LEWIS CASS.

Canada, the north-western army was lost, and the whole country beyond the Ohio settlements was in possession of the British, and open to the ravages of the Indians.

"Coward! traitor!" Those were the words hurled at General Hull, who was tried by court-martial and sentenced to be shot; but President Madison was tender-hearted, and pardoned him, for he had done good service in the Revolution. Seventy years have passed since then, and we now see that he was not a traitor. During the

Revolution he showed that he was not a coward. He could not bear the thought of bloodshed-the possible tomahawking and scalping of the men, women, and children. He was weak, irresolute, and incompetent; and the result was disaster, humiliation, and disgrace.

There was a second disaster at Frenchtown (now Monroe, Michigan),

when one thousand men under General Winchester surrendered to the British general, Proctor, who allowed the Indians to tomahawk and scalp many of the prisoners.

That was not the end of disaster. General Van Rensselaer, commanding at Niagara, a true patriot and brave, was anxious to strike a blow which would wipe out the disgrace of Hull's surrender. To do it he must cross the deep and foaming Niagara River, climb the steep banks on the Canada side in the darkness of night, gain a foothold, and defeat the British on their own ground. His soldiers were eager for the enterprise. He had only thir teen boats, and those might be swamped in the whirlpools and eddies. Colonel Solomon Van Rensse

SOLOMON VAN RENSSELAER.

laer commanded the militia, and Lieutenant-colonel Winfield Scott the regulars.

It was the 13th of October, and a terrible storm was raging; but at midnight six hundred men crept silently down the steep bank on the American side, but the boats could carry only half. The three hundred embarked. In ten minutes they were on the rocks at the foot of the bluff on the Canadian side. The British sentinels saw them, and began to fire. Then the cannon began to thunder; but the Americans climbed the bank, and the battle begun. Colonel Van Rensselaer, Captain John E. Wool, and sev

eral other officers were wounded, but they drove the British. General Brock, who commanded them, fell mortally wounded; but General Sheafe rallied them, and re-enforcements came-John Brant, a young Indian chief, with his face painted and plumes in his cap. He was a son of John Brant, who had fought for the British during the Revolution. He commanded several hundred Indians, who came down, with a yell, through the woods. Now the British outnumbered the Americans

two to one.

The Americans were fighting bravely, but must have help or be defeated. On the New York shore were more than one thousand militia, and General Van Rensselaer ordered them to cross; but they refused to go, nor had he any authority to compel them. Why? Because in 1787 the people of the United States had adopted a written Constitution, and that Constitution had put it forever beyond the power of the President to call upon the militia to invade a foreign country.

If the British were to set foot on American soil the militia would fight them, but they would not cross the river and invade Canada; and so it came about that all who had crossed were obliged to surrender to the British. It was a disheartening disaster, but gave the country a new view of the meaning and power of the Constitution, and of the wisdom. of the men who had framed it.

General Smyth, of Virginia, succeeded General Van Rensselaer. He was weak, vain, pompous, and issued ridiculous proclamations setting forth the great things he intended to do; but he did almost nothing, and was laughed at alike by the British and by his own countrymen.

On the land the year began and ended in disaster.