War of 1812

War of 1812, fought between the U.S. and Great Britain (1812–15). During the Napoleonic Wars, American shipping flourished to such an extent that it harmed both French and English commerce and led the British to impress British sailors on board American ships, and the Americans retaliated with embargo and nonintercourse acts. Meanwhile Clay, Calhoun, and other “war hawks” in Congress felt that the British were unfairly preventing American expansion in the West by such means as inciting Indians to hostilities along the frontier, and they desired war to conquer Canada and west Florida. War was declared June 18, 1812, and the land forces were soon forced to surrender to the British. At sea the Americans were more successful; the Constitution defeated the Guerrière, and the United States, commanded by Decatur, defeated the Macedonian, although the Chesapeake under James Lawrence was defeated by the Shannon. Perry's victory on Lake Erie (Sept. 1813) and the recapture of Detroit were in 1814 offset by fears that England, temporarily free from the Napoleonic Wars, would crush the Americans, and at the Hartford Convention Federalist New Englanders, who dubbed this “Mr. Madison's War,” talked of secession. Meanwhile Republicans in the North were uninterested in seizing Florida and the Southern Republicans were unenthusiastic about the attempts to capture Canada. The British blockaded the Atlantic coast, captured Washington (1814), and burned the White House and Capitol, but were stopped before Baltimore(see “Star‐Spangled Banner”); the invasion from Canada was halted at Plattsburg. The indecisive victories on both sides and English fear of Eur‐opean war led to peace negotiations ending in the Treaty of Ghent (Dec. 24, 1814). Not a single aim of the war was attained, and the American commissioners did not even feel strong enough to demand the abandonment of impressment or to ask for more than the surrender of territory gained by Great Britain during the war. Jackson's victory at New Orleans (Jan. 8, 1815) occurred before he was notified of the treaty, and this last American success did much to restore national confidence.

Contemporary novels about the war include James K. Paulding's Diverting History of John Bull and Brother Jonathan (1812), an attack on British tyranny, and Samuel Woodworth's The Champions of Freedom (1816), an extravagant moral romance. The chauvinistic drama of a later day included Mordecai Noah's She Would Be a Soldier (1819), Richard Penn Smith's The Eighth of January (1829) and The Triumph of Plattsburg (1830), and William Emmons's Tecumseh (1836), a reworking of his poetic history The Fredoniad; or Independence Preserved (4 vols., 1827). The most famous work to come out of the war was The Star‐Spangled Banner and the most famous later work was Holmes's “Old Ironsides” (1830), celebrating the Constitution. Later historical fiction includes Irving Bacheller's D'ri and I (1901), about the Canadian frontier and the Battle of Lake Erie; Edward L. Bynner's Zachary Phipps (1892), about Aaron Burr's machinations; Edward Everett Hale's Man Without a Country (1863), incidentally treating a naval battle; John T. Moore's Hearts of Hickory (1926), on Andrew Jackson; and Kenneth Roberts's Lively Lady (1931), about the war in the North.