Seventeen grievances filled the congressional war message, and President James Madison made them official on June 18, 1812, signing the declaration of war against Great Britain and launching the young republic into its first true test as a sovereign nation. <cite index="8-10">Frustrated by Britain's maritime practices and support of Native American resistance to western expansion, the U.S. Entered the war with ambitious plans to conquer Canada</cite>, plans that collapsed quickly. <cite index="8-14,8-15,8-16">The strength of the British army proved too great for U.S. Forces; both on land and at sea, U.S. Troops suffered great losses, and in August 1814, British troops entered Washington, D.C., and burned the Capitol and the White House.</cite> Yet the conflict forged a defining national identity: Andrew Jackson's stunning victory at New Orleans turned "the second war of independence" into myth. <cite index="8-17,8-18">By December 1814, both nations recognized it was time to end the conflict, and representatives signed the Treaty of Ghent on December 24, 1814, restoring previously recognized boundaries.</cite> The War of 1812 still resonates as the moment the United States proved it would defend its sovereignty, and set the stage for over two centuries of hard-won US-British alliance.