Page:Cambridge Modern History Volume 7.djvu/367

CHAPTER X. THE WAR OF 1812. THE outbreak of war in 1812 between Great Britain and the United States was the result of causes described in the previous chapter. As the United States was the chief neutral carrier at that time, American commerce was severely hampered by Napoleon's Decrees as well as by the British Orders in Council. But American sympathy with Napoleon was strong, especially in the southern States, which at that date dominated the Union ; and, though his action had provoked the Orders in Council, while his dealings with American shipping showed a supreme disdain for laws and treaties, Great Britain had to bear the full brunt of American indignation. This feeling of ill-will was increased by the severity with which British naval officers impressed American sailors and searched American ships for deserters and British seamen. The affair between the Leopard and the Chesapeake (1807) has already been mentioned ; and the steadily increasing friction between the two Powers was intensified by another encounter, between the American frigate President and the British sloop Little Belt (May, 1811), in which the latter was captured. On June 23, 1812, five days after the declaration of war by America, the British government revoked the Orders in Council ; but the news, which did not reach the United States for some weeks, was too late to avert the conflict. It is quite clear and the fact is now admitted by impartial American historians that Great Britain was anxious to avoid the conflict thus forced upon her. In a despatch to Sir G. Prevost, the Governor of British North America, in 1812, the British government frankly avowed its desire to preserve peace with the United States, and to pursue uninterruptedly with the whole available force of the nation the far greater interests at stake in the war with Napoleon. Yet, to withdraw the Orders in Council, and to abandon the right of search, would have been to surrender two weapons almost indispensable for the successful prosecution of that conflict. With able management, it is just possible that war with the United States might have been averted ; but on neither side was the diplomacy able, and in spite of their wish to avoid OH. X.