The War of 1812
In the year one thousand, eight hundred and twelve, the Americans engaged in a war with the British. The Americans were not prepared at all to fight. It was known as the war of 1812, and their conflicts lasted for three years, up to the year 1815. Nothing much was accomplished from the battles and the war. There was a lot of sacrifice in lives, blood, and money. Unlike the Vietnam war that occurred in the late 1960s, the war of 1812 was very unpopular among the Americans (Hickey,2012).
The war of 1812 was a justified war on the Americans. The Americans had valid reasons to engage in that war—first, the actions of the British government against the Americans to trade and to kidnap American citizens. The British army seized American citizens on the seas and enslaved them at around the 1790s. They forced the Americans to work in their ships with no pay. The British actions were Impressment by the British against the American honor. The British claimed that there were no such things as the American citizens and that all Americans were British citizens by law. The British said so to justify their feeble actions of suppressing the Americans (Hickey,2012). Americans believed that the Impressment assaulted the American citizens, thus their more reason to engage in the war of 1812. Secondly, violation of American Neutrality made them participate in the war. In the year one thousand, seven hundred and ninety-two, British and the French were at war. During this war, Americans had declared neutrality.
The fight between Britain and the French had divided the political parties back in America. Federalists supported Britain while the Republicans and the Jeffersonians supported the French. The conflicts between the two countries affected the merchants in America economically, their experienced economic stability as they traded with both countries (Hickey,2012). In the year 1805, Britain adopted a rule known as the rule of 1756, whose aim was to restrict trade, inspect the ships in the sea and deny business to a neutral nation, specifically the United States. Britain termed the United States as an enemy because they traded with France with whom they were at war. After passing the rule of 1756, Britain began patrolling the American waters, seizing cargo from American ships and kidnapping American seamen. Those actions of Britain made America declare war against Britain.
Are the Native Americans playing a role in the war? This question was in the minds of many American leaders. After the battle between William Henry Harrison and Tecumseh, the leader of the Indian, the war that took place in 1811, the American leaders had to conclude that Tecumseh and his follower were in support of Britain during the war of 1812. William Henry Harrison, the governor of Indiana, led an army of one thousand men to fight against Shawnee and other Indian groups, which were plotting an attack on the Americans. Henry set foot on that village, challenged, and defeated the Shawnee (Hickey,2012). He then burnt the Prophetstown village to the ground. Tecumseh lost his prestige among the Native Americans after his defeat. He assured the Native Americans that he would find ways to fight back and reclaim back their lands. Americans believed that Britain was stirring the Native Americans from Indiana to start a war. When the war broke in 1812, Tecumseh and his Indian allies joined the British army in their attempt to defeat the Americans and restore the lands to Native Americans.
During the war of 1812, the United States started the war with an attempt to take Canada. Due to this attempt, the United States lost many strategic forts along their borders with Canada. Also, an attempt at William Henry Harrison in January, the year one thousand, eight hundred and thirteen., to recapture Fort Detroit was a failure. Apart from the failures that the United States went through, the American forces also emerged victorious several. The battle of Lake Erie, which is the most significant victory of the war for the American navy, took place in September 1813. In 1812, the British navy was in control of Lake Erie. British vessels filled St. Lawrence River and the Great lakes by 1813. The ships enabled the British navy to attain the power of most of the Northwestern area and the St. Lawrence River. In March 1813, the United States government sent commander Hazard Perry to Lake Erie, Pennsylvania. He and his small army forced them to build a navy to challenge the British navy. Within a few months, Perry constructed a small navy of nine ships that took its place in the wilderness. Perry made his navy to Lake Erie, and at around noon, they encountered British naval vessels. A substantial maritime battle took place for hours, which resulted in damage to Perry’s flagship (Hickey,2012). The struggle continued, and Perry managed to force surrender four British ships and also captured two more ships from the British soldiers who tried to escape.
The United States’ legacy during the war of 1812 outdoes its failures. The United States’ navy established a legacy of remembered among the Americans at all times. Commander Perry used small navy soldiers to defeat a sizeable British navy, which took control of Lake Erie. The battle of Lake Erie is considered a tremendous victory of the American navy and the Whole America at large. It is the hardest navy battle in the history of the United States. It was due to Perry’s bravery and naval struggle that made the Americans take control of Lake Erie. William Henry Harrison also fought the British and their Indian allies from the Fort of Detroit. The actions of Henry led to a great victory by the Americans in the war of 1812. The defeat of General Henry Proctor during the battle of the Thames was a legacy to the Americans. After the failure of the British navy by Commander Perry, Henry Proctor’s army was without support and was vulnerable to American Army (Hickey,2012). Tecumseh and the British soldiers were disoriented, and therefore they found themselves on a weary surrender. Harrison’s army took the lead on the British military, thus forcing them to retreat. Proctor managed to escape with a few of his soldiers and brought to a court-martial, and he was charged with brutal actions and taking part in the battle of Thames. The struggle of Thames was a unanimous victory for the Americans. The struggle of Thames went hand in hand with Commander Perry’s victory on Lake Erie.
The Good Feeling
At the end of the Napoleonic Wars and the 1812 War, the “Era of Good Feelings” marked a time, there was a desire for unity and a reflected sense of national purpose. Just after Monroe became president, in the wake of the war of 1812, he made a tour across the country. The sole reason, the trip, was soothing the harsh feelings and repairing the divisions that resulted in the War of 1812.
Monroe spent most of the tour’s time in New England states where the war had been bitter and decisive even though the rules were against it at first (Hickey,2012). During the era period, there was a brief lull in the bitter partisan disputes that had plagued the Federalist and Republican-Democratic parties.
Monroe endeavored to consolidate Federalist and Republican parties, with the grand plan of scrubbing the parties from national politics. The opposition party, which the federalists, died away, and by the 1820 elections, there were only one political party-the the Jeffersonian Republicans. Historians referred to Monroe’s term as an era of good feelings because, during his tenure, Monroe put on the table goodwill to Federalists and the states that were newly emerging and were declaring revolutions against European overlords and independence. That was just the tip of the iceberg.
Indeed, it was an “era of good feelings,” but on the surface only. The designation of the period as “Era of Good Feelings” is often conveyed with skepticism, as the political atmosphere was decisive and strained, especially within Monroe administration and the Republican party.
In reality, after the War of 1812, there were not so many “good feelings” under the surface. A new generation of new leaders was rising to the fore. The likes of John Calhoun, John Marshall, Henry Clay, John Adams, and others, and the dark side of this was that they did not like each other. After the “death” of the Federalists party, all these influential leaders found themselves in one political party; a political Frankenstein monster. In the 1820s, these leaders will get to despise one another, and as a result, there was open political warfare.
There were terrible feelings in the “Era of Good Feelings.” Speaking of unity, the Southerners and the Northerners, brought the country took a path of disunity in a crisis involving the admission of Missouri as a slave state. Stretching back to the Missouri crisis, the roots of the Civil War in America’s history were deep.
Speaking of Native Americans, it not an “era of good feelings at all. The southeastern Indians began to feel the push for removal by whites during this period. Countless conflicts between the Indians and the whites recorded, and one major between the Seminoles and the Indians (Taylor, 2010).
It was not an era of good feelings if one speaks of how the Europeans felt about the United States. During Monroe’s presidency, the united states took Florida from Spain, and this almost resulted in war. When America Monroe declared doctrine, there was tension with other European countries.
After the 1812 War, the “Era of Good Feelings” began in 1815 in a great victory wave, nationalism, and patriotism swept the nation. Commerce was cementing America into a national entity, and as a result, there was a pure form of American literature and art. Many of the leaders, like John C. Calhoun and Henry Clay, were great nationalists.
Calhoun sponsored the creation of numerous forts to keep the country safe. The efforts he made towards having a stable financial cannot escape our attention. It is quite remarkable, especially since Calhoun will change his tune in the late 1820s and become the country’s most excellent spokesman for state rights. The supreme court, under chief justice John Marshall on many occasions, made rulings in favor of a stable central government and against state’s rights (Taylor, 2010).
The method Monroe used to deflate the Federalist party was primarily one of neglect. He denied them all administrative appointments, political patronage, and federal support of any kind. Monroe wanted to remove the federalists from positions of political power, both at state and national levels. He pursued the policy without any desire to persecute the federalists, however. It was done mainly in the Federalism’s New England strongholds.
Monroe was meticulous, especially on sentiments made in his public announcements. He did not want to make comments that interpreted as partisan. He committed to nothing when encountering the Federalists making favorable impressions, yet he elicited good feelings.
Many Americans had “land fever.” After the 1812 war, they poured into the northwest, into the Louisiana, Mississippi territory following the lure of land and slavery. Americans had caught land fever; the westward expansion meant the spread of the cotton culture and the spread of slavery. It said the imminent removal of native Americans from their traditional homelands.
Farmers strove to expand their acreage, with small farmers taking advantage of this opportunity (Taylor, 2010). They went to banks to borrow loans to satisfy their desire for more land. The banks, however, refused to lend them because credit history was absent. Legislatures of the State noted this and chartered banks to meet their need, and as a result, notes from the new banks flooded the economy, and as a result, created inflation. Speculators took advantage and bought lands at low costs and sold them sold at exorbitant prices.
In the wake of the 1812 war, settlers left their homes and moved to new lands west of the Appalachian Mountains. People love familiarity. They ended up in places with an almost similar geographical configuration, a phenomenon named as Isothermal lines. Thus, they left gentle rolling hills and settled in the west, with the same geographic features.
To finance the 1812 war, the government borrowed heavily. It caused a strain on the reserves, the banks of specie that is in the form of silver and gold. The bank of the united states suspended payment in terms of currency. After the war, the bank continued the use of paper notes, and as such, the chattered banks adapted this practice issuing the banknotes excessive of the amount inside their vaults (Taylor, 2010).
The unstable economy could work so long as the people contented with working with paper money. If a large number of people demanded specie payments to the banks they had loaned to, the banking system would have collapsed due to lack of enough specie that would support the number of money banks had put into the economy.
To stabilize the banking system, Congress chartered a second bank of the U.S in 1816, but this was not to be. It only compounded the problem by making risky loaning to the areas where the land fever was highest, a move that increased speculation and inflation altogether.
The economic bubble of inflation burst in 1819, resulting in the Panic of 1819. The public panicked as they witnessed the prices of agricultural products prices fall and fail of businesses. During this period, there was a wave of bank runs, bankruptcies, and bank failures; widescale urban unemployment occurred, and prices dropped.
References
Hickey, D. R. (2012). The War of 1812: A forgotten conflict. University of Illinois Press.
Lecturer’s notes: Bad Feelings in the Era of Good Feelings.doc
Lecturer’s notes: The War of 1812.doc
Taylor, A. (2010). The Civil War of 1812: American Citizens, British Subjects, Irish Rebels, & Indian Allies. Vintage.