War of 1812 Divisions

The War of 1812 emphasized the divisions of American society both politically and on a personal basis. This war was widely divided mainly because it did not have the support of the general American public. At this point in time, there was a large disunity among Federalists and Democratic-Republicans. The Democratic-Republics had an anti-British standpoint and supported the war, as compared to the Federalists who supported Britain an
were against the war. The Democrat-Republicans supported an agricultural economy, as opposed to the Federalist industrial economy. This caused the parties to be disunited on the issue of taking Canada
(which would be one of the spoils of the war). Federalists feared that if Canada was taken, then the agricultural economy would increase too rapidly and the United States would fail. These two parties had a close to equal support within the states, thus causing the population to be divided.