When the War of 1812 began, the United States was ill prepared for what would be a prolonged conflict with Great Britain. Years of frugal monetary policies, begun by Thomas Jefferson, had left the army and more particularly the navy in a weakened position. Earlier Federalist defense measures had been scraped as the Jefferson and Madison administrations came to rely on militias and privateers in the event of war. When the war came, it dragged on for several years, ending in late 1814 after bleeding the national treasury. The lack of war preparedness was a direct cause of poor performance and lackluster leadership.
Jefferson’s Republicans Control the National Government
Unlike George Washington and several of the early founders of the young nation, Thomas Jefferson had no history of leading troops into battle during the Revolution. Safely ensconced in his Virginia plantation, his closest brush with the enemy came late in the war when Colonel Tarleton, under the command of Lord Cornwallis, came within ten minutes of capturing him. Jefferson was an idealist whose Enlightenment inspired writings produced some of the greatest documents associated with independence and government by the consent of the governed.
