Staying Neutral
The war first started out with France and England and since half our country wanted to fight with England (since we were half British) and the other half wanted to fight against England, James Madison, our president at the time, decided we would stay neutral, especially because we wanted to get out of war debt. Neutrality was the safest option but when the British and started embargoing the Americans they got very angry and people like Henry Clay and Andrew Jackson rose up to the stand.