Brinkley, Chapter 7 Notes

Brinkley, Chapter 7 The Jeffersonian Era

Jefferson and his followers favored a society of: Sturdy independent farmers Free from industrial towns and city mobs of Europe A federal government with very little power

The absence of primogeniture encouraged Americans to condemn inherited social privilege. Society was merit-based. White men had the opportunity to better themselves. When women and free blacks invoked the republican principle of equality and asked for voting rights, male legislators wrote explicit race and gender restrictions into the law.

Women and Marriage

Republican Mother

Members of the emerging middle class redefined family by seeking more egalitarian marriages and more affectionate ways of rearing their children. Patriarchy was beginning to erode as women began to question politics. Economic and cultural changes also eroded customary paternal authority. As landholdings shrank for the yeoman farmer, many fathers lost control over their children’s marriages because they had no farms to hand down. Young men and women began to choose their partners, influenced by sentimentalism A consent-based marriage. Consent-based marriages gave the illusion of equality based marriages, but they were far from equal. The new love-based marriage system discouraged parents from protecting young wives, and governments refused to prevent domestic tyranny. Young adults who chose partners unwisely were severely disappointed when their spouses failed as providers or faithful companions.

Traditionally, American women spent their active adult years working as farm wives and bearing and nurturing children. By the 1790s, the birth rate dropped. Men migrated West, women who married in their late 20s had fewer children, and couples in the middle urban class deliberately had fewer children. Further, Protestant ministers blamed men for sexual misconduct and claiming that purity and spirituality were part of women’s nature. Influential laymen echoed this thinking. Philadelphia physician Benjamin Rush argued that a young woman should receive intellectual training so that she would be “an agreeable companion.” Rush called for loyal “republican mothers” who would instruct their sons of the principles of liberty and government.

Education

Importance of a Virtuous Citizenry

In New England, locally funded public schools offered most boys and some girls basic instruction in reading and writing.

Although families provided most education, independence prompted a greater emphasis on schooling. Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Rush both wanted a comprehensive system of primary and secondary schooling, followed by college training for bright young (white) men.

Writer Noah Webster believed that education should raise the nation’s intellectual reputation. America must be as independent in literature as in politics. A new system of spelling emerged which “Americanized” the English language.

Did not occur - mostly private institutions To ordinary citizens, this smacked of elitism. Farmers, artisans, and laborers wanted elementary schools to teach the 3 Rs: Reading , ‘riting, & ‘rithmetic.

The controversy over women’s political rights mirrored a debate over authority within the household.

Tiverton Four Corners Schoolhouse.

College

Rhode Island

The number of colleges grew substantially from 9 to 22.

Judith Sargent Murray - defended the right of women to an education. Men and women were equal in intellect and potential and therefore should have the same educational opportunities. Gained little support, but eventually an outspoken middle-class of women emerged

Harvard

None of these schools were truly public.

Universities established by states relied on private funding. Appx. 1 in 1,000 white men could attend college.

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Brinkley, Chapter 7 Notes Medicine and Science University of Pennsylvania created the 1st Medical School. Physicians were caught in between advances in medicine and old superstitions. Efforts to teach anatomy encountered hostility because of the dissection of cadavers. Local government had no understanding or information to prevent epidemics with doctors. Patients had more to fear from their doctors than their illnesses (use of bleeding). The medical profession used its newfound commitment to the scientific method to justify expanding its control Childbirth, once attended by midwives were overseen by physicians.

Resulted in narrowed opportunities for women and a restriction of access to childbirth care for poor mothers, who could afford a midwife but not a physician.

Religious Revivalism (2nd GrAke.)

Religious Causes of the 2nd Great Awakening American Revolution weakened traditional forms of practice American ministers were concerned with the "decay of vital piety" and "religious rationalism." Religious traditionalists were concerned with the rise of Deism - those who accept the existence of God, but consider Him a watchmaker who, after having created the universe withdrew from direct involvement with the human race and its sins. Deism was accepted amongst most Enlightenment supporters such as Jefferson and Franklin, but few others Religious skepticism also produced the philosophies of universalism and unitarianism. They rejected predestination and the idea of the Trinity. Jesus was only a great religious teacher, but not the son of God. Religious skepticism was not as powerful as it seemed. But, in 1801 traditional religious beliefs were revived in the Second Great Awakening.

2nd Great Awakening Spread of Religion

A decades-long series of religious revivals – the Second Great Awakening – made the US a genuinely Christian society. The 2nd GrAke transformed the denominational makeup of American religion. The important churches of the colonial period – the Congregationalists and Quakers – grew naturally slowly, while Methodist & Baptist churches expanded spectacularly by winning converts. Basic Message: Individuals must readmit God and Christ into their daily lives. They must embrace piety and reject religious rationalism. Both Baptists and Methodists developed an egalitarian religious culture marked by communal singing and emotional services. Baptist and Methodist preachers reshaped the spiritual landscape of the South. Revivalists attracted both pious families & "lost individuals" searching for social ties as they migrated to new communities. The success of the Baptist and Methodist churches were due to the fact they governed themselves democratically.

Women and the Second Great Awakening The upsurge in religious enthusiasm prompted women to demonstrate their piety and even to found new sects. Female converts far outnumbered males. Women took charge of religious and charitable enterprises because they were excluded from other public roles and because of their numbers.

Women and the Second Great Awakening As women claimed more spiritual authority, men tried to curb their power. Evangelical Baptist churches that had once advocated spiritual equality now prevented women from voting on church matters or offering public testimony. Religious activism also advanced female education, as churches sponsored academic activities where girls received intellectual and moral instruction. Emma Willard, the first American advocate of higher education for women, opened the Middlebury Female Seminary in Vermont in 1814 and later founded girls’ academies in New York.

After 1800, more than 70% of the members of New England Congregational churches were women. This predominance prompted Congregational ministers to end traditional gender-segregated prayer meetings. Emma Willard School: Troy, NY

Far from leading to sexual promiscuity, as critics feared, mixing men and women promoted greater self-discipline.

As a schoolteacher, women had an acknowledged place in life – a status that previously had been beyond their reach.

Beginning in the 1820s, women educated in these schools displaced men as public school teachers, in part because they accepted lower pay than men would.

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Brinkley, Chapter 7 Notes Women and the Second Great Awakening

Migration & Industrial Innovations

Religious enthusiasm provided access to a new range of activities - charitable societies ministering to orphans and the poor - in which women came to play important parts. Women also took a more assertive role in society with long-term implications: Social Reforms & Redefining the Ideal of Equality

1. Composed primarily of white tenant farmers and struggling yeomen families, flocked through the Cumberland Gap into Kentucky and Tennessee to flee the planter-controlled society. However, many lacked the cash to buy land. Collectively, poor farmers purchased 1,400 acres of land in W. Kentucky, 21 wealthy planters bought 100,000 acres of land creating a planter-controlled society. 2. Migrants from the Carolinas, composed of slave-owning planters and slaves, moved along the coastal plain to the Gulf of Mexico. Some planters set up new estates in the interior of GA and SC, while others moved into the future states of AL, MS, and LA.

Temperance Movement

Asylum & Penal Reform Education

Abolitionism Women's Rights

Coastal Plains

During the 1790s - 1800s, 3 streams of migrants moved throughout the states.

3. New Englanders moved to the Northwest Territory. The cities in the Northwest Territory began to mirror those of New England. Unable to compete with lower-priced western grains, farmers in New England switched to potatoes, which were high yielding and nutritious. To make up for the labor of the children who moved inland, Mid-Atlantic farmers bought more efficient farm equipment. They replaced wooden plows with cast iron plows.

Migration & Industrial Innovations

Cumberland Gap

Cotton was the key to the surge of migrants.

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Migration & Industrial Innovations Jefferson warned of the dangers of rapid economic change. A series of technological advances transformed the US. Power driven machines allowed manufacturing to become more rapid and extensive - with profound social and economic consequences. 1793 Eli Whitney - Cotton Gin removed seeds from cotton quickly & efficiently African American slavery, which declined along with the cultivation of tobacco, surged with cotton production. Eli Whitney also introduced the idea of interchangeable parts. As the use of the cotton gin expanded, owners needed access to extra parts to repair machines. Whitney also developed these parts. This allowed farmers to repair their own machines.

Increased textile production in England and the invention of the cotton gin in the United States led to the increased demand for African slaves between 1776-1808 when Congress ended the slave trade. The cotton boom financed the rapid settlement of MS and AL. American entrepreneurs encouraged expansion by developing rural manufacturing networks like those in Europe. Merchants bought raw materials, hired workers in farm families to process them, and sold the finished products in regional or national markets. Merchants shipped these products – shoes, brooms, and palm-leaf hats as well as cups, baking pans, and other tin utensils to stores in seaport cities. This business expansion resulted from innovation in organizing production and in marketing.

Transportation Innovations Water transport was the quickest and cheapest way to get goods to market. State governments & private entrepreneurs improved water transport by dredging shallow rivers and constructing canals. Farmers and Robert Fulton invented merchants built the steam boat, large barges to carry enough to carry cotton, surplus grain, passengers and raw and meat downstream materials. to New Orleans. The "turnpike era" had begun.

1794 - a toll road from Philadelphia to Lancaster was constructed. Crushed stone was used to "pave" the road. It was a good year-round surface with effective draining. It was so successful that similar turnpikes were built.

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Brinkley, Chapter 7 Notes Jefferson's Domestic Policies Worked hard to exert influence as the leader of his party, giving direction to his party through quiet and sometimes devious means. Federal offices should be filled with men loyal to the party. Believed the federal gov't became unnecessarily extravagant. Sought to limit the power of the federal gov't. 1802 Jefferson persuaded Congress to abolish all internal taxes, leaving customs duties and the sale of western lands as the only sources of revenue for the government. Even the whiskey tax was eliminated. Pursued policies that made it easier for farm families to acquire land. In 1796, federal lands were sold at $2 per acre; by the 1830s, through Republican congresses, the price dropped to $1.25 an acre. Scaled down the armed forces arguing that a large standing army might menace civil liberties. However, he also established the US Military Academy at West Point.

Jefferson and Congress Using the powers of the Legislative Branch, Jefferson reversed other Federalist policies. Jefferson attempted to nullify the Alien and Sedition Acts via the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions 1788-1789. Virginia & Kentucky Resolutions - The state legislatures of Virginia and Kentucky argued a theory to justify action by the states against the federal government in two sets of resolutions. Jefferson wrote the Kentucky Resolution and Madison the Virginia Resolution. They used the 10th Amendment to argue that the federal government had been formed by a contract among the states and possessed only certain delegated powers. Whenever a party to the contract decided that the federal government exceeded those powers, states had the right to nullify the laws. In Chisholm v. GA - States do not have sovereign immunity over the law. When the Alien and Sedition Acts expired in 1801, Congress branded them unconstitutional political repression and refused to extend them. Jefferson reduced the federal government’s size and scope.

Jefferson's Foreign Policy When Jefferson took office in 1801, he inherited an old international conflict. Beginning in the 1780s the Barbary States of North Africa raided merchant ships in the Mediterranean, and like many European nations, the US had paid an annual bribe to protect its vessels. Initially, Jefferson refused to pay this “tribute” and ordered the US Navy to attack the pirates’ home ports. In response, Americans were captured at the Consulate in Tripoli and taken prisoner, and took down the US flag at the Consulate, a symbolic declaration of war. In order to avoid an all-out war, which would have increased taxes and the national debt, Jefferson agreed to pay tribute at a lower rate. He also paid a high sum for the ransom of the prisoners, but he was humiliated by the Barbary states.

Jefferson's Domestic Policies Jefferson likewise governed tactfully in fiscal affairs. He tolerated the economically important Bank of the United States, which he had once condemned as unconstitutional. He chose as his secretary of the treasury Albert Gallatin, a fiscal conservative who believed that the national debt was “an evil of the first magnitude.” By limiting expenditures and using customs revenue to redeem government bonds, Gallatin reduced the debt from $83 million to $45 million in 1812. With Jefferson and Gallatin at the helm, the nation’s fiscal affairs were no longer run in the interests of northeastern creditors merchants. The nation's debt was cut in half.

Conflict with the Courts Jefferson inherited a national judiciary filled with Federalist appointees, including the formidable John Marshall of Virginia, the new chief justice of the Supreme Court.

Jefferson's first attack on the courts was to repeal the Judiciary Act of 1801 eliminating Adams's "midnight appointments."

Debate over the courts led to one of the most important judicial decisions in the history of the nation - Marbury v. Madison. Chief Justice John Marshall presided over the case.

Jefferson's Foreign Policy 1799 - Napoleon seized power in France and sought to reestablish France’s American empire. In 1801, he coerced Spain into signing a secret treaty that returned Louisiana to France and restricted American access to New Orleans, violating the Pinckney Treaty.

He also launched an invasion to restore French rule in Haiti. After a massive slave revolt convulsed the island in 1791 by Toussaint L’Ouverture, France was forced to leave Haiti. Napoleon wanted Haiti back. Napoleon’s actions in Haiti and Louisiana prompted Jefferson to question his pro-French foreign policy. Jefferson said, “The day that France takes possession of New Orleans, we must marry ourselves to the British fleet and nation.” Jefferson dispatched Robert Livingston, American Minister in Paris to negotiate the purchase of New Orleans.

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Brinkley, Chapter 7 Notes Napoleon's Offer

Jefferson's Foreign Policy

Napoleon's reasons for selling:

The Louisiana Purchase to reconsider his strict the Constitution. There for the acquisition of

1. His plans for an American empire had already gone seriously awry 2. Yellow Fever epidemic wiped out much of the French Army on Hispaniola and Haiti 3. Napoleon was waging war in Europe against the British, Austrians, and Russians and desperately needed money to continue funding his wars.

So Jefferson pragmatically accepted a loose interpretation of the Constitution and used its treaty-making powers to complete the deal with France.

4. Napoleon did not have enough resources to war with Europe and have an empire in America. Napoleon sold the Louisiana Territory for $15 million in 1803. The US granted certain commercial privileges to France at the port or New Orleans, and incorporated the citizens of Louisiana into the US with the same rights and privileges as other citizens.

Lewis and Clark Jefferson wanted information about Louisiana. In 1804, Jefferson sent his personal secretary, Meriwether Lewis, to explore the region with William Clark, an army officer. From St. Louis, Lewis, Clark, and their party of American soldiers and frontiersmen traveled north along the Missouri River to the Dakotas then west to the Rocky Mtns – venturing far beyond the Louisiana Purchase. They were joined by French fur trader Toussaint Charbonneau and his Shoshone wife, Sacagawea, who served as a guide and translator. Nearly everywhere, Indians asked for guns to defend themselves from other armed tribes. In 1806, Lewis and Clark capped off their path-breaking expedition by providing Jefferson with the first maps of the immense wilderness and a detailed account of its natural resources and inhabitants.

The Burr Conspiracy Jefferson's triumphant reelection of 1804 signaled that most approved of the new territorial acquisition. Some New England Federalists were enraged. They realized that if more states to enter the Union, that would weaken the Federalist Party. In Massachusetts, a group named the Essex Junto concluded the only recourse for New England was to secede from the Union and create a separate "northern confederacy."

Burr accepted the Federalist nomination to become their candidate for governor of New York in 1804. Added to this were rumors that Burr agreed with the Essex Junto.

The Leading Federalist in New York, Alexander Hamilton, refused to support the scheme. Federalists in New York then turned to Hamilton's greatest rival, Aaron Burr.

forced Jefferson interpretation of was no provision new territory.

Louisiana territory was organized on the general pattern of the Northwest Territory, under the assumption that it would be divided evenly into states. The first was Louisiana admitted into the Union in 1812. The new western lands, Jefferson wrote, would be “a means of tempting all our Indians on the East side of the Mississippi to remove to the West.”

Exploring the West Their report prompted some Americans to envision a nation that would span the continent.

Jefferson dispatched other groups during Lewis and Clark's exploration. Lieutenant Zebulon Montgomery Pike led an expedition from St. Louis into the upper Mississippi Valley. He also explored the Arkansas River into (modern-day) Colorado.

Pike's travels led to inaccurate accounts that the land between the Missouri River and the Rocky Mountains was uncultivated desert.

Hamilton and Burr Hamilton accused Burr of plotting treason and reported to the press of Burr's "despicable" character. Burr lost the election and blamed his defeat on Hamilton.

Burr challenged Hamilton to a duel.

Hamilton feared refusing Burr's challenge would brand him a coward. They met at Weehawken, NJ. Hamilton was mortally wounded and died the next day. Burr fled to LA to avoid indictment for murder. Rumors swirled he was joining General James Wilkinson, governor of the Louisiana Territory, to capture Mexico from the Spanish and create a western empire for Burr to rule. But Wilkinson was a Spanish spy and had Burr arrested. In a highly politicized trial presided over by Chief Justice John Marshall, Marshall limited the evidence brought to court and Burr was acquitted of treason.

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Brinkley, Chapter 7 Notes Indians

The struggle between natives and Americans centered on land rights. Invoking the Treaty of Paris, 1783, and regarding Britain’s Indian allies as conquered peoples, the US government asserted both sovereignty over and ownership of the trans-Appalachian west. Indian nations rejected both claims - they had not been conquered and had not signed the treaty. This caused conflicts to occur in the OH Valley & Western NY. To prevent conflicts, Jefferson encouraged Native Americans to assimilate into white society. The goal was to make the Indian “a farmer, a citizen of the United States, and a Christian.” Most Indians rejected assimilation. Even those who joined Christian churches retained many ancestral values. To preserve the “old Indian way,” many native communities expelled white missionaries and forced Christianized Indians to participate in tribal rites. A few Indian leaders sought a middle path in which new beliefs overlapped with old practices. Most Indians also rejected the efforts of American missionaries to turn warriors into farmers and women into domestic helpmates. Women exercised considerable political influence, which they were eager to retain. Indian men were not interested in becoming farmers.

The "Indian Problem" Given the ruthlessness of whites towards the Indians, it was no surprise they looked to England for protection. Jefferson gave the Indians a choice: convert into settled farmers and become a part of white society or migrate west of the Mississippi. In either case, they had to give up their claims to their land in the Northwest.

1801 Jefferson appointed William Henry Harrison governor of the Indiana Territory to administer the president's proposed solution to the "Indian Problem."

Jefferson felt his proposal was an alternative to war. The tribes disagreed. Harrison was ruthless using threats, bribes, trickery, and other tactics to carry out Jefferson's policy. By 1807, the US extracted treaty rights to eastern Michigan, southern Indiana, and most of Illinois from reluctant tribal leaders. In the Southwest, white Americans were taking millions of acres of land in Georgia, Tennessee, and Mississippi. The Indians wanted desperately to resist, but the separate tribes were helpless by themselves.

Tecumseh and the Prophet Two remarkable Indian leaders rose that intensified border conflicts. Tenskwatawa "The Prophet" and his brother Tecumseh. The Prophet experienced a mystical awakening in the process of recovering from alcoholism. Having freed himself from the evils of white culture, he spoke of superior Indian values.

In the process he inspired a religious revival that spread through numerous tribes and helped unite them.

The Prophet's headquarters was at Tippecanoe Creek and became a sacred place for people of many tribes and a place to devise military strategy. (Prophetstown)

The Tecumseh Confederacy Chief of the Shawnee

Emerged as the leader of The Prophet's military efforts. Only through united action could the tribes hope to resist white settlement. 1809 he set out to unite all tribes of the Mississippi Valley into what became known as the Tecumseh Confederacy. Together, they would halt white expansion, recover the whole Northwest, and make the Ohio River the boundary between the United States and Indian Country. He maintained that Harrison, by negotiating with individual tribes, had no real claim to any Indian land. The land belonged to all tribes and none could rightfully cede any of it without the consent of others. 1811 Tecumseh left Prophetstown and traveled down the Mississippi River to visit the tribes of the South to persuade them to join the alliance.

Battle of Tippecanoe

With Tecumseh away, Harrison seized the opportunity to destroy the growing influence of the two Indian leaders. With 1,000 soldiers, he camped near Prophetstown and provoked an armed conflict. Although suffering heavy losses, Harrison drove the Indians off the land and burned the town. Known as the Battle of Tippecanoe. Disillusioned many of The Prophet's followers and Tecumseh returned to find the confederacy in disarray. By the Spring of 1812, many Indians raided white settlements and terrified white settlers on the western borders. Britain supplied the Indians with weapons to carry out the attacks, leading Harrison to believe the only way to make the West safe for Americans was to drive the British out of Canada.

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Brinkley, Chapter 7 Notes The War of 1812 The Napoleonic Wars were in full scale. Both the British and the French took steps to prevent the US from trading with either. The other conflict occurred in the US as a result of the ceaseless westward expansion of white settlements. In both the North and the South, the tribes threatened to mobilize to resist white encroachments and forged connections with British forces in Canada and Spanish forces in Florida. The Indian conflict became intertwined with the European conflict on the seas, and ultimately helped cause the War of 1812.

Conflict on the Seas After the French loss at the Battle of Trafalgar, Napoleon pressured England through the Continental System, closing the European continent to British trade.

American ships caught between Napoleon's decrees and Britain's blockade.

In response, the British blockaded the European coast. Required any goods shipped to Napoleon be carried in British vessels or in neutral vessels stopping at British ports precisely what Napoleon's policies forbade.

Impressment Few British volunteered for the Navy. Most had to be impressed (forced into service). Many deserted and joined the American merchant marine. To stop this, the British claimed the right to stop American ships and re-impress deserters. They did not have the right to take natural born citizens, but took naturalized American citizens born on British soil and impressed them. In the summer of 1807, the British went to the extreme. The American naval ship Chesapeake was stopped by the British ship Leopard. When American Commander James Barron refused to allow British officers on board, the Leopard fired. Barron had no choice but to surrender, and the British took 4 Americans.

Both nations violated America's rights as a neutral nation, but Americans considered Britain to be the worst offender.

Jefferson expelled all British warships from American waters to lessen the likelihood of future incidents.

Americans wanted revenge, but Jefferson and Madison tried to maintain the peace.

Jefferson instructed James Monroe, his minister in England, to demand an end to impressment from the British government. The British government denounced the action and returned the surviving Americans to the US.

"Jefferson's Embargo" To prevent future incidents that might bring the nation to the brink of war, Jefferson persuaded Congress to pass the Embargo Act of 1807. It prohibited American ships from leaving the US for any foreign port anywhere in the world. The measure caused a depression in the US. The hardest hit by the Embargo were merchants and shipowners of the Northeast, many of them Federalists. It was disastrous. It cut GNP by 5% and weakened the entire economy. Exports plunged from $108 million in 1806 to $22 million in 1808. Despite popular discontent over the embargo, voters elected Republican James Madison to the presidency in 1808. Acknowledging the Embargo’s failure, Madison replaced it with new economic restrictions, which also failed to protect American commerce.

Madison's Non-Intercourse Act & Florida To replace the Embargo, Congress passed the Non-Intercourse Act just before Madison took office. It reopened trade with all nations except Britain and France. In 1810, Macon's Bill No. 2 replaced the Non-Intercourse Act, opening trade relations with Britain and France but authorized the president to prohibit commerce if either violated neutral shipping. Both Britain and France lifted their blockades to the US, but for Britain it was too late to prevent war with the US. Florida posed a continued threat. Slaves escaped across the border and Indians launched raids in the North. 1810, American settlers in West Florida seized the Spanish Fort at Baton Rouge and asked the federal government to annex the territory. President Madison happily agreed and planned to take the rest of Florida. Madison's actions in Florida became another motivation for war with the British as Spain was an ally of Britain.

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Brinkley, Chapter 7 Notes War Hawks

Hartford Convention

With Britain assisting Indians in the Western Territories and seizing American ships, Henry Clay of Kentucky, Speaker of the House, and John C. Calhoun, pushed Madison toward war.

American military setbacks increased opposition to the war in New England. In 1814, Massachusetts Federalists called for a convention “to lay the foundation for a radical reform in the National Compact.”

Like other Republican “war hawks” from the West and South, they wanted to seize territory in British Canada and Spanish Florida.

When New England Federalists met in Hartford, Connecticut, some delegates proposed secession, but most wanted to revise the Constitution. They wanted to end the Virginia Dynasty by rotating the presidency between states and providing for only 1 four year term.

With national elections approaching, Madison issued an ultimatum to Britain. When Britain failed to respond quickly, the president asked Congress for a declaration of war. In June 1812, a sharply divided Senate voted 19-13 for war, and the House 79-49. The causes of the War of 1812 have been much debated. Officially, the US went to war because Britain violated its commercial rights as a neutral nation.

They wanted a 2/3 vote in Congress for war, prohibit trade, or admit a new state to the union. As a minority party in Congress, the Federalists could prevail only if the war continued to go badly – a very real prospect.

But the Federalists in Congress who represented the New England & Middle Atlantic merchants voted against the war; and in the election of 1812, those regions cast their 89 electoral votes for the Federalist presidential candidate, De Witt Clinton of NY. Madison amassed most of his 128 electoral votes in the South and West, where voters and congressmen strongly supported the War of 1812.

The Treaty of Ghent

Treaty of Ghent

The war cost $88 million raising the national debt to $127 million. By 1815, America was on the verge of economic and military collapse.

John Quincy Adams, Henry Clay, and Albert Gallatin went to Ghent, Belgium to negotiate the peace with Britain.

However, just at the end of 1814, Britain wanted peace. The 20 year war with France sapped its wealth and energy, so it began negotiations with the US in Ghent, Belgium.

Americans gave up their demand for a British renunciation of impression and for the cession of Canada to the United States.

The Treaty, signed December 24, 1814 firmly established the pre-war borders of the US.

The British abandoned their call for the creation of an Indian buffer state in the Northwest and made minor territorial concessions.

That result hardly justified 3 years of warfare, but before news of the treaty reached the US, a final military victory lifted Americans’ morale. On January 8, 1815, General Jackson’s troops crushed the British forces attacking New Orleans. The British lost 700, and the Americans lost 13. The victory made Jackson a national hero, redeemed the nation’s battered pride, and undercut the Hartford convention’s demands for constitutional revision. Attendants of the Hartford Convention appeared as traitors.

Other settlements followed. In 1815 a treaty with Britain allowed the US free trading rights with England. The Rush-Bagot Agreement of 1817 provided for mutual disarmament on the Great Lakes

Collapse of the Federalist Party After the war, the Republicans split into 2 camps. Led by Henry Clay, national Republicans pursued Federalist-like policies. In 1816, Clay pushed legislation through Congress creating the Second Bank of the United States and persuaded President Madison to sign it. In 1817, Clay won passage of the Bonus Bill, which created a national fund for roads and other internal improvements. Madison vetoed it. Reaffirming traditional Jeffersonian Republican principles, he argued that the national government lacked constitutional authority to fund internal improvements. Meanwhile, the Federalist Party crumbled. The National Republicans in the eastern states destroyed the Federalist Party by adopting its principles. Jeffersonian Republicans dominated the South and the West. Westward expansion and the success of Jefferson’s Revolution of 1800 shattered the First Party System.

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