6. SUMMARY The War of 1812 was a conflict between the United States and Britain that began in 1812 and lasted until early 1815. President James Madison requested a declaration of war to protect American ships on the high seas and to stop the British from impressing or seizing U.S. sailors . U.S. ships were being stopped and searched by both Great Britain and France, who were fighting each other in Europe. President Madison also wanted to prevent Britain from forming alliances with Native Americans on the American frontier . His decision was influenced by Americans (War Hawks) in the West and South, who hoped to expand the United States by seizing control of both Canada and Florida . Critics called the War of 1812 “Mr. Madison’s War,” but others saw it as a “second war of independence,” an opportunity for Americans to defend their freedom and honor in the face of European disrespect. Neither Britain nor the United States was particularly well prepared to fight this war, and the conflict eventually ended in a stalemate. #6 Click Here for Video: War of 1812 (4:15)
7. One issue precipitating the War of 1812 was the British disregard of American shipping rights. British ships frequently stopped American ships, confiscated their cargo, and impressed (captured) crew members, claiming they were deserters from Britain’s Royal Navy. Between 1808 and 1811 over 6,000 Americans were impressed by the British. #7
8. In the Chesapeake-Leopard Affair (also referred to as the Chesapeake Affair), which occurred on June 22, 1807, the British warship HMS Leopard attacked and boarded the American frigate USS Chesapeake under the command of Commodore James Barron off the coast of Norfolk, Virginia, killing or wounding 21 men and capturing four alleged British deserters. One was hanged and three imprisoned in Halifax, Nova Scotia. The American public was outraged with the incident, as President Thomas Jefferson noted: "Never since the battle of Lexington have I seen this country in such a state of exasperation." The President closed U.S. territorial waters to British warships, demanded payment for damages, and requested an end to British efforts to search United States ships for "deserters," acts which were commonly considered an excuse to impress American sailors into British service (of the four sailors taken off the Chesapeake, three were U.S.-born who had "deserted" after having been impressed into the British Royal Navy). This event served to raise tensions between the two countries and can be seen as one of the events leading up to the War of 1812. Indeed, many demanded war following the incident, but President Thomas Jefferson instead used diplomacy and economic pressure in the form of the Embargo Act of 1807 . #8
10. American merchants disliked the Embargo Act of 1807. They argued that it would be years before Britain and France actually felt its effect while American trade stagnated. #10
11. The entire series of events was sometimes ridiculed as the Dambargo , Mob-Rage , Go-bar-'em or O-grab-me (embargo spelled backwards). The Snapping turtle, sometimes known as the Ograbme, was therefore the subject of a political cartoon ridiculing the Act. #11
13. James Madison (1809-1817) 4th President of the United States Vice President : George Clinton (1809-1812), Elbridge Gerry (1813-1814) Born : March 16, 1751, Port Conway, Virginia Nickname : "Father of the Constitution" Education : College of New Jersey (now Princeton University, graduated 1771) Religion : Episcopalian Marriage : September 15, 1794, to Dolley Payne Todd (1768-1849) Children : None Career : Lawyer Political Party : Democratic-Republican Writings : Writings (9 vols., 1900-1910), ed. by Gaillard Hunt; The Papers of James Madison (1962- ), ed. by W. T. Hutchinson, R. A. Rutland, et al. Died : June 28, 1836, Montpelier, Orange County, Virginia Buried : Montpelier, Virginia (family plot) #13 Introducing James Madison (2:30) Click Here for J Mad Video
14. Under Madison, Congress first replaced the Embargo Act with the Non-Intercourse Act , which prevented trade with Britain and France only, thereby opening up all other foreign markets. But because the British and French were the largest and most powerful traders in the world, the Non-Intercourse Act did little to stimulate the struggling U.S. economy. In 1810, Congress substituted Macon’s Bill No. 2 for the Non-Intercourse Act, as a ploy for either Britain or France to lift trade restrictions. Macon’s Bill No. 2 resumed open trade with both Britain and France and stated that if either nation repealed its restrictions on neutral shipping, the United States would install an embargo against the other nation. Napoleon seized this opportunity and repealed French restrictions, provoking an American declaration of non-intercourse with Britain. Despite Napoleon’s promise, the French continued to seize American ships. #14 Click Here for Video: Non Intercourse Act (2:09)
15. The War Hawks in the Twelfth Congress were mostly young Republicans (later called Democratic-Republicans) who had been imbued with the ideals of the American Revolution as youths, and were primarily from southern and western states. (The American West then consisted of Kentucky, Tennessee, and Ohio, as well as territories in the Old Northwest, which did not yet have votes in Congress.) The War Hawks advocated going to war against Britain for a variety of reasons, mostly related to the interference of the Royal Navy in American shipping, which the War Hawks believed hurt the American economy and injured American prestige. War Hawks from the western states also believed that the British were instigating American Indians on the frontier to attack American settlements, and so the War Hawks called for an invasion of British Canada to punish Britain and end this threat. Henry Clay – Kentucky John C. Calhoun – South Carolina #15
16. #16 Click Here for Video: Tecumseh & Native American Resistance (1:01)
18. “ To sum up, in a word, the great causes of complaints against Great Britain, your committee need only say, that in the United States, as a sovereign and independent Power, claim the right to use the ocean, which is the common and acknowledged highway of nations, for the purposes of transporting, in their own vessels, the products of their own soil and the acquisitions of their own industry….Great Britain, in defiance of this incontestable [clear and certain] right, captures every American vessel bound to, or returning from, a port where her commerce is not favored; enslaves our seamen, and in spite of our [complaints and protests], persevered in these aggressions.” In November 1811, the Committee on Foreign Relations of the U.S. House of Representatives reported on our nation’s growing conflict with France and Britain. In the following excerpt, the report explains our complaints against Britain. (From Annals of the Congress of the United States, Twelfth Congress.) #18
19. “ The question…is reduced to this single point – which shall we do, abandon or defend our own commercial and maritime rights, and the personal liberties of our citizens employed in exercising them? These rights are essentially attacked, and war is the only means of redress….I know of one principle to make a nation great…and that is to protect every citizen in the lawful pursuit of his business….Protection and patriotism are reciprocal…if [the British] persist in such daring insult and injury to [the United States], it will be bound in honor and interest to resist.” This excerpt is from a speech made by Congressman John C. Calhoun, a Democratic-Republican member of the House of Representatives from South Carolina. Calhoun gave this address on December 12, 1811, six months before war was declared on Britain – but at this time, he clearly foresaw the threat of war. (From The Debates and Proceedings in the Congress of the United States, First to Eighteenth Congress, Vol.23.) #19
20. “… if you go to war it will not be for the protection of …maritime rights. Gentlemen from the North have been taken up to some high mountain and shown all the kingdoms of the earth; and Canada seems tempting in their sight….Agrarian cupidity [greed for farm land], not maritime right, urges the war.” This excerpt is from a speech by Congressman John Randolph of Virginia, given to the House of Representatives on December 16, 1811. (From Annals of Congress, Twelfth Congress) #20
21. “ We behold our seafaring citizens still the daily victims of lawless violence….We behold our vessels…wrested [taken] from their lawful destinations…in [to] British ports….We behold, in fine, on the side of Great Britain a state of war against the United States…” These excerpts from President Madison’s Declaration of War were read to Congress on June 1, 1812. (From Annals of Congress, Twelfth Congress) #21
23. The Congressional Vote for War, by Political Party: Vote Approving the Declaration of War on Britain in 1812 (Both House of Representatives and Senate Votes Combined) Federalists Democratic-Republicans #23 22 98 40 0 No Yes No Yes
25. “ ...to demonstrate to the world...that the people of these states were united, one and indivisible...to show that our republican government was competent to assert its rights, to maintain the interests of the people, and to repel all foreign aggression...My conduct as your representative has been regulated entirely by these great and important considerations.” This is an excerpt from a letter written in July 1812 by Congressman Hugh Nelson of Virginia in which he explained why he voted for war. (Quoted from Roger Brown, The Republic in Peril: 1812, Columbia University Press, 1964, p.77) #25
28. In November of 1812, President Madison narrowly won reelection against Federalist candidate DeWitt Clinton, the governor of New York State. The election occurred five months after the war with Britain began. #28
29. The USS Constitution , commanded by Captain Isaac Hull , sailed from Chesapeake Bay on July 12 . On July 17 , a British squadron gave chase. Constitution evaded her pursuers after two days. After briefly calling at Boston to replenish water, on August 19 Constitution engaged the British frigate HMS Guerriere . After a thirty five-minute battle, Guerriere had been dismasted and captured and was later burned. Hull returned to Boston with news of this significant victory. #29
30. During the War of 1812, this flag flew aboard Oliver Hazard Perry's flagship "Lawrence" while commanding an American squadron in the Battle of Lake Erie on September 10,1813. Perry had named his ship after Captain James Lawrence, the hero of an earlier sea battle off New England whose dying words were "Don't Give Up The Ship". #30
31. Oliver Hazard Perry 's message to William Henry Harrison after the Battle of Lake Erie began with what would become one of the most famous sentences in American military history: "We have met the enemy and they are ours." This 1865 painting by William H. Powell shows Perry transferring to a different ship during the battle. His decisive victory ensured American control of the lake, improved American morale after a series of defeats, and compelled the British to fall back from Detroit. This paved the way for General Harrison to launch another invasion of Upper Canada, which culminated in the U.S. victory at the Battle of the Thames on October 5, 1813, in which Tecumseh was killed. Tecumseh's death effectively ended the North American Indian alliance with the British in the Detroit region. #31
34. In 1814 United States General Andrew Jackson led a militia of poorly trained and ill-equipped men in the defeat of a Native American group, the Upper Creek, at Horseshoe Bend in what is now Alabama. #34
35. Depiction of William Weatherford surrendering to Andrew Jackson after the Battle of Horseshoe Bend. Jackson was so impressed with Weatherford's boldness that he let him go. #35
36. PART 1: On August 9, 1814 Andrew Jackson forced the Creeks to sign the Treaty of Fort Jackson . Despite protest of the Creek chiefs who had fought alongside Jackson, the Creek Nation ceded 23 million acres —half of Alabama and part of southern Georgia—to the United States government. Even though the Creek War was largely a civil war among the Creeks, Andrew Jackson recognized no difference between the Creeks that had fought with him and the Red Sticks that fought against him--taking the lands of both. Further, 1.9 million acres of the 23 million acres Jackson forced the Creeks to cede was claimed by the Cherokee Nation, who had also allied with the United States during the war. #36 PART 2: With the Red Stick menace subdued, Andrew Jackson was able to focus on the Gulf coast region in the War of 1812. On his own initiative, he invaded Spanish Florida and drove a British force out of Pensacola. He next defeated the British at the Battle of New Orleans on January 8, 1815. In 1818, Jackson again invaded Florida, where some of the Red Stick leaders had fled, an event known as the First Seminole War . As a result of these victories, Jackson became a national figure and eventually rose to become the seventh President of the United States in 1829. As President, Andrew Jackson advocated the Indian Removal Act which relocated the Southeastern tribes to the West, across the Mississippi River. The Dissolution of Native American Nations (Listen to the first 1:00) Click Here for Video:
46. Samuel Wilson (Uncle Sam) (September 13, 1766 - July 31, 1854) was a meat-packer in Troy, New York. He is alleged to be the source of the personification of the United States known as " Uncle Sam ". He was born in historic Menotomy, now Arlington, Massachusetts, where a monument marks his birthplace. Wilson's parents came from Greenock in Scotland and when Samuel was a boy, his family moved to Mason, New Hampshire, and another monument (a roadside marker) exists there. Samuel and his brother Ebeneezer went to Troy in 1789 and went into business there. In 1797, Samuel married Betsey Mann of Mason and brought her back to Troy with him. They lived in a house on Ferry Street in Troy and had four children. The origin of the Uncle Sam legend may be that at the time of the War of 1812, Samuel Wilson was a prosperous middle-aged meat-packer in Troy, known locally by the nickname "Uncle Sam". He obtained a contract to supply beef to the Army in its campaign farther north, and he shipped the meat salted, in barrels. The barrels, being Government property, were branded "U.S." and the teamsters and soldiers joked that the barrels were the initials of Uncle Sam himself. Later, anything marked with the same initials (as much Army property was) also became linked with Sam Wilson via his coincidental initials. So the story goes at least. Samuel Wilson died in 1854 and is buried in Oakwood Cemetery in Troy. #46 Uncle Sam Video
47. William Prescott (February 20, 1726 – 1795) was an American Colonel in the Revolutionary War who commanded the rebel forces in the Battle of Bunker Hill. Prescott became widely known for, his famous quote, "Do not fire until you see the whites of their eyes.” He was a delegate at the Hartford Convention in 1814. The Hartford Convention was an event in 1814 in the United States during the War of 1812 in which New England's opposition to the war reached the point where secession from the United States was discussed. The end of the war with a return to the status quo ante bellum ( as things were before the war ) disgraced the Federalist Party , which disbanded in most places. #47
48. So unpopular was the War of 1812 that some states nearly seceded from the American Union over it. Hence the demonizing of electoral candidates who advocated the right of individual states to withhold their militia from the national war effort. #48
50. Andrew Jackson's forces moved to New Orleans, Louisiana, in November 1814. Between December 1814 and January 1815, he defended the city against a large British force led by Major-General Sir Edward Pakenham, who was killed in an assault. The Battle of New Orleans was hailed as a great victory in the United States, making Andrew Jackson a national hero, eventually propelling him to the presidency. Meanwhile, diplomats in Ghent, Belgium signed the Treaty of Ghent on December 24, 1814, ending the war. News of the treaty had not reached New Orleans. On February 17, 1815, President Madison signed the American ratification of the Treaty of Ghent and the treaty was proclaimed the following day. #50
51. Painting of the Battle of New Orleans during the War of 1812 against Britain #51
52. Lyrics for the Song: Battle of New Orleans - Johnny Horton In 1814 we took a little trip Along with Colonel Jackson down the mighty Mississip. We took a little bacon and we took a little beans And we caught the bloody British in the town of New Orleans. [Chorus:] We fired our guns and the British kept a'comin. There wasn't nigh as many as there was a while ago. We fired once more and they began to runnin' on Down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico. We looked down the river and we see'd the British come. And there must have been a hundred of'em beatin' on the drum. They stepped so high and they made the bugles ring. We stood by our cotton bales and didn't say a thing. [Chorus] Old Hickory said we could take 'em by surprise If we didn't fire our muskets 'til we looked 'em in the eye We held our fire 'til we see'd their faces well. Then we opened up with squirrel guns and really gave 'em ... well [Chorus] Yeah, they ran through the briars and they ran through the brambles And they ran through the bushes where a rabbit couldn't go. They ran so fast that the hounds couldn't catch 'em Down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico.** We fired our cannon 'til the barrel melted down. So we grabbed an alligator and we fought another round. We filled his head with cannon balls, and powdered his behind And when we touched the powder off, the gator lost his mind. [Chorus] Yeah, they ran through the briars and they ran through the brambles And they ran through the bushes where a rabbit couldn't go. They ran so fast that the hounds couldn't catch 'em Down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico.** #52 Johnny Horton
53. #53 William Henry Harrison: 9 th President Andrew Jackson: 7 th President Old Hickory Edges into Politics (1:35) William Henry Harrison (1:00)
56. The Treaty of Ghent, signed on December 24, 1814, in Ghent, Flanders (Belgium), United Kingdom of the Netherlands, ended the War of 1812 between the United States and United Kingdom. In signing the treaty, the Americans ended up abandoning both of their primary goals in starting the war: to expand their territory by seizing control of the British colonies to the north in what would later become Canada (although their territory was expanded in some places), and to stop the forcible boarding of sovereign U.S. ships on the high seas by the warships of the Royal Navy searching for deserters and enforcing the British blockade against Napoléon and the resulting impressment of US citizens into the Royal Navy. However, as the Napoleonic Wars ended, the second issue began to fade on its own as the Royal Navy had less need for sailors. #56
