Answer period, please step up to the microphone next to the podium so they can get your question on the recording. Please make sure that it is, in fact, a question. Normally, when we finish an event, we ask you to fold up your chairs and put them against a book shelf. Please leave them where we are, as we have three more events this afternoon. As mr. Randall is finished talking and finished with the question and answer, hed be happy to answer questions. The line will start to the right of the podium. Mr. Randall details the 50 years and persistent attempts by the british to control american trade waters and how in spite of in the United States ultimately becomes the Worlds Largest independent maritime power. Publishers weekly said of the book revisiting such famous events as the chesapeake affair in which a british ship fired on and mustered an american crew, randall brings to life the violent skirmishes that played out in the name of trade on sea, lake and land. His account helps elucidate the complex international entanglements that shaped both the revolutionary period and aftermath. Mr. Randall is a journalist and author of six biographies of the Founding Fathers. He is a distinguished scholar in history and Professor Emeritus at champlain college. Please help me in welcoming willard stern randall. [applause] goodafternoon. Its always a pleasure to come back here. I say come back here because its happened several times since the first time in 1993. So im happy to still be able to get up out of that chair. [laughter] when i was this high school, if we learned anything about the war of 1812, it was usually just three things. It was caused by impressment, the impressment of sailors by british. Whatever that meant. I was never really clear at the time. And ive never heard the word connected with anything else, impressment. And that it was won by Andrew Jackson at the battle of new orleans. But then what really flummox me was that that supposedly happened after the war was over. After the treaty of g with ent was gent was signed, wherever gent was, because that was never explained. It made no sense. In the recent bicentennial of the war of 1812, a lot of which took place here in washington, it was still or portrayed as the second American Revolution. And we were told that there was still no winner, no loser. It was something that was really only important to the canadians. It was a mere hiccup in the United States history. Well, ive devoted six years to trying to find out what really happened because i wasnt really sure. Still after all those years after writing about Founding Fathers for years and teaching American History, i couldnt even get a textbook that got it right. I remember one had the duke of wellington being killed before the battle of new orleans. So what happened to napoleon and waterloo . I stopped using that book. But our textbooks really didnt and there was only half a page out of 600 pages in the textbook on the war of 1812. And i think its more important than that. Id like to argue that the American Revolution was not two wars of independence, but an unremitting, 50yearlong struggle for complete independence from britain overlapping two armed conflicts, linked by an unacknowledged global struggle. What winston churchill, in his history of the englishspeaking peoples, called an unofficial trade war. None of the Founding Fathers could possibly divine that the revolutionary war was only the first phase of a far longer ordeal. Traditionally, were taught that the revolution, revolutionary war was the entire American Revolution. After american colonists helped the british oust the french from north america, the british began taxing everything without representation. So we rebelled. And we won our independence at saratoga and at yorktown. John adams summed up the American Revolution this way the people of america had been educated in the habitual affection for england as their mother country. And while they thought her a kind and tender parent, no affection could be more sincere. But when americans discovered that the mother country was willing, like lady mcbeth, to dash out their brains, it was no wonder that their affection ceased and changed into indignation and horror. Supposedly, that all ended with the treaty of paris in 1783 negotiated by franklin, john adams, john jay, a treaty guaranteeing our independence. Or did it . We had gained political autonomy, but were we truly independent . Did we have true economic independence . It turns out we did not. Immediately after the treaty was signed, britain reimposed the colonial era navigation act of 1756. This cut off the United States from its natural, longstanding trade with all of our neighbors. From canada and from the british colonies in the caribbean. The act forbade direct trade between the United States and england except aboard british ships, the doctrine of english goods in english bottoms. Which had represented 80 president of our 80 of our trade before the revolution. Britain also demanded that her treaty allies, spain and portugal, bar American Shipping as well. Since we were no longer british colonies, britain no longer paid tribute money to cover our ships in the mediterranean, and so north african states began to stop and seize our ships and hold our sailors for ransom. Primarily algeria where 1. 5 million sailors from Different Countries were enslaved between 1500 and 1800. So we joined that long line. George washington, our first president , witnessed the reign of terror and the outbreak of the that poll januaryic napoleonic wars n. The United States, an internal power struggle began. If you sided with the french whr were sympathetic to the french like jefferson and madison, you opposed washingtons policies and hamilton, his secretary of the treasury, who made up a federalist party. There were no Political Parties in the constitution. Thats amazing. We talk about whats constitutional and what isnt. Political parties themselves are not in the constitution. But they formed over the rivalry between hamilton and jefferson and over the question of which side you took in the napoleonic wars. Newspapers were formed which was the beginning of Political Parties. Vitriolic news stories began to appear. Leaks [laughter] from the capitol. Jefferson was publishing the diplomatic mail to washington before washington got to read it. You could get three times a week a newspaper full of what they called billingsgate after a section in london where the really shoddy newspapers were published. And you could choose between the United States gazette or the gazette of the United States, just to confuse things further. As war in europe metastasized globally and britain blockaded france and the countries france had conquered in europe, the United States absorbed much of the French Overseas trade. Between 1790 and 1800, american carrying trade multipie plied multiplied five time the. As if in revenge, warships and privateers captured 400 american merchant ships to keep them from trading with britain. President john adams, succeeding washington, fought back. He built a squadron of six stateof totheart frigates, that means the largest small fighting ship, 3844 guns, that staved off the french in the caribbean. In a war that is so obscure that its called the quasiwar. It never even got a real came t a real name. Napoleon backed off, but he never compensate American Ship owners. It was 35 years before Andrew Jackson forced the issue, and france paid up war reparations. As americans continued to clear their, try to clear their debts with british merchants year after year with depreciated american currency, the british retaliated by refusing to leave their forts around the great lakes and on the canadian frontier. In the summer of 1791, secretary of thensecretary of state jefferson and James Madison who had just written the bill of rights took a summer vacation. Well, a summer vacation, we would call it a junket today, although no one was paying for it, to the new state of vermont. And while they were there, they learned that the british had built a new fort on an island in the middle of a lake below the canadian border. In other words, in u. S. Territory. 1791. The war had been over for almost ten years. So jefferson hurried back to philadelphia to confer with washington about what they could do. If you havent sensed this already, in many ways the 30year period between the revolutionary war and the war of 1812 has a lot in common with the issues of our own times. Toxic internal politics still struggling over ideology, persistent refugee crises, foreign powers suspected of manipulating american affairs, constant tensions over free trade, the demonizing of ethnic groups at that time the indians, by some the french, by others the irish. As early as the 1790s we had our first and second refugee crises. The reign of terror drove thousands of french to our shores. 25,000, as best i can count, came to baltimore and philadelphia at a time when the combined population of those two cities was only about 70,000 people. On top of that, there was a slave revolt in the caribbean which drove even more french to our shores. And then in 1798 most of all, the british suppressed an irish revolt and thousands who survived came to america, especially to baltimore, boston and philadelphia. So we were crowded with refugees. Adams responded with the alien and sedition acts. Now, this gets left out of such things as mcculloughs biography of john adams. It goes by real fast. But what the sedition act means is that anyone who criticized the government in any form could be arrested and imprisoned. And so our Supreme Court associate justices rode around in carriages reading newspapers and arresting and locking up the printers. The alien part of that made it so uncomfortable for french refugees who included the future king of france and quite a few dukes who were holed up and rented digs in philadelphia and urged them to leave. When one former french Government Official who ran a bookstore which was the hub of the French Community in live philadelphia was forced out, someone asked president adams why he had to go. He wasnt even active in politics. John adams answer was, he is too french. Now, hamilton whos had a revival of fame, as we all know, in the last few years was a bad boy at the time. Barred from president ial politics by his own confession of an illicit affair, probably thats unparalleled in American History where a high Government Official prints his own confession, making it impossible for him to ever be elected to anything again. And ask and so he and so he split with adams and made it impossible for adams to become reelected to the presidency. And so someone who was on the other side of the ideological aisle, jefferson, was elected by very few votes on the 35th ballot of the electoral college. Jefferson was a pacifist. But as with Everything Else with jefferson, he was conflicted. He founded west point, but then he sent the United States navy to the mediterranean tofight the corsairs of the algerians. He final he made he finally made peace with the algiers by sending a shipload of silver dollars, twenty barrels of silver dollars on a merchant ship to make the first payment. Then he dismantled the navy. He put it in dry dock. But at the same time, americas merchant fleet was burgeoning. Our carrying trade doubles again between 1800 and 1812. Britain increasingly was getting nervous and began to tighten its grip over american waters as if we were still colonists. Exacting customs duties in england 25 and blockading our ports, britains navy carried out 400 illegal searches and seizures of american merchant ships. Their justification was to stop contraband to france but also to find deserters from the british navy which was known for harsh discipline. As it turns out, my Research Shows that of 55,000 merchant seamen on American Ships, 40 had been born in england or ireland. But britain scoffed at this new idea we had call naturalization. If you were born english, you die english. You died gish. And so they came aboard our ships. I open the book with two brothers bringing a cargo of produce from delaware all the way to new york harbor for the new york market. As they near the harbor, a british ship fire a cannon. A cannonball in front of them, and they did what they were supposed to do, come to stay there until the search party came. The harbor was full of people waiting. If you had a shipload of fresh produce, it wasnt going to be worth very much as you sat there and saw the day go away with. But then another cannonball came at them and took off the head of one of the brothers. Somehow he his brother managed to get this boat into harbor where an angry crowd formed as he carried the rest of his brothers body to the coffee house, our first stock market, and put it on the sidewalk. So you had days of rioting. The british consulled had to barricade himself in his house. The citys mayor, clinton, ordered a public funeral. Men commandeered ships and chased after the british and overtook them and brought back some of the ships that had been seized that day. And its, this is the first violent confrontation in an american port. But it was followed soon after by the chesapeake fair. The chesapeake was one of those six frigates built as part of our first navy. And it was going to take its turn coming out of jeffersons dry dock to go to the mediterranean the relieve another ship on station. The dcs were create the decks were cluttered with gear. Nobody could even find the matches for the cannon, and a british ship fire the warning shot and said were coming aboard. They were looking for four sailors that had jumped ship literally, taken the british ships commanders private dinghy and escape to shore. They were looking for them as deserters. But the american commander refused to let them aboard. And he instead passed the word to clear for action. They couldnt find anything. The decks were still littered with everything. And so british opened fire, sweeping the american deck with cannon fire. Five americans would die from that episode. It was the first time an American Ship had surrendered, and the captain was disgraced. The ship then became a prize of the Commanding Officer of the british ship that had captured it, and so were down to five frigates. But that was too much even for jefferson whose diplomatic effortses continued to fail. Efforts continued to fail. And so 1807 became the year of the american embargo. Thats one of those words right up there with impressment that you get in high school and you really dont understand it. What does that mean . Well, at the time it was so hated that people made a pal indream out of it and called it the oh grab me. And basically, what it meant was that all American Maritime commerce with Foreign Countries was prohibited by congress. That brilliant isolationist experiment proved an instant catastrophe. In one year it destroyed 80 of americas vital import export trade. Causing the worst depression since the revolutionary war. The tonnage of foreign vessels entering u. S. Ports dropped 50 which meant that 50 of customs duties were not collected, and customs duties were the principal form of revenue for the United States. So it was a catastrophe. Soup lines formed in portland and boston. Docks were deserted. And many of those recent irish refugees move west, flocking west especially to kentucky where the population went from several thousand to 400,000 in a decade. The land was free. There they encountered tecumseh. Hes one of the more fascinating figures, i think, in American History. He and his people had been push around by the American Military and by Land Acquisitions and treaties from alabama to the great lakes and had actually set up a capital in a place. Another one of those high school names that you wonder about. I guess we can all remember tip a canoe. But i thought that was something from some other time. I mean, thats how we learned our history. Because our historys so young, we almost have to have Nursery Rhymes to remember it. Unfortunately, he had a mad brother, and so while tecumseh was out recrewing other indians recruiting other indians to join the confederacy to stop the new americans from spreading across the continent, his brother led an attack on an American Army. That didnt work, and tip a canoe was wipe out and burned. The result of that is that tecumseh turned to british at a time when we had 3,000 men in our army. Tecumseh had 10,000 warriors. So you can understand why panic spread along the western frontier after tip a canoe. A war faction developed in congress. Remember war hawks . That term has stuck. If youre promilitary, youre still call a hawk. The war hawk faction captured the offyear congressional elections. Their spokesman, henry clay of kentucky, became speaker of the house, and he packed all the key committees with the war hawks. The upshot was the declaration of war against britain on june 18th, 1812. Its easy to remember, 1818. The senate was sharply divide along sectional lines by this time. The south, agricultural, and the west predominated in congress by now. And commercial new england and new york dissented from the war. The senate spl