Chapter 12 - The Second War for Independence and the Upsurge of Nationalism

Chapter 12- The Second War for Independence and the Upsurge of Nationalism

I. On to Canada over Land and Lakes

1. On the eve of the war of 1812 America had a weak, poorly trained army and old generals. Britain and Canada had better forces.
2. British forces were the weakest in Canada.
   • Americans had a poor offense strategy; they attacked in a three-pronged invasion stemming from Detroit, Niagara and Lake Champlain.
3. The Americans tried their luck with the Navy and fared better. They had superior gunners, thicker ship sides to protect against enemies and larger crews.
4. American naval officer Oliver Hazard Perry captured a British fleet on Lake Erie and Americans continued to beat the British from the great lakes.
5. By 1814 Americans were defending their soil effectively against the British.
   • An American fleet managed to stop British from sending supplies to an effort that would destroy New York.
   • The invading Brits were forced to retreat. Thomas Macdonough saved the union from possible dissolution.

II. Washington Burned and New Orleans Defeated

1. In 1814 a second British force landed in Chesapeake Bay.
   • The British force entered the capital and set fire to most Public buildings- for example the Capitol and the White House.
   • However the British hammered Fort McHenry but couldn’t capture the city.
   • Francis Scott Key watching the bombardment of the British was inspired to write the Star Spangled Banner.
2. British came a third time aimed at New Orleans
   • Andrew Jackson was in command, he had 7,000 men.
   • The overconfident British had the worst defeat in the whole war loosing over 2,000 men in half an hour compared to the 70 men that the Americans lost.
3. Jackson became a national hero for his victory in the battle of New Orleans which had restored honor, nationalism and self confidence.
   • A Peace treaty had been signed at Ghent in Belgium two weeks before the battle.
4. The Royal navy threw up blockades and raided Americans, American economic life was crippled.

III. The Treaty of Ghent

1. Tsar Alexander I of Russia proposed mediation between England and America. Five American Peacemakers went to Ghent.
   • The British made high demands that the Americans flatly refused but news of the war weakening for the British and news of their losses made them more willing to compromise.
2. The Treaty of Ghent was signed on Christmas eve 1814. It was an armistice.
   • Both sides agreed to stop fighting and restore conquered territory.
   • No mention was made about the rights the Americans had been fighting for.

IV. Federalist Grievances and the Hartford Convention

1. The New England area prospered during the war because of illicit trade with Canadian enemies.
2. New England minority proposed secession from the Union.
3. Discontent was manifested in the Hartford Convention.
   • It was a convention at Hartford, Connecticut where states got together to discuss their grievances and to seek redress for their wrongs.
   • It wasn’t so radical it just gave the minority a place to vent.
   • They demanded financial assistance from Washington to compensate for lost trade and then proposed that the constitution need a with 2/3rds majority before an embargo could pass. They also wanted to abolish the 3/5th clause, limit presidents to one term and to prohibit successive state presidents.
4. When they went to give the demands to Washington they found the city burnt down and also heard the news about New Orleans.
   • Their complaints now seemed petty at best and traitorous at worst.
5. The federalists were never again to have a successful presidential campaign, however; their ideas of disunity still survived.

V. The Second War for American Independence

1. The war of 1812 wasn’t a big global war because Napoleon had Europe distracted but it was important in America.
   • When naval officers or people who were leaders negotiated in other countries, they were now treated with less scorn and listened to.
   • In a diplomatic sense this was a second Independence war. The new Nation was solidified and brought together; under this time sectionalism was frowned upon.
2. War heroes such as Andrew Jackson and William Henry Harrison emerged and became presidents.
3. Manufacturing prospered, industries were stimulated because of the British blockade. This helped make less dependency on English goods.
4. Canadians felt betrayed by the Treaty of Ghent.
   • They were upset that they didn’t even get an Indian buffer state or mastery of the Great lakes.
   • Indians were left out in the treaty of Ghent so they made any treaties they could.
5. The Rush-Bagot agreement between England and U.S. limited naval armament on lakes.
   • Happily, better relations brought down border fortifications in 1870. U.S. and Canada now share the world’s largest unfortified border of 5,527 mi.
6. After Napoleon’s defeat at Waterloo, Europe slumped into an exhausted peace. Americans turned their back on the old world and focused on building up their nation.

VI. Nascent Nationalism

1. America emerged as one nation after the 1812 war.
   • People started to write about America, for Americans and paint America proudly.
   • Congress revived the bank of the United States and rebuilt the capital. The Army was expanded, the navy won more battles.

VII. The American System

1. The Americans took pride in their mushrooming factories.
   • After the war England tiered to kill off any industrialization with their below cost prices.
   • Congress passed the tariff of 1816 because industries needed protection.
2. Henry Clay launched a plan- “The American System” It had three main parts:
   • A strong banking system with easy credit
   • A network of roads and canals to be able to send materials
   • This helped the country become closer economically and politically.
3. What most stuck with people was the need for transportation. But funding was hard to agree on and come by.

VIII. The So Called Era of Good Feelings

1. James Monroe was nominated in 1816; he won with 183 to 34 votes. The Federalist Party was dying out.
   • He straddled two generations- the founding fathers and the new nationalism.
2. He was the least distinguished of the first eight presidents.
3. He took a tour around the United States and the people liked him. This ushered in the Era of good Feelings. Which was a actually a misnomer because it was only nice for the first couple years. Conflict and disagreements were about to begin.

IX. The Panic of 1819 and the Curse of Hard Times

1. Economic panic started because of over speculation in the frontier lands followed by deflation, depression, bankruptcy, and unemployment. This ended the goodness of the feelings.

2. The Panic of 1819 created trouble in the political and social world. People were imprisoned for debt; mothers were taken from their children for owing a few dollars. X. Growing Pains of the West

3. The nation was up to 22 states, the “Ohio fever” had people moving and expanding west.

   • Eager new comers were beginning to stream in impressive numbers. Bad soil, exhausted from tobacco, economic distress during the embargo years and the crushing of Indians opened the frontier and drove people westward. The steam boat also helped with upstream navigation.
4. The west however was still weak in population and independence.
5. The Land act of 1820 made people buy 80 acres at once at a minimum of $1.25 per acre. They also got cheap transportation.

XI. Slavery and the Sectional Balance

1. Rivalry between the north and south over who would control the west revealed itself in 1819.
2. The House of Representatives passed the Tallmadge Amendment which meant no more slaves should be brought into Missouri and granted gradual emancipation of the slave children.
   • There was much anger from the southerners. They were falling behind in population yet they still wanted equal representation.
   • The future of their peculiar institution made them uneasy. Moral questions about the evils of slavery were popping up.

XII. The Uneasy Missouri Compromise

1. Congress agreed to admit Missouri as a slave state but at the same time to separate part of Massachusetts and add Maine as a state.
2. Missouri could keep their slaves but no more was permitted in the rest of the Louisiana Purchase.
   • Both the north and south seceded and gained something- The north got no more slave states in that territory and the south got Missouri as a slave state.
3. The Missouri compromise lasted 34 years it was vital to form the republic. But it was only sweeping under the rug an issue that would resurface and test the country. Monroe was elected a second time.

XIII. John Marshall and Judicial Nationalism

1. Chief Justice John Marshall dominated the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court was the one who decided if agreements/laws were constitutional.
   • McCulloch Vs. Maryland- Maryland wanted to tax banks but he wouldn’t permit it.
   • His ruling showed that he followed the loose interpretation of the constitution. He agreed that the constitution was intended to endure for ages and to be adapted.
   • Cohen’s Vs. Virginia - Virginia found the Cohen brothers to be illegally selling lottery tickets, Virginia won the case.
   • Gibbons Vs. Ogden – New York gave a monopoly for easier trading. Marshall said that states couldn’t control or govern interstate commerce.

XIV. Judicial Dikes Against Democratic Excesses

1. Fletcher v. Peck in 1810- Georgia legislature granted 35 million acres to private speculators then cancelled it.
   • The Supreme Court ruled that the grant was a contact and the constitution forbid states to impair contracts this law helped protect property rights.
2. Dartmouth College v. Woodward- Dartmouth had a charter from King George III but New Hampshire wanted to change it.
   • Marshall ruled that the charter must stand because it was a contract.
3. Marshall’s decisions endure until today he kept the new nation among conservative lines.

XV. Sharing Oregon and Acquiring Florida.

1. Nationalism helped shape foreign policy.
2. Monroe teamed with John Quincy Adams- one of the greatest secretaries of state.
3. Anglo- American convention of 1818 was talked over with Britain. Let Americans share Newfoundland fishing area with Canadians, and fixed the Louisiana limits at 49 parallel. They had a 10 year joint occupation of Oregon Country.
4. Americans thought that Florida should be part of the United States; they had already taken western Florida and wanted the rest.
5. Revolutions broke out in South America. Americans cheered South America’s independence but were eventually disappointed. Spain sent troops from Florida to squash the rebellion.
6. General Jackson saw an opportunity to take the swampland by saying that hostile and fugitive slaves were there and he had to go “get them back”. Jackson killed people and took 2 posts to capture Florida, exceeding Washington’s instructions.
7. All of Monroe’s cabinet wanted to punish Jackson, except for John Quincy Adams.
8. In the Florida Purchase treaty or Adams-Onis Treaty The US got Spanish Florida and some of Oregon in exchange that the US give up claims to Texas to the Spaniards.

XVI. The Menace of Monarchy in America

1. Europe did not like democracy; they feared it because of what they had seen from the French Revolution.
2. The crown of England stopped rebellions in Italy and Spain and apparently wanted to stop them In South America too.
   • The Americans were alarmed: they felt that if Europeans intervened in the new world republicanism would be harmed.
3. Britain proposed to Americans a joint document that would renounce interest in getting South American territory

XVII. Monroe and His Doctrine

1. Secretary Adams was wary of Britain wanting an alliance. He didn’t want to be tied down and thought that they were just doing it to keep Americans from expanding.
2. Monroe doctrine in 1823 was a stern warning to the European powers with two basic features- 1) noncolonization and 2) nonintervention.

XVIII. Monroe’s Doctrine Appraised

1. The monarchs of Europe were enraged but they couldn’t do much about it. The Latin nations didn’t really take notice and the treaty wasn’t significant and was forgotten about for a while.
2. The Tsar decided to retreat even before Monroe’s message Russo- American treaty of 1824 fixed the lines at 54 degrees 40’
3. The doctrine was more of a self defense policy. It was never actually a law, agreement or a pledge. Just a statement of policy Monroe had said and presidents over time have changed it.