War of 1812 and Changes in Political Demographics

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In the first decades of the new republic, there were significant political and demographic changes and the first of these was a dramatic expansion of voting tights.  Although the topic is frequently overlooked or assumed, history could have played out quite differently without this occurring.  By the end of the 18th century, the property requirements started to be questioned. This was in part due to the business or mercantile class in cities, who would not necessarily be property owners, but then rapidly expanded to others until, by the end of the first quarter of the 19th century, universal “manhood suffrage” was well established (1 p. ch. 11).  In some cases a small tax was still required.  The property requirements limited participation in government to those who had an economic stake in it and, while leaving many unrepresented, it also prevented the government from being used as a means of transfer of wealth. Historically broad suffrage and direct democracy had led to many instances of economic and societal breakdown that the founders sought to avoid. In this case, the newly franchised voters had enough of a stake in society that no such calamities ensued.

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As new immigrants started to arrive in large numbers, though, most wouldn’t have been voters without these changes. The predominantly Catholic immigrants, although generally poor, didn’t look to the government as a deliverer and rather looked to the church.  While not highly educated in a formal sense, as voters they were more sophisticated than modern commentators, projecting their views back in time, would tend to assume. The church would become their source of knowledge and information which extended well into the area of politics and even banking policy. To generally summarize the effect of immigration in modern terms, the flood of immigrants to America in the 19th century were for the most part relatively conservative.

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The political landscape that developed aligned those generally linked to a Puritan-evangelical tradition against those who were not (1).  While the Puritan-evangelicals were vastly outnumbered they represented a consistent agenda built around their evolving theology, social activism, and a growing economic dominance and made effective use of temporary strategic alliances.  The Puritan-Evangelicals, who were the current manifestation of “Yankees” at this time, were overwhelmingly of older English stock, demographically dominant in New England and the upper Midwest, and associated with Congregationalists and northern Presbyterians, Baptists, and Methodists churches. They were evangelical in the sense of applying their religious interpretations to shaping a social order where changed individuals eventually create a changed and highly uniform society.  They emphasized the puritan virtues of work, thrift, self-discipline, and sexual purity (2 p. 89) .

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Following the Federalist administrations of Washington and Adams (Washington was unaligned but federalist positions became dominant in his administration), Jefferson was elected in the “Second American Revolution” bringing the anti-federalist Democratic-Republicans to power. During the Jefferson administration diplomatically dealing with the French-British war became increasingly complicated leading to the Embargo Act of 1807 which blocked all exports from US ports and most imports from England. This was intended to apply economic pressure on Britain and France but ended up principally hurting the American economy.  This had a devastating effect on New England in particular and led to threats of secession over it and the measure was frequently not complied with.  The Embargo Act was superseded by the Non-Intercourse Act of 1809 which went even further forbidding trade with both France and England. Jefferson was followed by Madison during whose term was fought the War of 1812 which was one of only five wars that was declared through constitutional processes. The reason behind the war that is most emphasized was the impressments of US seamen while the British were fighting a prolonged war against France under Napoleon Bonaparte. France’s war was funded in part from the Louisiana Purchase.  There were, however, other motives. 

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President Madison opposed initiating a war but was driven to it by “War Hawks” in congress seeking territorial expansion which is where the term originated from(3). Who were the “War Hawks”?  Strangely that is a bit difficult to define in part because this designation didn’t land specifically on any party or region. The two names that most commonly come up in the regard are John C Calhoun and Henry Clay but others are somewhat uncertain.  Territorial expansion had different objectives for different people or groups.  “Liberating” Canada was the primary objective but expanding into western territories and displacing Indian population as well as taking Florida from the Spanish were all goals in the early Republic.

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England was not in a position to fight a war on the American continent, had limited troops in Canada, and had no plans to retake the colonies. They did, however, desire to create some barriers to American westward expansion largely by way of a proposed Indian territory that would be an independent nation in what is roughly modern data Wisconsin, Minnesota and the general great lakes region.  There were only 50,000 British citizens in Canada compared to eight million in the American states(4). The Articles of Confederation had actually identified Canada as a future state. “Free Canada!” would become a rallying cry of this war and the US would spend most of the war perusing this only to fail(4). The war also facilitated further expansion into Indian Territory in the Midwest and Indians in the region were aligned with Britain during this conflict as well as the Revolution. The war from the American perspective didn’t appear to be widely supported by the citizenry nor the military which was unprepared to fight it. The “Hawks” also misread Canada’s inclination to see the Americans as liberators along with their willingness to fight(3).

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During the early phases of the war the Americans fought British and Indian defenders and generally fared badly although they manage to control the Great Lakes. As the war progressed, the American military became more professional and capable but the European war also wound to an end in 1814 making troops and resources available to redeploy to the American continent which created some degree of urgency for the Americans to reach a negotiated resolution as the British commitment of forces increased.  The American forces did have some success in the waning months of the war including the defense of Baltimore and the Battle of New Orleans which occurred after the war had ended. The British gave up their position of establishing an Indian state making the northern tribes the biggest long term losers from this conflict. Shawnee Chief Tecumseh, who was a skilled military and political leader, was the organizer and leader of Indian forces and was successful at meeting the Americans until he was killed in October of 1813.

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The War of 1812 marked the beginning of fundamental changes in how war in western civilization was conducted.  In wars between Christian nations significant care had historically been taken to avoid impacting civilian populations.  In this war American troops burned York, which is present day Toronto, and such an act was largely unprecedented. In response the British eventually burned Buffalo and ultimately Washington DC in retaliation.

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Bibliography

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1. Beard, Charles and Beard, Mary. History of the United States All volumes. San Bernardino California : s.n., 1920.

2. Marsden, George M. Religion & American Culture. Grand Rapids Michigan : Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1990.

3. Morley, Jefferson. Salon.com. [Online] June 19, 2012. [Cited: October 24, 2020.] https://www.salon.com/2012/06/19/birth_of_the_war_hawks/.

4. Sjursen, Danny. LewRockwell.com. [Online] July 4, 2018. [Cited: October 24, 2020.] https://www.lewrockwell.com/2018/07/no_author/american-history-for-truthdiggers-the-forgotten-and-peculiar-war-of-1812/.