The War of 1812 in the Champlain Valley

2. A Postponed War

2 A POSTPONED WAR Into this peaceful scene a longfestering international discord exploded . OnJune 18, 1812, the Senate of the United States completed action on a troublesome measure which, with the president's signature, committed the nation to war with Great Britain. Two days previously, the government in London announced its intention of repealing the Orders in Council. The actions of each might have been quite different if they could have had up-todate information on the activities of the other. The decisions of each had been long delayed. Belatedly the British took steps to remove a major cause of friction, while the Americans passed over their periods of genuine war feeling and finally forced the issue when internal dissension was at its height. The final plunge came not only after weeks ofdebate, but also following seven years of British arrogance in their treatment of neutrals, and of American protests and weak diplomacy to avoid a showdown. In one sense the war was an anticlimax; it might as logically have been declared three, twelve, or sixty months earlier. But when it came many Americans opposed it, while the British were incredulous and bitter over what they considered perfidious behavior. Since 1803, Great Britain had been trying uninterruptedly to bring about the downfall of Napoleon Bonaparte. In spite of every weapon the British and their European partners could bring to bear, Napoleon had remained supreme and apparently unbeatable on the continent. They believed that they were fighting for the survival of western civilization. For this Struggle the British had long had difficulty in manning their great navy. Because ofits low pay, harsh discipline, and long stays away from home portS, volunteers never came forward in sufficient numbers. Thus by necessity and usage since the Middle Ages, the press gang had become a disH 12 THE WAR OF 1812 IN THE CHAMPLAIN VAllEY tasteful fact of British life. Citizens, when they could be caught off guard, were kidnapped into duty on His Majesty's ships. To combat the tendency to desert, seamen were denied shore leave, sometimes for years on end. During the Napoleonic wars, the British navy never had its full comple. ment ofone hundred and fifty thousand men. The press gangs were busy despite continuous complaints from all over the British Isles. The admiralty also revived an internationally accepted practice of recapturing deserters wherever they could be found. This policy embroiled Britain in a major dispute with the United States. British seamen were well trained and eager to work for even the lowest American wages, which averaged $24 per month, whereas the British pay was about $7. British seamen were notoriously eager to escape from the hardships of the British navy for the somewhat milder and more egalitarian practices of the American navy and merchant marine. Impressment from American ships had been carried on since before 1800, with little American opposition as long as the British held to the gen· eral rule of reclaiming only their own citizens. As time went on, however, conflict arose over two practices- the impressment of former British nation· als who now claimed American citizenship, and the too·frequent seizure of undeniably American nationals. American law allowed citizenship after five years' residence, but Great Britain maintained that all British·born persons remained British and that in an emergency such as the war against Napoleon their services could be claimed for their mother country. Impressment alone provides an insufficient explanation for the outbreak of war; the conflict resulted from its continuation over many years, compli· cated by other kinds ofBritish restrictions on neutral trade, such as blockade, and search and seizure. Toward the end of the prewar period these practices were so onerous that impressment was only one ofseveral American grievances. The death in 1806 of Tory leader William Pitt offered some prospect of checking the deterioration of British-American relations. Although distinct parry lines on all issues were not yet established in British politics, a wide dif· ference of opinion existed between Tories and Whigs on policies involving the United States. The Tories, who were to rule with only a brief interruption between 1803 and 1812, were devoted to the shipping interests and deter. mined to maintain the navigation system intact. Their leaders believed in the strict enforcement of the trade acts and the prohibition of neutral commerce in the foreign West Indies. Their program was motivated by a determination to deny Napoleon any outside help, to preserve Britain's commercial supremo acy, and to...