A Canadian Historical Perspective Of The War Of 1812

1812, the war and its moral: a Canadian chronicle By William Foster Coffin, was written from the Canadian point of view and published in 1864.

"The management of the Ordnance Lands in this Province has thrown me upon the scenes of the most notable events of the late war. It has brought me in contact with many of the surviving actors. It has revived early recollections of my own."

"Canada in 1812 cared as little as at present for a war with her powerful neighbor but as at present cared not to evade it. The war of 1812 was no Canadian quarrel. It was forced upon the Canadian people and fought upon Canadian soil to gratify the antipathies of two nations too like to be loving."

"The war indeed was at the bottom no quarrel between governments. The governments of the day were but the instruments of the time. The real cause of strife was to be found in the temper of the people. It was a personal turn up between Jonathan and John Bull."