Maryland in the War of 1812

In the fall of 1813 American privateers, especially those from Baltimore became a serious threat to British merchantmen on the Atlantic amd West Indies causing the insurance rates, economy and ship owners of England to put pressure on the Royal Navy to chastise the Americans. In September 1813 The London Evening Star published the following:

“The American Navy must be annihilated – her arsenals and dock-yards must be consumed; and the turbulent inhabitants of Baltimore must be tamed with the weapons which shook the wooden turrents of Copenhagen [in 1807]… All the panting about maritime rights, with which the Americans have recently nauseated the ears of every cabinet minister in Europe, must be silenced by the strong and manly voice of reason- the utima ration regum, paradoxial as it may seem, is here the only remedy – and America must be BEATEN INTO SUBMISSION! The law of nations have been always the law of the strongest – England is, therefore the DICTATOR of the maritime laws of the civilized world, and long may she retain her superiority! ”  London Evening Star, September 1813.”

In September 1814 the British would launch a naval and military attack on Baltimore.