Patriot's History: War of 1812 (Chap 5)
Music: Piano Selections
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Summary With Thomas Jefferson a smaller government would favor industry, and set a precedent of growth. But due to England's naval enmity a "second war of independence" came to be. Chapter The years of Washington and Adams were the first display of central government, a nation versed in monied Hamiltonian democracy, with "property secured" ensuring liberty. The highest court (John Marshall) favored corporate development, while angry housewives, desperate when homes of commoners were overtaxed, rebelled against invasive government. And soldiers quelled the fray too late for Adams as Republicans and Jefferson, obliged by Mister Hamilton's disparagement of Aaron Burr, defeated Burr (whose shooting of the chief of commerce would secure his place in history). The nation would endure and prosper in the cities (even though manure {a hundred-thousand horses in New York} was sure to vex the senses), and the pioneering lure of going west was compromised by dirt and lice and worms as westbound "Crackers" found both Paradise and Hell. And slaves, to abolitionists' chagrin, were needed more than ever with the cotton gin. Indeed, the commerce revolution underway had positive effects still recognized today. The vast Louisiana Territory, past the Mississippi (many critics were aghast that Jefferson would buy it), would embark the nation - with adventurers like Lewis, Clark, Sa-CA-jawea guiding - on a journey west. But on the foreign front, the urges to divest the land of military costs was soon to fail, for Britain ruled the seas, and War Hawks would bewail our country's impotence. The Hawks Calhoun and Clay advanced the War of 1812, and they'd portray it as the "Second War of Independence." Hear the cries for freedom in the frenzied atmosphere: Said Lawrence, "Don't give up the ship!" And victory by Perry followed: "We have met the enemy, and they are ours!" Raw courage and Old Ironsides propelled America to unexpected strides in holding off the British Navy, powerful and thought to be invincible. And masterful were Francis Scott Key's lyrics as the twilight gleamed and Jackson battled in New Orleans (though, it seemed, the war had ended two weeks earlier). The end was deemed an even match, though nothing would transcend the British terrorist attack on Washington till 9-11. So our country would begin to feel its global might: an outcome of the war would be a Union stronger than it was before. |