WEBVTT

1
00:00:17.960 --> 00:00:23.000
<v Speaker 1>Hello and Welcome to Western sev Episode five hundred and nine.

2
00:00:23.960 --> 00:00:30.000
<v Speaker 1>The War of eighteen twelve. When James Madison entered office

3
00:00:30.679 --> 00:00:36.000
<v Speaker 1>succeeding Thomas Jefferson, the United States had spent years being

4
00:00:36.039 --> 00:00:42.640
<v Speaker 1>squeezed by the Napoleonic wars, Napoleon's blockade of Britain Britain's

5
00:00:42.759 --> 00:00:47.640
<v Speaker 1>answer with an even broader blockade of Europe. In practice,

6
00:00:47.840 --> 00:00:52.960
<v Speaker 1>both sides had been seizing American ships, but Britain kept

7
00:00:53.479 --> 00:00:57.799
<v Speaker 1>going further, and Madison knows that this is the real powder.

8
00:00:57.880 --> 00:01:03.320
<v Speaker 1>Keg Royal Navy, and desperately short of manpower, began stopping

9
00:01:03.320 --> 00:01:09.519
<v Speaker 1>American vessels and forcibly removing sailors, sometimes deserters from the

10
00:01:09.599 --> 00:01:14.040
<v Speaker 1>Royal Navy, which would be fair, sometimes native born Americans,

11
00:01:14.079 --> 00:01:18.400
<v Speaker 1>sometimes Irish immigrants who had not yet become citizens. The

12
00:01:18.480 --> 00:01:24.040
<v Speaker 1>practice was called impressment, and it enraged every American in

13
00:01:24.120 --> 00:01:29.120
<v Speaker 1>every port city. The Chesapeake Leopard Affair in eighteen oh seven,

14
00:01:29.400 --> 00:01:32.200
<v Speaker 1>when a British warship fired on American frigate, which I

15
00:01:32.239 --> 00:01:36.480
<v Speaker 1>mentioned last time, was still burning hot in American memory.

16
00:01:37.799 --> 00:01:41.239
<v Speaker 1>President Jefferson had tried to respond with an embargo that

17
00:01:41.359 --> 00:01:45.840
<v Speaker 1>shut down American exports altogether. It was a gambit that

18
00:01:45.920 --> 00:01:51.280
<v Speaker 1>Madison had supported, but the embargo backfired, crippling New England

19
00:01:51.319 --> 00:01:56.200
<v Speaker 1>commerce and breeding even more resentment. By the time Madison

20
00:01:56.239 --> 00:01:59.799
<v Speaker 1>took office, the embargo was over and replaced by a

21
00:02:00.079 --> 00:02:03.280
<v Speaker 1>matchwork of laws trying to coerce Britain or France into

22
00:02:03.319 --> 00:02:08.960
<v Speaker 1>respecting American neutrality, but nothing worked. America was a nation

23
00:02:09.080 --> 00:02:11.080
<v Speaker 1>at this point with a lot of pride, but not

24
00:02:11.199 --> 00:02:15.680
<v Speaker 1>a lot of leverage. The Jeffersonian dream of peaceful coercion

25
00:02:16.639 --> 00:02:22.120
<v Speaker 1>was an illusion. American honor, something that politicians invoked constantly,

26
00:02:22.960 --> 00:02:29.439
<v Speaker 1>seemed to be insulted almost daily. Now. Madison, often caricatured

27
00:02:29.479 --> 00:02:33.599
<v Speaker 1>in history books as timid, was in reality a cautious strategist.

28
00:02:34.199 --> 00:02:37.719
<v Speaker 1>He understood that the United States lacked the Navy, the army,

29
00:02:38.039 --> 00:02:42.280
<v Speaker 1>and the financial muscle for a major war. His hope,

30
00:02:42.639 --> 00:02:48.319
<v Speaker 1>maybe his illusion, was that economic tools might pressure Britain

31
00:02:48.439 --> 00:02:53.879
<v Speaker 1>or France into some concessions. The crucial experiment was Megan's

32
00:02:53.919 --> 00:02:59.680
<v Speaker 1>Bill Number two, passed in eighteen ten. It reopened a

33
00:02:59.680 --> 00:03:04.280
<v Speaker 1>Maria trade, but promised that if either Britain or France

34
00:03:04.719 --> 00:03:09.639
<v Speaker 1>stopped attacking American ships, the United States would embargo the other.

35
00:03:10.400 --> 00:03:15.199
<v Speaker 1>It was essentially a carrot and stick rolled into one. Napoleon,

36
00:03:15.360 --> 00:03:19.719
<v Speaker 1>always shrewd, pretended to accept the offer. He announced that

37
00:03:19.759 --> 00:03:23.840
<v Speaker 1>he would rescind his decrees against American shipping. In truth,

38
00:03:24.319 --> 00:03:28.639
<v Speaker 1>he continued seizing ships whenever it suited him, but his

39
00:03:28.759 --> 00:03:36.840
<v Speaker 1>diplomatic sleight of hand forced Madison into embargoing Britain, worsening tensions. Now. Meanwhile,

40
00:03:37.360 --> 00:03:43.199
<v Speaker 1>the Western frontier shimmered there. In What's going to become Indiana,

41
00:03:43.680 --> 00:03:48.599
<v Speaker 1>a charismatic Shawnee leader named Tecumseh sought to forge a

42
00:03:48.759 --> 00:03:54.199
<v Speaker 1>pan Indian alliance against American expansion. His brother, a spiritual

43
00:03:54.240 --> 00:03:57.400
<v Speaker 1>prophet who in history books is normally simply referred to

44
00:03:57.479 --> 00:04:00.599
<v Speaker 1>as the prophet, But if you dig deeper, he has

45
00:04:00.599 --> 00:04:05.439
<v Speaker 1>a name. It's tense Kawata. He preached revival and resistance.

46
00:04:06.319 --> 00:04:11.000
<v Speaker 1>American officials meanwhile, blamed the British and British agents for

47
00:04:11.199 --> 00:04:17.240
<v Speaker 1>stirring up the unrest from Canada. Former frontiersman congressmen, so

48
00:04:17.439 --> 00:04:21.839
<v Speaker 1>called Warhawks, led by Henry Clay and John C. Calhoun,

49
00:04:22.120 --> 00:04:24.759
<v Speaker 1>two names you'll have to know going forward, argued that

50
00:04:24.800 --> 00:04:28.360
<v Speaker 1>the British influence over Native nations had to be crushed

51
00:04:28.920 --> 00:04:32.160
<v Speaker 1>and the way to do it was to conquer Canada. Now,

52
00:04:32.160 --> 00:04:35.120
<v Speaker 1>in a spirit typical of literally every nation that has

53
00:04:35.199 --> 00:04:39.199
<v Speaker 1>ever gone to war in the history of time, men

54
00:04:39.319 --> 00:04:42.920
<v Speaker 1>like these told Congress that Canada could be conquered quickly

55
00:04:43.439 --> 00:04:49.199
<v Speaker 1>without difficulties. As we know, those assertions are almost never right.

56
00:04:50.439 --> 00:04:56.360
<v Speaker 1>War with Britain, once unthinkable, now seemed inevitable, and so

57
00:04:57.079 --> 00:05:01.079
<v Speaker 1>in June of eighteen twelve, with the arrowist margin in

58
00:05:01.120 --> 00:05:04.120
<v Speaker 1>the history of the United States for a declaration of war,

59
00:05:04.920 --> 00:05:09.920
<v Speaker 1>Congress formally approved hostilities with Great Britain, and so the

60
00:05:09.959 --> 00:05:15.079
<v Speaker 1>War of eighteen twelve had begun. Now, Madison's declaration of

61
00:05:15.160 --> 00:05:19.000
<v Speaker 1>war was bold, but the army he commanded was not.

62
00:05:20.160 --> 00:05:25.000
<v Speaker 1>America's regular army numbered fewer than seven thousand men. State

63
00:05:25.120 --> 00:05:29.600
<v Speaker 1>militias were unreliable, sometimes refusing to cross state lines. The

64
00:05:29.720 --> 00:05:34.519
<v Speaker 1>Navy was small but tenacious. The financial system was shaky.

65
00:05:35.399 --> 00:05:39.560
<v Speaker 1>Congress had refused to recharter the Bank of the United States,

66
00:05:39.600 --> 00:05:43.079
<v Speaker 1>depriving the nation of a stable credit institution, just as

67
00:05:43.120 --> 00:05:49.720
<v Speaker 1>war expenses loomed. The early campaigns would reflect these weaknesses. Now,

68
00:05:49.759 --> 00:05:53.600
<v Speaker 1>the first plan was for a northern offensive. The War

69
00:05:53.680 --> 00:05:58.199
<v Speaker 1>Department planned a triumphant March into Canada, but the reality

70
00:05:58.920 --> 00:06:04.920
<v Speaker 1>was humiliation. General William Hull, in command at Detroit, panicked

71
00:06:05.160 --> 00:06:08.720
<v Speaker 1>when he heard exaggerated reports of British and Native strength.

72
00:06:09.360 --> 00:06:14.680
<v Speaker 1>He surrendered the entire fortress without firing a shot. At

73
00:06:14.759 --> 00:06:19.959
<v Speaker 1>Queenstown Heights, American militia refused to cross into Canada, leaving

74
00:06:20.040 --> 00:06:24.720
<v Speaker 1>regular troops stranded. They were quickly overwhelmed by British forces

75
00:06:24.920 --> 00:06:30.120
<v Speaker 1>and Mohawk warriors. A third attempt failed near Montreal, plagued

76
00:06:30.199 --> 00:06:35.399
<v Speaker 1>by poor coordination and lack of supplies. As one New

77
00:06:35.399 --> 00:06:40.160
<v Speaker 1>England newspaper sneered, mister Madison's war had begun with a

78
00:06:40.199 --> 00:06:46.000
<v Speaker 1>string of disasters, but not all. The news was quite

79
00:06:46.040 --> 00:06:50.000
<v Speaker 1>so bleak to be fair. If the army faltered, the

80
00:06:50.040 --> 00:06:55.959
<v Speaker 1>American Navy shown on the Open Atlantic. American frigates astonished

81
00:06:56.000 --> 00:07:01.879
<v Speaker 1>the world. The USS Constitution, nicknamed Old Ironsides, defeated the

82
00:07:02.160 --> 00:07:06.879
<v Speaker 1>HMS Guerrer in a stunning duel. The USS United States

83
00:07:07.319 --> 00:07:13.279
<v Speaker 1>captured the HMS. Macedonian Captain Stephen Decatur and others won

84
00:07:13.360 --> 00:07:18.759
<v Speaker 1>victories that continued to electrify the nation. Each triumph boosted

85
00:07:18.800 --> 00:07:23.439
<v Speaker 1>American morale and gave the new nation a renewed sense

86
00:07:23.639 --> 00:07:28.519
<v Speaker 1>of American identity. Our navy has covered itself in glory,

87
00:07:29.000 --> 00:07:35.800
<v Speaker 1>wrote one newspaper, and our country with honor. No naval victories, however,

88
00:07:35.879 --> 00:07:40.519
<v Speaker 1>dramatic could decide this war. But control at this point,

89
00:07:40.600 --> 00:07:43.279
<v Speaker 1>not of the Atlantic, but of the Great Lakes was

90
00:07:43.360 --> 00:07:48.079
<v Speaker 1>actually the crucial decision here. And so in eighteen thirteen,

91
00:07:48.519 --> 00:07:52.480
<v Speaker 1>a young naval commander named Oliver Hazard Perry built a

92
00:07:52.519 --> 00:07:57.319
<v Speaker 1>fleet from Green Timber in Lake Erie. In September, meeting

93
00:07:57.319 --> 00:08:02.560
<v Speaker 1>the British head on, Perry won a battle. His message

94
00:08:02.879 --> 00:08:07.480
<v Speaker 1>to General Harrison became iconic in American military lore, quote,

95
00:08:07.920 --> 00:08:12.360
<v Speaker 1>we have met the enemy and they are ours. With

96
00:08:12.480 --> 00:08:18.000
<v Speaker 1>Lake Erie secured, Americans now could recapture Detroit and defeated

97
00:08:18.279 --> 00:08:21.680
<v Speaker 1>to Coumsay's forces at the Battle of the Thames, where

98
00:08:21.720 --> 00:08:25.360
<v Speaker 1>takomes To himself was killed, an enormous blow to Native

99
00:08:25.399 --> 00:08:31.279
<v Speaker 1>resistance in the Northwest. Meanwhile, on Lake Ontario and Lake Champlain,

100
00:08:31.759 --> 00:08:36.639
<v Speaker 1>a war of maneuver continued, neither side gaining a definite advantage,

101
00:08:37.120 --> 00:08:42.679
<v Speaker 1>but the momentum slowly, subtly had shifted. Now we have

102
00:08:42.720 --> 00:08:45.960
<v Speaker 1>to bear in mind all of this is simply a

103
00:08:46.039 --> 00:08:49.360
<v Speaker 1>side showed to the British, to the actual conflict that's

104
00:08:49.399 --> 00:08:52.320
<v Speaker 1>going on in the Europe, and of course we'll talk

105
00:08:52.360 --> 00:08:55.799
<v Speaker 1>about that in a lot greater detail in our next episode.

106
00:08:56.200 --> 00:09:00.320
<v Speaker 1>But in eighteen fourteen, Napoleon will be briefly defeated, and

107
00:09:00.399 --> 00:09:03.799
<v Speaker 1>with Europe at peace, Britain could now finally concentrate on

108
00:09:03.840 --> 00:09:09.080
<v Speaker 1>the American War. Fresh troops, veterans of Wellington's campaigns against

109
00:09:09.120 --> 00:09:13.919
<v Speaker 1>Napoleon arrived in Canada and the Chesapeake that summer. A

110
00:09:13.960 --> 00:09:20.960
<v Speaker 1>British forts marched practically unopposed toward Washington. At Bladensburg, American

111
00:09:21.000 --> 00:09:25.600
<v Speaker 1>militia broke under fire. President Madison himself was actually on

112
00:09:25.639 --> 00:09:28.320
<v Speaker 1>the field that day trying to rally the troops, but

113
00:09:28.399 --> 00:09:33.000
<v Speaker 1>to little effect, and the British entered Washington, DC that

114
00:09:33.200 --> 00:09:36.960
<v Speaker 1>very night. They set fire to the Capitol, to the Treasury,

115
00:09:37.240 --> 00:09:41.000
<v Speaker 1>and to the White House. From a nearby hill, Dolly

116
00:09:41.039 --> 00:09:45.559
<v Speaker 1>Madison's portrait of George Washington, rescued at the very last moment,

117
00:09:46.039 --> 00:09:50.440
<v Speaker 1>was safe, but the city itself glowed with orange flame.

118
00:09:51.679 --> 00:09:56.600
<v Speaker 1>Never had America suffered such a humiliation. What was interesting, though,

119
00:09:56.679 --> 00:09:59.879
<v Speaker 1>is even in this moment of despair, the Republic did

120
00:10:00.120 --> 00:10:04.360
<v Speaker 1>not break. Madison called Congress to meet in temporary quarters.

121
00:10:04.879 --> 00:10:09.480
<v Speaker 1>He insisted that the government was intact, America's sovereignty endured,

122
00:10:10.320 --> 00:10:15.039
<v Speaker 1>and across the nation, citizens rallied. As we'll get to

123
00:10:15.320 --> 00:10:18.519
<v Speaker 1>more in a moment. New England federalists were grumbling and

124
00:10:18.919 --> 00:10:22.919
<v Speaker 1>forming their own convention at Harford, but most Americans saw

125
00:10:22.960 --> 00:10:25.480
<v Speaker 1>the war not as a partisan blunder, but is a

126
00:10:25.519 --> 00:10:30.080
<v Speaker 1>test of national survival. The War of eighteen twelve is

127
00:10:30.120 --> 00:10:33.960
<v Speaker 1>oftentimes called the Second War of American Independence, and for

128
00:10:34.080 --> 00:10:38.240
<v Speaker 1>good reason, a lot of parallels with the first. Now,

129
00:10:38.240 --> 00:10:43.720
<v Speaker 1>while Washington smoldered, British forces targeted the city of Baltimore next.

130
00:10:44.720 --> 00:10:49.399
<v Speaker 1>The attack culminated at Fort McHenry, where American defenders held

131
00:10:49.480 --> 00:10:54.080
<v Speaker 1>firm against a night long bombardment. And there a young

132
00:10:54.159 --> 00:10:58.360
<v Speaker 1>lawyer named Francis Scott Key watched from a British ship,

133
00:10:58.799 --> 00:11:04.519
<v Speaker 1>seeing the sky lit explosions. At dawn, the flag still flew.

134
00:11:05.639 --> 00:11:08.799
<v Speaker 1>His poem, written on the back of a letter, would

135
00:11:08.840 --> 00:11:13.519
<v Speaker 1>later become the Star Spangled Banner. But as I mentioned before,

136
00:11:14.399 --> 00:11:20.799
<v Speaker 1>not all was well. North in New England, Federalist anger smoldered.

137
00:11:25.559 --> 00:11:28.639
<v Speaker 1>The winter of eighteen fourteen had come early to New England.

138
00:11:29.159 --> 00:11:31.879
<v Speaker 1>Along the Atlantic coast, The cold wind blew in from

139
00:11:31.879 --> 00:11:36.039
<v Speaker 1>the sea and carried with a quiet dread the sense

140
00:11:36.080 --> 00:11:38.600
<v Speaker 1>that the war that had started two years earlier had

141
00:11:38.639 --> 00:11:42.360
<v Speaker 1>turned against the United States. And from the New England perspective,

142
00:11:42.759 --> 00:11:45.399
<v Speaker 1>setting aside all the naval victories in the Great Lakes,

143
00:11:45.399 --> 00:11:48.000
<v Speaker 1>which could have been as far away as England itself,

144
00:11:48.559 --> 00:11:53.000
<v Speaker 1>it's easy to see why British ships prowled the shoreline.

145
00:11:53.679 --> 00:11:56.799
<v Speaker 1>Ports which were the lifeblood of New England were blockaded.

146
00:11:57.440 --> 00:12:03.240
<v Speaker 1>Commerce lay strangled, and in Boston and New Haven, in Providence,

147
00:12:03.279 --> 00:12:09.000
<v Speaker 1>in Portsmouth, a dangerous thought drifted through coffeehouses and the taverns.

148
00:12:09.840 --> 00:12:14.759
<v Speaker 1>Had the federal government simply betrayed New England. Now, this

149
00:12:14.840 --> 00:12:19.159
<v Speaker 1>is the story of the Hartford Convention, the most serious

150
00:12:19.200 --> 00:12:23.639
<v Speaker 1>political crisis the Young Republic had faced since the Constitution

151
00:12:23.840 --> 00:12:26.960
<v Speaker 1>was ratified. Though it's rarely talked about in the history books,

152
00:12:27.960 --> 00:12:31.799
<v Speaker 1>it was a gathering so controversial that its name later

153
00:12:31.840 --> 00:12:37.200
<v Speaker 1>on would become synonymous with treason in the American memory. Now,

154
00:12:37.240 --> 00:12:42.080
<v Speaker 1>to understand the Hartford Convention, we really have to make

155
00:12:42.080 --> 00:12:46.679
<v Speaker 1>sure we understand our context. Now, Obviously, when the United

156
00:12:46.720 --> 00:12:50.559
<v Speaker 1>States found itself entangled in the Napoleonic Wars, it was

157
00:12:50.639 --> 00:12:54.279
<v Speaker 1>clear that an embargo policy was going to come into place.

158
00:12:55.240 --> 00:12:59.240
<v Speaker 1>But New England's economy was a maritime economy. It was

159
00:12:59.279 --> 00:13:04.080
<v Speaker 1>built on shipping trade and a thriving commercial network that

160
00:13:04.200 --> 00:13:08.960
<v Speaker 1>stretched from the Caribbean to Britain. When war severed all

161
00:13:09.000 --> 00:13:14.240
<v Speaker 1>these arteries, entire towns in New England simply withered and disappeared.

162
00:13:15.399 --> 00:13:20.720
<v Speaker 1>Federalist politicians who still dominated New England despite the fact

163
00:13:20.759 --> 00:13:23.960
<v Speaker 1>that they hadn't won a major election since John Adams

164
00:13:24.639 --> 00:13:28.879
<v Speaker 1>warned loudly that the war was unnecessary, it was destructive,

165
00:13:29.679 --> 00:13:34.480
<v Speaker 1>and it was the product of the quote unquote Virginia ideology.

166
00:13:35.000 --> 00:13:39.919
<v Speaker 1>In their eyes, Jeffersonians and Madisonians had plunged the nation

167
00:13:40.200 --> 00:13:45.320
<v Speaker 1>into a conflict for abstract notions of honor that maybe

168
00:13:45.360 --> 00:13:49.879
<v Speaker 1>made sense in the frontier, but not in coastal mercantile cities.

169
00:13:50.960 --> 00:13:56.399
<v Speaker 1>And so they called it mister Madison's War, and slowly

170
00:13:57.080 --> 00:14:01.919
<v Speaker 1>resentment hearted into something else. Fear that the Federal Compact

171
00:14:02.320 --> 00:14:08.200
<v Speaker 1>was becoming misused, even abused, And so by eighteen fourteen

172
00:14:08.279 --> 00:14:11.600
<v Speaker 1>the situation had grown particularly dire. As we know, the

173
00:14:11.600 --> 00:14:15.600
<v Speaker 1>British had burned DC and the Royal Navy. To those

174
00:14:15.679 --> 00:14:18.159
<v Speaker 1>in New England, this is worse than the DC issue

175
00:14:18.480 --> 00:14:23.360
<v Speaker 1>had tightened its blockade on the New England coast, the

176
00:14:23.440 --> 00:14:27.759
<v Speaker 1>region's militia simply refused to leave state borders to fight

177
00:14:27.799 --> 00:14:32.799
<v Speaker 1>for the national army, and trade had collapsed. The rumors

178
00:14:32.799 --> 00:14:37.200
<v Speaker 1>flew everywhere that Britain might try to seize and occupy

179
00:14:37.440 --> 00:14:42.799
<v Speaker 1>New England outright, and so Federalist government claimed that the

180
00:14:42.840 --> 00:14:47.559
<v Speaker 1>Madison administration was neglecting their defense while siphoning money and

181
00:14:47.639 --> 00:14:53.440
<v Speaker 1>manpower for pointless invasions of Canada. Many New Englanders felt abandoned.

182
00:14:54.200 --> 00:14:58.279
<v Speaker 1>Some even believed that the war was unconstitutional in the

183
00:14:58.320 --> 00:15:02.960
<v Speaker 1>first place, and so in October of eighteen fourteen, the

184
00:15:03.039 --> 00:15:08.320
<v Speaker 1>Massachusetts legislature issued a call delegates from New England states

185
00:15:08.480 --> 00:15:13.480
<v Speaker 1>should meet to consider quote the grievances under which they labor.

186
00:15:14.639 --> 00:15:19.120
<v Speaker 1>The location chosen was Hartford, Connecticut, a quiet river city

187
00:15:19.159 --> 00:15:24.519
<v Speaker 1>far from major British positions, and so, through the December snows,

188
00:15:25.039 --> 00:15:29.240
<v Speaker 1>twenty six delegates made their way toward Hartford, carrying with

189
00:15:29.279 --> 00:15:33.159
<v Speaker 1>them the weight of a region's frustration and growing anger,

190
00:15:34.039 --> 00:15:36.960
<v Speaker 1>and the hopes of those who whispered that maybe the

191
00:15:37.080 --> 00:15:44.240
<v Speaker 1>Union itself was no longer serving them. On December fifteenth,

192
00:15:44.320 --> 00:15:49.759
<v Speaker 1>eighteen fourteen, the Hartford Convention began. No reporters were present,

193
00:15:50.360 --> 00:15:53.919
<v Speaker 1>no minutes were ever published, and the secrecy around the

194
00:15:53.960 --> 00:15:58.919
<v Speaker 1>event only deepened suspicion outside. But the men who gathered

195
00:15:58.919 --> 00:16:02.320
<v Speaker 1>were no wild ratticles. They were, for the most part,

196
00:16:02.679 --> 00:16:09.759
<v Speaker 1>pretty centrist minded federalists, merchants, lawyers, and governors, men who

197
00:16:09.759 --> 00:16:14.440
<v Speaker 1>believed that the Constitution could and must be preserved if

198
00:16:14.480 --> 00:16:19.000
<v Speaker 1>certain reforms could be made. Still, the stakes were enormous,

199
00:16:19.039 --> 00:16:22.320
<v Speaker 1>at least for these men. Outside the walls. The newspaper

200
00:16:22.600 --> 00:16:27.600
<v Speaker 1>accused them of plotting secession. Inside the conversation walked on

201
00:16:27.639 --> 00:16:32.799
<v Speaker 1>a razor's edge. Did some delegates think about leaving the Union?

202
00:16:33.559 --> 00:16:37.120
<v Speaker 1>Almost certainly, yes, But the majority understood that the moment

203
00:16:37.240 --> 00:16:42.919
<v Speaker 1>was too fragile, the consequences too grave. Instead, they pursued

204
00:16:42.919 --> 00:16:47.600
<v Speaker 1>a strategy of proposing constitutional amendments that they believed would

205
00:16:47.600 --> 00:16:50.480
<v Speaker 1>protect New England from what they saw as the tyranny

206
00:16:50.559 --> 00:16:54.279
<v Speaker 1>of the southern and western states. Now, for those of

207
00:16:54.320 --> 00:16:56.000
<v Speaker 1>you who know your American history, you know this is

208
00:16:56.039 --> 00:17:00.159
<v Speaker 1>all terribly ironic, because it's exactly what the South is

209
00:17:00.200 --> 00:17:03.440
<v Speaker 1>going to accuse New England and the North and West

210
00:17:03.480 --> 00:17:07.200
<v Speaker 1>of in about fifty years and that's going to be

211
00:17:07.240 --> 00:17:11.000
<v Speaker 1>the cause for Southern secession. Many people don't realize it,

212
00:17:11.039 --> 00:17:14.559
<v Speaker 1>but New England actually tried to reverse the script in

213
00:17:14.640 --> 00:17:20.200
<v Speaker 1>eighteen fourteen. Now, the proposed amendments would have totally altered

214
00:17:20.200 --> 00:17:23.640
<v Speaker 1>the course of American history. The first was to repeal

215
00:17:23.720 --> 00:17:28.160
<v Speaker 1>the three fifths clause. New England resented how enslaved populations

216
00:17:28.160 --> 00:17:32.400
<v Speaker 1>in the South inflated Southern political power in Congress and

217
00:17:32.559 --> 00:17:36.200
<v Speaker 1>in the electoral College. They also wanted to change the

218
00:17:36.279 --> 00:17:40.079
<v Speaker 1>rules for some votes that would require then a two

219
00:17:40.279 --> 00:17:45.039
<v Speaker 1>thirds vote in Congress for declaring war, admitting new states,

220
00:17:45.799 --> 00:17:50.440
<v Speaker 1>an imposing embargoes that lasted more than sixty days. This

221
00:17:50.920 --> 00:17:55.400
<v Speaker 1>aimed to prevent the quote unquote Virginia presidents and Western

222
00:17:55.440 --> 00:17:59.240
<v Speaker 1>warhawks from dragging New England into conflicts that they felt

223
00:17:59.240 --> 00:18:02.799
<v Speaker 1>the majority of the country didn't want. They also wanted

224
00:18:02.799 --> 00:18:06.200
<v Speaker 1>a constitutional amendment that would limit the presidency to one

225
00:18:06.359 --> 00:18:11.440
<v Speaker 1>single term and prohibit successive presidents from serving from the

226
00:18:11.480 --> 00:18:15.160
<v Speaker 1>same states. You couldn't have two Virginia presidents in a row.

227
00:18:15.720 --> 00:18:17.400
<v Speaker 1>And that was a direct site by the way, at

228
00:18:17.400 --> 00:18:22.519
<v Speaker 1>the Virginia dynasty that went Washington, Jefferson Madison. They wanted

229
00:18:22.559 --> 00:18:27.240
<v Speaker 1>to restrict the naturalization of immigrants as well, because federalists

230
00:18:27.359 --> 00:18:31.799
<v Speaker 1>feared the growing power of political influence of these newcomers,

231
00:18:32.079 --> 00:18:37.160
<v Speaker 1>who tended overwhelmingly to support the Democratic Republicans. These weren't

232
00:18:37.240 --> 00:18:41.519
<v Speaker 1>the proposals of radical rebels. They were the demands of

233
00:18:41.559 --> 00:18:44.559
<v Speaker 1>a region trying to secure power within a union that

234
00:18:44.599 --> 00:18:49.440
<v Speaker 1>they just didn't trust anymore. Still, the delegates adopted a

235
00:18:49.480 --> 00:18:53.240
<v Speaker 1>final resolution that hinted at least at the edges of rebellion.

236
00:18:53.960 --> 00:18:57.359
<v Speaker 1>They said, if the federal government failed to adopt these measures,

237
00:18:57.759 --> 00:19:02.119
<v Speaker 1>then New England must quote seek its safety in arrangements

238
00:19:02.559 --> 00:19:07.960
<v Speaker 1>not inconsistent with the Constitution. That phrase was vague, but

239
00:19:08.000 --> 00:19:12.680
<v Speaker 1>it was ominous enough that could imply coordinated resistance, nullification,

240
00:19:13.160 --> 00:19:20.079
<v Speaker 1>or maybe even secession. The Convention adjourned on January the fifth,

241
00:19:20.200 --> 00:19:25.319
<v Speaker 1>eighteen fifteen, and dispatched three envoys to Washington to present

242
00:19:25.359 --> 00:19:32.240
<v Speaker 1>their demands, but they would ride too late. In one

243
00:19:32.240 --> 00:19:35.680
<v Speaker 1>of those moments where history seems to enjoy irony, two

244
00:19:35.880 --> 00:19:40.279
<v Speaker 1>stunning pieces of news reached America at almost the exact

245
00:19:40.279 --> 00:19:43.799
<v Speaker 1>same time. The Treaty of Ghent had actually been signed

246
00:19:44.119 --> 00:19:48.160
<v Speaker 1>on Christmas Eve, eighteen fourteen, ending the War of eighteen twelve,

247
00:19:48.240 --> 00:19:50.640
<v Speaker 1>and as we'll get to in a moment, General Andrew

248
00:19:50.720 --> 00:19:54.000
<v Speaker 1>Jackson had won a spectacular victory at New Orleans in

249
00:19:54.039 --> 00:19:59.279
<v Speaker 1>early January, and almost overnight the tide of national sentiment

250
00:19:59.519 --> 00:20:04.160
<v Speaker 1>swung dramatically. Where Americans had lately known only fear and exhaustion,

251
00:20:04.720 --> 00:20:09.799
<v Speaker 1>suddenly they felt triumph and pride. Into this atmosphere marched

252
00:20:09.839 --> 00:20:13.559
<v Speaker 1>the Hartford envoys, ready to present amendments that assumed the

253
00:20:13.599 --> 00:20:17.240
<v Speaker 1>war was still a disaster. But instead of finding themselves

254
00:20:17.279 --> 00:20:23.480
<v Speaker 1>as saviors with solutions, they were outcasts, pariahs. President Madison

255
00:20:23.559 --> 00:20:30.279
<v Speaker 1>simply ignored their proposals. Congress rejected them outright. Newspapers mocked

256
00:20:30.279 --> 00:20:36.720
<v Speaker 1>the men as defeatists, schemers, some even traders. One critic wrote, quote,

257
00:20:36.839 --> 00:20:40.519
<v Speaker 1>they arrived to bury the Constitution and found it reborn.

258
00:20:41.640 --> 00:20:45.759
<v Speaker 1>Another quote, they came to save the nation and instead

259
00:20:46.240 --> 00:20:51.440
<v Speaker 1>buried their own party, and indeed they had. The Federalist

260
00:20:51.519 --> 00:20:54.480
<v Speaker 1>Party never recovered from the suspicion that it had flirted

261
00:20:54.480 --> 00:21:00.079
<v Speaker 1>with disunion. The Hartford Convention became a political millstone and

262
00:21:00.279 --> 00:21:05.480
<v Speaker 1>was dragged up whenever the Federalists tried to claim patriotic legitimacy.

263
00:21:06.400 --> 00:21:10.119
<v Speaker 1>By the election of eighteen sixteen, the party was officially

264
00:21:10.480 --> 00:21:15.920
<v Speaker 1>and forever broken. Now, of course, we need to turn

265
00:21:15.960 --> 00:21:18.759
<v Speaker 1>our attention to the end of the war and talk

266
00:21:18.799 --> 00:21:22.319
<v Speaker 1>about that in a little bit more detail, because the

267
00:21:22.319 --> 00:21:25.279
<v Speaker 1>Treaty of Ghent is interesting. Even as the fighting rages,

268
00:21:26.519 --> 00:21:30.000
<v Speaker 1>sides were talking in Ghent, which is in modern day Belgium.

269
00:21:30.559 --> 00:21:35.599
<v Speaker 1>Both sides, America and British, were exhausted and frustrated, and

270
00:21:35.839 --> 00:21:40.720
<v Speaker 1>eventually agreed to essentially just restore the status quo. Impressment

271
00:21:41.000 --> 00:21:45.920
<v Speaker 1>ironically simply disappeared on its own as Europe would slowly

272
00:21:46.079 --> 00:21:49.799
<v Speaker 1>but surely stabilize. The Treaty of Ghent was signed on

273
00:21:49.920 --> 00:21:54.680
<v Speaker 1>Christmas Eve eighteen fourteen, but news traveled slowly, and before

274
00:21:54.839 --> 00:21:58.400
<v Speaker 1>the treaty reached America, one more battle would etch itself

275
00:21:58.400 --> 00:22:01.920
<v Speaker 1>into legend, a battle that was actually fought after the

276
00:22:01.960 --> 00:22:07.559
<v Speaker 1>war was over. In early January eighteen fifteen, outside New Orleans,

277
00:22:08.079 --> 00:22:12.440
<v Speaker 1>General Andrew Jackson led a motley army of frontier riflemen,

278
00:22:12.799 --> 00:22:17.119
<v Speaker 1>free Black volunteers, Choctaw warriors. That part's going to be ironic.

279
00:22:17.200 --> 00:22:21.079
<v Speaker 1>Later on, sailors, and even a group of pirates under

280
00:22:21.160 --> 00:22:25.599
<v Speaker 1>Jean Lafitte behind the earthworks along the Mississippi they repelled

281
00:22:25.599 --> 00:22:30.960
<v Speaker 1>a massive British assault, inflicting staggering casualties. Now the victory

282
00:22:31.039 --> 00:22:35.400
<v Speaker 1>came after peace had been negotiated, but it transformed American morale.

283
00:22:36.200 --> 00:22:39.559
<v Speaker 1>Jackson became a national hero and will go on to

284
00:22:39.599 --> 00:22:44.319
<v Speaker 1>become president, and the war, once divisive and disastrous, suddenly

285
00:22:44.359 --> 00:22:51.039
<v Speaker 1>seemed overwhelmingly triumphant. Now James Madison left office in eighteen seventeen,

286
00:22:51.640 --> 00:22:56.720
<v Speaker 1>quietly returning to Montpeilerer. His presidency had been marked by crisis,

287
00:22:57.200 --> 00:23:01.359
<v Speaker 1>uncertainty and the closest that the public had come until

288
00:23:01.400 --> 00:23:04.920
<v Speaker 1>the American Civil War to collapse. But by the time

289
00:23:04.960 --> 00:23:08.839
<v Speaker 1>he stepped down, something extraordinary had started to happen in America.

290
00:23:09.799 --> 00:23:14.200
<v Speaker 1>Despite military blunders, despite the burning of the Capitol, despite

291
00:23:14.200 --> 00:23:17.599
<v Speaker 1>political division, the United States had stood up to the

292
00:23:17.640 --> 00:23:21.240
<v Speaker 1>strongest empire in the world, and it had survived. But

293
00:23:21.319 --> 00:23:25.000
<v Speaker 1>more importantly, it emerged with the strength and sense of

294
00:23:25.200 --> 00:23:31.160
<v Speaker 1>national identity. No longer were the Americans speaking of these

295
00:23:31.720 --> 00:23:38.960
<v Speaker 1>United States. The talk was now of the United States. Grammatical,

296
00:23:39.119 --> 00:23:42.599
<v Speaker 1>though the change may be, it's important. People started to

297
00:23:42.599 --> 00:23:45.920
<v Speaker 1>speak of themselves for the first time, not as Virginians

298
00:23:46.000 --> 00:23:50.079
<v Speaker 1>or New Yorkers, but as Americans, and that change will

299
00:23:50.079 --> 00:23:55.480
<v Speaker 1>be decisive going forward, and into this new spirit, what

300
00:23:55.720 --> 00:24:01.200
<v Speaker 1>historians would call the era of good feelings began. But

301
00:24:01.359 --> 00:24:04.759
<v Speaker 1>back in Europe there was to be no era of

302
00:24:04.839 --> 00:24:08.440
<v Speaker 1>good feelings, at least not yet, because now we need

303
00:24:08.480 --> 00:24:12.680
<v Speaker 1>to turn back the clock slightly, return to Europe and

304
00:24:12.759 --> 00:24:14.960
<v Speaker 1>finish the Napoleonic Wars