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VOICE ONE:
THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English.
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As we reported earlier, the United States and Britain agreed latein December, 1814, to end the war between them. The peace treaty wassigned the day before Christmas at Ghent, Belgium. It took severalweeks for word of the agreement to reach Washington. This resultedin two events which would not have happened had communicationsacross the Atlantic been faster.
One of the events was the battleof New Orleans. British forces had begun the attack about the timethe peace treaty was being signed in Ghent. The American commander,General Andrew Jackson, had prepared his defenses well. He won agreat victory against the British in a battle that was notnecessary, because the treaty had ended the war.
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The other event was a convention of New England federalists atHartford, Connecticut. The meeting began in the middle of Decemberand lasted through the first few days of January. Most of therepresentatives were from Massachusetts, Rhode Island, andConnecticut. There were a few from New Hampshire and Vermont. TheFederalists called the meeting to protest the war with Britain. Manyof them had opposed the war from the beginning. Federalist stategovernments refused to put their soldiers under control of thecentral government. And Federalist banks refused to lend to thegovernment in Washington.
During the early part of the war, many businessmen in the NewEngland states traded with the enemy. All these things had causedpeople in other parts of the country to turn against theFederalists. This, in turn, caused some Federalist extremists totalk of taking the New England states out of the union.
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There was some fear that representatives to the HartfordConvention would propose a separate and independent government forNew England. Such a proposal -- while the nation was at war withBritain -- would seriously threaten America's future.
Not only were the representatives at Hartford to protest the war,they also were there to plan a convention to change the UnitedStates constitution. They wanted changes that would protect theinterests of the New England states. These states felt threatenedbecause new states were being created from the western territories.These new states would weaken the power of New England. Some of themore extreme Federalists, led by Timothy Pickering, believed Britainwould capture New Orleans. By doing so, Britain could control theMississippi River, which the western states needed to move theirproducts to market.
"If the British succeed against New Orleans," wrote Pickering,"And I see no reason to question that they will be successful, thenI shall consider the union as cut in two. I do not expect to see asingle representative in the next Congress from the western states."
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Not all the representatives at the convention were as extreme asPickering. The majority of them were more moderate. They did notwant to split the union. They only wanted to protect the interestsof the New England states. These more moderate Federalistscontrolled the secret meetings and prevented any extreme proposals.They were able to do so because of the Republican strength in NewEngland. True, the Federalists controlled the governments of thesestates, but only by small majorities. There would surely have beenviolence had the Federalists tried to take these states out of theunion.
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The Federalist leaders made a public statement at Hartford,January fifth. They sharply criticized the war and PresidentMadison. But they said there was no real reason to withdraw from thecentral government. New England's problems, they said, resulted fromthe war and from the Republican government in Washington. Then theFederalists listed the changes they wanted in the constitution.
They wanted to reduce the congressional representation of thesouthern states, where slavery was permitted. They wanted new statesadded to the union only if two-thirds of Congress approved. Theywished to reduce the power of the central government to interferewith trade. The Federalists wished to limit to four years the timethat a man could serve as president. And they wanted only men bornin the United States to serve in the government.
Three of the Federalists were chosen to take this list ofproposals to Washington and give it to President Madison. By thetime they arrived, Washington had received the news of the peacetreaty signed at Ghent. The war was over.
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The three Federalists met withMadison. They made only small talk and said nothing about thedemands of the Hartford Convention. The Federalist Party founditself greatly embarrassed by the peace. Its leaders had longdenounced the war and said Britain could not be defeated. Many ofthem had traded with the enemy. Some had even worked with theBritish against their own country. They had even threatened to breakup the union. While there was some question about how the war wouldend, the Federalist Party had supporters. But once the war was over,its supporters vanished. And the party itself soon disappeared, evenin New England.
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The Senate acted quickly to approve the treaty with Britain. OnFebruary 17, 1815, President Madison declared the war officiallyended. It had lasted two years and eight months. The United Stateshad suffered 30,000 casualties -- killed, wounded, or captured. Butthe war had united the American people. Albert Gallatin, Madison'sTreasury Secretary and one of the negotiators at Ghent, explained itthis way:
"The war has renewed and reinstated the national feelings andcharacter which the revolution had given and which were becomingweaker. The people now have more general objects of attachment withwhich their pride and political opinions are joined. They are moreAmerican. They feel and act more like a nation."
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On the following Fourth of July, the nation celebrated itsthirty-nineth anniversary of independence. In Washington, the manwho wrote the "Star-Spangled Banner," Francis Scott Key, spoke atthe celebrations.
"My countrymen," he said, "We holdsomething rich in trust for ourselves and all the rest of mankind.It is the fire of liberty. If it is ever put out, our darkened landwill cast a sad shadow over the nations. If it lives, its blaze willenlighten and gladden the whole earth."
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President Madison had been elected to his second term in 1812,the year the war started. The next presidential election was in1816. Madison continued the tradition, begun by Washington andfollowed by Jefferson, of only serving eight years as president.Republican members of the House and Senate met March 15 to choosetheir presidential and vice presidential candidates. ThreeRepublicans wanted to be president: Secretary of State James Monroe,former Senator and Secretary of War William Crawford, and New YorkGovernor Daniel Tompkins.
Monroe received 65 votes. Fifty-four of the lawmakers voted forCrawford. With Monroe chosen as the presidential candidate, theRepublicans then chose Governor Tompkins as their vice presidentialcandidate. The Federalists did not meet to choose a presidentialcandidate. But electors from three of the New England statespromised to vote for a New York Federalist, Rufus King. Nineteenstates voted in the elections of 1816. That will be our story nextweek.
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VOICE TWO:
You have been listening to the Special English program, THEMAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Maurice Joyce and JackMoyles. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. THE MAKING OF ANATION can be heard Thursdays.