In the early 1800s the United States became inextricably involved in European affairs. Customs duties funded the federal government; trading policies shaped local economies and the ongoing commercial war between Britain and Napoleon’s France cost neutral American merchants unnecessarily. Great Britain controlled the high seas. In 1807 the British 52-gun frigate H.M.S. Leopold fired on the American 39-gun frigate U.S.S. Chesapeake three plus miles off Virginia’s shore. Four sailors were forcibly removed from the Chesapeake and impressed. Economic battles, President Jefferson’s Embargo Act followed. Ports closed, New Englanders protested, sectional politics intensified, the Act failed and impressment continued. War hawks dominated America’s foreign policy. US Senators Henry Clay (KY), Felix Mundy (TN) and John C. Calhoun (SC) were among them. They favored war with Great Britain. “Such a course,” war hawks argued, “was necessary to prevent British trade policies from further damaging the American economy.” War Hawks also believed the British were behind the on-going Indian attacks along the western frontier. The maritime dilemma was often debated and on June 18, 1812 President James Madison signed America’s declaration of war. Virginia Congressman John Randolph of Roanoke opposed Mr. Madison’s War with Great Britain. On May 29, 1812, he resolved that “under existing circumstances it [was] inexpedient to resort to war.” Randolph’s House colleagues disagreed. “[War] was not declared on the part of the United States until it was made on them, in reality though not in name,” President Madison said in his March 4, 1813 Second Inaugural Address. “On the issue of the war are staked our national sovereignty on the high seas and the security of an important class of citizens, whose occupations give the proper value to those of every other class.” America split politically. Marylanders aligned with Madison’s Democratic-Republican Party attacked Federalist publisher A.C. Hanson’s Baltimore newspaper…