President Madison DeWitt Clinton Rufus King

War Hawks II
After the Macon's Bill Number 2 fiasco, the public, especially in the South and West, became increasingly angry toward Great Britain. Besides seizing American ships and sailors, the British maintained forts in American territory in violation of treaties, and incited Indian attacks.

Throughout his first term President Madison had consistently resisted war, but public disagreement with this policy resulted in the "war hawk" Congress of 1810. Prominent members included Henry Clay, John C. Calhoun and Richard M. Johnson to name just three who are in the game. There were about a dozen in all.

By this point the Federalist party was no longer an effective player on the national stage. Some of its members, like John Quincy Adams, had even joined the Jeffersonian Republicans. But this did not mean Madison's re-election was a foregone conclusion. Besides the War Hawks, he faced Federalist opposition at the state level, especially in New England and more significantly, the northern tier of his own party. Now that Virginia had held the presidency for the three last terms – five overall – many northerners were anxious to put a northerner like George Clinton or his nephew DeWitt into office.

Suddenly it looked like rather than leading the entire country Madison was only leading a quarter of it. If any of the opposing elements managed to unite, re-election would soon be in doubt. The way things were going he might not even secure his own party's nomination.

On May 18, 1812 a party caucus was held – the nomination mechanism of the day – and Madison was formally nominated, but only 86 of the party's Senators and Congressmen participated. A second caucus met in New York on May 29 and nominated DeWitt Clinton nearly unanimously. The Madison campaign appeared to be in serious trouble.

Madison lost no time. As soon as June 1, he sent a message to Congress recounting American grievances against Great Britain. Although he did not call for a declaration of war outright, the message must have been clear enough. After four days of secret debate, the House voted 79 to 49 to declare war. None of the 39 Federalists, who supported Great Britain, voted for it, but the Senate followed suit, 19 to 13.

This cut the legs right out from under the Clinton campaign. Many of his supporters had been War Hawks, but now Madison had stolen his thunder. Meanwhile, the Federalist remnants who had considered throwing their support behind Clinton were horrified at the thought of war. They now wanted nothing to do with either wing of the party and went ahead and nominated Rufus King, even though he had no chance.

Having in one swift move neatly gained supporters and divided his opponents Madison triumphed over Clinton in November 128-89, with no electoral votes for the Federalist, Rufus King. Although it was a clear win, Clinton's final totals were substantial, indicating just how strong the potential of his candidacy had been.

Then it was left for the the young nation to enter its first war, one for which it was woefully underprepared. The regular army had fewer than 12,000 – out of a desired 35,000 – and as it was voluntary with low pay, there was little prospect of improvement. The nation would rely instead on undisciplined militia who often refused to leave their own states. As the military college was not yet complete there was a distinct lack of qualified officers. The navy was in similarly bad shape, with many ships in mothballs. And because the national bank charter had been permitted to lapse, there were great difficulties financing the war. Both militia and financing most needed to come from New England whose soldiers and bankers opposed the war and did not step up. In the end, the result was a draw at best and in the eyes of some historians, a British victory for they achieved all of their objectives in 1812 while the USA never did stop impressment until its primary cause, the Napoleonic Wars, ended, and attempts to take Canada all failed. The country was lucky. Things could have gone much worse.

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