Ohio History Journal

MAUMEE VALLEY HISTORICAL PROCEEDINGS 85

years to win a bare acknowledgment of independence from their

former rulers. Yet even then our fathers found they were not

really free of Europe--just as we discover today that we are not

independent of Europe and probably never shall be until Europe

declares her own independence of age-old errors. So, while the

War of the American Revolution was called the War of Inde-

pendence, it really was not that, for if it had been, the War of

1812, which this pilgrimage is celebrating, need never have been

fought. It is one thing to declare one's independence, and an-

other things to win it, and still another thing to have and hold it.

The young American Republic found that out. Europe was

then as now, in flames. Europe was dominated by a dictator--

Napoleon the Great. He had thrown the nations into war and

had subjugated them one after anothler. To embarrass his enemy,

Britain (all the dictators honor Britain by making her their

enemy), Napoleon truckled with our young inexperienced Repub-

lic, made her many promises, broke them all and deceived her.

On the other hand, British seamen were deserting from British

ships for the more humane working conditions aboard American

merchantmen, and Britain was seizing those deserters even though

she found them on American ships; sometimes seizing even Ameri-

can sailors too, by intention or mistake, and impressing them into

British service. That was a flagrant violation of sovereignty, and

any nation that submitted to it was not independent. President

Thomas Jefferson submitted to it for a long time. Britain and

Napoleon were at war and America claimed the right as a neutral

to ship goods by sea and sell them to Napoleon or anyone else.

Both France and Britain claimed the right to seize any ship of

ours bearing goods to the enemy of either. And because Britain

had a navy and could enforce this on the sea, and Napoleon could

not, we declared war on Britain. It might just as well have been

a war on France. Jefferson had seen it coming and avoided it.

Madison, his successor, went in for war to impress the world that

we were not only independent on paper, but that we meant to be

independent in fact. And Madison's secretary of state, James

Monroe, when he became President, announced the Monroe Doc-

trine which proclaimed that ALL the Americas were in fact in-

86 OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

dependent of European domination. So that is one thing we think

about today: we wrote our Declaration of Independence; we

fought a Revolutionary War of seven years to win international

acknowledgment of our independence; but 29 years later we had

to fight for three years more in the War of 1812 to make our

Independence actual. We only have what we can hold.

It is no exaggeration to say that with no army, no officers,

no sufficient money from taxes, practically no navy at the begin-

ning of the war, and with the more important half of the popu-

lation opposed to the war, this little country gave a pretty good

account of herself. Some terribly hard times were seen around

here. American trade fell off 85%. Prices rose to incredible

levels. There was wide-spread grumbling and threats of seces-

sion--it was the North that talked of secession then--but our

people stuck it through and it was Britain that made the first

proposal to quit. Every schoolboy knows that Andrew Jackson,

unaware that peace was signed, won a famous battle at New

Orleans. And every schoolboy knows that Commodore Perry

made naval history on Lake Erie yonder, as Commodore Mc-

Donough did on Lake Champlain.

It is interesting to count what we have now as a result of

that struggle. How much of it remains today? Well, for one

thing, we have our independence which no one has tried to

tamper with since. And we have a song, "The Star Spangled

Banner"--that was given us by the War of 1812. During that

war Dr. William Beanes was captured by the British, and Francis

Scott Key, a friend of his, secured permission from President

Madison to go to the British fleet under a flag of truce to see if

he could secure the doctor's release. He was well received aboard

a British man-of-war and Dr. Beanes' release was arranged for,

but they were not permitted to leave at once because the British

fleet was about to attack the American Ft. McHenry. All that night

Key and the doctor stood on the deck of a British man-of-war

watching the shells fired from the fleet and exploding in the fort.

Imagine their feelings--standing as spectators on an enemy ship

that was bombarding their own city. Francis Scott Key saw "the

rocket's red glare," he saw "the bombs bursting in air"--and then

MAUMEE VALLEY HISTORICAL PROCEEDINGS 87

came a period of awful suspense. The firing ceased. For aught Key

knew, the fort had surrendered, which meant the British would

take Baltimore. After anxious hours "by the dawn's early light"

he saw "that our Flag was still there," and on the deck of that

British man-of-war he took paper from his pocket and

jotted down clauses and phrases and lines of the song. During

the day, he and the doctor were put ashore. That night in a hotel

Key wrote our national anthem as we have it today. That is one

thing the War of 1812 yielded.

And it gave us the "White House." When the British cap-

tured Washington and burned the public buildings, the President's

House or Executive Mansion as it was variously called, was so

blackened by flames, that afterward it was painted white--and

now we call it the White House. That war also gave fame to the

frigate Constitution-"Old Ironsides." Probably you have seen

her in Boston harbor, a ship that for her time did naval exploits

that never were surpassed. That war gave us Andrew Jackson--

"Old Hickory." It gave us Commodore Perry--"we have met

the enemy and they are ours." It gave us the Monroe Doctrine,

a boundary that European despotic ideas have never even tried

to cross until recently. It began the establishment of the rights

of neutral nations. It gave the world a healthy respect for the

determination of the American character. And, more than any-

thing else, it united the American people themselves in their first

true confidence in the worth and survivability of the American

System. These we may claim as results of the American Revolu-

tion consolidated by the War of 1812. We think of them as we

stand here today.

They tell us that when Ft. Meigs had served its purpose and

peace had settled on this region, the people who lived here took

the timbers of the fort and built their houses. The tools of

turmoil were used for the service of tranquility. They could

do that because their war had not scattered seeds for another war.

Their war had only peace as its fruitage. If you look over our

history you will see that the wars of this country were of that

character. We have not robbed other peoples of their territory,

their wealth, or their way of life. Instead of breeding enmity,

88 OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

we have tried to assuage it. That cannot be said of any European

war in the last 70 years--every one of them left fuel for later

wars. Our Revolution left no embers that could kindle another

fire; the War of 1812 left no seeds of strife; the Civil War

sowed no dragon's teeth of future bloodshed; nor did the Spanish-

American War. And so today, even in celebrating the martial

events that occurred here a century and a quarter ago, the only

aftermath the history records is that of peace. We are at peace

with ourselves, we are peaceable in our intention toward the

world. We won that condition; it will be ours as long as we

keep it. And, in order to keep it, strength is not enough--we

must be just as well as strong. We must be prouder of our

fairness than of our power, and be ashamed of power that is

unfair. No American that uses the brains God gave him will

ever try to fasten upon his country the errors that brought

Europe to ruin.

It is a very great thing to be able to say in this age of the

world, "I am an American citizen." It means so many things

that we wish all the people in the world could have. We have a

land, rich beyond compare in all the requisites of economic inde-

pendence. We have a flag. Look at that flag--it is one banner

that never protected robbery and rapine, it is one banner before

which women and children never have fled in terror. We have a

Constitution, by which we rule when we will, a Constitution that

forbids any to rule over us. This is one country where liberty is

not a grant wrested from the government--it is the original and

indefeasible possession of a people. Our Constitution is not a

law written by a government for a people to obey, but a law

written by a people for their government to obey. No form of

political liberty in the world has a history like that.

These are the treasures of our citizenship. These are the

crown jewels of our Nation. We will not part with them. We

will not be tricked out of them. We will not sell or exchange

them for rainbow promises. We will preserve them for our-

selves and for our children; and our children will preserve them

for their children to remote generations, until all oppressed peo-

ples. we trust, will light their torches from this torch, and so

enlighten the world.

ADDRESS AT FORT MEIGS

By W. J. CAMERON

The best proof a nation can give that it is growing up is a

lively interest in its history. From the records of what they have

done, a people can form an estimate of what they are, and from

that they may draw an augury of their future. Not only does his-

tory recall the past, it also explains the present. This pilgrimage, to

scenes immortalized in early northwestern history, arranged by the

historical societies in Ohio, Indiana, Michigan and Ontario, is more

than a pilgrimage of interest. Of course, there is the element of

interest--these scenes are replete with glamorous and thrilling

romance. We are standing on the site of a famous fort named

for a gallant governor of Ohio. Great men have passed this way

--Tecumseh, most masterful of Indian statesmen; William Henry

Harrison, hero of what was then the "Gateway to the West."

General Hull passed this way hopefully north, and came this way

south again to he court-martialed after his woeful disaster. One

hundred and twenty-seven years ago the region hereabouts was

rich in names which still are borne by men in the higher ranks of

the United States Army. Here passed the Kentuckians to their

massacre at Monroe. Around this place were enacted all degrees

of heroism and incompetence, loyalty and treason, privation and

suffering and triumph--for the place where we stand was once the

key to the northwest frontier. If it were only the color and ex-

citement and interest of history we seek, we should find plenty of

it here.

But there is something far more valuable and rewarding

than that. There is here also the lesson our Country is always

being taught and never quite learns, that it is one thing to win

a national or social blessing, and another thing to have and hold

it. Our fathers wrote the Declaration of their Independence, but

it did not make them independent; they had to fight for seven

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