Speaker 1: Hello and Welcome to Western sev Episode five hundred and nine.
Speaker 1: The War of eighteen twelve. When James Madison entered office
Speaker 1: succeeding Thomas Jefferson, the United States had spent years being
Speaker 1: squeezed by the Napoleonic wars, Napoleon's blockade of Britain Britain's
Speaker 1: answer with an even broader blockade of Europe. In practice,
Speaker 1: both sides had been seizing American ships, but Britain kept
Speaker 1: going further, and Madison knows that this is the real powder.
Speaker 1: Keg Royal Navy, and desperately short of manpower, began stopping
Speaker 1: American vessels and forcibly removing sailors, sometimes deserters from the
Speaker 1: Royal Navy, which would be fair, sometimes native born Americans,
Speaker 1: sometimes Irish immigrants who had not yet become citizens. The
Speaker 1: practice was called impressment, and it enraged every American in
Speaker 1: every port city. The Chesapeake Leopard Affair in eighteen oh seven,
Speaker 1: when a British warship fired on American frigate, which I
Speaker 1: mentioned last time, was still burning hot in American memory.
Speaker 1: President Jefferson had tried to respond with an embargo that
Speaker 1: shut down American exports altogether. It was a gambit that
Speaker 1: Madison had supported, but the embargo backfired, crippling New England
Speaker 1: commerce and breeding even more resentment. By the time Madison
Speaker 1: took office, the embargo was over and replaced by a
Speaker 1: matchwork of laws trying to coerce Britain or France into
Speaker 1: respecting American neutrality, but nothing worked. America was a nation
Speaker 1: at this point with a lot of pride, but not
Speaker 1: a lot of leverage. The Jeffersonian dream of peaceful coercion
Speaker 1: was an illusion. American honor, something that politicians invoked constantly,
Speaker 1: seemed to be insulted almost daily. Now. Madison, often caricatured
Speaker 1: in history books as timid, was in reality a cautious strategist.
Speaker 1: He understood that the United States lacked the Navy, the army,
Speaker 1: and the financial muscle for a major war. His hope,
Speaker 1: maybe his illusion, was that economic tools might pressure Britain
Speaker 1: or France into some concessions. The crucial experiment was Megan's
Speaker 1: Bill Number two, passed in eighteen ten. It reopened a
Speaker 1: Maria trade, but promised that if either Britain or France
Speaker 1: stopped attacking American ships, the United States would embargo the other.
Speaker 1: It was essentially a carrot and stick rolled into one. Napoleon,
Speaker 1: always shrewd, pretended to accept the offer. He announced that
Speaker 1: he would rescind his decrees against American shipping. In truth,
Speaker 1: he continued seizing ships whenever it suited him, but his
Speaker 1: diplomatic sleight of hand forced Madison into embargoing Britain, worsening tensions. Now. Meanwhile,
Speaker 1: the Western frontier shimmered there. In What's going to become Indiana,
Speaker 1: a charismatic Shawnee leader named Tecumseh sought to forge a
Speaker 1: pan Indian alliance against American expansion. His brother, a spiritual
Speaker 1: prophet who in history books is normally simply referred to
Speaker 1: as the prophet, But if you dig deeper, he has
Speaker 1: a name. It's tense Kawata. He preached revival and resistance.
Speaker 1: American officials meanwhile, blamed the British and British agents for
Speaker 1: stirring up the unrest from Canada. Former frontiersman congressmen, so
Speaker 1: called Warhawks, led by Henry Clay and John C. Calhoun,
Speaker 1: two names you'll have to know going forward, argued that
Speaker 1: the British influence over Native nations had to be crushed
Speaker 1: and the way to do it was to conquer Canada. Now,
Speaker 1: in a spirit typical of literally every nation that has
Speaker 1: ever gone to war in the history of time, men
Speaker 1: like these told Congress that Canada could be conquered quickly
Speaker 1: without difficulties. As we know, those assertions are almost never right.
Speaker 1: War with Britain, once unthinkable, now seemed inevitable, and so
Speaker 1: in June of eighteen twelve, with the arrowist margin in
Speaker 1: the history of the United States for a declaration of war,
Speaker 1: Congress formally approved hostilities with Great Britain, and so the
Speaker 1: War of eighteen twelve had begun. Now, Madison's declaration of
Speaker 1: war was bold, but the army he commanded was not.
Speaker 1: America's regular army numbered fewer than seven thousand men. State
Speaker 1: militias were unreliable, sometimes refusing to cross state lines. The
Speaker 1: Navy was small but tenacious. The financial system was shaky.
Speaker 1: Congress had refused to recharter the Bank of the United States,
Speaker 1: depriving the nation of a stable credit institution, just as
Speaker 1: war expenses loomed. The early campaigns would reflect these weaknesses. Now,
Speaker 1: the first plan was for a northern offensive. The War
Speaker 1: Department planned a triumphant March into Canada, but the reality
Speaker 1: was humiliation. General William Hull, in command at Detroit, panicked
Speaker 1: when he heard exaggerated reports of British and Native strength.
Speaker 1: He surrendered the entire fortress without firing a shot. At
Speaker 1: Queenstown Heights, American militia refused to cross into Canada, leaving
Speaker 1: regular troops stranded. They were quickly overwhelmed by British forces
Speaker 1: and Mohawk warriors. A third attempt failed near Montreal, plagued
Speaker 1: by poor coordination and lack of supplies. As one New
Speaker 1: England newspaper sneered, mister Madison's war had begun with a
Speaker 1: string of disasters, but not all. The news was quite
Speaker 1: so bleak to be fair. If the army faltered, the
Speaker 1: American Navy shown on the Open Atlantic. American frigates astonished
Speaker 1: the world. The USS Constitution, nicknamed Old Ironsides, defeated the
Speaker 1: HMS Guerrer in a stunning duel. The USS United States
Speaker 1: captured the HMS. Macedonian Captain Stephen Decatur and others won
Speaker 1: victories that continued to electrify the nation. Each triumph boosted
Speaker 1: American morale and gave the new nation a renewed sense
Speaker 1: of American identity. Our navy has covered itself in glory,
Speaker 1: wrote one newspaper, and our country with honor. No naval victories, however,
Speaker 1: dramatic could decide this war. But control at this point,
Speaker 1: not of the Atlantic, but of the Great Lakes was
Speaker 1: actually the crucial decision here. And so in eighteen thirteen,
Speaker 1: a young naval commander named Oliver Hazard Perry built a
Speaker 1: fleet from Green Timber in Lake Erie. In September, meeting
Speaker 1: the British head on, Perry won a battle. His message
Speaker 1: to General Harrison became iconic in American military lore, quote,
Speaker 1: we have met the enemy and they are ours. With
Speaker 1: Lake Erie secured, Americans now could recapture Detroit and defeated
Speaker 1: to Coumsay's forces at the Battle of the Thames, where
Speaker 1: takomes To himself was killed, an enormous blow to Native
Speaker 1: resistance in the Northwest. Meanwhile, on Lake Ontario and Lake Champlain,
Speaker 1: a war of maneuver continued, neither side gaining a definite advantage,
Speaker 1: but the momentum slowly, subtly had shifted. Now we have
Speaker 1: to bear in mind all of this is simply a
Speaker 1: side showed to the British, to the actual conflict that's
Speaker 1: going on in the Europe, and of course we'll talk
Speaker 1: about that in a lot greater detail in our next episode.
Speaker 1: But in eighteen fourteen, Napoleon will be briefly defeated, and
Speaker 1: with Europe at peace, Britain could now finally concentrate on
Speaker 1: the American War. Fresh troops, veterans of Wellington's campaigns against
Speaker 1: Napoleon arrived in Canada and the Chesapeake that summer. A
Speaker 1: British forts marched practically unopposed toward Washington. At Bladensburg, American
Speaker 1: militia broke under fire. President Madison himself was actually on
Speaker 1: the field that day trying to rally the troops, but
Speaker 1: to little effect, and the British entered Washington, DC that
Speaker 1: very night. They set fire to the Capitol, to the Treasury,
Speaker 1: and to the White House. From a nearby hill, Dolly
Speaker 1: Madison's portrait of George Washington, rescued at the very last moment,
Speaker 1: was safe, but the city itself glowed with orange flame.
Speaker 1: Never had America suffered such a humiliation. What was interesting, though,
Speaker 1: is even in this moment of despair, the Republic did
Speaker 1: not break. Madison called Congress to meet in temporary quarters.
Speaker 1: He insisted that the government was intact, America's sovereignty endured,
Speaker 1: and across the nation, citizens rallied. As we'll get to
Speaker 1: more in a moment. New England federalists were grumbling and
Speaker 1: forming their own convention at Harford, but most Americans saw
Speaker 1: the war not as a partisan blunder, but is a
Speaker 1: test of national survival. The War of eighteen twelve is
Speaker 1: oftentimes called the Second War of American Independence, and for
Speaker 1: good reason, a lot of parallels with the first. Now,
Speaker 1: while Washington smoldered, British forces targeted the city of Baltimore next.
Speaker 1: The attack culminated at Fort McHenry, where American defenders held
Speaker 1: firm against a night long bombardment. And there a young
Speaker 1: lawyer named Francis Scott Key watched from a British ship,
Speaker 1: seeing the sky lit explosions. At dawn, the flag still flew.
Speaker 1: His poem, written on the back of a letter, would
Speaker 1: later become the Star Spangled Banner. But as I mentioned before,
Speaker 1: not all was well. North in New England, Federalist anger smoldered.
Speaker 1: The winter of eighteen fourteen had come early to New England.
Speaker 1: Along the Atlantic coast, The cold wind blew in from
Speaker 1: the sea and carried with a quiet dread the sense
Speaker 1: that the war that had started two years earlier had
Speaker 1: turned against the United States. And from the New England perspective,
Speaker 1: setting aside all the naval victories in the Great Lakes,
Speaker 1: which could have been as far away as England itself,
Speaker 1: it's easy to see why British ships prowled the shoreline.
Speaker 1: Ports which were the lifeblood of New England were blockaded.
Speaker 1: Commerce lay strangled, and in Boston and New Haven, in Providence,
Speaker 1: in Portsmouth, a dangerous thought drifted through coffeehouses and the taverns.
Speaker 1: Had the federal government simply betrayed New England. Now, this
Speaker 1: is the story of the Hartford Convention, the most serious
Speaker 1: political crisis the Young Republic had faced since the Constitution
Speaker 1: was ratified. Though it's rarely talked about in the history books,
Speaker 1: it was a gathering so controversial that its name later
Speaker 1: on would become synonymous with treason in the American memory. Now,
Speaker 1: to understand the Hartford Convention, we really have to make
Speaker 1: sure we understand our context. Now, Obviously, when the United
Speaker 1: States found itself entangled in the Napoleonic Wars, it was
Speaker 1: clear that an embargo policy was going to come into place.
Speaker 1: But New England's economy was a maritime economy. It was
Speaker 1: built on shipping trade and a thriving commercial network that
Speaker 1: stretched from the Caribbean to Britain. When war severed all
Speaker 1: these arteries, entire towns in New England simply withered and disappeared.
Speaker 1: Federalist politicians who still dominated New England despite the fact
Speaker 1: that they hadn't won a major election since John Adams
Speaker 1: warned loudly that the war was unnecessary, it was destructive,
Speaker 1: and it was the product of the quote unquote Virginia ideology.
Speaker 1: In their eyes, Jeffersonians and Madisonians had plunged the nation
Speaker 1: into a conflict for abstract notions of honor that maybe
Speaker 1: made sense in the frontier, but not in coastal mercantile cities.
Speaker 1: And so they called it mister Madison's War, and slowly
Speaker 1: resentment hearted into something else. Fear that the Federal Compact
Speaker 1: was becoming misused, even abused, And so by eighteen fourteen
Speaker 1: the situation had grown particularly dire. As we know, the
Speaker 1: British had burned DC and the Royal Navy. To those
Speaker 1: in New England, this is worse than the DC issue
Speaker 1: had tightened its blockade on the New England coast, the
Speaker 1: region's militia simply refused to leave state borders to fight
Speaker 1: for the national army, and trade had collapsed. The rumors
Speaker 1: flew everywhere that Britain might try to seize and occupy
Speaker 1: New England outright, and so Federalist government claimed that the
Speaker 1: Madison administration was neglecting their defense while siphoning money and
Speaker 1: manpower for pointless invasions of Canada. Many New Englanders felt abandoned.
Speaker 1: Some even believed that the war was unconstitutional in the
Speaker 1: first place, and so in October of eighteen fourteen, the
Speaker 1: Massachusetts legislature issued a call delegates from New England states
Speaker 1: should meet to consider quote the grievances under which they labor.
Speaker 1: The location chosen was Hartford, Connecticut, a quiet river city
Speaker 1: far from major British positions, and so, through the December snows,
Speaker 1: twenty six delegates made their way toward Hartford, carrying with
Speaker 1: them the weight of a region's frustration and growing anger,
Speaker 1: and the hopes of those who whispered that maybe the
Speaker 1: Union itself was no longer serving them. On December fifteenth,
Speaker 1: eighteen fourteen, the Hartford Convention began. No reporters were present,
Speaker 1: no minutes were ever published, and the secrecy around the
Speaker 1: event only deepened suspicion outside. But the men who gathered
Speaker 1: were no wild ratticles. They were, for the most part,
Speaker 1: pretty centrist minded federalists, merchants, lawyers, and governors, men who
Speaker 1: believed that the Constitution could and must be preserved if
Speaker 1: certain reforms could be made. Still, the stakes were enormous,
Speaker 1: at least for these men. Outside the walls. The newspaper
Speaker 1: accused them of plotting secession. Inside the conversation walked on
Speaker 1: a razor's edge. Did some delegates think about leaving the Union?
Speaker 1: Almost certainly, yes, But the majority understood that the moment
Speaker 1: was too fragile, the consequences too grave. Instead, they pursued
Speaker 1: a strategy of proposing constitutional amendments that they believed would
Speaker 1: protect New England from what they saw as the tyranny
Speaker 1: of the southern and western states. Now, for those of
Speaker 1: you who know your American history, you know this is
Speaker 1: all terribly ironic, because it's exactly what the South is
Speaker 1: going to accuse New England and the North and West
Speaker 1: of in about fifty years and that's going to be
Speaker 1: the cause for Southern secession. Many people don't realize it,
Speaker 1: but New England actually tried to reverse the script in
Speaker 1: eighteen fourteen. Now, the proposed amendments would have totally altered
Speaker 1: the course of American history. The first was to repeal
Speaker 1: the three fifths clause. New England resented how enslaved populations
Speaker 1: in the South inflated Southern political power in Congress and
Speaker 1: in the electoral College. They also wanted to change the
Speaker 1: rules for some votes that would require then a two
Speaker 1: thirds vote in Congress for declaring war, admitting new states,
Speaker 1: an imposing embargoes that lasted more than sixty days. This
Speaker 1: aimed to prevent the quote unquote Virginia presidents and Western
Speaker 1: warhawks from dragging New England into conflicts that they felt
Speaker 1: the majority of the country didn't want. They also wanted
Speaker 1: a constitutional amendment that would limit the presidency to one
Speaker 1: single term and prohibit successive presidents from serving from the
Speaker 1: same states. You couldn't have two Virginia presidents in a row.
Speaker 1: And that was a direct site by the way, at
Speaker 1: the Virginia dynasty that went Washington, Jefferson Madison. They wanted
Speaker 1: to restrict the naturalization of immigrants as well, because federalists
Speaker 1: feared the growing power of political influence of these newcomers,
Speaker 1: who tended overwhelmingly to support the Democratic Republicans. These weren't
Speaker 1: the proposals of radical rebels. They were the demands of
Speaker 1: a region trying to secure power within a union that
Speaker 1: they just didn't trust anymore. Still, the delegates adopted a
Speaker 1: final resolution that hinted at least at the edges of rebellion.
Speaker 1: They said, if the federal government failed to adopt these measures,
Speaker 1: then New England must quote seek its safety in arrangements
Speaker 1: not inconsistent with the Constitution. That phrase was vague, but
Speaker 1: it was ominous enough that could imply coordinated resistance, nullification,
Speaker 1: or maybe even secession. The Convention adjourned on January the fifth,
Speaker 1: eighteen fifteen, and dispatched three envoys to Washington to present
Speaker 1: their demands, but they would ride too late. In one
Speaker 1: of those moments where history seems to enjoy irony, two
Speaker 1: stunning pieces of news reached America at almost the exact
Speaker 1: same time. The Treaty of Ghent had actually been signed
Speaker 1: on Christmas Eve, eighteen fourteen, ending the War of eighteen twelve,
Speaker 1: and as we'll get to in a moment, General Andrew
Speaker 1: Jackson had won a spectacular victory at New Orleans in
Speaker 1: early January, and almost overnight the tide of national sentiment
Speaker 1: swung dramatically. Where Americans had lately known only fear and exhaustion,
Speaker 1: suddenly they felt triumph and pride. Into this atmosphere marched
Speaker 1: the Hartford envoys, ready to present amendments that assumed the
Speaker 1: war was still a disaster. But instead of finding themselves
Speaker 1: as saviors with solutions, they were outcasts, pariahs. President Madison
Speaker 1: simply ignored their proposals. Congress rejected them outright. Newspapers mocked
Speaker 1: the men as defeatists, schemers, some even traders. One critic wrote, quote,
Speaker 1: they arrived to bury the Constitution and found it reborn.
Speaker 1: Another quote, they came to save the nation and instead
Speaker 1: buried their own party, and indeed they had. The Federalist
Speaker 1: Party never recovered from the suspicion that it had flirted
Speaker 1: with disunion. The Hartford Convention became a political millstone and
Speaker 1: was dragged up whenever the Federalists tried to claim patriotic legitimacy.
Speaker 1: By the election of eighteen sixteen, the party was officially
Speaker 1: and forever broken. Now, of course, we need to turn
Speaker 1: our attention to the end of the war and talk
Speaker 1: about that in a little bit more detail, because the
Speaker 1: Treaty of Ghent is interesting. Even as the fighting rages,
Speaker 1: sides were talking in Ghent, which is in modern day Belgium.
Speaker 1: Both sides, America and British, were exhausted and frustrated, and
Speaker 1: eventually agreed to essentially just restore the status quo. Impressment
Speaker 1: ironically simply disappeared on its own as Europe would slowly
Speaker 1: but surely stabilize. The Treaty of Ghent was signed on
Speaker 1: Christmas Eve eighteen fourteen, but news traveled slowly, and before
Speaker 1: the treaty reached America, one more battle would etch itself
Speaker 1: into legend, a battle that was actually fought after the
Speaker 1: war was over. In early January eighteen fifteen, outside New Orleans,
Speaker 1: General Andrew Jackson led a motley army of frontier riflemen,
Speaker 1: free Black volunteers, Choctaw warriors. That part's going to be ironic.
Speaker 1: Later on, sailors, and even a group of pirates under
Speaker 1: Jean Lafitte behind the earthworks along the Mississippi they repelled
Speaker 1: a massive British assault, inflicting staggering casualties. Now the victory
Speaker 1: came after peace had been negotiated, but it transformed American morale.
Speaker 1: Jackson became a national hero and will go on to
Speaker 1: become president, and the war, once divisive and disastrous, suddenly
Speaker 1: seemed overwhelmingly triumphant. Now James Madison left office in eighteen seventeen,
Speaker 1: quietly returning to Montpeilerer. His presidency had been marked by crisis,
Speaker 1: uncertainty and the closest that the public had come until
Speaker 1: the American Civil War to collapse. But by the time
Speaker 1: he stepped down, something extraordinary had started to happen in America.
Speaker 1: Despite military blunders, despite the burning of the Capitol, despite
Speaker 1: political division, the United States had stood up to the
Speaker 1: strongest empire in the world, and it had survived. But
Speaker 1: more importantly, it emerged with the strength and sense of
Speaker 1: national identity. No longer were the Americans speaking of these
Speaker 1: United States. The talk was now of the United States. Grammatical,
Speaker 1: though the change may be, it's important. People started to
Speaker 1: speak of themselves for the first time, not as Virginians
Speaker 1: or New Yorkers, but as Americans, and that change will
Speaker 1: be decisive going forward, and into this new spirit, what
Speaker 1: historians would call the era of good feelings began. But
Speaker 1: back in Europe there was to be no era of
Speaker 1: good feelings, at least not yet, because now we need
Speaker 1: to turn back the clock slightly, return to Europe and
Speaker 1: finish the Napoleonic Wars