The conflict being vital,
the force being nearly equally balanced, and the result uncertain, each
party had the strongest motives of interest to cultivate our good will,
lest we might be thrown into the opposite scale. Powerful as this
consideration usually is, it was nevertheless utterly disregarded
in almost every stage of and by every party to those wars. To these
encroachments and injuries our regard for peace was finally forced
to yield.
In the war to which at length we became a party our whole coast from St.
Croix to the Mississippi was either invaded or menaced with invasion,
and in many parts with a strong imposing force both land and naval.
In those parts where the population was most dense the pressure was
comparatively light, but there was scarcely an harbor or city on any
of our great inlets which could be considered secure. New York and
Philadelphia were eminently exposed, the then existing works not being
sufficient for their protection. The same remark is applicable in a
certain extent to the cities eastward of the former, and as to the
condition of the whole country southward of the latter the events which
mark the war are too recent to require detail.
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