Specie was at a premium of from fourteen to twenty per cent. The banks of Maryland and New York suspended September 1. Some of the banks in Maine suspended early in the year. Those of the middle and southern states suspended in September. The New England banks generally did not suspend. Those of Ohio and Kentucky continued paying specie until January 1, 1815, and the only one in Tennessee until the summer. 1814, AUGUST 31. The island of Nantucket agreed with the British to be neutral during the war. The settlements on Cape Cod paid heavily to save their salt-works from destruction. 1814, AUGUST. The legislatures of Rhode Island, New York, Virginia, and Georgia were convened. The sea-coast towns all prepared for defence. Rhode Island voted one hundred thousand dollars and to raise five hundred men, and proposed an exchange of militia with Massachusetts and Connecticut. New York and Philadelphia agreed to advance, the first a million and the second three hundred thousand dollars for defence. Works were built in Boston and Portland, the population without distinction of class working at the trenches. As at the time the national treasury was straitened, Daniel D. Tompkins, the governor of New York, with others, advanced money to support West Point, and pay the workmen in the Springfield armory, besides aiding in raising and supporting the troops enlisted in the state. 1814, SEPTEMBER 1. Castine and Belfast, on Penobscot Bay, were captured by the British from Eastport. 1814, SEPTEMBER 1.- The Wasp captured the British sloop of war Avon. On the 23d the Wasp captured the British brig Atalanta, which Captain Blakeley sent to the United States. This was the last heard of the Wasp. She is supposed to have been lost. 1814, SEPTEMBER 3. — John Armstrong resigned his position as secretary of war. The blame of the capture of Washington was laid to him. 1814, SEPTEMBER 11.-A land and naval battle took place at Plattsburg, on Lake Champlain, between the British and Americans. The American land force was commanded by General McComb; the naval force by Commodore McDonough. The British land force was commanded by General Prevost; the naval force by Commodore Downie. The naval action was soon won by the Americans, and the British land forces retreated. 1814, SEPTEMBER 12.-The British fleet appeared at North Point, on the Patapsco, and landed the troops. The next day the fleet bombarded Fort McHenry, which protected the approach to Baltimore. Ross was killed while heading a reconnoitring party at North Point. The bombardment was kept up all night, the British army re-embarking during the darkness. 1814, SEPTEMBER 14. An expedition of the British from Pensacola attacked Fort Bowyer, at Mobile Point, on the eastern entrance to Mobile Bay, and was repulsed. The attack was made by land and water. The garrison consisted of one hun dred and thirty men, under the command of Major Lawrence. 1814, SEPTEMBER 17.- A sortie was made by the garrison of Fort Erie, which succeeded in destroying the works of the besieging British army. The British raised the siege and retired. 1814, OCTOBER 14.-The legislature of Connecticut acceded to the circular letter from Massachusetts, and appointed seven delegates to meet those of the other New England states, at Hartford, Connecticut, on the 15th of December. They were to deliberate "for the purpose of devising and recommending such measures for the safety and welfare of these states as may consist with our obligations as members of the national Union." 1814, OCTOBER 16. The settlement at Barataria Bay, west of the Mississippi, was captured by an expedition from New Orleans under the command of Commodore Patterson. The settlement was the headquarters of the pirates, who, calling themselves privateers, were not particular whose commerce they preyed on. The British having offered to receive them into their service if they would take part in an attack on New Orleans, Lafitte, their leader, gave notice of it to the governor of Louisiana. Ten vessels were captured and the pirates dispersed without resistance. 1814, OCTOBER.The Star-Spangled Banner was first sung at Holliday-Street Theatre, Baltimore, Maryland. 1814, OCTOBER 18.- The Massachusetts legislature adopted a report of a committee, which proposed a convention for amending the Constitution, and appointed twelve delegates to the same. The report of the committee recommended "a conference between those states the affinity of whose interests is closest, and whose habits of intercourse, from local and other causes, are most frequent, to the end that, by a comparison of their sentiments and views, some mode of defence suited to the circumstances and exigencies of those states, and measures for accelerating the return of public prosperity, may be devised; and also to enable the delegates from those states, should they deem it expedient, to lay the foundation of a radical reform in the national compact by inviting to a future convention a deputation from all the states in the Union." A circular letter was also sent the other New England states. 1814, OCTOBER 22. The legislature of New York resolved that the terms of peace proposed by the British commissioners were "extravagant and disgraceful.' The news of the terms proposed at Ghent had arrived. The legislature of Virginia passed, a few days after, a resolution calling the terms "arrogant and insulting." Both states voted to raise a body of permanent militia for defence, to be paid and supported by the general government. 1814, NOVEMBER 5. The legislature of Rhode Island accepted the circular from Massachusetts, and appointed four delegates to the proposed convention. 1814, NOVEMBER.The Americans, under General Izard, abandoned Fort Erie, and blew it up. 1814, NOVEMBER 7.- General Jackson, at the head of the Tennessee militia, took possession of Pensacola. It was surrendered without opposition, and was handed over by Jackson to the Spanish authorities. Orders had been sent to Jackson countermanding his authority to take Pensacola, but he acted before they were received. 1814, DECEMBER 14.- An American flotilla of five gunboats, commanded by Lieutenant Thomas Catesby Jones, was captured by a British expedition of forty-two barges and boats on Lake Borgne, Louisiana. This, with the capture of the Balize at the entrance of the Mississippi, opened to the British the passage to New Orleans. 1814, DECEMBER 15. The convention at Hartford met. Twenty-six delegates were present from Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island; Vermont and New Hampshire were represented only by county delegates. The convention sat with closed doors for twenty days, and on their adjournment addressed a report to their legislatures. This report was accepted by the legislatures of Massachusetts and Connecticut, and commissioners appointed by them to present to Congress the suggestions of the convention. In 1833, a history of the Hartford Convention, by its secretary, Theodore Dwight, was published. 1814, DECEMBER. - The President, under the command of Decatur, was captured on the coast of Long Island by the Endymion, a British frigate, assisted by several other vessels. The President had disabled the Endymion, but was herself so injured that on the arrival of the other vessels she was forced to surrender. 1814, DECEMBER 24. A treaty of peace was signed by the commissioners at Ghent. It was ratified by the President in the following February. 1814, DECEMBER 28. The British made an attack upon the position held by General Jackson for the defence of New Orleans, and retired after a contest of about seven hours. Jackson had taken the command in New Orleans, the governor having put himself and the militia under him. Jackson had declared martial law, and directed the governor to arrest the legislature, should it make, as was feared, any movement towards capitulating. |