take up arms. There were two deeply rooted national
desires urging them on in the same direction. A good many
Americans were ready to seize any chance of venting their
anti-British feeling; and most Americans thought they
would only be fulfilling their proper 'destiny' by wresting
the whole of Canada from the British crown. These two
national desires worked both ways for war--supporting
the government case against the British Orders-in-Council
and Right of Search on the one hand, while welcoming an
alliance with Napoleon on the other. Americans were far
from being unanimous; and the party in favour of peace
was not slow to point out that Napoleon stood for tyranny,
while the British stood for freedom. But the adherents
of the war party reminded each other, as well as the
British and the French, that Britain had wrested Canada
from France, while France had helped to wrest the Thirteen
Colonies from the British Empire.

As usual in all modern wars, there was much official
verbiage about the national claims and only unofficial
talk about the national desires. But, again as usual,
the claims became the more insistent because of the
desires, and the desires became the more patriotically
respectable because of the claims of right. 'Free Trade
and Sailors' Rights' was the popular catchword that best
describes the two strong claims of the United States.
'Down with the British' and 'On to Canada' were the
phrases that best reveal the two impelling national
desires.