The Nation’s First Formal Declaration of War

War fever gripped the United States in the spring of 1812. On June 1, President Madison sent Congress a list of British insults. On June 5, the House voted 79 to 49 to declare war. Two weeks later the Senate did likewise, 19 to 13. No Federalist voted for war, while 81 percent of Republicans supported it.

DOCUMENT 1

Federalist Boston Protests the War

On June 15, 1812, the Boston town meeting approved a lengthy report denouncing the House of Representatives’ vote.

. . . Believing, as we do, that an immense majority of the people are invincibly averse from a conflict equally unnecessary, and menacing ruin to themselves and their posterity . . . we cannot but trust that a general expression of the voice of the people would satisfy Congress that those of their Representatives who have voted in favor of war, have not truly represented the wishes of their constituents. . . .

From the commencement of the system of Commercial restrictions [the embargo], the Inhabitants of this Town (inferior we trust to none in ardent patriotism and attachment to the Union) have [deplored] . . . the utter inefficacy, destructive operation, and ultimate tendency of this unprecedented and visionary scheme. They could discern in it nothing but a deliberate sacrifice of their best interests, and a conformity to the views of France . . . and hostility to Britain. . . .

Had the policy of Government been inclined towards resistance to the pretensions of the belligerents, by open war, there could be neither policy, reason, or justice in singling out Great Britain as the exclusive object of hostility. If the object of war is merely to vindicate our honor, why is it not declared against the first aggressor? If the object is defence and success, why is it to be waged against the adversary most able to annoy, and least likely to yield? . . .

Tho’ we cannot discern the least reason for this discrimination in favor of France . . . , still in a war with [England] there might have been found some consolation had our country been in any measure prepared. . . . But under the present circumstances, there will be . . . no chance for success, no hope of national glory . . . and in the end an inglorious peace, in which [France will join Britain] to shackle & restrain the commerce of our infant empire, by regulations in which they will find a common interest. . . .

Resolved, that it is the true policy and duty of this nation to adhere to an impartial neutrality; to abandon commercial restrictions; . . . to indemnify itself against the losses to which its commerce is exposed in the present European war. . . . That to abstain from efforts of impotent resentment, blind rage, or desperate policy is not to be deemed submission to any foreign power, but a conformity to necessities imposed on our country by an overruling Providence, for which our courage and patriotism is not responsible. That we should endeavor to ride out the storm which we cannot direct, and that to plunge into the present war would be a wanton and impious rejection of the advantages with which the Almighty has blessed our country.

Voted, That a suitable number of copies of the foregoing report be printed . . . [and transmitted] to each Town in this Commonwealth.

Source: A Volume of Records Relating to the Early History of Boston, Containing Boston Town Records, 1796 to 1813 (Boston: Municipal Print Office, 1905), 316–20, http://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/011718472.

DOCUMENT 2

Congress Declares War

In early June 1812, the House Foreign Relations Committee, chaired by John C. Calhoun, produced a secret seventeen-page “Manifesto” justifying war. It went public on June 18, the day after the formal congressional declaration of war.

The period has now arrived, when the United States must support their character and station among the nations of the earth, or submit to the most shameful degradation. . . . The mad ambition, the lust of power and commercial avarice of Great Britain, arrogating to herself the complete dominion of the ocean, and exercising over it an unbounded and lawless tyranny, have left to neutral nations an alternative only between the base surrender of their rights, and a manly vindication of them.

[The manifesto devotes a dozen pages to maritime provocations by Great Britain stretching back to 1805.]

Under the pretext of impressing British seamen . . . our Citizens are wantonly snatched from their Country . . . ; doomed to an ignominious and slavish bondage; compelled to fight the battles of a foreign Country and often to perish in them. . . . While this practice is continued, it is impossible for the United States to consider themselves an independent Nation. . . .

It is known that symptoms of British hostility towards the United States have never failed to produce corresponding symptoms among those tribes [on the frontiers] . . . [Furthermore] abundant supplies of the ordinary munitions of war have been afforded by the agents of British commercial companies . . . wherewith they were enabled to commence that system of savage warfare on our frontiers.

. . . From this review of the multiplied wrongs of the British government since the commencement of the present war, it must be evident to the impartial world that the contest which is now forced on the United States, is radically a contest for their sovereignty and independence. . . . The control of our commerce by G. Britain in regulating . . . and expelling it almost from the ocean; the oppressive manner in which these regulations have been carried into effect, by seizing . . . such of our vessels, with their cargoes, as were said to have violated her edicts, often without previous warning . . . ; the impressment of our citizens from on board our own vessels on the high seas . . . are encroachments of that high and dangerous tendency, which could not fail to produce that pernicious effect. . . . The proof which so complete and disgraceful a submission to its [Great Britain’s] authority would afford of our degeneracy, could not fail to inspire confidence, and there was no limit to which its usurpations, and our degradation, might not be carried.

Source: House Foreign Relations Committee, Report, or Manifesto of the Causes and Reasons of War with Great Britain (Washington, D.C.: A. & G. Way, 1812), 3–4, 10–12, 16–17, https://archive.org/details/cihm_51537.

Questions for Analysis

RECOGNIZE VIEWPOINTS: Why do the Boston Federalists oppose the war? Why do Republicans in Congress support it?

ANALYZE THE EVIDENCE: Why does the Boston town meeting liken the problem of British threats to a bad storm that has to be endured? How persuasive are those who argue that “blind rage” and “impotent resentment” will cause only harm to America? Why do the Republicans in Congress think a full-on military response is necessary?

CONSIDER THE CONTEXT: With all its talk of “independence,” does the manifesto suggest that the War of 1812 was a replay of the American Revolution?