24 
HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 
of New Orleans would never have been fought, for two weeks 
before the battle occurred a treaty of peace had been agreed 
upon between the United States and 
Great Britain. This treaty, known as 
the treaty of Ghent (the city where it 
was drawn up), settled nothing of im- 
portance. Both nations were tired of 
the war, and the treaty was simply an 
agreement to stop fighting. Nothing 
was said in the treaty about the im- 
pressment of seamen, which was the 
chief cause of the war, and there was 
no giving up of territory by either 
side. 
So, far as outward and immediate 
results were concerned, both nations, 
Monument commemorating the at the end of the war, were precisely 
battle of New Orleans. where they were at the beginning. 
The monument stands on the bale Nevertheless the war was a good. thing 
his vietorw, for the United States, since after the 
treaty of Ghent no nation ever again treated our commerce on 
the seas as if we were weaklings unable to defend our rights. 
The War of 1812 was truly the second war for independence— 
commercial independence. 
153, The Tariff of 1816.— The Embargo of 1807 and the War 
of 1812 cut us off from the foreign trade and threw us upon our 
own resources, As a result there was an increase in our mant- 
facturing industries. By 1809 we were making our own furni- 
ture, our own boots and shoes, and our own candles. In 1814 
Francis Lowell placed power-looms in his factory at Waltham, 
Massachusetts, and it was not many years before the mills of 
New England were supplying us with all the cotton goods we 
needed. After the War of 1812, however, American mantıfac- 
turers were compelled to compete with foreign-made goods. 
English manufacturers rushed into our markets with their wares 
“as if to the attack of a fortress.” In order to shut out some of 
these foreign goods and protect American manufacturers, Con- 
gress in 1816 raised the tariff—the import tax—on woolen and