The Second War for Independence and the Upsurge of Nationalism

I. On to Canada Over Land and Lakes

a. The Army

i. Ill-trained, ill-disciplined, and widely scattered

ii. It was supplemented by the worse militia

iii. Old Revolutionary War generals

b. Canada

i. British forces were the weakest there

ii. They should’ve attacked Montreal, the center of population and transportation, everything to the west might have died

iii. Instead, there were three invading forces:

1. Detroit

2. Niagara

3. Lake Champlain

iv. They were all beaten back as soon as they crossed the Canadian border

c. British and Canadians

i. Won many battles early on

ii. In 1813, American land invasions were again hurled back

d. Navy

i. The American navy did much better than the army

ii. Compared to the British, the American ships were:

1. Better handled

2. Had better gunners

3. Were manned by people who weren’t impressed (so they were eager to fight)

iii. The Constitution is one of the notable ships – it was a thick ship that had heavy firepower – it is still commissioned by the navy and in Boston harbor

e. American Victories

i. An American naval officer, Oliver Hazard Perry managed to fended off attacks in the Great Lakes, a vital area to control. The British retreated from Detroit. This allowed:

ii. Battle of the Thames – General Harrison’s land army beat the redcoats

f. Late 1814

i. Napoleon was defeated and exiled to the Mediterranean isle of Elba

ii. Now, thousands of redcoats were freed up to fight in the war against America

iii. The British again (10,000) wanted to cut off New England through the lake-river route

iv. In Lake Champlain in September 1814, the U.S. defeated the British

v. This saved:

1. At least upper New York

2. More fuel for criticism by New Englanders

3. Possible succession

II. Washington Burned and New Orleans Defended

a. Washington

i. August 1914 – 4,000 British landed in the Chesapeake Bay and advanced on Washington

ii. The Americans dispatched 6,000 panicky militia to Bladensburg

iii. The British set fire to most of the public buildings, including the Capitol and the White House

b. Baltimore

i. The British fleet also hammered Fort McHenry with their cannon

ii. However, they could not capture the city

iii. Francis Scott Key, a detained American anxiously watching the bombardment from a British ship, was inspired by the defenders to write the words of “The Star-Spangled Banner.” It was set to the tune of an English tavern refrain

c. New Orleans

i. Andrew Jackson was in command

ii. He had 7,000 sailors, regulars, pirates, Frenchmen, and militiamen from Louisiana, Tennessee, and Kentucky. This included two regiments of free black volunteers numbering 4,000 men

iii. In January 1815, 8,000 British made a frontal assault on the Americans

iv. The British lost 2,000 men killed and wounded, while the Americans lost 70

v. The U.S. won a crushing battle and restored honor to them (even thought the peace treaty had just been signed two weeks before the battle)

III. The Treaty of Ghent

a. Russia

i. Was feeling pressure from Napoleon’s army and didn’t want the British (who were their ally) to put too many troops in America

ii. As a result, the Russians offered to be a mediator

iii. John Quincy Adams was sent to Ghent, Belgium to be one of 5 American peacemakers

b. British Demands

i. Confident after their early military successes, the British demanded these terms:

1. Wanted a neutralized Indian buffer state in the Great Lakes region

2. Control of the Great Lakes

3. Part of Maine

ii. The Americans rejected these terms

iii. War losses and preoccupation with the Congress of Vienna/France, the British acquiesced

c. Treaty of Ghent (1814)

i. Was an armistice (agreed to stop fighting)

ii. No mention was made of American grievances:

1. Indian menace

2. Search and seizure

3. Orders in Council

4. Impressment

5. Confiscations

iii. The Americans didn’t lose any territory

IV. Federalist Grievances and the Hartford Convention

a. New England

i. Prospered during the conflict because of illegal trade with the enemy in Canada

ii. As the war dragged on, New England extremists became more vocal. They proposed either:

1. Succession OR

2. Separate peace with Britain

b. Hartford Convention (Late 1814)

i. In late 1814, when the capture of New Orleans seemed imminent, MA issued a call for a convention at Hartford Connecticut. MA CT, RI, NH, and VT all attended

ii. They met to discuss their grievances and to seek redress for their wrongs

iii. It was less wild than thought:

1. Demanded financial assistance from Washington to compensate for lost trade

2. Proposed a constitutional amendment requiring a 2/3 vote in Congress before an embargo could be imposed, new States admitted, or war declared

3. Sought to abolish the 2/5 clause in the Constitution

4. Limit presidents to a single term

5. Prohibit the election of two successive presidents from the same State (a VA resident had been president for all but 4 years)

iv. Most of the demands reflected Federalist fears that a once-proud New England was falling subservient to an agrarian South and West

v. By the time the envoy went to Washington with the Hartford resolutions, the U.S. had won in New Orleans and signed the Treaty of Ghent

c. Results of the Hartford Convention

i. At best, people thought the complaints were petty and a few thought they were treasonous

ii. The Hartford resolutions were the end of the Federalist party. They would never again mount a successful presidential campaign

V. The Second War for American Independence

a. Scope of the War of 1812

i. It was a small war

ii. 6,000 Americans were killed or wounded

iii. Napoleon invaded Russia with 500,000 men; Madison tried to invade Canada with 5,000

b. Results of the War of 1812 (The Second War for American Independence)

i. The U.S. had shown that it would resist with violence to wrongs committed against it

ii. Other nations developed a new respect for America’s fighting prowess

iii. American diplomats were treated better

iv. Sectionalism – The war glaringly revealed the folly of sectional disunity – the Federalist party disappeared

v. War heroes emerged:

1. Andrew Jackson

2. William Henry Harrison

vi. The Indians were forced to relinquish vast areas of forested land north of the Ohio River

vii. The British blockade (1814) gave greater American industrial independence

c. Rush-Bagot Agreement (1817)

i. Many Canadians felt betrayed by the Treaty of Ghent because they didn’t get:

1. An Indian buffer state

2. Great Lakes

ii. Canadians felt that the Americans would return and try to defeat them

iii. Americans and British engaged in an arms race on the Great Lakes

iv. The Rush-Bagot agreement between Britain and the U.S. severely limited naval armament on the lakes

1. This led to an end of border fortifications

2. Better U.S.-Canada relations

3. The world’s longest unfortified boundary – 5,527 miles long

d. Napoleon’s End

i. Final defeat at Waterloo in 1815

ii. Europe returned to peace

iii. The American people were largely unaffected by these European developments (concerned about developing the democracy and the West)

VI. Nascent (beginning to develop) Nationalism

a. Nationalism

i. The War of 1812 caused a heightened sense of nationalism. It came together as one nation afterwards

1. Washington Irving and James Fenimore Cooper attained international attention as America’s first writers of importance to use American scenes and themes

2. Painters began to paint American landscapes more often

3. School textbook used to be British, but now they were American

4. Rebuilt a more beautiful national capital

5. Congress revived the Bank of the U.S.

6. Army and navy was expanded (the navy soundly defeated the African Barbary pirates)

VII. “The American System”

a. Manufacturing

i. With the end of the war, the British began to dump the contents of their warehouses on the U.S., often cutting their prices below cost in an effort to strangle the American war-baby factories in the cradle

ii. American industries wanted protection

b. Tariff of 1816

i. Congress responded by passing this tariff – the first tariff in American history for protection, not revenue

ii. Its rates – 20-25% on the value of dutiable imports, were not high enough to provide completely adequate safeguards

iii. However, a strong protective trend was started that stimulated the appetites of the protected for more protection

c. Henry Clay and “The American System”

i. This system had three main parts:

1. A strong banking system, which would provide easy and abundant credit

2. A protective tariff, behind which eastern manufacturing would flourish

3. Revenue from the tariff would provide funds for a network of roads and canals

ii. Through new arteries of transportation:

1. Foodstuffs and raw materials would flow from South and West to the North and East

2. Manufactured goods would flow the other direction

d. Transportation

i. Henry Clay’s demands for better transportation was popular with the public

1. Attempts to invade Canada had failed party because of no roads

2. People were tired of muddy roads

3. The West especially had few good roads

ii. President Madison vetoed Congress’ attempt to give the States money to improve transportation, saying it was unconstitutional. The States had to rely on improving conditions themselves

iii. New England in particular was strongly opposed to federally constructed roads and canals, because such outlets would further drain away population and create competing States beyond the mountains

VIII. The Era of Good Feelings

a. James Monroe Wins the Presidency

i. Was a Republican

ii. From VA

iii. 6’ tall

iv. Was a combination of the age of the Founding Fathers and the new age of nationalism

v. The Federalists ran a candidate for the last time, he lost 183-34

b. Monroe’s Goodwill Tour

i. Nationalism was further cemented by this goodwill tour Monroe took to inspect military defenses

ii. A Boston paper was so thrilled that they announced that an “Era of Good Feelings” had been ushered in. This phrase has been commonly used since then to describe the administrations of Monroe

c. Era of Good Feelings A Misnomer (a wrong name)

i. Although peaceful, being contested were:

1. Issues about the tariff

2. The bank

3. Internal improvements

4. Sale of public lands

5. Sectionalism

6. Conflict over slavery was beginning

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

a. Economic Panic

i. Many factors contributed to the catastrophe of 1819, but the biggest was overspeculation in frontier lands. The Bank of the United States became deeply entrenched in this

ii. Financial paralysis from the panic, which lasted for several years, was a setback to nationalism

b. Problems in the West & With the Poor

i. The West was especially hard hit. The Back of the U.S. forced the speculative western banks to foreclose mortgages on countless farms. In the eyes of the western debtor, the nationalist Bank of the U.S. soon became hated

ii. The poorer classes were severely strapped and many were imprisoned. Mounting agitation against imprisonment for debt started legislation efforts in many States

X. Growing Pains of the West

a. Expansion of the West

i. Nine frontier State had joined the original 13 between 1791 and 1819

ii. To preserve the North-South sectional balance, most of these had been admitted alternately, free or slave

b. Why the Expansion?

i. It was a continuation of the generations-old westward movement

ii. Cheap land

iii. Land exhaustion

iv. Speculators accepted small down payments, making it easier to buy new holdings

v. Economic stress from the embargo years turned many people to go west

vi. The crushing of Indians by Harrison and Jackson opened up the land

vii. Building of highways (Cumberland Road, begun in 1811, ran from western MD to Illinois)

viii. Use of the first steamboat in 1811 heralded a new era of upstream navigation

c. Demands of the West

i. The West was still weak in population and influence. In Congress, they had to ally itself with other sections to get legislation passed

ii. They demanded three things:

1. Land Act of 1820 – Authorized a buyer to purchase 80 virgin acres at a minimum of $1.25 an acre in cash

2. Cheap transportation and slowly got it

3. Cheap money, issued by its own banks and fought the powerful Bank of the U.S. to attain its goal

XI. Slavery and the Sectional Balance

a. Missouri – Slave Or Free?

i. In 1819, the territory of Missouri asked Congress for admission as a slave State

ii. The House of Representatives passed the Tallmadge amendment, which stipulated that no more slaves should be brought into Missouri and provided for the gradual emancipation of children born to slave parents already there

iii. Opposed were:

1. The southerners thought it:

a. Was a threat to sectional balance

b. Might set a precedent since Missouri was the first State settled west of the MI River

c. Might expand to the old South

2. Poor pioneers who favored unhampered expansion of the West

3. Northerners who were eager to use the issue to break the back of the Virginian dynasty in the presidency

b. Concern Over the Slave System

i. When the Constitution started in 1789, the North and South were close in wealth and population. However, the North was becoming wealthier and more populated with every year

1. As a result, this was reflected in the majority of northerners in the House of Representatives. However, the Senate had 2 votes, regardless of size

ii. With 11 States free and 11 slave, the southerners had maintained equality

c. Moral Questions Over Slavery

i. A small but growing group of abolitionists seized the occasion to raise an outcry against the evils of slavery

ii. They were determined to stop the spread into further territories

XII. The Missouri Compromise

a. Missouri Compromise

i. Henry Clay (Kentucky) played a main role

ii. Missouri was admitted as a slave State, while Maine (had been a part of MA) was admitted as a free State (12 to 12 now)

iii. Although Missouri was allowed to have slaves, all future States in the LA territory who were above the line of 36 degrees 30 minutes weren’t allowed to have slaves

b. Southern and Northern Reaction to the Missouri Compromise

i. South –

1. Won Missouri as a slave State

2. Restrictions in the Missouri Compromise on slavery were alright because the prairie wasn’t conducive to slave labor

ii. North –

1. The area above 36 degrees, 30 minutes except Missouri would be free

iii. Neither side was happy or unhappy

iv. The Missouri Compromise last 34 years

v. It ducked the question of slavery again…TJ said that sooner or later it will “burst on us as a tornado”

c. Election of 1820

i. James Monroe was very popular, despite the Panic of 1819 and the Missouri Compromise

ii. He received every electoral vote except one

XIII. John Marshall and Judicial Nationalism

a. Upsurging nationalism was further reflected and reinforced by the Supreme Court

b. McCulloch v. Maryland (1819)

i. In 1816, Congress created the Second Bank of the United States

ii. In 1818, Maryland placed a tax on all notes issued by any bank doing business in the State, but not chartered by the State legislature. The tax was designed to cripple the bank’s operation in Maryland

iii. James McCulloch, the bank’s cashier, purposely issued notes on which no tax had been paid. Maryland argued that the creation of the bank had been unconstitutional because it isn’t one of Congress’ expressed powers

iv. This argument was upheld in Maryland’s courts, but the case was taken all the way to the Supreme Court in 1819

v. The Supreme Court overturned the decision of the Maryland courts. It held that:

1. The Constitution doesn’t need to give Congress an expressed power to create a bank. This case upheld the doctrine (principle or fundamental policy) of implied powers. The Supreme Court said that the creation of the Second Bank was “necessary and proper” to the execution of four of the expressed powers of Congress:

a. Taxing

b. Borrowing

c. Currency

d. Commerce

2. In addition, the case also struck down the Maryland tax because it conflicted with the Second Bank’s existence. States do not have the right to create laws that conflict with federal laws. So this case also upheld the Constitution’s Supremacy Clause, which says that the Constitution takes precedent over federal and State laws, then federal laws take precedent over State laws, then State laws take precedent over local laws.

c. Cohens v. Virginia (1821)

i. The Cohens were found guilty by Virginia courts of illegally selling lottery tickets

ii. In the Supreme Court, the conviction was upheld

iii. However, the individual States lost, because Marshall asserted the right of the Supreme Court to review the decisions of the State supreme courts in all questions involving powers of the federal government

d. Gibbons v. Ogden (1824)

i. New York tried to grant to a private citizen a monopoly of waterborne commerce between New York and New Jersey

ii. Marshall sternly reminded the State that the Constitution conferred on Congress alone the control of interstate commerce

iii. This again was another blow to States’ rights, while upholding the sovereign power of the federal government

XIV. Judicial Dikes Against Democratic Excesses

a. Another set of Marshall’s decisions bolstered protection against attacks on property rights

b. Fletcher v. Peck (1810)

i. The Georgia legislature, swayed by bribery, granted 35 million acres in the Yazoo River country (Mississippi) to private speculators

ii. The next legislature, yielding to an angry public outcry, canceled the crooked transaction

iii. The Supreme Court decided that the legislative grant was a contract (even though fraudulently secured) and that the Constitution forbids State laws “impairing” contracts (Art I, Sec X, para 1)

iv. It was the clearest case in which the Supreme Court asserted their right to invalidate State laws

c. Dartmouth College v. Woodward (1819)

i. The New Hampshire legislature wanted to change Dartmouth from a private to a public institution by having its charter revoked

ii. Dartmouth appealed the case, employing as counsel its most distinguished alumni, Daniel Webster

iii. The Supreme Court ruled that the original charter must stand. It was a contract, and the Constitution protected contracts against State encroachments

iv. The decision had two effects:

1. It protected businesses from domination by State governments (a charter could not be arbitrarily changed without the consent of both parties)

2. In later years, it safeguarded chartered corporations from needed public control

d. Daniel Webster

i. Senator who argued many Supreme Court cases

ii. He was nationalistic, loose constructionalist and against States’ rights

e. Marshall’s Legacy

i. His decisions can still be felt today

ii. He strengthened the federal Union

iii. He helped to create a stable environment for businesses

XV. Sharing Oregon and Acquiring Florida

a. Reshaping of Foreign Policy

i. America was becoming more nationalistic

ii. President Monroe teamed with his nationalistic Secretary of State John Quincy Adams, son of John Adams

b. Treaty of 1818 (Convention of 1818)

i. Permitted Americans to share Newfoundland and Labrador fisheries with the Canadians

ii. Fixed the vague northern limits of Louisiana along the 49^th parallel

iii. Provided for a 10-year joint occupation of the untamed Oregon Country

c. Florida

i. 1810 – Americans claimed West Florida

ii. Revolutions in:

1. 1816 – Argentina

2. 1817 – Venezuela

3. 1818 – Chile

iii. These upheavals forced Spain to denude (to strip) troops out of Florida in a vain effort to squelch the rebels

iv. This left Florida open, so Andrew Jackson saw an opportunity. He went into Florida on the pretext that the hostile Seminole Indians and fugitive slaves were using Florida as a refuge

v. He was to punish the Indians and capture the runaways. He was to leave Spanish posts alone

vi. However, he seized the two most important Spanish posts in the area, St. Marks and Pensacola, where he deposed the Spanish governor

vii. Monroe consulted his cabinet about what to do with Jackson. All but Adams were for disciplining him

d. Florida Purchase Treaty of 1819 or the Adams-Onis Treaty

i. Adams took the offensive and demanded huge concessions from Spain

ii. The treaty:

1. Helped define the U.S. Mexico border

2. Ceded Florida

3. Spanish claims to Oregon

4. Spain kept California and the New Mexico region

5. America was to vacate Texas, which was to become a part of Mexico

6. U.S. assumed $5 million in debts owed by Spain to American merchants

7. The boundary of Louisiana was to run zigzag along the Rockies and then turn west to the Pacific, diving Oregon from Spanish holdings

iii. Later, lands kept by Spain would become battlegrounds for American expansion

XVI. The Menace of Monarchy in America

a. Revolutions in Spanish America

i. After the Napoleonic nightmare, the rethroned autocrats of Europe banded together in a kind of monarchical protective association

ii. They quickly worked to squelch any democratic Revolution

iii. Rebellions in Italy (1821) and Spain (1823) were smothered

iv. European countries were looking to help Spain with the revolting Spanish colonies in Spanish America

b. American Reaction

i. Sympathetic to democratic revolutions

1. Feared that if the European powers intervened in the New World, the cause of republicanism would suffer irreparable harm

2. The security of the U.S. would be endangered by the proximity of powerful and unfriendly forces

ii. The Americans (and British) enjoyed trade with the newly independent nations in Spanish America. Before, Spain had a monopoly on them. Britain, therefore, did not join in the other European nations in thinking about helping Spain

c. Russians and Alaska

i. The Russian monarchy was pressing down Alaska to the line of 51 degrees, an area that embraced most of the coast of present-day British Columbia. The Russians had already established trading posts almost as far south as the entrance to San Francisco Bay

ii. Americans feared that they were going to try to cut California off from the rest of the republic

iii. Russia signed the Russo-American Treaty of 1824, fixing the southernmost limit at the present southern tip of the Alaska panhandle

XVII. Monroe and His Doctrine (1823)

a. The British Offer

i. They offered to combine with America in a joint declaration renouncing any interest in acquiring Latin American territory, and specifically warning the European despots to keep their hands off the Latin American republics

ii. Secretary Adams was wary of the Britons. He believed that the British feared that America would one day seize Spanish territory in the Caribbean, jeopardizing the British holdings there. If Britain could get America to support the territorial integrity of the New World, America’s own hands would be morally tied

iii. Adams came to this conclusion:

1. That there were no concrete European plans of invasion

2. Any invasion attempt would be met with the British navy because they would want to keep the South American markets open

b. Monroe Doctrine

i. In Monroe’s annual message to Congress, he incorporated a stern warning to the European powers:

1. Noncolonization

2. Nonintervention

ii. Old World countries could keep what they had in the New World, but could have no more

iii. Monroe bluntly directed the kings of Europe to keep their hated monarchical systems out of this hemisphere

iv. The U.S. would not intervene in the war that the Greeks were then fighting against the Turks for their independence

XVIII. Monroe’s Doctrine Appraised

a. European Reaction to the Monroe Doctrine

i. They were deeply offended by Monroe’s declaration, more so because of the difference between the statement and their small military

ii. However, they couldn’t do anything because of the British navy like Adams had predicted

b. Latin American Reaction to the Monroe Doctrine

i. Saw that the U.S. was only secondarily concerned about their neighbors, because the U.S. was primarily concerned about defending himself against future invasion

ii. Only a relatively few educated Latin Americans knew of the message

iii. Recognized that the British navy, not America, stood between them and a hostile Europe

c. Monroe Doctrine’s Legacy

i. Americans applauded it and then forgot it. Not until 1845 did President Polk revive it, when it became an important doctrine

ii. It serve as self-defense for America

iii. Some of Monroe’s successors have ignored, revived, distorted, or expanded the original version

iv. It was an expression of the post-1812 nationalism

v. It deepened the illusion of isolationism