War of 1812 - War of 1812 - War: Neither the British in Canada nor the United States were prepared for war. Americans were inordinately optimistic in 1812. William Eustis, the U.S. secretary of war, stated, “We can take the Canadas without soldiers, we have only to send officers into the province and the people…will rally round our standard.” Henry Clay said that “the militia of Kentucky are alone competent to place Montreal and Upper Canada at your feet.” And Thomas Jefferson famously wrote The British government, preoccupied with the European conflict, saw American hostilities as a bothersome distraction, resulting in a paucity of resources in men, supplies, and
By Dr Caroline Derry10 May 2021
On 25 May 1921, The Times published the bar final examination results. For the first time, the list of successful candidates included a woman: Olive Catherine Clapham. The newspaper marked this milestone with a short article highlighting her achievement, headlined ‘The First Woman Barrister’.
Dr Caroline Derry
That headline was of course inaccurate. The exams were only one step towards qualification, though an important one. Clapham still had to keep six more dining terms at her Inn of Court, Middle Temple (pictured), before she could be called to the bar, which would take at least 18 months. However, The Times was not alone in being carried away. The Law Coach, a publication for law students, whose editor Edgar Hammond had tutored Clapham for the exams, pointed out The Times’ error but added one of its own: Clapham ‘will no doubt be the first woman barrister in the course of a week or two’.
Illustration of burnt ruins of the US Capitol after the Conflagration of the 24th August, 1814. [Source: Library of Congress]
In the weeks following the attack on the US Capitol building on January 6, 2021, as the nation tried to make sense of the insurrection that it had just collectively witnessed, experts drew comparisons between this modern mutiny and the small yet significant list of past attacks on the Capitol. The clearest comparison was that of the burning of Washington, DC by British troops in 1814. Beyond the symbolic similarities of the attacks on the seat of American democracy, perhaps the most stark parallel between the two events was the lack of proper preparations made to defend the District.