Chapter 11The Trials and Travails of the Jeffersonian

RepublicPart 3

Precarious NeutralityIn 1804, Jefferson won with a margin of 162 electoral votes to 14 for his opponent, but the celebrating for T.J. was essentially nonexistent because in 1803, Napoleon had deliberately provoked Britain into renewing its war with France, and the still too young United States was once again on the verge of being sucked into an unwanted conflict.

As a result , American trade sank as England and France, unable to hurt each other ( England owned the sea thanks to the Battle of Trafalgar while France owned the land thanks to the Battle of Austerlitz), resorted to indirect blows instead.

In 1806, London issues the Orders in Council, which closed ports under French continental control to foreign shipping, including American, unless they stopped at a British port first.

Precarious Neutrality

Likewise, Napoleon ordered the seizure of all ships , including American, which entered at British ports.

Impressment (illegal seizure of men and forcing them to work on foreign ships) also infuriated the U.S. as some 6,000 Americans were impressed from 1808-1811.

Precarious Neutrality

In 1807, a royal frigate the Leopard confronted the U.S. frigate, the Chesapeake, about 10 miles off the coast of Virginia, and the British captain ordered the seizure of four alleged deserters. When the American commander refused, the U.S. ship received three devastating broadsides that killed three Americans and wounded 18. In an incident when England was clearly in the wrong, Jefferson still clung to peace.

The Hated Embargo

In order to try to stop the British and French seizure of American ships, Jefferson resorted to an embargo on BOTH countries.

• Jefferson thought that Britain and France relied on American goods (raw materials, food), BUT it was actually the opposite - Americans relied on Europe’s manufactured goods.

• Also, the U.S. still had a weaker army and navy.

The Hated Embargo The Embargo Act of 1807 forbade the export of goods from the United States to any country, regardless if the goods were transported by American ships or foreign ships.

This resulted in deserted docks and rotting ships in the harbors. The embargo actually hurt the same New England merchants he was trying to protect.

The Hated Embargo The commerce of New England was harmed more than Britain or France’s commerce.

Farmers of the South and West were alarmed by the mounting supply of unexportable cotton, grain, and tobacco.

Illegal trade mushroomed in 1808 and smuggling was common again

The Hated Embargo Finally, coming to their senses and feeling the public’s anger, Congress repealed the act on March 1st, 1809, three days before Jefferson’s retirement, and replaced it instead with the Non- Intercourse Act, which reopened trade with all nations in the world except France and Britain.

But this had basically little effect on helping the damaged economy because Americas #1 and #2 trade partners were France and Britain!

Thus, economic coercion continued from 1809-1812 when war finally struck.

The Hated Embargo

The embargo failed for two main reasons.

(1) Jefferson underestimated the bulldog British and their resilience in not being forced to depend on American goods.

(2) He didn’t continue the embargo long enough, or tightly enough, to achieve its purpose.

The Hated Embargo

Even Jefferson admitted that the embargo ended up three times more costly than the war itself and he could have built a strong navy instead with the money used from potential tariff revenue.

Thus, during the time of the embargo, the Federalist Party – considered largely toast after Hamilton’s death - regained some of its lost power due to the weak economy.

The Hated Embargo

On the bright side, however, during the embargo, resourceful Americans opened new (and reopened old) factories. Thus—the embargo ultimately helped to

promote industrialism in America, clearly another irony since Jefferson had been committed to an agrarian nation while his archrival Hamilton had been devoted to industry!

The Hated Embargo

• Also, the embargo actually DID affect Britain, and had it been continued over an extended time, it MIGHT have succeeded.

• In fact, two days before Congress declared war in June 1812, London ordered the Orders in Council to be suspended. Had America known this fact, the coming war would have likely have been averted!

Madison’s Gamble• After Jefferson’s term

ended, James Madison took the oath of the presidency on March 4, 1809 – and continued the embargo…….

Madison’s Gamble• In 1810, Congress adopted a bargaining

measure called Macon’s Bill No. 2, which while permitting American trade with all the world, also promised American restoration of trade to France and/or England IF either dropped their commercial restrictions.

• Now, Napoleon had his opportunity to capitalize:- In August of 1810, he announced that French commercial restrictions had been lifted, and the United States, desperate for recognition of the law, declared France available for American trade.

• Of course, the sly Napoleon lied, and never really lifted restrictions, but in the meantime, America had been duped into believing so and now entered potential warfare against Great Britain!

Tecumseh and the Prophet• In 1811, a 2nd generation of new, young

politicians swept away the older “submission men” to take over Congress. They appointed Henry Clay of Kentucky, then 34 years old, to be their leader as Speaker of the House.

• The western politicians cried out against

the Indian threat on the frontier. These young, aggressive Congressmen were known as “War Hawks”.

• Native American tribes had watched with increasing apprehension as more and more whites settled in Kentucky, a traditionally sacred area where settlement and extensive hunting was not allowed except in times of scarcity.

• The Shawnee chief, Tecumseh, decided that the time to act was now. He set about

gathering all of the tribes who had traditionally lived between the Appalachian Mountains and the Mississippi River and urged them to unite in a last attempt to push the “foreigners” back across the mountains.

• Tecumseh argued eloquently for the Indian’s to not acknowledge the White man’s “ownership” of land, and urged that no Indian should cede control of land to whites unless ALL Indians agreed.

• Tecumseh’s resistance movement was the last real Indian defiance of U.S. encroachment east of the Mississippi River.

Scene from “Tecumseh” – Outdoor Drama at Chillicothe, Ohio

Tecumseh and the Prophet• On November 7, 1811, American general

William Henry Harrison advanced upon Tecumseh’s headquarters at Tippecanoe (in present day Indiana) defeated the Prophet, and burned the camp to the ground.

• Tecumseh was reluctantly forced to side

with the British when his united Indian movement was thwarted at Tippecanoe.

• He was ultimately killed by Harrison’s Kentucky regiment at the Battle of the Thames in 1813, and the Indian confederacy dream perished.

• Simon Kenton, a scout in the American army, personally identified Tecumseh’s body, and the corpse was taken by the Shawnee and secretly buried. To this day, no one knows where…..

Simon Kenton was known to the Indians as "the white man who cannot be killed" because, no

matter what they did to him, he kept coming back.

Simon Kenton & Tecumseh

• Meanwhile, in the South, General Andrew Jackson crushed the Creek Indians at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend on March 27, 1814, effectively breaking the Indian rebellion and leaving the entire area east of the Mississippi open for safe settlement.

• The War Hawks cried that the only way to get rid of the Indians was to wipe out their base, Canada, the British headquarters in America from where they were supplying the hostile tribes.

• Ultimately, war was finally declared against Britain in 1812, with a House vote of 79 to 49 and a very close Senate vote of 19 to 13 showing obvious American disunity over the matter of war.

Mr. Madison’s War• Why did America go to war with Britain and not France?

Because England’s impressments of American sailors stood out, France was allied more with the JDRs, and Canada was a very tempting prize that seemed relatively easy to capture, a “frontiersman’s frolic.”

• However, New England, which was still making lots of money trading with Britain, despised the idea of war with their most valuable customer!

• Federalists opposed the war because (1) they were more inclined toward Britain anyway and (2) if Canada was conquered, it would add more agrarian land to the USA and only increase JDR supporters.

Mr. Madison’s WarIn brief, America’s reasons for

entering the War of 1812 were…

• To avenge the manhandling of American sailors.

• To defend American rights, specifically “freedom of the seas” – the U.S. wanted the right to sail and trade without fear.

• To gain more territory; the possibility of land – the U.S. might gain Canada or Florida.

• To wipe out continued Indian resistance. Americans were still upset about British guns being given to Indians.

Mr. Madison’s War• The nation became sectionalized:

Generally, the North was against war, the West and the South were for the war.

• Thus, a disunited America had to fight both Old England and New England in the War of 1812, since Britain was the enemy while New England tried everything that they could do to frustrate American ambitions in the war……..

Washington’s Warning from the Grave