THE SECOND WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE AND THE UPSURGE OF NATIONALISM

1812-1824

Chapter 12

Tecumseh and the Prophet

In 1811, new young politicians swept away the older “submission men,” and they appointed Henry Clay of Kentucky to Speaker of the House.

The western politicians also cried out against the Indian threat on the frontier.

Indians had watched with apprehension as more and more Whites settled in Kentucky, a traditionally sacred area where settlement and extensive hunting was not allowed except in times of scarcity.

Tecumseh and the Prophet

Two Shawnee brothers, Tecumseh and Tenskwatawa (the Prophet), decided to unite other tribes and gather followers.

On November 7, 1811, American general William Henry Harrison advanced upon Tecumseh’s headquarters at Tippecanoe and burned it to the ground.

Tecumseh was eventually killed at the Battle of the Thames in 1813, and the Indian confederacy dream perished.

Mr. Madison’s War

War was declared in 1812, with a House vote of 79 to 49 and a very close Senate vote of 19 to 13, showing America’s disunity.

Madison only declared war in order to re-assert America’s strength. The path of peace and negotiation had only brought internal strife and derision.

Why war with Britain and not France? England’s impressments stood out, France was allied more with the Republicans, and Canada was a very tempting prize that seemed easy to get.

Mr. Madison’s War

There were four main causes of the War of 1812.Trade tensions – British Orders in Council

declared that all trade with France had to pass through British ports.

Impressment – The British were taking hundreds of American citizens a year into their own navies, some of whom had never even been British citizens.

Indigenous raids – Tecumseh and his Native allies were raiding the American frontier, aided by the British.

Expansionism – US wanted more territory, including Canada.

Mr. Madison’s War

New England, which was still making lots of money, opposed the war because:

(1) they were more inclined toward Britain anyway,

(2) if Canada was conquered, it would add more agrarian land and increase Republican supporters.

Thus, a disunited America had to fight both Old England and New England in the War of 1812.

On to Canada Over Land and Lakes

Due to widespread disunity, the War of 1812 ranks as one of America’s worst fought wars.

There was no burning national anger, like there was after the Chesapeake outrage.

The regular army was ill trained, scattered and had old, senile generals.

The offensive strategy against Canada was especially poorly conceived.

Battles of the War of 1812

Had the Americans captured Montreal, everything west would have collapsed.

The Americans instead focused a three-pronged attack that set out from Detroit, Niagara, and Lake Champlain, all of which were beaten back.

In contrast, the British and Canadians displayed early enthusiasm and captured the American fort of Mackinac.

On to Canada Over Land and Lakes

After more land invasions were stopped in 1813, the Americans, led by Oliver Hazard Perry, built a wooden fleet of ships on Lake Erie manned by inexperienced men, but still managed to capture a British fleet.

On Sept. 11 1814, 30-year old Thomas Macdonough managed to stop British from coming down the Lake Champlain waterway, stopping the British advance into New England.

This and General William H. Harrison’s defeat of the British during the Battle of the Thames helped bring more enthusiasm and increased morale for the war.

Naval Victories

Britain created a naval blockade, raiding ships and ruining American economic life such as fishing.

The American navy fared better than the army because the sailors were still angry over British impressments.

USS Constitution, one of the originally commissioned American frigates, defeated several British ships, including the Guerriere, and earned the nickname “Old Ironsides.”

Washington Burned

In August 1814, British troops landed in the Chesapeake Bay, dispersed 6000 panicked Americans at Bladensburg, and entered Washington D.C. and proceeded to burn most of the buildings there.

At Baltimore, another British fleet arrived but was beaten back by the privateer defenders of Fort McHenry, where Francis Scott Key wrote “The Star Spangled Banner.”

Battle of New Orleans

Another British army menaced the entire Mississippi Valley and threatened New Orleans.

Andrew Jackson, fresh off his slaughter of the Creek Indians, led a hodgepodge force to defeat 8000 overconfident British that had launched a frontal attack.

The British lost 2000 men, Americans only lost 70.

Battle actually took place 2 weeks after the peace treaty to end the war was signed.

The Treaty of Ghent

At first, the confident British made sweeping demands for a neutralized Indian buffer state in the Great Lakes region, control of the Great Lakes, and a substantial part of conquered Maine.

The Americans, led by John Quincy Adams, refused.

As American victories piled up, the British reconsidered.

The Treat of Ghent, signed on December 24, 1814, was an armistice, ending the war in a draw and ignoring any other demands of either side.

Federalist Grievances

MA, CT, NH, VT, RI secretly met in Hartford from December 15 1814 to January 5, 1815, to discuss their grievances from the war and blockade.

While a few talked about secession, Most wanted financial assistance to compensate for lost trade, and an amendment requiring 2/3 majority for all declarations of embargos.

Three special envoys from Mass. went to D.C., where they were greeted with the news from the battle of New Orleans. Humiliated, the envoys retreated.

The Hartford Convention was the death of the Federalist Party, as their last presidential nomination was trounced by James Monroe in 1816.

Consequences of the War

The war ended in an effective stalemate as neither side gained or lost any territory.

The British had already stopped impressments following the defeat of Napoleon in 1814, and were more concerned about unrest in Europe at this time.

Nationalism in American and Canada increased.

Consequences of the War

Native resistance was suppressed due to their defeats at Tippecanoe, Thames, and Horseshoe Bend, and their loss of a strong leader.

Trade returned, and the two nations would begin a relatively peaceful friendship that still continues.

Canada and the US, while initially cautious of each other, maintain the world’s longest unfortified boundary following the Rush-Bagot Treaty, which demilitarized the Great Lakes.

Nascent Nationalism

After the war, American nationalism really took off, and authors like Washington Irving and James Fenimore Cooper gained international recognition.

The North American Review debuted in 1815, and American painters painted landscape of America on their canvases, while history books were now being written by Americans for Americans.

Washington D.C. rose from the ashes to be stronger than ever, and the navy and army strengthened themselves.

The American System

British competitors dumped their goods onto America at cheap prices after the war.

America responded with the Tariff of 1816, the first in U.S. history designed for protection, which put a 20-25% tariff on taxable imports.

Rep. Henry Clay advocated “The American System”

He called for a strong banking system, a protective tariff to encourage manufacturing, and also wanted a network of roads and canals.

The American System

Lack of effective transportation had been one of the problems of the War of 1812, especially in the West.

In 1817, Congress sought to distribute $1.5 million to the states for internal improvements, but Madison vetoed it, saying it was unconstitutional.

, States had to look for their own money to build the badly needed transportation.

This culminated with the completion of the Erie Canal in New York in 1825, funded through private funds.

Election of 1816

The Era of Good Feelings

James Monroe defeated his opponent in 1816 183 to 34, and ushered in a period of one-party rule.

He straddled the generations of the Founding Fathers and the new Age of Nationalism.

Early in 1817, Monroe took a goodwill tour venturing deep into New England, where he received heartwarming welcomes.

A Boston newspaper even declared that an “Era of Good Feelings” had begun.

Panic of 1819 and Curse of Hard Times

In 1819, an economic panic engulfed the U.S., bringing deflation, depression, bankruptcies, bank failures, unemployment, soup kitchens, and overcrowded debtors’ prisons.

A major cause of the panic had been over speculation in land prices, where the Bank of the United States fell heavily into debt.

The West was especially hard hit, and the Bank of the U.S. was soon viewed with anger.

Growing Pains of the West

Between 1791 and 1819, 9 frontier states had joined the original 13.

This explosive expansion of the west was due in part to the cheap land, the elimination of the Indian menace, and the need for land by the tobacco farmers, who exhausted their lands.

The Cumberland Road, begun in 1811 and running from western Maryland to Illinois, was noteworthy, and the first steamboat on western waters was in 1811.

Growing Pains of the West

The West, still not populous and politically weak, was forced to ally itself with other regions, and demanded cheap acreage.

The Land Act of 1820 gave the West its wish by authorizing a buyer to purchase 80 acres of land at a minimum of $1.25 an acre in cash.

The West demanded and slowly got cheap transportation as well.

Slavery and the Sectional Balance

Sectional tensions between the North and the South came to a boil when Missouri wanted to become a slave state.

Tallmadge Amendment - provided that no more slaves be brought into Missouri and also provided for the gradual emancipation of children born to slave parents already in Missouri (this was shot down in the Senate).

Angry Southerners saw this as a threat. Plus, the North was starting to get more prosperous and populous than the South.

The Missouri Compromise

Finally, the deadlock was broken by a bundle of compromises known as the Missouri Compromise.

Missouri would be admitted as a slave state while Maine would be admitted as a free state, thus maintaining the balance.

All new states north of 36°30’ line would be free.

The Missouri Compromise

Cases of John Marshall

Cases of John Marshall

McCulloch vs. Maryland (1819): Maryland wanted to eliminate the Bank of the U.S. by taxing its currency notes.

Marshall denied Maryland’s right to tax the bank, saying that a state could not pass laws that violate the federal constitution.

He implied that the Constitution was to last for many ages, and urged the end to be legitimate, and let it be within the scope of the Constitution.

Cases of John Marshall

Cohens vs. Virginia (1821): The Cohens had been found guilty by Virginia courts of illegally selling lottery tickets.

Marshall enforced the supremacy of federal law over conflicting state law and overturned the Virginia supreme court.

The decision held that the federal judiciary can act directly on private parties and state officials, and has the power to declare and impose on the states the Constitution and federal laws.

Cases of John Marshall

Gibbons vs. Ogden (1824): Overturned a monopoly granted by the New York state legislature to certain steamships operating between New York and New Jersey.

In empowering Congress to regulate interstate commerce, the Constitution automatically deprived the states of the power to obstruct interstate commerce in order to serve their own interests.

The long-term impact was ending many state-granted monopolies and promoting free enterprise.

Cases of John Marshall

Fletcher vs. Peck (1810): After Georgia fraudulently granted 35 million acres in the Yazoo River county (Mississippi) to privateers, the legislature repealed it after public outcry.

But Marshall ruled that it was a contract, and that states couldn’t impair a contract.

It was one of the earliest clear assertions of the right of the Supreme Court to invalidate state laws that conflicted the Constitution.

Cases of John Marshall

Dartmouth College vs. Woodward (1819): Dartmouth had been granted a charter by King George III, but New Hampshire had tried to change it.

Dartmouth appealed, using alum Daniel Webster to work as lawyer, and Marshall ruled that the original charter must stand. It was a contract, and the Constitution protected those.

Sharing Oregon

The Treaty of 1818 put the northern boundary of the Louisiana Purchase at the 49th parallel.

It also provided for a ten-year joint occupation of the Oregon Territory with Britain, without a surrender of rights and claims by neither Britain nor America.

Also secured fishing rights for both Americans and Canadians along the coast of Newfoundland.

Acquiring Florida

Revolutions in South and Central America caused Spain to re-assign troops from Florida.

Native attacks ravaged American land and then retreat back into Spanish territory.

Taking initiative, Andrew Jackson swept across the Florida border, hanged two Indian chiefs without ceremony, executed two British subjects for assisting Indians, and seized Spanish forts at St. Marks and Pensacola.

Acquiring Florida

Monroe consulted his cabinet as to what to do against Jackson.

All wanted to punish him except for John Quincy Adams, who demanded huge concessions from Spain.

The Adams-Onis Treaty of 1819 had Spain cede Florida and their claims in Oregon in exchange for American claims in Texas.

Adams-Onis Treaty

Menace of Monarchy in America

Monarchs in Europe crushed democratic rebellions in Italy (1821) and in Spain (1823), much to the alarm of Americans.

Russia’s claims to North American territory near the Pacific were intruding and making Americans nervous.

In August 1823, the British foreign secretary, George Canning, proposed that the U.S. and Britain combine in a joint declaration renouncing any interest in acquiring Latin American territory.

Monroe and His Doctrine

John Quncy Adams assumed that the European powers weren’t going to invade American anytime soon, and knew that an alliance with Britain be unwise.

He knew that the British boats would need to protect South America to protect their merchant trade, and presumed it safe to blow a defiant, nationalistic blast at all Europe.

Monroe and His Doctrine

Late in 1823, the Monroe Doctrine was born, incorporating his policies of non-colonization and nonintervention.

Dedicated primarily to Russia in the West, Monroe said that no colonization in the Americas could happen anymore.

He also said European nations could not intervene in Latin American affairs.

In return, the U.S. would not interfere in the Greek democratic revolt against Turkey.

Monroe’s Doctrine Appraised

The monarchs of Europe were angry, but couldn’t do anything about it, since the British navy would be there to stop them.

Monroe’s declaration was barely recognized in Latin America.

Those who know of the message recognized that it was the British navy and not America that was protecting them, and that the U.S. was doing this only looking out for its own interests.

Not until 1845 did President Polk revive it and use it.

Monroe’s Doctrine Appraised

In the Russo-American Treaty of 1824, the Russian Tsar fixed the southern boundary of his Alaskan territory at 54°40’.

The Monroe Doctrine might better be called the Self-Defense Doctrine, since Monroe was concerned about the safety of his own country, not Latin America.

The doctrine has never been law, a pledge, or an agreement.

It was mostly an expression of post-1812 U.S. nationalism, gave a voice of patriotism, and added to the illusion of isolationism.