McAfee, History of the Late War: Robert B. McAfee, History of the Late War in the Western Country, Lexington, 1816.
Meriwether et al., Papers of John C. Calhoun: Robert L. Meriwether et al., eds., The Papers of John C. Calhoun, 28 vols., Columbia, SC, 1959–2003.
NASP: C & N: Stephen E. Salsbury, ed., The New American State Papers: Commerce and Navigation, 47 vols., Wilmington, 1973.
NASP: MA: Benjamin F. Cooling, ed., The New American State Papers: Military Affairs, 19 vols., Wilmington, 1979.
NASP: NA: K. Jack Bauer, ed., The New American State Papers: Naval Affairs, 10 vols., Wilmington, 1981.
ND (M125): U.S. Department of the Navy, Letters Received by the Secretary of the Navy: Captain’s Letters, 1805–1885, Microfilm Series M125, National Archives, Washington, DC.
ND (M147): U.S. Department of the Navy, Letters Received by the Secretary of the Navy from Commanders, 1804–1886, Microfilm Series M147, National Archives, Washington, DC.
ND (M149): U.S. Department of the Navy, Letters Sent by the Secretary of the Navy to Officers, 1798–1868, Microfilm Series M149, National Archives, Washington, DC.
Nettels, Emergence of a National Economy: Curtis P. Nettels, The Emergence of a National Economy, 1775–1815, New York, 1962.
Parliamentary Debates: T. C. Hansard, ed., The Parliamentary Debates from the Year 1803 to the Present Time, [First Series], 41 vols., London, 1803–20.
Quimby, U.S. Army: Robert S. Quimby, The U.S. Army in the War of 1812: An Operational and Command Study, 2 vols., East Lansing, 1997.
RD: U.S. Congress, Register of Debates in Congress [1824–1837], 29 vols., Washington, DC, 1825–37 (19–1 refers to 19th Congress, 1st session, and similarly for other sessions).
Roosevelt, Naval War: Theodore Roosevelt, The Naval War of 1812, 3rd ed., 2 vols., New York, 1900.
Senate Journal: U.S. Congress, Journal of the Executive Proceedings of the Senate [1789–1828], 3 vols., Washington, DC, 1828.
SD (M30): U.S Department of State, Dispatches from United States Ministers to Great Britain, 1791–1906, Microfilm Series M30, National Archives, Washington, DC.
SD (M36): U.S. Department of State, Records of Negotiations Connected with the Treaty of Ghent, 1813–1815, Microfilm Series M36, National Archives, Washington, DC.
SD (M77): U.S. Department of State, Diplomatic Instructions to All Countries, 1801–1906, Microfilm Series M77, National Archives, Washington, DC.
SD (M588): U.S. Department of State, War of 1812 Papers, 1789–1815, Microfilm Series M588, National Archives, Washington, DC.
Stagg, Mr. Madison’s War: J. C. A. Stagg, Mr. Madison’s War: Politics, Diplomacy, and Warfare in the Early American Republic, 1783–1830, Princeton, 1983.
Taylor, Civil War: Alan Taylor, The Civil War of 1812: American Citizens, British Subjects, Irish Rebels, & Indian Allies, New York, 2010.
TD (M175): U.S. Department of the Treasury, Letters Sent by the Secretary of the Treasury to Collectors of Customs at All Ports (1789–1847) and at Small Ports (1789–1878), Microfilm Series M175, National Archives, Washington, DC.
TD (M178): U.S. Department of the Treasury, Correspondence of the Secretary of the Treasury with Collectors of Customs, 1789–1833, Microfilm Series M178, National Archives, Washington, DC.
WD (M6): U.S. Department of War, Letters Sent by the Secretary of War Relating to Military Affairs, 1800–1889, Microfilm Series M6, National Archives, Washington, DC.
WD (M7): U.S. Department of War, Confidential and Unofficial Letters Sent by the Secretary of War, 1814–1847, Microfilm Series M7, National Archives, Washington, DC.
WD (M221): U.S. Department of War, Letters Received by the Secretary of War, Registered Series, 1801–1870, Microfilm Series M221, National Archives, Washington, DC.
WD (M222): U.S. Department of War, Letters Received by the Secretary of War, Unregistered Series, 1789–1861, Microfilm Series, M222, National Archives, Washington, DC.
Wood, British Documents: William Wood, ed., Select British Documents of the Canadian War of 1812, 3 vols., Toronto, 1920–28.
Zaslow, Defended Border: Morris Zaslow, ed., The Defended Border: Upper Canada and the War of 1812, Toronto, 1964.
The poetry at the beginning of this study was taken from the Trenton True American, June 29, 1812, and Fred L. Pattee, ed., The Poems of Philip Freneau: Poet of the American Revolution, 3 vols. (Princeton, 1902–7), 3:345–46.
Introduction
1. For more on the debate on the causes of the war, see Warren H. Goodman, “The War of 1812: A Survey of Changing Interpretations,” Mississippi Valley Historical Review 28 (September, 1941), 171–86, and Clifford L. Egan, “The Origins of the War of 1812: Three Decades of Historical Writing,” Military Affairs 38 (April, 1974), 72–75. Surprisingly little of note has been written on the causes of the war since the publication of these articles.
2. For examples of the use of the nominal par, see Lord Hawkesbury to Anthony Merry, September 16, 1803, in Bernard Mayo, ed., Instructions to the British Ministers to the United States, 1791–1812 (Washington, DC, 1941), 200; Cartel for the Exchange of Prisoners of War, May 12, 1813, in Wood, British Documents, 3:797; Albert Gallatin, Memorandum of Voyage to St. Petersburg, June 21, 1813, in Gallatin Papers (SR), reel 26.
3. See Lawrence H. Officer, “Dollar-Pound Exchange Rates from 1791,” MeasuringWorth, 2010, at http://www.measuringworth.org/exchangepound/.
Chapter 1. The Road to War, 1801–1812
1. Jefferson’s entire inaugural was spartan. See Merrill D. Peterson, Thomas Jefferson and the New Nation: A Biography (New York, 1970), 654–55.
2. The literature on the first party system is extensive, though most studies focus on party organization and ideology rather than on policies. The best Federalist studies (which concentrate on the party after it fell from power) are Linda Kerber, Federalists in Dissent: Imagery and Ideology in Jeffersonian America (Ithaca, 1970); David Hackett Fischer, The Revolution of American Conservatism: The Federalist Party in the Era of Jeffersonian Democracy (New York, 1965); James M. Banner, Jr., To the Hartford Convention: The Federalists and the Origins of Party Politics in Massachusetts, 1789–1815 (New York, 1970); Shaw Livermore, Jr., The Twilight of Federalism: The Disintegration of the Federalist Party, 1815–1830 (Princeton, 1962); Lyle A. Rose, Prologue to Democracy: The Federalists in the South, 1789–1800 (Lexington, 1968); James H. Broussard, The Southern Federalists, 1800–1816 (Baton Rouge, 1978); and Doron Ben-Atar and Barbara B. Oberg, eds., Federalists Reconsidered (Charlottesville, 1998), especially the concluding essay of James M. Banner, Jr. The best Republican studies are Drew R. McCoy, The Elusive Republic: Political Economy in Jeffersonian America (Chapel Hill, 1980); Lance Banning, The Jeffersonian Persuasion: Evolution of a Party Ideology (Ithaca, 1978); Stuart G. Brown, The First Republicans: Political Philosophy and Public Policy in the Party of Jefferson and Madison (Syracuse, 1954); and Noble E. Cunningham, Jr., The Jeffersonian Republicans: The Formation of Party Organization, 1789–1801 (Chapel Hill, 1957) and The Jeffersonian Republicans in Power: Party Operations, 1801–1809 (Chapel Hill, 1963).
3. For Washington’s views, see Washington to Congress, December 3, 1793, in AC, 3–1, 12.
4. Speech of Benjamin Tallmadge, April 6, 1808, in AC, 10–1, 1982; Boston Weekly Messenger, reprinted in Boston Gazette, December 26, 1811.
5. For a good analysis of Hamilton’s financial program, which stresses his aim to monetize American society, see Forrest McDonald, Alexander Hamilton: A Biography (New York, 1979), chs. 7–13.
6. For the development of Federalist defense policies, see Richard H. Kohn, Eagle and Sword: The Federalists and the Creation of the Military Establishment in America, 1783–1802 (New York, 1975); Jacobs, Beginnings of the U.S. Army, chs. 1–9; Harold Sprout and Margaret Sprout, The Rise of American Naval Power, 1776–1918, rev. ed. (Princeton, 1966), 13–53; Marshall Smelser, The Congress Founds a Navy, 1787–1798 (Notre Dame, 1959); and Donald R. Hickey, “Federalist Defense Policy in t
he Age of Jefferson, 1801–1812,” Military Affairs 45 (April, 1981), 63–70.
7. See documents in ASP: MA, 1:6, 41, 112, 120, 153, 155, 192–97; Sprout and Sprout, Rise of American Naval Power, 13–15, 25–53.
8. The Jay Treaty can be found in ASP: FR, 1:520–25. The standard account of the treaty is Samuel F. Bemis, Jay’s Treaty: A Study in Commerce and Diplomacy, rev. ed. (New Haven, 1962). For an analysis of the ideological background, see Jerald A. Combs, The Jay Treaty: Political Battleground of the Founding Fathers (Berkeley, 1970).
9. Boston Yankee, reprinted in Philadelphia Aurora, February 24, 1812.
10. Nettels, Emergence of a National Economy, 396. For a superb account of the development of Anglo-American friendship in this period, see Bradford Perkins, The First Rapprochement: England and the United States, 1795–1805, 2nd ed. (Berkeley, 1967).
11. The estimate of losses can be found in Report of the Secretary of State, January 18, 1799, in ASP: FR, 2:232.
12. Richard Dobbs Spaight to Jacob Read, March 5, 1797, in Thomas Addis Emmet Papers (NYPL).
13. The standard accounts of the Quasi-War are Alexander DeConde, The Quasi-War: The Politics and Diplomacy of the Undeclared Naval War with France, 1797–1801 (New York, 1966), which focuses on the domestic and diplomatic history; and Michael A. Palmer, Stoddert’s War: Naval Operations during the Quasi-War with France, 1798–1801 (Columbia, 1987), which is a superb study of the navy’s performance.
14. List of French Armed Vessels Captured by U.S. Men-of-War, in Dudley W. Knox, ed., Naval Documents Related to the Quasi-War between the United States and France, 7 vols. (Washington, DC, 1935–38), 7:311–12; Robert G. Albion and Jennie B. Pope, Sea Lanes in Wartime: The American Experience, 2nd ed. ([Hamden, CT], 1968), 83. The French probably lost additional privateers that escaped from an American attack but suffered enough damage to be knocked out of service or to founder at sea.
15. See List of Vessels Captured or Recaptured by Armed American Merchantmen, in Knox, Quasi-War, 7:439. For more on the underappreciated effectiveness of armed merchantmen in this conflict, see Donald R. Hickey, “The Quasi-War: America’s First Limited War, 1798–1801,” Northern Mariner 18 (July-October, 2008), 74–75.
16. Report of the House Naval Committee, January 17, 1799, in ASP: NA, 1:69; Albion and Pope, Sea Lanes in Wartime, 81–83. Peacetime rates were typically 5–7 percent. British naval operations and a more conciliatory policy on the part of France probably also contributed to the decline.
17. The convention is printed in ASP: FR, 2:295–301.
18. Jefferson to Nathaniel Macon, May 14, 1801, in Jefferson Papers (LC), reel 23.
19. Republican financial policies are charted in Davis R. Dewey, Financial History of the United States, 12th ed. (New York, 1934); Bray Hammond, Banks and Politics in America from the Revolution to the Civil War (Princeton, 1962); Alexander Balinky, Albert Gallatin: Fiscal Theories and Policies (New Brunswick, NJ, 1958); Adams, History; and Edwin J. Perkins, American Publican Finance and Financial Services, 1700–1815 (Columbus, 1994). The older accounts take an unfavorable view of Republican finance during the war, and I share this view. Perkins is more sympathetic and even claims that “Alexander Hamilton himself would have been hard pressed to have performed much better” (p. 337).
20. For Republican defense policies, see Jacobs, Beginnings of the U.S. Army, chs. 10–14; and Sprout and Sprout, Rise of American Naval Power, 53–85.
21. AC, 7–1, 1306–12. For an excellent account of Jefferson’s attempt to reform and republicanize the army, see Theodore J. Crackel, Mr. Jefferson’s Army: Political and Social Reform of the Military Establishment, 1801–1809 (New York, 1987).
22. Jacobs, Beginnings of the U.S. Army, 253; Crackel, Mr. Jefferson’s Army, 45–53.
23. AC, 10–1, 2849–52; Crackel, Mr. Jefferson’s Army, 169–76.
24. Winfield Scott, Memoirs of Lieut.-General Scott, 2 vols. (New York, 1864), 1:35–36. See also Jacobs, Beginnings of the U.S. Army, 270.
25. Speech of Nathaniel Macon, April 16, 1810, in AC, 11–2, 1863.
26. Speeches of James Fisk, January 25, 1812, and Samuel McKee, January 18, 1812, in AC, 12–1, 841 and 968–69.
27. Report of the Secretary of the Navy, December 3, 1811, in ASP: NA, 1:249–50; AC, 7–2, 1565; Sprout and Sprout, Rise of American Naval Power, 53–85.
28. Adam Seybert, Statistical Annals . . . of the United States of America (Philadelphia, 1818), 712. The figure excludes $100,000 appropriated in the 1790s but spent in 1801–2.
29. For more on the militia and privateers, see John K. Mahon, The American Militia: Decade of Decision, 1789–1800 (Gainesville, 1960); Lawrence D. Cress, Citizens in Arms: The Army and the Militia in American Society to the War of 1812 (Chapel Hill, 1982); C. Edward Skeen, Citizen Soldiers in the War of 1812 (Lexington, 1999); and Maclay, American Privateers.
30. See Jefferson to Congress, February 10, 1807, in AC, 9–2, 63–65. The quoted words are from the speech of John Randolph, December 16, 1811, in AC, 12–1, 541.
31. See Report of the Secretary of the Navy, June 9, 1809, in ASP: NA, 1:200; JM to Congress, May 23, 1809, in AC, 11–1, 12; and editorial note in Dudley and Crawford, Naval War, 1:12. For more on these vessels, see Spencer C. Tucker, The Jeffersonian Gunboat Navy (Columbia, 1993); and Gene A. Smith, “For the Purposes of Defense”: The Politics of the Jeffersonian Gunboat Program (Newark, 1995).
32. Nettels, Emergence of a National Economy, 396.
33. Monroe to [SS], July 1, 1804, in Monroe Papers (LC), reel 3. See also Monroe to SS, August 7, 1804, ibid., reel 11.
34. Monroe to SS, October 18, 1805, ibid., reel 11.
35. Perkins, First Rapprochement, 86–89; Nettels, Emergence of a National Economy, 396.
36. Lords Holland and Auckland to Lord Howick, October 20, 1806, in Foreign Office Papers 5/51 (PRO).
37. The Essex decision is printed in Dudley and Crawford, Naval War, 1:17–20. See also Perkins, First Rapprochement, 177–81; and Bradford Perkins, Prologue to War: England and the United States, 1805–1812 (Berkeley, 1961) 77–84.
38. Anthony Merry to Lord Mulgrave, September 30, 1805, in Adams, History, 1:669.
39. Monroe to SS, September 25, 1805, in Monroe Papers (LC), reel 11.
40. Perkins, Prologue to War, 104–6.
41. Most of the petitions are printed in ASP: FR, 2:737–73.
42. The best work on this subject is Scott Thomas Jackson, “Impressment and Anglo-American Discord, 1787–1818” (PhD dissertation, University of Michigan, 1976). See also James F. Zimmerman, Impressment of American Seamen (New York, 1925).
43. Estimates on the size of the American merchant marine in this era vary. I arrived at my figure by computing the average number of seamen needed for each 100 tons of ship tonnage. See Hickey, Don’t Give Up the Ship, 373n16. The Admiralty thought about 20,000, or 28.5 percent, were British. See Zimmerman, Impressment, 275.
44. Zimmerman, Impressment, 266–67.
45. Ibid., 55–61, 67–68. For a transcription of a “protection,” see ibid., 69n. There are originals in ND (M147), reel 4; Foreign Office Papers 5/55 (PRO); and the collections of the Erie Maritime Museum, Erie, PA.
46. Admiralty to [Rueben G. Beasley], May 26, 1813, in NASP: NA, 8:23.
47. The analysis of the issues in the ensuing paragraphs is based mainly on the following sources: Perkins, Prologue to War; Reginald Horsman, The Causes of the War of 1812 (Philadelpha, 1962); A. L. Burt, The United States, Great Britain, and British North America from the Revolution to the Establishment of Peace after the War of 1812 (New Haven, 1940); Charles S. Hyneman, The First American Neutrality: A Study of the American Understanding of Neutral Obligations during the Years 1792–1815 (Urbana, 1934); W. Allison Phillips and Arthur H. Reede, Neutrality, Its History, Economics and Law: The Napoleonic Period (New York, 1936); and Carlton Savage, Policy of the United States toward Maritime Commerce in War, 2 vols. (Washington, DC, 1934–36).
48. Speech of Barnabas Bidwel
l, March 8, 1806, in AC, 9–1, 653.
49. Speech of Samuel Smith, March 10, 1806, in AC, 9–1, 168.
50. Fisher Ames, “Political Review III,” in W. B. Allen, ed., Works of Fisher Ames, 2 vols. (Indianapolis, 1984), 1:472–73. See also Boston Repertory, cited in Richmond Enquirer, October 11, 1805.
51. AC, 9–1, 90–91, 109, 112; Anthony Merry to Lord Mulgrave, February 2, 1806, in Foreign Office Papers 5/48 (PRO); Thomas Jefferson to James Monroe, March 10, 1808, in Jefferson Papers (LC), reel 41.
52. Jefferson to William Short, October 3, 1801, in Jefferson Papers (LC), reel 24.
53. Henry S. Randall, The Life of Thomas Jefferson, 3 vols. (New York, 1858), 3:315. For British attempts to renew the Jay Treaty, see Lord Harrowby to Anthony Merry, August 4, 1804, in Bernard Mayo, ed., Instructions to the British Ministers to the United States, 1791–1812 (Washington, DC, 1941), 207–8.
54. Jefferson to James Monroe, March 10, 1808, in Jefferson Papers (LC), reel 41.
55. JM to Monroe and Pinkney, May 17, 1806, in SD (M77), reel 1.
56. Lords Holland and Auckland to Monroe and Pinkney, November 8, 1806, in SD (M30), reel 10. Monroe and Pinkney claimed that privately the British promised that if their deserters were returned they would give up impressment except “in cases of an extraordinary nature.” The British envoys, however, denied making this pledge. See Monroe and Pinkney to JM, January 3 and April 22, 1807, and Monroe to JM, February 28, 1808, in ASP: FR, 3:146, 160–61, 174; Lords Holland and Auckland to George Canning, July 28 and August 10, 1807, in Foreign Office Papers 5/54 (PRO). Quotation from p. 174.
57. The Monroe–Pinkney Treaty is printed in ASP: FR, 3:147–51. The analysis in the following paragraphs is based on Donald R. Hickey, “The Monroe–Pinkney Treaty of 1806: A Reappraisal,” William and Mary Quarterly, 3rd ser. 44 (January, 1987), 65–88.
58. The established duty for re-exported goods was 3 percent of their value. Under the Monroe–Pinkney Treaty, the duty would be lowered to 2 percent for goods shipped to Europe and 1 percent for goods shipped to the Caribbean.
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