In 1841, the United States was in the midst of a war scare with the United Kingdom over the American boundary with Canada, among other issues. Americans remembered the British invasion of the United States by sea during the War of 1812 and, to avoid its recurrence, President John Tyler and Secretary of the Navy Abel P. Upshur called for a large increase in the size of the U.S. Navy in order to defend the coast. A like-minded U.S. Congress authorized the use of $8,500,000 (USD) to fund the expansion.