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Covers Madison’s reelection campaign against DeWitt Clinton and how the 1812 election reflected wartime politics. It also explains how Clinton’s regional messaging helped shape a new style of presidential campaigning.
President Madison declared war on the British in the spring of 1812 but that was also an election year and with war declared in the spring the campaigns were president mostly focused on foreign policy on the war and onthe conflict with the native nations the actual fighting with the British was limited at first but was a major Focus regardless Madison the Democratic Republican runs for a second term the Federalists will nominate Dewitt Clinton no relation tothe modern clintons Madison wins but this is actually the closest election to this point or at least going at least going back to 1796 where Adams won his first term you see the map here if the Federalists werefading as we've discussed why did they do so well here well Clinton was one of our nation's best early campaigners
in New England he catered to the Federalist majority and the strong anti-war sentiments in the South and in the west where opposition to the war was rare he argued for a better prosecution of the war basically if youelected Clinton or uh if he was elected he would run the war better than Madison the Federalists were going to and to be clear when I say campaign the candidates themselves did not go out and campaign it wasbasically members of their party in the region would print stuff with their arguments it was seen as beneath the office to actually go out and campaign yourself although Clinton started to do that a little bit foreign s worktoday candidates discuss the issues most relevant to the people of the area that they're in in Detroit would people respond to a speech about fishing in the Gulf of Mexico or do they care more about the automobile automobile
industry cars obviously right so the significance of this is that Madison wins the second term but it set a new standard for presidential campaigns this was done a little bit but Clinton is the first to really utilize itand making this one a lot closer than it should have been given the state of both parties
Summarizes the broader war, including the burning of Washington and the overall military stalemate. It then shifts to growing Federalist opposition as the war dragged on and hurt commerce.
so that's the election now we're going to turn to the war itself we aren't going to discuss the battles here as we have other issues to cover I should mention that the British did attack Washington DC and burnedit mostly to the ground as part of a series of invasions of the U.S mainland in 1814.the reason uh just a real quick side note so they did burn down places like the White House but the outside the facade of the building didn't burn a because it's Marble and B because a freak massive maybeeven uh it's hard to know given me didn't have the categories but basically a hurricane uh or the remnants of a hurricane showed up and dropped so much rain on DC that it put out all the fires sothe shell of the White House that was burned here in 1914 is the is still the original same thing with the other buildings that were burned that's just a little Side Story there in general though the war was
a stalemate at best even with the attack on DC no one side ever really got an advantage whether it was American attempts to invade Canada even you know the the British did show up in Burn DC but thenthey lost outside Baltimore at Fort McHenry that's where we get the Star-Spangled Bannerseveral years of fighting 18 starting in 1812 going into 13 even going into 14.several years of fighting resulted in nothing significant gained or changed for the U.S or for either side so what we're going to look at here mostly is Federalist opposition to the war remember I told you that Clinton inWar of 1812 catered to that when he was campaigning in the North Federalist opposition increased as the war continued and especially after the burning of Washington D.C in the early summer of 1814.now remember the Federalists favored British and Europe in their in their party's beliefs in foreign policy and they opposed the war to them the Real Enemy was not the British but the French and Napoleon for the U.S to
essentially stab the British in the back was abhorrent now of course they never answered for all the things the British were doing the impressment aiding Tecumseh in his War right they never answered for any of that because ofcourse after the Embargo goes away the impressment the stopping of American ships resumes or resumed this war stopped all Atlantic Commerce for the U.S which the Federalists were all about they were all about trade manufacturing and of coursetrade with the British again never mind the British policy impressment they ignored that now they also detested the Democratic Republican majority The Growing Power of the government and their own lack of power they detested all of those thingsso they decided to hold a meeting to call the fed the Hartford Convention
Explains the Hartford Convention, its demands, and the political frustrations behind it. The chapter also covers the parallel peace negotiations with Britain and the timing problems that made the convention look disastrous.
starting in October and essentially going through January of 1815.
the Federalists from the New England states met in Hartford Connecticut to discuss these issues they wanted to end the war and limit the power of the national government
and of the Democratic Republicans they created a document of Demands for the for the government knowing that they would never pass but they wanted to at least get their ideas out there it was honestly solely to try toshame or embarrass Madison and the Democratic Republicans for how badly the war was going for them their demands included repeal of the Three-Fifths Compromise limit the length of trade embargoes a one-term limit for president that presidents must befrom a different state than their predecessor and changes to voting in Congress on certain issues quick note on the the presidents and the states thing I just said Madison was the fourth president and he was the third presidentfrom Virginia Washington was from Virginia Adams Massachusetts Jefferson Virginia Madison Virginiait's not going to be until our sixth president that we get a president from a different state I'm sorry our seventh President until we get a president from a different state essentially they argue that the New England states
had authority to deal with unconstitutional Behavior using the logic of Jefferson and Madison from the Virginia Kentucky Resolutions though they did not state this directly it was more of they were implying it they were talking around it butit was definitely there and again it's interesting how ideas change hands when parties change who is in power newspapers discussed possible secession s-e-c-e-s-s-i-o-n not succession but secession for New England but that was not part of the convention discussionsor the demands as far as we're aware we don't have the notes from the meeting we just know what they released later so it was it was talk of the newspapers up there but that never came from anyof the members of the convention or the convention itself they sent this document to Washington DC in January of 1815.and the negotiators arrived to talk about these demands in February of 1815.
and they are going to have some of the worst timing in American history as we will see we'll Circle back to the significances of Hartford when we talk about the significance of the war itself in the meantime negotiationswith the British for an end of the war were ongoing both sides were tired of the war and claimed they were ready to end it again those negotiations had began they began all the way back in August of1814 but the war continued sorry I was wrong about the date of the attack on DC that was in October of 1814.so even though they're talking the war keeps going when you're negotiating
Describes the Treaty of Ghent, its status quo terms, and the delayed news that followed. It ends with the Battle of New Orleans and Andrew Jackson’s decisive victory, which transformed public opinion.
the terms of the treaty that they can uh that they concluded the Treaty of Ghent made official by both parties you know they both signed it they still have to take it back to their respective countries and haveit approved by their their governments but again is in Belgium just in case you were wondering the terms of this treaty were status quo Antebellum I really should have put that on Slide I'm gonna do that super fastbecause this is a Latin phrase and it is absolutely worth all of this trouble as I type around my microphone status do lowercase status quo anti-bellum there we go status quo Antebellum basically everything goes back to the wayit was before the war status quo meaning the way it is antebellum Antebellum from before so this fighting was all for nothing the treaty just basically said should be fighting this is a mistake let's just act like it
never happened now there was one interesting point the British agreed to return the slaves that had that they had captured and freed but they never did preferring to instead pay over 1.2 million dollars to the U.S to reimbursethe slave owners in the U.S that's 1.2 million during that time period today that would be 29 million dollars instead of returning to slaves that had been captured and freed they paid uh again 1.2 million dollars as asbasicallyto reimburse the slave owners for their Lost Property so the treaty was signed Communications and distance at the time meant that the news of the treaty took a while to get back it wasn't until late January 1815.however this was not the actual end to the war the same Pro excuse me the same problems that delayed the treaty and the news of the treaty delayed its announcement to the armies fighting this war the British had
sent an invasion Force to try to capture New Orleans and they clashed on the 8th of January 1815.the defense of New Orleans was led by now General Andrew Jackson Jackson wins a huge decisive victory over the British who immediately not only retreated from the battlefield but from Louisiana
when the victory was announced in Washington DC later in January it led to a huge rise in national pride and it made Jackson an even bigger national hero he was already famous for what he had done in thecreek War this is perhaps the only decisive victory of the entire War for the U.S and technically the war was over remember the treaty had been signed in 24th of December 1814.
Reviews the war’s outcomes for Britain, the United States, Native nations, and the Federalist Party. It concludes by explaining the war’s larger significance for American independence, politics, and the next topic on slavery.
what are the results of this warthe British nothing gained nothing lost the Americans nothing gained nothing lost though they finally do have the respect of the British you're not going to see the the all the issues with impressment messing with the natives they don'tdo that again they finally decide you know what we're cool with you we're good but that wasn't on paper that was just a thing that happened another result the British and the Americans will conclude new trade agreements afterthe war and they'll also sign a separate treaty with Britain a few years later it began a new era of cooperation that has not really been broken to this day a fourth result one being the British two beingAmericans three being the trade deals fourth is the native nations they were the Biggest Losers of this conflict unsurprisingly they lost the ability to slow American settlement in the Ohio country in the Northwest tecumseh's pan and uh pan-indian
Confederation had been shattered not shattered shattered the creek lost over half of their territory in their Creek War m and and the armed conflict of natives against the the U.S expansion is over in the Gulf Coast states minusFlorida and even further west Texas others other native nations had allied with the British in this war and they will also lose territory and power and of course all of this pales in comparison to the lives lost bythe native nations fifth result the Federalists were the other big Losers of this conflict remember the negotiators from the Hartford Convention sent to Washington DC they arrived after news of both the Treaty of Ghent and the Battle ofNew Orleans had arrived public opinion which was somewhat sympathetic because of how badly or boringly the war was going turned against them and they were labeled traitors and opportunists they were particularly uh criticized or decried for uh being
seen as trying to seize power when the country was weak during a time of War they were also roasted for the secession talk despite it wasn't in their demands they didn't ever threaten it and it probably wasn't themit didn't matter because that's what people heard so they're gonna naturally go after them this is considered the final nail in the coffin for the party by 1820 the Federalists will be dead nationally we don't know how thiswould have changed if Hamilton had lived in 1804 so regardless this is the end of the Federalist this attempt to shame and embarrass Madison the Democratic Republicans and what they thought was a weak point in the war backfiredin the most spectacular way possiblethe significance of the war there's two this is often called the second war of American independence for the U.S Britain was still treating the us as a colony they recognized the U.S the US's Independence on paper but not
in their actions in many ways this war was necessary as any as necessary as any War can be to assert the US's place in the world to finally get Britain off of their back to leave them alone secondthis signaled the arrival of a new age in American politics of single party control of cooperation of the rise of the warhawks from being warhawks to political party leaders but before we tell that story we need to finallyget to a story that we haven't really dived into yet and that is the story of slavery we've talked about it in a political context but now we're going to start looking at it more in depth for whatit really was and how they talked about it so that's where we will go from here