Presentation Transcript

1. The Jeffersonian Era

   1800-1812
2. The Election of 1800 The presidential contest of 1800 pitted the incumbent candidate, Federalist John Adams once again against Thomas Jefferson, his Democratic-Republican rival. The election, one of the ugliest in American history, saw both Federalists and Democratic-Republicans employ considerable personal invective in smearing the candidates. Widespread outrage at the Alien and Sedition Acts coupled with resentment over new taxes to pay the costs of military preparations for war against France decreased support for the Federalist party. Increasingly unpopular and badly divided (Hamilton clashed with Adams), the Federalists lost ground.
3. The Election of 1800 The presidential election, however, was close, and the crucial contest was in New York. There Aaron Burr had mobilized an organization of Revolutionary War veterans, The Tammany Society, to drum up support for Republicans. Largely through Tammany’s efforts, Republicans carried the city by a large majority, and with it the state.
4. The Election of 1800 But an unexpected complication soon jeopardized Jefferson’s victory. Because the Constitution failed initially to distinguish between votes cast for president and for vice-president, Jefferson ended up tied with his fellow Republican, Aaron Burr, who was slated to be vice-president. Because no candidate had won a majority of the electoral vote, the election, in accordance with the Constitution, was thrown into the House of Representatives. Enhancing the drama, the new Congress elected in 1800, with a new Republican majority, would not convene until after the inauguration of the president, so it was a Federalist Congress that had to decide the question. Most Federalists distrusted Burr, but they supported him because they hated Jefferson more.
5. The Election of 1800 Like Adams, the influential Hamilton had broken with Jefferson during Washington’s administration. Still, Hamilton reasoned that at least Jefferson possessed “solid pretensions to character. ... As to Burr, there is nothing in his favor.” After thirty-six ballots in the House, Jefferson was elected president. Hamilton’s endorsement of Jefferson as “by far not so dangerous a man” as Burr likely had a decisive effect on the eventual outcome. “[Burr’s] private character is bankrupt beyond redemption except by the plunder of his country. His public principles have no other spring than his own aggrandizement…If he can he will certainly disturb our institutions to secure himself permanent power and with it wealth. He is truly the Catiline of America.” Alexander Hamilton
6. The Election of 1800Impact Jefferson’s victory produced the “Revolution of 1800,” America’s first transition of power to the opposition. A modern political system was emerging. Two-party politics would become the main forum for American electioneering. Even though some states continued to let state legislators choose electors, the system became more democratized, with greater voter input. In New York, Burr established the first urban political machine. And thanks to Jefferson’s campaign strategy (operating on the principle that “the engine is the press”) newspapers became essential vehicles for political communication and combat.

7. To what extent was the election of 1800 aptly named the "Revolution of 1800?" 

   Objective
8. The Age of Jefferson “All, too, will bear in mind this sacred principle, that though the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will to be rightful must be reasonable; that the minority possess their equal rights, which equal law must protect, and to violate would be oppression. Let us then, fellow citizens, unite with one heart and one mind. Let us restore to social intercourse that harmony and affection without which liberty and even life itself are but dreary things…But every difference of opinion is not a difference of principle. We have called by different names brethren of the same principle. We are all Republicans, we are all Federalists.” Thomas Jefferson, First Inaugural Address, 1801
9. Jeffersonian Democracy Jefferson’s victory marked a peaceful transfer of power from the defeated Federalists to the victorious Democratic-Republicans and a transition to a new set of political ideals. Jeffersonian democracy emphasized the virtues of republican simplicity, an agrarian way of life, and a reduced federal government. Jefferson promised to practice Republican simplicity. He carefully avoided the formal ceremonies that characterized the Federalist administrations. For example, White House guests were encouraged to shake hands with the president rather than bowing, as had been the practice with Washington.
10. Jeffersonian Democracy Republican simplicity meant more than just a new code of presidential etiquette. Believing that the government that governs best that governs least, Jefferson promised a “wise and frugal government.” Idealizing farmers as the nation’s most productive and trustworthy citizens, Jefferson envisioned America as an agrarian Republic.
11. The Age of JeffersonLimiting the Federal Government Under Washington and Adams, Republicans believed government expenditures had been grossly excessive. In keeping with his Republican principles regarding limited government, the Jefferson administration moved to drastically reducing government spending. For example, Jefferson dramatically scaled down nation’s armed forces. Distrustful of large standing armies as a threat to the liberty of the people, the size of the army was reduced from 4,000 to 2,500 men. Regarding a large navy as a costly extravagance to protect shippers at the expense of agrarians, Jefferson shrank the navy from 25 ships to 7. In 1802, Congress abolished all internal taxes, including the detestable excise tax on Whiskey, leaving customs duties and the sale of western lands as the only sources of revenue for the government. Jefferson’s Secretary of the Treasury, Albert Gallatin, sought to decrease government expenditures by cutting the number of people working at executive departments. Although Jefferson was unable to retire the entire national debt, it was cut in almost half during his presidency.
12. The Age of Jefferson Undoing Federalist abuses, the hated Alien and Sedition Acts were allowed to expire or were repealed. Jefferson pardoned those Republican “martyrs” who were serving sentences under the Sedition Act, and the government remitted many fines.
13. The Age of Jefferson “Mr. Jefferson after my appointment said to me: ‘Gallatin your most important duty will be to examine the accounts and all the records of your Department in order to discover the blunders and frauds of Hamilton, and to ascertain what changes may be required in the system…You understand the State of parties at that time, and I must now say  I went to the work with a very good appetite…When I had finished, I went to Mr. Jefferson and said to him; ‘Mr. President, I have, as you directed me to do, made a most thorough examination of the books, accounts, and correspondence from its commencement.’  The President, with some eagerness, interrupted me, saying: ‘Well! Gallatin, What have you found?’ I answered: ‘I have found the most perfect system ever formed-any change that should be made in it would injure it-Hamilton made no blunders-committed no frauds.  He did nothing wrong.’  I think Mr. Jefferson was disappointed.” Albert Gallatin, based on the reminiscences of James Hamilton
14. The Age of Jefferson Except for repealing the excise tax, the Jeffersonians left the Hamiltonian economic framework essentially intact. For example, the Jefferson administration did not tamper with the Federalist measures for funding the national debt at par and assuming of the Revolutionary War debts of the states. They launched no attack on the Bank of the United States, nor did they repeal the tariff on imports. In the end, Jefferson undertook no wholesale dismantling of Hamilton’s economic program. Rather he shrewdly absorbed the very Federalist programs he himself had opposed.
15. The Age of JeffersonChopping Off the Weakest Branch At the time of the Constitutional Convention, it was widely assumed that the judiciary would be the feeblest branch of government. The very order of the Constitution's articles - with the legislature covered in Article 1, the executive in Article 2, and the judiciary in Article 3 - tacitly underscored the presumed order of importance. This didn't please everyone, especially New York's legal wunderkind and the impresario of The Federalist Papers, Alexander Hamilton. In Federalist No. 78, he fretted that the judiciary "has no influence over either the sword or the purse ... and must ultimately depend upon the aid of the executive arm even for the efficacy of its judgments." In No. 79, he brooded about abuses that might arise from legislative tampering with judges' salaries. "In the general course of human nature," he wrote, "a power over a man's subsistence amounts to a power over his will." To offset these handicaps, Hamilton endorsed the constitutional provision that federal judges should serve for life, subject to impeachment only for official misconduct, not for unpopular decisions: "The complete independence of the courts of justice is peculiarly essential in a limited constitution."
16. The Age of JeffersonChopping Off the Weakest Branch In the early years of the new government, many of Hamilton's forebodings about judicial weakness were realized. The Constitution had specifically called for a Supreme Court, but had left the formation of the lower courts to Congressional discretion. Congress dithered, and the Supreme Court justices had to endure the hardship of riding the circuit in the hinterlands for weeks or months each year, often spending more time on horseback than on the bench. This situation also placed them in the potentially awkward situation of having to listen to appeals of decisions by circuit courts on which they themselves had sat.
17. The Age of JeffersonChopping Off the Weakest Branch This disgraceful state was remedied at a most inauspicious moment: the interval between Thomas Jefferson's election as president and his taking office. The lame-duck Congress, still controlled by Hamilton's Federalist Party, passed the Judiciary Act of 1801, which created 16 circuit court judgeships. Jefferson's Republican Party blasted this as a last-minute, partisan maneuver, and with some justification: President John Adams, in his waning days in power, named a phalanx of Federalist judges to the posts. Adams had also appointed John Marshall, a distant relative and confirmed enemy of Jefferson's, as chief justice.
18. The Age of JeffersonChopping Off the Weakest Branch George Washington and Adams had been at least nominal Federalists, so President Jefferson and the new Republican-dominated Congress faced a judiciary under unanimous Federalist control. "The Federalists have retired into the judiciary as a stronghold," wrote an indignant Jefferson, "and from that battery all the works of republicanism are to be beaten down and erased."
19. The Age of JeffersonChopping Off the Weakest Branch The president supported a full-blown Congressional purge of the federal courts, centered on repealing the Judiciary Act of 1801 and eliminating the new judgeships it had created. Jefferson also hoped to oust sitting judges through impeachment. The atmosphere in Washington grew poisonous with partisan bickering. William Branch Giles, an ally of Jefferson's in the House, wrote heatedly to the new president that "the revolution is incomplete so long as the judiciary is in possession of the enemy."
20. The Age of JeffersonChopping Off the Weakest Branch In March 1802, despite Hamilton’s impassioned defense of judicial independence, the House of Representatives, in a vindictive mood against the Federalists, repealed the Judiciary Act by an overwhelming margin (the Senate had already passed the repeal by a one-vote margin). When Hamilton and other Federalists tried to appeal the constitutionality of this action before the Supreme Court, the Jeffersonian Congress brazenly cancelled the next two terms of the high court, disabling it for the rest of the year.
21. The Age of JeffersonChopping Off the Weakest Branch With no new circuit judges to take on cases, the members of the high court went on wearily riding the back roads of America. When in Washington, they met not in a marble temple but in a noisy basement chamber of the Capitol. Yet they were about to stage a magnificent comeback, taking advantage of their explicit constitutional protections. In February 1803, Chief Justice John Marshall enshrined the principle of judicial review - that is, the court's power to declare acts of Congress unconstitutional - in his decision for the seminal case of Marbury v. Madison. While the issue at hand was minor - it concerned whether the Jefferson administration was required to give a post to a justice of the peace appointed under Adams - Marshall's argument that "an act of the legislature repugnant to the Constitution is void" solidified the judiciary's standing against the other two branches.
22. The Age of JeffersonChopping Off the Weakest Branch Jefferson, who would later denounce the "twistifications in the case of Marbury," wasn't finished with his vendetta against the federal judiciary. In late 1803 the House impeached a district judge, John Pickering (who was convicted), and in 1804 Associate Justice Samuel Chase of the Supreme Court (who was not). Ultimately, though, the president was defeated by Marshall, whom he dubbed "the Federalist serpent in the democratic Eden of our administration.“ Marshall served an astounding 34 years in the top judicial post, steadily extending the power of the government along Hamiltonian lines.
23. The Age of Jefferson As a matter of policy and principle, Jefferson sought to avoid “entangling alliances.” Throughout his presidency, however, Jefferson faced increasing provocation from both France and Britain. “Peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations, entangling alliances with none.” Thomas Jefferson, First Inaugural Address, 1801
24. The Age of JeffersonThe Barbary Pirates The first major challenge to Jefferson’s foreign policy, came not from a major European power, but from pirates of the North African Barbary States, who had long made a national industry of blackmailing and plundering merchant ships that ventured into the Mediterranean. Preceding Federalist administrations had been forced to buy protection. The showdown came in 1801. Within months of assuming the Presidency, Jefferson, eager to see what force could accomplish, dispatched a fleet of four warships to the Mediterranean. The main target was Tripoli. After fours years of intermittent fighting, Jefferson succeeded in extorting a treaty of peace with Tripoli in 1805. It was secured for the price of $60,000 – a sum paid to ransom captured American seamen. All that the heroics of our fighting men seemed to have won was a better price. But the treaty included no provisions for any future tribute, and in the meantime the United States had built itself a navy. When in 1815 the Barbary pirates began to venture out to prey on U.S. shipping again, President James Madison requested and got a formal authorization of hostilities from Congress. This time, the United States won treaties from the rulers of Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli, in the form of large indemnities for the damage they had done. The Barbary pirates were finished
25. The Age of JeffersonThe Louisiana Purchase Around 1800, Napoleon, the French ruler, began to dream of restoring French power in the New World and turned his imperial ambitions toward the former French colonial territories in North America Under a secret treaty in 1800, the French regained title to Louisiana, which included almost the whole of the Mississippi Valley to the west of the river, plus New Orleans, the valuable port city near its mouth. The Louisiana territory would, Napoleon hoped, become the heart of a great French empire in America. But events would soon cause Napoleon to abandon his imperial ambitions in America
26. The Age of JeffersonThe Louisiana Purchase Jefferson first expressed interest in the acquisition of New Orleans when, in 1802, he learned that the Spanish intendant at New Orleans (who still governed the city, since the French had not yet taken formal possession of the region) revoked (took away) the right of American ships sailing the Mississippi to deposit their cargoes in New Orleans for transfer to oceangoing vessels. Though Spain had guaranteed Americans the right of deposit in the Pinckney Treaty of 1795, the intendant now forbade the practice. Western farmers, facing economic calamity, demanded that the federal government do something to reopen the river.
27. The Age of JeffersonRebellion in Haiti Africans in Santo Domingo (inspired by the French Revolution) revolted and created a black republic of their own, under the remarkable leadership of Toussaint L’Ouverture (pictured right). Despite Napoleon’s attempt to crush the insurrection and restore French authority, a yellow fever epidemic wiped out much of the French army in the New World. With plans for an American empire in doubt, Napoleon decided to focus his resources on the war in Europe.
28. The Age of JeffersonThe Louisiana Purchase In response to the demands of westerners, Jefferson instructed Robert Livingston, the American ambassador in Paris, to negotiate the purchase of New Orleans. Livingston on his authority proposed that the French sell the United States the vast western part of Louisiana as well. Napoleon, having abandoned his plans for an American empire, accepted Livingston’s proposal and offered the United States the entire Louisiana territory. Faced with Napoleon’s startling proposal, Livingston and James Monroe, fearful that Napoleon might withdraw the offer, decided to proceed without waiting for further instructions from home. The agreement was signed on April 30th, 1803. By the terms of the treaty, the United States was to pay a total of $15 million dollars to the French government in exchange for the entire Louisiana territory.
29. Louisiana PurchaseJefferson’s Quandary When Jefferson received the treaty, he faced a Constitutional dilemma. Jefferson had always supported a strict interpretation of the Constitution, believing that the federal government could rightfully exercise only those powers explicitly granted to it by the Constitution. Nowhere did the Constitution say anything about the acquisition of new territory. Jefferson believed that an amendment to the Constitution was needed, but ultimately overcame his reluctance. Adopting a loose construction of his presidential treaty making-powers, he backed the purchase. Although some radical Federalists opposed ratification of the treaty out of fear that the more the West grew and the more states that joined the Union, the less power the Federalists and their region would retain. The Senate, however, expressing far less constitutional angst than Jefferson, overwhelmingly approved the treaty. “The constitution has made no provision for our holding foreign territory, still less for incorporating foreign nations into our Union. The Executive in seizing the fugitive occurrence which so much advances the good of their country, have done an act beyond the Constitution. The Legislature in casting behind them metaphysical subtleties, and risking themselves like faithful servants, must ratify & pay for it, and throw themselves on their country for doing for them unauthorized what we know they would have done for themselves had they been in a situation to do it.” Thomas Jefferson , 1803
30. Louisiana PurchaseImpact By adding this vast western territory to the United States, the Louisiana Purchase doubled the size of the country. The United States gained control of the Mississippi River and the vital port city of New Orleans. The Louisiana Purchase greatly benefitted western farmers (farmers in the Ohio River Valley) by securing a water route to ship their produce to market. Established a precedent for the acquisition of foreign territory through purchase. Removed a dangerous foreign presence from the nation’s borders. Strengthened Jefferson’s hope that America would become an agrarian republic.
31. Louisiana PurchaseLewis and Clark and the Corps of Discovery Jefferson sponsored the Lewis and Clark expedition to explore the Louisiana Territory. The Expedition accomplished the following goals: It strengthened American claims to the Oregon territory. It added vastly to the body of knowledge about the geography and Indian tribes of the American Northwest. It mapped and explored the Missouri River and the Columbia River.
32. The Essex Junto A group of the most extreme Federalists, known as the Essex Junto, angered by the reelection of Thomas Jefferson in 1804, attempted to orchestrate a plot to secede from the Union and form a separate “Northern Confederacy.” In an attempt to draw the states of New York and New Jersey into the conspiracy, Federalists recruited Aaron Burr (a politician without prospects within his own party) as their candidate for governor of New York in the hopes that Burr would support Federalist plans for secession. The plot became undone when the influential Hamilton refused to support the secessionist scheme. Hamilton then maneuvered to block Burr’s bid for election as governor of New York.
33. The Interview at Weehaken Burr, his political career all but ruined, challenged Hamilton to a duel. On the early morning of July 11th, 1804, the two men met at Weehawken, New Jersey. Hamilton was mortally wounded and died the next day. The pistol with which Burr killed Hamilton also dealt a significant blow to the Federalist by destroying its one remaining hope of effective leadership.
34. The Burr Conspiracy Aaron Burr, turning his disunionism to the trans-Mississippi West, was arrested in 1807 for treason. Rumors had been circulating that Burr had plotted to separate the Southwest from the United States and in the hopes of creating a western empire he himself would rule. According to the Constitution, ‘no person shall be convicted of Treason unless on the Testimony of two witnesses to the same overt Act, or on Confession in open court.” Since the government failed to produce two witnesses to testimony against Burr, he was acquitted.
35. Conflict on the Seas The Napoleonic wars continued to rage in Europe The principal belligerents, England and France, attempted to blockade enemy ports In a flagrant violation of America’s rights as a neutral nation, the warring powers regularly seized American merchant vessels Particularly galling to Americans, British vessels stopped United States ships on the high seas and “impressed” American sailors
36. Chesapeake-Leopard Incident One episode at sea incensed Americans and very nearly led to war with England In 1807, only a few miles off the coast of Virginia, a British warship, the Leopard, encountered an American naval frigate, the Chesapeake. When the American commander refused to allow the British to search his ship, the Leopard opened fire, killing three American sailors. Forced to surrender, the American vessel was boarded and four men were taken captive and impressed into the British navy Popular sentiment against England ran high, as Americans clamored for revenge In an effort to avoid war, Jefferson sought to use “peaceable coercion” in response to the crisis
37. The Embargo Act (1807) To avert war, Jefferson presented-and Republican lawmakers promptly enacted- a drastic measure known as the Embargo. The act, one of the most controversial political measures of its time prohibited American ships from leaving the United States for any foreign port anywhere in the world empowered the government to enforce act
38. The Embargo Act (1807) Because the United States was Britain’s largest trading partner, Jefferson hoped that economic pressure brought on by the loss of trade with America would coerce the British into respecting America’s maritime rights as a neutral nation
39. The Embargo (Ograbme) As a snapping turtle, the embargo halts overseas trade.
40. The Embargo ActImpact Although Jefferson had intended the measure to inflict economic hardship upon Britain, the embargo triggered a serious economic downturn at home, plunging the country into an “Embargo-induced depression” Hardest hit were the merchants and ship-owners of the Northeast, most of them Federalists. With their once lucrative shipping business was at a virtual standstill, the embargo inflicted terrible economic hardship upon the region “Our ships all in motion, Once whiten’d the ocean; They sail’d and returned with a Cargo; Now doom’d to decay They are fallen a prey, To Jefferson, worms, and EMBARGO”
41. The Embargo ActImpact Recognizing that the Embargo Act had failed, Jefferson called for its repeal in 1809 during the final days of his presidency. To replace the Embargo, Congress passed the Non-Intercourse Act which reopened trade with all nations except England and France. Curiously enough, New England plucked a new prosperity from the jaws of the embargo. With shipping tied up and imported goods scarce, resourceful New Englanders turned to domestic manufacturing, thus laying the foundations of America’s rise of industrial might.
42. The Election of 1808 Jefferson believed strongly in the tradition established by Washington and stepped down from the presidency after his second term. For his party’s nomination for president, he supported his close political ally, Secretary of State, James Madison. With Jefferson’s backing, Madison was nominated for president by a caucus of congressional Republicans. Although opposing factions of the Republican party nominated two other candidates, Madison triumphed over his Republican opponents and the Federalist challenger, Charles Pinckney, to win a majority of the electoral votes. In a last gasp of political resurgence, the Federalists realized gains in Congress due to the widespread unpopularity of the Embargo.
43. The Non-Intercourse Act To replace the Embargo, Congress had passed the Non-Intercourse Act in 1809 just before Madison took office. The new law reopened trade with all nations except Great Britain and France.
44. Macon’s Bill No. 2 A year later, in 1810, Congress allowed the Non-Intercourse Act to expire and replaced it Macon’s Bill No. 2. , which reopened commercial relations with Britain and France, but authorized the president to prohibit commerce with either belligerent if one should continue violating neutral shipping after the other had stopped. In short, the United States was attempting to use the “carrot” of American trade in our diplomacy with the warring powers.
45. Napoleon’s “Dupe” Napoleon, a master of deceit, was all to eager to see America resume its prohibition on trade with France’s enemy, Great Britain. In 1810, Napoleon announced the repeal of the objectionable “decrees” which had ordered the seizure of merchant ships, including American, that entered British ports. Taking Napoleon at his word, Madison carried out the terms of Macon’s Bill No. 2 and reinstituted the United States embargo against Britain in 1811. But Napoleon had no intention whatever of fulfilling his promise and French seizures of American ships continued. Madison’s decision was significant. Once Madison aligned the United States against England commercially, the United States, gravitating toward France politically, began to drift toward the “whirlpool” of war.

46. To what extent did the War of 1812constitute a “second American revolution”?

    Objective
47. The War of 1812Causes of the War Although the United States had sought to avert war, by the summer of 1812, Congress, by a slim majority vote, declared war on Great Britain. The pressures leading to war were primarily brought on by the continued violation of America’s neutral rights at sea and ongoing troubles with the British on the western frontier.
48. The War of 1812“Violating the American flag on the great highway of nations…and seizing and carrying off persons sailing under it…” As a trading nation, America’s mercantile economy depended upon the free flow of shipping across the Atlantic. With Great Britain and France, however, locked in an epic struggle for supremacy, neither power respected America’s maritime rights as a neutral nation. Since the 1790s the majority of Americans tended to sympathize with France rather than Great Britain in foreign affairs. Lingering resentment from the American Revolution, as well as the support of Jeffersonians for the French Revolution, produced an American populace that generally harbored anti-British sentiments. Further inflaming passions against Great Britain was the egregious and deplorable practice of impressment (the forcible conscription of sailors). Some six-thousand Americans were impressed into service in the British navy from 1808-1811 alone.
49. The War of 1812The Frontier Adding to the long-standing grievances over British actions at sea were the ambitions of western Americans for more open land. Americans on the frontier covetously eyed the lands of British Canada and Spanish Florida. Thwarting the ambitions of westerners was Britain, the tribes of the trans-Allegheny west, and Spain. “In reviewing the conduct of Great Britain toward the United States, our attention is necessarily drawn to the warfare just renewed by the savages on one of our extensive frontiers…it is difficult to account for the activity and combinations which have for some time been developing themselves among tribes in constant intercourse with British traders and garrisons without connecting their hostility with that influence…” James Madison War Message to Congress June 1, 1812
50. The War of 1812 Conflict with the Native Americans was a perennial problem for the restless westerners. Through the closing decades of the 18th century, thousands and thousands of settlers had crossed the Alleghenies and pushed westward into the Ohio River Valley and beyond. This westward movement in turn precipitated a conflict with Native Americans who, supplied with arms by the British, resisted the encroachment of settlers onto their lands. During Washington’s presidency, the United States army under the command of General “Mad” Anthony Wayne crushed the Northwest Indians at the Battle of Fallen Timbers in 1794. With the signing of the subsequent Treaty of Greenville in 1795, the Indians were forced to cede claims to a vast tract of territory in the Ohio country.
51. The War of 1812 A renewed Indian threat arose in the first decade of the 19th century as a flood of white setters continued to steadily pour into the trans-Allegheny wilderness. Determined to defend their lands from further encroachment, two Shawnee brothers, Tecumseh (pictured right) and Prophet, attempted to forge a pan-Indian confederacy of all of the tribes east of Mississippi to resist the westward movement of white settlers.
52. The War of 1812 White frontiers-people and their “war-hawk” representatives in Congress were eager to wipe out this dangerous threat In 1811, the governor of the Indian territory, General William Henry Harrison, took aggressive action. Destroying the Shawnee headquarters in the Battle of Tippecanoe, Harrison’s onslaught broke the back of the Indian rebellion The widespread belief among Americans that the British, from their base in Canada, had incited and aided the Native Americans in their insurrection only further aroused anti-British sentiment, especially among Americans on the frontier
53. The War of 1812War Hawks The Twelfth Congress, which met late in 1811, brought a group of young Republicans to the House, many of them from frontier states (Kentucky, Tennessee, and Ohio). Led by Henry Clay of Kentucky (pictured right) and John C. Calhoun of South Carolina, these war hawk Congressmen argued that war with Great Britain would be the only way to defend American honor, gain Canada, and destroy Native American resistance on the frontier
54. War of 1812“Free Trade and Sailors’ Rights” or free land? Although militant war hawks in Congress, with scattered but essential support from other sections, finally engineered a declaration of war in June of 1812, the close vote (79-49 in the House and 19-13 in the Senate) laid bare a dangerous degree of national disunity. Representatives from the pro-British maritime and commercial centers, as well as from the middle Atlantic states almost solidly opposed hostilities. Ironically, the West and Southwest, mostly landlocked, forced upon the sea-fronting east a war for a free sea that the East bitterly opposed and resented.
55. War of 1812“Mr. Madison’s War” Vehement opposition to the “Mr. Madison’s War” came primarily from New Englanders, the vast majority of whom were Federalists. To many New England merchants and shippers, once again raking in sizable profits with the lifting of the Embargo, impressment was an old and exaggerated wrong and a minor inconvenience. Federalists also condemned the War of 1812 because they opposed the acquisition of Canada. Like the Louisiana Purchase, which also engendered Federalist opposition, the addition of Canada would add more agrarian states to the Union thereby increasing the voting strength of Jeffersonian Republicans. “Quids” or “Old Republicans criticized the war because it violated the classic Republican commitment to limited federal power and to the maintenance of peace.
56. The Election of 1812 A similar sectional division was evident in the presidential election of 1812, in which Republican strength in the South and West overcame Federalist and antiwar Republican opposition to the war in the North. Madison won reelection, defeating De Witt Clinton of New York, the candidate of Federalists and antiwar Republicans.
57. The War of 1812“On to Canada, on to Canada!” With the United States perilously divided (and militarily unprepared to wage war) and suddenly plunged into armed conflict against Great Britain, then the world’s most powerful empire, fighting went badly from the start. From a military standpoint, the war proved to be indecisive. Although the United States, aided by the heroic feats of American naval commanders, controlled the Great Lakes, the poorly conceived invasion of Canada turned disastrous. Worse yet, Americans soon found themselves grimly defending American soil against the invading British who succeeded in burning Washington D.C. (in retaliation for the American burning of York, the provincial capital of Upper Canada and present day Toronto) Although a motley force of American defenders achieved a decisive victory under the command of General Andrew Jackson in the Battle of New Orleans, the victory was inconsequential, as the fighting took place two weeks after the treaty ending the war had been signed in Ghent, Belgium.
58. The War of 1812The Treaty of Ghent The Treaty of Ghent, signed on Christmas Eve 1814, was essentially an armistice. Both sides simply agreed to stop fighting and to restore conquered territory to the prewar claimant. The treaty made no mention of those grievances for which America had supposedly fought: the Indian menace, Orders in Council, impressment. Although some historians cite these omissions as evidence of the disingenuousness of the war hawks, some argue they are proof that the Americans had not managed to defeat the British. Relieved Americans boasted “Not One Inch of Territory Ceded or Lost”- a phrase that contrasted sharply with “On to Canada,” the prewar war whoop of the war hawks.
59. The War of 1812Federalist Grievances and the Hartford Convention New England, opposed to the war from the outset, remained defiant throughout the conflict. As the war dragged on, some New Englanders provided aid and comfort to the enemy. As New England extremists became more vocal in their opposition, a small minority of them proposed secession from the Union. The most spectacular manifestation of Federalist discontent was the fateful Hartford Convention.
60. The War of 1812Federalist Grievances and the Hartford Convention From December 15, 1814 to January 5, 1815, 26 delegates from New England states met in secrecy in Harford Connecticut to discuss their grievances and seek a redress for their wrongs. Although those who favored secession were outnumbered by a more moderate majority, the Convention’s report included a call for constitutional amendments requiring a two-thirds vote in Congress before an embargo could be imposed, new states admitted, or war declared (except in cases of invasion). The amendments were designed to protect New England from the growing influence of the South and West.
61. The Hartford ConventionSignificance Three special envoys from Massachusetts carried these demands to the burned-out capital Washing D.C. and arrived just in time to be overwhelmed by news from New Orleans and Ghent. By stamping its leaders as unpatriotic and disloyal, the Hartford resolutions were the funeral dirge of the Federalist party. Widely denounced and jeered for their talk of secession and disunion in New England, the Federalists quickly declined as a force in national politics. In 1816, the next year, the Federalists nominated their last presidential candidate. He was soundly defeated by James Monroe, another Virginian.
62. The War of 1812The Second War for American Independence Although the War of 1812 was a small war, it had important consequences for the United States. The Republic had shown it would resist what it considered grievous wrongs and American emissaries abroad were afforded a greater measure of respect. In a diplomatic sense, if not in a military sense, the conflict can be called the Second War for American Independence. With sectionalism and disunity discredited, the War of 1812 produced a heightened nationalism- a spirit of national consciousness or national oneness War heroes emerged, especially Andrew Jackson and William Henry Harrison. Both of them were to become president. Manufacturing prospered during the war. In an economic sense, as well as a diplomatic sense, the war of 1812 may be regarded as a Second War for American Independence. American industries stimulated by the war rendered America less dependent on European factories. Native Americans in the West were dealt crushing blows at the Battle of Thames in 1813 (during which Tecumseh was killed) and the Battle of Horseshoe Bend in 1814. These defeats, coupled with the loss of their British ally, effectively ended Indian resistance to white expansion east of the Mississippi. The way now lay open for a surge of settlement into the Ohio country and the southwestern frontier. Federalist doctrines of disunity would long survive the party and would later be used by southerners to support nullification and ultimately secession. Canadian patriotism and nationalism was also stimulated by the war with Canadians anticipating the prospect of future American invasions. Consequently, the British and Americans engaged in a “floating” arms race on the Great Lakes between 1815-1817. But in 1817 the Rush-Bagot agreement between Britain and the United States severely limed naval armament on the lakes.
63. Historians have traditionally labeled the period after the War of 1812 the “Era of Good Feelings.” Evaluate the accuracy of this label, considering the emergence of nationalism and sectionalism. Objective