The United States maintained strict neutrality in the war. American merchants were free to trade with any of the combatants. This quickly brought American merchant ships into contact with British warships. Since the conditions in the Royal Navy were abysmal and was characterized as “a floating hell,” many English sailors took this opportunity to defect to the American ships.

The British, at war with France, could not afford this loss of manpower. Therefore, the Royal Navy began to search American ships for runaway British sailors. As most Americans were, at this point, indistinguishable from the British and the Royal Navy did not trust the often forged American documents, many American sailors were impressed into the Royal Navy.

The most famous incident was the Chesapeake Affair of 1807 when a British warship demanded the right to search for deserters on the American ship Chesapeake. When the American captain refused, the British ship fired on the Americans forcing them to submit. Eventually, the British carried off four crew members from the Chesapeake, two of whom were American born.

In 1806, after the French fleet was destroyed at Trafalgar, the British were able to establish a full blockade on the French. The blockade eventually ensnared more than 1000 American ships. Between 1803 and 1812, an estimated 10,000 American sailors were impressed into the English navy.

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The first image is an artist’s representation of the Chesapeake Affair.

The second image shows British impressment of an American sailor.

Questions to Consider
1. What are the rights of neutral nations to trade during wartime? Do neutral nations have a right to trade with combatants? Do combatants have a right to interdict or destroy trade destined for their enemy?

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Congress responded with the Embargo Act of 1807 which essentially prohibited foreign trade conducted over waterways. The bill was later expanded to include Canada. The Embargo Act was a disaster. Congress badly overestimated American economic importance. The shutting off of American trade failed to modify European behavior but, instead, penalized Americans. American exports abruptly fell from $108 million to $22 million. The great American merchant fleet sat rotting in harbors while their owners and crews fell into insolvency.

The Embargo Act was replaced in 1809, despite the wishes of the Jefferson administration, with the Non-Intercourse Act which permitted trade with all nations except Britain and France. The following year, the restrictions were further loosened and trade with Britain and France was again permitted.

Questions to Consider
1. American involvement in both the War of 1812 and the First World War was initiated, to some extent, by the rights of trade for neutral nations. Is it wise for a country to allow trade in war zones? Will the resultant dangers, physical and financial, necessitate involvement at some point?
2. How did Jefferson’s ideal of the yeoman farmer contribute to his willingness to close off trade with the rest of the world? How realistic was Jefferson’s ideal?

While the War Hawks embraced the rhetoric of freedom of trade, their outlook and constituencies were agrarian and Southern. While they may have been outraged at British treatment of American sailors, their real objective was nationalistic and territorial. The War Hawks hoped that, through war, the English, distracted by a far more serious war with Napoleon, could be expelled from North America and the United States could invade Canada.

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The first image is of John C. Calhoun, the second is of Henry Clay.

Questions to Consider
1. Does the Clay text seem opportunistic? What is his best argument for a successful war?

There was legitimate cause for concern entering a war with England. According to a report issued by the Chief of Military History of the United States Army, the Jefferson Administration, apprehensive of a standing army, allowed the military to dwindle. In 1802, the United States sold the majority of its navy and maintained an army of roughly 3200 soldiers. The cavalry had been eliminated. This was not increased until January 1812, six months before the outbreak of the War of 1812.

Attached Documents
The first document is the 1812 declaration of war against Great Britain.

The second document is an article from The Niles Weekly Register, a leading newspaper of the time, painting an optimistic portrait of the coming war with Great Britain.

The third document is President Madison’s 14 May 1812 war message to Congress.

The fourth document is from a 2001 United States Army assessment of the American military at the outbreak of the war.

Questions to Consider
1. Was it wise for the United States to declare war on England? Was it good strategy to depend on British forces being tied down in the war with Napoleon?

Oliver Perry became an American hero during the invasion, routing the British in Lake Erie and becoming the first man to capture a British fleet.

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The first image is a map of major battles in the Canadian Campaigns, the second is of the Battle of Queenston Heights, the third image is Oliver Hazard Perry.

In Madison’s Fourth Annual Message he speaks to the progress of the war and the Canadian invasion.

The USS Constitution, one of the few legitimate warships in the American navy, was recalled from patrolling the Mediterranean against the Barbary Pirates to help break the English siege. On 19 August 1812, in one of the most famous naval battles in American history, the Constitution defeated the HMS Guerriere off the coast of Nova Scotia. The Constitution, larger, more heavily armed, and constructed of oak timbers that earned her the nickname “Old Ironsides,” was the superior ship. Through the course of the war, the Constitution would defeat seven other British ships and help dispel the myth of British naval invincibility while laying the cornerstone for the American navy.

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The U.S.S. Constitution is now a floating museum in Boston Harbor, pictured below.

With only four thousand troops, the British had no interest in occupying or holding the city. Instead, in retaliation for the Americans burning York, modern Toronto, the British burned all of the public buildings in the city. Of all government building in Washington, only the Patent Office was spared destruction.

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Below is the account of Geoge Gelig, a British soldier occupying Washington.

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The Americans, seeing the massive British advantage, retreated to improvised defenses around Plattsburgh, New York. Most importantly, the confined waters of Plattsburgh Bay did not allow the large British warships room to maneuver. Pressing this advantage, on 11 September 1814, the American captain, Tomas Macdonough, with small gunships, defeated the British fleet. After losing the fleet, the cautious Prevost withdrew the British forces to Canada.

The American commander at Fort McHenry, knowing that the British assault was immanent, purchased an extra large American flag for the battle so that the British would be sure to see it. On 13 September 1814, the British ships, out of range for the American cannon, began bombardment of the fort. One shell, which failed to detonate, landed in the gunpowder magazine, which, if ignited, would have destroyed the entire fort. Through the course of the attack, which would last twenty five hours, four Americans were killed and twenty five wounded, but the fort held. Unable to enter the harbor, the British abandoned the attack. Deprived of naval support and with their commander killed by an American sharpshooter, the British ground forces were defeated and turned back from Baltimore.

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On the morning of 14 September, the sight of the American flag still flying above the fort moved Francis Scott Key, a Georgetown lawyer held captive on one of the British ships, to write the poem “The Star Spangled Banner," the first stanza of which, in 1931, would become the national anthem.

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From 15 December 1814 to 5 January 1815, delegates from New England states met in Hartford, Connecticut to lay out their objections to the Madison administration and its conduct of the war. The most radical elements called for secession from the union and the reaching of a separate peace with Great Britain. Ultimately, moderates prevailed and the convention produced a document advocating a return to the state centered federalism similar to the Articles of Confederation.

The end of the war quickly made the Hartford Convention politically noxious. Due, in part, to their close identification with the convention, the Federalist collapsed as a major political party and were never again able to field a national candidate.

NOTE: Though the New England Threat of Secession was written nearly two years before the Hartford Convention, it expresses the level of animosity building in the New England states.

Questions to Consider
1. How has the debate over federalism shaped American politics? Consider the Hartford Convention, the Nullification Crisis, the Civil War, and the Civil Rights Era. What are the arguments for and against state centered federalism and for nation centered federalism? Which side has usually prevailed?

With victory unlikely for either side, peace negotiations began in the Netherlands. In the resulting treaty, signed on 24 December 1814, both sides essentially agreed to recognize the status quo as it existed before the war so much as was possible.

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The Treaty of Ghent was quickly ratified by the Senate and was signed by President Madison on 18 February 1815. The treaty was hailed as a major success in the United States. Though any benefits of the war were negligible at best, the young United States had stood up to what amounted to bullying by a major European power and had held its own. Through this, the United States gained a great deal of prestige and was becoming recognized as a significant military power.

Questions to Consider
1. Was the War of 1812 a wise move by the Madison administration? Were the prospects of taking Canada realistic?

On 13 December 1814, a large force crossed the Caribbean from the British base at Jamaica to attack New Orleans and deprive the Americans the port and the mouth of the Mississippi River. After defeating a number of small American gunboats at the Battle of Lake Borgne, the way was open for an invasion.

Many considered the outcome of the coming battle to be a foregone conclusion. The British invaders outnumbered the Americans by better than two to one. Residents of New Orleans took steps to protect their property as they feared American commander Andrew Jackson, who would later become president, would conduct a scorched earth defense, destroying the city rather than surrender it to the British.

Jackson chose to mount his defense from an elevated position protected by a stone wall that would require the British to march across a large field while exposed to American fire. The British simply hoped that, through their vastly superior numbers, enough attackers would survive the march to take the American position.

The British launched their major attack on 8 January 1815. Through the early stages of the battle, things went according to form. The British suffered terribly crossing the field, but there were simply too many soldiers to shoot. Upon reaching the base of the American position however, the British discovered that they had forgotten the siege ladders needed to scale the American position at their camp. At this point, the battle became a massacre as the British were trapped between the oncoming push of their own ranks and the stone wall held by the Americans. Americans were able to fire into the exposed and stationary British from very close range. Of the 10,000 British soldiers that began the assault, more than 2,700 were killed, wounded, or captured while the Americans lost only 71 men.

Attached Documents
Below is an engraving of the battle. Notice the elevated postion of the Americans and the ladders on ground behind the British lines.