The War of 1812
The war of 1812 raged from June 18, 1812 until one year after the Treaty of Ghent was signed, December 24, 1814. This bizarre war is often overlooked by many while they examine America's rich past. For almost nine years there was a war going on in Europe between Britain and France. After much instigation by the British, America joined the war as a enemy of Britain. President Madison was in office during these years of the war. Madison dealt with the war but Thomas Jefferson had to deal with all the events which led up to it.
This war originally had its roots at the end of the 18th century when France fought its revolutionary war. Britain felt threaten by the French and their "get rid of all kings" policies and fought France from 1793 until 1802. After a short year of peace the two fought yet, again. This time, however, the two would not stop until 1815. This is not why America joined the war. It was, in fact, an accumulation of many other annoyances.
The war of 1812 was mainly provoked by the British maritime policies during wartime. They also held extremely friendly relations with the Indians of the Northwest. America stayed neutral to both France and Britain for as long as possible. However, neither France nor Britain paid much attention to the rights of neutrals. American President, Thomas Jefferson, even experimented with the new policy of "peaceful coercion", but in the end, a war had to be fought.
One of the first turning points in the slow progression of declaring war happened during 1806. In Europe Napoleon excluded British goods from "fortress Europe" and as he did this a British blockade enclosed and seized 1000 US ships which were caught in the middle of the strife. This disgusted Americans. The British also insisted on its right to board any American ships on the open waters and impress (remove) any British deserters from the ship. This went on from 1803-1812 and many times the British mistakenly, or purposely, took American civilians as well as deserters. In 1807 an attack that killed 3 Americans and injured 18 others occurred off the coast of Virginia. The Chesapeake was fired upon by Leopard because its captain refused to allow the ship to be boarded. Thomas Jefferson refused to go to war and began a policy of "peaceful coercion". In 1807 the Embargo Act was past. It forbid domestic and foreign ships from leaving American harbors, except those American ships heading along the coast. The act hurt the American economy more than it did to Britain or France so it had to be repealed in 1809. To replace the Embargo Act the Nonintercourse Act was enacted. It restricted trade with the fighting nations. This in turn only led to Macon's Bill No. 2 which re-opened worldwide trade. During this time appeared a band of second generation republicans which wanted to extend the country south to Florida and west. They were called War Hawks and eventually some of them were elected into congress. In the summer of 1810 while Indian chief, Tecumseh went south to ask Creek's support in their attempt to stop white expansion westwards, General Harrison led 1000 men to the outskirts of Prophetstown. He successfully repelled an attack and then destroyed the village. Indian uprisings such as this were thought to be the work of the British in Canada. It was also known that they were the ones who supplied the Indians with arms. The nonintercourse Act was put back into effect against only Britain in November of 1810. Britain refused to change its policies toward the United State so President Madison called Congress on November 5, 1811 and told them to be ready for war. Pushed over the edge the by the War Hawks the President signed the war declaration on June 18, 1812.
In 1814 Napoleon abdicated and The United States was left to fight the British alone. The war proceeded for one and one half years after it started. During this time numerous battles were fought, some were won, some were lost, and on December 24, 1814 the Treaty of Ghent was signed. Even after the peace treaty was signed, battles continued to be fought for one year afterward. The last was the Battle of New Orleans. The British invade New Orleans and there General Jackson defeated the British killing 700 and wounding 1400. Jackson's casualties were extremely low. He lost only 8 men and only 13 others were even injured.
The treaty of Ghent was signed in Belgium. The leading two diplomats for the US were Gallatin and Bayard. The US found itself in no position to ask for territory and found it necessary to drop its demands for concessions in regard to neutral rights and imprisonments. The British abandoned their demands for boundary readjustments and for a permanent Indian barrier state in the North West. The treaty left everything the same as it was before the war but both Britain and America received it gladly for they were both tired of war.
Although the war appeared as a failure, a few good things were brought about by it. Canada was not conquered but the British prestige among the Indians was shattered and ended British interference with our affairs. Jackson's campaign against the Creeks in 1813 allowed for whole new territories to be settled by Americans. This eventually led to the Spanish ceding of Florida to the US in the Adams-Onis Treaty of 1819. A commercial treaty was signed by Richard Rush (US) and Charles Bagot (Britain) which restricted any armed navy on the Great Lakes and it eventually led to the demilitarization of the entire American-Canadian border. For the most part this war began and ended in the same place, but it served as a source of pride for the young country. The nation had survived a war.
Works Cited
Dictionay of American History, Volume VII, NY, 1976
Henry Steele Commager, Documents of American History, NY Meredith Publishing, 1963
Treaties and Other International Acts of the United States of America, Hunter Miller, Volume II Documents 1-40 :1776-1818, Washington : Government Printing office, 1931.