The War of 1812

Politics of War in the US

• democratic-republicans controlled Congress and the White House (Madison administration)
• faction of young “War Hawks” pushed Congress to declare war

The War of 1812

• mixed results against Britain

• indecisive campaigns along US-Canada border, 1812-1814

• embarrassing US failures, especially British capture of DC

• decisive US victories against Native people

• in the northwest:

  • Tecumseh killed Battle of Moraviantown (1813)
  • confederacy dissolved soon after

• in the southwest: Red Stick Creek War

  • traditionalist creek faction refused further accommodation and land cessions led to war in 1813
  • expedition of Tennessee militiamen and Cherokee allies under Jackson
  • Battle of Horseshoe Bend
  • 800+ killed, Red Sticks defeated
  • Treaty of Fort Jackson (1814)
  • creek nation ceded 23 million acres

Opposition and Political Fallout

• New England Federalists were strongly anti-war
• December 1814, low point in the war, Hartford Convention
  • proposed constitutional changes to end war and weaker democratic-republicans
  • seriously backfired
• convention proposals reached DC around same time as news of Battle of New Orleans
• Federalist party destroyed

Key Outcomes of the War

• Treaty of Ghent (1814)
  • returned US and Britain to status quo
  • US survived, but didn’t win
  • victory at New Orleans, January 1815 reshaped memory of the war
• boost to US nationalism
• fall of Federalists led to a decade so single-party rule “The Era of Good Feelings”
• defeat of native military power east of the Mississippi
  • colonization accelerated