-The Results of Jefferson's Embargo
-A change in presidents
-A new wave of frontier Republican leaders
-An Indian revival movement
-National destiny and land-cession treaties
-The Battle of Tippecanoe
-War is declared

[SLIDE 1]

President Jefferson did not expect his embargo to backfire the way it did. Its effect on the American economy was disastrous. New England was already heavily Federalist, and the effects of this Jeffersonian policy only aggravated anti-Jefferson sentiment. But the rest of the country, which relied on the overseas trade of its crops, did not fare well either. At the same time, the cost of consumer goods like building materials and textiles, rose. Frontiersmen blame Britain for their troubles and call for war.

[SLIDE 2]

Jefferson chose not to run again after this second term. He wanted his friend James Madison to be his successor. You'll recall that Madison was the author of the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, which guaranteed religious freedom and disestablished the Church of England. He was also one of the authors of the Federalist Papers. However, Democratic-Republicans in both the south and the northeast were dissatisfied with Jefferson's policies and not readily inclined to continue in the same direction. Jefferson was able to keep control of the southerners, but the northeasterners nominated their own candidate, George Clinton. Clinton picked up few votes, and Madison easily beat Pinckney, but the number of Federalists elected to Congress showed that the golden years of nearly unchallenged Democratic-Republican leadership were ending

[SLIDE 3]

Madison adopted a conciliatory approach to England, but little changed in his first two years in office. The economy did not improve. In the midterm election of 1810, many Republican seats were regained, but these Republicans were not happy with the status quo and did not support Madison. They came from the frontier regions, where farmers were suffering from the low agricultural prices. Because of their militant calls for aggressive policies against England and Canada, John Randolph called them War Hawks. The term "hawk" to apply to someone in politics with militant policies has stuck.

[SLIDE 4]

Part of the reason the War Hawks were so aggressive in their political stances was the frontier conditions between Indians and settlers. The situation between tribal groups and U.S. settlers had been peaceful for a time but was about to become dire again. No matter how much land the Indians gave up, and no matter how many treaties guaranteed them insulation from settlers, the settlers kept encroaching upon them. 

[SLIDE 5]

The fortunes of most Native American tribes encountering Europeans had been in a downward spiral since Europeans had first arrived. Many were disheartened, and alcoholism had become a social problem. One despondent young Indian was sunk in alcoholism and desperately ill when he has a spiritual awakening. He has a vision and goes on to teach others the message he claims was revealed to him by the Master of Life. He calls for Indians to reject the cultural accouterments of whites—their food, their dress, their religion, their alcohol. His message was at first nonviolent, although harshly against the U.S. government and any Indian leaders who had compromised with them, but he wanted to retain what was left of Native lands. When settlers continued to encroach, his message became more militant. Together with the Prophet's message of spiritual unity, his older brother Tecumseh was busily creating political tribal alliances for organized resistance to the U.S. settlers and their government. The two brothers created an inter-tribal village, which the white settlers called Prophetstown. It was located where the Tippecanoe River meets the Wabash River. About about 3,000 followers of the Prophet lived there, mainly from the Shawnee, Delaware, and Potawatomi tribes.

[SLIDE 6]

Jefferson's Embargo Act had been a bust. It had sent the United States into a serious economic depression and had not accomplished its purpose: getting England and France to honor America's neutrality during the Napoleonic Wars. Congress now replaced it with the Non-Intercourse Act of 1809, which only forbade trade with England and France and gave the president the authority to permit trade if either country removed its restrictions. This act expired in 1810 and was replaced by Macon's Bill No. 2, which was also designed to encourage France and Britain to stop seizing American ships. Macon's Bill No. 2 allowed merchants to trade with the combatants at their own risk. France publicly took the bait, but Napoleon secretly ordered his ships to continue seizing American ships and had no intention of honoring the promise. Madison, who opposed the bill, offered the British a chance to react, but they believed France was lying and rejected it. The provisions of Macon's Bill next forced Madison to shut down trade with Britain, and that, in turn, escalated tensions still more. France's promise didn't hold, and so Macon's Bill only provided an opening for French pretext and maneuvering.

[SLIDE 7]

The governor of Indiana, William Henry Harrison, was uneasy with the growing pan-Indian movement being crafted by the Prophet and Tecumseh. Harrison, like many frontiersmen, believed the United States had a right to the rest of North America, and the Indians were in his way, as were the British, whom he feared might forge another alliance with the Indians. In the meantime, he and the U.S. government were putting increasing pressure on tribal groups to agree to land-cession treaties. The Treaty of Fort Wayne involved some tribes or tribal leaders agreeing to cede land in Indiana and Illinois in exchange for the promise of annual payments, but other tribes who hadn't agreed to this also lived on that land. In August 1810, Tecumseh met with Harrison in Indiana to advise and warn him that other Indians did not recognize this land transfer and wanted to maintain the existing boundary. Harrison rejected this claim, and the talks were unproductive.

[SLIDE 8]

By 1811, the white settlers, Governor Harrison, and the Indiana territorial government were all concerned about the large number of warriors assembling at Prophetstown. When negotiations between Harrison and Tecumseh in 1811 again were unproductive, Harrison decided to attack. His troops built Fort Harrison, at the location of present-day Terre Haute, as a staging area and then advanced on Prophetstown. War leader Tecumseh was away to the south working on building tribal alliances and preparing for the battle they knew would come. With Tecumseh gone, the Prophet set up a meeting with Harrison for the next day to stall but decided they should kill Harrison in his bed to avoid a battle. His warriors attacked before dawn. The battle was a bloody one, more so for the U.S. troops. The Indian warriors retreated from Prophetstown, and Harrison took advantage of their absence to torch it. The Prophet's movement never really was able to regroup. Harrison became known as "Old Tippecanoe," the hero of the battle, and that became his campaign slogan when he ran for president decades later in 1840: "Tippecanoe and Tyler Too."