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In this episode we examine the war of 1812, and the war of Tecumseh’s confederacy and the differences in the United States’ role in both conflicts.
A deep dive into the political history of the United States, hosted by President Shrimpo. In the West Wing with President Shrimpo is a deep dive into the political history of the United States. Each episode looks at the people and driving factors that created the country we live in today with special focus on the stories and voices least heard.
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Hello, my name is President Shrimpo. And you are listening to In the West Wing. An American political history podcast brought to you by WKNC 88.1. And in this week's episode, we will be taking a look at a war fought for our nation's right to independence and self determination from an overbearing and aggressive imperial power. And I guess we're also going to look at the War of 1812.
So, in last episode, we left off with the two term Presidency of the founder of the Democratic-Republican Party, Thomas Jefferson, and sort of how early American politics were shaped by this early two party system. And we're going to continue looking at that. More specifically, we're looking at sort of what is known as sort of the the period of, of the Virginia presidents. So for 24 years, the Democratic-Republican Party held a monopoly, essentially, over the executive branch of the United States. And these three presidents each served two terms, all three from the state of Virginia, and they were Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and James Monroe. And this gargantuan political streak has never been rivaled in length by any party system, excluding the sort of political monopoly of the New Deal, Democrats following the Great Depression in the 1930s. But even then, that was only a 20 year streak of holding the presidency, rather than the 24 year streak of the Democratic-Republican Party. But it's important to say that politics during this time, really remained sort of an elite exercise, as we've discussed in the previous episodes. And so with that, in mind, the sort of anti-Federalist ideology that sort of was the bedrock of the early Democratic-Republican movement, ultimately, was tempered by sort of an understanding of what is realistic and sort of what is politically expedient for the political elite. So, compromises were made on important issues, like banking, slavery, and many other hot button issues that just weren't in later years. And that's simply to say that they had the political capital to make those compromises. But I'm not really going to go into a whole lot of detail here. Because to be honest with you, this is a period of politics that is sort of boring, at least if you solely look at what things are like on the federal level. And a lot of, there's sort of a lot of repetition of a lot of the key points that were hit on in the last episode regarding sort of the formation of the first party system, because these are a lot of the same players. But I think it's important to also consider things that happen outside of electoral politics, more specifically, in the realm of military conflict. So we're first going to be looking at the War of 1812. The War of 1812 is sort of often treated as a bit of a political footnote today. But it was really sort of very formative for the sort of direction that America would eventually head in. And it kind of points to where America is going as a nation. Sometimes the War of 1812 is regarded as a sort of second Revolutionary War, in that it once again, pitted this early, young United States against the United Kingdom for the second time in three decades after, of course, the end of the Revolutionary War in the early 1780s. So how do we summarize why this war was fought? The essentially the the sort of cause of war, or Cassus Belli, as it would be set in Latin is best summarized as basically a war for America to sort of reassert its independence and its freedom as a nation against sort of an overbearing and overreaching United Kingdom. And it seems at least on paper, very clear, cut and straightforward. There was a very specific list of grievances that, that the United States had with British policy, specifically regarding trade restrictions, the impressment of American sailors into the British Navy, and also a direct funding and supply for Native Americans in the Midwest, which the British were very willing to ally with. Despite the fact that Native American tribes were in open conflict with the United States at the time. However, all of these points are complicated, and should kind of be broken down a bit on on sort of their own merits. So first, one of the biggest sticking points, and actually, what is directly cited as the reason for a declaration of war is the impressment of American sailors. So what exactly is impressment? So essentially, impressment was a practice that the British Navy sometimes did, of stopping American ships, and essentially forcing sailors on those ships on civilian vessels to enlist in the British Navy, maybe not explicitly, but there would sort of be a, an implication that these sailors had to enlist otherwise there would be some sort of repercussion. And this was sort of this really deeply hurt the national pride of a lot of Americans. Specifically, Ambassador to London, James Monroe, under Thomas Jefferson protested the practice of impressment. And he alleged that 15,000, Americans had been impressed into the Royal Navy since 1803 up to, I believe it was 1811. But the exact year, I didn't write down, so sorry about that. But when they were pressed to provide a specific list of names of Americans who had been impressed, the administration of President James Madison could only produce 6,257 names. Most of the names were collected based solely on hearsay. And many of the names were duplicates, repeating the same name multiple times in the same list. And a number of those names that were listed in the full list of impressed sailors, quite a few of them had willingly volunteered to join the British Navy. Also, a note, which I forgot to mention, is that the reason that the British conducting this practice is that the United Kingdom and France were fighting the Napoleonic Wars. And so there was sort of a need for a well-staffed Navy at the time. And so I think that was sort of the main reason why this impressment was happening. But it's also important to say that, including, you know, this happening, you have to consider quite a few sailors on American owned ships, were British nationals. Quite a few Americans may have still felt some sort of pride, or sort of cultural connection to the United Kingdom. And also, there was not the same sort of clear cut, cultural division between the Americas and Great Britain. In terms of just accent, we hadn't spent enough time apart to seriously culturally diverge. So it makes sense why, oftentimes, you know, in, while impressment did happen, maybe not on the same, on the scale that was alleged, it makes sense to think that sometimes British officers in the Navy might've of genuinely believed some Americans were British. So that's something to consider. Another huge sticking point that led up to the declaration of war, was British naval interjection against American trade with France, as the UK had imposed serious restrictions on what trade was allowed to reach the French during the Napoleonic Wars. And this kind of came to a real head when the Royal Navy stationed frigates just outside of American harbors, in plain view from the shore. And essentially what these ships would do is they would come in, and they would stop American civilian vessels and search the ships to find any goods that may have been en route to France. And so that was sort of a serious sticking point and a cause for sort of, it hurt the pride essentially, of the United States. However, something that is also often cited as a cause for the war is the American desire to potentially annex Canada, as these territories were still held by the British at the time. And Americans sort of saw then, many Americans, at least I should say, saw the Canadian provinces as rightful American territory. And so that is often sort of roped into a larger narrative of American imperialism. But, I say but, it was not necessarily the main focus of the war. James Monroe, future president said, of the annexation of Canada, quote,
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It might be necessary to invade Canada, not as an object of the war, but as a means to bring it to a satisfactory conclusion.
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So, essentially, he lays it out in plain view, annexing Canada, and invading Canada, was something that would certainly have been on the table, you know, as a potential war aim and objective. But it wasn't necessarily the the primary concern of the administration. However, it's fair to say, there was a real underlying current of sort of national chauvinism and desire to sort of conquer these territories. There was sort of real jingoism that sort of pervade this sort of political views of quite a few Americans, regarding Canada, specifically, the Democratic-Republican Party, which was very hostile to the British, in a way that the Federalist Party was not necessarily. A great example is in a speech delivered by Kentucky Congressman Richard Mentor Johnson, he said, quote,
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I shall never die content until I see England's explosion from North America and her territories incorporated into the United States.
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Which I suppose he never died content. But, you know, it points to the, the deeply held sort of conviction that there was some sort of right that America had to this land. And that sort of underpins sort of later developments of sort of the more concrete ideas of western expansion and Manifest Destiny. And it sort of had its earliest roots in this sort of vicious hunger for the northern territories of Canada. Another point of note to make about the War of 1812 is it didn't have the same sort of bipartisan consensus that quite a few wars, later down the line, generally would. You know, generally speaking, when, when America would go to war, there would be some consensus over whether or not it was valid. Obviously, there's always going to be political detractors to any war. But what's very interesting about the War of 1812 is how explicitly partisan the division was. From the outset, the Federalist Party essentially just outright opposed any conflict with the British. Seeing as, as had been described in the previous episode, the Federalists definitely aligned themselves moreso with the British on foreign policy, whereas the Democratic-Republicans generally aligned themselves more with the French. So, why is that exactly? And honestly, we can find a mostly material explanation for why Federalists would oppose a war with the British. And it's because many New Englanders had deep economic ties with the British. Many were merchants, fishermen, or industrialists. And so there were these sort of deep ties in the economy of the Northeast, with the Canadian provinces, and more broadly, across the Atlantic Ocean with the British. So it makes sense that a majority of New Englanders would, even though, you know, we had fought a war of independence against the British, would want to maintain some ties, politically speaking up just because they were best served by having close ties with the British. And so many of the detractors of this war, dubbed the War of 1812 "Mr. Madison's War." Sort of viewing the whole conflict as being very petty and not in the genuine interest of the entire country. I think it's sort of interesting also to note that, that they would call the war "Mr. Madison's War," not "President Madison's War." There was sort of, I think that sort of an implicit level of disrespect and sort of resentment held towards Madison, which they sort of viewed as carrying out an unnecessary war that ultimately harmed their interests. I think an excellent quote, to point out is, is from Federalist political leader, an eventual presidential nominee, Rufus King, a relatively moderate, even keeled Federalist said of the war, quote,
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I regard this war as a war of the party, and not of the country.
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Which I think describes the war perfectly. It's not as much as, as people tried to make the war out to seem, and as much as the war seems to kind of remain in our historical memory. This sort of, this war for national pride was really only pushed for by one party. We even see that in the eventual official declaration of war. And so on June 1st, 1812, President James Madison delivered a full list of grievances against the Bri-, against Britain to Congress. This was not explicitly a call to war but it was sort of implied that all of this was sort of a grave insult to sort of the national honor and pride of the United States. And the largest sticking point in the debate that was eventually held, was on the maritime actions of the British under the so called orders in Council, which essentially granted the British the right to stop and search American vessels and to impress American sailors. And so, the Congress deliberated for four days, and eventually voted to declare war. However, the vote to declare war was entirely along partisan lines. It was the clo-, and it remains to this day, the closest vote on an official declaration of war, ever, in United States Congressional history. But with all that being said, the British leadership under the new prime minister, Lord Liverpool, had really hoped to reconcile with the Americans, and he had actually repealed the orders in council three weeks prior. But because of the length of time it took to deliver news, the Americans completely unaware that the entire reason for the declaration of war had ended, which I think kind of points to how this war would eventually progress. With the official declaration of war, however, neither side was really prepared, they kind of, really rushed into it. Honestly, I think it's fair to say that the entire war was a bit slapdash. There were no serious preparations on either side. The British were preoccupied with the Napoleonic War in Europe, trying to contain the French. And so Canada was understaffed with military personnel. They didn't really expect the Americans to declare war because they knew how much it would harm the Americans to go to war. And also, the American military was severely understaffed. Service was entirely voluntary. And due to how unpopular the war was in the Northeast, there was a very serious shortage in men. And I think also something there's something to be said about how quickly America rushed into the war. And I think it really points to how seriously and grossly the Americans underestimated how much Canada, and Canadians in general, would resist. Americans attempted to invade Canada all throughout the war. However, they were repelled fairly easily, which points to a very serious failure in sort of the the calculations and estimations made by the American Congress when rushing into declaring war. And I'm not going to go into a whole lot of detail regarding the specific events and progression of the war. I just, I think I'll just give a rough outline of sort of the progression. So throughout the course of the war, the British Navy successfully blockaded most major American ports, which cost the United States millions of dollars. American foreign exports dropped from $130 million worth of exports in 1807 to only $7 million in 1814. A drop off that is just by incredible magnitudes. And also there was sort of large scale collaboration with the British with Native American tribes, both both in the Western territories and in the South, with the British funding and directly providing military support to these tribes, which threatened sort of the peripheries of the American empire. And sort of the grand humiliation of this entire war, is the British sack of Washington.
As British forces had been freed up from, by the end of the peninsular campaign in Spain, 2,500 men were then diverted to a new campaign that was organized to be conducted in the Chesapeake Bay. And so, ultimately, British forces would successfully capture the city of Washington, D.C., forcing most of the American government to flee from the city, including the Madison's. And it ultimately resulted in the burning of most public and government buildings in the city. However, civilian homes and sort of civilian areas in the city were generally avoided and left untouched. But most notably, the White House was burned. An absolutely devastating and humiliating blow to the United States in a war that was declared, apparently, for national pride. So with all that being said, we're now going to jump to a different war that the United States participated in, at around the same time. Tecumseh's War, sometimes called Tecumseh's Rebellion, essentially pitted a fledgling Native American nation against the overbearing and oppressive colonial expansion of the United States. For the second time, since the Northwest Indian War, which had ended in 1795. In the same way that the War of 1812 was fought, sort of as a matter of national pride. This too, was sort of, a sort of national pride. Not just for one nation of people, but for many, many nations, an entire confederacy, you could even say, of tribal groups. So we're gonna wind back the clock a little bit to give some some context for this war. So after American independence was won, a vast stretch of land, that is in the modern Great Lakes region, was ceded to the United States by the British, and this encompassed the modern states of Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin, and portions of Minnesota. So essentially, it was sort of a territory that was wedged between the Ohio River and the Mississippi River and sort of a north of the Ohio, east of the Mississippi. And this large swath of territory would come to be dubbed the Northwest Territory, sometimes called the Ohio Territory, sometimes called the Illinois Territory. But at least on paper, it was the Northwestern Territory. And so on paper, the United States had legal ownership over this land. But it was the home to a majority Native American population, the mass, the vast majority, never consented to this expansion of American jurisdiction. And so this would boil over into what is now called the Northwestern Indian War, a war which was waged by the United States against the Miami, Shawnee, Lenape, and Ottawa Tribes and their British allies in the modern state of Ohio.The war would ultimately be a native loss. However, this is one of, sort of the first instances of, of Native groups attempting to form a confederacy in opposition to American encroachment. So with the 1795 Treaty of Greenville, Eastern tribal lands were ceded to the United States and resulted in the mass migration westward into the modern state of Indiana, by Native tribes. Many of these displaced tribes were invited onto the tribal lands of the Miami. So one of the major belligerents in the war was the Miami Tribe. And so because most of their tor-, territory had been left untouched by the Treaty, they essentially invited the sort of displaced peoples to settle on their land in sort of a gesture of goodwill. And so, what is now called Tecumseh's Confederacy, sort of grew out of that same sort of movement and sort of the mass discontentment that arose after the defeat in the Northwestern Indian War. So Tecumseh's Confederacy is best described then, as a another pan-Tribal movement, consisting of members of the Shawnee, Wyandotte, Mingo, and Ottawa tribes. As a result of this sort of mass displacement into the territory of the Miami, many Native tribes sort of intermingled and lived one another in a way that hadn't been done previously. And so, the idea of Pan-tribalism was able to spread more quickly and sort of gained newfound momentum and legitimacy among the native peoples of the Great Lakes. And so, during this period, a man named Tenskwatawa, also known as the Prophet, sort of emerged as a prominent religious leader. Sort of started out as sort of a witch hunter in some sense. But to call it a witch hunter kind of puts Eurocentric ideas of spirituality in the supernatural on to Native Americans. So I want to avoid using the term witch hunter. And also, I think the word prophet kind of has some baggage as well. Essentially, he was a religious, prominent religious leader, specifically from the Shawnee tribe. He essentially taught a sort of pan-tribal, Native identity, both in religion and in culture, and very specifically targeted Europeans and sort of a rejection of European culture, and sort of their influence on native culture, and the encroachment of the United States and other European powers on the continent. I want to clarify, I'm referring to the United States as a European power in the sense that they are a settler nation, primarily dominated by European settlers, not to say that it's a European "big E" country, but to say that just in nature, it is a European state against a Native American indigenous state. And so now we need to jump to looking at American policy in the Northwest Territory. So during this time, the governor of the Northwest Territory is a certain William Henry Harrison, appointed by President Thomas Jefferson. And essentially, Harrison pushed for an increased settlement of white Americans onto what is, what was then in the territory that that eventually became Indiana, essentially, in the hopes of turning the territory into a new state. And so he negotiated the sale of over 3 million acres of Native American land to the United States under the Treaty of Fort Wayne in 1809. However, the signatories of this treaty, many of them sort of felt pressured to do so in fear of consequences. And more specifically, the Shawnee Tribe really resisted having to sign the treaty, they felt that the treaty essentially violated the earlier treaty of Greenville, which had been signed in 1795. And they saw it as sort of a gradual disrespect of the treaty, and the lands that had been protected and promised to the Native tribes. So, but it's important to say that, that all of this was done, essentially, by Harrison, in the hopes of expanding statehood in the region. And, you know, it's, I think it's fair to question, why did Harrison want Indiana to become a new state? I think it's fair to say he recognized that having a new state that came from a territory that he was the governor of, he would have some sort of political advantage in the area. That's all I'll say about that. But this Treaty of Fort Wayne, really deeply enraged, the sort of pan-tribal movement under the Prophet Tenskwatawa. And so there was a sort of an organized resistance against the enforcement of this treaty. Tenskwatawa's older brother, Tecumseh, emerged as one of the most prominent political leaders of the movement around 1808. And his power was centered on the village of Tippecanoe, which was called Prophetstown by the Americans. I think it's important to say while many tribes were opposed to the expansion and encroachment of the Americans, many Native Americans also believed it was safer to cooperate with the Americans. And so Tecumseh traveled across the Great Lakes, essentially trying to encourage tribal leaders to resist cooperation with the Americans. And he would even go so far as to threaten to kill chiefs who continued to work with the Americans. So while these methods may be seen as sort of brutal now, you have to understand that it sort of comes from a, a deeply held belief that, that the cooperation with the Americans was ultimately harming future attempts at sovereignty and independence for Native Americans as a whole. So that was sort of the motivation for why he was was really going out of his way to sort of try to strong arm opposing Native leaders into sort of supporting his movement. And I think, I think there's a wonderful quote, by Tecumseh the kind of underlines why he was going on this sort of tour around the Great Lakes trying to build up support for his confederacy of tribes in opposition to the Americans. In the speech that was delivered Tecumseh said, quote,
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Where today are the Pequot? What, Where are the Narragansett, the Mohican, the Pocanet, and other powerful tribes of our people? They have vanished before the avarice and oppression of the white man as snow before the summer sun. Sleep not longer, oh, Choctaws and Chickasaws. Will not the bones of our dead be plowed up and their graves turned into plowed fields.
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I think there's something incredibly powerful about that quote, and sort of what it represents and sort of the stakes that Tecumseh saw in the struggle against American expansion. And so in his sort of effort to drum up support for this, this pan-tribal movement, I also have to say, there was sort of, a sort of low intensity guerrilla war that was being waged in the Northwest Territory throughout this period. Where Native leaders essentially, who were sort of in line with Tecumseh and Tenskwatawa's movement, sort of waged a small scale war of resistance against the expansion and settlement of the Northwestern territories by the Americans. In 1811, Tecumseh left the Northwestern Territory, traveled south, in an effort to form alliances with the so called "Five Civilized Tribes." This included the Cherokees, Chickasaws, Choctaws, Creeks, and Seminoles. And they were called the "Five Civilized Tribes" and that they that they had adopted many sort of European cultural traditions in a way that other tribes had not necessarily. It's obviously grossly racist language to refer to these as the "Civilized Tribes" but that's the terminology that is used. And so leadership of the confederacy was then left by Tecumseh to his brother, Tenskwatawa the Prophet. And during this time, Governor Harrison saw a, an open opportunity to essentially deliver a devastating blow to the confederacy. So, Governor Harrison marched on the village of Tippecanoe, with 1,000 men, in an effort to intimidate Tenskwatawa into accepting peace with the United States. However, the Prophet Tenskwatawa, I think fairly assumed that this army of 1,000 men marching on a village came with the intention of destroying the village rather than to intimidate. And so before meeting with Harrison, Tenskwatawa organized a, an attempted surprise attack against the American forces. Despite having the early advantage of surprise, Harrison ultimately decisively won the Battle of Tippecanoe. And this key event set up his later political future, setting the precedent and the idea in the American public consciousness that he was a war hero, which eventually led to setting the groundwork for his future political bids and eventual election to the presidency much, much later down the line. By many historians, this is treated as the sort of final death blow to the confederacy. However, Tecumseh continued to organize and cooperate with his British allies, participating specifically in the War of 1812. It's a sort of tying back into the War of 1812. And sort of the Western Front of the Native theater.ultimately, Tecumseh would be killed in the Battle of the Thames on October 5th, 1813. And in a final, brutal humiliation, his body was stripped, he was scalped, and American soldiers stole scraps of his skin as souvenirs in a disgusting display of disrespect. Ultimately, his body was buried in an unknown, unknown location. And his remains have been unfound for centuries since. And so with that, massive Native American resistance in the Northwestern Territory, essentially died with him. And so in that, their fight for nationhood, was crushed. As the War of 1812 dragged on, both sides sort of recognized that they weren't really getting anywhere. And so American and British diplomats met in the city of Ghent, in the Netherlands. British diplomats had promised to push for the creation of a Native American state, in the Northwestern Territory in any peace deal that was signed, that was a promise that they made directly to Tecumseh. However, when Americans refused this term, they just dropped it. They just didn't care. And so with that, any hope for, for nationhood, or independence for Native American tribes in the Northwest, died, not just with Tecumseh, but with the failure of British diplomats to hold up their end of the bargain. And so with, with general exhaustion from the war, in a sense that the war is being fought over aims that had long since been resolved, both sides came together, and a peace treaty, recognizing the status quo, and keeping things as they were, before the war was signed by American and British diplomats, on Christmas Eve of 1814. Right after that, there would be the Battle of New Orleans, often considered sort of the greatest American victory in the War of 1812, led by the gallant General Andrew Jackson. American forces decisively defeated British forces just outside of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the January of 1815, which would propel Andrew Jackson into the political stratosphere. But it was won 15 days after the Treaty of Ghent had been signed, officially ending the war. And oftentimes that was cited as stunning proof of an American victory over the British. But it really had absolutely, absolutely no role in the eventual peace deal that was signed, because it was done after the peace was signed. And I think there's something kind of poetic about that, in that a war that was fought over an issue that had been resolved before the war was even declared, ended, with a status quo, with no, with the sides not changing whatsoever. And the biggest victory was won after the peace was already signed, in a war for national honor, that was fought really, for no reason. And we compare this with the War of Tecumseh's Confederacy, which I think is fair to kind of see as a gallant effort of anti-colonialism sort of an attempt to sort of free an indigenous people from the shackles of overbearing imperialism. It's kind of hard to see America as the victim in the War of 1812. When you think about what they were doing in the Northwestern Territory. And I think that kind of speaks to the direction that America would go, in sort of the idea that America can do no wrong in our consciousness and our political consciousness. And the idea that America sort of gallantly is fighting for the rights and freedoms of others when we openly disrespect the freedom and nationhood of indigenous people. I think that's, I think that's very telling. And so now we look to sort of the topic of our next episode, which is the eventual collapse of the first party system, the Era of Good Feelings, and how how the War of 1812, despite how pointless the entire thing was and the sort of brutality of of the war against Tecumseh's Confederacy, kind of lays the groundwork for the political development of the United States for the next 30 years, up, up until essentially the Civil War in the 1860s. And so with that, I've been your host, President Shrimpo. And you've been listening to In the West Wing. Brought to you by WKNC 88.1. Special thanks to those who helped give history a voice in this week's episode, with Marshall Morgan as James Monroe, Maddy Jeannette as Richard Mentor Johnson, Zachary Bradley as Rufus King, and Sarah Hernando as Tecumseh. The intro music used on In the West Wing, the Star Spangled Banner by the United States Marine Band, and Libertad by Iriarte and Pesoa is used as our outro.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai