party of Canadian militia had cut out from the American shore
near Buffalo and had sent to destruction over Niagara Falls. The
British Government, holding that the Caroline was at the time
illegally employed to assist Canadian insurgents, and that the
Canadian militia were under government orders justifiable by
international law, assumed the responsibility for McLeod's act
and his safety. Ten thousand Americans along the border, members
of "Hunters' Lodges," were anxious for a war which would unleash
them for the conquest of Canada. Delay was causing all these
disputes to fester, and the public mind of the two countries was
infected with hostility.

Fortunately in 1841 new administrations came into power in both
England and the United States. Neither the English Tories nor the
American Whigs felt bound to maintain all the contentions of
their predecessors, and both desired to come to an agreement. The
responsibility on the American side fell upon Daniel Webster,
the new Secretary of State. With less foreign experience than
John Quincy Adams, he was more a man of the world and a man among
men. His conversation was decidedly less ponderous than his
oratory, and there was no more desirable dinner guest in America.
Even in Webster's lightest moments, his majestic head gave the
impression of colossal mentality, and his eyes, when he was in
earnest, almost hypnotized those upon whom he bent his gaze. A
leading figure in public life for twenty-five years, he now
attained administrative position for the first time, and his
constant practice at the bar had given something of a lawyerlike
trend to his mind.

The desire of the British Government for an agreement with the