand. The toll collected paid an interest on the investment, in some instances less than three per cent, in others as high as cleven. Connecticut since 1803 had incorporated fifty turnpike companies. In New York, in less than seven years, sixty-seven companies for building roads had been incorporated, and twenty-one more to build toll-bridges. It was recommended that the National Government should spend two millions of dollars yearly for ten years in improving the communication between different parts of the Union. The importation of negro slaves into the United States was prohibited by act of congress in 1806, to take effect on the 1st of January of this year. The steamboat Phoenix, built by John Stevens, ran from Hoboken, on the Hudson, to Philadelphia. This was probably the first steam-vessel ever navigated on the ocean. The first book printed west of the Mississippi was published, containing the laws of Louisiana Territory. The first newspaper published in St. Louis was issued in July, and named The Missouri Gazette. The first one in Indiana was published at Vincennes. The first settlement in Oregon was made by the Missouri Fur Company, by the establishment of a trading-post on the Lewis River. The first Temperance Society recorded, established in this country, was formed in March by forty-three members residing in Saratoga County, N. Y. The first church edifice erected in Williamsburg was completed for the Methodists. James Madison was inaugurated President of the United States, and George Clinton took the oath of office as VicePresident. Congress, in March, repealed the embargo law as to all nations excepting Great Britain and France; and as to those nations all commercial intercourse with them was interdicted, whether by exporting or importing, either directly or circuitously. An act was also passed for increasing the army and navy. On the 23d of April, Mr. Erskine, minister from Great Britain to the United States, pledged his court to repeal its anti-neutral decrees by the 10th of June; whereupon the President proclaimed that commercial intercourse would be renewed on that day. The king refused to ratify the arrangement made 1810 by Mr. Erskine, and recalled him. The President therefore Issued a second proclamation, reviving the non-intercourse law. Mr. Jackson succeeded Mr. Erskine, and he soon giving offence to the American Government, the President refused all intercourse with him, and he was also recalled. Illinois Territory was formed and established by act of congress, on the 3d of February. It embraced the present States of Illinois and Wisconsin. Sails were about this time made in Boston, from the first cotton-duck manufactured in this, if not in any other country. The first church Sunday-school formed in the United States was established at Pittsburg. From this period began the transfer of the control of Sunday-schools from individuals to churches, and the change made from paid to voluntary teachers, and from secular to religious instruction. The Rambouillet decree, alleged to be designed to retaliate the act of congress which forbade French vessels to enter the ports of the United States, was issued by the French Government on the 23d of March. By this decree all American vessels and cargoes arriving in the ports of France, or of countries occupied by French troops, were ordered to be seized and condemned. On the 1st of May congress passed an act excluding British and French armed vessels from the waters of the United States; but providing that if either of those nations should modify its edicts before the 3d of March ensuing, so that they should cease to violate neutral commerce, of which fact the President was to give notice by proclamation, and the other nation should not within three months after pursue a similar step, commercial intercourse with the first might be renewed, but not with the other. On the 2d of November the President issued his proclamation declaring that the French decrees were revoked, and that intercourse between the United States and France might be renewed. England, however, continued her restrictions on American commerce, and the better to enforce them, stationed ships of war before the principal ports of the United States, to intercept communication. On the 10th of the same month a proclamation was issued interdicting commer cial intercourse with Great Britain. At this period the number of paper-mills in the United States was one hundred and eighty. The importation of rags was now commenced. The first agricultural exhibition held in this country was opened at Georgetown, D. C. The first lot of cotton goods printed from engraved rollers was put on the market from a factory near Philadelphia, on the 6th of October. The cylinder machine was imported from England, and the new process now began to supersede that of block-printing, previously in use. Astoria, in Oregon, was founded by the Pacific Fur Company of Oregon, of which John Jacob Astor was the chief proprietor. The first foreign missionary society founded in the United 1811 States was formed under the title of the "American Board of Reparation was made by the Government of Great Britain for the attack of the Leopard upon the Chesapeake. On the 16th of May there was a fight between the American frigate President, of forty-four guns, and the English sloop of war Little Belt, of eighteen guns. This vessel belonged to the British squadron which was ordered to the American coast to break up the trade from the United States to France, and the President was one of the few ships the government had for the protection of her commerce. The ships met a few miles south of Sandy Hook, chased each other in turn, then fired into each other without any reasonable pretext for the first shot, which each accused the other of having fired. The loss on board the English ship, in an encounter which lasted only a few minutes, was over thirty in killed and wounded, while only a single man was slightly wounded on board the President. The affair created great excitement, and a court of inquiry was instituted, which found that the first shot was fired by the Little Belt. Hostilities with Great Britain being apprehended, congress passed an act for raising an additional force of twenty-five thousand men. A theatre in Richmond, Va., was burned on the evening of the 26th of December, when more than six hundred persons were present. Nearly seventy lives were lost on the occasion, and many more died afterward from injuries received. A fire occurred in New York on the 19th of May, destroying about one hundred buildings; and at Newburyport on the 31st, consuming more than two hundred buildings and other property, valued at six hundred thousand dollars. The frontier settlers being seriously alarmed by hostile indications on the part of the Indians, General Harrison, early in November, commanded an expedition for demanding satisfaction of the savages, and to put a stop to their threatened hostilities. On the 7th of November his camp was surprised about four o'clock in the morning by the enemy, and a bloody and doubtful contest ensued. The Indians were finally repulsed with considerable loss. General Harrison then destroyed their principal settlement, called Tippecanoe, and established forts in their country. The first steamboat which ran on the Western waters left Pittsburg on the 29th of October, bound for New Orleans, where it was intended to ply between that city and Natchez. Five steamboats were running between New York and Albany at this period, and one between New York and New Brunswick, N. J. The first ferry-boat propelled by steam in this, and probably in any other country, commenced to ply between New York and Hoboken. At this period there was but one dry-goods store in Brooklyn. Mails passed through Long Island but once a week. The manufacture of chemicals, the first of its kind in New England, was commenced at Salem, Mass. The charter of the United States Bank, incorporated in the year 1791, expired this year, and its renewal was defeated in congress, principally through the influence of those who desired to establish smaller banks for themselves. 1812 Congress passed an act, on the 3d of April, establishing an • embargo for the period of ninety days on all vessels in and arriving in port; and soon afterwards an act to prohibit the ex portation of specie, goods, wares, and merchandise during the continuance of the embargo. In June, congress passed a bill declaring war with Great Britain, which was signed by the President on the 18th. The reasons given for this action were the impressment of American seamen by the British; the seizure of persons as British subjects on the high seas, sailing under the American flag; the violation of the rights and the peace of our coasts by British cruisers; the blockading of their ene mies' ports without an adequate force; and the orders in council affecting neutral rights. At the same time a suspicion was suggested that the Indians had been incited to hostile acts by British agents. The declaration of war found many opponents throughout the country, who strongly expressed their disapprobation of the policy of the government. At the same time a majority of the people were exasperated by the aggressive conduct of Eng. land, and supported the measures of congress to sustain the dig nity of the nation. In Baltimore the contending parties were particularly aggressive. The editors of the Federal Republican, a newspaper printed in that city, having published strictures on the declaration of war, a mob assembled at night, tore down their office, and destroyed their printing materials. The paper was afterwards established at Georgetown, and a house was engaged in Baltimore from which the papers were to be distributed. One of the editors, with General Henry Lee, General Lingan, and many others, having provided arms and ammuni tion, they determined, if attacked, to defend themselves in the exercise of their rights. In the evening of the 27th of July a mob collected, and assailed the house with stones. While they were forcing the door several muskets were fired, by which two persons were killed and several wounded. On the arrival of the military a compromise was effected. The persons within the house surrendered on a promise of safety in the prison. On the following night the mob reassembled, broke open the jail, killed General Lingan, bruised and mangled eleven others, eight of whom, supposed to be dead, were thrown in a heap in front of the jail. Some of the ringleaders were tried, but they escaped punishment. The funeral obsequies of General Lingan were attended at Georgetown by three thousand persons. The prosecution of the war commenced on the Canadian borders. The programme for the campaign was the invasion of Canada at three points, namely, Detroit, and Niagara and St. Lawrence rivers. General William Hull, Governor of Michigan Territory, commenced crossing the river at Detroit to the Canadian shore on the 12th of July, with a considerable force, with the intention of capturing Fort Malden, about eighteen miles below. After spending nearly a month in inaction, Hull received intelligence of an advance of a British army under General Brock for the relief of the fort, and he immediately ordered his forces to abandon Canada and return to Detroit, much to the disappointment and indignation of his officers and men. Soon afterward the British projected a siege of Detroit; but scarcely had it commenced when Hull, on the 16th of August, displayed a white flag from the fort and soon made its surrender, without having fired a shot or made, any effort to stay the course of the enemy. By the terms of the capitulation all of Michigan Territory was surrendered to the British, a large amount of arms, ammunition, and provisions, and three thousand men as prisoners of war. General Hull was soon exchanged, and in the year 1814 was tried and condemned by court-martial for cowardice and sentenced to be shot, but he was pardoned by the President on account of his services in the Revolutionary war. An American force under the command of General Van Rensselaer crossed the Niagara River on the 13th of October, and made an attack on the British stationed on Queenstown Heights. At first the Americans were successful, but later on were totally defeated, with a loss of about two hundred killed and wounded, and upwards of one thousand surrendered as prisoners of war. In the battle General Brock, the British commander-in-chief, was slain. A naval engagement occurred on the 19th of August off the American coast between the United States vessel Constitution, commanded by Captain Isaac Hull, and the British frigate Guerrière. After a severe action at close quarters of about half an hour the enemy's vessel surrendered, but was found to be so much injured she was burned. The enemy's loss was fifteen killed, sixty-four wounded, and twenty-one missing; of the Constitution, fourteen killed and wounded. On the 18th of October the Wasp, a United States schooner under the command of Captain Jones, fell in with a squadron of British merchantmen, convoyed by the British sloop of war Frolic, off the coast of North Carolina. A severe engagement ensued, in which the American vessel was victorious. The sea was very rough, and it required much nautical skill to manage the vessels. At one time they were so near that they touched each other, and the destruction wrought by their guns was terrible. At length the Americans boarded the enemy, but they found no man to oppose them. The decks were covered by the dead and wounded, and every man who was able had gone below, except the seaman at the wheel. Very soon after the victory was secured the Poictiers, a British seventy-four gun ship, appeared, and captured both the Wasp and her prize. On the 25th of October Captain Decatur, of the frigate United States, captured the British frigate Macedonian, after an action of an hour and a half. The loss of the enemy was thirty-six killed and sixty-eight wounded; of the Americans. twelve killed and wounded. |