UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 



5983 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 



Clarke Expedition, which also established a 

 claim to the Oregon country. A repetition of 

 the troubles attending Jefferson's election to 

 the Presidency was made impossible in 1804 by 

 the adoption of the Twelfth Amendment to the 

 Constitution, the electors being thereafter re- 

 quired to vote separately for President and 

 Vice-President. 



Jefferson was reflected President in 1804, 

 Charles C. Pinckney, his opponent, receiving 

 only fourteen electoral votes to Jefferson's 162. 

 George Clinton was elected Vice-President. 

 Though all his important achievements were 

 contrary to his own theory of government, Jef- 

 ferson's first administration was a pronounced 



SB, and his party was in an overwhelming 

 majority at the beginning of his second term. 



r the expiration of the Jay Treaty in 1806, 

 Jefferson's troubles began. He refused the only 

 treaty which Great Britain was willing to offer 

 as a substitute. As Great Britain was at war 

 with some country nearly all the time, what 

 was to become of American commerce? Great 

 Britain said that any shipment from colonies to 

 a mother country at war with Great Britain 

 was contraband, and that the United States as 

 the carrier would be an ally of the other coun- 

 try. This was a new policy, for Great Britain 

 had previously admitted that transshipment or 



iking bulk" in a United States port would 

 be sufficient to constitute a neutral trade. 

 Now the United States sought to enforce this 

 old doctrine by moral force alone. Great 

 Britain, by orders in council, declared Europe 

 in a state of blockade; Napoleon replied by 

 the Berlin Decree, blockading the British Isles ; 

 to this Great Britain retorted by forbidding 

 American commerce with any nation where 



.-h trade was exrhnli d. Napoleon issued a 

 last decree at Milan, declaring that any vessel 

 which submitted to search by a British vessel 

 was a lawful prize. 



'I h only effective method of replying to 

 these various documents was a naval wur; in- 

 stead, Congress passed the Embargo Act of 

 1807 and the Non-Intrrrour-o Act of 1809, 



li literally destroyed American commerce 



caused great hardships among many classes, 

 particularly in mercantile New England. Re- 

 lations with Great Britain were furtinr < m- 

 barrassed by the impressment of American sca- 



. Jefferson's second administration was also 



hy for the prompt suppression of 



Burr's conspiracy, for the abolition of the slave 



v in 1808 and for Fulton's success in build- 

 ing the first steamboat. 



The War oj 1812. All these events, however, 

 were overshadowed by the troubles with Great 

 Britain, as James Madison, Jefferson's Secre- 

 tary of State and his successor as President, 

 soon found. Madison attempted to carry on 

 Jefferson's policy, but without success. The war 

 party was constantly growing in strength, par- 

 ticularly after the battle of Tippecanoe, in 

 which General William Henry Harrison de- 

 feated the Indians, most of whom fled to 

 Canada. The political campaigns of 1811-1812 

 resulted in the defeat of many of the "sub- 

 mission men," and the election of young men 

 from the South and West, like Henry Clay, 

 John C. Calhoun and William H. Crawford, 

 who were determined to fight. Madison still 

 counselled peace, but the war party was too 

 strong for him, and on June 18, 1812, three 

 months after the beginning of his second term 

 as President, war was declared against Great 

 Britain. (For the story of the military and 

 naval operations, see WAR OF 1812.) 



A New Era. The end of the war marked the 

 end of an era in United States history. During 

 the war or immediately after its close Congress 

 had passed numerous laws to which the Demo- 

 cratic-Republicans had formerly been bitterly 

 opposed. The Bank of the United States had 

 been rechartered, a protective tariff had been 

 passed (1816), and large amounts were appro- 

 priated for internal improvements. The Fed- 

 eralists' thunder had been stolen. Furthermore, 

 the unpatriotic though not wholly unjustified 

 criticisms which the Federalists had heaped on 

 the administration for its conduct of the war 

 made the Federalist party very unpopular. 

 Lastly, the entrance of the West as a political 

 factor meant a new impulse toward national- 

 ism, and it introduced new issues. 



New Issues and New Parties, These i 

 sues were the tariff and lUvQfy, but during 

 whole of Monroe's administration the discus- 

 sion of these topics, though earnest, was so 

 lacking in bitterness that these eight years 

 (1817-1825) are generally known as thr 

 of Good Feeling." It was essentially a period 

 of transition and development. Six new states 

 admitted Indiana. Mississippi, Illinois, 

 Alabama, Maine and Missouri. The Erie 

 Canal and other improvements wire completed. 

 Two events of far-reaching importance one 

 in domestic politics, on -stand out in 



Monroe's administration. These, the Missouri 

 Compromise of 1820 and the promulgation of 

 tin- Monroe Doctrine, are discussed in special 

 articles. 



