Making Maine: Statehood and the War of 1812

Abstract

Imagine an America where police and military officers are appointed solely on the basis of their political allegiances. Imagine an America so politically polarized that opponents are labeled as advocating for an “infidel philosophy” (206). Now, imagine an America that reacts to the invasion of its territory by a foreign power with indifference. Hard to imagine? Well, readers of Joshua M. Smith's fifth book, Making Maine, may be surprised to learn this is precisely what Mainers endured in the first two decades of the nineteenth century. This remarkable episode has been overlooked because it runs counter to the western trajectory of the nation and the “insistence on American success” as the theme of nineteenth-century U.S. history (237).Making Maine takes a chronological approach spanning from the Jefferson Administration through Maine's first years as a state in the 1820s. Although the book has several themes, it defies a clear narrative arc, which gives some sense to the chaos of those two decades. Before the War of 1812, the commonwealth of Massachusetts was a divided state. Long a Federalist stronghold, Thomas Jefferson's Democratic-Republican Party were ascendant in the state, especially in its non-contiguous district of Maine. Its influence fading at home and nationally, Federalists jealously guarded their power and even discussed seceding from the Union to avoid what was, in their view, the apocalypse of Democratic-Republican rule. In turn, Democratic Republicans labeled their Federalist opponents as “aristocrats” and as enemies of principles won in the American Revolution (21). Growing religious divisions only further fanned these flames. Methodist and Baptist denominations gained popularity across Massachusetts, yet all citizens were required to pay taxes to support the stalwart Congregational Church. The theme of intense partisanship pervades the book and should help twenty-first-century readers put contemporary ideological divisions in perspective.Massachusetts was not in a suitable posture for war, yet it came in 1812. Chaos and disorder reigned on land and sea in Maine. Canadians and Americans frequently smuggled resources across the border and privateers waylaid ships regardless of the flag they flew. Mainers often saw their political opponents as a greater threat than the British with whom they were at war. Federalists who saw the war as the folly of the Democratic-Republican president, James Monroe, were particularly resistant. They refused to pay taxes, and even in one instance beating a recruiter “with the butt end of a whip handle” (111).Sensing the divisions in Maine and seeking to avenge the several American invasions of Upper Canada, the British invaded Maine in 1814 and met with indifference. Encountering little resistance, British forces successfully captured Downeast Maine. Most Mainers “preferred property to pride,” opting to take neutrality oaths and ride out the war rather than engage in a patriotic defiance (161). Mainers looked to Massachusetts to relieve them of the indignity of occupation—Boston's influence and resources, after all, were the reason many Mainers had curbed statehood efforts up to that point. Massachusetts’ response was uninspiring. Boston Federalists failed to muster the necessary funds or initiative to challenge the British occupation of Maine. Mainers accused Massachusetts’ Federalist governor of “tamely submitting to the invasion of his territory” (204). Massachusetts Federalists’ perceived apathy toward its Maine citizens and their bungling of the militia tipped the scales in favor of statehood, which was achieved in 1820. Smith notes that the separation was not necessarily as acrimonious as one would assume, since “the Massachusetts ideal of an orderly Boston-oriented society lingered in Maine” after independence—seen in the state's constitution and state house imitating the Bay State in both an ideological and physical sense (223).Making Maine will be of interest to scholars and lay readers of the state's history. The amount of research in Making Maine borders on encyclopedic, and the primary sources in the book are impressive, coming from an impressive number of archives. Making Maine seems written for Mainers with an intimate knowledge of the Pine Tree State's geography. Those interested in placing Maine's experience during the War of 1812 within the wider national experience may note that the encyclopedic coverage of the war and the events surrounding it do not lend itself to a narrative structure. Smith vividly describes exciting battles and confrontations but could have also spent more time convincing readers why those events mattered with greater context. As a native Mainer, I fear that those “from away” will have a hard time seeing the relevance or importance of this forgotten episode from a largely forgotten war. Overall, Making Maine brings long overdue attention to an important moment in American history. Unlike Maine's cries for help in 1814, one hopes that this book is heard by scholars beyond the state's borders, because it helps us understand a critical crossroads not just in Maine's history, but the nation's as well.