Revising the War of 1812

Raimondo is out with a column on a favorite, the War of 1812.  Our genetic memory of something very, very bad, or good, happening on rounded years, encourages such recollections; I have long argued that the centennial on the Great War will be our best opportunity for spiritual change.


Just a couple points to add:


Who knows if they were lying, as politicians do, but the Massachusetts operation was able to produce several folks, including a Congressman, who denied there was much of anything to the Impressment business.  John Quincy Adams, attempting to keep the peace, argued that well, if the subject was murder, then does it really matter how many were actually impressed?


Presidential Material.


-John Henry, not the steel driving bastard, was a British spy who seemed to have had actual connections with New England Federalist elite who were flirting as pro-secessionist and alliance with Britain.  President Madison bought some goods/documents off Henry that alleged there was a Federalist secessionist plot in New England.  The New England Federalists denied such a thing, and Madison's charge was made to look ridiculous when it was learned the "evidence" was purchased.  Who knows, really, but an early sign of serious entrepreneurial double agent activity.


-In the year of 1812, the only Prime Minister of England to be assassinated occurred in  May of 1812.  While the British Empire, namely its naval power, was being challenged severely, the English populace seemed to dislike the Tory PM, seemed to understand where the assassin was coming from; the Prime Minister was killed by a...wait for it...lone gunmen with...keep waiting...a stint in Russia in the bio.


-Most importantly to recall, the Constitution was largely a Southern power move, but the Southern elite overplayed their hand, and went broke over the War of 1812, ceding power to the Yankee elite around Boston.

The embargo Mr. Jefferson had imposed in his move for autarky, coupled with Mr. Madison's War, had led Boston elites to go long on factories, and with the post-war bust, the Yankee elite ditched their sea going merchant "free trade" thinking, and embraced "protectionism".  It's often forgotten that protectionism began in the South and West at the beginning of the Constitutional Era Republic, only to be adopted by the Yankee elites after the War of 1812.