America was woefully unprepared for another conflict with England. Our Revolutionary Era generals were dead or dying. Our navy was pitifully small...especially compared to Britain's. We had basically no standing army since we had heavily relied on state militias in past conflicts. Also, we were in no financial shape to enter into a war. Besides all of that, it was incredibly foolish and arrogant to declare war against the strongest country in the world.
In spite of the evidence, Madison bowed to public pressure and sent America into another war with England. As discussed in class, America certainly did not win the war, but we did not really lose either. It also was not really a tie. As you can see, the outcome is complicated.
One of the early victories for the Americans was our frigate the Enterprise defeating the British warship the Boxer. Examine the political cartoon below. In your comments explain the imagery of this cartoon and what it was saying about this early victory for America. The text of the cartoon will be listed below the cartoon.
King George III stands at left, his nose bleeding and eye blackened, saying, "Stop...Brother Jonathan, or I shall fall with the loss of blood -- I thought to have been too heavy for you -- But I must acknowledge your superior skill -- Two blows to my one! -- And so well directed too! Mercy, mercy on me, how does this happen!!!" On the right, his opponent James Madison says, "Ha-Ah Johnny! you thought yourself a "Boxer" did you! -- I'll let you know we are an "Enterprize"ing Nation. and ready to meet you with equal force any day."
I think this cartoon is displaying two things. The first is that England and America are both tired of fighting and injured. Even though many people say that England won the war, I agree with Mr. Haston when he says that no one really won because they were both tired of the war and were injured in some way. The second thing the cartoon is saying that the war was a bit of a joke for England at first because they were the far better country, and that they could have won if they hadn’t given up. But, they realized that America could actually put up a fight. (108)
ReplyDeleteWhen I first saw the cartoon I really didn’t understand it and then I read the caption. When it said that King George III nose was bleeding I thought it was disgusting and when it said that his eye was blackened I laughed a little. When I looked at James Madison on the right and saw that he was not injured at all it was as if James Madison did all of those things to King George III. Even though neither the British nor the Americans won the war, the cartoon was as if the Americans did. The funny part in the cartoon was when James Madison asked if he considered himself a “Boxer” and when Madison also said we are an “Enterprize”ing nation. I thought that was kind of clever. This cartoon made the early victory for America seem as if we beat the British very badly and it also made it seem as if they were worthless against us. (162)
ReplyDeleteI think this cartoon is saying that the war took a lot out of both America and Britain. When it says "you struck with two blows against my one" I think that is saying that America and France are fighting Britain from two sides. So Britain wants to stop one war because it cost to much. I agree that no one really won the war. Each thought war cost to much. Still we did not need that many wars back then. The War Hawks were wanting James Madison to go to war with Britain. So he just wanted to stop so he went to war with them even though he did not want to. That is what I think this cartoon is saying.(124)
ReplyDeleteWhen I looked at this cartoon it looked like the Americans won when really the Americas were being defeated most of the time. If someone that had never heard of anything about the War of 1812 looked at this cartoon and read the caption they would probably think that King George lll lost the war very badly. This cartoon was very inaccurate. When really there was no official winner England could have easily won but they didn’t they were tired of fighting and so were we. I think President Madison should have stayed neutral and not given into peer pressure. (100 words)
ReplyDeleteThis cartoon is clever and well drawn but is inaccurate. This cartoon implies that Britain is no match for America, when in fact it was the opposite. We put up a good fight, but America's military was tiny, and they were facing the most powerful country in the world. I thought the part in the caption where James Madison said “...you thought yourself a 'boxer'...I'll let you know we are an 'enterprize'ing Nation” was very clever, in reference to an early battle won for America in which our frigate the “Enterprise” defeated the British warship the “Boxer”.(100)
ReplyDeleteThis cartoon was interesting and a little gross. I thought the art work on the bloody nose was laughable. I don't think anyone's nose bleeds like that! To me this cartoon shows that America was strong and England needed a break. This soon changed though. In the picture Madison looks like he isn't tired, but George is injured and in the cartoon he says "I will fall from loss of blood." He also says he thought he was too heavy for America. This shows that he had too much pride. I thought it was clever how they used Boxer and Enterprise"ing". This cartoon shows how the war was in the beginning but not the end. In the end Britain probably won. But the cartoon does show that England was tired. This cartoon made it look like England was weak and defenseless, but really they were stronger. So it is not an accurate cartoon. 153
ReplyDeleteThis cartoon is funny and kind of weird, but is not very true. It shows that we were dominating the war and England just couldn't go on or they would fall as a country. But this is incredibly untrue. We caught a huge break when England gave up after the battle of Lake Champlain, because up to then, we were pretty much losing the war. I think this would have had to been a person in America drawing this, because it definitely siding with America. I also think it was clever how he referred to the Boxer and the Enterprise in this cartoon. CRAZY NOSE BLOOD!!! - 106 words (6 days!)
ReplyDeleteTo me, this cartoon is kind of deceiving. Looking at the amount of blood coming from King George's nose makes it look like England is desperately wanting to stop fighting and at the same time losing the war. When actually, as everyone knows, neither side was really winning. Both of these guys look like they are worn out and tired. When James Madison refers to the "Boxer" and an "Enterprise"ing Nation I think he is trying to say that America is stronger and smarter than Britain even though he may have known better since America was defeated in most of the battles. (102)
ReplyDeleteThis cartoon is well drawn, but not well thought up. If I had not known anything thing about either countries or the war I would have thought that America won the war and came out without any problems or destruction. I would also have thought that Britain must have been pretty weak, but somehow was suppose to have been the one to win. The cartoon also makes it appear that Britain was just begging us for peace. We all know that that definitely was not the case; both sides were ready for the war to stop. In the cartoon when James Madison said "Ha-Ah Johnny! you thought yourself a "Boxer" did you!” it sounded to me that we were challenging Britain for war and the real truth is that we were reluctant to participate in any war. We are just starting to figure things out and the last thing we wanted was a war. It was more like we were forced into the war. The caption also said that Madison said we could meet Britain with equal force any day. Where did that come from? Britain had a great army and navy. We hardly had any army or navy. Although I wish what this cartoon said was the outcome of the war, I disagree with it. (216)
ReplyDeleteWhen I saw the picture it didn’t really look like the War of 1812. Our capitol got destroyed by the British Army. We lost a lot of the battles. It wasn’t till the end of the war that we started to win. So the cartoon makes it look like America dominated the whole war. You can see two ships in the water, in the background. I think that one is the “Boxer” and one is the “Enterprise.” The cartoon kind of fits together because the name of the cartoon is “A Boxing Match.” Also James Madison says that “we are an “Enterprise”ing nation. This looks kid of like one of those cartoons that belongs in the newspaper towards the side.
ReplyDeleteWhen I see this picture it makes both America and Britain look like idiots. They both are standing really weird and they look like they have no clue what to do with their hands. Maybe it's implying that neither the king nor the president actually fought in the war, or that it was just a pointless war, which it was. Anyway, no matter how stupid it looks, it obviously looks like America is completely demolishing Great Britain. But the word "Great" in Britain's name is there for a reason. We really were no match for them. I think it shows how cocky we as Americans can get. We won one battle and thought we were so much better than England. If Britain hadn't realized how pointless the war was and didn't sign the Treaty of Ghent, our nation would've been destroyed. Fortunately for us, they did sign it. It's an inaccurate drawing, but I guess it's pretty good. And all the Americans probably loved it when it came out. It shows how much comics have changed too, because they both have a lot to say, and there's pretty good detail. Now days they say a few words and you can definitely tell the drawing is a cartoon.
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This political cartoon, emphasis on political, is really nothing more than a PR stunt. James Madison representing America is taunting King George III, representing England, with a pun that was so bad I had to resist the urge to bang my head against the wall. Meanwhile King George III is suffering an unrealistic nose bleed and admitting that James Madison is better than he thought he was. This whole scenario and the idea it was presenting is so unreasonable that it reminds me of shows were the main character is dreaming that everything is perfect right before waking up in an awful mess (103)
ReplyDeleteWhen I look at the cartoon it looks like King George lll is going to die of blood lose because his nose is bleeding so much. They both look tired and want the war to be over. Some people say England won, some say America, and some say it was a tie, but from looking at the picture it looks like England lost because King George lll is all beaten up. England was a very strong country, but they make this cartoon look like America didn’t even get hurt, but we did in many ways. So in some ways this is not a very good description.106
ReplyDeleteIn this cartoon it tells a lot about the war. Both guys are standing there stupidly. That shows how stupid people thought the war was. Also King George had a black eye and a bloody nose. It was showing how he was getting hit at more than once. The French were already fighting the British and we come in fighting them too. Even though America was not really good at fighting or harming the British that badly we still made it harder for them. The British were fighting two countries at the same time and that is a lot to handle at one time. They were getting fought at from two different points and someone was bound to hit them at some time. (123 words)
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