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sell Louisiana to the United States: "The English want to grab the riches and the commerce of all the world. To free the nations from England's unbearable commercial tyranny it is necessary to balance its influence by a maritime power which will be able to wrest their commercial supremacy from them. If I strengthen the position of the United States by the cession of the Mississippi Valley, then England will find a rival who, earlier or later, will dampen her arrogance." —
That the prophetic words of the far seeing Corsican might be fulfilled, became evident to England by the fast growing commerce of the United States. Therefore England left nothing undone to get rid of this new rival in the world's commerce and to sustain all movements that might bring about a disruption of the Union. The war of 1812 to 1814 meant the first attempt for the annihilation of the Union. While the English fleet carried on the war at the coast shelling the American sea-ports, the commanders of the land forces again engaged the redskins to attack the Americans in the rear. The incessant incitement of the English agents succeeded in uniting all tribes of the Northwest into one great anti-American alliance, which was led by Tecumseh, the famous war chief of the Shawnees. Death and destruction in their most terrific forms ruled again over all border lands. The year 1812 passed luckily for the English. On water and land the Americans suffered heavy defeats. Michigan was lost and all western settlements were ravished terribly.
In the two following years the struggle went on with varying success. In August 1814 the British took Washington, burned the Capitol, the White House and numerous other public buildings. Of course, they did not forget to destroy also all American ships on the Potomac. But the enraged resistance which the British found in Baltimore and elsewhere, finally brought about the peace of Ghent (Dec. 24, 1814), the centenary of which Americans were impudently invited to celebrate.
How little reason America had for such a celebration should be evident to its promoters when they bring home to their mind that the secret and open intrigues of England against the States have never ceased and that, in the heart of the English shopkeepers now, as ever, glows the ardent wish to sweep away this successful rival as they did the others.—Stimulated by this desire and to hasten the dissolution of the Union, England, at the outbreak of the American Civil War solemnly proclaimed her neutrality, while secretly it was a confederate of the Confederacy. She assisted the slaveholders by every means in her power, recognized them as a belligerent
