War of 1812

My arguments will be based around the fact that America was not justified in declaring war against the British. As my opponnent states "America was jsutified in its actions", I propose that "correct" be interchangable with "justified" in the resolution. CONTENTION 1: Lack of diplomacy When considering going to war, one must first persue other options as war is disasterous and is danger to the citizens of the government declaring war. Unfortunately, rather than negotiating with the British over the end of impressment (The British did in fact attempt to sign a treaty with the Americans, but it was shot down by the American government [1]), a group of war-hungry politicians known as the "War Hawks" attempted to declare war rather than negotiate. Because America did not properly explore other options before war was declared, they were not justified in declaring war. CONTENTION 2: Lack of Public support The second reason the declaration was unjustified in declaring war was the lack of public support by the American people. John Locke states that because the Government was elected by the people, it is a tool of the people to uphold their will. However, it was not the people's will to declare war on Britian. Even President Jefferson's Embargo Act [1], which escalated tensions with the British to the point of war, recieved massive amounts of disapproval from the people. Mostly because the act prevented American ships from docking in any foreign ports, which led to an impact on the merchant percentage of the American population. There was so little public support for the war of 1812, American soldiers even refused to cross the border into Canada during the war, stating that they were only participating to defend their homes, not fight "President Monroe's War".[2] Because the war lacked Public support, and because the government is supposed to be a tool of public support, the Americans were not justified in declaring war. CONTENTION 3: Britain was justified in it's pre-war actions. American history books like to point to the British's actions for the cause of the war, however the majority of British actions were justified, and America provided at least as much reason to go to war. SpA: Impressment The most common action that is discussed is the process of impressment, which is the forceful pressing of sailors into a navy. Britian performed this act for two reasons: 1.) Because of large amounts of disertion among the sailors and 2.) The amount of British citizens in the American navy. At one point, there were 9,000 British sailors in the American Navy. [3] To the British, this was not an act of kidnapping, but simply stopping British sailors from serving in a foreign navy. SpB: Canada Another reason for Britian's rising of tensions were they felt threatened that America was going to attempt to annex Canada. [1,4] These threats, coupled with increasingly negative actions from America such as the Embargo act of 1807, made Britain nervous, and this nervousness caused by America was the reason for many of the British's actions. Because there are 3 minutes left in the round, I will leave the rebuttals for the next round. WORKS CITED: 1.) http://www.warof1812-history.com... 2.) Glencoe Text Books 3.) http://en.wikipedia.org... 4.) http://en.wikipedia.org...