The prime minister of Canada, Stephen Harper, has issued a message to Canadians, urging them to participate in the commemoration of the War of 1812:
“The War of 1812 was a seminal event in the making of our great country. On the occasion of its 200th anniversary, I invite all Canadians to share in our history and commemorate our proud and brave ancestors who fought and won against enormous odds. As we near our country’s 150th anniversary in 2017, Canadians have an opportunity to pay tribute to our founders, defining moments, and heroes who fought for Canada.”
The special website continues with a Q&A that includes: “Did you know? Canada would not exist had the American invasion of 1812-14 been successful.”
That might be news to readers in the United States, who have been taught that the War of 1812 was one of sovereignty, of national pride and demanding respect from a bully Britain and was not fought with the aim of conquering British North America, aka Canada. Hypothetically speaking, if Canada would have been surrendered by Britain if the U.S. had won the war, then the reverse would have been that the U.S. would have reverted back to being a British colony if Britain had won. The historical view and terms of the treaty call the War of 1812 a draw. Boundaries returned to the status quo. Britain did stop impressing American seamen, the chief grievance of the U.S., but that was due to the end of the wars with Napoleon, not a concession. Impressment wasn’t even mentioned in the treaty.
A quick overview
Less than thirty years after the conclusion of the American Revolution, the United States found itself once again defending its independence against Britain, this time by protesting the seizure of American seamen off ships at sea and the impressment of the men into the Royal Navy under the pretext that they were British citizens or deserters from British ships.
The Royal Navy was engaged in battle with Napoleon Bonaparte and his ambition to control Britain, Europe, Russia, etc., and it had great need of manpower. American seamen were seasoned, experienced, and spoke English, so they were prime picks for forced recruitment. British sea power was so strong, so forceful that it did defeat Napoleon’s navy and did not think the Americans could do much about the seizure of 6,000 seamen.
If diplomacy fails, war steps in
President Thomas Jefferson took the diplomatic approach and prohibited trade in foreign ports by American ships to avoid the impressment of American seamen, but that did nothing except create an economic disaster in a fledgling nation that made its livelihood through exports of raw materials.
President James Madison, who was elected in 1809, took a different tact. He knew that the British were totally involved in the battle with Napoleon and could not spare many troops or ships, so he agreed with his advisers to take a stand for American sovereignty. War was declared, privateers were hired by the government to protect American shipping, the country’s few warships were called to action, troops (about 10,000) were readied, and the local militias notified.
Right on cue, the Royal Navy seized eastern U.S. ports from Eastport to Hampden, but that was expected because Britain had continued to claim the province of Maine as belonging to New Brunswick. Massachusetts, supposed protector of the province, didn’t bother sending troops or support, an inaction that would ferment demands of statehood for Maine, which did take place in 1820.
What-if and if-only conjecture
Ultimately, though, the War of 1812 was a draw. No land boundaries changed. Both sides had to reimburse the other for expenses for the maintenance of their troops while imprisoned. Both countries, Britain and the United States, expressed hope for a long and lasting peace.
If — the big IF — the United States had been able to take and hold a large or important part of British territory for use as a bargaining chip (odds were against it, with only 10,000 troops and 23 warships), what would have been the final settlement? The whole of Canada as American territory? Unlikely. If Britain had won big, would it have reclaimed the U.S. as a colony or at least added western territory to British North America? Maybe, but it’s all conjecture about a time and place two centuries past.
Unity was the consolation prize
The American Memory Historical Collections at the Library of Congress contains a folder, American State Papers, that includes a copy of the Treaty of Ghent and communications between President James Madison and Congress on the peace negotiations with Great Britain and their “successful conclusion.” But it is a letter, within the same collection, written in February 1815 by former President Thomas Jefferson to William H. Crawford that sums up the war for the United States. Jefferson saw cohesiveness of very diverse regions into one nation of united states (and territories) as the best result of the war and, especially, of the last land battle, which actually happened after the treaty was signed (though not ratified). Jefferson wrote that the Battle of New Orleans “proved the fidelity of the Orleanese to the United States” and “that the western country will fly to its relief (of which ourselves had doubted before).” Louisiana territory, which included the French city of New Orleans, had been sold by France in 1803 so that Napoleon could fund his ambitions.
The Canadians saw unity of nation as a benefit as well. The government of Canada calls the War of 1812 “an event that was key to ensuring our country's existence and shaping our identity as Canadians.… The end of the war laid the foundation for Confederation and the emergence of Canada as a free and independent nation.” By continuing as a part of the British Empire, the Quebec Act of 1774 remained intact, allowing Canada to retain “its linguistic and ethnic diversity, in contrast to the greater conformity demanded by the American Republic”, which, in an effort to absorb discordant groups flooding its shores, used monolingualism as the unifying thread and religious freedom as the common bond.
Canadian historians Pierre Berton and James Marsh, in their Canadian Encyclopedia article “Who Won or Lost the War of 1812?”, agree that Canadians won a sense of unity-of-nation through the cooperation of English and French speaking Canadian militia, First Nations warriors, and British regulars: “To this extent the Canadians were the real winners of the War of 1812.”
The British empire saw the War of 1812 as a small part of the Napoleonic wars but was happy to come away from the negotiating table with its North American holdings intact; however, the fate of certain islands in the waters between the United States and Canada floated in a sea of uncertainty. The Treaty of Ghent, Article 1, included a hedge as to what would happen to territory claimed by both the U.S. and Britain:
“Such of the islands in the bay of Passamaquoddy as are claimed by both parties shall remain in the possession of the party in whose occupation they may be at the time of the exchange of the ratifications of this treaty, until the decision respecting the title to the said islands shall have been made, in conformity with the fourth article of this treaty.”
Final settlement of the boundaries between Maine and the Canadian provinces was deferred to a commission set up by Article 4 of the Ghent treaty and, according to the Office of the Historian of the U.S. Department of State, was resolved by the Webster-Ashburton Treaty of 1842, thirty years later, after what is called the bloodless Aroostook War. Diplomacy does in deed take more time than a war but the results are more conclusive and longer lasting. Maine and New Brunswick remain good neighbors, as do the United States and Canada and across-the-pond Britain, good neighbors all.
Denise Larson - Denise Larson is an author, editor, and freelance writer, mostly of history and genealogy, and a hobbyist in gardening and healthy ...
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