<Dl> <Dd> The British ambassador in Washington (Erskine) brought affairs almost to an accommodation, and was ultimately disappointed not by American intransigence but by one of the outstanding diplomatic blunders made by a Foreign Secretary . It was Canning who, in his most irresponsible manner and apparently out of sheer dislike of everything American, recalled the ambassador Erskine and wrecked the negotiations, a piece of most gratuitous folly . As a result, the possibility of a new embarrassment for Napoleon turned into the certainty of a much more serious one for his enemy . Though the British cabinet eventually made the necessary concessions on the score of the Orders - in - Council, in response to the pressures of industrial lobbying at home, its action came too late.... The loss of the North American markets could have been a decisive blow . As it was by the time the United States declared war, the Continental System (of Napoleon) was beginning to crack, and the danger correspondingly diminishing . Even so, the war, inconclusive though it proved in a military sense, was an irksome and expensive embarrassment which British statesman could have done much more to avert . </Dd> </Dl> <Dd> The British ambassador in Washington (Erskine) brought affairs almost to an accommodation, and was ultimately disappointed not by American intransigence but by one of the outstanding diplomatic blunders made by a Foreign Secretary . It was Canning who, in his most irresponsible manner and apparently out of sheer dislike of everything American, recalled the ambassador Erskine and wrecked the negotiations, a piece of most gratuitous folly . As a result, the possibility of a new embarrassment for Napoleon turned into the certainty of a much more serious one for his enemy . Though the British cabinet eventually made the necessary concessions on the score of the Orders - in - Council, in response to the pressures of industrial lobbying at home, its action came too late.... The loss of the North American markets could have been a decisive blow . As it was by the time the United States declared war, the Continental System (of Napoleon) was beginning to crack, and the danger correspondingly diminishing . Even so, the war, inconclusive though it proved in a military sense, was an irksome and expensive embarrassment which British statesman could have done much more to avert . </Dd> <P> In the United States House of Representatives, a group of young Democratic - Republicans known as the "War Hawks" came to the forefront in 1811, led by Speaker of the House Henry Clay of Kentucky and John C. Calhoun of South Carolina . The War Hawks advocated going to war against Great Britain for all of the reasons listed above, though concentrating on the grievances more than the territorial expansion . </P> <P> On the first of June 1812, President James Madison gave a speech to the U.S. Congress, recounting American grievances against Great Britain, though not specifically calling for a declaration of war . After Madison's speech, the House of Representatives quickly voted (79 to 49) to declare war, and the Senate by 19 to 13 . The conflict formally began on 18 June 1812 when Madison signed the measure into law . This was the first time that the United States had declared war on another nation, and the Congressional vote would prove to be the closest vote to declare war in American history . None of the 39 Federalists in Congress voted in favor of the war; critics of war subsequently referred to it as "Mr. Madison's War ." </P>

List of causes of the war of 1812