America on the brink : how the political struggle over the War of 1812 almost destroyed the young republic / by Richard Buel, Jr.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Buel, Richard, 1933-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

United States--Politics and government--1789-1815.

United States.

Politics and government.

Federal Party (U.S.).

Physical Description:

302 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations ; 25 cm

Place of Publication:

New York : Palgrave Macmillan, 2005.

Summary:

The Struggle Between Thomas Jefferson's Republican Party and Alexander Hamilton's Federalist Party defined-and jeopardized-the political life of the early American republic. While Thomas Jefferson's election in 1800 signaled the beginning of the end for the Federalists, they did maintain their stronghold in New England for two more decades. Although greatly outnumbered, they managed to subvert numerous policies of James Madison's administration in the period before and during the War of 1812, threatening the very existence of the fragile young nation. America on the Brink asks the critical question: Why did the Federalist leadership, which worked so hard to consolidate the federal government, go to such lengths to undermine it after Jefferson's election? In addition to taking the side of the British in the diplomatic dance before the war, the Federalists did everything they could to impede the prosecution of the war, even threatening Madison with a separate peace for New England in 1814. The world of the Founding Fathers comes vividly to life in this riveting tale of how close the union came to falling apart almost fifty years before the Civil War.

Contents:

1 The Combustibles 13

2 Massachusetts Ablaze 35

3 Dividing to Conquer 61

4 Paying the Piper 89

5 The Struggle over Declaring War 123

6 Resistance to the War 155

7 Toward the Hartford Convention 189

8 Denouement 219.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

1403962383

OCLC:

55510543

Online:

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