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American Presidents have not always liked Canadians.
Thomas Jefferson, TO:
MEMBER OF THE UNITED STATES CONGRESS
Original is in the Jefferson papers, Library of congress
Monticello, 21st September. 1814
Dear Sir,
I learn from the newspapers that the vandalism of our enemy has triumphed at Washington over science as well as the arts, by the destruction of the public library and the noble edifice in which it was deposited. Of this transaction, as that of Copenhagen, the world will entertain but one sentiment. They will see a nation suddenly withdraw from a great war, full armed, and full banded, taking advantage of another. whom they had recently forced into it; unarmed and unprepared to indulge themselves in acts of barbarism which do not belong to a civilized age.From my proposed book I quote:
On June 7th, 1814 the cabinet of the United States met in Washington where it initiated another invasion of Canada.
That menace, and in retaliation for the attack on the little capitol of Upper Canada,(York in 1813) a British force landed in Bladensburg, Maryland, and marched almost unopposed to Washington, D.C., burning several government buildings including the White House (It was painted White afterwards, and thus it's name) on the 24th of August, 1914. There is no record of the British taking any object to replace the stolen Mace or Royal Standard, (from York in 1813) which so proudly were shown at the Naval Academy at Annapolis Md. for over a hundred years after the war.
Some Canadians have, probably with some justification, had complaints about the attitude of American Presidents. After reading the above, Bishop Strachan, (Still a household word in the Province of Ontario) of Toronto wrote the following letter to Thomas Jefferson. Note the date, only a week before the end of the War of 1812.
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To Thomas Jefferson from John Strachan, Bishop of Upper Canada and Treasurer of the Loyal and Patriotic Society of Upper Canada.Replies
Sir,
In your letter to a member of Congress, recently published, respecting the sale of your library, I perceive that your are angry with the British for the destruction of the public buildings at Washington, and attempt with your accustomed candor to compare that transaction to the devastation by the barbarians in the middle ages. As you are not ignorant of the mode of carrying on the war, adopted by your friends, you must have known that this was a small retaliation after redress had been refused for burnings and depredations not only of public but of private property by them in Canada; but we are too well acquainted with your hatred to Great Britain, to look for truth or candour in any statement of yours where she is concerned.
It is not for your information, therefore that I relate in this letter, what provoked the conflagration of the public buildings at Washington, because you are well acquainted with them already; but to shew the world that the United States and not to Great Britain must be charged all the miseries intended in a mode of warfare, originating from them, and unprecedented in modern times.
A stranger to the history of the last three years, on reading this part of your letter would naturally suppose that Great Britain in the pride of power had taken advantage of the weak and defenceless situation of the United States, to wreck her vengeance upon them. But what would be his astonishment when told that the said nation said to be unarmed and unprepared, had provoked and first declared the war, and carried on offensively for two years with a ferocity unexampled before. The British had the means of making effectual resistance. War was declared against Great Britain by the United States of America in June 1812. Washington was taken in August 1814. Let us see in what spirit your countrymen carried on the war during this interval.
In July 1812 General Hull invaded the British province of Upper Canada and took possession of the town of Sandwich. He threatened (by a proclamation) to exterminate the inhabitants if they made any resistance; he plundered those, with whom he had been habits of intimacy for years before the war. Their plate and linen were found in his possession after his capture by General Brock. He marked out the loyal subjects of the King, as objects of peculiar resentment, and consigned their property to pillage and conflagration. In autumn 1812 some houses and barns were burnt by the American forces near Fort Erie in Upper Canada.
In April 1813, the public buildings at York, the capital of Upper Canada, were burnt by troops of the United States, contrary to the articles of capitulation. They consisted of two elegant halls, with convenient offices, for the accommodation of the legislature and of the courts of justice.
Institutions were consumed at the same time the Church was robbed, and the town library totally pillaged. Commodore Chauncey, who had generally behaved honourably, was so ashamed of this last transaction, that he tried to collect the books belonging to the Public library, and actually sent back two boxes filed with them, but hardly any of them were complete.
Much private property was plundered and several houses were left in a state of ruin: Can you tell me sir, the reason why the public buildings and library at Washington should be held more sacred than those at York? A false and ridiculous story is told of a scalp having been found above the speaker chair intended as an ornament.
In June 1813 Newark ( now Niagara on the Lake Ontario) came into the possession of your army (after the capture of Fort George) and it’s inhabitants were repeatedly promised protection to themselves and property, both by General Dearborne and General Boyd, In the midst of these professions, the most respectable of them tho non-combatants were made prisoners and sent into the United States. The two churches were burned to the ground; detachments were sent under the direction of British traitors to pillage the British loyalist inhabitants in the neighbourhood, and to carry them away captive.
Many farm houses were burnt during the summer and later to fill up the measure of inequity, the whole of the beautiful village of Newark, with so short a previous intimation as to account to none, was consigned to the flames. The wretched inhabitants had scarcely time to save themselves much less any of there property.
Your friend Mr. Madison has attempted to justify this cruel deed, on the plea that it was necessary for the decence of Fort George. Nothing can be more false. The village was some distance from the fort; and instead of thinking to defend it, General McClure as actually retreating to his own shores, when he caused Newark to be burnt. This officer says he acted in conformity with the orders of his government; the government finding their justification useless, disavows his conduct McClure appears to be the fit agent of such government. He not only complies with his instructions but refines upon them by choosing a day of intense frost, giving the inhabitants almost no warning till the fire began, and commencing the conflagration in the night.
In November, 1813, the army of your friend General Wilkinson committed great depredation in its progress through the eastern district of Upper Canada, and was proceeding to systematic pillage, when the commander got frightened and fled to his own shore, on finding the population inveterately hostile.
The history of the two first campaigns prove beyond dispute, that had you reduced fire and pillage to a regular system. It was hoped, that the severe retaliation taken for the burning of Newark, would have put a stop to a practice so repugnant to the manners and habits of a civilized age; but so far from this being the case, that the third campaign exhibits equal normalities.
General Brown laid waste the country between Chippawa and Fort Erie, burning mills and private houses and rendering those not consumed by fire uninhabitable. The pleasant village of St.David, was burnt by his army when he was about to retreat.
Campbell, landed at Long Point, district of London, upper Canada, and on that and the following day, pillaged and laid waste as much of the adjacent country as they could reach. They burnt the village of Dover, with the mills and all the mills, stores, distillery, and dwelling houses in the vicinity, carrying away such property as was portable, and killing the cattle. The property taken and destroyed on this occassion was estimated at Fifty Thousand dollars.
On the 16th of August, some American troops and Indians from Detroit, surprised the settlement of Port Talbot, where they committed the most atrocious acts of violence, leaving upwards of 234 men woman and children in a state of nakedness and want.
On the 20th of September, a second excursion was made by the garrison of Detroit, spreading fire and pillage through the settlements in the Western District of Upper Canada. Twenty seven families were reduced on this occasion to the greatest distress. Early in Nov, Gen. McArthur, with a large body of mounted Kentuckians and Indians, made a rapid march through the Western, and part of London ( Ontario) districts, burning all the mills, and destroying provisions, and living upon the inhabitants. If there was less private plunder than usual it was because the invaders had no means of carrying it away.
On our part, sir, the war has been carried on in the most forbearing manner. During the first two campaigns, we abstained from any acts of retaliation, notwithstanding the great enormities which we have mentioned. It was not until the horrible destruction of Newark, attended with so many acts of storcity, that we burnt the village of Lewiston, Buffalo and Black Rock. At this our Commander paused. He pledged himself to proceed no farther, on the conditions of your returning to the rules of legitimate warfare. Finding you pursuing this same system this campaign, instead of destroying the towns and villages within his reach, to which he had conditionally extended his protection, he applied to Admiral Cochrane to make retaliation upon the coast. The Admiral informed Mr. Munroe of the nature of this application and his determination to comply unless compensation was made for the private wantonly destroyed in Upper Canada. No answer was returned for several weeks, during which time Washington was taken. At length, a letter purporting to be the answer was, arrived, in which the secretary dwells, with much lamentations, on the destruction of the public buildings at Washington; which notwithstanding the destruction of the same kind buildings at the capital of Upper Canada, he affects to consider without a parallel in modern times, So little regard has he for the truth, that at the very moment of his speaking, of the honour and generosity practised by his government in conducting war, General McArthur was directed by the President to proceed upon his burning excursion.
Perhaps you will bring forward the report of the committee appointed by Congress to inquire into British cruelties, and to class them under the heads furnished by Mr. Madison as an
offset to the facts that have been mentioned. The Committee must have found the subject extremely barren, as only one report has seen the light; but since the articles of
accusations are before England, as capable of ample proof. let us give them a brief examination.
1st Ill treatment of American Prisoners.
2nd Detention of American prisoners as British subjects. under the pretext of their being born on British territory, or naturalization.
3rd Detention of sailors as prisoners because they were in England when war was declared.
4th Forced service of American sailors on board English men of war.
5th Violence of flags of truce.
6th Ransom of American prisoners taken by savages in the service of England.
7th Pillage and destruction of private property in the bay of Chesapeake and the neighbouring country.
8th Massacre of American prisoners surrendered to the officers of Great Britain, by the savages employed in its service. Abandoning to the savages the corpses of American citizens, who had repaired to the English, under the assurance of their protection; the burning of their houses.
9th Cruelties exercised at Hampton in Virginia: Ill, treatment of American Prisoners.
ANSWERS
1ST Ill Treatment of American Soldiers
Brock sent all the militia taken at Detroit home on their parole, accompanied by a guard to protect them from the Indians, retaining only the regulars, whom he sent to Quebec, where they met with the most liberal treatment, as the honest amongst them have frequently confessed. General Sheaffe acted in the same manner after the battle of Queenston, keeping the regulars, dismissing the militia on their parole. Nor was this liberal course departed from till the gross misconduct of the American government, in liberating without exchange. Those so sent home, and carrying away non combatants and seizing the whole inhabitants of the districts, which they invaded, rendered it absolutely necessary.
When they were not able to take all the armed inhabitants away, they made those they left behind sign a parole; a conduct never known in the annals of war, the conditions of which precluded them from afterwards bearing arms, but from giving in any way their services to government. The farmers were dragged out of their homes and carried into the United States. Clergy were forced to give their parole: in fine it appeared to make no difference whether a man was in arms or not, he was sure to experience the same treatment.
Many people, when prisoners, have been treated in the most infamous manner. Officers, the sick and wounded have been forced to march on foot through the country, while American officers taken by us were conveyed in boats or carriages to the place of destination.
Our captured troops have been marched as spectacles through towns, altho you affect to complain of Hull’s and other prisoners being marched publicly in Montreal. The officers in the 41st regt. were confined at Kentucky among felons of the most infamous description. They were treated with harshness, often cruelty, and persons who wished to be kind to them were insulted by the populace.
Even the stipulations respecting prisoners, agreed to by the American government, have been most shamefully broken. Sir George Provost and Mr. Madison agreed that all prisoners taken before the 15th day of April 1814, should be exchanged on or before the 15th day of May last, to be conveyed into the their respective country by the nearest routes. On that day the governor in chief faithful engagements, sent home every American prisoner: but the Government of the United States seemed for a long time to have totally forgotten the stipulation. A few prisoners were sent back in June, but many of the officers and all of the soldiers of the 41st Regiment were detained until towards the end of October. The soldiers of this Regiment (as indeed all the others) every temptation had been presented to induce them to desert and join their service by money, land etc. After it was found impossible to persuade any number of them to do so, the American Government encamped them for nearly two months in a pesti1ential marsh near Sandusky without any covering. There giving neither shelter nor the necessary quantities of provisions, they all got sick, many died, and in October the remainder were sent to Long Point, sick, naked and miserable. From this place they could not be conveyed till clothes had been sent to cover their nakedness; great numbers sunk under their calamities and the utmost care and attention were required to save any of them alive. Such an accumulation of cruelty was ever exhibited before
The Government of the United States assumed the prerogative of
relieving officers from parole without exchanging them, and even Commodore Rogers took twelve seamen out of a caravel, as it was proceeding to Boston Bay, and was justified for this outrage by his government.
2nd. Detention of American Prisoners as British Subjects.
It is monstrous that a great many of the Americans may have
been British subject since the commencement of the war; and had we determined to punish these traitors with death, if found invading our territories, and after giving them warning, acted up to each determination, it would have been strictly right and in such case very few would have entered Canada. While these persons act merely as militia defending their adopted country against invasion, some leaity might be shewn them’ but when they march into the British provinces for tje sake of conquest, they ought to be considered traitors to their King and Country, and treated accordingly.
3rd Detention of sailors as prisoners, because they were in England when war was declared.
This accusation is ridiculous, as sailors are always considered in the first class of combatants; but it comes with an ill grace from those who have detained peaceable British subjects engaged in civil life, and banished fifteen miles from the coast, those of them who happened to be in America at the declaration of war, and treated them, almost in every respect, like prisoners of war, according to Bonaparte’s example.
4th Forced Service of American Sailors, pressed on board English Men of war.
This accusation has been often made, but never coupled with the offer of Mr. Foster to discharge every American so detained on being furnished with the list. The list was never furnished.
5th Violation of Flags of Truce.
This accusation of Mr. Madison contains about as much truth as those that have been already examined. We shall give two examples of the treatment experienced by the Bearers of Flags of truce from the British Army.
Major Fulton, Aid—de Camp to General Sir George Provost, was stopped by Major Forsythe of the United States army at the outposts, who insulted him most grossly, endeavoured to seize his dispatches and threatened to put him to death. So much ashamed were Forsyth’s superiors at this outrage, that he was sent for a short time to the rear.
General Proctor sent lieut. Le Breton to General Harrison after the battle of Moravian Town, to ascertain our loss of officers and men; but instead of sending him back, General Harrison detained him many weeks, took him round the lake; and after all did not furnish him the required information, which had otherwise been procured in the meantime.
6th Ransom of American Prisoners taken by savages in the service of England.
Some nations of the natives were at war with the Americans long before hostilities commenced against England, many others not. When attempts were made to conquer Canada, the Indians beyond our territories, part by chance and part by supplication, came and joined us as allies, while those within our provinces had as great an interest in defending them as the other proprietors of the soul. To mitigate as much as possible the horrors of war, it was expressly and repeatedly told to Indians that scalping the dead and killing the prisoners or unresisting enemies were practices extremely repugnant to our feelings and no presents would be given except for prisoners. This, therefore, instead of becoming an article of accusation ought to have excited their gratitude, for the presence and authority if a British force uniformly tended to secure the lives of all who were defenceless and the who enemies, yet the American government brand us as worse than savages for fighting by the side of Indians, at first treated our extermination if we did so, altho they employed all the Indians they could. Many individuals have acknowledged their obligation to us for a having been saved by the benevolent and humane exertions of our officers and troops, but no officer of rank ever had the justice to make a public acknowledgement. The eight accusations is much the same as this, and must have been separated in order to multiply the number of articles. It is notorious that some British soldiers have been killed by the Indians, protecting their prisoners. This was the case at General Winchesters defeat and General Clays. The grossest exaggerations have been published. General Winchester was declared in all the American papers to have been scalped and mangled in the most horrid manner, when he was in his quarters in Quebec. In a general order dated Kingston, 26th July 1813 among other things respecting Indians, it is said, that the head money for the prisoners of war, brought by Indian warriors is to be paid the commissariat, upon the certificate the General officer commanding the division with which they are acting at the time, Let us now see how the poor Indians are treated by the Americans, after promising that they have done their utmost to employ as many Indians as possible against us. It is a fact that the first scalp taken this war was by the Americans at the river Camard between Sandwich and Amherstburg. At this place an Indian was killed by the advance of General Hull’s army, and immediately scalped.
At the skirmish of Brownstop, several Indians fell and were scalped by American troops.
The Kentuckians are commonly armed with a tomahawk and long scalping knife and burn Indians as a pastime
At the river Au Raisin, Captain Caldwell of the Indian department saved and American officer from the Indians and as he was leading him off, the ungrateful monster stabbed in the neck, on which the he was killed by Captain Caldwells friends.
The American troops under General winchester killed an Indian in a skirmish near the river Au Raisin on the 18th of January 1813, and tore him laterally to pieces, which so exasperated the Indians, that they refused burial to the Americans till on 22nd - The Indian hero, Tecumseh, after being killed, was literally flayed in part by the Americans, and his skin carried off as a trophy.
Twenty Indian women and children of the Kickapoo nation, were inhumanly put to death by the Americans a short time ago near Prairie, on the Illinois river, after driving their husbands into a morass, where they perished with cold and hunger. Indian towns were burnt as an amusement or common practice. All this, however, is nothing compared to the recent massacre of the Creeks, General Coffee in his letter to General Jackson dated 4th November 1813. informs him that he surrounded the Indian Towns at Tullashatches in the night with nine hundred men. That about an hour after sunrise, he was discovered by the enemy, who endeavoured tho’ taken by surprise to make some resistance. In a few warriors seen dead to be 186, and supposes as many among the weeds as would make up to two hundred. He confesses that some of the women and children were killed owing to warriors mixing with their families. He mentions taking only 84 prisoners of women and children. Now it is evident that in a village containing two hundred warriors, there must have been nearly as many women as men, perhaps more; and unquestionably the number of children exceeded the men and women together, what then became of these. Neither does General coffee mention the old men. Such things speak for themselves. The poor Indians fought, it appears, with bows and arrows, and were able to kill only 5 Americans. Their lands were too remote to receive assistance from the British. Their lands were wanted, and they must be exterminated. Since this period, the greater part of the nation has been massacred by General Jackson, who destroyed them wantonly in cold blood. There was no resistance, if we accept the individual children of despair, when they found there was no mercy. Jackson mentions exultingly, that the morning after he had destroyed a whole village, sixteen Indians were discovered, hid under the bank of a river, who were dragged out and murdered. Upon these inhuman exploits, President Madison only remarks to congress, that the Creeks had received salutary chastisement, which would make a lasting impression upon their fears. The cruelties exercised against these wretched nations are without parallel, except the coldness and apathy with which they are glossed over by the President. Such is the conduct of the humane government of the United States, which is incessantly employed, as they pretend, in civilizing the Indians; but it is time finish the horrid detail; we shall therefore conclude with a short letter from the Spanish Governor of East Florida. Bemiqno Garcia, to Mr. Michell, Governor of Governor of the State of Georgia, to show that the policy of the Government of the United States ‘in regard to the Indians, is now gene rally known.
The Province of East Florida may be invaded in time of profound peace, the planters ruined, and the population of the capital starved, according to your doctrine all is fair; they are a set of outlaws if they resist. Nothing less than extermination is to be their fate."
7th and 9th Pillage and destruction of private property in the bay of Chesapeake, and the neighbouring country, and cruelties exercised at Hampton in Virginia.
It required astonishing effrontery to make these articles of accusation, after the depredation and cruelties committed by the army of the United States in Canada.
In the attack upon Craney Island, some boats in the service of Great Britain ran aground. In this situation they made signals of surrender, but the Americans continued to fire upon them from the shore. Many jumped into the water and swam towards land, but they were shot as they approached, without me. A few days after, Hampton was taken, and some depredations were committed by the Foreign troops, who had seen some of their comrades so cruelly massacred, but before any material damage was done, they were remanded on board. Several letters from Hampton mention the behaviours of the British while there as which Mr. Madison copies in his message to Congress,
This brief account of your government and army, since the commencement of hostilities, (which might have been greatly extended) will fill the world with astonishment at the forbearance of Great Britain, in suffering so many enormities and such a determined departure from the laws of civilized warfare, to pass so long without punishment.
Before finishing this letter, permit me, Sir, to remark, that the destruction of public buildings at Washington, entitled your gratitude ad praise, by affording you a nobel opportunity of proving your devotion to your country. In former times, when you spoke of your magnitude of your service, and the fervour of your patriotism,. Your political enemies were apt to mention your elevated situation and your elevated salary. But by presenting your library a free will offering to the nation at this moment of uncommon pressure, when the treasury is empty, and every help to the acquisition of knowledge is so very necessary to keep the government from sinking, you would have astonished the world, with one solitary action in your political life, worthy of commendation.
Nor are your obligations to the British army unimportant, tho’ you have not inspired to generous praise. An opportunity has been gien you of disposing of a library at your own price, which if sold volume by volume, would have fetched nothing. You have seen that old libraries do not sell well, after the death of the proprietor and with a lively attention to your very own interest, you take advantage of the times.
I am, Sir,
With due consideration &c.
JOHN STRACHAN D.D.
Treasurer of the Loyal and Patriotic Society of Upper Canada
York, 3Qth January, 1915.
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POSTSCRIPT
POSTSCRIPT
From General M’Arthurs official account of his predatory excursion, I make the following extract to prove his extraordinary veracity.
We were thus enabled to arrive at the town of Oxford, one hundred and fifty miles distant from Detroit, before the inhabitants knew a force was approaching. They were promised protection to their persons and property, upon the condition they remained peaceably at the their respective homes: otherwise, they were assured, that there property would be destroyed.
However, not withstanding this injunction, and the sacred obligation of a previous people, tow of the inhabitants escaped to Burford with the intelligence of our arrival! Their property consisting of two George Nichol and Jacob Wood are the persons here alluded to, both of whom applied to the Loyal and Patriotic Society of Upper Canada for relief. The former had returned home before General M’Arthur’s report to the Secretary of War appeared in the newspapers; but the latter was at York after than publication. At a meeting of the directors of the Loyal and patriotic Society, holden at York, on the 21st of January 1815, appeared Jacob Woods from the county of Oxford, and produced a certificate from Major Bowen stating that he accompanied George Nichol from Oxford to Burford to give information of the Advance of the American Army, and in consequence of which, His House, Furniture and Barn, Hay, Grain Joiner’s shop, and tools were destroyed by the enemy.
Jacob Wood was interrogated by the Society, whether he or George Nichol were paroled by General M’Arthur, previous to giving the British warning of their approach of the American Army. In answer, he stated that he and George Nichol had left their homes on hearing the approach of the enemy, and were so far from giving their parole, that they were never in the power of General M’Arthur, or his army.
The Directors put this to question to Jacob Wood because General M’Arthur, in his official report states it as hi reason for burning the houses, and destroying everything belonging to those two men, that they broke their parole."
General M’Arthur had some reputation to lose, and ought to have known that such a goss departure from truth was not the way to preserve it. The Courage and zeal of Nichol and Wood, instead o~f punishment, deserved and would have obtained the respect of a Sallant and generous enemy. But on all occasions, the loyal inhabitants of this Province have ben selected by your Generals as the objects of their hatred.
To pass rapidly, with a large body of calvary, through a country thinly inhabited, without means of resistance; to feed upon the defenceless inhabitants; to burn the mills, none of which belonged to the government, and to destroy the provisions and the, whole property of respectable men of principle; and then to run away, at the first symptom of opposition, is no great exploit. General M’Arthur has been the author of much distress to the defenceless inhabitants, many of whom have now one hundred and twenty miles to go to mill, but in a military point of view he has done nothing. It’s for the people of the United States to reflect seriously upon this mode carrying on the war; and it is your interest, Sir., to advise a return to humanity, lest Monticello should share the fate of hundreds of Farms in Upper Canada.
I am &c
J. S. (J. Strachan)
To Thos. Jefferson, Esq.
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Declaration of War
President Madison declared war on Great Britain, including Canada, on June 12, 1812. It was boasted that Canada "could be taken without soldiers" because Britain had problems elsewhere.
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