War of 1812 Bicentennial starts

Today on June 18, 1812 President James Madison, with congressional approval, signed the declaration of war against Great Britain.  The war became unpopular enough to be known as President Madison's War.  In April, while preparing for a program series at the Lorenzo Cultural Center, I published two blogs: 12 Reasons to Remember the War of 1812 and 13 Resources to Remember the War of 1812.  This war became a second War of Liberation as the Revolutionary War was formerly called.  While the war ended with a return to pre-war boundaries, it established the young United States as a sovereign nation in the eyes of the world, transforming its army and navy, strengthened Canadian solidarity, and assured American western expansion, changing forever the relationship with Native Americans (called in Canada the First Nations), who lost their bid for sovereignty by their alliance with the British.