RE-ELECTION OF MADISON.

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important one, as she holds the keys of entrance, through the mouth of the mighty river Mississippi, to the richest, if not the most extensive valley in the world.

2. The American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions was also incorporated in 1812; and five missionaries were ordained at Salem to preach the gospel at Bom-bay', in Asia. They were the first foreign missionaries ever ordained here. Yet the same board, in 1842, thirty years later, sustained no less than one hundred and thirty-four of these foreign missionaries.

3. Very early in the year 1813, the Emperor of Russia kindly offered to try to make peace between Great Britain and the United States; and Albert Gallatin, James A. Bayard, and John Quincy Adams, were appointed as commissioners, and sent to Russia to meet such commissioners as the British might appoint, and, if practicable, to make a treaty between the two countries.

4. The term for which Mr. Madison had been elected president expired on the 4th of March, 1813, and a strong effort was made, by the party opposed to the war, to elect De Witt Clinton in his stead; but they did not succeed. Mr. Madison was re-elected, and George Clinton was also re-elected vice-president; the latter died soon after, and was succeeded by Elbridge Gerry, of Massachusetts.

5. Cotton manufactories began to flourish this year, 1813. In the neighborhood of Providence, Rhode Island, one hundred and twenty thousand spindles were in operation, consuming six million pounds of cotton yearly. About the end of the year, twenty thousand or thirty thousand spindles were running at Baltimore. Yet, in 1809, not a thread of cotton was spun by machinery in this country. At present the manufacture of cotton in the United States, is one of the leading industrial interests of the nation.

6. This year, 1813, moreover, was remarkable for two more events, the birth of the Massachusetts Society for the Suppression of Intemperance, which has led the way to so much good in the United States, and the death of him who may be justly considered as the father of our temperance societies, Dr. Benjamin Rush.

What of

2. When was the American Board of Commissioners first incorporated? foreign missionaries? What of the board in 1842? 8. What of the Emperor of Russia? Who were sent as commissioners? 4. Who now were re-elected president and vice-president? What of Elbridge Gerry? 5. What of cotton manufactories at Providence? At Baltimore? 6. What two events of importance occurred in 1813?

CHAPTER CLXIV.

MADISON'S ADMINISTRATION, CONTINUED.-The Massacre at

Frenchtown.

1. WE have seen that the north-western division of the United States army was stationed in the neighborhood of Detroit, and was under the command of General Harrison. There, too, they wintered, 1812-13. General Harrison's plan was to collect a sufficient force ir that region, and, as soon as he could, retake Detroit, and the other forts and places which General Hull had so unwisely surrendered.

2. Early in January, news came from the Americans at Frenchtown, a place twenty-six miles from Detroit, that the British and Indians were coming against them; praying, at the same time, for assistance. General Winchester, with eight hundred men, marched thither, and succeeded in driving away the British and Indians, who had already arrived, but was, in his turn, driven away by the British, on the 23d inst., and himself and five hundred men taken prisoners.

3. Their surrender was followed by a scene almost too shocking to describe. General Proctor, the British commander, had pledged his honor that the lives and private property of the American soldiers should be respected after the surrender. But, instead of this, the dead were stripped and scalped, by the Indian allies of the British-the wounded, such as were unable to rise, butchered, and the living stripped and plundered, and many of them tomahawked, or only reserved to be roasted at the stake. Few of them lived to be exchanged. 4. It is maintained by some that General Proctor could not have prevented these barbarities. It is difficult, however, to believe this. The bare thought of such a massacre is shocking, whether it could have been avoided or not. It exhibits, in a most striking manner, the horrors of war, especially of Indian warfare.

5. What rendered this massacre at Frenchtown more afflicting was the fact that most of the troops were of the very flower of Kentucky. They were, many of them, young men who had a large circle of respectable relatives. Their bodies lay in the fields till autumn, wher their friends ventured to collect their bleaching bones and bury them. 6. The news of General Winchester's defeat reached General Har rison while on his march to Frenchtown with reinforcements.

Find

CHAP. CLXIV.-1. What was General Harrison's plan? What portion of the army did he command? 2. What news came from the Americans at Frenchtown? What of General Winchester? 3. Describe the scene after the surrender. 4. What opinion is held of General Proctor? 5. What of the American troops that fell at Frenchtown? 6. What did General Harrison now do?

CAPTURE OF YORK.

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ing himself too late, he stopped at the rapids of the river Mau-mee' and built a fort, which, in honor of the governor of Ohio, he called Fort Meigs. This he made, for the present, the head-quarters of his army.

CHAPTER CLXV.

MADISON'S ADMINISTRATION, CONTINUED.-Capture of York, and Death of General Pike.

1. LITTLE, if any thing, was done, during the year 1812, to increase

GENERAL PIKE.

the naval force of the United States, either on the ocean or the lakes. Commodore Chauncey had indeed been sent to Lake Ontario, about the 1st of September, to fill up the Oneida, a vessel of sixteen guns, and to arm half a dozen schooners, and thus form a little squadron. There had also been some skirmishing upon the lake.

2. The next spring, General Dearborn laid a plan to attack York, in Upper Canada, the great depository of the British military stores. His troops, amounting to seventeen hundred men, embarked, about the middle of April, on board Commodore Chauncey's vessels, and, on the 25th, they set sail for York.

3. The army was directed by General Pike, a young man of great promise, who had requested the command as a favor. They landed at York on the 27th. As they were moving toward the garrison, a magazine exploded, which the British had prepared for the purpose, and which mortally wounded General Pike and killed about a hundred of his men.

4. General Pike did not die, however, though his head was literally crushed by the heavy stone which fell on it, till he had seen the town and all the barracks, and fortifications, and stores, and seven hundred and fifty of the enemy, in the possession of his victorious troops. The loss, in killed and wounded, was great on both sides, but greatest on the side of the Americans.

CHAP. CLXV.-1. What of Commodore Chauncey? 1. What plan was laid by Gen. eral Dearborn? 3. How was the army directed? What was the fate of General Piks and a part of his troops? 4. What did he, however, live to see? Loss on both sides

5. Zebulon M. Pike, who lost his life in this engagement, was a native of New Jersey, and was not only well instructed, but rendered healthy and robust by active exercise. As his father had been an officer in the Revolutionary army, the son was trained to military life, and was early made a lieutenant on the western frontiers.

6. About the time when Lewis and Clarke were sent on an exploring tour up the Missouri, Lieutenant Pike, with twenty men, and provisions for four months, was sent up the Mississippi. The company set out August 5th, 1805. Instead of four months, however, they were absent nine months, exposed to almost every danger and hardship..

7. Sometimes they were wholly without food for several days together. At other times, they slept, without any covering, upon the bare ground, or upon the snow; for they were out all winter, and the season was unusually severe. Sometimes they were obliged to leave their boat and build canoes; and sometimes they carried their canoes, from place to place, on their backs.

8. Though sent to acquire information, they had no surveyor or clerk with them but Pike. He was, as he justly says of himself, at once the commanding officer, clerk, astronomer, surveyor, spy, guide, and hunter of the party. He kept his journal and drew all his sketches by the fire at night in the open air.

9. In two months after his return, he was sent out by General Wilkinson to obtain geographical and other information on the borders of New Mexico. Again he was out the whole winter, unprotected. All the horses belonging to the party died, and all the men, except Pike himself, were more or less frozen.

10. But these were not all the trials to which he was exposed. Unexpectedly, they found themselves upon the banks of the Rio del Norte, within the Spanish territory. Here they were seized by a band of Spanish cavalry, and, what was worst of all, Pike's instruments and papers, except his private journal, were taken from him. The party were, however, at length all liberated, and in July, 1807, reached Natchitoches.

11. Such was the education, properly so called, of this most interesting young man, who, at the age of thirty-three, became a brigadiergeneral in the American army, and, at thirty-four, begged the favor of leading the American troops in an attack on York,* to die, like Wolfe, before Quebec, in the moment of victory.

5. What of General Pike's early life? 6. What of his expedition up the Mississippi? 7. Describe the sufferings of the men. 8. What stations were held by Pike? 9. What other expedition did he undertake? 10. What happened to the party? 11. What was Pike's age at the time of his death?

* York, sometimes called Little York, and now bearing its original Indian name of Toronto, is situated on the north-west shore of Lake Ontario, about thirty miles north of Niagara.

SIEGE OF FORT MEIGS.

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12. Fort George, another strong British post, in the vicinity of York, was assailed by General Bond and Colonel Miller on the 27th of May, and, after & sharp and bloody conflict, was taken, and with it six hundred and twenty-five prisoners. Sackett's Harbor was attacked by the British about this time, but the effort was unsuccessful.

CHAPTER CLXVI.

MADISON'S ADMINISTRATION, CONTINUED.-Siege of Fort Meigs.-General Harrison's Defence.

1. On the first day of May, 1813, General Proctor, with one thousand British regulars and militia, and more than a thousand Indians, laid siege to Fort Meigs, the head-quarters of the army under General Harrison, and continued the siege, with great vigor, for nine days.

2. During the third day of the siege, General Proctor sent an officer to demand the surrender of the fort. The forces in it were probably about two thousand. General Harrison's reply was not quite as laconic as the very ancient one, "Come and take it," but nearly so. "Not, sir," said he to General Proctor, "while I have the honor to command."

3. A reinforcement was received on the fifth day of the siege from Kentucky. It was a body of troops under the command of General Clay. Aided by these, an attack was made on the British, in which both parties suffered so much that they did not choose to renew the hostilities for several days. On the ninth day the British gave up the siege.

4. Fort Meigs was besieged again on the 22d of May, by General Proctor, but not for a long period. The attention of the troops was soon turned to Fort Stephenson. This was assailed by the united forces of the British and Indians in that quarter, but was promptly and successfully defended by Major Croghan, a young and accomplished officer. General Proctor, at his retreat from Fort Stephenson, returned to Malden.

12. What of General Bond and Colonel Miller? Sackett's Harbor?

CHAP. CLXVI.-1. To what fort did General Proct?" lay siege? 2. Relate the incident that took place on the third day of the siege. 3. What of General Clay? Effect of the attack on the British? 4. Who defended Fort Stephenson? What of General Proctor after his retreat?

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