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Review Reminder: Remember that up until now in U.S. history, foreign policy had involved Washington’s neutrality between
Britain and France, Jay’s Treaty with Britain, Pinckney’s Treaty of San Lorenzo with Spain, and the Franco-American Accord of
1800 with France. Adams had struggled to maintain peace with France despite provocations—however, by the end of this chapter,
in 1820, there will have been a war with England, and the threat again of a war with France.
Chapter 13 – Expanding and Defending Boundaries – (1800 – 1820)
Main Idea: By 1800, the movement of people was bringing rapid change to North America. Thomas Jefferson, reflecting
primarily the concerns of the country’s westerners and southerners, bought new lands to add to the United States.
I.
BEYOND THE MISSISSIPPI:
In the late 1700s a variety of vessels could be found in the Pacific Ocean, off the foggy northwest coast of
North America:
a. Makah Indians fishing and hunting in their canoes were there, Russian ships were there looking for furs to
take back to their settlements in Alaska were there; Spaniards, who’d come north from California because
they were nervous about the southward moving settlements of the Russians were there; large British ships
on exploratory missions seeking a Northwest passage were there; and American traders, in smaller but
faster ships began to add the growing interests of their new American republic (on the other side of the
continent) to the mix.
A. The Pacific Coast in 1800…..
1. Spain had once claimed the entire North American Pacific coast. (Remember the voyages of Juan Rodriquez
Cabrillo in 1542.)
2. However, in the 1740s Russians began to set up trading posts along the coast of Alaska as part of their own
spreading empire.
3. Spain responded by beginning to establish permanent settlements along the California coast (not yet California)
to prevent the Russians from further expansion.
4. In 1769, a Franciscan priest named Father Junipero Serra planted the cross at a San Diego Mission, hoping to
convert Indians to Christianity and a farming way of life. Serra headed the religious part of the first colonizing
dimensions of Spain’s efforts to protect already held Spanish territories in the Americas from foreign
encroachment by means of protected settlements and new converts.
5. The mission Indians typically had to give up their traditional ways, and were not allowed to return home after
starting to live at the missions. Many of them died at the missions of European diseases.
6. Late in 1775, several hundred non-mission Indians at San Diego revolted against the Spanish, burning the
mission at San Diego (See Serra Letter Handout.)
7. By 1800 there was a string of 21 Spanish Missions from San Diego to San Francisco.
8. At the same time, British Canadians were pushing westward in their efforts to establish permanent settlements
and claim lands. In 1793, Explorer Alexander Mackenzie was the first white to travel all the way across
North America and reach the Pacific Ocean.
9. With Mackenzie’s success, Britain laid claim to the Pacific Northwest.
10. However, both the British and Russian fur traders were in competition with New England merchant ships who
had finally managed to sail around the tip of South America—also in search of furs.
11. In 1792, on behalf of the U.S., Captain Robert Gray had sailed his ship the Columbia into the mouth of a large
river located between the present-day states of Washington and Oregon. He claimed the region for the United
States, naming the river the Columbia River after his ship.
12. By 1800, there were so many New Englanders in the region trading that the Indians called all white men
“Bostons.”
B. Changes on the Plains……
1. Spain, at this point in time, also controlled a significant portion of the North American interior in addition to
their missions on the coast. However, they did not have any actually occupied Spanish settlements any further
into the interior than those in what is present-day Southeast Texas, and the Rio Grande Valley.
2. Meanwhile, great changes due to the relatively new presence of the horse were taking place in the region of the
Great Plains. The first Spanish explorers (ie. Coronado, et al) had left horses behind to roam wild. These horses
had rapidly bred, increased in population, and begun to be tamed and used by the Indians in the region. The use
of the horse had caused an economic and social revolution among the Indian tribes bordering the Great plains.
3. As more Indians learned to ride, they were able to actually move on to the formerly uninhabitable Great Plains
(because the ability to travel on horseback meant that great distances between sources of water were more
manageable.) The Plains Indians could now easily follow buffalo herds on horseback. Buffalo became the main
food supply for these Indians, as well as the source for many goods: string for bows, hides for canvasses,
blankets, etc.
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C. Movement West……..
1. Plains Indian culture became, at this point, a culture on a direct collision course with U.S. westward movement.
2. By 1800, both Kentucky and Tennessee had become states. In 1803 Ohio entered the Union as well. However,
pioneers moving into the western-most regions were at constant risk of Indian attack.
3. Because all of the frontier states that had relatively large populations had voted for Jefferson in the last
presidential race, Jefferson was very attuned to the concerns of these particular voters. Jefferson began to
pressure Congress to sell them land for a very cheap price.
D. A Shifting Foreign Policy…..
1. When Jefferson became President, American foreign policy underwent a small but important shift.
2. Background: The shift happened because the concerns of the west carried more weight than the concerns of the
north. For example: The U. S. policy changed towards the island of Hispaniola in the Caribbean because more
than a third of all U.S. trade was with the West Indies, and control of Hispaniola was central to the issue.
a. Hispaniola _- at the time, France controlled the west half of the island of Hispaniola (now Haiti.) The
jewel of the French Empire and most important of France’s American colonies was “Sainte Domingue,”
which was responsible for 2/3 of all of France’s total trade in sugar, coffee, indigo, and cotton. The trade in
Sainte Domingue alone was equal in value to the trade generated in all of the 13 colonies combined in
1700—and, that trade was totally dependent upon the work of ½ a million enslaved Africans.
b. The east half of the island of Hispaniola (now the Dominican Republic) was controlled at the time by
Spain.
3. Slave Rebellion: During the Adams Presidency, news of the French Revolution reached Hispaniola, and
plunged the French-controlled western half of the island into turmoil. In 1791, the revolution’s ideals of liberty
and equality inspired the slaves on Hispaniola to rebel, driving the French out by 1793. The slaves on the
western half of the island then declared their freedom. This was the only technically “successful” revolt by
slaves that ever took place in the Americas. The rebellion was led by a self-taught genius, named General
Pierre Toussaint L’Ouverture. Born a slave, but grandson of an African chief, L’Ouverture was known as the
“black Napoleon.”
4. The Federalist Party (backed by northern U.S. merchants who relied on the trade with Hispaniola) hoped to turn
the slave rebellion to their financial advantage. Then-President, John Adams gave L’Ouverture military aid in
the late 1790s in exchange for trading rights with Hispaniola.
5. With Adams’ help, L’Overture was able to also conquer the Spanish part of Hispaniola as well. By 1801 He
ruled the whole island.
6. News that the slaves had rebelled and were governing Hispaniola alarmed southerners in the U.S. Jefferson,
himself a slave-owner, became President in 1801 and had little sympathy for L’Overture. When Napoleon asked
Jefferson for help in putting down the rebellion, Jefferson said, yes, although nothing ever resulted from the
promise.
E. The Louisiana Purchase……
1. Jefferson did not realize that Napolean’s plans went much beyond regaining control of Hispaniola. By this time,
Napoleon had control of most of Spain and Europe. By secret treaty, he had forced Spain to return the Louisiana
territory (which had been forcibly given to Spain as part of the terms after loosing the French and Indian War
with the British.)
2. Napoleon planned to reassert white rule on Hispaniola, and then send an army to occupy the Louisiana territory.
3. To make matters more complicated, Jefferson had other worries as well. In late 1802, Spain had cancelled
rights of deposit that they had granted the U.S. in Pinckney’s Treaty of San Lorenzo. Spain was then ordered,
by France, to turn the New Orleans colony over to France. Westerners in the U.S. were outraged because they
now had no way to get their crops to market. Many Americans began to call for war against both Spain and
France.
4. Jefferson wrote a letter to Robert Livingston, a U.S. minister (ambassador) stationed in France, describing the
importance of the New Orleans problem: “There is on the globe, a single spot, the possessor of which is our
national and habitual enemy. It is New Orleans, through which the produce of 3/8ths of our territory must pass
to market.”
5. Therefore, Jefferson decided to try to buy New Orleans from France (a “veiled threat” was added—“If France
takes possession,” then the U.S. must “marry ourselves to the British—fleet and nation” (hint, hint.)
6. Jefferson then authorized Robert Livingston to offer France $10 million dollars for New Orleans and West
Florida. He Sent James Monroe as a special envoy to negotiate the purchase together with Livingston on behalf
of the U.S.
7. When met with the proposal, France was still reeling from their struggles on Hispaniola (L’Ouverture had been
captured, but resistance from the former slaves had continued unabated—so Napoleon had sent an army of
34,000 French soldiers to Hispaniola to control the situation. However, heavy fighting and yellow fever had
killed 30,000 of them, and Napoleon had been forced to finally withdraw.)
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The island was re-named Haiti (the original Arawak name), and L’Ouverture’s successor, Dessalines,
proclaimed himself the Emperor of Haiti. One result of the rebellion was that Napoleon was forced to abandon
his North American ambitions for French conquest.
9. Thus, when approached by the U.S. with the proposed Louisiana Purchase, Napoleon decided to sell all of
Louisiana to the U.S. for $15 million dollars (about 4 cents/acre), partly to keep the British from seizing it.
10. The treaty that spelled out the terms of the purchase was signed in 1803. The Louisiana Purchase doubled the
size of the U.S., and was the most important act of Thomas Jefferson as President.
11. The sale however, bothered Jefferson. In particular, he wondered: was it legal? According to a strict
construction of the Constitution, the President only had those powers specifically mentioned (nothing about
buying land.) Jefferson had wanted a constitutional amendment to be sure it was legal, but Livingston warned
that if they waited for Senate approval of the amendment, Napoleon might change his mind.
12. Jefferson was finally persuaded to proceed with the purchase, despite his worries, by arguments like those of
Thomas Paine. Paine pointed out that it wouldn’t change the Constitution to purchase Louisiana, “It only extends
the principles of it over a larger Territory,” the purchase gave the U.S. the western part of the Mississippi River
basin--land between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains.
13. The Senate ratified the treaty despite opposition from New England Federalists. Jefferson justified his actions as
necessary--coming under the President’s “implied powers to protect the nation.”
EXPLORING THE FAR WEST:
Tecumseh – Chief of the Shawnee Nation, in a letter to President Madison in 1810 (via Tecumseh’s messenger): “These
lands are ours. No one has a right to remove us, because we were the first owners. The Great Spirit above has appointed
a place for us, on which to light our fires, and here we will remain.”
A. Lewis & Clark…….
1. Already, months before the Louisiana Purchase, Jefferson had asked Congress for $2,500.00 to outfit an
expedition into the west to explore and to “extend the external commerce” of the U.S. He also had some
additional motives as well:
a. He wanted to get the U.S. more solidly into the Fur trade
b. He wanted to feel out the political and military uses of the western territory
2. In 1801 Jefferson recruited fellow Virginian, Meriwether Lewis away from his post as an officer in the U.S.
Army at Ft. Detroit, to come to Washington, D.C. and serve as Jefferson’s private secretary. Jefferson was
interested in Lewis’ knowledge of both the army (how to manage men) and his knowledge of the “western
country.”
3. Jefferson wanted Lewis to head an expedition to explore the west for him. The expedition would be called the
“Corps of Discovery”—it was the first scientific expedition ever to receive federal funding.
4. Lewis asked his friend and fellow Virginian, William Clark (younger brother of George Rogers Clark, hero of
the American Revolution) to recruit and oversee the volunteers for the expedition. Clark was an outdoorsman, a
mapmaker, and a veteran of the Indian Wars.
B. The Lewis & Clark Expedition…….
1. Clark brought a man named “York” with him. York was Clark’s African servant and was very skilled in
hunting and making contact with Indian groups. York’s skills were an invaluable asset to the expedition.
2. The trip was almost ready to get under way when news of the pending Louisiana Purchase became public,
making the importance of the trip even more apparent.
3. The expedition set out in the summer of 1803, reaching St. Louis by that winter. St. Louis, at this time was no
more than an out post with 180 or so houses. Later it became the “gateway to the west” because of its important
location as a trading hub (near the intersection of the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers.) Many of the towns early
settlers were French people—who, by the time of Lewis and Clark, had been living in St. Louis for some years
under Spanish rule.
4. The Lewis and Clark expedition wintered in St. Louis. They waited until the ceremony in the spring, marking
the purchase of Louisiana, in which the American Flag was raised over St. Louis (March 4, 1804.)
C. Up the Missouri……
1. The expedition officially began in 1804 when approximately 40 soldiers and civilians finally headed out of St.
Louis and up the Missouri river in a 55’ flat-bottomed boat (with 22 oars) and 2 “pirogues” (long boats shaped
like canoes but large enough for 7 men each.)
2. The passage up-stream was difficult going against the current, so strict martial discipline was maintained with
regular floggings for those who slacked off.
3. President Jefferson’s instructions were to:
a. Explore the Mississippi River and its tributaries (feeders)
b. Try to find a water route across the continent that could be used for trade
c. Maintain good relations with the Indians they encountered
d. Gather scientific information and samples—including topographical descriptions, and descriptions
of plants, animals, and Indians
8.
II.
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4.
To this end, the expedition was equipped with books, maps, paper, camping gear, kettles, clothing , fishing gear,
oil lamps, and items for trade with Indians (such as axes, sheets o copper, beads, fabric, needles, and scissors.)
5. In October 1804 they reached the Mandan Indian Villages in present-day North Dakota, (near Bismark.)
There they built a small fort (named Ft. Mandan) and wintered there. Over the winter they met a handful of
French-Canadian trappers and traders who acted as translators with the Mandan, but who were not themselves
very pleased that the Americans were there because they wanted no new competition in the Beaver trade. The
French knew that other Americans would soon follow these first explorers.
6. Starting out again in the Spring of 1805, the expedition was joined by a French trapper and his wife Sacajawea,
a Shoshone Indian woman who had been kidnapped years earlier. They had with them their new baby. Lewis
and Clark expected Sacajawea to translate for the expedition when they reach the Rocky Mountain tribes,
because that was where she was originally from.
7. At the same time, the expedition sent home their first shipment of natural specimens collected thus far by the
expedition. The shipment, shipped down the Missouri on a barge from the Mandan villages continued east to
President Jefferson, carrying a dead Prong Horn Antelope, a weasel, squirrels, prairie dogs, mountain ram horns,
large elk antlers, tail of a black-tailed deer, Indian artifacts, and a box each of various plants and insects.
D. On to the Pacific……..
1. The Lewis & Clark expedition stopped at the Great Falls of the Missouri River (a series of waterfalls, spread
out over a ten mile distance.) To get around the falls, their boats had to be carried for 18 miles overland. In
order to transport the bigger boat, they built wheels and attached them to the bottom of it, but the trip still took
almost two full weeks.
2. The expedition finally came to the Rocky Mountains (entering near present-day Montana), and Sacajawea
pointed out the location of her Shoshone Indian home-lands.
3. Because Lewis and Clark wanted to make contact with the Shoshone, a small party headed overland towards
the location of the Shoshone Chief’s home. En route, they passed the tiny head waters of the Missouri River.
4. The Shoshone Chief at that time turned out to be Sacajawea’s brother. He traded horses to Lewis and Clark so
that the group could continue overland.
5. For safe-keeping, the expedition sunk their canoes (hoping no one would find them, and they could then pick
them up later and repair them for use again on the return trip. The expedition followed Shoshone guides on
horse-back over the Rocky Mountains to the Clearwater River where they built new boats.
6. In these new boats, the expedition continued on to the Snake River, and then the mighty Columbia River, which
empties into the Pacific Ocean. They reached the mouth of the Columbia River on the Pacific Coast in
November of 1805.
7. When they got to the coast, the group noticed the local Indians speaking what they recognized as “sailor’s
English” and thought that it meant that trading ships probably came by with some degree of frequency. Thus,
they decided to stay on the coast for the winter, hoping to hop a trade-ship headed back east in the spring time,
instead of having to make the return trip over land. The expedition built Ft. Clatsop (near present-day Astoria,
Oregon), and wintered there. However, in the spring, when no such ship arrived, the expedition finally was
forced to set out over land, splitting into two separate groups so that they could cover even more land and
expand their information gathering abilities. The two parties reunited at Ft. Union, returning as a single group
from that point onward.
8. The Lewis and Clark expedition returned on September 23, 1806. Because the expedition brought back so
much information about the nature of the countryside, it dispelled fears of the unknown for lots of Americans
who then became willing to go west. The expedition also helped the U.S. lay claim to the northern region of
territory between the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific Ocean (known at that time as “Oregon.”
9. When it ended, the Lewis and Clark expedition had been a 28 month journey, but had suffered only one fatality
(a man died from an attack of appendicitis.) Meriwether Lewis, who suffered from depression, committed
suicide in 1809 at the age of 35 (although many historians argue that he was actually murdered.) Clark (17701838) lived for a long while after the expedition, and became quite influential in Indian affairs. Contrary to the
common myth, Sacajawea died at the age of 28.
E. Search for the Red River…….
1. The Lewis and Clark expedition had set out specifically to explore the northern part of the Louisiana Purchase.
2. In 1805 (before Lewis and Clark returned home), an army officer named Zebulon Pike also departed from St.
Louis, planning to take a more southerly route across the same basic stretch of land. He was specifically
searching for the head waters of the Red River (which was the supposed boundary between New Spain and
Louisiana.)
3. With only 24 men, Pike headed across the Great Plains towards the Rocky Mountains. When he was still over
150 miles away from the Rockies, he began to see one particularly enormous peak that was part of the Rocky
Mountain Range. That peak, (ten miles west of present-day Colorado Springs, Colorado) is still called Pike’s
Peak after Zebulon Pike. It is not the tallest peak in the Rockies (14,110 feet high), but is a relatively isolated
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III.
peak, and therefore has sweeping views. According to a Ute Indian legend the Great Spirit descended from the
sky at this same location and created all living things.
4. By the time Pike’s group headed into the mountains, it was winter. Therefore they decided to camp in the valley
of the Upper Rio Grande River (Pike probably knew that this region was Spanish Territory, but he probably did
not realize he would be caught trespassing there.)
5. Pike’s group was arrested by the Spanish and taken south to Santa Fe (present-day New Mexico), and then on
into Chihuahua, Mexico. They were released in 1807.
6. Results: Pike never found the Red River, but he did accumulate a lot of good information about the region of
the Great Plains and the Rio Grande valley. His also is responsible for perpetuating an inaccurate
perception of the Great Plains at the time, because he described the plains as the “great American desert”
saying the plains lacked farming value (this could not have been further from the truth, although the Great Plains
would require irrigation in many places before they became the heartland of American farming.)
F. Stephen Long Expedition……
1. Much later (well after the War of 1812) another explorer helped map the Great Plains. In 1820, Stephen H. Long
set out searching for the source of the Red River. His expedition followed the Platte River west from the
Missouri River.
2. He crossed the Great Plains, climbed Pike’s Peak, and headed south to find the Red River. However,
Unbeknownst to him, Long was following the Canadian River ( a river that ran further south) instead of the Red
River.
G. Effects of Exploration……..
1. There were several important effects of that came from these various expeditions:
a. Accurate Maps
b. Growth of the fur trade – John Jacob Astor set up a trading post in 1811 at the mouth of the
Columbia River in present-day Oregon (Astoria, Oregon.)
c. Pike’s inaccurate assessment of the Great Plains lasted for decades
d. Pike’s view of the Plains led to the belief that all Indians should be moved on to the Great Plains
since the territory was supposedly worthless.
THE WAR OF 1812:
Note-We will assess the extent to which the war resolved the issues that started this conflict between Britain & the U.S.(a
conflict in which the British invaded the U.S., and marched right into Washington, D.C. because the U.S. military wasn’t
strong enough to stop them!)
A. Drifting Towards War……
1. The resentments that started the War of 1812 started on the seas. Remember that George Washington had
warned in his farewell address against the U.S. getting involved in European rivalries—remember he advocated
neutrality between France and Britain.
2. Washington died in 1799. In 1803 France and Britain were at war with each other, each trying to keep the other
from getting supplies and food. In the process of blockading each other, both countries would seize American
ships sailing towards their enemy’s ports.
3. During this time, Britain increased their practice of “impressment” (forcible drafting of American sailors into
service in the British navy. Americans were outraged by this practice and many wanted to go to war over it.
4. Jefferson, re-elected for a second term as President in 1804, wanted to avoid war with Britain, but couldn’t
ignore the seizures of American ships, nor the impressment.
5. The Chesapeake Incident of June 1807 almost triggered a war with Britain. The commander of the U.S.
Frigate the “Chesapeake” refused to submit to a search by a British ship in coastal waters off of Norfolk,
Virginia. The British ship the “Leopard” open-fired on the Chesapeake, killing three Americans. However,
Jefferson still resisted the outcries for revenge.
B. Trade as a Weapon……
1. Jefferson passionately believed that international law should settle disputes between nations, not war.
2. Therefore, his solution to the Chesapeake incident was to ask Congress to pass an embargo to stop all foreign
trade .
3. The Embargo Act of 1807 prevented U.S. ships from sailing to foreign ports, and it closed all U.S. ports to
foreign ships. Jefferson’s basic premise in doing this was that Europe was completely dependent by this point
on American supplied foodstuffs and raw materials. Jefferson was not wrong about Europe’s dependency,
however, his plan turned out to be unrealistic. The embargo did hurt Europe, but it hurt the wrong people. The
embargo hurt British textile workers, and slaves in the British colonies…it did not really hurt those in power in
Britain.
4. In addition, Jefferson had hoped that the embargo would cause the British and the French to have more respect
For the importance of U.S. ships, but it had more impact on the U.S. itself than it did on France and Britain. The
U.S. farmers lost their overseas customers. U.S. sailors were put out of work. The U.S. government lost revenue
because they were no longer collecting any import taxes.
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5.
C.
D.
E.
F.
By the time the election of 1808 rolled around, the embargo act was a major issue. The Republican candidate,
James Madison was running against Federalist, Charles C. Pinckney. During the campaigning, New Englanders
(mostly Federalists) loudly accused the Republicans (Jefferson was a Republican) of forcing a depression on the
country with the Embargo Act. Furthermore, Jefferson had passed enforcement laws that consolidated the
powers of the Executive branch far more than anything the Federalists had achieved when they were in the
White House. Jefferson’s actions actually led to a revival of Federalism in the 1808 election.
6. The Republican Party nonetheless did manage to get Madison elected President in 1808, but it was clear he
would have to put an end to the embargo.
7. Congress repealed the Embargo Act in 1809.
8. Madison’s alternative solution was to pass a law that allowed foreign trade with all countries except France and
Britain. However, that didn’t turn out to be any more effective than the total embargo.
Tecumseh and Indian Unity…….(his Indian name meant Cougar crouching for his prey)
1. American feeling towards Britain especially, was becoming more and more bitter.
2. Westerners in the U.S. were especially angered by Britain’s continued encouragement of Indians resisting white
settlement efforts in the western regions of the U.S.
3. In particular, a Shawnee Indian Chief named Tecumseh had vowed to stop any further loss of Indian lands to the
Americans. Tecumseh had learned English. He had read the Bible, Shakespeare, and had studied history.
4. Tecumseh decided that Indians needed to unite the way the Americans had if they were to achieve their goals.
He began to work with his brother to form a confederation of Indian tribes joined together around the common
principle that Indian land was held as a common property belonging to all Indian peoples. Tecumeseh’s brother
was a Shawnee Shaman known as “the Prophet,” who himself had worked encouraging Indians to avoid the
white man’s alcoholic beverages and white ways in general.
5. In 1809, the Governor of Indiana, William Henry Harrison, got Indians to sell him the heart of the Indiana
Territory (approximately 3 million acres.)
6. Tecumseh declared the treaty meaningless. He said, “The Indians may sell, but they must join together. Any
sale not made by all is not valid.”
7. On November 7, 1811 Harrison launched a surprise attack on the Shawnee Indians at Tecumseh’s stronghold
called “Prophet’s Town” on the Tippicanoe River. Harrison’s forces slaughtered huge numbers of
helpless women and children at the Battle of Tippicanoe. Tecumseh was able to escape with some of his
people, fleeing into Canada.
The War Hawks…..
1. When Tecumseh and his surviving people went to Canada after Tippicanoe, they became allies with the British
who were in Canada. This action further angered westerners in the U.S. who were already calling for war with
Britain.
2. People who repeatedly called for war were known as “war hawks.” One of these war hawks was
Congressman, Henry Clay, of Kentucky. Clay wanted to go to war with Britain and remove the British from
Canada altogether.
3. Finally the war hawks had their way, and Congress declared war on Britain on June 18, 1812.
The reasons the U.S. cited for going to war were:
a. Impressment of American sailors.
b. Violations of American rights at sea.
c. British support of Indian resistance regarding Americans.
The War Begins…….
1. The War of 1812 has 2 main parts: the first part goes from 1812 to 1814 (the first two years.)
2. In the first part of the war, the British were still fighting with France (as well as now fighting the Americans),
therefore they couldn’t fully invest their energies in their war in North America.
3. However, during this first phase of the war, Britain did set up a blockade, stopping American ships from going
in or out of U.S. ports.
4. The U.S. army’s forces couldn’t do much because they were too small (less than 7,000 in the U.S. army at the
start of the war) and they had poor leadership as well.
5. The individual state militias tried to help the federal army, but they were really only able to help out
defensively, not offensively.
6. The U.S. Navy had dedicated volunteers, and they had officers with experience (from fighting the French, as
well as pirates.) They also had the fastest warships of anyone. Frigates like the Constitution, the United States,
and the President all won victories during this war.
Battle of Lake Erie……
1. The most important naval victory in the War of 1812 occurred on Lake Erie in the winter of 1812-13.
2. Americans had begun to build a fleet on the shores of Lake Erie under the command of Oliver Hazzard Perry.
3. Perry was a seaman, and a son of a sea captain. In September of 1813, the small British fleet stationed on the
The lake set out to destroy the American fleet on the lake.
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Perry met the on coming British in his ship The Lawrence with a banner flying that read: “Don’t give up the
ship.” After two hours of relentless cannon fire, Perry’s ship was in tatters, and helpless, so Perry jumped into
a row boat with his banner (rather than surrender.) Perry rowed (with five of his crew) over to another
American ship, took command, and destroyed two British ships.
4. The British surrendered, and Perry sent word to Harrison, who was waiting on the Ohio shore of Lake Erie with
a force of 3,000 American soldiers.
5.
At the Battle of Thames, in October 1813, Harrison’s men, who’d been ferried to Detroit, followed the
Brits as they retreated into Canada. Harrison’s troops fought the British and won. One of the dead on the side
of the British was Tecumseh, who died October 5, 1813, in the Battle of Thames.
G. The Brits Burn the Capital……
1. The second part of the War of 1812 started after the British defeated Napoleon in April of 1814.
2. In August of 1814, the British sailed into the Chesapeake Bay, and left troops on the Maryland shore of the Bay.
3. The British troops then marched from Maryland into Washington, D.C., and took the U.S. capital from the U.S.
troops there to protect it. The British torched the White House and the Capital, as well as other public
buildings. The British actions were taken in revenge for an earlier American attack and burning of buildings in
the Canadian city of York (now Toronto.)
4.
Americans fled their capital, including Dolly Madison, (then President James Madison’s wife, and First Lady.)
Dolly Madison took with her some important papers, as well as a now famous portrait of George Washington.
5.
Next the British attacked Fort McHenry in Baltimore, Maryland, which had a big American Flag flying
overhead (a flag “so large the Brits will have no trouble seeing it.”)
6. It was this huge flag that inspired Francis Scott Key. Key, a lawyer from Washington was aboard a British
ship in the Chesapeake Bay trying to negotiate the release of American prisoners when the bombing of Ft.
McHenry started on September 13, 1814. He wrote about the flag still standing the next morning in a poem
that later became our national anthem, “The Star Spangled Banner.”
G. Failed British Invasions………
1. At the same time the British were planning two other invasions of U.S. territory which both failed:
a. In September 1814 the British sent a force from Canada, across Lake Champlain, and headed south.
Their intent was to go down through the Hudson Valley, and cut off New England from the rest of
the states. Just as their earlier plan to isolate New England during the American Revolutionary
War had failed, the British were instead themselves defeated at the Battle of Lake Champlain.
2. In December of 1814, the British sent 7,500 troops into New Orleans.
3. In response, the Americans raised and army of militia-men, Indians, African Americans, and pirates under
General Andrew Jackson.
4. The British attacked on January 8, 1815. However, the American forces mowed them down from behind an
Earthworks. The British lost 2,030 soldiers in that battle, the Americans lost only 21.
5. The Battle of New Orleans made Jackson a hero in the west, despite the fact that it never really should have
been fought at all, because the Treaty of Ghent, formally ending the War of 1812, had already been signed two
weeks earlier on December 24, 1814 (unbeknownst to both sides fighting at New Orleans.)
6. The terms of the Treaty of Ghent indicated that both sides had agreed to peace, but did not identify any clear
winner, and no territory changed hands between Britain and the U.S. whatsoever.
4.
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