On June 18, 1812, the US goes to war with Britain. Support for the war falls along party lines, sharply dividing both the government and the public.

On the night of June 22, a mob in Baltimore attacks and demolishes the building where a prominent anti-war newspaper is published, brick-by-brick.

The publishers reconvene in the house of a supporter and continue to publish, armed and ready to repel further attacks. An angry pro-war mob gathers on July 27. Many shots are fired, one man is killed, and many are beaten.

The newspaper publishers are taken to jail for their safety, but a mob assaults the jail and spends the night brutally beating the men, killing one and tar and feathering another.

Nobody is prosecuted for the violence and the War of 1812 is resolved by treaty two years later.