Isegoria

The second war the United States lost started when Jefferson decided he would try to put pressure on England:

The English held Canada, which we wanted and had a habit of stopping American ships at sea (including at least one American frigate) and removing seamen who they claimed were deserters from the Royal navy. Modern historians agree that there were many such seamen on our ships, but it is not obvious that the Naval Officers were good at distinguishing them from native-born Americans. This led to an outburst of indignation on the part of the Americans.

Before Jefferson became president, Adams sent our leading diplomat, John Jay, to England to negotiate a treaty on the matter. Under the treaty a commissioner in each American port would issue a certificate that there were no English deserters on a given ship after having inspected it to make sure. For some reason this also led to an outburst of indignation, and Jefferson never even sent it to the Senate for ratification. He invented the embargo that has caused so much difficulty in the diplomatic history of the United States. The absurd idea that a third rate power, without a real navy, could coerce the then two leading powers, France and England was absurd. It did cause more difficulty for the English than for Napoleon, but England did not stop impressing our seamen.

The situation remained in a more or less deadlock with the principle people injured being the maritime interests in New England. They were mainly federalists, so Jefferson and his successor Madison were well able to withstand their pain. Finally, just as Napoleon was marching on Moscow, We entered the war on the French side. Our major objective was Canada, but preventing impressment of our seamen was also thought important. England fought a war that strategically was defensive although tactically it sometimes involved taking the offensive. They had fought a major war with France for twenty years, and the United States had more than doubled in population since independence. Actually occupying it would have been an immense task and they didn’t want to try.

Our navy consisted of a small set of very good frigates and some half built ships of the line. Our frigates distinguished themselves, but were only an annoyance to England. The British blockade of our coast together with occasional landings was also mainly an annoyance, but a more severe one than that inflicted by our miniature navy on them.

The effort to take Canada was a frost, mainly because of the poor quality of our generalship. Scott, a very young and junior general did well, thus starting what was to be a long and distinguished career. The quality of Madison’s other appointees is illustrated by a general in command of 1200 soldiers near Niagara who surrendered unconditionally to an English general with 300. The American general was the only one of our generals sentenced to death by court martial. Unfortunately, Madison commuted the sentence.

The war continued badly and the treaty of peace did not mention any of our war objectives. I remember that my high school history text emphasized our defeat. Politically, however, Madison did well and was able to hand on the Presidency to another member of his party.

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