Editor’s note: This is the second of three parts looking at the War of 1812, the first foreign attack on U.S. land. Part three will publish Sunday, Aug. 3.
James Madison was elected to the Presidency in 1808 but before he took office the following year, the Embargo Act of 1807 was repealed.
Madison and his administration began by prohibiting trade with both Britain and France. Then in May of 1810, Congress authorized trade with both nations, with the direction that if either would accept America’s view of neutral rights, the other would lose trading rights.