April 19 1812: War As An Act of Madness

On April 19, 1812, Peter B. Porter, who was a Congressman from New York, wrote to the Secretary of War William Eustis that it was “an act of madness fatal to the administration to declare war at this time, when, so far from being in a situation to conduct offensive operations, we are completely exposed to attacks in every quarter.”  Porter is interesting in that he initially favoured war as a War Hawk. He then reversed himself and opposed war as is clear from his letter of April 19. This did not stop him from ensuring that his family profited from the war by getting his brother a war contract. Finally, he ended fighting  in the war with some distinction. Allan Taylor describes Porter in Civil War of 1812: American Citizens, British Subjects, Irish Rebels, & Indian Allies (Vintage) as follows: 

Peter B. Porter represented New York’s westernmost district, along the Niagara River, which would become the vulnerable front line in any war with British Canada. Born in Connecticut and graduated from Yale, he moved to the Niagara frontier in 1795. With his brother Augustus, Peter B. Porter developed the leading mercantile and shipping business on the eastern Great Lakes. He built a mansion and erected wharves and stores at Black Rock, on Lake Erie’s outlet into the Niagara River. Initially a Federalist, he shrewdly converted in 1801, just as the Republicans came to power in New York and the nation. He gained office as a county clerk and state legislator before winning election to Congress in 1808 and reelection in 1810. Hard-drinking, Porter was also amiable, gregarious, and popular. During the winter of 1811–12, Porter had urged the conquest of Canada, but he suddenly reversed himself in the spring. On April 19, 1812, he declared it “an act of madness fatal to the administration to declare war at this time, when, so far from being in a situation to conduct offensive operations, we are completely exposed to attacks in every quarter.” Rather than stay in Congress to vote for the declaration of war, he headed home, to become the quartermaster general for the New York militia. Porter also helped his brother to win a federal contract to provision the soldiers at Niagara and Detroit. The British diplomat, Augustus Foster, mocked that “Porter, after being for war, then against it, then for it and anew against it, set out at last for the frontiers of Canada with a commission for supplying the troops.”25 In fact, his shifting positions pursued a constant goal: to protect his mansion, wharves, and stores, which lay within cannon shot of the British batteries on their side of the Niagara River. Ideally, Porter wanted to secure his property by promoting a rapid and overwhelming American invasion. In the spring, however, recruiting for the army lagged far behind the force needed to conquer Canada. Porter then worried that a weak invasion would only invite a destructive British counterattack on western New York. Porter’s constituents also felt vulnerable to attack. In the Niagara Valley, the only American military base was the ruinous Fort Niagara at the river’s outlet, about thirty-five miles north of Black Rock. The fort’s paltry garrison of eighty troops could not match the four hundred British regulars across the river at the newer and stronger Fort George. While the Americans had done almost nothing to fortify their side of the border, the British had built new batteries, arms depots, guardhouses, and a set of signal stations to convey alarms. On the American shore, James Harrison worried, “Comparatively speaking, we are few in number, undisciplined, and in fact unarmed.” Worst of all, the British could rally hundreds of Indian warriors to ravage the American settlements. In the event of war, Harrison expected the American settlements to fall “Sacrifice to marauders and Indians.”