AMERICA – 1800 – 1846 in the settlements - Part 1

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We all have read about the issues faced in the settlements in settling this land, we have provided a little history of those major issues as a reminder.

READ ON SOME OF OUR HISTORY - AMERICA – 1800 – 1846 in the settlements

1800
To protect its shipping interests from pirates in the Mediterranean, Jefferson and Madison fought the First Barbary War in 1801–1805 and the Second Barbary War in

1815.
A standing army is dangerous to liberty and should be avoided. Instead of threatening warfare, Jeffersonians relied on economic coercion such as the embargo.[citation needed] See Embargo Act of 1807.

The locally controlled non-professional militia was adequate to defend the nation from invasion. After the militia proved inadequate in the first year of the War of 1812 President Madison expanded the national Army for the duration.

1803 Louisiana Purchase
The Louisiana Purchase in 1803 gave Western farmers use of the important Mississippi River waterway, removed the French presence from the western border of the United States, and, most important, provided U.S. settlers with vast potential for expansion. A few weeks afterward, war resumed between Britain and Napoleon's France. The United States, dependent on European revenues from the export of agricultural goods, tried to export food and raw materials to both warring Great Powers and to profit from transporting goods between their home markets and Caribbean colonies. Both sides permitted this trade when it benefited them but opposed it when it did not. Following the 1805 destruction of the French navy at the Battle of Trafalgar, Britain sought to impose a stranglehold over French overseas trade ties. Thus, in retaliation against U.S. trade practices, Britain imposed a loose blockade of the American coast. Believing that Britain could not rely on other sources of food than the United States, Congress and President Jefferson suspended all U.S. trade with foreign nations in the Embargo Act of 1807, hoping to get the British to end their blockade of the American coast. The Embargo Act, however, devastated American agricultural exports and weakened American ports while Britain found other sources of food.

1812
War of 1812
James Madison won the U.S. presidential election of 1808, largely on the strength of his abilities in foreign affairs at a time when Britain and France were both on the brink of war with the United States. He was quick to repeal the Embargo Act, refreshing
American seaports. Despite his intellectual brilliance, Madison lacked Jefferson's leadership and tried to merely copy his predecessor's policies verbatim. He tried various trade restrictions to try to force Britain and France to respect freedom of the seas, but they were unsuccessful. The British had undisputed mastery over the sea after defeating the French and Spanish fleet at Trafalgar in 1805, and they took advantage of this to seize American ships at will and force their sailors into serving the Royal Navy.

Even worse, the size of the U.S. Navy was reduced due to ideological opposition to a large standing military and the Federal government became considerably weakened when the charter of the First National Bank expired and Congress declined to renew it. A clamor for military action thus erupted just as relations with Britain and France were at a low point and the U.S.'s ability to wage war had been reduced.

Battle of Lake Erie; American victory in 1813 meant control of the Northwest.
In response to continued British interference with American shipping (including the practice of impressment of American sailors into the British Navy), and to British aid to American Indians in the Old Northwest, the Twelfth Congress—led by Southern and Western Jeffersonians—declared war on Britain in 1812. Westerners and Southerners were the most ardent supporters of the war, given their concerns about defending national honor and expanding western settlements, and having access to world markets for their agricultural exports. New England was making a fine profit and its Federalists opposed the war, almost to the point of secession. The Federalist reputation
collapsed in the triumphalism of 1815 and the party no longer played a national role.
Tecumseh and Governor William Henry Harrison; Tecumseh's death in the Battle of the Thames in 1813 ended British hopes to create a neutral Indian state in the Midwest
The war drew to a close after bitter fighting that lasted even after the Burning of Washington in August 1814 and Andrew Jackson's smashing defeat of the British invasion army at the Battle of New Orleans in January 1815.

The ratification of the Treaty of Ghent in February 1815, formally ended the war, returned to the status quo ante bellum. Britain's alliance with the Native Americans ended, and the Indians were the major losers of the war. News of the victory at New Orleans over the best British combat troops came at the same time as news of the peace, giving Americans a psychological triumph and opening the Era of Good Feelings. Recovery from the destruction left in the wake of the war began, including rebuilding the Library of Congress collection which had been destroyed in the Burning of Washington.[38] The war destroyed the anti-war Federalist Party and opened the door for generals like Andrew Jackson and William Henry Harrison, and civilian leaders like James Monroe, John Quincy Adams, and Henry Clay, to run for national office.

Era of Good Feelings and the rise of Nationalism
After the War of 1812, the United States began to assert a newfound sense of nationalism. America began to rally around national heroes like Andrew Jackson. Patriotic feelings were aroused by Francis Scott Key's poem The Star-Spangled Banner. Under the direction of Chief Justice John Marshall, the Supreme Court issued a series of opinions reinforcing the role of the national government.[40] These decisions included McCulloch v. Maryland and Gibbons v. Ogden, both of which reaffirmed the supremacy of the national government over the states. The signing of the Adams–Onís Treaty helped settle the western border of the country through popular and peaceable means.

Sectionalism
Even as nationalism increased across the country, its effects were limited by a renewed sense of sectionalism. The New England states that had opposed the War of 1812 felt an increasing decline in political power with the demise of the Federalist Party. This loss was tempered with the arrival of a new industrial movement and increased demands for northern banking. The industrial revolution in the United States was advanced by the immigration of Samuel Slater from Great Britain and arrival of textile mills beginning in Lowell, Massachusetts. In the south, the invention of the cotton gin by Eli Whitney radically increased the value of slave labor. The export of southern cotton was now the predominant export of the U.S. The western states continued to thrive under the "frontier spirit." Individualism was prized as exemplified by Davey Crockett and James Fenimore Cooper's folk hero Natty Bumppo from The Leatherstocking Tales. Following the death of Tecumseh in 1813, Native Americans lacked the unity to stop white settlement.

1817
Era of Good Feelings
Domestically, the presidency of James Monroe (1817–1825) was hailed at the time and since as the "Era of Good Feelings" because of the decline of partisan politics and heated rhetoric after the war. The Federalist Party collapsed, but without an opponent the Democratic-Republican Party decayed as sectional interests came to the fore.

1821
The Monroe Doctrine was drafted by Secretary of State John Quincy Adams in collaboration with the British, and proclaimed by Monroe in late 1823. He asserted the Americas should be free from additional European colonization and free from European interference in sovereign countries' affairs. It further stated the United States' intention to stay neutral in wars between European powers and their colonies but to consider any new colonies or interference with independent countries in the Americas as hostile acts towards the United States. No new colonies were ever formed.

Annexation of Florida and border treaties
As the 19th century dawned, Florida had been undisputed Spanish territory for almost 250 years, aside from 20 years of British control between the French and Indian Wars and the American Revolution. Although a sparsely inhabited swampland, expansionist-minded Americans were eager to grab it and already, in 1808, American settlers had invaded the westernmost tip of Florida and expelled the local Spanish authorities, after which Congress hastily passed a bill annexing it under the claim that the Louisiana Purchase had guaranteed the territory to the United States. During the War of 1812, American troops occupied and seized the area around Mobile Bay. Spain, then engulfed in war with France, did not react to either of these actions. Also taking advantage of the mother country's distraction, Spain's Latin American colonies rose up in revolt and Madrid was forced to denude Florida of troops to suppress the rebellions. As the Spanish withdrew, Native American and pirate raids from Florida to the US increased. In 1818, Andrew Jackson led an army into Florida to quell the chaotic situation there. He arrested and hanged two British agents who had been encouraging Indian raids, leading to an outcry in London and calls for war. However, cooler heads prevailed and the situation did not escalate further. A year later, Secretary of State John Quincy Adams negotiated the Adams–Onís Treaty with Spain. The Spanish agreed to turn over the no-longer-defensible Florida to the US and also give up their extremely flimsy[citation needed] claims to the distant Oregon Territory, in exchange for which American claims on Texas were renounced (some Americans had also been claiming parts of that territory under the Louisiana Purchase). The heretofore vague border between the US and Spanish North America was also settled upon. Although American designs on Texas did not disappear, they were put on the backburner for the more immediately important Florida.




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