The 1810 election brought a group of new congressmen to office, the "War Hawks." They were southerners and westerners who were strong nationalists, including Henry Clay of Kentucky, John C. Calhoun of South Carolina, and Felix Grundy of Tennessee. These patriots from the frontier regions were offended by the depredations of the British, even though they were far less directly affected by them than were the merchants and ship owners of New England. In addition, the country was suffering an economic depression, a situation exacerbated to some extent by trade problems.
Furthermore, Americans, who were always hungry for more land, had looked with envy upon the rich portion of southern Canada in the Great Lakes region. War with England, it was felt, might well bring the Canadian provinces into the American fold. (Americans mistakenly assumed that Canada was ripe for rebellion against the mother country.) In any case, patience with Great Britain eventually wore thin, especially in the West, in the face of repeated violations. New Englanders, however, opposed the war, which would end all trade for the duration of the conflict. The old Federalist Party was not quite dead.
In the end there was much resistance to war: the vote for the declaration of war in Congress was 79-49; every state delegation in Congress from Massachusetts to Delaware came down against the war declaration. The southern and western delegations were almost unanimously in favor and "gave the East a war." In 1810 a group of Americans in West Florida seized control from Spanish authorities and declared the "Republic of West Florida"; this
Was the only territorial conquest relating to the War of 1812. The Florida question would be opened again following the end of hostilities.
World History
