Madison and Congress entered the war with the goal of “conquering Canada?”
Is that how they teach it in Canada?
The question of stalemate would be whether the Brits returned to seizing and impressing Americans and ships on the high sea as they were doing before the war. if not then a victory was achieved
I presume they teach it that way in Canada, possibly because it happens to be the truth, or part of the truth. There were of course, as in just about any war, multiple causes and goals, but the conquest of Canada was certainly one.
Particularly in the West, where for fairly obvious reasons impressment and such wasn’t as big an issue. Much more important was their anger over British/Canadian encouragement of Indian raids on American settlers, which they wished to stop by invasion and/or conquest of Canada.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_hawk
Thomas Jefferson: “The acquisition of Canada this year, as far as the neighborhood of Quebec, will be a mere matter of marching, and will give us experience for the attack of Halifax the next, and the final expulsion of England from the American continent.— Letter to William Duane. vi, 75. Ford ed., ix, 366. (M., Aug. 1812.)
Thomas Jefferson, of course, here shows his complete ignorance of war.
Well, actually, with the Napoleonic Wars over there was no more need for impressed sailors by the Royal Navy, and no more blockade to cause conflict over trade by neutrals. So neither issue was addressed by the Treaty of Ghent.
It is perhaps relevant that the issue of "seizing ships on the high seas" per the Orders in Council had been repealed by the British government just prior to the American Declaration of War. The Americans didn't know about it because of the delay in communications.