Unit IX: The War of 1812
and the Era of Good
Feelings

In the 1808 election Jefferson’s hand picked
successor, James Madison, defeated the
Federalist candidate Charles Pinckney.

When Madison entered office he
was left to deal with the trade
restrictions on Britain and France
left by Jefferson. In 1810 he
passed Macon's Bill giving the
British three months to reopen
trade in the Atlantic, which had
been damaged by the British
Orders in Council.

The Orders in Council forbade
neutral vessels to trade at any port
which was closed to the British
unless they had first landed at a
British harbor and paid taxes. The
British refused and Madison placed
an embargo on the British but not
the French. This meant America
would no longer be a neutral party in
the Napoleonic Wars.

In the congressional elections of
1810 many of the old established
Congressmen were defeated by
several young, brash
representatives from southern
and western states, known as
the War Hawks.

They were eager for war with Britain
because they had missed the
Revolution. They also wanted to end
the Indian threat on western lands.
Two brothers of the Shawnee tribe,
Tecumseh and the Prophet began to
unite the tribes of the Ohio and
Tennessee valleys in order to end
the rush of settlers onto their lands.
The movement began with the call
for spiritual and cultural unity.

Congress believed the Indians were
receiving support from the British
and in 1811 ordered William Henry
Harrison to take an army and find
the Indian camp. Harrison's army
discovered the camp along the
Tippecanoe River. Tecumseh was
not in the camp, he was recruiting
tribes in the south but his brother
attacked Harrison who responded
by defeating the Indians and
burning the settlement.

In 1812 the War Hawks began
calling for war with Britain. They
felt the Indians were receiving
support from the British in
Canada. They further wanted to
invade Canada and end British
control as well as gain fertile
farming land.

Southerners wanted to invade
Florida and crush the Indians
there who were under Spanish
control. Madison wanted to
defend American shipping rights
and restore confidence in the
national government. On June 1,
1812 Madison asked Congress
for a declaration of war based on
four points.

The first two were the continuous
issue of impressment and the
Orders in Council, which harassed
all American trade. The fourth was
the supplying of Indians along the
Great Lakes and the promotion of
war. The votes were very close
though revealing a division between
the New England states, which
relied on trade with Britain and the
southern and western states.

The wealthy families of New
England supported the British
against Napoleon and actually
lent money and supplies to the
British in Canada allowing them
to invade the U.S. The odds were
stacked against an American
military was completely
unprepared for war. The navy
had a total of seventeen ships.

Very few people joined the
national army; most enlisted in
their state militias but even this
stopped once the War
Department was no longer able
to pay troops. There were severe
financial problems because of the
embargo and militias from New
England refused to fight outside
of their state.

Despite being poorly equipped
and outmanned the Americans
decided on an offensive
strategy.The hostility centered
on three areas: 1) Naval battle
on Great Lakes
2) Invasion of Canada
3) Opportunity to gain part of
Spanish Florida.


Their confidence on the seas was greatly
boosted when the British naval ship the
Guerriere attacked the U.S.S Constitution
and was sunk in August of 1812. The
army then invaded Canada in a three
pronged attack. The armies attacked
form Detroit, Niagara, and Lake
Champlain but all were defeated shortly
after crossing the Canadian border.
In 1813 the British and Americans began
to fight over the control of the Great
Lakes.


In September of 1814 the British
attempted to invade New York, but
without adequate roads the British
were forced to move supplied over
water. The American navy engaged
the British ships on Lake Champlain
and defeated them.
A second British force invaded the
Chesapeake Bay marching towards
Washington in August of 1814. The
British burned the Capitol and the
White House.

The British navy attacked Fort
Henry in Baltimore but could not
force the surrender of the city. In
the south the British army, which
had just defeated Napoleon,
began moving to take New
Orleans.

Andrew Jackson was sent to
New Orleans to defend the city.
He had just defeated the Creek
Indians at the Battle of
Horseshoe Bend in March of
1814. He then moved
southward where his troops dug
in around New Orleans. The
British attacked on January 8,
1815 and were devastated.


The victory at New Orleans though
legitimized the Treaty of Ghent for
America , which was signed on
December 24, 1814 in Ghent
Belgium before the battle took place.
The Treaty of Ghent ended the war
but did nothing to resolve the issues
that had actually started the war.
The treaty was basically an
armistice. The war itself actually did
several things though.


It reaffirmed American
independence and convinced
American leaders to stay out of
European affairs.
It destroyed Indian resistance in
the Ohio and Mississippi Valleys
allowing for further expansion.


It exposed our military weaknesses
and the need for better
transportation routes. Both would be
made priorities in 1815.
It ended the Federalist Party, which
had made gains in 1812 but when
some extremists met in Hartford,
Connecticut and proposed the
succession of New England they lost
all of their support.

American industry began to
flourish as domestic
manufacturing increased and
Congress passed the first
protective tariff of 20 to 25
percent on imports. The tariff
was designed to keep American
goods competitive with cheap
foreign goods that flooded the
market after the war.


The increases in American
manufacturing was in part caused by
Samuel Slater who had memorized
British factory plans and immigrated
with them to America.
The factory plans allowed for the
mass production of textiles, which
replaced the domestic system, which
had been practiced since colonial
times.

In the domestic system materials
were sent out to private homes
to be woven into textiles. The
system was inefficient though as
production centered around the
family duties and the harvest.

In 1813 the Boston Manufacturing
Company was chartered and the first
American power loom was
constructed in Waltham, Mass. The
power loom wove yarn which was
produced in mass by the spinning
jenny. The company profited off of
the use of the steam engine, which
allowed the company to run the loom
and build factories anywhere along
rivers.

Women began purchasing the
textiles rather than making their
own. The Lowell system was
developed in order to lure New
England farm girls to the mills.
The Lowell system centered on
six day weeks with 12-13 hour
days. Girls were paid $.55 a
week and could make more
based on production.

The Lowell system was very
paternalistic in an attempt to
keep high moral standards
amongst the girls. Girls were also
required to attend lectures on
morals and values as well as
church and school. The Lowell
system fell out of favor though in
the 1830s as well Irish men were
hired at lower wages.


Two other significant inventions
that led to increases in production
were developed by Eli Whitney. The
invention of his cotton gin in 1793
allowed slaves to remove the seeds
from cotton quickly.
The second invention was the
creation of standardized rifles that
used interchangeable parts. This
allowed for the quick replacement
of broken parts.

As the economy continued to
improve Henry Clay, a War Hawk
from Kentucky, developed the
American System. He wanted to
see a strong banking system
created that provided easy
credit, the creation of a
protective tariff, and the creation
of a network of roads and canals
built in the Ohio Valley.

Madison passed the protective
tariff in 1816 and rechartered the
Bank of the United States in an
attempt to solve economic
problems but vetoed the road
construction bill because he felt
it was unconstitutional. This left
the states to deal with internal
improvement on their own.

The construction of canals began
linking waterways, which
steamboats could move goods
from the east into the Ohio
Valley. The largest of these
canals was the Erie Canal
completed in 1825, it connected
New York City with the Great
Lakes.

The National Road was also
constructed and connected
Maryland with Ohio by 1833. In
1830's the construction of
railways in the east began. These
railways were built moving east
to west to move goods into the
interior.

Many of these improvements
were looked down upon by the
New England states that felt they
would lose their power in the
national government as more
people moved west.

In the election of 1816 James Monroe
won the election defeating the last
Federalist candidate, Rufus King. The
time period came to be called the "era of
good feelings" because of economic
prosperity and only one political party.
The Federalists though still held the
power in the Supreme Court. Led Chief
Justice Marshall the court consistently
ruled in favor of a strong central
government. The Marshall court ruled on
several major cases during the time
period.

Fletcher vs. Peck (1810) - The
Supreme Court ruled that a
Georgia legislative contract
giving millions of acres of land
to private speculators could not
overturned even though it was
acquired fraudulently. The case
was noteworthy for the
protection of property rights.

McCulloch vs. Maryland (1819) - This
case involved the state of Maryland,
which had tried to tax the notes of a
branch of the Bank of the United
States. Marshall ruled that the law
passed by Maryland to tax the bank
was unconstitutional and asserted
the power of the federal government
over the states. He also affirmed the
right of the federal government to
charter the bank.

Dartmouth College vs. Woodward
(1819) - Dartmouth College had
been granted a charter by King
George III in 1769, The New
Hampshire legislature passed a law
changing the charter making the
school a public institution. The
school appealed the case and
Marshall ruled that the charter is a
contract and cannot be changed.
This had an effect on the charters
of businesses.

Gibbons vs. Ogden (1824) - This
case was based on New York's
attempt to create a monopoly on
waterway trade between New
York and New Jersey. Marshall
ruled that only the federal
government could control
interstate commerce.


Agriculture still remained the
backbone of the economy but it
changed from subsistence farming to
profit oriented farming. Each area of
the country began to develop its own
distinct economy.
In the New England area families
began to focus on dairy farming,
manufacturing and land sales as
many people began moving out
west.

In the Western Territories
commercial crop farming
developed across the large flat
plains. Mechanization of
agriculture allowed for the
development of these large
farms.


In 1831 Cyrus McCormick developed
the reaper, allowing for the cutting
of wheat. And in 1837 John Deere
invented the steel plow. In the South
the shift was to a cotton based
economy. The southern plantation
owners made their wealth selling
cotton on the international market.
The majority of the population
remained rural subsistence farmers
and in which land represented
wealth.

Because of the improvements in
transportation and the development
of industries farmers began to profit
as well. They could grow large
amounts of crops and sell them in
markets across the country. Growth
was uneven though, as there were
times of prosperity as well as
recessions. In 1819 the economy
crashed because of:
1.
Speculation on western lands:
People would buy large amounts of
land and then sell it in sections
making a profit, the land was high
in demand because of the growing
demand for cotton. Land could be
bought at $.2 an acre with only
20% down. As the price of cotton
began to fall in 1818 the land
dropped in value and these
investors lost money.
2.
3.
Massive immigration: Mainly
from Northern Europe especially
the Irish.
Banking problems: The five year
period between 1811-1816 saw
a large number of state banks
established. These banks then
issued their own currencies
causing severe inflation.
4.
Debt: The speculation of land and
subsequent drop in value caused a
$22 million debt to accumulate. The
rechartering of the Bank of the U.S
1816 did not help matters as the
bank’s President William James
deflates the currency causing a
large number of banks to go under,
this ruins the farmers and
merchants.


As slavery became increasingly
important due to the growth of
cotton as the primary southern cash
crop it further divided the industrial
north and agricultural south.
The creation of sectionalism in the
economy would lead to sectionalism
in politics as the national
government attempted to keep the
balance of slave and free states
equal.

Slavery was an issue that was
purposely avoided in debates
among Congressmen. In 1819
the issue became unavoidable
though as Missouri applied for
admission to the union as a slave
state. The House stopped the
admission briefly though as they
passed the Tallmadge Act. The
act stipulated the gradual
emancipation of children born to
slaves in Missouri.

Also no more slaves would be
allowed into the state.
Southerners were outraged and
felt it was a threat to their way
of life because it would stop the
expansion of slavery. The bill
was rejected by the Senate.

In 1820 Henry Clay proposed the
Missouri Compromise. Missouri
would be admitted as a slave state
and Maine would enter as a free
state preserving the balance at
twelve each. The compromise also
created a line at 36, 30’, which
slavery could not cross. This pleased
both the northern and southern
states; the south did not feel the
prairie lands were suitable for
slavery anyway.

Foreign policy during the "era of
good feelings" was delegated to
John Q. Adams, Sec. of State.
Adams wanted to expand the
boundaries of the country and
isolate the U.S from Europe. In
1817 the Rush-Bagot Treaty was
signed limiting the American and
British naval forces in the Great
Lakes and eventually led to
demilitarization of the border.

At the Convention of 1818 the
border between Canada and
America was fixed at the fortyninth parallel. It also provided for
a ten-year joint occupation of the
Oregon territory.

Americans also looked southward
towards Florida still in Spanish
control. Revolutions began to break
out in South America pulling many of
the Spanish troops out of Florida.
Andrew Jackson used this
opportunity to get permission from
the government to invade Florida
and attack the Seminole Indians he
claimed were hostile to the U.S.

He was to avoid all Spanish posts
but took over the two most
important posts violating his
orders. Adams quickly used this
to sign the Adams-Onis Treaty
with Spain. Spain ceded Florida
for five million and the U.S
agreed to give up claims to
Texas. The Spanish also gave up
claims to Oregon.

As many Latin-American
countries began declaring their
independence from Spanish rule
the U.S quickly recognized their
independence. Several European
countries had agreed to join
forces and return the countries
to Spanish rule. The British
attempted to get the Americans
to issue a joint resolution
warning countries to stay away
from Latin America.

Adams declined believing that
the British would not allow
European countries to shut down
their trade in the Caribbean so
there was no reason for
American help. Adams convinced
Monroe that America could issue
its own resolution without having
to back up its claims.

In December of 1823 the Monroe
Doctrine was issued. The President
warned European powers of further
colonization of the Western
Hemisphere and the intervention of
European countries in further
independence. The doctrine was
directed at Russia in particular,
which had begun colonizing the
Northwest. The doctrine did not have
a significant effect until much later.