In 1837 a rebellion against British rule in Canada was led by a small group of malcontents. Given that it was a bad year for America economically, many unemployed Ameri-cans—not always the most upstanding citizens—headed for the border to volunteer, perhaps in hope of a reward in land. Americans had sympathy for the Canadian rebels, but were also fueled by greed (the old 1812 land hunger.) They turned weapons over to the insurrectionists. A Canadian rebel leader named MacKenzie established headquarters on Navy Island on the Canadian side of the Niagara River near the Falls to recruit Americans. The Caroline, a small steamer, carried supplies from the New York side across to Canada.
On December 12, 1837, a British raiding party sank and burned the Caroline, sending the carcass of the ship over the falls. The British Officer-in-Charge was knighted for his actions, which outraged the Americans. The Caroline was clearly un-neutral, but the British acted hastily. In making no attempt to go through U. S. authorities, they violated U. S. sovereignty. The Caroline action was insignificant, but one American was killed (on American soil), and several others were wounded.
The American Press, always quick to defend American honor, called for the "wanton act" to be avenged by blood. President Van Buren responded calmly, but forcefully; he asked Americans to quit the rebellion and sent General Winfield Scott to the border area to mediate the crisis. The New York and Vermont militia were called into service to keep order. Protests went back and forth, but the British government in London was unresponsive. The issue rankled but was unresolved.
In 1838 the Free Canada movement started up again, and several bands of "liberators" invaded Canada. Americans burned the Sir Robert Peel—a steamboat for a steamboat— shouting "Remember the Caroline!" The British authorities captured many of the interfering individuals, and some were sent to the penal colony of Australia.
President Van Buren was criticized on both sides, but he handled the crisis wisely. He published a strong proclamation to Americans to obey neutrality laws. Some U. S. insurrectionists were tried and punished, most of whom were pardoned after the 1840 election (which Van Buren lost.) General Scott personally patrolled the border, putting out little fires here and there. In any case no one in the U. S. or Great Britain really wanted war. (Some Britons, in fact, wondered whether it might be time to dump Canada.)
The issue refused to die, however. In 1840 a Canadian sheriff named McLeod was arrested over the Caroline business. He claimed to have killed the American in the Caroline raid. He was arrested and tried for arson and murder in a New York State court over strong British protests. The federal government explained that New York State had sole jurisdiction, something incomprehensible to the British, who did not understand the American federal system. Washington attempted to intervene, but New York authorities stubbornly went ahead with the trial.
Ance."62 The Canadian press grew quite belligerent—"If war must come, let it come at
Lord Palmerston, British Prime Minister, admitted that the ship was destroyed under orders to stop American "pirates." He said that the conviction of McLeod "would produce war, war immediate and frightful in its character because it would be a war of retaliation and venge
Once."63 The trial, however, was conducted without incident. Secretary of State Webster sent a message to prevent a lynching or there would be "war within ten days." The jury, however, acquitted McLeod in twenty minutes; he had been drunk and merely boasting.
In 1842 Congress passed the Remedial Justice Act, which gave jurisdiction in international disputes to federal courts. But the states were still able to embarrass the federal government when dealing with aliens. For example, there was trouble with the Italian government over prosecutions of mafia members in New Orleans about 50 years later.
Another sore spot was the Maine-Canada boundary. The so-called "Aroostook War" broke out in 1839 from a dispute over the location of the boundary line along the Aroostook River. The exact location of the boundary had been unsettled since 1783. The British were building a road through the disputed territory to connect the frozen St. Lawrence with the sea when they ran into some "Mainiacs" who challenged their right to impinge upon United States property. A few shots were fired, war fever erupted briefly, and war appropriations were made. Winfield Scott was again sent to the scene and arranged a truce.
In 1841 the Creole affair added new tension. The British were fighting the slave trade, and captured an American ship, the Creole, that was in hands of slave mutineers; one white passenger had been killed. The mutineers took the ship to Nassau in the Bahamas, where the British punished the murderers. However, the British granted asylum to the 130 Virginia slaves, refusing to return them to their owners in Virginia. Secretary of State Webster protested to the British and demanded return of the slaves as American property, but the British took no steps to honor Webster's demands.
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