Chapter 12
The Second War for
Independence and the
Upsurge of Nationalism,
1812–1824
I. On to Canada over Land and Lakes
• War of 1812:
• The regular army was ill-trained, ill-disciplined, and
widely scattered
• It had to be supplemented by even more poorly
trained militias
• Some ranking generals wee semi-senile heirlooms
from the Revolutionary War.
– Canada:
• Important battleground because British forces were
weakest there (see Map 12.1)
I. On to Canada over Land and
Lakes (cont.)
– Canada:
•
•
•
•
Americas’ offensive strategy was poorly conceived
Missed by not capturing Montreal
Instead led a three-pronged invasion
The trio of invading forces that set out for Detroit,
Niagara, and Lake Champlain were all beaten back
after crossing the Canadian border.
– By contrast:
• British and Canadians displayed great energy
• Early they captured American fort Michilimackinac
I. On to Canada over Land and
Lakes (cont.)
– By contrast:
• Their defensive operations were led by British general
Isaac Brock, assisted by “General Mud” and “General
Confusion.”
– Americans looked for success on the water:
•
•
•
•
Man for man and ship for ship was best
The American navy did much better than the army
American craft were better than British ships
The American frigates, notably the Constitution
I. On to Canada over Land and
Lakes (cont.)
• Control of the Great Lakes was vital:
– Energetic American naval officer Oliver Hazard
Perry managed to built a great fleet
– Perry’s victory and his slogan infused new life
into the drooping American cause
– The redcoats were forced from Detroit and Fort
Malden and beaten at the Battle of Thames in
October 1813
I. On to Canada over Land and
Lakes (cont.)
• Despite successes, the Americans by late
1814 were far from invading Canada:
– Thousands of Britain’s redcoat veterans began to
pour into Canada from the Continent
– Assembling 10,000 troops, the British prepared
for war in 1814 against New York, along lakeriver route.
– Absence of roads; the invaders were forced to
bring supplies over Lake Champlain waterway
I. On to Canada over Land and
Lakes (cont.)
• American fleet, commanded by Thomas
Macdonough, challenged the British:
– The battle was desperately fought near
Plattsburgh on September 11, 1814
– The results of this heroic naval battle were
momentous:
• The British army was forced to retreat
• Macdonough saved upper New York from conquest
– He affected the concurrent negotiations of the AngloAmerican peace treaty in Europe.
p225
II. Washington Burned and New
Orleans Defended
• A second British force of 4000 landed in the
Chesapeake Bay area in August 1814:
– Onward to Washington some 6000 militiamen
were dispersed at Bladensburg
– They set on fire public buildings, the Capitol and
the White House
– While the White House burned, the Americans
at Baltimore held firm
– The British fleet hammered Fort McHenry
II. Washington Burned and New
Orleans Defended (cont.)
• Francis Scott Key, a detained American, was
inspired to write “The Star-Spangled Banner”
• A third British blow of 1814, aimed at New
Orleans, menaced the entire Mississippi
Valley:
• Andrew Jackson, fresh from victory at the Battle of
Horseshoe Bend, was placed in command (see Map
12.5 on p. 241)
• His forces were about 7000 various soldiers
II. Washington Burned and New
Orleans Defended (cont.)
• The 8000 British soldiers blundered badly:
– They mistakenly launched a frontal assault on
January 8, 1815
• The attackers suffered the most devastating defeat of
the entire war
• Losing over 2000, killed and wounded in ½ hour
• It was an astonishing victory for Jackson and his men.
• News of the American victory in the Battle of
New Orleans was great encouragement.
II. Washington Burned and New
Orleans Defended (cont.)
• Andrew Jackson became a national hero.
• A peace treaty had been signed at Ghent,
Belgium:
• Ending the war two weeks before the battle
• The United States had fought for honor as much as
material gain
• The Battle of New Orleans restored that honor
• The Royal retaliated by way of a blockade along
America’s coast.
Map 12-1 p226
p227
III. The Treaty of Ghent
• Tsar Alexander I of Russia proposed
mediation between the Anglo-Saxon cousins
in early 1812:
• The tsar’s feelers brought 5 American peacemakers to
the Belgian city of Ghent in 1814
• The group was headed by John Quincy Adams
• Confident about their military successes, the British
made demands for a neutralized Indian buffer state in
the Great Lake region, control of the Great Lakes, and
a substantial port of conquered Maine.
III. The Treaty of Ghent
(cont.)
– The American flatly rejected these terms and
talks stalemated:
• But British reverse in upper New York and Baltimore
made London more willing to compromise
• Preoccupied with redrafting Napoleon’s map of
Europe at the Congress of Vienna (1814-1815) and
eyeing still-dangerous France:
– The British lion resigned itself to licking its wounds
– The Treaty of Ghent, signed on Christmas Eve,
1814, was essentially an armistice.
IV. Federalist Grievances and the
Hartford Convention
• Some New England extremists proposed
secession from the Union:
– Or at least a separate peace with Britain
– Hartford Convention:
• The states of Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode
Island dispatched full delegations
• New Hampshire and Vermont sent partial
representatives
• 26 men met in secrecy for 3 weeks—Dec. 15, 1814 to
Jan. 5, 1815—to discuss their grievances.
IV. Federalist Grievances and the
Hartford Convention (cont.)
• The Hartford Convention was not radical:
– The convention’s final report was moderate
• It demanded financial assistance from Washington to
compensate for lost trade
• And proposed constitutional amendments requiring a
2/3 vote in Congress before an embargo could be
imposed, new states admitted, or war declared
• Most demands reflected Federalist fears
• Delegates sought to abolish the 3/5 clause
• To limit presidents to a single term
IV. Federalist Grievances and the
Hartford Convention (cont.)
• To prohibit the election of two successive presidents
from the same state– this was aimed at Virginia and
the “Virginia dynasty”
– Three special envoys from Massachusetts carried
these demands to Washington:
• The Harford Convention was the death of the
Federalist party
• The Federalists were never again to mount a
successful presidential campaign (see Map 12.2)
p228
Map 12-2 p229
V. The Second War for American
Independence
• The War of 1812:
– Was a small war, involving 6000 Americans killed
or wounded
– If the American conflict was globally
unimportant, it had huge consequences for the
United States:
• Other nations developed a new respect for America’s
fighting prowess
• Naval officers like Perry and Macdonough were the
most effective type of negotiators
V. The Second War for American
Independence (cont.)
– In a diplomatic sense, if not in a military sense,
the conflict could be called the Second War for
American Independence:
• Sectionalism was dealt a black eye
• The most conspicuous casualty of the war was the
Federalist party
• War heroes emerged—Andrew Jackson and William
Henry Harrison—both to later become president
• The Indians were forced to make terms as they could
V. The Second War for American
Independence (cont.)
• In both an economic and a diplomatic sense, the War
of 1812 bred greater American independence.
– Canadian patriotism and nationalism received a
powerful stimulus from the war:
• Many Canadians felt betrayed by the Treaty of Ghent
– They were aggrieved by the failure to secure an Indian
buffer state or even mastery of the Great Lakes
– In 1817 the Rush-Bagot agreement between Britain and the
United States severely limited naval armament on the lakes.
– Border fortifications came down and the United States and
Canada came to share the world’s longest unfortified
boundary—5527 miles long.
p230
VI. Nascent Nationalism
– The most impressive by-product of the War of
1812 was a heightened nationalism—the spirit
of nation-consciousness or national oneness:
• American may not have fought the war as one nation,
but it emerged as one nation
• Washington Irving and James Fenimore Cooper
attained international fame as the nation’s first
writers
• A revised Bank of the United States was voted by
Congress in 1816
• A new national capital began to rise in Washington
VI. Nascent Nationalism
(cont.)
• The army was expanded to ten thousand men
• The navy further covered itself with victory in 1815
when it beat the piratical plunderers of North Africa
VII. “The American System”
• Nationalism manifested itself in
manufacturing:
– Patriotic Americans took pride in their factories
– The British were seeking to crush Yankee
factories in the marketplace
• Tariff of 1816—Congress passed the first tariff
– It was primarily for protection, not revenue
– Its rates were roughly 20 to 25% of the value of dutiable
imports
– A high protective trend was started.
VII. “The American System”
(cont.)
– Nationalism was further highlighted by a plan of
Henry Clay for developing a profitable home
market:
• The American System:
– A strong banking system—provide easy and abundant credit
– Revenue from the tariff of eastern manufacturing
– A network of roads and canals, especially in Ohio, that
would met the outcry for better transportation.
• Federal funding was major issue for Republican
constitutional scruples.
VI. “The American System”
(cont.)
• Congress voted in 1817 to distribute $1.5 million to
the states for internal improvements:
– President Madison sternly vetoed this handout measure as
unconstitutional
– Individual states had to venture on their own for
construction programs, including the Erie Canal, which was
triumphantly completed in 1825
– Jeffersonian-Republicans choked on the idea of direct
federal support for intrastate internal improvements
– New England particularly strongly opposed it because it
would further drain away population and create competing
states beyond the mountains
p231
p232
VIII. The So-Called Era of Good
Feelings
• James Monroe was nominated for the
presidency in 1816:
– Last time a Federalist would run
– Monroe had experience, levelheaded executive
– Emerging nationalism was cemented by a
goodwill tour of Monroe in early 1817
– He announced that an “Era of Good Feelings”
had been ushered in.
VIII. The So-Called Era of Good
Feelings (cont.)
• Era of Good Feelings:
– Considerable tranquility and prosperity did exist
in the early years of Monroe
– But it was a troubled one:
• Acute issues of the tariff, the bank, internal
improvements, and the sale of public lands were
being hotly contested
• Sectionalism was crystallizing
• Slavery was beginning to raise its hideous head
p233
IX. The Panic of 1819 and the Curse of
Hard Times
• 1819 a paralyzing economic panic
descended:
– It brought deflation, depression bankruptcies,
bank failures, unemployment, soup kitchens,
and overcrowded pesthouses—debtor’s prisons
– Factors contributing to the catastrophe:
• Large issue was the overspeculation of frontier land
• West especially hard hit by the Bank of the United
States, forced the speculative (“wildcat”) western
banks to the wall and foreclosed mortgages on farms
IX. The Panic of 1819 and the
Curse of Hard Times (cont.)
• Panic of 1819:
– Hit the poorer classes hard
– Hard times directed attention to the inhumanity
of imprisoning debtors
– Mounting agitation against imprisonment for
debt bore fruit in remedial legislation in an
increasing number of states
X. Growing Pains of the West
• The West:
– Nine frontier states joined the 13 original
between 1791 and 1819
– To keep the balance between North and South:
• They were admitted alternately, free and slave
(See Admission of States in the Appendix.)
There was a continuation of the generation-old
westward movement
• Also because the land was cheap
X. Growing Pains of the West
(cont.)
• Other causes of the growing West:
• Eager newcomers from abroad
• Acute economic distress during the embargo years
• The crushing of the Indians in the Northwest and
South by Generals Harrison and Jackson
• The building of highways improved the land routes to
the Ohio Valley-the Cumberland Road in 1811
• The use of the first steamboat on western waters
• 1811 heralded a new era of upstream navigation
X. Growing Pains of the West
(cont.)
• The west was still weak in population and
influence:
– Allies demanded cheap acreage
– The Land Act of 1820:
• Authorized a buyer to purchase 80 virgin acres at a
minimum of $1.25 an acre in cash
– The West demanded cheap transportation and
slowly received it
• (see “Makers of America: Settlers of the Old
Northwest,” (pp. 236-237).
XI. Slavery and the Sectional Balance
• Sectional tensions were revealed in 1819:
• Missouri was asking Congress for statehood:
– Tallmadge amendment—
• No more slaves could be brought to Missouri:
• Provided for the gradual emancipation of children
born to slave parents already there
• A roar of anger burst from slaveholding Southerners:
– Southern saw the Tallmadge amendment as a threat to
sectional balance.
– The future of the slave system caused profound concern.
XI. Slavery and the Sectional
Balance (cont.)
• If Congress could abolish the peculiar
institution in Missouri, it might attempt it in
the older states of the South.
• Other issues were political and economic
balance:
– Northerners seized the occasion to raise an
outcry against the evil of slavery and determined
not to spread it further into the untainted
territories.
p234
XII. The Uneasy Missouri Compromise
• Deadlock in Washington was broken by three
compromises:
– Henry Clay played a leading role:
• First, Congress decided to admit Missouri as a slave
state and at the same time admit Maine as free state
• The balance between the North and South remained
for fifteen years
• All future bondage was prohibited north of the line of
36 30’—the southern boundary of Missouri (see Map
12.3).
XII. The Uneasy Missouri
Compromise (cont.)
• The Missouri Compromise lasted 34 years:
– A vital formative period in the life of the young
Republic, at the same time, preserving the
compact of the states
– The Missouri Compromise and concurrent panic
of 1819 should have dampened the Era of Good
Feeling
• But James Monroe received every electoral vote
except one—unanimity still an honor for George
Washington.
Map 12-3 p235
p236
p237
XIII. John Marshall and Judicial
Nationalism
• The Supreme Court continued nationalism:
• McCulloch v. Maryland (1819) bolstered the power of
the federal government at the expense of the states
– The suit involved an attempt by the State of Maryland to
destroy a branch of the Bank of the United States by
imposing a tax on its notes.
– John Marshall declared the bank constitutional by invoking
the Hamiltonian doctrine of implied power (see p. 185).
– He strengthened federal authority when he denied the right
of Maryland to tax the bank.
– Gave the doctrine of loose construction its most famous
formulation.
XIII. John Marshall and Judicial
Nationalism (cont.)
• The Cohens v. Virginia (1821):
– This gave Marshall the greatest opportunities to
defend the federal power
• Cohen brothers found guilty by the Virginia courts of
illegally selling lottery tickets, they appealed to the
highest tribunal
• Virginia won since the conviction was upheld
– In fact Virginia and all others states lose, since Marshall
asserted the right of the Supreme Court to review all
decisions of state courts in all questions involving powers of
the federal government.
XIII. John Marshall and Judicial
Nationalism (cont.)
• The Gibbons v. Ogden (1824)
– Grew out of an attempt by the State of New York
to grant to a private concern a monopoly of
waterborne commerce between New York and
New Jersey
• Marshall sternly reminded the upstart state that the
Constitution conferred on Congress alone the control
of interstate commerce (see Art. I, Sec. VIII, Para. 3).
• He struck a blow at states’ rights while upholding the
sovereign powers of the federal government.
XIV. Judicial Dikes Against Democratic
Excesses
• Marshall’s decisions bolstered judicial
barriers against democratic or demagogic
attacks on property rights:
• The 1810 notorious case of Fletcher v. Peck:
• A Georgia legislature granted 35 million acres in the
Yazoo River country (Mississippi) to private
speculators:
• The next legislature canceled the transaction.
– The Supreme Court decreed that the legislative grant was a
contract (even though fraudulently secured).
XIV. Judicial Dikes Against
Democratic Excesses (cont.)
–
–
•
And that the Constitution forbid state law “impairing”
contracts (Art. I. Sec. X, para. 1)
It further protected property rights against popular
pressures
It asserted the right of the Supreme Court to
invalidate state laws conflicting with the federal
Constitution.
• Dartmouth College v. Woodward (1819):
– Best remembered of Marshall’s decisions
XIV. Judicial Dikes Against
Democratic Excesses (cont.)
• Dartmouth College v. Woodward (cont.):
– Dartmouth appealed the case, employing Daniel
Webster (‘01 alumnus)
• Marshall ruled that the original charter must stand
• It was a contract—and the Constitution protected
contracts against state encroachments
• The Dartmouth decision safeguarded business
enterprise from domination by the state governments
• It created a problem that in the future chartered
corporations to escape needed public control
XIV. Judicial Dikes Against
Democratic Excesses (cont.)
– If John Marshall was a Molding Father of the
Constitution, Daniel Webster was an Expounding
Father.
• Webster expounded his Federalistic and nationalistic
philosophy, challenged states’ rights and nullification.
• Marshall decisions are felt even today:
– His sense of nationalism was the most tenaciously enduring
of the era.
– He buttressed the federal Union and helped to create a
stable nationally uniform environment for business:
– And checked the excesses of popularly elected state
legislatures.
XIV. Judicial Dikes Against
Democratic Excesses (cont.)
• John Marshall’s contributions:
– Marshall almost single-handedly shaped the Constitution
along conservative, centralizing lines that ran counter to the
dominant spirit of the new country
– Through him the conservative Hamiltonians partly
triumphed from the tomb
p239
XV. Sharing Oregon and Acquiring
Florida
• Anglo-American Convention (1818):
– It permitted Americans to share Newfoundland
fisheries with Canadians
– It fixed the vague northern limits of Louisiana
along the 49th parallel from the Lake of the
Woods (Minn.) to the Rocky Mountains (see
Map 12.4)
– It provided for a ten-year joint occupation of the
untamed Oregon Country, without a surrender
of the rights or claims of either America or
Britain.
XV. Sharing Oregon and Acquiring
Florida (cont.)
• Semitropical Spanish Florida:
– Americans already claimed West Florida, ratified
by Congress in 1812:
• The bulk of Florida remained under Spanish rule (see
Map 12.5)
• Uprising in South America forced Spain to remove her
troops from Florida to assist the rebels
• Jackson secured a commission to enter Spanish
territory
XV. Sharing Oregon and Acquiring
Florida (cont.)
• Jackson swept across Florida taking revenge against
the Indians and those who assisted them
• Jackson had exceeded his instruction
• Monroe consulted with his cabinet and all wanted to
discipline overzealous Jackson, except John Quincy
Adams
• Florida Purchase Treaty (1819):
– Also known as the Adams-Onis Treaty:
• Spain ceded Florida and shadowy Spanish claims to
Oregon, in exchange for abandonment of Texas.
Map 12-4 p240
Map 12-5 p240
p241
XVI. The Menace of Monarchy in
America
• Autocrats of Europe:
– Stated that the world must be made safe from
democracy
– They smothered the embers of rebellions in Italy
(1821) and in Spain (1823)
– Americans were alarmed
• If Europeans interfered in the New World, the cause
of Republicanism would suffer irreparable harm
• The physical security of the United States, the mother
of democracy, would be endangered
XVI. The Menace of Monarchy in
America (cont.)
• Russia push from Alaska had begun when the tsar in
1821 issued a degree extending Russian jurisdiction
over 100 miles of the open sea to the 51st degree, an
area that included most of present-day British
Columbia
• Russia already had trading posts as far south as San
Francisco Bay
• Fear among Americans was that Russia would cut
California from the Republic and have a prospective
window on the Pacific.
p242
XVII. Monroe and His Doctrine
• England, under foreign minister George
Canning (August 1823), wanted the United
States to join in a joint territorial integrity of
the New World
– A self-denying alliance with Britain would
hamper American expansion, concluded Adams,
and it was unnecessary
• He suspected correctly
XVII. Monroe and His Doctrine
(cont.)
• The Monroe Doctrine 1823:
– In his annual message to Congress Dec. 12,
Monroe incorporated a stern warning to the
European powers:
• It had two basic features: (1) colonization and (2)
nonintervention:
– Aimed at Russia’s advancement in the Northwest, he
proclaimed that the era of colonization had ended
– He warned against foreign intervention, especially in the
South
• The European powers were deeply offended
XVIII. Monroe’s Doctrine
Appraised
• Russo-American Treaty (1824):
– Russia had already retreated
– The treaty fixed Russia’s southern line at 54
40’—the present southern tip of Alaska
panhandle (see Map 12.6)
• The Monroe Doctrine might more accurately
be called the Self-Defense Doctrine:
– Monroe was basically concerned about the
security of his own country, not Latin America
XVIII. Monroe’s Doctrine
Appraised (cont.)
– The United States never permitted a powerful
foreign nation to secure a foothold in her
territory:
• The Monroe Doctrine has never been greater than
America’s power to eject the trespasser
• It was never law—domestic or international
• It was merely a simple, personalized statement of the
policy of President Monroe
• But it was largely an expression of the post-1812
nationalism energizing the United States
Map 12-6 p243
p245