Compensating Civilian Losses in the War of 1812: Navigating Politics and Slavery

Applying Research Principles to Couse Material Name Institutional Affiliation Course name Instructor’s name Assignment due date Applying Research Principles to Couse Material Article 1 Article Summary The War of 1812 is one of the topics covered in Section 4 learning material and it describes the long-lasting effects the war had on American politics. It is an event that led to the burning of Washington alongside other military infrastructure by the British military. The article by Hollander (2020) describes the effects of the war on military infrastructure and later calls for the government to compensate the sufferers for their losses. In the article from the JSTOR database, the sufferers refer to the American citizens who lost their property as a direct result of the war. It was a time when Congress and the federal government deliberated in an issue of significance importance in the United States. Compensating Americans for losses they incur resulting from events beyond their control became an important issue after the end of the war in February 1815. One of the techniques that the military on both sides used was to cause damage to resources that could benefit their opponents. By burning civilians homes suspected of supporting the American soldiers, the British hoped to deter retaliation from the United States forces. Soon after the war, the sufferers and their advocates began deliberating on the suitable approach to recover their lost resources. Hollander (2020) demonstrates that they faced significant opposition from congressmen who criticized the efforts to compensate civilians from their losses. On the one hand, there were efforts to expand the compensation for lost private property from the war. However, there was opposition to such measures for those who felt that the federal government should not be responsible for the damages occurring during the war. An issue that arose during the deliberations was the role of the government in compensating slave owners for lost slaves. While the North and the South had united on the front for supporting more compensation for