They’re Burning Down the House! By Sarah Becker ©2018 President Donald Trump (R-NY) has done it again, he’s muddled history. On May 25, in a tetchy telephone conversation with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Trump unthinkingly said it was the Canadians, not the British who burned The White House in 1814. The British assault on Washington was in retaliation for an American attack on Ontario, then a British colony. The President referenced the War of 1812 when asked for what reason he claimed incoming Canadian steel and aluminum “a national security” issue. In the early 1800s the United States became inextricably involved in European affairs. Customs duties funded the federal government; British, French, and Spanish trading policies shaped local economies, and the ongoing commercial war between Great Britain and Napoleon’s France cost neutral American merchants unnecessarily. American merchants were little more than pawns. The North American continent was a showground of imperial competition. The British controlled Canada to the north, Spain controlled lands to the west and south. Both nations provided arms and encouragement to Native Americans, hoping to block American settlement beyond the Appalachian Mountains. As for Great Britain and France, “both sought to block the other’s commerce with America: through blockades, port closures, and the imposition of harmful customs duties,” Professor Michael Bottoms explained. “While both nations were equally guilty of abusing their American trading relationships, Americans focused their ire on Britain, partly because of Britain’s [sea-faring] impressment policy. The damage these policies did to the American economy, and to American prestige, led directly to war.” Georgetown resident and Federalist newspaper publisher Alexander Hanson, of Baltimore, described the War of 1812 as “without funds, without an army, navy or adequate fortifications.” Who were the War Hawks and to what extent did Americans support a second war with Great…
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…