"The War Hawks of 1812: A Critique" Topic

"Causation and its problems have always fascinated the historian. In the literature of American history the exploration of the causes of the War of 1812 has been particularly attractive to the scholar and has led to a number of controversial interpretations. Several recent books, articles, and these two essays by Professors Reginald Horsman and Roger H. Brown show that the interest in the causes of the War of 1812 is as vigorous as ever and the question still open to controversial, and even contradictory, conclusions.

These two papers attempt to isolate and analyze one element in the chain of causation—the group of men in the Twelfth Congress who favored war and provided the leadership that led to the declaration of war against Great Britain in June, 1812. The identities of all these men, who have been dubbed the War Hawks, have never been entirely clear. Both essays attempt to bring needed clarity to the subject, but each author, after surveying the evidence, offers an argument and a conclusion that seemingly contradicts the findings of the other. It would appear, therefore, that instead of clarifying the issue Horsman and Brown have added to the interpretive confusion in the historiography of the War of 1812.

A close reading of the essays and their documentation, however, indicates that the views of these two investigators are not in themselves contradictory. The contradictions stem mainly from methodology, the nature of the data these historians chose to use in support of their theses, and from semantic differences. Horsman not only insists that there were War Hawks, but also that they were important and can be identified with reasonable accuracy—or at least with greater precision than in the past. Brown argues that the term War Hawks is a misleading one and is based upon myth. In his view, in the sense that the term implies that Republican leaders were bellicose and eager for war, there were no War Hawks in the Twelfth Congress…"
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