Union 1812 shows that the fate of the American Experiment was not decided at the end of the American Revolution; instead, the ambiguous confederacy needed to be sewn together by the Herculean efforts of men like James Madison, who gave the nation it’s backbone in the U.S. constitution, and the strength and determination of the early presidents. Even then, it took a second war with Britain to galvanize the people and truly forge the more perfect union familiar to modern readers.
While the book mainly focuses on the War of 1812, author A.J. Langguth spends ample time on the formation of the Constitution. As he details the measures undertaken my Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and their fellow Federalists who argued for a strong central government, it becomes apparent that this was the decisive moment in determining what the United States would become.
One of the most amusing lessons to be learned from Union 1812 is that although American society may make great strides in certain respects, in the end, human nature is virtually immutable. The political campaigns of the time were marked with mudslinging and vicious partisan assaults. The press was cultivated and manipulated by shrewd politicians looking for an edge. Even Thomas Jefferson’s hands were dirtied in such activities; he provided a do-nothing job in the State Department to a man named Philip Morin Freneau in an effort to fund the man’s newspaper, the National Gazette, with the sole pursuit of haranguing the Republican Jefferson’s Federalist political enemies. Freneau’s criticisms of Hamilton and Adams weren’t erudite deconstructions of their political ideals. Instead, he took Hamilton to task for his “long nose,” and Adams for his “breath of belly.”
