War of 1812

   Declared by the United States against Great Britain in June, 1812. The president in his message to Congress specified the grounds for war as follows: Non-revocation of the orders-in-council; interference with American trade; practical blockade of American ports; impressment of American seamen, and the instigation of Indian hostilities against the United States. The original intention of the American government was the conquest of the British provinces on the northern border, and several of the most important engagements were fought on Canadian soil. After severe fighting with varying success, a treaty of peace was signed at Ghent on Dec. 24, 1814. By this treaty all territory taken by either country (except some islands on the Bay of Passamaquoddy) was to be restored. All the American claims that led to the war were left unsettled by the treaty.

   Index: R Loyalty of Methodists in, 41; its aftermath, 41. P Services rendered by Papineau, 5. BL Stills for the time the internal conflict of races, 8-9. See also Stoney Creek; Queenston Heights; Châteauguay; Chrystler's Farm; Beaver Dam; Brock; FitzGibbon; Sheaffe; Van Rensselaer; Hull.

   Bib.: Lucas, Canadian War of 1812; Richardson, War of 1812; Cruikshank, Documentary History of the Campaign and Record of the Services of Canadian Regiments in the War of 1812; Roosevelt, Naval War of 1812; Auchinleck, War between Great Britain and the United States; Coffin, 1812: the War and its Moral; Lossing, Pictorial Field Book of the War of 1812; Irving, Officers of the British Forces in Canada during the War of 1812-14; Mahan, Naval War of 1812; Hannay, War of 1812-14. See also other references in Lit. Am. Hist.