A Glimpse at History

In December of 1811,Various speeches both for and against Declaration of war against England occurred. The War as previously discussed ,was due to two widely different developments, one being violations by Great Britain of American maritime rights, which we touched on in previous blogs, and the other a long series of depredations by Indians against frontier settlements beyond the Alleghenies. Massacres, as now and then they were, which could have been laid to encroachment of the settlers upon Indian Lands, but were blamed instead to the inspiration and the supplies of British garrisons stationed south of Canada. The attacks were resented because they prevented the expansion explosion of the frontier. It is evident to me that expansion was not on the minds of only the British and the French, but on the minds of Americans as well. There was a desire to drive the British from all of North America even from Canada, which made Americans eager to have war declared. This can be supported by Felix Grundy’s speech to Congress in December 1811. The true feel of the position of what was referred to during that period as the “War Hawks” (or men in favor of the war),which included men such as Henry Clay, John C. Calhous, Felix Grundy and Richard M. Johnson, can be felt by the reader in this excerpt from Felix Grundy’s speech.

“This war, if carried on successfully, will have its advantages. We shall drive the British from our continent-they will no longer have an opportunity of intriguing with our Indian neighbors, and setting on the rughless savage to tomahawk our women and children. That nation will lose her Canadian trade, and, by having no resting place in this country, her means of anoying us will be dimished. The idea I am now about to advance is at war, I know, with sentiments of the gentleman from Virginia. I am willing to receive the Canadians as adopted brethren; it will have beneficial political effects; it will preserve the equilibrium of the government. When Louisiana shall be fully peopled, the Northern States will lose their power;they will be at the discretion of others; they can be depressed at pleasure; and then this Union might be endangered. I therefore feel anxious not only to add the Floridas to the South, but the Canadas to the North of this empire.”

Civil War Side Note: As far back as 1811, they were consious of the seperation of the North and the South and keeping it as equal as possible in representation, so that one could not control the other. It suggests a rift in our government almost from conception.

Filed under: War of 1812 by Savannah Meade