The Western Indians and British Support
During the negotiation of the Treaty of Paris the British attempted to create an Indian State to serve as a buffer between the United States and British Canada. They also hoped the existence of such a state would limit the growth of the new nation (they made similar demands when negotiating the treaty which ended the War of 1812). As the Shawnee leader Tecumseh attempted to unite the western tribes against the settlements in the Northwest Territory the British provided them with support from its outposts in Canada. The British also had mercantile interests with the Indians, since they occupied lands rich in furs.
As Indian raids increased along the frontier, evidence of the British support grew. Weapons left on battlefields were recovered and identified as British. Whether the British in Canada paid for American scalps has long been debated, but the number of scalps taken continued to grow. Besides supporting Tecumseh’s confederation in the Northwest, the British provided support for the Creek Indians in the South, through agents in Spanish Florida. The Indian attacks on the frontier outraged Americans and the political faction known as the War Hawks developed during the first decade of the nineteenth century, supporting the American conquest of Canada.
The War Hawks favored the annexation of Canada both to offset the increase of what would be southern states as a result of the Louisiana Purchase and to end the threat of the Indian tribes created by British support. British Canada was thinly populated. British defense posts were not heavily manned, other than at Halifax, which was the headquarters of the British Navy in North American waters. Southern congressmen largely opposed the annexation of all of Canada because of the largely Catholic, French speaking population of what was then called Lower Canada. Many business interests supported annexation because of the shipping possibilities present by the Great Lakes.
The Americans would launch invasions into Canada during the ensuing War of 1812, but the conquest of Canada was not a motivation for the war. It was instead an opportunity presented by the war. Once war was declared, the only British troops in North America were in Canada. The northern front of the War of 1812 would be largely focused on Detroit in the west and on upstate New York. The British desperately needed the alliance with the American Indians to keep American troops from ranging too far to the north. Most of the British Army was in Spain fighting the French when the War of 1812 began, and large British Armies weren’t available for North American service until the last year of the war.
The attacks on the American frontier increased steadily in 1810 and 1811, and the calls for war against the British in Canada gathered strength, supported by the maritime interests. Only in New England was there strong opposition to going to war with England. New England merchants supported the British armies engaged against Napoleon in the Peninsula War with food and other products, and would continue to do so after the war began. Opposition to the War of 1812 ran high in New England, where it was disparagingly called Mr. Madison’s War, although there was some regional pride in the success of the ships built there.