NATIONAL PARK SERVICE THAT THE PAST SHALL LIVE... the history program of the National Park Service

IN the period between 1776 and 1812 the new Republic, before the skeptical eyes of the Old World, survived its early trials and tribulations and began to show promise of the powerful new democracy it was to become.

At Federal Hall in New York on April 30, 1789, George Washington was inaugurated first President of the United States, thus opening the formative period of the new Federal Government under the Constitution. There, the following year, decision was made to establish a permanent capital on the Potomac to be named Washington.

As the new Government gained in strength and stature, the young nation made the first important moves toward expansion westward. A highlight of this movement was the "breakthrough" of the forbidding ridge at Cumberland Gap and the pouring of settlers into the southeastern Kentucky region first explored by Daniel Boone. America was growing. At Federal Hall, at Cumberland Gap, and elsewhere where this early growth took on significant form, the story is kept alive and fresh in historical units of the National Park System.

Soon, though, the burgeoning young Republic was to meet its sternest early test. In June, 1812, President Madison, under pressure of popular resentment against insults to American rights at sea and other real or fancied wrongs, signed the declaration of a second war against Great Britain. For two years after that the conflict wore on inconclusively. Then, freed at last of the last entanglements of a European war, Britain was able to take the offensive in earnest. Washington was promptly burned and sacked. Baltimore was saved through the heroic defense at Fort McHenry which inspired Francis Scott Key to pen the immortal lines of "The Star-Spangled Banner." But even then the British were preparing a mighty offensive directed toward gaining control of the mouth of the Mississippi River and the lower American West of that day.

What was the outcome of this great offensive stroke? We can see the answer for ourselves by pausing next at Chalmette National Historical Park in Louisiana, some six miles from New Orleans. Here, by turning back the clock to the day and night of January 7, 1815, we can see General Andrew Jackson feverishly preparing his motley group of frontiersmen, regulars, Creoles, sailors, pirates, Indians, and Free Men of Color for the coming head-on clash with the skilled and powerful British forces preparing to attack. We can see the sights, and hear the sounds, of coming battle. Nearly 150 years have passed since that historic time. But we are touching the same earth that the feet of "Old Hickory" touched, we are looking out over the same ground, the same scene. We are there. It is daylight now—January 8, 1815—and in a furious burst of sound the battle is joined. We can see the strong and orderly British ranks pressing onward. We can hear the fire from American artillery emplacements, and by looking closely can distinguish Dominique You and Renato Beluche, Jean Lafitte's pirates turned patriots, sweating at their cannon.

It is soon over. The British forces have been crushed, losing from 2,000 to 3,000 dead and wounded. On the American side—only seven killed, six wounded!

Chalmette National Historical Park keeps permanently enshrined the memory of this great American victory. And at other units too the story of the War of 1812 is retold and kept alive. At Fort McHenry. At Perry's Victory and International Peace Memorial National Monument in Ohio which commemorates the decisive victory of American naval forces over the British on September 10, 1813, in the Battle of Lake Erie, near Put-in-Bay. What American can forget the words of Commodore Perry in his report on the outcome of that greatest naval battle of the War: "We have met the enemy and they are ours."

At the close of the War of 1812 this was the sentiment, too, of the young nation of America. We had met and defeated the enemy, flexed our young muscles and found them surprisingly strong. Now we were anxious to get along—fast with the business of growing up into full maturity.