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Chapter 8
The Election of 1808
Jefferson's pick, Sec of State James Madison
wins the Republican Nomination
over John Randolph's faction candidate James Monroe
Madison/Clinton easily defeat Federalist candidate George Clinton
122 - 47 (Electoral Votes)
James Madison - 5'4'' - 100 lbs
A great legislator and political thinker.
Not an impressively strong President;
He did not dominate his Party as Jefferson once did. (factions)
His
Cabinet also "factionalized"
Events leading to war.
1.The problem of neutral rights
and freedom of the seas
2.Frontier Expansionism
**Madison was responsible for lifting Jefferson's
Embargo.
Non-intercourse Act forbid trade only with England and France.
Purpose:
Get them to drop
their trade restrictions
(orders and decrees)
In 1809 - British foreign minister David Erskine and Madison
agreed to re-open trade between the US and UK
US is very happy
Problem!
Erskine's terms to generous
to the US Agreement denied by Britain
Madison embarrassed and humiliated, restores the Nonintercourse Act
Anglo/American relations worsened!
Non-intercourse Act expires
May, 1810 a confused and disunited
Congress and replaced it with trouble
(the lack of Madison's leadership)
Macon's Bill Number 2
a)The
US could trade with the whole world
(including UK and France)
b)If France or Britain removed its orders and
decrees,
the US would re-open its trade with the remover and enforce the Non-intercourse with the other.
Made
to order for Napoleon!
Proclaiming his love for Americans and his concern for our prosperity, he announced
that on Nov 1, 1810 that his decrees would be repealed
really meaningless:
because he continued his impressments,
and restrictions
Madison is not able to get The UK to repeal its Orders in Council, he is forced to activate Non-intercourse
Act
Madison recalls American Foreign Minister, William Pinckney cutting diplomatic relations with the UK.
Result:
Napoleon achieves economic war with England without doing anything.
America causes hardship in England
(scarce
food, closing of factories)
**
The Rise of the War Hawks
The 12th Congress met
in 1811.
They were second generation removed from the Revolution
Young and energetic, they looked for a
war of their own.
They elected a young, eloquent and magnetic Henry Clay from Kentucky to Speaker of the House.
Frontier Americans wanted more land
They began to move into Indian Territory, buying up land from the fragmented
tribes.
*Shawnee leader Tecumseh recognized the threat of westward expansion.
He spoke of Indian
unity, pride and customs. He discouraged the drinking of "firewater" and the selling of Indian land to the Whites.
Tecumseh and his brother Tenskwatawa (the Prophet) organized the Indians from Canada to Florida into one large Confederacy
They agreed not to sell off land and to keep whites out.
Battle of Tippecanoe
Governor William
Henry Harrison made a treaty with some Indians that took away 3 million acres of their hunting grounds
Tecumseh wanted
it back. In his speech at Vincennes he even offered to side with the Americans against the British.
"Sell
a country! Why not sell the air, the clouds and the great sea, as well as the earth? Did not the Great Spirit make them
for the use of all his Children?
Tecumseh at Vincennes, Ind.
Harrison refused.
Tecumseh left the
region to unite and speak to the southern tribes.
Harrison surrounded his village at Tippecanoe
The Indians
panicked and struck first. Harrison burned the village and the Indians were soundly defeated.
Tecumseh was killed
in 1813, fighting with the British. With him died all hope of Indian unity.
Andrew Jackson defeated the Creek Indians
at Horseshoe Bend
War hawks were beaming with each success, smelling blood.
War Hawks continued
their call for war. Felix Grundy of Tenn, Richard M. Johnson of Kentucky, John C. Calhoun of South Carolina.
In Congress
most believed falsely that the British caused all of the Indian problems.
War Hawks believed that the British in
Canada were "scalp buyers" and aiding the Indians
Their cry in Congress
Canada, Canada, Canada a vast
territory of natural resources
Andrew Jackson on war
"to seek some indemnity for past injuries, and
some security against future aggression".
London announces it is going to repeal it Orders in Council,
2 days before war is declared
Madison gets a declaration of war from Congress in June, 79 - 49
Election
of 1812
Madison defeats a Federalist and pacifist Republican backed DeWitt Clinton 128 - 89 in Electoral College
The election reflected a country that was dangerously divided concerning this war.
New Englanders, "Mr.
Madison's War".
They wanted no part of this war
A Boston editor wrote, "No patriot conceives it his
duty to shed his blood for Bonaparte, for Madison or Jefferson, and that host of Ruffians in Congress".
James Madison
A President who couldn't lead a foolhardy Congress
*New England merchants lent
money to the British and sent huge quantities of food and supplies to the British in Canada.
*They refused to send
fresh troops to the US regular Army and only maintained their own in State militia
*New England Federalists saw Canadian
Territory as just another venue for Republicanism
Lack Of United State's Preparedness
US Navy
- outnumbered by the British
US Army - small, led by incompetent generals
North East - refused to
finance the war
Canada - forces equal to US Army
Three attacks were launched and promptly failed- Detroit,
Niagara, and Lake Champlain
(Montreal was the key)
Canada remained unconquered
America lost but later
regained the Northwest Territory
Admiral Oliver Hazard Perry - met the and defeated British at Lake Erie
"We
have met the enemy and they are ours"
General William H. Harrison defeated the British at Thames
however
US managed only to stop the present British invasion
Europe 1814 - Napoleon is defeated and exiled on Elba
British Regulars were now free to concentrate on America.
War on the Seas
Britain had over
800 warships the
US had only 16 in its entire Navy!
There could be no great naval battle of warships on the
high seas,
US picked and chose their fights and did quite well!
Frigate class ships won 4 out of 5 single
ship encounters
*The Constitution, (Old Ironsides)
Victories over The Guerriere and Java
The United
States over the Macedonian
Sloop class ships won 8 out of 9
*The Wasp and The Hornet did well.
The swift and annoying privateers did more damage to the British. They hit and ran away, usually quite swiftly and
successfully
They captured about 1300 British
**They hurt British merchantmen, however, British were still
superior and placed a crippling blockade**
The British Offensive
A three pronged attack plan
1stA
NY invasion through the familiar lake-river route
At Lake Champlain, near Plattsburgh British are stopped by a 30
year old captain named Thomas Macdonough
This heroic victory saves upper NY from invasion and stops New England
aid to the British
(also effects negotiations in Europe)
**
2nd(1814)At Niagara - General Jacob Brown and
Winfield Scott hold off the British invasion force
The British supported the attacks with naval operations
*
Landed in Chesapeake Bay in 1814. They easily defeated panicky militia at Bladensburg
(the Bladensburg races)
On
to Washington DC - setting fire to the Capitol and the White House
At Baltimore chasing privateers they were defeated
by defenders of Fort McHenry
Francis Scott Key
-aboard a ship wrote the words to
The Star-Spangled
Banner
3rd (1815)The Battle of New Orleans
for control of the Mississippi Valley
Andrew Jackson's
faced a British landing force twice the size of his rag tag army.
A British frontal assault proved to be disastrous
News of victory at New Orleans reached Washington before news of the Treaty of Ghent
To a naive US citizen
Andy Jackson is crowned a hero, bringing the British to their knees
Treaty of Ghent was signed in Europe two weeks
earlier
Britain was still worried about France and preoccupied by the Congress of Vienna
American success
in upstate NY also helped along negotiations.
America and Britain agree to stop fighting and return to the
status
quo ante bellum
Neutral rights, Orders in Council not mentioned in treaty
Result: Draw !
The
Hartford Convention
(1814) New England trade was bottled up during the war
26 representatives "Blue
Light" Federalists met to discuss economic problems.
*Secession - discussed but quickly refuted
Agenda
- Try to retain a political voice in government
(feared US expansionism would spread republicanism)
Drafted
a series of Resolutions
Proposed that 2/3 Congress needed to
a)declare war
b)impose commercial restrictions
c)admission of new states
also
a one term President;
prohibiting successive Presidents
from
the same state;
omit slaves from determining population;
(they were actually advocating the states
rights theory)
They were branded as unpatriotic,
Federalist Party is finished
Consequences
of the War
Peace on the Frontier was achieved for a full generation thus fostering westward expansion
Expansion
= Natural Resources
= Technology
= Immigration
British blockade actually stimulated the growth of American
business
Spirit of Nationalism throughout US
Isolationism- US is doing their own thing, independent from
Europe
**
The Era of Good Feeling
lasted from the end of the
War of 1812 to the election
of 1824
-lack of an operational 2 party system
Reasons:
A)The Federalist Collapse - due to their behavior
during the war
B)New Leadership - new, younger group of political leaders, emphasis on a stronger national government
C)Nationalism - war united Americans however Sectionalism began to spread
1. East- commerce and industry
2. South- large plantations
3. West- small farms
conflicting issues of
tariffs, banking, internal improvements,
slavery
Depression of 1819 - each section demanded new laws(special interest)
D)Political Nationalism
Madison's annual report to Congress, the following labeled as the
American System
(For the benefit of all Americans)
1. A larger military establishment
a) regular army of 10,000
Naval expansion West Point
b) a protective
tariff
Tariff of 1816 - sought to protect small industries started before the War of 1812
-British sought to bankrupt
American industry by the sale of cheap goods
*Chief opposition came from the South
c) internal improvements
Roads and Canals, improved transportation and communication west of the Appalachian Mountains
Reasons - binding the
east and west and improving trade; aiding expansion
Opposition
- The Northeast and Deep South
"Should
be done and financed locally, not nationally. Internal improvements were considered unconstitutional"!
d) national
bank
-Bank was not re-chartered in 1811.
-State banks issued own weak currency
-Henry Clay and John C. Calhoun
favored it for the purpose of national unity.
1. Chartered for 20 years
2. government deposits
3. branches
throughout the country
Bonus Bill
- proposed by Calhoun in 1816
Money allotted for internal improvements
coming from banks charter(fee - 1.5mil)
-vetoed by Madison
Erie Canal completed in 1825 by NYS
Election
of 1816-1820
Republican victories for Monroe
Monroe level headed, fought in the Revolutionary War,
Constitutional Convention, Louisiana Purchase
John Quincy Adams - Sec of State
Rush-Bagot - 49' parallel
boundary between the US and Canada, largest unfortified inter-national boundary in the world, courtesy of Secretary of State
John Quincy Adams
Spain and Florida
Andrew Jackson was commissioned to control Indian attacks on American
settlements from east Florida. Jackson took it upon himself to turn Florida into a conquered province.
The US
is embarrassed by action and there is talk of war with Spain and UK.
Monroe's Cabinet is calling for Jackson's
head.
John Quincy Adams recognizes that Spain cannot control area, backs Andy
Adams-Onis Treaty - Spain
would get its debt to American shippers paid by the US Government(5mil)
America's Louisiana Purchase land holdings
now are defined and stretch to the Pacific.
Panic of 1819
Largely due to over speculation of western land. National
Bank involved
add rapid and reckless business practices =
deflation, bankruptcies, bank
failures and debtor prisons
*John Marshall's Decisions*
The Missouri Compromise, 1820
Better traveling conditions caused western
expansion - Cumberland Rd.
Maryland - Illinois
Missouri applied for statehood;
(first of the Louisiana Purchase)
*from 1788 - 1820, north grew much faster than south, except there was always balance in Senate
Slavery
always an issue, furthers sectionalism
Tallmadge Amendment - freeze on slavery in Missouri, gradual emancipation.
South in uproar, amendment defeated
Missouri Compromise - Henry Clay
Missouri enters as a slave
state
Maine(Mass)enters as a free state
In the unorganized territory of the Louisiana Purchase, at 36',30' the
southern boundary of Missouri, there would be no slavery north of the boundary
Everyone satisfied - 34 years
The morality of the South's "peculiar institution" was an issue that could not be swept under the rug.
Compromise is the true genius of the American Republic. When Compromise broke down, we fought a Civil War
@Origins of the Monroe Doctrine
Spanish colonies in South America revolted from Spain by 1821 and declared
their Independence
Spain refused to recognize their freedom but the US gave formal recognition to the new republics
The Holy Alliance put down democratic revolutions in order to restore monarchies after Napoleon
*
US wanted to see democracy in Western Hemisphere
* US wanted Europe out of the west
* Commercial desire
to trade with South America
* Russia - very aggressive around Alaskan Territory, looking for a Pacific window
The British kept a watchful eye on the Holy Alliance
Britain wanted to trade with the new nations and wanted
to issue a joint declaration, warning European powers not to intervene in South America
Jefferson and Madison supported
an alliance with the British!!
John Quincy Adams wanted no part of this agreement
He correctly
advised Monroe that an alliance with the UK at this time would be self-defeating and hamper American growth and expansion.
He felt that British would want to keep their South American trade at almost any cost and would side with us anyway
He felt that a nationalistic decree would prevent further interference
(and it could be issued behind the
power of the British Navy)
The Monroe Doctrine
(a document of self-defense)
* The American continents
are closed to "future colonization" by Europe
* Europe must stay out of affairs of new world nations
* The United States would stay out of European affairs
Effects:
Europe was annoyed by the declaration
but England supported it.
(the British Navy had to enforce it)
The Tsar halted his advancement prior to the
release of the doctrine
*Russo-American Treaty of 1824*
Respect for American foreign policy
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