A NATION ASSERTS ITSELF

As the Napoleonic wars raged in Europe, the United States felt its neutrality threatened by both Britain and France.

In 1806 Parliament issued Orders in Council restricting maritime trade with France, and France retaliated by forbidding any nation from trading with Great Britain.

The situation became intolerable when the HMS Leopard attacked the Chesapeake, killing three sailors and “impressing” four who were allegedly deserters.

The Jefferson administration responded with the extremely unpopular and overwhelmingly unsuccessful Embargo Act of 1807, which forbid all exports from the United States.

After 15 months Congress replaced the Embargo Act with the Non-Intercourse Act, which restricted trade with Great Britain and France only.

This policy was undermined shortly thereafter with the passage of Macon’s Bill #2, which pledged to re-impose the embargo against whichever foreign power failed to lift its trade restriction. Napoleon agreed to these terms while the British did not, ultimately forcing the US into the War of 1812.

The inept US Army was defeated in an ill- planned, three-pronged invasion of Canada.

The fledgling US Navy was more successful, defeating the British at the Battle of Lake Erie.

The American naval victory forced the British evacuation of Detroit, after which the British were defeated at the Battle of the Thames, where General William Henry Harrison’s troops killed the Shawnee leader Tecumseh, brother of Tenskwatawa, who had been killed the year prior at the Battle of Tippecanoe. Battle of Tippecanoe.

A powerful British force was turned back at Lake Champlain in the Battle of Plattsburgh, and although Washington DC was burned and Baltimore attacked, British forces in the northeast were stopped. Washington DC was burned and Baltimore attacked, British forces in the northeast were stopped.

The most stunning battle of the war took place at New Orleans where a smaller force under General Andrew Jackson decimated the British attackers.

Ironically, the war had ended two weeks prior with the signing of the Treaty of Ghent, which merely ended hostilities and restored territories which had been conquered.

The treaty also signaled the end of the Federalists as a significant factor in national politics, as their involvement in the Hartford Convention of 1814 was regarded as near-treasonous following the war.

The Hartford Convention called for: 1.Federal compensation for lost commerce 2.2/3 congressional vote to enact an embargo, admit a state, or declare war 3.Elimination of the 3/5 Compromise 4.Limiting presidents to a single term 5.Prohibiting successive presidents from a given state

Although little had changed for the United States as a result of the war on the international stage, there were dramatic differences on the domestic front.

An “Era of Good Feelings” followed the war, with a heightened sense of nationalism, unity, and self-sufficiency.

Kentucky Congressman Henry Clay’s American System called for: 1.A protective tariff to aid eastern manufacturing 2.Federal funding for transportation improvements to aid the west & south; & 3.A strong banking system to provide ample credit for all

1816 saw the chartering of the 2 nd Bank of the United States and the implementation of the Tariff of 1816, the first primarily protective tariff in US history, but President Monroe continually vetoed federal funding for internal improvements on the grounds of dubious constitutionality.

In spite of Monroe’s resistance, state and private investment promoted significant improvements such as the Erie Canal and the Cumberland Road which opened up the frontier to settlement and commerce.

Westward expansion led to overspeculation, foreclosure, and deflation, all of which frustrated those looking for a better future in the west.

Unfortunately, westward expansion brought with it the sectional division associated with the expansion of slavery.

Missouri’s application for admission as a state led to the Tallmadge Amendment, which prohibited further importation of slaves into the state and mandated emancipation of children born into slavery at age 25.

Henry Clay’s Missouri Compromise temporarily eased the tension by balancing Missouri’s admission as a slave state with Maine’s as a free state, and prohibiting slavery in the remainder of the Louisiana Purchase north of 36 o 30’.

Additional new territory was acquired in the Treaty of 1818 with Great Britain which established the 49 th parallel as the boundary between the US & Canada and shared control of both the Oregon territory and the North Atlantic fisheries off the coast of Newfoundland.

Even more significantly, the Adams-Onis Treaty of 1819 legitimized Florida territory questionably seized by Andrew Jackson in exchange for $5,000,000 and a pledge to respect Spanish control of Texas.

Further territorial disputes with European powers were forestalled by the Monroe Doctrine of 1823, which cautioned against European interference or colonization in the Western Hemisphere in exchange for American non-intervention in the Old World.