THE WAR OF 1812: AMERICA’S FIRST DECLARED WAR

THE WAR OF 1812 TESTED WHETHER THE NEW FEDERAL REPUBLIC COULD SURVIVE ITS FIRST DECLARED WAR. AS COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF, PRESIDENT JAMES MADISON HAD TO LEAD THE WAR EFFORT AND DEAL WITH ANTI-WAR STATES THAT CHALLENGED HIS PRESIDENTIAL POWER TO WAGE WAR.

During the wars of Napoleon in the early 1800s, France and Britain blockaded each other’s ports. Britain also issued Orders in Council, which banned all foreign ships from entering any European ports under French control.

On the high seas, both nations searched and seized merchant ships belonging to neutral countries like the U.S. In addition, the British “impressed” American sailors, forcing them into service on Royal Navy warships.

Adopting the slogan, “Free Trade and Sailors’ Rights,” many Americans called for war against Britain. President Thomas Jefferson, however, resisted war and pressed Congress to enact an embargo (ban) on all American foreign trade. Jefferson hoped the embargo would affect the economies of Britain and France and force both nations to lift their restrictions on American commerce and end impressment. But the embargo hurt the American economy more than those of Britain and France.

The call for war also came from another group of Americans. In the treaty that ended the Revolutionary War, Britain ceded to the U.S. land from the Atlantic to the Mississippi River (except Spanish Florida). Seeking cheap land, settlers moved into the area. Numerous Indian tribes, however, still occupied this land and resisted settlement, leading to much bloodshed on both sides.

The settlers believed the British in Canada plotted with the Indians to massacre them. This caused many settlers to join the cry for war against Britain. They hoped to end Indian hostility by invading Canada and driving out the British.

Declaring War

James Madison was elected president in 1808. Madison and Jefferson were the chief leaders of the Republican Party (not today’s Republican Party, which was established in 1854). The Republicans, who had won control of Congress in 1800, saw themselves as representing the “common man.” They favored a small federal army, no government debt or federal taxes, and states’ rights. They also championed cheap land for settlers in the West. Led by Henry Clay of Kentucky, Republican Southerners and Westerners called the “War Hawks” became the loudest voices for war against Britain in Congress.

Although the Federalist Party had lost its majority in Congress, it still dominated New England. The Federalists represented merchants, ship owners, bankers, and others involved in foreign trade. They opposed the Republican embargo since it crippled foreign trade. They objected to war, fearing this would permanently damage commerce with Britain.

When the U.S. grievances against Britain continued, Madison recommended that Congress declare war. Congress erupted in debate. The Republican War Hawks claimed American honor, free trade, and protection from Indian massacres justified war. A few Republicans opposed the war. The New England Federalists argued the U.S. could never win a war against the greatest power in the world.

On June 16, 1812, Britain withdrew the Orders in Council, which had prohibited neutrals like the U.S. from entering many European ports. But it took two months for this news to reach Washington. Meanwhile, Congress, for the first time, voted to declare war. More than 80 percent of the Republicans in Congress voted for war. All the Federalists and a few Republicans voted against it.

When Madison finally received notice of Britain’s withdrawal of the Orders in Council, he went ahead with the war anyway. His chief reason was that Britain still refused to stop impressing American sailors.

Waging War

Congress had done little to prepare for war. The supporters of the war pinned their hopes on the fact that most of the British army and navy were already fighting Napoleon in Europe.

Having only a small federal army, Congress debated whether to call state militias into the service of the U.S. under the command of the president. The Federalists argued that only the states could do this. Congress was unsure how to pay for the war. Most federal revenue came from customs duties on imports. But the embargo had greatly reduced this source of funds.

Madison’s treasury secretary recommended taxing certain domestic goods and borrowing from state banks. In 1811, the Republican Congress had refused to re-charter the Bank of the United States, which would have provided cheaper loans. Congress acted slowly to borrow and enact federal taxes.

Barely a month after Congress declared war, Madison ordered the invasion of British Upper Canada around Lake Erie and Lake Ontario. Western militias wanted to end British influence among the Indians. Madison thought that he could use the conquest of Canada to bargain for an end to British impressment.

British soldiers and their Indian allies beat back the American militias and federal army troops in three different military campaigns. The American invasion of Canada failed mainly because of incompetent generals and poorly trained troops.

The war at sea was a different story. The little U.S. Navy won a series of ship-to-ship battles in 1812, most famously by the Constitution, nicknamed “Old Ironsides.”

After a political fight within the Republican Party, Madison was re-nominated and re-elected president in December 1812. The American war effort in the following year was more successful after yet another invasion of Canada.

Meanwhile, Oliver Perry had built a squadron of gunboats to take control of Lake Erie. In September, he won a major victory against British gunboats. In October 1813, better trained and led American troops, now with their own Indian allies, forced the British eastward and took control of most of Upper Canada. British forces, however, stopped the Americans from invading Lower Canada, which extended along the St. Lawrence River.

As all this was happening in the north, Andrew Jackson was leading a Tennessee militia to fight a Creek Indian uprising in the South. Jackson crushed the Creeks and forced them to sign a treaty that ceded nearly 40,000 square miles of their land to the U.S.

Obstructing the War Effort

By 1814, criticism was mounting against “Mr. Madison’s War.” Canada still had not been entirely conquered. The British blockaded most American ports. The blockade together with the latest embargo on trade with Britain and France caused many shortages and a sharp drop in customs revenue. The impressment of American sailors continued.

In Congress, the Federalists complained about the embargo. They voted against increasing federal army recruiting. They argued state militias could not be ordered to fight in Canada. Even the Republicans, who held a majority in both houses of Congress, defied Madison. The Federalists and various Republican factions sometimes joined to block his war legislation and appointments.

Madison’s natural tendency was to defer to Congress since he believed the Constitution made it the leading element of the federal government. As chief executive, he was more of a scholar than an inspiring war leader. His cabinet was unruly. The generals and civilian officials he appointed often were incompetent and divided.

The most serious obstruction to the war effort came from the states of Federalist New England. Elected officials, newspaper editors, and church leaders discouraged enlistment in the federal army, opposed war loans, and argued the militias could not legally fight outside their states. State courts ruled that governors could defy Congress and Madison when they called state militias into the service of the United States. Smuggling of food and other goods, even to British troops and sailors, was widespread.

Heading for Defeat?

Napoleon’s defeat in the spring of 1814 changed things dramatically. Britain could now divert its regiments and ships to North America. This forced the U.S. into a defensive war. The British raided Maryland towns on Chesapeake Bay. They invaded northern New York. They seized the coastline of Maine (then a part of Massachusetts). They extended their blockade. Fighting continued in Canada, but the war there was at a stalemate.

Most shocking to Americans was the attack on Washington, D.C. The city’s defenses had been neglected by Madison’s secretary of war and were poorly protected by outmatched local militias. On August 24, 1814, British troops overran the militias and marched into the U.S. capital. They burned the Capitol Building (where Congress met), the White House, and other public buildings, and then left the next day.

The sack of Washington was only one of Madison’s troubles. Revenue from customs duties dried up with the British blockade. Newly enacted federal taxes were inadequate. Smuggling became increasingly common. The embargo had failed, and Congress finally repealed it.

When the U.S. failed to make its debt payments, banks and investors stopped issuing loans. Madison’s secretary of the treasury tried to revive the Bank of the United States as a source for more borrowing. Many Republicans, who always distrusted a central bank, joined with Federalists to vote the bank idea down in Congress. The U.S. was bankrupt.

James Monroe, Madison’s new secretary of war, worked on a plan to invade Lower Canada and capture its capital of Montreal. But New England state militias refused to fight in Canada, and recruitment for the federal army lagged.

Monroe proposed drafting men into the federal army from each state. This enraged the Federalists in Congress. After weeks of debating a number of alternatives, Congress finally passed a bill that called for 40,000 volunteers from the states to serve in the federal army for one year. But the volunteers could not serve outside their state without the consent of the governor.

Some Federalists in New England wanted to secede from the Union and negotiate a separate peace with Britain. Delegates from most New England states met at Hartford, Connecticut, in December 1814 to discuss this and a variety of complaints they had against the federal government.

After meeting a few weeks in secret, the Hartford Convention never voted on secession. The convention did, however, pass a resolution, declaring that any military draft enacted by Congress would be unconstitutional. The resolution recommended states “to adopt all such measures as may be necessary to protect the citizens” from acts not authorized by the Constitution. The convention also proposed a series of constitutional amendments, such as requiring a two-thirds vote by Congress to declare war.

Madison took the threat of secession seriously and placed additional guards at a Massachusetts armory where federal weapons were stored. Throughout the war, however, he rejected calls from fellow Republicans for laws to arrest those openly opposing the war or supporting secession. Madison did not permit any trials for treason, censorship of newspapers, jailing of citizens for dissent, or trials of civilians by military courts.

Ending the War

From the war’s beginning, the U.S. and Britain held talks off and on about ending it. But serious talks did not occur until the summer of 1814. Madison sent an outstanding team of negotiators that included John Quincy Adams, an experienced Federalist diplomat, and Henry Clay, the War Hawk Republican speaker of the House of Representatives.

The Americans and a less capable group of British diplomats met at the city of Ghent (now in Belgium). Among the list of U.S. demands were the abolition of sailor impressment and British withdrawal from at least part of Canada. The British refused to consider ending impressment and proposed carving out a neutral Indian state from U.S. territory, serving as a buffer between Canada and the U.S.

Both sides quickly rejected each other’s proposals. But Madison sent instructions for his team to drop the impressment demand. He believed (correctly it turned out) that the need for impressment would likely stop naturally with the end of the Napoleonic wars in Europe.

The American concession on impressment proved to be the breakthrough. The British quickly gave up the idea of an Indian neutral state, thus abandoning their wartime allies.

In September, the negotiators received news that the British had failed to capture Baltimore’s Fort McHenry, the event that inspired Francis Scott Key’s “Star-Spangled Banner.” In addition, the British offensive into northern New York had been beaten back. The Duke of Wellington, Britain’s top army commander, declared that the conquest of the U.S. would be too long and costly, something the British public would not support after years of war against Napoleon.

The War of 1812 ended with the Treaty of Ghent, signed on Christmas Eve 1814. The key provision simply called for each side to return all captured territory, thus restoring the situation that existed before the war. Not mentioned were the two chief American reasons for going to war: neutral country trading rights in wartime and the impressment of American sailors.

Regarding the Indians, the treaty required Britain and the U.S. to make peace with the tribes that had been their former enemies. The two countries were also to restore to the tribes “all the rights, privileges, and territories which they enjoyed in the year 1811.”

On January 8, 1815, two weeks after the peace treaty was signed at Ghent, Andrew Jackson won a decisive victory at New Orleans, the largest, bloodiest, and last battle of the war. News of Jackson’s victory reached Washington on February 4, several days before news of the Treaty of Ghent arrived. This caused many Americans to incorrectly believe the Battle of New Orleans had won the war for the U.S.

Federalism and the War of 1812

The War of 1812 ended in a military and political stalemate. Although the U.S. did not win the war, it did win the peace. Madison’s talented team of diplomats got the British to yield on most of their demands. Americans generally viewed the outcome of the war positively, much to the benefit of Madison and the Republican Party. On the other hand, many accused the Federalists of being unpatriotic obstructionists, even traitors.

Republican James Monroe demolished the Federalists in the presidential election of 1816. Before long, the Federalist Party ceased to exist. But in a final twist, the Republicans adopted many Federalist policies such as re-chartering the national bank to finance national needs such as roads and ports.

The biggest losers, however, were the Indian tribes that had played such an important role in the war, especially for the British. Despite the promises made to the tribes in the Treaty of Ghent, their abandonment by Britain permanently broke their power. This led in the following decades to their relocation beyond the Mississippi River and sped up the American westward movement.

Madison is often called the Father of the Constitution because he was at the center of creating the federal republic. Federalism means that the government in Washington and the states share power. Madison believed the states would play a crucial role in checking the power of Congress and the president. During the War of 1812, however, Madison discovered that the federal system limited the ability of Congress and the president to wage war. Anti-war states did everything they could to obstruct the war effort.

The federal army remained relatively small during the war. A big majority of men who served came from local militias and volunteer units.

 After the war, the federal army was enlarged. But it still depended heavily on state militias and volunteers, even in the Civil War. Madison declared that the War of 1812 proved that a federal republic could survive the stresses of war without destroying the Constitution. Many historians, however, say that only war weariness in Britain and a strong U.S. negotiating team prevented the young federal republic from falling into disunion and defeat.