A Republic, Not an Empire: Reclaiming America's Destiny

by Patrick J. Buchanan

When Congress reconvened in November, half its members were new, and they chose as speaker the thirty-four-year-old firebrand Henry Clay of Kentucky, who dispensed all the positions of House power to “coonskin congressmen” from the South and West who began agitating for war. “War Hawks,” John Randolph christened them, “buckskin statesmen.” The brilliant, acidulous Virginian mocked the idea of going to war with Great Britain: “What! . . . [S]hall this great mammoth of the American forest leave his native element and plunge into the water in a mad contest with the shark?”24 But the War Hawks did not have in mind engaging the British navy. They envisioned a land battle—for Canada. Americans had begun looking to war to end our British problem once and for all, and Canada with its vast territory and tiny population appeared easy pickings. Clay boasted to colleagues: “The conquest of Canada is in your power. I trust that I shall not be deemed presumptuous when I state that I verily believe that the militia of Kentucky are alone competent to place Montreal and Upper Canada at your feet.”25 Even the Sage of Monticello was caught up in the war enthusiasm, trumpeting to his White House successor: The acquisition of Canada this year [1812] as far as the neighborhood of Quebec, will be a mere matter of marching, and will give us experience for the attack on Halifax the next, and the final expulsion of England from the American continent. Halifax, once taken, every cockboat of hers mus...