War of 1812

WAR OF 1812

The War of 1812 (1812–1814) remains one of the least known of American wars. Some historians regard it as a minor sidelight to the Napoleonic Wars (1800–1814)in Europe. Others see it as a continuation of the struggle that began with the American Revolution (1775–1783). Most agree, however, that the war had its origins in the economic problems facing the young republic in the early nineteenth century. The war's end resolved some of these problems. But other problems raised by the war continued to plague the United States through the first half of the nineteenth century.

Contemporary sources suggest that the United States entered the War of 1812 partly to end British impressment (a kind of forced draft) of American sailors. This was undoubtedly the case. But the complete cause of the war was much more complex. The War of 1812 had just as much to do with American trading interests as it did with foreign powers respecting the rights of American citizens. Some of the war's fronts were opened to seize Canadian lands and to end British influence over Native Americans in the Great Lakes area. Historians have also suggested that the war was fought to enhance the prestige of the Republican (Anti-Federalist) Party, and to enhance the prestige of the United States. The end of the war is equally confusing. Although the United States has won most of its wars, the War of 1812 was a major exception. The Treaty of Ghent (1814) that ended the conflict simply restored the state of affairs that had existed before the war began.

The problem of European powers interfering with American trade was an old one, stretching back decades into the years following the American Revolution. They were rooted in the French Revolution (1789–1795) and the Napoleonic period (1799–1815). At the time, the British were trying to choke off foreign trade with France, while the French were denying the British access to Continental ports. The Orders in Council established Great Britain's intention to seize goods carried in neutral ships that were intended for French ports, while Napoleon's Berlin Decrees performed a similar service for ports in other mainland European nations. When the British warship HMS Leopard boarded the USSChesapeake in 1807 and removed four sailors who had allegedly deserted from the British navy, the Americans responded with outrage. Following the example set by the thirteen American colonies in the 1760s, President Thomas Jefferson (1801–1809) guided an Embargo Act (1807) that ended almost all American foreign trade. However, the Embargo Act hurt the United States far more than it did the nation's trading partners. In 1809 Congress reopened trade with foreign nations (except for Britain and France) in the Non-Intercourse Act. This act also stated that trade with Britain and France would be resumed if the two countries agreed to respect U.S. shipping. Even this step did not help the faltering U.S. economy, and in 1810 Macon's Bill No. 2 opened trade with both countries with the stipulation that trade with either country would be cut off if the other agreed to drop its restrictions on U.S. trade. Napoleon quickly took advantage of the opportunity to hurt the British, and in 1811 President James Madison (1809–1817) cut off trade with England. In June of 1812 the British government finally repealed the Orders in Council. But by that time Madison had already asked Congress for a declaration of war.

The other major source of conflict between the British and the Americans was on the Great Lakes frontier. Since the conflict known as the Little Turtle's War (1791–1794), the territory known as the Old Northwest had been a place of constant conflict between Native Americans and U.S. settlers. After the Treaty of Greenville (1795) awarded most of what is now Ohio to the U.S. government, most Indians left the area. Among them were the Shawnee leader Tecumseh and his younger brother Tenkswatawa, sometimes known as the Shawnee Prophet. Tecumseh was determined to put together an inter-tribal confederacy to resist further American incursions into Indian lands. His dream was smashed at the battle of Tippecanoe (1811), when General William Henry Harrison confronted the Shawnee Prophet at Prophetstown and scattered Tecumseh's Native American confederation. Tecumseh promptly joined the British forces in Canada as a commander of auxiliaries. He helped seize Detroit from American general William Hull in 1812 before being killed at the Battle of the Thames (1813). Tecumseh's death marked the effective end of Indian resistance to white settlement in the Old Northwest.

The problem of how to pay for the war was also one that occupied the government of the young republic. One of the reasons that the United States lost most of its battles in the first year of the war was that Congress had made a declaration of war, increased pay for its soldiers and raised money to encourage enlistments, but it had also adjourned before voting taxes or appropriating funds. In March of 1813, Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin was reduced to begging for money through subscribed loans. Gallatin had to call on financial lion Stephen Girard, who had made his money through a shipping business centered in Philadelphia, for help. Girard was probably the richest man in the United States at the time. The same Congress that had authorized war with Great Britain had also refused to renew the charter of the Bank of the United States— effectively killing off the government's primary financial institution. Girard himself, along with fur trader John Jacob Astor and a syndicate of wealthy businessmen, underwrote most of the needed loans. In less than two weeks he had sold $4,672,800 worth of loan subscriptions to the American public, and purchased a further $2,383,00 himself. Girard's efforts helped bring about U.S. victories in 1813, and contributed to Great Britain's willingness to negotiate an end to the war.

The War of 1812 came to an end when British and American negotiators signed the Treaty of Ghent on December 24, 1814. At the time the treaty was signed, events were going on at opposite ends of the country that dramatically affected the future of the United States. New Englanders had long objected to the restrictions placed on trade by Congress as war measures. From December 1814 to January 1815, the Hartford Convention met in Connecticut and published a list of New England grievances. These ranged from undue influence of southerners in Congress to a series of constitutional amendments designed to protect New England from the damaging effects of national actions. The Hartford Convention also established the principle of nullification—the right of a state to overturn a federal law in order to protect the interests of its citizens—a principle that would later be taken up by southern states. At the same time, on January 8, 1815, in Louisiana, General Andrew Jackson was beating the British army at the Battle of New Orleans. Jackson's victory, along with the news of the peace treaty, virtually destroyed the Federalist Party in the United States. Despite the fact that none of Madison's war aims had been achieved, many citizens regarded the War of 1812—and the "Era of Good Feelings" that followed it—as an unqualified success.

See also: Embargo Act, Andrew Jackson, Tecumseh (Death of)

FURTHER READING

Brown, Roger H. The Republic in Peril: 1812. New York: Columbia University Press, 1964.

Hickey, Donald R. The War of 1812: A Forgotten Conflict. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1989.

Horsman, Reginald. The Causes of the War of 1812. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1962.

Stagg, J. C. A. Mr. Madison's War: Politics, Diplomacy, and Warfare in the Early American Republic, 1783–1830. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1983.

Wilson, George. Stephen Girard: America's First Tycoon. Conshohocken, PA: Combined Books, 1995.