The Beginning of the War of 1812

In 1811 some politicians came to Congress, they were called War Hawks, they wanted war against Britain. Britain was taking US sailors and helping the Native Americans. The answer of what to do next was clear....Canada.




They wanted to invade Canada to get Great Britain out of North America and restore honor to America!!! (F Yah).

The War Hawks wanted war and war was what they got. The war of 1812 had begun.

The U.S. wasn't exactly prepared for this and they also severely underestimated the British. It wasn't pretty.



The idea was to march into Canada, surely a country with millions could take on a country of thousands. Why even waste time in getting a professional army? State militia would do just fine. Oh how they were wrong.

The British and Native Americans pretty much dominated them.

Things are brewing in the West

The British were still being jerks, the Native Americans in the West were not happy, and this was not a good combination.




In the West were two brothers, Tenskwatawa, "The Prophet", and Tecumseh, he was more of a warrior. These brothers were upset because the US kept violating treaties so Tecumseh and his brother thought it would be a good idea to try and unite the Indian nations. This made sense because the US were not the best neighbors, actually, very horrible ones. Tecumseh went south to talk to some different tribes. While he was away William Henry Harrison marched in some troops to Prophetstown where Tenskwatawa lived. The Prophet told his people not to fear. They would be protected and the bullets could not pierce their skin.....

Sadly, this didn't work out. Many died including Tenskwatawa and the town was burned. This was known as the Battle of Tippecanoe which Harrison would later use as part of a campaign slogan. Because slaughtering Indians qualifies you to be a great president.

The British need to get out of our Business..

There was some trouble brewing with Great Britain [47]. Great Britian was using the concept of impressment...



This type of impressment was taking American sailors from American ships and forcing them into the British Navy.


This wasn't cool, at all. It became even more uncool when the British attacked the Chesapeake war ship. Many Americans were outraged.



Jefferson decided an embargo would be just the thing for this situation. So trade was suspended, he figured this would show the British what was up. Instead, they went elsewhere to get goods. Dang.

Well people started losing jobs and money. Jefferson knew he was wrong so he lifted the embargo and retired. Next up to bat for the presidency....James Madison. This guy had a whole slew of things to deal with.

[47] *eye roll*

The Louisiana Purchase

Have you ever been to New Orleans? Was it fun? What did you do there? That's nice. Did you know that it was Thomas Jefferson who acquired New Orleans?! Well, its true! Jefferson purchased some land off of Napoleon Bonaparte. This was called the Louisiana Purchase. This was the land west of the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains. He doubled the size of the United States!

But Jefferson was troubled. He always said the federal government should be limited and the Constitution should be followed and it said nothing about buying land. *GASP*




But the land was only $15 million, and that was a sweet deal, so he went for it. Was this hypocritical? Maybe, but there is always the elastic clause to fall back on, and besides....it really was a sweet deal.

To find out what was in this territory he went Meriwether Lewis and William Clark to explore. They had help from Sacajawea who would later be featured on a dollar coin.

OMG! Marbury V. Madison!!!!

Alexander Hamilton was a big fan of Jefferson, so with Hamilton's influence, Jefferson became president. This made Burr pretty mad so they decided to have a duel. Burr won and Hamilton was dead. This was later the premise of a "Got Milk" commercial.

Along with Jefferson as president, there was a new Chief Justice in town, this was John "I'll still be talked about long after I'm dead" Marshall. He was involved in a lot of precedent setting matters such as.....

MARBURY V. MADISON!


Ok...in a nutshell....

Marbury was appointed a position by Adams at pretty much the last minute. Incoming Secretary of State James Madison refused to let the appointment go through. They went to court...and Marshall ruled in favor of Madison. So why is this important? Maybe one of the most important court cases ever? [46]

The concept is Judicial Review. This gave the court the power to review acts of Congress and the President to see if they were constitutional or not.

Score one for the Judiciary Branch!



[46] EVER!

Alien and Sedition Acts

Then during Adam's presidency there were 2 Acts that took effect that sort of dances with some Constitutional violations. What sort of a dance? A JIG!



The Alien Act authorized the President to arrest and deport immigrants who criticized the federal government. You may scratch your head and wonder what happened to the First Amendment.

Yes...the right to free speech, well..don't worry about it.


The Sedition Act was also pretty redic. It was made a crime for citizens to publicly discredit the federal government [45]. When it was all said and done, 10 people were convicted of Sedition. THE CONSTITUTION ROCKS!!!

Eventually these Acts were overturned by the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions. Good job Virginia and Kentucky!

As it would turn out, these Acts and some taxes made Adams pretty unpopular. He lost the Election of 1800 to Thomas Jefferson. But this election was like no other election before. It was a tie! Yes, a tie, with Aaron Burr. To decide the tie they played 3 rounds of paper, rock, scicssors, this of course, is a lie.




[45] I think pretty much everyone would be arrested for this...

XYZ

John Adams defeated Thomas Jefferson in the 1796 election. Adams carried the northern states while Jefferson carried the south, it was the red and blue map before CNN was around!

Back then whoever did not win the presidency became the VP, which was Jefferson, and it was kind of awkward.


Soon Adams found himself face to face with a French crisis.

In 1794 the Jay Treaty was made. This treaty said the British would leave forts and America would pay pre-war debts to Britain. The French were not happy, they said it violated a Treaty they made with the U.S.. So the French started seizing U.S. Ships.

Adams sent some of his peeps to France to talk this out. This didn't end well. Some French officials known as just "X,Y, & Z" demanded $250,000 in bribes. Things were tense between the US and France, this event was known as the XYZ Affair [44].



[44] Not to be confused for "Hey, XYZ", which usually means your pants are unzipped...you looked didn't you?