Page:Tupper family records - 1835.djvu/164

 142 SIR ISAAC BROCK.

peace until this was done.' Yet this Mr. Clay was afterwards one of the American commissioners who signed the treaty of Ghent !

" The first act of the commander in chief, on learning the Ame- rican declaration of war, was an earnest of his future irresolution. He dispatched orders to the commanding officer at fort St. Joseph's to remain upon the defensive ; but Captain Roberts knew that, if attacked, his post was untenable ; he was aware that the enemy at Michilimackinac must shortly be reinforced, and he boldly preferred to follow the directions of his immediate commander, General Brock, to assault that place if he found it advisable. The important result has already been told. To General Brock him- self, Sir George Prevost sent no instructions whatever for some weeks after he received intimation of the war. Whether this neglect was intentional, to leave that officer to his own respon- sibility, or was merely the natural effect of the infirmity of purpose which the commander in chief afterwards so repeatedly evinced, the consequences were equally mischievous ; for General Brock had moved from York to Fort George with the intention of attack- ing the American fort of Niagara, then unprepared for defence, and was only restrained from that measure by the perplexity of his situation in being left without orders. Hull's invasion, however, put it beyond doubt that he should do right in opposing him, and the capture of that force preceded his receipt of the first dispatches from the commander in chief. These dispatches, indeed, were of such a nature, that it was fortunate they arrived no sooner. They announced, as we have already stated, the conclusion of that impolitic armistice between Sir George Prevost and General Dear- born at the moment which should have been devoted to active exertion against the American posts on the frontier. By the terms of this truce, General Hull was to determine, at his option, whether or not the suspension of arms should be binding upon his division. If he had not already capitulated before he could make his choice, what might not have been the fatal consequences of permitting him to claim the benefit of the armistice ?

" No sooner was the suspension of arms, to which Sir George had agreed, at an end, than he issued positive orders along the whole extent of frontier, that no offensive operations whatever should be attempted against the different points of the enemy's line. The short-sightedness of such a system of defence needs perhaps little exposition, but a practical illustration of its tendency

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