jefferson said it was only a matter of marching to conquer Canada. It was also the stated aim of the War Hawk faction.
John Adams The Unanimous Voice of the Continent is "Canada must be ours; Quebec must be taken." Thomas Jefferson The acquisition of Canada this year, as far as the neighborhood of Quebec, will be a mere matter of marching, and will give us experience for the attack of Halifax the next, and the final expulsion of England from the American continent. ~1812. In a letter to Colonel William Duane. Also here are a couple of articles you may find useful. Stagg, J.C.A. (January 1981). "James Madison and the Coercion of Great Britain: Canada, the West Indies, and the War of 1812". William and Mary Quarterly 38 (1): 334. doi:10.2307/1916855. JSTOR 1916855. Stagg, John C.A. (1983). Mr. Madison's War: Politics, Diplomacy, and Warfare in the Early American republic, 1783-1830. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. The US navy stronger? It was beached from 1913 on. The Macedonia and United States were hulked. the Chesapeake and President were captured. Another was destroyed on the blocks before it was captured. Most of the east coast was blockaded with British able to strike at will - just look at the US response to the Chesapeake campaign, not one US warship tried to resist. And yest at the end of the war the US government was in worse shape then than now. The war cost the US $105 million, about the same as the cost to Britain. The national debt rose from $45 million in 1812 to $127 million by the end of 1815. At the same time American exports decreased from $130 million in 1807 to $7 million in 1814. Given that the 1812 dollar is worth about 25 times as much as it is now, then that is a major issue, especially considering the size of US economy was much much smaller than it is now. The impact of the debt and cost of the war was proportionately much larger in relation to the economy than the current debt, especially considering that the government at the time took in less than 34 million in gold in 1814. Last I looked the proportion of the US debt to is still far less than the total revenues of the US government from all sources. And yes I did mention the British blockade of the French coasts. I take it you have no objection to private corporations trading with Iran or North Korea - its the same objection that the British had at the time. On Thu, Apr 19, 2012 at 1:15 PM, LRS Scout <[email protected]> wrote: > > Wow, what I'm reading and have read about this conflict in no way supports > your claims. > > 1. It was never the stated American objective to seize Canada. That is > something that Canadians like to say a lot, but it's simply not born out by > the facts. > > 2. The American Navy was stronger at the end of the war than it was at the > beginning, we went on to fight and win the 2nd Barbary war in 1815 with > that Navy, finally breaking the backs of the pirates. > > 3. Money was likely one of the main real causes of the war. Britain had > been seizing ships and crew and prohibiting us from trading witht he rest > of the European continent. We were able to resume normal trade after the > war. Objective met, Nyet Comrade? > > 4. We were in worse debt than now? Really Larry, you need to take a look > at the numbers there my friend, even accounting for inflation the debt > incurred in no way matches our current budget, let alone out national debt. > > On Thu, Apr 19, 2012 at 12:34 PM, Larry C. Lyons <[email protected]>wrote: > >> >> On Thu, Apr 19, 2012 at 11:31 AM, GMoney <[email protected]> wrote: >> > >> > On Thu, Apr 19, 2012 at 10:26 AM, Larry C. Lyons <[email protected] >> >wrote: >> > >> >> >> >> they did fight a war a few decades later and the americans got their >> >> butts collectively handed to them. >> >> >> > >> > Yeah, but we won when it counted! >> >> Last I checked Canada is still not a part of the US. That is what the >> entire war of 1812 was about. When the treaty of Ghent was signed, the >> British controlled more US territory than the US controlling Canadian >> territory. The American merchant navy was in tatters, the US navy was >> up on blocks. The American economy was shattered because of the lack >> of trade with Britain, and the government was in worse debt than now. >> There was a movement within Britain to continue the war and eliminate >> the "American heresy". >> >> [snip] >> > >> > Oh there were a lot of what-ifs that could have caused the revolution to >> > fail. It's still a miracle that we won that war. YOu talk about very >> > different treatment of the colonies...do you see any such treatment that >> > could have resulted in the colonies not attempting another revolution? >> > >> > It was inevitable, wasn't it? >> >> Its hard to say. There could have been accommodations and the eventual >> change in status from a set of colonies to a Dominion, very much like >> what happened in Upper and Lower Canada. At the end of the >> Revolutionary war the idea was that it was too much democracy that was >> the problem. So the BNA colonies representative legislatures were cut >> back severely. It wasn't until the Upper and Lower Canada rebellions >> of 1837 and the destruction of the Family Compacts that a more >> representative legislature in the BNA Colonies were reestablished. >> >> > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Order the Adobe Coldfusion Anthology now! http://www.amazon.com/Adobe-Coldfusion-Anthology/dp/1430272155/?tag=houseoffusion Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:350136 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/unsubscribe.cfm
