r/facepalm Jul 11 '24

๐Ÿ‡ฒโ€‹๐Ÿ‡ฎโ€‹๐Ÿ‡ธโ€‹๐Ÿ‡จโ€‹ Mom needs to go back to school.

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u/CharsOwnRX-78-2 Jul 11 '24

Halfway through the war, he clearly just got fed up and said โ€œoh youโ€™re afraid Iโ€™m taking your slaves away? Well surprise motherfuckers, Emancipation Proclamation!โ€

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u/d_locke Jul 12 '24

The Emancipation Proclamation was a genius move to guarantee that GB would not enter the war on the side of the Confederacy, which was being considered. Lincoln, by raising the bar of the Union cause from preservation of the union to a moral question about slavery guaranteed that Britain, who had just outlawed slavery itself, could not join to support the side that was fighting to preserve the institution. It's just one of many examples of Lincoln's genius and pragmatism.

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u/I_Frothingslosh Jul 12 '24

And for those curious, England was considering intervening due to the loss of the cotton trade as a result of the Union's blockade of the South.

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u/Alywiz Jul 12 '24

Also, the little matter of the US committing an act of war against Britain by seizing the RMS Trent

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u/swatchesirish Jul 12 '24

Quite the affair it was. Fucking John Slidell

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u/eyefartinelevators 'MURICA Jul 12 '24

That was just reparations for the war of 1812 man

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u/ClusterMakeLove Jul 12 '24

Ah yes, British reparations for that time the US unsuccessfully invaded Canada.

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u/skatedogx Jul 12 '24

Ok but they abducted our sailors, and thatโ€™s basically touching our boats.

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u/DarkShinji250 Jul 12 '24

In a really bad Japanese accent: โ€œDonโ€™t touch their boats!โ€

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u/ClusterMakeLove Jul 12 '24

There's also the whole business about westward expansion and competing plans for First Nations. Probably a bit more influential in the end, than some sea captain halfway across the world saying 'Enh. You're British enough.'

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u/redracer555 Jul 12 '24

Before the war, Britain had impressed thousands of American sailors. Had any country done something similar to Britain, it would have been more than enough to provoke the British to war. It was not something to be taken lightly then or now.

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u/ClusterMakeLove Jul 12 '24

Odd, then, don't you think, that impressment wasn't even raised by the Americans while negotiating the Treaty of Ghent?

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u/redracer555 Jul 12 '24

The American diplomats had brought it up with the British almost as soon as the war started. Jonathan Russell, the American charge d'affaires in London, made a peace offer to the British only a few months after the war began that involved repealing the Orders-in-council restricting American trade with Europe and ending impressment. The British had already repealed the Orders, so they were in no mood for making other concessions, particularly on impressment, which the British saw as vital for their war effort against Napoleon. In the words of Foreign Secretary Lord Castlereagh, "No administration could expect to remain in power that should consent to renounce the right of impressment, or to suspend the practice, without the certainty of an arrangement...to secure its object.โ€

In 1814, Napoleon was defeated for the first time, so the point of impressment was moot, as it was no longer something the British needed to engage in. After that, President Madison asked that the demand to end impressment be dropped, as concessions had been made elsewhere and there was no longer reason to believe the British would engage in impressment any further, in addition to the fact that the British were particularly resistant to such a demand. That is why impressment was not in the Treaty of Ghent. However, it had still been an important demand up until that point and the general scholarly consensus is that it was one of the major reasons that led to the War of 1812.

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u/Lanky_Republic_2102 Jul 12 '24

Invasions of Canada never go well for the US.

Itโ€™s the North American equivalent of invading Russia.

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u/Lanky_Republic_2102 Jul 12 '24

Reparations would have involved burning down Parliament, Guy Fawkes Gunpowder Plot style.

Or turning loose Andrew Jackson and a bunch of barnyard animals in Buckingham palace - do your worst!