War of 1812

Why

• Fighting between France and Britain

• Britain blockades France

• Seize 1,000 + American ships

• Americans favor France

• British impressment (seizing Americans)

• Chesapeake incident -> search and seizure

• Jefferson ask Congress for embargo (no exports)

Canada

• Very ill-prepared army

• British forces weakest in Canada

• Capture Montreal and the rest goes too?

• 3 pronged attack -> Detroit, Niagra, and Lake Champlain (unsuccessful)

• Turn to fighting with navy (Old Ironside)

• Napoleon exiled leaving U.S. alone in war

• Britain attacks New York through Lake Champlain but successfully defended by U.S.

Washington and New Orleans

• Another British force lands in Chesapeake Bay region

• Defeated disorganized U.S.= marched into Washington and burned the Capitol and White House

• U.S. troops held firm in Baltimore

• Star Spangled Banner

• Third British attack on New Orleans unsuccessfully

Treaty of Ghent/Hartford Convention

• Tsar Alexander I of Russia wants to end the fighting between U.S. and Britain

• Bring the two together in Ghent, Belgium

• Agreed to stop fighting (ended fight in draw)

• New England prospers during the war

• Secretly trading with British in Canada still and some begin talks of succession

• Hartford Convention -> New England states get together to list grievances about war (federalists)

• Demand money for lost trade, 2/3 vote to impose an embargo/new states admitted/war declared, abolish 3/5 compromise, single term for President, and prohibit election of 2 Presidents from the same state

• Begins the end of the Federalist Party

By Products of the War

• U.S. proves it will fight to protect itself

• Sectionalism

• Manufacturing prospered

• Rush-Bagot agreement (limited navy on the Great Lakes)

• Nationalism

The American System

• Britain tries to strangle American businesses by cutting its prices in half

• Tariff of 1816 (protective)

• American System (3 Parts)

• Strong banking system (easy and abundant credit)

• Protective tariff (manufacturing would flourish)

• Roads/Canal System(uniting country)

Era of Good Feelings / Panic of 1819

• 1816 election -> James Monroe wins

• Good times labeled as “era of good feelings”

• Economic panic begins in 1819

• Deflation, depression, bankruptcies, bank failures, unemployment, soup kitchens, debtors’ prisons

• Caused by over speculation in the frontier lands

Moving on West

• 9 new states in the West between 1791 – 1819

• Alternated admission as free or slave state

• Cheap land appeals to European immigrants

• Land exhaustion in the South

Slavery and Sectional Balance

• Western States = Slave or Non-slave states?

• Missouri becoming close to state-hood

• Tallmadge amendment = no more slaves should be brought into Missouri and emancipation for children of slaves born there

• Slave and non-slave states tied at 2 (equal representation)

• Missouri Compromise

• Missouri would become a slave state

• Maine admitted as a free state

Court Stuff

• Headed by Chief Justice John Marshall

• McCulloch v. Maryland

• MD wanted to destroy bank of U.S. (bank ruled constitutional)

• Cohens v. Virginia

• Gave federal courts right to review decisions of state supreme court

• Gibbons v. Ogden

• Gave federal gov’t control over interstate commerce

Oregon, Florida, and the Monroe Doctrine

• Florida Purchase Treaty aka Adams-Onis Treaty

• Gave Florida to the U.S. and some Spanish claims in Oregon territory

• Gave Spain claims in Texas

• In a message to Congress Monroe warns to European countries noncolonization and nonintervention

• Symbol of nationalism in the United States