Sunday, October 21, 2007

Political and regional divisions in the war of 1812

During the beginning of Madison's presidency, hot- tempted young men were taking over Senate and Congress. They, being the new generation, wanted a war of their own. Madison had already put the United States in a bad position between France and Britain. These young "war hawks" who were mainly from the South and West ( oddly) wanted maritime rights and were willing to fight for them. They saw British as the encouraging and aiding partner of the Natives attacking them in the West and also as the evil party mistreating their sailors. Middle and Northern officials while not fans of impressment had learned to live with it and were not ready to have a war with Britain over it, considering they would take the brunt of it. The " war hawks" desperately wanted Canada but the Federalists, fearing that the Jeffersonian Republicans would receive a large vote boost from accquisting Canada, strongly disapproved. The vote on whether to go to war or not was so close it revealed the depth of the political and regional divisions. The " war hawks" wanted war and almost all the others ( although a slight minority and for different reasons) wanted no war.

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