58 THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



After long hesitation and much anxious deliberation, President 

 Madison had decided on the appointment of Armstrong, who was 

 then in command of the troops in the city of New York, as being em- 

 inently well qualified by training and study for the control of the War 

 Department. Monroe, the masterful Secretary of State, heartily 

 disliked his new colleague and made no pretence of concealing his 

 antipathy. Armstrong had served as aide-de-camp to General 

 Gates during the campaign of Saratoga and subsequently as adjutant- 

 general of the army commanded by that officer in the Southern States. 

 He was believed to be the author of the inflammatory Newburg 

 Addresses on the disbandment of the Continental army which had 

 attracted so much attention and were strongly condemned by Wash- 

 ington as being seditious in their tone. His marriage into the wealthy 

 and powerful Livingston family of New York had given him political 

 influence which could scarcely be ignored. Jefferson had appointed 

 him Minister to France and he had performed the difficult duties 

 of that important post with firmness and judgment at a critical time. 

 His interest in military affairs had never flagged and he had forwarded 

 a copy of Grimoard's book on the Duties of the General Staff to the 

 War Department immediately after its publication, with a strong 

 recommendation that it should be translated. His opinions on military 

 subjects seemed to be generally sound and were well expressed, and, 

 although regarded as being constitutionally indolent, he sometimes 

 displayed great energy and decision. He had just entered his fifty- 

 fifth year but his health was unimpaired. It was an open secret 

 that he had- desired the chief command of the United States Army 

 with the rank of Lieutenant General and only failed to obtain it 

 through the determined opposition of Mr. Monroe who also sought 

 that appointment. 1 



Very soon after assuming office, the new Secretary proposed 

 to open the campaign of 1813, by a combined naval and military attack 

 upon Kingston and the greater part of the troops at Plattsburg were 

 moved in the depth of winter to Sackett's Harbour with that object 

 at the expense of considerable suffering from frost bites. The forces 

 assembled with that intention were diverted by their commanders, 

 first against York and then against Niagara. A series of unsuccessful 

 operations during the month of June resulted in the retirement of the 

 invading army into an entrenched camp at Fort George, where it 

 was blockaded and virtually reduced to impotence by a force numer- 

 ically much inferior. News of the surrender of Lieut. Colonel Boerst- 

 ler's command at the Beaver Dams on June 24, arrived in Washing- 



1 Ingersoll, History of the War of 1812-3, p. 267; Henry Adams, History of the 

 United States. 



