The War of 1812 Quotes
They Said It
| "To have shrunk, under such circumstances, from manly resistence, would have been a degradation blasting our best and proudest hopes; it would have struck us from the high ranks where the virtuous struggles of our fathers had placed us, and have betrayed the magnificent legacy which we hold in trust for future generations. It would have acknowledged that on the element which forms three-fourths of the globe we inhabit, where all independent nations have equal and common rights, the American people were not an independent people, but colonists and vassals." - President James Madison, November 181213 |
| "I believe that in four weeks from the time a declaration of war is heard on our frontier, the whole of Upper Canada and a part of Lower Canada will be in our power." - Representative John C. Calhoun, 181214 |
| "Alas, I can descry only groups of military wandering in all directions, as if there was a lack of arms, or of spirit to fight for their own fireside! [...] I insist on waiting until the large picture of Gen. Washington is secured." - First Lady Dolley Madison, August 24th, 1814, writing to her sister as the British attacked Washington, D.C.16 |
| "The war has renewed and reinstated the national feelings and character which the Revolution had given, and which were daily lessened. The people [...] are more American; they feel and act more as a nation; and I hope the permanency of the Union is thereby better secured." - Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin, 181617 |
| "We have met the enemy and they are ours." - Oliver Hazard Perry, 181315 |