Chapter 12

1. Chapter 12 The Second War for Independence and the Upsurge of Nationalism, 1812–1824

2. I. On to Canada over Land and Lakes • War of 1812: • The regular army was ill-trained, ill-disciplined, and widely scattered • It had to be supplemented by even more poorly trained militias • Some ranking generals wee semi-senile heirlooms from the Revolutionary War. • Canada: • Important battleground because British forces were weakest there (see Map 12.1)

3. I. On to Canada over Land and Lakes (cont.) • Canada: • Americas’ offensive strategy was poorly conceived • Missed by not capturing Montreal • Instead led a three-pronged invasion • The trio of invading forces that set out for Detroit, Niagara, and Lake Champlain were all beaten back after crossing the Canadian border. • By contrast: • British and Canadians displayed great energy • Early they captured American fort Michilimackinac

4. I. On to Canada over Land and Lakes (cont.) • By contrast: • Their defensive operations were led by British general Isaac Brock, assisted by “General Mud” and “General Confusion.” • Americans looked for success on the water: • Man for man and ship for ship was best • The American navy did much better than the army • American craft were better than British ships • The American frigates, notably the Constitution

5. I. On to Canada over Land and Lakes (cont.) • Control of the Great Lakes was vital: • Energetic American naval officer Oliver Hazard Perry managed to built a great fleet • Perry’s victory and his slogan infused new life into the drooping American cause • The redcoats were forced from Detroit and Fort Malden and beaten at the Battle of Thames in October 1813

6. I. On to Canada over Land and Lakes (cont.) • Despite successes, the Americans by late 1814 were far from invading Canada: • Thousands of Britain’s redcoat veterans began to pour into Canada from the Continent • Assembling 10,000 troops, the British prepared for war in 1814 against New York, along lake-river route. • Absence of roads; the invaders were forced to bring supplies over Lake Champlain waterway

7. I. On to Canada over Land and Lakes (cont.) • American fleet, commanded by Thomas Macdonough, challenged the British: • The battle was desperately fought near Plattsburgh on September 11, 1814 • The results of this heroic naval battle were momentous: • The British army was forced to retreat • Macdonough saved upper New York from conquest • He affected the concurrent negotiations of the Anglo-American peace treaty in Europe.

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9. II. Washington Burned and New Orleans Defended • A second British force of 4000 landed in the Chesapeake Bay area in August 1814: • Onward to Washington some 6000 militiamen were dispersed at Bladensburg • They set on fire public buildings, the Capitol and the White House • While the White House burned, the Americans at Baltimore held firm • The British fleet hammered Fort McHenry

10. II. Washington Burned and New Orleans Defended (cont.) • Francis Scott Key, a detained American, was inspired to write “The Star-Spangled Banner” • A third British blow of 1814, aimed at New Orleans, menaced the entire Mississippi Valley: • Andrew Jackson, fresh from victory at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend, was placed in command (see Map 12.5 on p. 241) • His forces were about 7000 various soldiers

11. II. Washington Burned and New Orleans Defended (cont.) • The 8000 British soldiers blundered badly: • They mistakenly launched a frontal assault on January 8, 1815 • The attackers suffered the most devastating defeat of the entire war • Losing over 2000, killed and wounded in ½ hour • It was an astonishing victory for Jackson and his men. • News of the American victory in the Battle of New Orleans was great encouragement.

12. II. Washington Burned and New Orleans Defended (cont.) • Andrew Jackson became a national hero. • A peace treaty had been signed at Ghent, Belgium: • Ending the war two weeks before the battle • The United States had fought for honor as much as material gain • The Battle of New Orleans restored that honor • The Royal retaliated by way of a blockade along America’s coast.

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15. III. The Treaty of Ghent • Tsar Alexander I of Russia proposed mediation between the Anglo-Saxon cousins in early 1812: • The tsar’s feelers brought 5 American peacemakers to the Belgian city of Ghent in 1814 • The group was headed by John Quincy Adams • Confident about their military successes, the British made demands for a neutralized Indian buffer state in the Great Lake region, control of the Great Lakes, and a substantial port of conquered Maine.

16. III. The Treaty of Ghent(cont.) • The American flatly rejected these terms and talks stalemated: • But British reverse in upper New York and Baltimore made London more willing to compromise • Preoccupied with redrafting Napoleon’s map of Europe at the Congress of Vienna (1814-1815) and eyeing still-dangerous France: • The British lion resigned itself to licking its wounds • The Treaty of Ghent, signed on Christmas Eve, 1814, was essentially an armistice.

17. IV. Federalist Grievances and the Hartford Convention • Some New England extremists proposed secession from the Union: • Or at least a separate peace with Britain • Hartford Convention: • The states of Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island dispatched full delegations • New Hampshire and Vermont sent partial representatives • 26 men met in secrecy for 3 weeks—Dec. 15, 1814 to Jan. 5, 1815—to discuss their grievances.

18. IV. Federalist Grievances and the Hartford Convention (cont.) • The Hartford Convention was not radical: • The convention’s final report was moderate • It demanded financial assistance from Washington to compensate for lost trade • And proposed constitutional amendments requiring a 2/3 vote in Congress before an embargo could be imposed, new states admitted, or war declared • Most demands reflected Federalist fears • Delegates sought to abolish the 3/5 clause • To limit presidents to a single term

19. IV. Federalist Grievances and the Hartford Convention (cont.) • To prohibit the election of two successive presidents from the same state– this was aimed at Virginia and the “Virginia dynasty” • Three special envoys from Massachusetts carried these demands to Washington: • The Harford Convention was the death of the Federalist party • The Federalists were never again to mount a successful presidential campaign (see Map 12.2)

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21. Map 12-2 p229

22. V. The Second War for American Independence • The War of 1812: • Was a small war, involving 6000 Americans killed or wounded • If the American conflict was globally unimportant, it had huge consequences for the United States: • Other nations developed a new respect for America’s fighting prowess • Naval officers like Perry and Macdonough were the most effective type of negotiators

23. V. The Second War for American Independence (cont.) • In a diplomatic sense, if not in a military sense, the conflict could be called the Second War for American Independence: • Sectionalism was dealt a black eye • The most conspicuous casualty of the war was the Federalist party • War heroes emerged—Andrew Jackson and William Henry Harrison—both to later become president • The Indians were forced to make terms as they could

24. V. The Second War for American Independence (cont.) • In both an economic and a diplomatic sense, the War of 1812 bred greater American independence. • Canadian patriotism and nationalism received a powerful stimulus from the war: • Many Canadians felt betrayed by the Treaty of Ghent • They were aggrieved by the failure to secure an Indian buffer state or even mastery of the Great Lakes • In 1817 the Rush-Bagot agreement between Britain and the United States severely limited naval armament on the lakes. • Border fortifications came down and the United States and Canada came to share the world’s longest unfortified boundary—5527 miles long.

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26. VI. Nascent Nationalism • The most impressive by-product of the War of 1812 was a heightened nationalism—the spirit of nation-consciousness or national oneness: • American may not have fought the war as one nation, but it emerged as one nation • Washington Irving and James Fenimore Cooper attained international fame as the nation’s first writers • A revised Bank of the United States was voted by Congress in 1816 • A new national capital began to rise in Washington

27. VI. Nascent Nationalism(cont.) • The army was expanded to ten thousand men • The navy further covered itself with victory in 1815 when it beat the piratical plunderers of North Africa

28. VII. “The American System” • Nationalism manifested itself in manufacturing: • Patriotic Americans took pride in their factories • The British were seeking to crush Yankee factories in the marketplace • Tariff of 1816—Congress passed the first tariff • It was primarily for protection, not revenue • Its rates were roughly 20 to 25% of the value of dutiable imports • A high protective trend was started.

29. VII. “The American System”(cont.) • Nationalism was further highlighted by a plan of Henry Clay for developing a profitable home market: • The American System: • A strong banking system—provide easy and abundant credit • Revenue from the tariff of eastern manufacturing • A network of roads and canals, especially in Ohio, that would met the outcry for better transportation. • Federal funding was major issue for Republican constitutional scruples.

30. VI. “The American System”(cont.) • Congress voted in 1817 to distribute $1.5 million to the states for internal improvements: • President Madison sternly vetoed this handout measure as unconstitutional • Individual states had to venture on their own for construction programs, including the Erie Canal, which was triumphantly completed in 1825 • Jeffersonian-Republicans choked on the idea of direct federal support for intrastate internal improvements • New England particularly strongly opposed it because it would further drain away population and create competing states beyond the mountains

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33. VIII. The So-Called Era of Good Feelings • James Monroe was nominated for the presidency in 1816: • Last time a Federalist would run • Monroe had experience, levelheaded executive • Emerging nationalism was cemented by a goodwill tour of Monroe in early 1817 • He announced that an “Era of Good Feelings” had been ushered in.

34. VIII. The So-Called Era of Good Feelings (cont.) • Era of Good Feelings: • Considerable tranquility and prosperity did exist in the early years of Monroe • But it was a troubled one: • Acute issues of the tariff, the bank, internal improvements, and the sale of public lands were being hotly contested • Sectionalism was crystallizing • Slavery was beginning to raise its hideous head

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36. IX. The Panic of 1819 and the Curse of Hard Times • 1819 a paralyzing economic panic descended: • It brought deflation, depression bankruptcies, bank failures, unemployment, soup kitchens, and overcrowded pesthouses—debtor’s prisons • Factors contributing to the catastrophe: • Large issue was the overspeculation of frontier land • West especially hard hit by the Bank of the United States, forced the speculative (“wildcat”) western banks to the wall and foreclosed mortgages on farms

37. IX. The Panic of 1819 and the Curse of Hard Times (cont.) • Panic of 1819: • Hit the poorer classes hard • Hard times directed attention to the inhumanity of imprisoning debtors • Mounting agitation against imprisonment for debt bore fruit in remedial legislation in an increasing number of states

38. X. Growing Pains of the West • The West: • Nine frontier states joined the 13 original between 1791 and 1819 • To keep the balance between North and South: • They were admitted alternately, free and slave (See Admission of States in the Appendix.) There was a continuation of the generation-old westward movement • Also because the land was cheap

39. X. Growing Pains of the West(cont.) • Other causes of the growing West: • Eager newcomers from abroad • Acute economic distress during the embargo years • The crushing of the Indians in the Northwest and South by Generals Harrison and Jackson • The building of highways improved the land routes to the Ohio Valley-the Cumberland Road in 1811 • The use of the first steamboat on western waters • 1811 heralded a new era of upstream navigation

40. X. Growing Pains of the West(cont.) • The west was still weak in population and influence: • Allies demanded cheap acreage • The Land Act of 1820: • Authorized a buyer to purchase 80 virgin acres at a minimum of $1.25 an acre in cash • The West demanded cheap transportation and slowly received it • (see “Makers of America: Settlers of the Old Northwest,” (pp. 236-237).

41. XI. Slavery and the Sectional Balance • Sectional tensions were revealed in 1819: • Missouri was asking Congress for statehood: • Tallmadge amendment— • No more slaves could be brought to Missouri: • Provided for the gradual emancipation of children born to slave parents already there • A roar of anger burst from slaveholding Southerners: • Southern saw the Tallmadge amendment as a threat to sectional balance. • The future of the slave system caused profound concern.

42. XI. Slavery and the Sectional Balance (cont.) • If Congress could abolish the peculiar institution in Missouri, it might attempt it in the older states of the South. • Other issues were political and economic balance: • Northerners seized the occasion to raise an outcry against the evil of slavery and determined not to spread it further into the untainted territories.

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44. XII. The Uneasy Missouri Compromise • Deadlock in Washington was broken by three compromises: • Henry Clay played a leading role: • First, Congress decided to admit Missouri as a slave state and at the same time admit Maine as free state • The balance between the North and South remained for fifteen years • All future bondage was prohibited north of the line of 36 30’—the southern boundary of Missouri (see Map 12.3).

45. XII. The Uneasy Missouri Compromise (cont.) • The Missouri Compromise lasted 34 years: • A vital formative period in the life of the young Republic, at the same time, preserving the compact of the states • The Missouri Compromise and concurrent panic of 1819 should have dampened the Era of Good Feeling • But James Monroe received every electoral vote except one—unanimity still an honor for George Washington.

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49. XIII. John Marshall and Judicial Nationalism • The Supreme Court continued nationalism: • McCulloch v. Maryland (1819) bolstered the power of the federal government at the expense of the states • The suit involved an attempt by the State of Maryland to destroy a branch of the Bank of the United States by imposing a tax on its notes. • John Marshall declared the bank constitutional by invoking the Hamiltonian doctrine of implied power (see p. 185). • He strengthened federal authority when he denied the right of Maryland to tax the bank. • Gave the doctrine of loose construction its most famous formulation.

50. XIII. John Marshall and Judicial Nationalism (cont.) • The Cohens v. Virginia (1821): • This gave Marshall the greatest opportunities to defend the federal power • Cohen brothers found guilty by the Virginia courts of illegally selling lottery tickets, they appealed to the highest tribunal • Virginia won since the conviction was upheld • In fact Virginia and all others states lose, since Marshall asserted the right of the Supreme Court to review all decisions of state courts in all questions involving powers of the federal government.