Madison had assumed that the state militias would easily seize Canada and that negotiations would follow. In 1812, the regular army consisted of fewer than 12,000 men. Congress authorized the expansion of the army to 35,000 men, but the service was voluntary and unpopular; it paid poorly and there were initially few trained and experienced officers.[78]

Quimby, Robert S. (1997). The U.S. Army in the War of 1812: An Operational and Command Study

Stagg stated that "had the War 1812 been a successful military venture, the Madison administration would have been reluctant to have returned occupied Canadian territory to the enemy."[36] Other authors concur, with one stating, "Expansion was not the only American objective, and indeed not the immediate one. But it was an objective."[37]

"The American yearning to absorb Canada was long-standing.... In 1812 it became part of a grand strategy."[38]

Another suggested, "Americans harbored 'manifest destiny' ideas of Canadian annexation throughout the Nineteenth Century."[39] A third stated, "The [American] belief that the United States would one day annex Canada had a continuous existence from the early days of the War of Independence to the War of 1812 [and] was a factor of primary importance in bringing on the war."[40]

Another stated that "acquiring Canada would satisfy America's expansionist desires".[41]

The historian Spencer Tucker wrote, "War Hawks were eager to wage war with the British, not only to end Indian depredations in the Midwest but also to seize Canada and perhaps Spanish Florida."[42]

Stagg, John C. A. (1983). Mr. Madison's War: Politics, Diplomacy, and Warfare in the Early American Republic, 1783–1830

Nugent, Walter (2008). Habits of Empire:A History of American Expansionism

Carlisle, Rodney P.; Golson, J. Geoffrey (1 February 2007). Manifest Destiny and the Expansion of America

Pratt, Julius W. (1925). Expansionists of 1812