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What Was NH War Hawk Thinking? |
Seacoast History Blog #44
April 22, 2009
After months of research I’m finally knocking off the first words in a new book on privateering. You won’t see it for a year or two, but the War of 1812 now occupies about 65% of my conscious brain. Like many, I was pretty clueless about this big chunk of American history that some scholars call "the forgotten war". Now I see why. Nobody won. America could easily have avoided the whole conflict. Little was accomplished. And except for some major sea encounters and the Battle of New Orleans, we often got our butt kicked. (Continued below)
Let's Dissect the Brain of John Adams Harper
My emphasis this time is focused more on Baltimore, the "viper’s nest" of sleek privateer ships. But I always have an eye open for the New Hampshire angle. I’ve been noting for years that the Portsmouth economy peaked just before the War of 1812, and went down the toilet soon after. Looks like Thomas Jefferson’s Embargo Act of 1807 really did more harm than good. Merchants on the East Coast had been doing a brisk business with Europe until TJ tried to punish the British and the French who were harassing American traders. The sanctions backfired and our maritime trade never recovered.
So I was surprised to see John Adams Harper (1779 – 1816) of Deerfield, NH listed among the tight influential group of "war hawks" who pushed President James Madison into declaring war on Britain in 1812. It’s hard not to compare the group of hawks (Steve Fowle says "chicken hawks") who talked President George Bush into his fateful Iraq War that continues to sap our nation’s resources to this day.
The war hawks of 1812 are described as "zealous young Southern and Western members of the House of Representatives." So why was John Harper of NH in the mix? I don’t know, yet. But I’ll keep looking.
Historians still point to the "impressment" of American sailors by the Royal Navy as the key cause of the war. With little preparation and a dinky navy of our own, America took on the biggest naval power in the world. Not too clever, especially when it appears that the British were willing to bend on many other issues in order to avoid a conflict. They were busy fighting France, and the American conflict was a fleabite by comparison.
The war hawks, it appears, had other motives. If you think we invaded Iraq for their oil, you’ll appreciate the fact that the hawks wanted Canada. They figured taking over the loosely aligned colonies to the north would be a cakewalk. And we made one failed attempt after another to do just that. Canadians still remember the War of 1812 better than Americans because they (and the British and the Indians) successfully repelled the American invasion. It was their war of independence, not ours.
The war hawks were all about sovereignty and honor. But they were also about territory. Besides Canada, they wanted to get Florida away from the Spanish and the rest of the continent away from the Indians. Their leader, Henry Clay, was a convincing character and managed to edge the Congress and the president into a declaration of war.
Historians generally agree that it was a bad move. But America doesn’t like to admit defeat. So we have largely forgotten the underlying motivations for the War of 1812. We tend, as usual, to focus on our victories, rather than learn from our failures. Instead of seeing this as an invasion of Canada and an effort to drive Native Americans into extinction, we talk about the invincible Old Ironsides, Old Hickory at New Orleans, and get misty-eyed over the Star Spangled Banner at Baltimore. And we’ll be hearing a lot about that in the coming bicentennial, which is when this book of mine will see the dawns early light of day.
We have been branding it as "the second war of Independence" and "the war that forged a nation" because that is what patriotism and propaganda are all about. Contemporary historians are more circumspect. Prof. Donald R. Hickey makes no bones about the fact that our independence was not threatened. England did not want to retake the United States. They just wanted to keep impressing expatriate Brits and to keep their hold on Canadian territory.
The more I study this war, the more fascinating it gets. I see why those who do, get hooked on the War of 1812 (that lasted until 1815). It is all about the gray matter that makes up real history. Very little is black or white when you get below the national anthem and the victories at sea. Think of George Bush rolling out the "Mission Accomplished" sign, the invisible weapons of mass destruction, the secret torturing at the illegal detention camps and you begin to get closer to the truth. War is hell, but foolish war is hotter still.
Perhaps, in the light of our most recent debacle, we now have the tools to better dissect the War of 1812. There will be a lot of flag-waving at the 2012 bicentennial, for sure. But there may be a lot of soul searching too.
Right now I’d like to know what NH Rep. John A. Harper was thinking back in 1812. I only know the basics – born in Deerfield (Manchester), went to Phillips Exeter, became postmaster of Sanbornton, and lived in Meredith Bridge (now Laconia). How did he fall in with the war hawks? Was he a good guy doing his best for the nation, or simply a greedy expansionist, racist opportunist? And why did he die so young?
Inquiring minds want to know. Dissecting the brains of dead war hawks is certainly worth our time.
Copyright © 2009 by J. Dennis Robinson. All rights reserved.
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