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CHAPTER 7 Hammering Out a Federal Republic, 1787–1820 237

Washington, D.C., Burns, 1814 This chaotic image depicts the events of August 24, 1814, when British forces under
the command of Major-General Robert Ross captured Washington, D.C. Ross and his men, with three cannons captured
from American forces, command the heights above the city (right). The American flotilla (foreground) is defeated and the
dockyard and arsenal are in flames. In the background, more of the city is burning, including a bridge over the Potomac
River, the War Office, the Treasury, the Senate building, and the White House (center, far background). Ross’s army then
proceeded to Baltimore, where American forces at Fort McHenry held out against the British. A lawyer named Francis Scott
Key, observing the fort’s bombardment, dashed off a poem entitled “Defense of Fort McHenry.” Later set to music, it came
to be known as “The Star-Spangled Banner.” Library of Congress, LC-DIG-ppmsca-31113.

Federalists Oppose the War American military setbacks increased opposition to EXAM TIP
the war in New England. In 1814, Massachusetts Federalists called for a convention Evaluate the role of the War of
“to lay the foundation for a radical reform in the National Compact.” When New 1812 in defining and ultimately
England Federalists met in Hartford, Connecticut, some delegates proposed seces- undermining the first two-party
sion, but most wanted to revise the Constitution. To end Virginia’s domination of the system.
presidency, the Hartford Convention proposed a constitutional amendment limit-
ing the office to a single four-year term and rotating it among citizens from different
states. The convention also suggested amendments restricting commercial embargoes
to sixty days and requiring a two-thirds majority in Congress to declare war, prohibit
trade, or admit a new state to the Union.
As a minority party, the Federalists could prevail only if the war continued to go
badly — a very real prospect. The war had cost $88 million, raising the national debt
to $127 million. And now, as Albert Gallatin warned Henry Clay in May 1814, Brit-
ain’s triumph over Napoleon in Europe meant that a “well organized and large army is
[now ready] . . . to act immediately against us.” When an attack from Canada came in
the late summer of 1814, only an American naval victory on Lake Champlain stopped
the British from marching down the Hudson River Valley. A few months later, thou-
sands of seasoned British troops landed outside New Orleans, threatening American
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