In the congressional elections of 1810 a younger generation of Republicans from the South and West entered Congress determined to defend the nation's honor against impressment, trade restrictions, and other policies designed to assert Britain's dominance over her former colonies. Thirty-four-year-old Henry Clay of Kentucky, chosen Speaker of the House, filled important committee posts in the Twelfth Congress (1811-1813) with fellow "War Hawks," as the Federalists called them, who pushed Congress to pass measures strengthening the army and navy in preparation for war. President James Madison's third Annual Message to Congress in November 1811, reporting the failure of diplomacy and urging Congress to pass legislation for military preparedness, indicates that Madison was moving closer to war. In April 1812 Congress, at Madison's request, approved an embargo in the hope that last-minute diplomatic developments might prevent war and to allow American ships to return home in case war was.....
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