| [125] | Born in Connecticut, 1765; died, 1825. Invented the cotton gin in 1793, which increased enormously the importance of slave labor by raising the cotton crop in ten years from about two hundred thousand pounds to more than forty-two million pounds a year. Also established near New Haven, Connecticut, the first arms factory in the country. |
CHAPTER XVI.
the administrations of madison, 1809–1817.
OUTBREAK OF WAR.
298. Madison’s Perplexities.—Just before Madison’s accession to the Presidency the Embargo was supplanted by a non-intercourse law which permitted trade with nations not controlled by France or Great Britain. This legitimate trade and the large amount of fraudulent shipping that went on brought temporary wealth to American shipowners, and there even seemed to be a prospect of a treaty with Great Britain. People began to say that Madison was a better President than his predecessor, who continued to advise him. As a matter of fact, he was a weaker man, had a poorer Cabinet, and was soon involved in greater difficulties than those encountered by Jefferson. For British statesmanship was at that time at a very low ebb; the concessions agreed to by Erskine, the British envoy, were disavowed at home, and a new envoy actually ventured to insult Madison by accusing him of deception in negotiations relating to the prospective treaty. Yet party politics were at a still lower ebb in this country, as is shown by the fact that the Federalists showered social attentions on James Jackson, the envoy who had so grossly insulted the President. Nevertheless Congress, tired of legislation that seemed to produce no effect either on England or on France, did away with non-intercourse, with the proviso that if one of the two contending powers annulled its vexatious decrees and the other did not, non-intercourse should be maintained with the nation still holding out (“Macon’s Bill,” No. 2, May 1, 1810). Napoleon took advantage of this proviso, although really showing America very little favor. He showed enough, however, to make Great Britain appear most in the wrong, and on November 1, 1810, Madison issued a proclamation declaring trade suspended with that power. This was a sorry commentary on the proclamation of the preceding April renewing trade with Great Britain; for the sole result of the diplomacy of the year had been to let loose more American ships to be captured by the British or confiscated by the French.
John C. Calhoun.
299. War Advocated.—Madison, who was prudent like Jefferson, and who was more of a student of politics than a vigorous man of affairs, did not desire war with either Great Britain or France any more than Jefferson had done, but he was forced into hostilities with the former power before the close of his first administration. The temper of the American people had been sorely tried by the Embargo and the non-intercourse policy as well as by British arrogance throughout the whole controversy. British statesmen spoke ill of Americans when they should have tried to enlist their sympathies in the war Great Britain was waging against despotism personified in Napoleon. The British were also thought to have stirred up the Western Indians, who were crushed on Tippecanoe River by General William Henry Harrison in 1811. The Western people were thus greatly embittered against Great Britain, and Henry Clay of Kentucky represented their feelings when, as Speaker of the new House of Representatives, he helped to force Madison into consenting to war. With Clay were joined many young, high-spirited men, some of whom, like John C. Calhoun[[126]] of South Carolina, while adhering to the Jefferson-Madison school of politics, were inclined to be impatient with their more cautious elders. It is said that they threatened Madison with loss of a second term if he would not agree to war with Great Britain.[[127]] Their policy eventually proved beneficial to the country, since it strengthened the national spirit and showed that the new generation contained men too strong to be bound by the traditions of the Revolutionary period; but it was tardy and lacking in cosmopolitan breadth of view.
300. Outlook for the War of 1812.—Not only was the War of 1812 a political blunder in so far as it helped Napoleon by harassing Great Britain, but also owing to the condition of America at the time of its inception. The national finances were by no means adequate to its cost, and the incompetence of Gallatin’s successor in the Treasury Department made the borrowing that had to be undertaken especially burdensome. The army, too, was small and poorly officered at the first. The volunteers were brave and in the West were very anxious to serve, but they and their leaders absurdly overrated the ease with which Canada could be conquered. Henry Clay actually boasted that his Kentucky constituents could accomplish this exploit without assistance. Besides, the political discontent of New England, where the Federalists were English sympathizers, and where much capital was invested in shipping which would be cooped up during the war, made it difficult to secure militia from the very portion of the country nearest the chief seat of operations. Volunteers were indeed obtained from New England, and after a while both officers and men made a better showing in the field. But when all is said, the land operations of the war, except in the splendid instance of the battle of New Orleans, afford little cause for patriotic gratification. A prediction to this effect might have been made about the navy, for the less than two score American vessels seemed but a bagatelle in comparison with the British navy, which contained about fifty times as many.[[128]] But in the end the exploits of our seamen formed almost the sole bright spot in an exceedingly gloomy period.
301. Opening of the War.—War was formally declared on June 18, 1812, the majority in neither house being overwhelming. Two days previously the obnoxious Orders in Council had been revoked. Although the news was received on this side of the ocean before hostilities had fairly begun, the government adhered to its tardy determination to fight. This course seemed justifiable since the impressment trouble and the blockade of the coasts still called for redress, and the temper of at least a part of the nation had been inflamed.