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President Madison's 1812 War Message: Answers Lead to More Questions
Guiding Questions
- How does President Madison build a case for having Congress consider declaring
war with Great Britain?
- What questions do students have about statements in the message?
- What kinds of documents might help students find answers to their questions?
Learning Objectives
After completing this lesson, students will be able to:
- Cite key points in President Madison's argument for having Congress consider
declaring war with Great Britain.
- Hypothesize about documents that would be useful in clarifying questions
about the message.
Briefly review the list of troubling passages and questions in President Madison's
War Message that the class compiled in Lesson
One, above. Then read with or to the class "President
Madison's War Message, Edited/Annotated Version," on pages 1-2, or "President
Madison's War Message, Full-Text Version" in the PDF file (see
Preparing
to Teach This Curriculum Unit for download instructions). When you come to
previously troubling sections in the text or those relating to student questions,
determine if the concerns/questions have been clarified.
Unit Assessment
Ask students to assume the role of newspaper reporters present when President
Madison's message was read in the House of Representatives. Have them write a
concise, accurate account of what the message contained. Students should remember
to begin the account using the reporter's formula, a brief paragraph summarizing
the key elements: who, what, where, when, and why of the event. The text of Madison's
message should be available to students as they compose their articles.
Extending the Unit of Study
- Secondary accounts offer slightly different versions of the importance of
the War Hawks in the run up to the War of 1812. According to The Encyclopedia
of American History:
The prowar feeling that swept the country in 1810-11 left its
mark on the congressional elections.
Most of the War Hawks came from the agrarian areas of the South and West
whose people were hardly affected by maritime issues (although some Westerners
claimed that the orders in council had crippled their markets for agricultural
produce); yet they chose to view maritime seizure and impressments as outrages
upon national rights and honor. Northern and Southern War Hawks found common
ground in expansionism, (J.W. Pratt, 1925). Those from the Northwest, eager
to destroy the frontier Native American menace they attributed to British
intrigue and incitement, equated security with land hunger and demanded
the conquest of Canada. The Southerners wanted to wrest Florida from Spain,
Britain's ally.
Despite expansionist pressures, the U.S. would not have been involved in
war had it not been for maritime and commercial issues. Madison was no tool
of the war party (see Theodore Clark Smith, 1931), although he ultimately
supported its program. (P. 1548-1549)
According to Donald Hickey's The War of 1812 (Urbana: University
of Illinois Press), "By directing debate and interpreting the rules, by packing
key committees and acting forcefully behind the scenes, he [Henry Clay, Speaker
of the House and an important War Hawk] insured that the War Hawks dominated
the 12th Congress." (P. 30) Among the legislators Hickey lists as War Hawks
are Henry Clay and Richard M. Johnson of Kentucky; Felix Grundy of Tennessee;
Langdon Cheeves, William Lowndes, John C. Calhoun, and David R. Williams of
South Carolina; George M. Troup of Georgia; Peter B. Porter of New York; and
John A. Harper of New Hampshire. (Students can look for these names as they
read documents from Congress.)
According to American Military History: The War of 1812 on The United States
Army website, a link from the EDSITEment resource Internet Pubic Library:
The seat of anti-British fever was in the Northwest and the lower
Ohio Valley, where the land-hungry frontiersmen had no doubt that their
troubles with the Indians were the result of British intrigue. Stories were
circulated after every Indian raid of British Army muskets and equipment
being found on the field. By 1812, the westerners were convinced that their
problems could best be solved by forcing the British out of Canada.
While the western War Hawks urged war in the hope of conquering Canada,
the people of Georgia, Tennessee, and the Mississippi Territory entertained
similar designs against Florida, a Spanish possession. The fact that Spain
and England were allies against Napoleon presented the southern war hawks
with an excuse for invading Florida. By this time, also, the balance of
political power had shifted south and westward; ambitious party leaders
had no choice but to align themselves with the war hawks, and 1812 was a
Presidential election year.
According to the article The
Burning of Washington on the White
House Historical Association website, a link from the EDSITEment resource
Explore D.C.:
These repeated affronts to the dignity of a free and sovereign
people were insufferable for proud young Americans like Henry Clay of Kentucky
and John C. Calhoun of South Carolina, both of whom were born after the
Declaration of Independence. The elections of 1810 sent this formidable
duo and other young War Hawks to Congress, and it quickly became evident
that what was tolerable for older Americans had become untenable for the
new generation. They preferred "war with all its accompanying evils to abject
submission." The wound to national pride had festered for so long that appeals
to transatlantic ties made no impression. The leader of those opposed to
war, Representative John Randolph of Roanoke, argued in vain against a fratricidal
war against those who shared the same blood, religion, language, legal system,
representative government, and even the works of Shakespeare and Newton.
The war hawks carried the day in June 1812, and with his signature to the
congressionally approved declaration of war, President James Madison locked
the snippety transatlantic upstart into battle against the mightiest power
on earth.
Research can offer insight into questions about the War Hawks and their influence.
- Did the War Hawks tend to come from certain regions of the country?
- How did they promote a war agenda, if at all?
- How did the Foreign Relations Committee advance the move toward war,
if at all? How did it increase American preparedness for war?
- What did the War Hawks hope the U.S. would gain from the war?
- Were their goals reasonable? Legitimate?
Students can begin their research by reading a speech on the Floor of
the House by Felix Grundy, Representative from Tennessee, in Annals of
Congress, 12th Cong., 1st Sess., pages 425-427 (from "What, Mr. Speaker,
are we now called on to decide?" to "I therefore feel anxious not only
to add the Floridas to the South, but the Canadas to the North of this
empire") on the EDSITEment-reviewed website American Memory.
- What are Representative Grundy's chief complaints against the British?
- What did he consider to be the advantages of war?
- What did he hope the U.S. would gain from the war?
- Were his goals reasonable? Legitimate?
Students can search A
Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation, also on American
Memory, for the names of any of the War Hawks to track their documented
actions in Congress. In addition, students can search for the term "Foreign
Relations Committee" for the congressional sessions prior to the war.
- Students may be familiar with protests against wars in which the United
States has fought, such as those which occurred in the 1960s and early 1970s.
The Vietnam War was by no means the first war against which many people objected.
In fact, the declaration of war that received the closest vote ever in the
House and Senate was that of the War of 1812. American citizens, especially
on the East Coast and primarily in New England, voiced objections to that
war.
- What objections to the war were expressed, and by whom?
- Why did the opposition exist?
- Was opposition legitimate or merely partisan?
A long protest against the 1812 Declaration of War was inserted into the
Congressional Record by Samuel Taggart, a Federalist from Massachusetts.
(The Federalists, in the minority, decided to "boycott" the debate by
remaining silent because the majority insisted on debating in secret.)
Taggart's speech begins on page
1638 of the Annals
of Congress for the House of Representatives, 12th Congress, 1st Session,
on the EDSITEment resource American Memory.
His remarks end on page
1679.
In the course of his speech, Representative Taggart gives a complete accounting
of Federalist objections to the war. For example, he says the following
about the ambitions of those who wanted to conquer Canada:
The conquest of Canada has been represented to be so easy
as to be little more than a party of pleasure. We have, it has been
said, nothing to do but to march an army into the country and display
the standard of the United States, and the Canadians will immediately
flock to it and place themselves under our protection. They have been
represented as ripe for revolt, panting for emancipation from a tyrannical
government…. But to invade a country with any prospect of success, the
power of the invader needs to be much greater than that of the party
invaded. (P. 1663)
Further Objections to the War in the Senate, also on American Memory,
were voiced by Obadiah German, a senator from New York State.
- What were Senator German's objections to the war?
- Did he blame the War Hawks for American entry into the war?
Students can view the results of the vote for the House
of Representatives: June 3, 1812, Declaration of War on American
Memory. The vote in the House was 79-49, the closest vote ever on
a declaration of war. Use the link to look at the names of those who voted
for and against the 1812 Declaration of War. The vote in the Senate (Wednesday,
June 17, 1812, Entry (The
Senate Passes the Declaration of War) in the Journal of the Senate of
the United States of America, 1789-1873 on American
Memory) was 19-13, also the closest vote ever on a declaration of
war. If desired, use the Biographical
Directory on the EDSITEment resource Congress
Link to find the states and parties of those voting.
- How did any War Hawks vote?
- Did the legislators tend to vote along party lines?
- Did legislators from certain regions tend to vote as a bloc?
Average citizens also petitioned Congress to protest the move toward war.
Here are three examples on American Memory:
- Petition
of the inhabitants of Nantucket, in the State of Massachusetts
- Petitions
of sundry inhabitants of Philadelphia county
- Petition
from the Citizens of Plymouth May 14, 1812
What can be learned from these and other citizen protests?
- What arguments were offered in objection to the war? Were they valid?
- How did commercial concerns relate to the protests? Were these valid
reasons for avoiding war? Were such concerns too localized to be effective?
- From which states were most citizen protests coming? Why?
- Why did the Plymouth protesters point to U.S. relations with France?
Was the comparison legitimate?
- What constitutional recourse do citizens have when they object to a
war?
The culmination of the war protest came in 1814 with the Hartford Convention.
According to Madison's
Presidency: Foreign Affairs on the EDSITEment-reviewed website The
American President:
Not all Americans, however, had wrapped themselves in the
flag of patriotism. New England states seldom met their quotas of militiamen,
and many New England merchants and farmers traded freely with the enemy.
After the British offensive included northern ports, some New England
Federalists talked about seceding from the Union. In an attempt to block
secessionist sentiment, moderate Federalists called a convention in
Hartford, Connecticut, to propose a series of constitutional amendments
protecting sectional rights. The convention leaders brought their proposals
to Washington just as news broke of New Orleans and the Treaty of Ghent.
To most of the nation, the participants of the Hartford Convention looked
like traitors, or at least unpatriotic troublemakers. Their antiwar
criticism and regional concerns helped to doom the weakened Federalist
Party as a national entity on the political scene.
The Hartford Convention went so far as to propose Amendments to the Constitution,
available on the EDSITEment resource The
Avalon Project.
- What immediate actions of the states did the Hartford Convention call
for?
- What amendments to the Constitution did the Hartford Convention recommend?
- To what specific situations was each resolution a reaction?
- Students with an interest in the military aspects of the War of 1812 can
refer to the extensive information available in the article The
War of 1812 on the website of The United
States Army, a link from the EDSITEment resource Internet
Public Library.
Selected EDSITEment Websites
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