Ohio History Journal

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SIGNIFICANCE OF PERRY'S VICTORY

SIGNIFICANCE OF PERRY'S VICTORY.

 

BY ISAAC J. COX.

 

[On the evening of February 23d, 1910, the Ohio Perry's Victory

Commission, appointed by the Governor of Ohio to make suitable

arrangements for the celebration of Perry's Victory on Lake Erie, Sep-

tember 10, 1913, had a hearing before a special joint meeting of both

houses of the Ohio Assembly. On this occasion Dr. Isaac J. Cox, pro-

fessor of American History in the Cincinnati University and President

of the Ohio Valley Historical Association, delivered the following ad-

dress. - EDITOR. ]

Our second war with Great Britain, usually spoken of as

the "War of 1812," was the struggle of the United States for

industrial and social independence of Europe. Just as the thir-

teen colonies four decades before had thrown off the political

ties which bound them to Europe, so the eighteen states that

in 1812 composed the American Union waged a second war

against Great Britain for the purpose of making real and effec-

tive the independence which they had nominally gained in 1776.

It is this struggle which emphasizes American nationality, and

in all that went to characterize it, with one marked exception,

the Northwest emphasizes, point by point, its main features.

I have just stated that the war was one which emphasized

American nationality, but it will be necessary, at the very outset,

to call attention to certain sectional conditions which arose

during the different years of the struggle. It was during this

period that the New England states grew restive under national

control and paused just short of threatened secession. At this

time the South and the Southwest were absorbed by the prospect

of gaining Florida, of defending Louisiana, or of carrying fili-

bustering warfare into the heart of the Mexican Viceroyalty.

On the Atlantic coast the struggle is divided into petty con-

flicts during which one section after another felt the weight

of British naval supremacy. The capture of Washington and

the defense of Baltimore, predatory ravages on the coast of

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