The Tiffin tribune. (Tiffin, Ohio) 1868-1887, 1869-11-12
TIFFIN, OHIO,
.eg. Nobody but Commodore Bar

HCl VI Jul cluC hAaNO al SApn "
/ gallantry-but, deserted on ever,
} hand, he had to fall back with hii
: marines. The British troops, lauC
: and marine, united under their re.
spective commanders, Ross and Cock
burne, came behind the flying militia
pell-mell into Washington. Ros:
was a quiet, gentlemanly soldier, fl
!, for his position in every thing but q
knowledge of civilized law. Cock
!, burn, burner of cities, and a robheI
of pig-stys, was the dashing black
guard on whose ships, a year later,
the English placed Napoleon, to be
conducted to ST. Helena, and to be
insulred BY his insu ferable insolenee.
Under these two vandals, soldier and
sailor, the burning about the Capital
commenced.
The city contained then a popula-
ton of only eight thousand. As Ross
rode into town over the brow of Cap
itol Hill, he was fired upon b. citi-
|, zen from behind the house of Mr..
Robert Sewall, the shot killing the
Generals horse. The house was i'm
mediateiy set on fire and partially
burned. The old mansion, restored
after its ancient model, has stood
here ever since, a monument of the
!. tirre. Bat an hour ag1, as looked
/ from nv window to see this relic, L
observed that within the last week a
Mansard roof has been ru1 up over
it. its Id porticos torn away. and the
whole place scarcely recognizable.
The British soldiers bivouacked
under the caves of the CAPITOL. An
hour later, by command of their Gen.
eral, they assembled inside of it.
around The Speaker stand. in the
old Hall IF Repre- entatives, held a
mock Legislature there, then piled up
kidding wood around the forum, aud
set the building in flames, consuming
the library of Congress, records and
all. Cockburn staggered through
the streets when it was done as though
he had destroyed the history of the
Revolution. Weeks before, this
vauntipg cockney had come into the
city in disguise, and taken lodging
at The boarding-hous of a widow.
He went to his old boarding house,
now in his naval boots, and the land
lady could not recognize him. He
had learned the magnificent distances
of the city, and led his brother off
GERS up Pennsylvania avenue to the
White House. The family had fed,
and the cooks had prepared and left
upon the great table in the State din
ing-room there a smoking feast for
the Cabinet, Secretaries and military
nff;cers in their expected victorious
return from Bladensburg. Entire
une JataiHe perdue ct une bdtallle gag
uee'La distance est immense, IL g a des
empires, said Napoleon. Between a
battle lost and a battle gained the
distance is immense; there are din
ners in it.
The British, and Tot the Federals,
came down upon the feast like hungry
lions, setting afterward the house on
fire. The accomplished and spirited
Mrs. Madison had cut from its frame
the great full length portrait of Wash
ington and concealed it in a private
residence. The picture saved and
restored hangs there now, the most
sourenir of that pitiful era
in the State dining-room of the
White House, from where it was first
taken
That day, tho 9th of August, and
the next, the English remained in the
city, completing their Vandalism by
destroying the remaining public de-
partments, the arsenal and the type
and library of the National Intelli-
gencer Office, and then heaping fuel
upon the embers of the Capitol, stole
away like Homer's Greeks to their
ships in the Patuxent. The Ameri-
can Troy had been taken and sack
cd
Private property and families were,
however. comparatively left undis-
turbed. The burning of the unWar-
like public structures, the Capitol.
White House, and the departments,
together with works of art. and pub
lie and private libraries, was an Eng
lish outrage. bringing back the vio-
lence of the middle ages or the Ca
liph's dest uction of ancient Alexan-
dria. The British journals of the
time censured it as severely as our
own.
Perhaps never in history was there
50 cowardly a defense of city by its
friends. and so cowardly an occupa.
tion bv its enemies. The Americans
aimlessly destroyed the bridge across
the eastern branch of the Potomac,
where the old piles rear their tops
yet visibly above the low water. At
the Arsenal burning by the British,
a frebraUd dropped into a secret veil
filed with powder, blew three score of
His Majesty King Georges faithful
subjects to heaven. Fragments of
royalty we're gathered up there two
mornings after in heaps--The only
good thing the War Secretary, Arm
strong is known to have done in the
matter of the city's capture, was his
official statement after the occasion,
expressed with naire sincerity that
the determining cause of the disaster
was to be found in that love of life
which, in many corps, predomiDated
over a love of country and honorl |
The Secretary, no doubt, intended |
with justice to include himself and
Madison's whole Cabinet as a special
corps under this head. The quaint
humor of the time over the cowar6ly
conduction of the battle by the Amer !
lean officers found expression in a
couple of stanzas, found written with |
charcoal on the four-mile stone lead
ing to Bladensburg, near the place
of battle. The hands pointed in the
direction where the two officers men
toned fought or fed:
E-''gere fought Commodore Barney,
So nobly and SO gsllantly,
Against Britain's sons and tyranny.
For fighting man was he"
E"Here did General winder fee.
His infantry and cavalry,
Disgraeing the cause of liberty,
For writing man was he"
Since that Homerie American age
fighting men have turned writer's, and
writing men have changed belliger-
ents.
Dying Words of Wilberforoer
"Come and sit near me, AID let me
lean on you," said Wilberforce to
friend few minutes before his death.