Society & Culture - Posted by Matt Kelly-Virginia on Tuesday, June 12, 2012 14:22 - 6 Comments 
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(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...Why US chooses to forget the War of 1812
"We have a triumphalist history, going from greater to greater," says University of Virginia historian and author John Stagg. This is why so little attention is paid to the War of 1812, he says. It's seen as an "embarrassment, three years we would rather forget about." Above, this 1865 painting by William H. Powell shows United States Navy Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry transferring to a different ship during the Battle of Lake Erie. (Credit: Wikimedia Commons)
U. VIRGINIA (US) — While the United States marks the sesquicentennial of the Civil War, the 200th anniversary of the start of the War of 1812 will pass largely unnoticed.
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The text of this article by Futurity is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivatives License.
The Civil War may have redefined the United States, but the War of 1812 helped define it in the first place, according to a new book by John Stagg, the editor of the Papers of James Madison at the University of Virginia.
The War of 1812: A Conflict for a Continent, published this spring by Cambridge University Press, examines the war that was the central event of Madison’s presidency. Also, “The Star Spangled Banner” stemmed from the War of 1812; so did the Battle of New Orleans, and the burning of Washington, D.C.
“Americans have forgotten the rest—the invasion of Canada and the temporary loss of US territory,” Stagg says. “If US forces had succeeded, Canadians could have been US citizens today.”
“The war was necessary for the United States to vindicate its neutrality during the Napoleonic Wars,” Stagg explains. “Since Americans equated neutrality with the fact of their independence from Great Britain, and the British did not respect American neutral rights, Americans felt that independence itself was in peril. So a ‘second war for independence’ became necessary.”
In hindsight
The War of 1812, fought between the US and Great Britain, came about because the British navy was violating American neutral trading rights and impressing American seamen. During the Napoleonic Wars, neither Great Britain nor France seemed concerned about the United States. What was unclear was the point at which the US would fight to assert its rights.
In previous crises with Great Britain, presidents had avoided war, but in the summer of 1811 Madison concluded that the point had been reached at which the country would have to fight.
“Looking at it in hindsight, it seems a silly and unnecessary war, but the view from hindsight is predicated on our knowing how things turned out,” Stagg says. “We know that Napoleon was overthrown in 1814. If the United States had done nothing for two years, it would not have had to go through the war. But in 1811 and 1812, no one was predicting that Napoleon would not be around for a long period of time.”
He notes that at the time of the war, about 60 percent of the residents of “Upper Canada” (present-day Ontario) had migrated recently from the United States. “Land was easy to get in Canada and the locals were ambivalent about the war and their conduct was ambiguous,” Stagg says.
But the war was largely a disaster for the United States. Its invasion of Canada failed and for a while it lost territory in both Michigan and the District of Maine. The British attacked multiple points on US territory and much of Washington was torched.
The war ended with a treaty that effectively settled none of the issues of the war. But the US had survived and maintained its sovereignty.
Riding on coattails
Afterward, the war was big business, with people writing books and plays and poems about it, and for years political candidates touted their exploits in the conflict.
“Without the War of 1812, it is unlikely that Andrew Jackson and William Henry Harrison could ever have won the White House,” Stagg writes, “and between 1824 and 1852 many other candidates for the office of president and vice president similarly drew on their war records to justify their election.
“The Battle of Thames, for example, produced not merely one president and one vice president of the United States, but also, in Kentucky alone, three governors, three lieutenant governors, four US senators, and a score of congressmen.”
The War of 1812 shaped the country in other ways. Jackson’s campaigns in the South, for example, defeated the Creek Indians and destroyed much of the Indian political structure, consolidating control over the region, something that could not be taken for granted before the war.
Cotton became king, leading to an antebellum agrarian economy built on slave labor and setting the stage for the Civil War, Stagg says.
‘We would rather forget’
While the War of 1812 has faded from US memories, Canadians still remember it fondly because they repelled the American invaders. “Their federal government has appropriated $30 million for a celebration,” Stagg says. “The Canadians started planning this two or three years ago.”
Stagg says many Madison biographies give scant attention to his presidency, focusing on the early years of his life, the forming of the republic and the drafting of the Constitution. Yet “he was the only president to be driven from the capital by invaders,” Stagg notes.
“We have a triumphalist history, going from greater to greater,” he says. “This is an embarrassment, three years we would rather forget about—a nightmare from the nation’s childhood.”
More news from the University of Virginia: www.virginia.edu/uvatoday
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6 Comments
Joseph Allen Jr
Jeff Barbose
Except that in 2012, Canada is celebrating and a triumphalist, nationalistic, American-exceptionalism-addled media, political body and populace aren’t using the War of 1812 for personal and political gain.
There’s all the proof you need.
Well up north here we still rejoice in burning down your White House of the day :)
Gen Gore
@Joseph Allen Jr: The US controls shipping in the Great Lakes? That’s news, especially given you state the War was about the future. Perhaps you could elaborate? I suppose the US controls the Saint Lawrence seaway as well? It is comments like yours that make me want to celebrate repelling the US from Canada, despite the fact that our head of state is still the Queen: You can call the latter “ridiculous” and I will support you wholeheartedly.
Joseph Allen Jr
Yes, I will say that having Queen Bertha as your head of state is ridiculous, everybody on the planet knows that.
Congratulations and thanks for on your constructing of the St. Lawrence Seaway, when was that completed? 1959? The Panama Canal was completed in 1914. to what ports do the ships that go through the Seaway go? Duluth, Milwaukee, Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland.
Do you think Canada could defend the Seaway? If so, maybe we should disband the U.S. Navy.
By the way, thanks for the sea lamprey and zebra mussels!
The destruction of the British Great Lakes Fleet was a very significant event both in America and world wide. No European force ever dared to try to return to American after the War of 1812. That was the future.
Do you also celebrate the British Navy forcing Americans, yes Canadians are Americans, too, to serve on their ships against their will?
Danya
Joseph – Thank you for your U.S centric view on the importance of the Seaway. I’m sure that Canadians everywhere apologize for our tardiness in it’s construction. I don’t know how the 10 US ports that are serviced by the Seaway could have managed for so long without it. You could certainly have built your own, with all the expertise gathered from the building of the Panama Canal, but thanks for waiting for us to catch up! There are actually more ports in Canada serviced by the Seaway than in the US, but since we built it, I suppose that could be expected. The fact that you seem to be unaware of them is also expected. And I’m sure we could defend the Seaway just fine. We managed to keep the U.S out, remember? ;)
This War of 1812 was about the future, not the world as it existed in 1812. The defeat of the British Fleet on the Great Lakes showed Britain and Europe in general that the era of European dominance in North America was over. The fact that Canadians are celebrating a “repelling” of an invasion of Canada by US forces is ridiculous. Whoever controls shipping on the Great Lakes controls the Upper Midwest and Canada. In addition, the defeat and total route of a huge British Army at New Orleans by Old Hickory reaffirmed the lesson that the English should have learned at King’s Mountain and Yorktown. The fight doesn’t even start until the Scotch-Irish get there. Jackson’s victory at New Orleans showed that the United States is in control of the Mississippi Valley. By successfully defending the Mississippi Valley and the Great Lakes the United States proved to the entire world that we are a strong and powerful nation that will not be subjugated by any foreign power. This is our heritage, this is our legacy.