Unit Six: Chapter Twelve
The Second War for
Independence
Background:
Great Britain and France at War
GB issues Orders of Council 1806
Napoleon ordered the seizure of all merchant ships
that entered British ports.
USA having difficulty trading with either country
Chesapeake-Leopard Affair 1807; British ship the
Leopard fired upon the Chesapeake after she refused to
submit to a search for British deserters -- The
Chesapeake was boarded and four men were impressed
into the British navy
“Remember the Chesapeake!”
Jefferson issued EMBARGO Act of 1807
Non-Intercourse Act of March 1809
The Giles Enforcement Act of 1809 issued
Madison takes
office
March 4, 1809
Congress passes Macon’s Bill Number 2
Permitted trade with all nations but promised that if
either Britain or France lifted its commercial
restrictions on American trade, the USA would stop
trading with the other
Madison accepted Napoleon’s promise to recognize
America’s rights in 1811 and resumes trade with
France…a major foreign policy mistake
Britain in return, pounced on American ships headed
to French ports
Madison’s reasons for going to war against Great Britain
1. The British were arming hostile Natives
2. War Hawks in his own party
3. Wanted to restore confidence in the republican
experiment
War Hawks reasons for war (include Speaker of House,
Henry Clay, and John C. Calhoun)
1. The British in Canada armed Natives and incited
them to raid frontier settlements
2. British impressment policies
3. British Canada and Spanish Florida were attractive
and thought to be easily obtainable prizes (gain
territory)
4. The British Orders in Council stopped the flow of
Western farm products to Europe
5. Defend American rights
War Hawks thought GB would quickly capitulate, due to its war with Napoleon… would not
want a two front war…. WRONG!
Those for the war included people in the West and the
South, who wanted
1. To add land, British Canada and Spanish Florida
2. Export goods to European nations
New England opposed the War of 1812 because
1. Northeastern Federalists sympathized with
England
2. It resented the Republican’s sympathy with
Napoleon
3. Federalists opposed the acquisition of Canada
4. Adding land could result in more agrarian states
and potentially give more votes to the
Democratic-Republicans
New England states would lend more money and send
more food to the British army than to the American
army!
Madison = ”Father of the Constitution”
Causes of the War of 1812:
Indian resistance to U.S. expansion (the British were arming
the Indians and inciting them to raid frontier settlements)
American rights were not being recognized (British use of
“impressment”)
Revenge for the misuse of American sailors
Interest in gaining more territory “land hunger” (British
Canada and Spanish Florida)
Defense of American shipping rights
*Britain’s Orders in Council, which stopped the
flow of Western farm products to Europe (At
the very moment Madison called for war, June
1, 1812, the British government was in the process of
suspending the Orders in Council!!)
*Napoleon’s Continental system
Advantages/Disadvantages
U.S. – unprepared to fight a
war
•Soldiers: ill-trained, and illdisciplined
•Widely scattered
•Most generals were leftover
from the Revolutionary War
•Sense of urgency, unity, and
purpose was not great
•Navy in better shape than the
army
•Did know the terrain!
British – prepared for war
•Well-trained, experienced troops
•Small in number
•Distance from Great Britain
•No knowledge of the terrain
•Contemptuous, overconfident
attitude
Strategies:
•United States –
Invade Canada – 3 prong
attack from Lake
Champlain to Montreal –
across Niagara area –
upper Canada from
Detroit
•Great BritainSever New England
through New Orleans to
control Mississippi River
and move to Chesapeake
Military and Civilian leaders
U.S:
President James Madison, *Henry
Clay, *J.C. Calhoun (*War Hawks)
Capt. Oliver Hazard Perry (“We have
met the enemy and they are ours”
after capturing British fleet on Lake
Erie),
Andrew Jackson (hero of the Battle
of New Orleans),
William Henry Harrison (hero of
Battle of Tippecanoe and Battle of
the Thames)
Clay
Calhoun
Perry
British:
King George III
Major Gen. Sir Isaac Brock (fought along side Tecumseh at Battle
of Thames)
Sir George Prevost (troops in Canada)
Major General Edward Packenham (New Orleans)
George III
Brock
Prevost
Packenham
Turning Points
Battle of Thames, Oct 1813 – removed Native
American threat, death of Tecumseh
Washington, DC burned, Aug. 1814 – Dolley Madison
made sure the portrait of Washington was removed and
stored before the President’s Mansion was burned by the
British.
Battle of Lake Champlain, Sept. 1814 – US Naval
victory…destroyed British ships
Ft. McHenry, Sept. 1814 – (outside of Baltimore, after
Washington, DC was burned by British) U.S troops held strong and
defended the city. “Star Spangled Banner”, written by Francis Scott
Key about this battle
New Orleans, Jan. 1815 –
*British force was destroyed after Sir Edward
Packenham, British General in charge is killed (Britain
lost over 2,000 men) small casualties for the U.S (about
13 dead);
*(this battle actually takes place after the Treaty of Ghent)
General Jackson
Pirate Jean Lafitte
•New England began to call for secession from the
United States (the Gov of MA even secretly contacted
the British about a separate peace)
•Wanted states to have the right to declare federal laws
unconstitutional
•States should be responsible for own defense
•Removal of 3/5th Clause
•One-term limit on the president
•Ban on residents from one state succeeding one another
in the office of president (aimed at VA)
•Prohibition of naturalized citizens from holding federal
positions
Once news of the Treaty of Ghent arrived, all these
proposals fell to deaf ears.
Treaty of Ghent, Dec. 24, 1814 in Belgium
The delegates for the American side included: John Quincy Adams, James A. Bayard,
Albert Gallatin, Henry Clay and Jonathan Russell while the delegates for the
British included Admiral Lord Gambier, Henry Goulburn (Parliamentary Under-secretary of
State for War and the Colonies) and William Adams a Doctor of Civil Law.
Significant in that nothing changed…G.B. refused to
discuss the topic of impressments
Fighting stopped
Significance of the war:
Freed the United States from its “junior” status
among nations
Made American’s feel and act more as a nation and
gave rise to nationalism
Federalist party would “die”, in part due to the
Hartford Convention
US could expand westward with little concern over
future invasion
Britain repulsed US efforts to invade Canada
Costs:
US
About $105 million and 2,260 dead and 4,505
wounded soldiers; 1000 civilian casualties and 205
deserters executed
GB
About $3.7 billion and casualties exceeded the US
The Rush-Bagot Agreement
• 1817– severely limited naval armament on the
Great Lakes
• Brought about due to Canadian concerns
• Between US and GB