“On to Canada!”
gayly started “On to Canada!” balked at their own side of the river, because it was unconstitutional for militia to serve outside the United States, which recalls the sensible old song,
“Mother, may I go in to swim?
Yes, my darling daughter.
Hang your clothes on a hickory limb,
But don’t go near the water.”
That’s an American joke and everybody can understand it. But what the British did to the recruits who were captured was no joke to Americans. General Brock added the stinging insult to Hull’s surrender by sending all United States regulars as prisoners to Montreal. The volunteers and militia he simply turned loose. Why shouldn’t he turn loose such harmless persons? Volunteers and militia were utterly useless to their own government, constituted no peril to the British, and were not worth feeding in captivity. This contempt subsequently reacted upon the British at New Orleans.
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