2nd War For Independence and Upsurge of Nationalism

Chapter 12 - 1812-1824

War of 1812

One of America’s worst fought wars Lesson: It is a folly to lead a divided nation

and apathetic people in war Americans, however, came out of the War

of 1812 with a renewed sense of nationalism

Led to building of roads, more authority of federal govt., and protection of manufacturing

War of 1812

Regular Army was ill-trained, ill-disciplined, and widely scattered

Supplemented by a poorly trained militia

US attempts to attack Canada

3 pronged attempt to invade Canada in 1812

+ Detroit + Niagara + Lake Champlain

ALL BEATEN BACK SHORTLY BY BRITISH

British and Canadians were energetic from the beginning

Ft. Michilimackinac British captured Ft.

Michilimackinac under the leadership of General Isaac Brock

1813 – more losses on land for the US

US looked for success on water

American Navy did much better than Army

US Navy Skillfully handled

ships, better gunners than the British, manned by non-pressed crews

US ships had thicker sides, heavier firepower, and larger crews

1 in 6 were free blacks

Great Lakes Control of The Great

Lakes was vital to the War of 1812

British (in Canada) versus the United States

By late 1814, the US was defending their own soil against invading British

Napoleon Defeated

Mid-1814 Napoleon defeated and sent to live in exile on the Isle of Elba in the Mediterranean Sea

US left to face England alone

British Invasion of New York

British prepared for a crushing invasion of New York. There were no roads from Canada to New York, so they had to transport supplies via Lake Champlain

US Naval fleet commanded by 32 year old Thomas Macdonough

Battle at Plattsburgh – Sept. 11, 1814 – US snatched victory from defeat with a daring move by Macdonough – British retreat

Macdonough saves NY from conquest…

Washington DC Burned !!!

4,000 British land at Chesapeake Bay August 1814

6,000 panicky US militia retreat

British enter DC and set fire to most public buildings

Capital & White House

The Defense of Baltimore Americans held

Baltimore from British attack

British fleet hammered Fort McHenry with canon fire, but could not capture Baltimore

Francis Scott Key – wrote “The Star Spangled Banner”

The Battle of New Orleans

1814 – British attempt to capture New Orleans, LA

Controlled the mouth of the Mississippi River

Gen. Andrew Jackson was in command of the defense of N.O.

The Battle of New Orleans 7,000 regular US soldiers,

sailors, pirates, Frenchmen

LA, KY, TN militia 8,000 overconfident

British Britain made frontal

assault & suffered worst defeat of the war

2,000 dead or wounded in 30 minutes (70 US dead/wounded)

Jean Lafitte Famous Gulf Coast

Pirate British tried to pay

Lafitte for help in Battle of New Orleans

Instead, he helped US forces by alerting Jackson

Preyed on Spanish ships off of the Gulf Coast

Andrew Jackson

Jackson became a national hero

Battle of New Orleans was actually fought 2 weeks after the end of the War of 1812

Battle released a feeling of nationalism

Treaty of Ghent

Tsar Alexander I of Russia proposed peace between US and Britain

5 American peacemakers sent to Ghent, Belgium in 1814

Led by John Quincy Adams News of US victories @ Upper New York

and Baltimore made Britain willing to make peace

Treaty Of Ghent

Britain was war weary (fighting for 11 years against France and now US)

Dec. 24, 1814 – Treaty of Ghent signed ending the War of 1812

Essentially an armistice, both sides just agreed to quit fighting

US did not defeat British, but war was over.

Hartford Convention

New England states (MA, CT, RI) met in secrecy Dec. 1814 – Jan. 1815 to discuss radical solutions to war

Convention dissolves after Treaty of Ghent

Not many solid solutions or responses

Virginia Dynasty

By 1814, a Virginian had been president all but four years

John Adams, the second president, was from Massachusetts

This trend would continue

War of 1812

US showed it would resist what it felt were grievous wrongs against the Republic

War heroes emerged: Andrew Jackson, William Henry Harrison (both would be elected president)

Manufacturing - prospered during the War of 1812 while under British blockade

Industry had been stimulated because of war

Canadian Nationalism

Nationalism and Patriotism were both on the rise in Canada as well.

Canadians felt betrayed by the Treaty of Ghent b/c they got no Indian buffer state

Rush – Bagot Agreement (1817)

Agreement between US and Britain – limited naval armament on The Great Lakes

1870s – the border of US/Canada is finally solved giving the US and Canada joint possession of The Great Lakes

5,527 mile long border between US and Canada is the longest unfortified border in the world between two countries

Europe at Peace

Europe slumped into and exhausted peace after the defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo in 1815

US turned away from Europe and focused on the American West

Nationalism

An intense feeling of pride for one’s nation; a spirit of national consciousness or national oneness

American Nationalism

School textbooks – written by Americans for Americans for the 1st time

North American Review – 1815 – and intellectual magazine published in America

Bank of United States received an extension on charter (1816)

Handsome US Capital rebuilt on ashes Army – 10,000 men Strong US Navy defeats Barbary Pirates

The American System

Nationalism in Manufacturing 1815 – British manufacturers tried to make

up lost ground from the war and began to dump goods on the US market, at time, under cost.

This hurt American manufacturers who could not compete

Tariff of 1816

Nationalist Congress passed the first tariff that was designed to protect American manufacturers (protective tariff)

20-25% on value of imports Bold beginning to a history of protection in

US industry

Henry Clay

The American System 1824 Henry Clay was the

leader behind a plan to protect American manufacturing and fund internal improvements in US

The American System

1. Strong Banking System – easy and abundant credit

2. Protective Tariff – eastern manufacturing would flourish

3. Construction of roads and canals, especially in Ohio, paid for by tariff

West (raw materials) (manuf. goods) East

West Demands Transportation

Roads were demanded in the West by nationalists after the War of 1812

1817 – Congress voted $1.5 million to states for internal improvements

President James Madison sternly vetoed the bill b/c he felt it was unconstitutional

New England opposed federally constructed projects b/c it would drain their population and create competing states in the West.

James Monroe

6’0”, mild-mannered Republican Defeated the last

Federalist Rufus King, Sen. from New York

183-34 in Electoral College

Monroe continues Virginia Dynasty

Monroe

Monroe was last president to wear an old style cocked-hat

Straddled two generations

1. Bygone age of Founding Fathers

2. Emergent age of Nationalists

Era of Good Feelings Monroe was not as intelligent as the first 4

presidents, but very experienced, level-headed, and had a talent for interpreting popular rumblings

Era of Good Feelings – used to describe the administrations of Monroe

Period was actually a troubled one with debates over tariffs, internal improvements, sale of public land, Sectionalism, and slavery.

Panic of 1819

Paralyzing economic panic Depression, deflation, bankruptcies, bank

failures, unemployment, soup kitchens, and debtors’ prisons

Began by over speculation on frontier – Bank of US got involved in western land speculation, which was much like gambling

Western US was most hard hit…

The West

9 frontier states had been added to the Union (1791-1819)

Most were admitted alternately: slave, free Cheap land had a special appeal to

European immigrants looking for their own land, which was drained in Europe

Defeat of Indians by Harrison and Jackson made it easier to live on frontier

Building of highways improved Ohio River Valley

Cumberland Road

Began in 1811 Ran from western

Maryland to Illinois Picture is of Little

Crossing in Grantsville, MD

Slavery and Sectional Balance

1819 – Territory of Missouri asked Congress for admission into the Union as a slave state; contained sufficient population but House of Representatives passed:

Tallmadge Amendment – no more slaves could be brought into Missouri and provided for gradual emancipation of slaves’ children born in the territory

Missouri and Slavery

Roar of anger from slave holding South

Pioneers favored unhampered expansion

Tallmadge Amendment eventually defeated in the Senate

Signs of Civil Unrest

North getting richer and more thickly populated

North had a majority in the House of Representatives

South maintained equality by means of equal representation in the Senate

MO – 1st state west of Mississippi River 1st state carved out of LA Purchase

Missouri Compromise (1820)

Bundle of three compromises led by Henry Clay of Kentucky

1 – MO admitted as a slave state2 – free soil Maine (part of Mass.) admitted as

free state3 – All future bondage prohibited North of

36-30 (southern tip of MO) Some viewed it as “dirty bargain” but it

lasted for 34 years

Presidential Election of 1820

Monroe very popular Wins every electoral

vote but one VT gave 1 electoral

vote to John Quincy Adams to keep presidential election from being unanimous (that was for Washington only)

John Marshall

Marshall continued to influence the Supreme Court of the United States and shape American law

Marshall bolstered the power of the federal government at the expense of the states.

Supreme Court Cases Under Marshall

McCullough v. Maryland (1819) – Maryland attempted to destroy a branch of the Bank of the US by taxing its notes

Marshall declared the bank constitutional by invoking the Hamilton doctrine of implied powers

This strengthened federal authority and slapped at the states; created doctrine of “loose construction”

SC Cases

Cohens v Virginia (1821) – Cohens found guilty of selling lottery tickets and he appealed to the Supreme Court – VA won the appeal

BUT – Marshall set the precedent that the SC could review decisions made in state supreme courts in questions involving powers of the federal government

Oregon and Florida

Nationalist President James Monroe Nationalist Sec. of State John Quincy

Adams Treaty of 1818 – with Great Britain –

permitted Americans to share the coveted Newfoundland fisheries with Canada

ALSO fixed the northern limits of the LA Purchase along the 49th parallel

ALSO 10 year joint occupation of OR

Semitropical Spanish Florida Americans claimed

West Florida – American settlers tore down Spanish flag in 1810 (ratified in 1812)

During War of 1812 – small army seized Mobile region

Rest of Florida under Span. control

South America

Spain forced to leave Florida to defend against Revolutions in South America

1816 –Argentina 1817 – Venezuela 1818 – Chile

Andrew Jackson

Gen. Jackson enters Florida on pretext of hostile Seminole Indians and fugitive slaves

Jackson got commission to enter Spanish territory to punish Indians and recapture slaves

1818 – Jackson sweeps through Florida hanging two Indian chiefs, executed two British subjects for assisting Indians

Seized St. Marks and Pensacola

Florida Purchase Treaty (1819)

John Quincy Adams gets Spain to cede all Florida to the U.S. as well as claims to Oregon Country in exchange for America’s abandonment of claims to Texas

Texas would become part of independent Mexico in 1821

The Monroe Doctrine

Dec. 2, 1823 Incorporated a stern warning to European

powers that (1) colonization of North America was over and (2) non-intervention in North American affairs was to be the policy.

Never Law – just the idea of Monroe Deepened the illusion of isolation!!