BECK index

Madison & British War in 1813

by Sanderson Beck

Madison & War in January 1813
Madison & War in February 1813
Madison & War in March-April 1813
Madison & War in May 1813
Madison & War in June 1813
Madison & War in July 1813
Monroe’s Report to Madison in July 1813
Madison & War in August-November 1813
Madison & War in December 1813

Madison & War in January 1813

      On 8 January 1813 President Madison nominated
John Armstrong of New York to be Secretary of War
and William Jones of Pennsylvania to be Secretary of the Navy.
Armstrong had published his Hints to Young Generals
from an Old Soldier
in August 1812.
      On January 8 and 9 Speaker of the House of Representatives
Henry Clay made this famous speech about the causes of the war:

The war was declared because Great Britain arrogated
to herself the pretension of regulating our foreign trade
under the delusive name of retaliatory orders in council,
a pretension by which she undertook to proclaim to
American enterprise—”Thus far shalt thou go, and no
farther”—Orders which she refused to revoke after the
alleged cause of their enactment had ceased; because
she persisted in the practice of impressing American
seamen; because she had instigated the Indians to
commit hostilities against us; and because she refused
indemnity for her past injuries upon our commerce.
I throw out of the question other wrongs.
   The war in fact was announced on our part to
meet the war which she was waging on her part.
So undeniable were the causes of the war—so powerfully
did they address themselves to the feelings of the whole
American people—that when the bill was pending before this
House, gentlemen in the opposition, although provoked to
debate, would not or could not utter one syllable against it.
It is true they wrapped themselves up in sullen silence,
pretending that they did not choose
to debate such a question in secret session.
While speaking of the proceedings on that occasion,
I beg to be permitted to advert to another fact that
transpired, an important fact, material for the
nation to know, and which I have often regretted
had not been spread upon our journals.
My honorable colleague moved in committee of the whole
to comprehend France in the war; and when the question
was taken upon the proposition, there appeared but ten
votes in support of it, of whom seven belonged to this
side of the House and three only to the other!
   It is said that we were inveigled into the war
by the perfidy of France; and that had she furnished
the document in time, which was first published in
England in May last, it would have been prevented.
I will concede to gentlemen everything they ask
about the injustice of France towards this country….
All the world knows that the repeal of the Orders in Council
resulted from the inquiry, reluctantly acceded to by the
ministry into the effect upon their manufacturing
establishments of our non-importation law, or to the
warlike attitude assumed by this government or to both.
But it is said that the Orders in Council are done away,
no matter from what cause; and that having been
the sole motive for declaring the war,
the relations of peace ought to be restored.
This brings me into an examination of
the grounds for continuing the war.
I am far from acknowledging that, had the Orders in Council
been repealed, as they have been, before the war was
declared, the declaration would have been prevented.
In a body so numerous as this is, from which the declaration
emanated, it is impossible to say with any degree of
certainty what would have been the effect of such a repeal.
Each member must answer for himself.
I have no hesitation, then, in saying that I have
always considered the impressment of American
seamen as much the most serious aggression.
But, sir, how have those orders at last been repealed?
Great Britain, it is true, has intimated a willingness to
suspend their practical operation, but she still arrogates to
herself the right to revive them upon certain contingencies,
of which she constitutes herself the sole judge.
She waives the temporary use of the rod,
but she suspends it in terror over our heads.
Supposing it was conceded to gentlemen that such
a repeal of the Orders in Council as took place on
the 23rd of June last, exceptionable as it is being
known before the war, would have prevented the war,
does it follow that it ought to induce us to lay down
our arms without the redress of any other injury?
Does it follow in all cases that that which
would have prevented the war in the first
instance should terminate the war?
By no means.
It requires a great struggle for a nation prone
to peace as this is, to burst through its habits
and encounter the difficulties of war.
Such a nation ought but seldom to go to war.
When it does, it should be for clear and
essential rights alone, and it should firmly
resolve to extort, at all hazards, their recognition.
The war of the revolution is an example of a war
began for one object and prosecuted for another.
It was waged in its commencement against the right
asserted by the parent country to tax the colonies.
Then no one thought of absolute independence.
The idea of independence was repelled.
But the British government would have
relinquished the principle of taxation.
The founders of our liberties saw, however, that
there was no security short of independence,
and they achieved our independence.
   When nations are engaged in war, those
rights in controversy which are not acknowledged
by the Treaty of Peace are abandoned.
And who is prepared to say that American
seamen shall be surrendered, the victims
to the British principle of impressment?
And, sir, what is this principle?
She contends that she has a right to the services of her
own subjects; that in the exercise of this right she may
lawfully impress them, even though she finds them in
our vessels upon the high seas without her jurisdiction.
Now I deny that she has any right without her
jurisdiction to come on board our vessels upon
the high seas for any other purpose but in pursuit of
enemies or their goods or goods contraband of war.
But she further contends that her subjects
cannot renounce their allegiance to her and
contract a new obligation to other sovereigns.
I do not mean to go into the general question
of the right of expatriation.
If, as is contended, all nations deny it, all nations at the
same time admit and practice the right of naturalization.
Great Britain herself does.
Great Britain in the very case of foreign
seamen imposes perhaps, fewer restraints
upon naturalization than any other nation.
Then, if subjects cannot break their original
allegiance, they may according to universal
usage contract a new allegiance.
   What is the effect of this double obligation?
Undoubtedly, that the sovereign having the
possession of the subject would have the
right to the services of the subject.
If he return within the jurisdiction of his primitive sovereign,
he may resume his right to his services, of which the
subject by his own act could not divest himself.
But his primitive sovereign can have no right to go in
quest of him out of his own jurisdiction into the
jurisdiction of another sovereign, or upon the high
seas where there exists either no jurisdiction, or it
belongs to the nation owning the ship navigating them.
But, sir, this discussion is altogether useless.
It is not to the British principle,
objectionable as it is, that we are alone to look;—
it is to her practice no matter what guise she puts on.
It is in vain to assert the inviolability
of the obligation of allegiance.
It is in vain to set up the plea of necessity and to allege
that she cannot exist without the impression of her seamen.
The naked truth is, she comes by her press-gangs on
board of our vessels, seizes our native seamen as well
as naturalized and drags them into her service….
   If there be a description of rights which, more than
any other should unite all parties in all quarters of the
Union, it is unquestionably the rights of the person.
No matter what his vocation, whether he seeks subsistence
amidst the dangers of the deep, or draws it from the
bowels of the earth, or from the humblest occupations
of mechanic life, whenever the sacred rights of an
American freeman are assailed, all hearts ought to unite
and every arm should be braced to vindicate his cause….
The disasters of the war admonish us, we are told,
of the necessity of terminating the contest.
If our achievements upon the land have been less
splendid than those of our intrepid seamen, it is not
because the American soldier is less brave.
On the one element organization, discipline,
and a thorough knowledge of their duties
exist on the part of the officers and their men.
On the other, almost everything is yet to be acquired.
We have however the consolation that our country
abounds with the richest materials and that in no instance
when engaged in an action have our arms been tarnished.
At Brownstown and at Queenstown the
valor of veterans was displayed and acts
of the noblest heroism were performed.
It is true that the disgrace of Detroit
remains to be wiped off.
That is a subject on which I cannot trust
my feelings; it is not fitting I should speak.
But this much I will say, it was an event which
no human foresight could have anticipated, and
for which administration cannot be justly censured.
It was the parent of all the misfortunes
we have experienced on land.
But for it the Indian war would have been in a great
measure prevented or terminated; the ascendency on Lake
Erie acquired, and the war pushed perhaps to Montreal.
With the exception of that event, the war, even
upon the land, has been attended by a series of
the most brilliant exploits, which, whatever interest
they may inspire on this side of the mountains,
have given the greatest pleasure on the other….
   It is alleged that the elections in England
are in favor of the ministry and that those
in this country are against the war.
If in such a cause (saying nothing of the impurity of
their elections) the people of that country have rallied
around their government, it affords a salutary lesson
to the people here, who at all hazards ought to support
theirs, struggling as it is to maintain our just rights.
But the people here have not been false to themselves;
a great majority approve the war, as is evinced by
the recent re-election of the chief magistrate.
Suppose it were even true that an entire section of the
Union were opposed to the war, that section being a
minority, is the will of the majority to be relinquished?
In that section the real strength of the
opposition had been greatly exaggerated.
Vermont has by two successive expressions
of her opinion approved the declaration of war.
In New Hampshire parties are so nearly equipoised that out
of 30 or 35 thousand votes, those who approved and are for
supporting it lost the election by only 1,000 or 1,500 votes.
In Massachusetts alone have they
obtained any considerable accession.
If we come to New York, we shall find that other
and local causes have influenced her elections.
What cause, Mr. Chairman, which existed
for declaring the war has been removed?
We sought indemnity for the past
and security for the future.
The Orders in Council are suspended, not revoked;
no compensation for spoliations; Indian hostilities, which
were before secretly instigated, now openly encouraged;
and the practice of impressment unremittingly
persevered in and insisted upon.
Yet administration has given the strongest
demonstrations of its love of peace.
On the 29th June, less than ten days after the
declaration of war, the Secretary of State writes
to Mr. Russell, authorizing him to agree to an
armistice upon two conditions only, and what are they?
That the Orders in Council should be repealed and
the practice of impressing American seamen cease,
those already impressed being released….
In return the enemy is offered a prohibition of the
employment of his seamen in our service, thus removing
entirely all pretext for the practice of impressment.
The very proposition which the gentleman from Connecticut
(Mr. Pitkin) contends ought to be made has been made.
How are these pacific advances met by the other party?
Rejected as absolutely inadmissible….
An honorable peace is attainable only by an efficient war.
My plan would be to call out the ample resources of
the country, give them a judicious direction, prosecute
the war with the utmost vigor, strike wherever we can
reach the enemy at sea or on land and negotiate
the terms of a peace at Quebec or Halifax.
We are told that England is a proud and lofty nation,
that disdaining to wait for danger, meets it half way.
Haughty as she is, we once triumphed over her,
and if we do not listen to the councils of timidity
and despair, we shall again prevail.
In such a cause with the aid of Providence we
must come out crowned with success; but if we fail,
let us fail like men, lash ourselves to our gallant tars,
and expire together in one common struggle,
fighting for “seamen’s rights and free trade.”1

      On January 14 Madison sent to the United States Senate this report
by Secretary of State James Monroe to comply with their resolution:

   The Secretary of State to whom was referred the
Resolution of the Senate of the 22nd ult. has the
honor to report to the President that no precise
information has been communicated to this
Department of any movement of British troops
for the purpose of taking possession of East Florida.
The Secretary presumes that if that measure
should be adopted, the intention and the act
will become known at the same time.
As Great Britain is at War with the United States
and under the necessity of sending troops to Halifax,
the West Indies and other parts of America, it will
be easy for her to disguise the destination of any
particular embarkation until it reaches our coast.
It will therefore be easy for her to land such force
in East Florida and to take possession of St. Augustine
or of any other post which she may wish to hold
without opposition from the United States.
   Of the disposition of the inhabitants of East Florida
to be received under the protection of the United States,
satisfactory evidence was afforded by the revolutionary
movements in that province and by the cession made
of it by the inhabitants to General Matthews.
Other evidence of that disposition is
contained in the paper marked A.
   The paper marked B contains a return of the force at
Point Petre and other stations on the southern frontier of
Georgia and also of such other force as has been ordered
there under the command of Major General Pinckney.
   The paper marked C contains a return of the force
under the command of Major General Wilkinson.
   The papers give the best information in
possession of this Department of the Spanish
force in St. Augustine, Pensacola and Mobile.
   E is a copy of the instructions to the Governor of Georgia
to whom the powers before given to General Matthews
were transferred and of the correspondence of the
Governor of Georgia with this Department.
It contains also a copy of Governor Mitchell’s
correspondence with the Governor of East Florida
of the instructions since given to Major General Pinckney,
and of the correspondence of this Department with him.
   The Secretary of State presumes that it was not
the intention of the Senate in requiring information
of any negotiation which may have taken place for
the settlement of differences and claims between the
United States and Spain not heretofore communicated,
to bring into view any negotiations with the Spanish
Government prior to the act of Congress of the 15th
January 1811 which authorized the Executive to take
possession, on certain contingencies, of East Florida.
He understands it to be the object of the Senate, to obtain
information of such communications only as may have
passed between the Executive and the Agents of the
persons exercising the Government of Spain for the
adjustment of those differences and cession of East Florida
to the United States, since the last Session of Congress.
   On this subject the Secretary of State has the honor
to report that on the suggestion of Mr. Chacon the former
Consul of Spain, residing at Alexandria, who has continued
to exercise the functions of that office since the deposition
of Charles IV, that the Chevalier de Onís had power to
accommodate the differences between the United States
and Spain and to cede East Florida to the United States
in satisfaction of their claims on Spain; an attempt was
made to ascertain the powers of the Chevalier de Onís
with a view to take the same into consideration.
   The President was willing to obtain peaceable possession
of East Florida at a fair equivalent from those who held that
possession without making the United States in any degree
a party to the controversy relative to the Spanish Monarchy.
It appeared however, that the Chevalier de Onís had no
power to make the proposed Cession or to enter into
the desired arrangement, and from a provision in the
new Constitution of Spain, it is to be inferred that none
could be contemplated by the Spanish Regency.
   It was the policy of the former irresolute and tottering
Government of Spain to protract a decision on the just
claims of the United States for spoliations and other wrongs.
The same policy animates the Regency.
There does not appear to be the slightest cause to
hope that any fair adjustment will be made by the
United States with the Regency to indemnify them
for losses, either by the payment of money or by
the cession of territory at its just value.
The paper marked F is a statement of losses sustained
by Citizens of the United States by spoliations and
otherwise, which was presented to the Government
of Spain in 1805, no part of which has since been paid.
   Whether the British Government has it in
contemplation to take possession of East Florida,
and in that case at what time it may carry the
intention into effect, it is impossible by any evidence
in the possession of this Department to ascertain.
It is to be presumed that the policy of the British
Government will be regulated by its interest.
That Great Britain has long entertained a desire of acquiring
possessions in Spanish America has been distinctly seen.
Without detailing other enterprises that were in
contemplation, it is known that an expedition was actually
set on foot in 1807 against Buenos Ayres for that purpose.
If it is not considered the interest of Great Britain
that Spain should take part with her in the war
against the United States, it cannot be doubted
that she will decline any measure tending by
inevitable necessity to produce that result.
And while her operations in the peninsula are
essentially dependent on supplies from the
United States, it is equally probable that she will
not be disposed to involve Spain in the controversy.
But should a change of circumstances occur either by her
gaining the complete dominion of the peninsula or by her
expulsion from it, it is believed that her views with respect
to this Country will become more decisive and hostile.
Commanding the peninsula her means of
aggrandizing herself in this hemisphere
would be considerably augmented.
Expelled from it, the same result would follow,
as she might apply on this side of the Atlantic,
the force now employed there, aided as she then
would be by all the forces of the Regency; for
there is cause to believe that it is contemplated,
in that event, to transfer the Regency to Mexico.
   The Spanish Regency may now be considered as
essentially under the control of the British Government.
It is not probable that future events will make it less so.
It is more probable that they will
produce the opposite effect.
At this time it is evident that the possession of East Florida,
by Spanish troops is in effect a
possession by those of Great Britain.
If Great Britain held the province with the same influence
over the neighboring Indians, as is enjoyed by the
means thereof by the Spanish authorities there, the
force remaining the same, a more unfriendly direction
towards the United States could not be given to it.
   It seems to be the inevitable destiny
of Spain to become a temporary appendage
at least, either of Great Britain or France.
It can hardly be doubted by any impartial person
who has observed with attention the course of
events that Spain must receive her ruler from
the will of one or other of those powers.
France has openly grasped at the Sovereignty of
that Country and now holds its monarch in captivity.
England approaches the same object in a different way.
Professing to acknowledge the Sovereignty of Ferdinand
a captive in France, a nominal character only, she profits
of the national prejudice in his favor, and thus by a refined
policy gradually extends her own authority over every
portion of the state in opposition to France.
The British force in the peninsula has the ascendency there;
British Generals command their combined armies;
Spanish officers are advanced to power or
expelled from it by British influence.
In fact Spain cannot be said to exist
as an independent nation.
England and France are the only efficient parties
to the controversy, and the triumph of either over
the other fixes the destiny of that Country.
Whether it be England or France which succeeds,
the United States can have no reliance on either
as to indemnity for past spoliations.
If the United States suffer East Florida to pass
into the hands of either of those powers that
resource for justice perhaps the only one, may be lost.2

      George Logan wrote another letter to
President Madison on 18 January 1813.

   An editorial notice in the national intelligencer,
“that it was intended to introduce into the Legislature,
a proposition for excluding by law foreign seamen
from the public and private vessels of the United States,”
gives general satisfaction to your fellow-citizens.
A few individuals among us, influenced by
the basest motives, may censure every act
of the Government, calculated to restore peace
and prosperity to our distracted country.
The clamors of such profligate characters should
not for a moment influence our public councils.
   I consider the contemplated law consistent
with justice, sound policy and national honor;
and therefore wish you to have the merit of
recommending it to the attention of Congress.
From my conversation with members of different
political opinions during my late visit at Washington,
I am satisfied it will be supported by a great majority
of both Houses, particularly if proposed by yourself;
as a measure of peace on which you may negotiate
a treaty of friendship & commerce with Great Britain.
Notwithstanding some unfavorable appearances;
a peace may yet be obtained between the
United States and Great Britain, equally
honorable and beneficial to both countries.
I speak on this subject with confidence, founded on
intimate conversations with men of all parties and in
every situation of life, when last in England.
Their best informed men acknowledge that it is not the
interest of their country to be at war with the United States.
Should the war be protracted and the American nation,
after years of bloodshed and devastation,
become conquerors, qui bono?
I appeal to your own accurate knowledge of history.
What miseries were inflicted on Sweden
by the mad ambition of Charles XII and
on France by the conquests of Lewis XIV?
In the fatal war of 1756 France lost a great part of
the flower of its youth, more than half its current
money of the kingdom—its navy commerce and credit.
It was believed it was very easy to have prevented
all these misfortunes by friendly negotiation, but some
ambitious persons, to make themselves necessary
and important, plunged France into this fatal war.
   A great statesman will banish war, generally
terminating in the mutual destruction of nations—
miserable notions of policy, which substitute vengeance,
hatred, jealousy & cupidity to those divine precepts which
constitute the true glory and happiness of nations.3

      General William Henry Harrison sent Brigadier General
James Winchester to protect settlers at Frenchtown,
and they drove away the British at River Raisin on January 18.
Four days later Col. Henry Proctor with 1,200 British soldiers and
Indians from Fort Amherstburg counter-attacked at the River Raisin.
They captured General Winchester, and he surrendered his army
that lost 410 Americans killed, 81 wounded, and 547 captured
while the British had only 26 killed and 161 wounded.
On January 23 some drunk Wyandot warriors in the massacre of
River Raisin killed about sixty prisoners of war from Kentucky
in revenge for atrocities that men from Kentucky had done to Indian prisoners.
      The British Admiral John Borlase Warren used two ships each with
74 guns and several frigates to establish a blockade in Chesapeake Bay.
The United States Congress debated and authorized 20,000
more men to increase the Army to 35,000.
Madison said that negotiations with Spain had broken down, and he asked
Congress for authority to annex both Floridas; but on February 2 Federalists
and other northerners led by Senator Samuel Smith of Maryland proposed
an amendment to remove the occupation of East Florida,
and that passed 19 to 16 on February 2.
The purpose of this was to avoid a war against Spain.
The US Senate also reduced the Navy bill to four
74-gun ships and total Navy funding to $2.5 million.
      Also in January 1813 General Andrew Jackson led about 2,000 volunteers
with the idea to march to New Orleans which was being held by Spaniards.
Treasury Secretary Gallatin opposed this,
and Jackson was ordered to stay in Tennessee.
      Congress in January had authorized Treasury Secretary Gallatin
to borrow $16 million to pay for the war.
Bankers in New England raised less than $1 million in bonds, but the financiers
David Parish, Stephen Girard, and John Jacob Astor loaned the rest for 7.48%
interest which was considerably higher than the usual 5.4%.
Thus Gallatin got $5,720,000 from New York and $6,800,000 from Philadelphia.
Joel Barlow had reported on Napoleon’s retreat from Russia.
Barlow died in Poland on 26 December 1812.
Madison selected Senator William Crawford of Georgia to replace him in Paris.

Madison & War in February 1813

      John Armstrong took over the War Department on February 5
and began planning attacks by the US Army of 58,000 men.
Although the United States had only 16 ships in their Navy, by the end of the war
nearly 500 privateers had been authorized to harass British merchant ships.
In 1813 American ships seized more than 400 British ships, most of them by privateers.
The True-Blooded Yankee captured 27 prizes in 37 days
while sailing around the British Isles.
      President Madison on 6 February 1813 wrote this letter
to his commanding General Henry Dearborn:

   Your two favors of December 1
have lain long without acknowledgment.
For some after they came to hand, I delayed it in
expectation of such further information as to General
Smyth, as would enable me to judge better of his case;
and latterly I considered it as probable that I might have
an opportunity, not now expected, of making that as well
as other matters subjects of conversation with you here.
I know not how General Smyth will reconcile his
appeal to your orders with his previous language
in a letter to you; or how he will explain the several
unfavorable appearances in his military management.
The call is growing strong for some public step
towards him; & it is the louder since his omission
to seek a regular investigation has been followed by
his enclosed appeal to the public through the press.
I have not yet had any conversation with
the new Secretary of War on the subject.
   We have been a little uneasy, lest the Enemy at Niagara
should beat up the Quarters of Col. Porter, which appear to
be within reach of it; while they are too distant to support
the troops at Black Rock &c. and save the vessels in
preparation in case these should be objects of enterprise.
Another apprehension has been that a part of the Enemy’s
force in that quarter might be detached to oppose Harrison’s
operations if they should reach Malden or Detroit.
How far there may be occasion for any of these anxieties,
can be so much better decided by those possessing better
information & nearer the scene that I take refuge in that
consideration against disagreeable anticipations.
The two last mails have brought nothing from Harrison.
The cold weather had so far favored transportation,
that he began to hope from a continuance of it, that he
should still prevent an entire abortion of his undertaking.
   We have been under some anxiety also
for the safety of the stake at Sackets Harbor.
The latest information strengthens our hope, that
it is made proof against an enterprise from Kingston.
We are even encouraged by the possibility of some
handsome dash by Chauncy against the latter.
We learn however, as you will doubtless have done,
that the Enemy are making transcendent exertions
to equip a naval force that will command the Lakes.
Whatever theirs may be, ours ought to go beyond them.
Nothing ought to be left to hazard on this subject.
If they build two ships, we should build four.
If they build thirty or 40 gunships,
we should build them of 50 or 60 Guns.
The command of those waters is the hinge on which the war
will essentially turn, according to the probable course of it.
   You have seen the arrangement for the recruiting service.
The prospect of enlistments is said to be flattering;
but much will depend on the attention & activity of the
superintending officers to whom every spur should be
applied, that can make them spur those under them.
   It appears that Bonaparte has secured his retreat
or escape, but not without unexampled sacrifices.
On the other hand Wellington appears to be falling back
to Lisbon, and probably under a pretty severe pressure
from the United armies commanded by Soult.
   We have no accounts from England subsequent
to the arrival there of the communications through
Warren or even of those made to Congress.4

      On 7 February 1813 S. Potter wrote an extraordinary letter
to President James Madison:

   It has once more gained belief with me, that you will
again be called by the American people to fill the chief
Chair of state, & as I told you Sir, four years past, so I
now tell you that in my humble opinion, it is a great indignity
to the Chair to fill it with a man who is in any degree
concerned in enslaving any part of the human family.
To say the least of such a man, he is dishonest, and facts
within the daily observation of every man who breathes in
these southern climes would justify me in saying that such
a man is not only dishonest, but is inhuman, irreligious,
tyrannical & barbarous, & deprived of moral virtue &
Religion & unworthy to fill that dignified station.
   Such language may sound rather harsh Sir, in the ears of
a man, who has all his days been nursed, educated & daily
exercised in tyranny & oppression, but to a man possessed
of real piety, virtue & Religion, & one too, who has all his
days been taught by his father & the divines of his time to
believe that freedom is a gift of almighty God, and not to be
violated, but with his wrath: to such a man Sir, the language
seems mild, & is the least he can say of all such men.
   If you wish, Sir, to secure the love & friendship of all good
men, & to escape the Divine wrath, you must,
before you again enter upon the duties of that office,
not only emancipate all your slaves, but you must
use your utmost influence to cause others to do so,
who are in the habit of keeping open that execrable
market where man is bought & sold.
   Now, Sir, whether we consider the practice of enslaving
the people of Color who are brought in or born in these
states as encouraged by individuals, corporate bodies,
or by the ministers of the Gospel, it presents to our
imagination a dreadful preeminence in wickedness—
An equal degree of enormity and sin—A crime which
not only involves the best interest of all who are
concerned in it, but a crime, which will ere long draw down
the divine displeasure upon this beautiful flourishing country.
Witness South America.
   If you have no concern, Sir, for your own soul,
nor for the good of the present race of men, do
have some little regard for the rising age, & the
honor & good of your country, & use your best
means to wipe away from it this dreadful sin & shame.
   For what end Sir, do you profess a Religion,
the dictates of which you so flagrantly violate?
How long will you continue a practice, which a wise
policy rejects, justice condemns & piety revolts at?
   You do Sir, to the utmost of your power, by this
inhuman practice, weaken the union, & dissolve the
universal tie, which binds & unites societies & individuals
together, & thereby destroys all the sweets of social life.
You practice what you execrate in others, & ought to
exclaim against as the utmost excess of barbarity &
wickedness: and thereby instill into the minds of all
whom you enslave, the most despicable opinion of
you, your piety, virtue & Religion.
   In consequence of this unmerited, brutish servitude,
you sacrifice your conscience, your reason, your
humanity, your virtue, your charity, your love,
& your Religion for an unnatural sordid gain.
   You have, Sir, you & your co-agitators, by this inhuman,
barbarous practice of slavery, reduced millions of the
human family to circumstances far more miserable
than the brute creation.
   You have torn thousands of these unfortunate
people from their homes & from every object of
their affections, & dragged them together into
these southern states to the horrors of a mutual
servitude, that ends only with their lives!
You are daily driving them in droves like cattle & horses;
linked together in chains from one state in the union to
another, where they & their children are brought up in
ignorance & hardships, & exposed to every vice & folly,
which is disgraceful to man & abhorrent to God!
   Galling them in chains with an unrelenting spirit of
barbarity, inconceivable to all, but the unhappy victims
of their rage or the spectators of these horrid scenes.
By this means you separate men from their wives & little
children from their parents, which causes them to cry and
mourn, & gray hairs to go down in sorrow to the grave.
This is but a faint picture, Sir, of the sufferings of these
unfortunate people, nor of the barbarity & wickedness
of those who have inflicted the smart.
But the attempt to enumerate the crimes of such monsters
would be like the attempt to number the sands of the
sea-shore, which has been so often stained with the
blood of those innocent & inoffensive people.
To be short, Sir, your, Dogs, Cattle & Horses
are used in a much more civil & becoming manner—
Sick or well—Hungry or naked—Wet or dry—
Hot or cold—Blow high or blow low, the poor
weather-beaten slave must go—Guilty or innocent
he must bear the whole shower of your wrath.
Such is the practice of thousands who call themselves
pacific, enlightened Americans—Reformed Christians.
Thus have you profited by example by your
education & by an express Revelation of
your duty from Almighty God!
Will not the blessing which you have
so shamefully & wickedly abused, testify
against you at the bar of Almighty God?
Will not the innocent blood which has been
so wantonly spilt, cry from the ground for
vengeance upon your guilty heads?
You call the Moors a knot of inhuman barbarous
ruffians, for enslaving your sons & daughters,
and are daily complaining of Great Britain for
pressing and enslaving a few thousands of your
seamen, & yet you southern Nabobs, to glut your
avarice for sordid gain, make no scruple of enslaving
some millions of the sons and daughters of Africa,
& their descendants, and take away all their honest
labor for the vile purpose of aggrandizing
yourselves and families at their expense.
Notwithstanding, Sir, you preach up humanity, love & liberty
to all mankind—Bend the sainted knee, & call on God to
bless and prosper your labors while you hold in one hand
the Gospel & in the other the bloody whip, wet with the
blood of some innocent person of color, who has
unfortunately offended you in some trifle or other,
or for refusing to labor for you without some reward.
What a dreadful prospect!
How profound a subject for contemplation!
How little are you both in your morals and Religion.
By such base conduct Sir, you take the most effectual
measures to prevent the spread of the Gospel by rendering
it a scheme of power and barbarous oppression.
You even make yourselves enemies to the natural
privileges of human kind, and by such despotism &
fraud, tread under foot all your bills of human right,
& one of the best instruments of human composition—
Your Declaration of Independence.
That this heavy charge may not rest on my shoulders
alone—In support of which, I give the following extracts.
   1st. “With what execration should that statesman be
loaded, who permitting one half the citizens thus to trample
on the rights of the other; transforms those into despots &
these into enemies; destroys the morals of the one part,
& the amor patria of the other.
And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure, when
we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the
minds of the people, that these liberties are the gift of God?
That they are not to be violated, but with his wrath.
Indeed I tremble for my country, when I reflect that
God is just, & that his justice cannot sleep forever:
that considering numbers, nature & natural means only,
a revolution of the wheel of fortune; and exchange of
situations is among possible events; That it may
become provable by super-natural interference.”
See Notes on Virginia by Thomas Jefferson Esq.
   2nd. “With regard to the Slave-Trade, Root & Branch,
First & Last, in all its motives, measures, concomitants
and consequences, if ever any human undertaking
merited the deepest abhorrence of man, & the
heaviest curse of Almighty God, it is surely that.”
See Compendium of History by Samuel Whelpley.
   3rd. “O! execrable son, so to aspire,
Above his brother, to himself assigning,
Authority usurped, from God not given;
He gave us only over beast, fish, fowl
Dominion absolute, but man over man
He made not Lord, such title to himself
Reserving, human left from human free.”
See the great Milton.
4th. “They, who go out as Pirates, & take away poor
Africans or people of any other land, who never forfeited
life or liberty, & carry them into slavery, are the worst of
Robbers, and ought to be considered the common enemies
of mankind, & that all they who buy them of those inhuman
Robbers & use them as mere beasts of burden for their
own convenience; regardless of their spiritual welfare,
are fitter to be called Demons than Christians.”
See Richard Baxter’s Christian Directory.
It will be seen by these quotations, Sir, that the
practice of slavery is not only odious to me, but
is execrated by men whose names are immortalized
in history & stand on record as patterns of piety, virtue
& religion; who have denounced the judgments of God
against all who are in the habit of keeping open this
execrable market where man is bought & sold.
When I seriously reflect on the despotism, inhumanity,
wickedness & barbarism of the legislators of these
southern states, and the misery & distress to which
they have reduced so many thousands of their citizens,
I cannot avoid crying out, O sacred Tree of Liberty,
where are thy fruits!
Was this sacred & rare plant set in the earth—watered &
nourished with the blood of heroes—Tears of widows &
orphans, for the vile purpose only, to shade & nourish a few
of Burr’s best blood of America—Dr. Johnson’s great men—
family, birth, blood and extraction, &c.
I say, if this was the intention of the fathers &
politicians of that day—If their sons bleed & died
to drive out the tyrants of Europe in order that
they might step into their shoes, & enjoy the fruits
of the Tree of Liberty only—Then—O! then, did the
blood of heroes, & tears of widows & orphans flow in vein.
It would seem to a reflecting mind, as If virtue, humanity,
love & religion were fled from off the face of the earth.
For let us survey what quarter of the Globe we please;
we find in all, nearly the same spirit of oppression,
luxury, vice & folly.
   If, instead of this inhuman conduct, the nations which bear
the Christian name were generally engaged in the great
world of reformation—Were desirous to meliorate the
condition of the human race; they might by a proper line of
good conduct, ere long remove from their minds all those
deep-rooted prejudices, which have so long destroyed the
peace & harmony of the human family & transformed
thousands of them into wolves & tigers; who seem now to
bid defiance to all rational law, virtue, humanity & religion.
My ear is pained, (says Mr. Cowper)
My soul is sick with every day’s report
Of wrong & outrage with which this earth is filled,
There is no flesh in man’s obdurate heart,
That does not feel for man.
The natural bond of brotherhood is severed as the flax,
That falls asunder at the touch of fire.
He finds his fellow guilty of a skin
Not colored like his own, & having power
To force the wrong for such a wicked cause,
Dooms & devotes him as his lawful prey.
Land interspersed by a narrow firth
Abhor each other.
Mountains interposed,
Make enemies of nations, who had else
Like kindred drops, been mingled into one.
This man devotes his brother, and destroys;
And more than all, & most to be deplored
As human natures broadest, foulest blot,
Chains him, tasks him, & exacts his sweat,
With stripes, that mercy with a bleeding heart
Weeps, when she sees inflicted on a beast.
Then, what is man? & what man seeing this
And having human feelings, does not blush
And hang his head to think himself a man.”
It’s very surprising Sir, that the agents
of the people in these southern states,
who talk in a very high strain of freedom &
political liberty, should make no scruple of reducing one half
or more of their whole population into circumstances,
by which they are not only deprived of property,
but almost of every species of human right
and degraded below the bruits that perish.
Do you think, Sir, that the people of color can
suffer all this without a decline of love for this country,
or indeed, without feeling that love turned into hatred,
& seeking the bitterest revenge?
   I might here make a catalogue of all the consequences
of slavery, if my heart did not recoil at the horrid tale.
I shall therefore, content myself by saying, this barbarous,
inhuman practice has destroyed the morals, manners,
industry & religion; & spread corruption, disease,
wickedness & folly, to the greatest body of the inhabitants
of six or eight of the finest states in the union, and involved
in misery, poverty and distress, & bound down to worse
than Egyptian slavery one half or more of their whole
population: Yea this horrid practice is pregnant with every
evil that is disgraceful to human nature, injurious to man,
abhorrent to God; & offends against all the laws of morality
and rights of human kind.
And it’s much to be feared, that this malignant disease will
not only destroy the morals, manners, industry & religion
of the inhabitants, but will ere long subvert your very
Constitution, & throw the U. S. into anarchy & give
a death blow to the Tree of Liberty.
Pause, Sir, for justice & mercy sake, pause before you find
yourself & children swallowed up in this dreadful tempest!
“It is the immutable decree of God himself,
(says Esq. Poydras) that no man, or set of men,
shall be unjust with impunity.
The consequences of injustice are dreadful & unavoidable.
A people oppressed by tyranny are like the body
when afflicted by sickness—a stranger to ease,
& anxious to obtain it; every position is tried
until one less painful than the other is found;
that may suffer the sick person to take a little rest.
So the victim of tyranny as ever wrestles
in search of relief from his oppressor.
I know of no other basis for a government to rest upon
but justice; place it upon any other, & it will be like
a house erected on the sand—when the winds blow
& the rains descend, it will be swept from its foundation.”
Since I’ve again got into quotations, I’ll give one more
& then close the subject, for I fear that writing to you Sir,
on the practice of slavery will be time lost, but I shall
have this for consolation in my last hours, that I’ve
done what I conceived to be my duty in striving to
list you on the side of virtue & humanity, in order,
if possible to ward off the impending danger which
awaits you & hangs over this devoted country.
Before you spurn such language as this or treat with
contempt the author of it, you’ll do well to consider his
motives, & the weight of evidence which he has
produced in support of what he has wrote.
I’ve not a syllable against your character or person,
other than what is herein expressed.
Clear your skirts of this inhuman practice,
& then you’ll have my warmest support.
But as long as you continue this inhuman, barbarous
practice, I shall laugh at your calamities,
& mock when your fear comes.
“Laws to be just & equitable should protect the weak &
innocent, & defuse blessings upon all with a liberal hand.
Just laws give vigor & proportion to every part of the body;
but slavery aggrandizes one part of the community
at the expense of the other & is cruel and unmerciful.
To accuse a people of cruelty, who pride themselves of
being the most human upon earth, is a bold undertaking.
How can that be wrong (says the slave-holder) which has
been the sanction of the fathers & politicians so many years,
& which is the source of our wealth, ease & happiness?
In cases like the present, multitudes, antiquity, wealth,
ease & happiness, prove nothing.
The fact is, here are millions of men, women & children,
deprived of the rights of their nature and suffering
all the consequences of that deprivation.
They have in despite of all the rights of humanity,
been forced across the ocean; & they & their
posterity bound to the severest labor.
The consequences, alas are obvious & too painful to relate.
Immortal souls in slavery!
Subjects of the grace of God & the purchase of the precious
blood of Jesus Christ in slavery!
Beings capable of all the blessings of civil society, deprived
of them all to administer to the vices & pleasures of others!
   Hail ye sons of benevolence! will ye sing with the Poet,
“That mercy I to others show,
That mercy show to me!” Pope.
Will you make this the criterion of the favors of God & Man?
Do you expect to be judged by this rule?
It is not impossible that you & your children may have
the same measure meted back to you again.
It is no uncommon thing with God to reward men
according to their works, even in this world.
Slavery omits the weightier matters of the law,
therefore it’s unlawful & unscriptural.
A Christian must do unto others, what he would that others
should do unto him; but no slave-holder would have others
to enslave himself: therefore,
slavery is contrary to Christianity.
Love worketh no ill to his neighbor, but slavery worketh
the greatest ill, therefore, slavery is contrary to love.”5

      On February 22 President Madison informed the Congress that
USS Constitution had fought the 49-gun Java near Brazil.
On 24 February he sent this letter to the United States Congress:

   I lay before Congress copies of a Proclamation
of the British Lieutenant Governor of the Island
of Bermuda, which has appeared under
circumstances leaving no doubt of its authenticity.
It recites a British order in Council of the 26 of
October last, providing for the supply of the
British West Indies and other Colonial possessions,
by a trade under special licenses; and is accompanied
by a circular instruction to the Colonial Governors, which
confines licensed importations from ports of the United
States to the ports of the Eastern States exclusively.
The Government of Great Britain had already
introduced into her commerce during war, a system,
which at once violating the rights of other nations,
and resting on a mass of forgery and perjury unknown
to other times, was making an unfortunate progress
in undermining those principles of morality and religion,
which are the best foundation of national happiness.
   The policy now proclaimed to the world, introduces into
her modes of warfare, a system equally distinguished by the
deformity of its features and the depravity of its character;
having for its object to dissolve the ties of allegiance and the
sentiments of loyalty in the adversary nation, and to seduce
and separate its component parts, the one from the other.
   The general tendency of these demoralizing
and disorganizing contrivances will be reprobated
by the civilized and Christian world; and the insulting
attempt on the virtue, the honor, the patriotism, and
the fidelity of our brethren of the Eastern States, will
not fail to call forth all their indignation and resentment;
and to attach more and more all the States, to that
happy union and constitution, against which such
insidious and malignant artifices are directed.
   The better to guard, nevertheless, against the effect of
individual cupidity and treachery, and to turn the corrupt
projects of the Enemy against himself I recommend to the
consideration of Congress the expediency of an effectual
prohibition of any trade whatever by Citizens or inhabitants
of the United States under special licenses, whether relating
to persons or ports; and in aid thereof a prohibition of all
exportations from the United States in foreign bottoms;
few of which are actually employed; while multiplying
counterfeits of their flags and papers are covering
and encouraging the navigation of the Enemy.6

Madison & War in March-April 1813

      On 4 March 1813 Madison began his second term as President,
and in his fairly short inaugural address he tried to justify why the
United States had gone to war against Great Britain.
Here is what he said:

   About to add the solemnity of an oath to the
obligations imposed by a second call to the station
in which my country heretofore placed me, I find in the
presence of this respectable assembly, an opportunity of
publicly repeating my profound sense of so distinguished
a confidence, and of the responsibility united with it.
The impressions on me are strengthened by such
an evidence, that my faithful endeavors to discharge
my arduous duties, have been favorably estimated,
and by a consideration of the momentous period
at which the trust has been renewed.
From the weight and magnitude now belonging to it,
I should be compelled to shrink, if I had less reliance
on the support of an enlightened and generous people;
and felt less deeply a conviction, that the war with a
powerful nation which forms so prominent a feature
in our situation is stamped with that justice, which
invites the smiles of heaven on the means of
conducting it to a successful termination.
   May we not cherish this sentiment without
presumption, when we reflect on the characters
by which this war is distinguished?
   It was not declared on the part of the United States
until it had been long made on them,
in reality though not in name;
until arguments and postulations had been exhausted;
until a positive declaration had been received
that the wrongs provoking it would not be discontinued;
nor until this last appeal could no longer be delayed
without breaking down the spirit of the nation,
destroying all confidence in itself and in its political
institutions, and either perpetuating a state of
disgraceful suffering or regaining by more costly
sacrifices and more severe struggles, our lost
rank and respect among independent powers.
   On the issue of the war are staked our national
sovereignty on the High Seas and the security of an
important class of citizens, whose occupations give
the proper value to those of every other class.
Not to contend for such a stake is to surrender
our equality with other powers on the Element
common to all and to violate the sacred title, which
every member of the Society has to its protection.
I need not call into view the unlawfulness of the practice
by which our mariners are forced at the will of every
cruising officer from their own vessels into foreign ones;
nor paint the outrages inseparable from it.
The proofs are in the records of each successive
administration of our Government: and the
cruel sufferings of that portion of the American
people have found their way to every bosom,
not dead to the sympathies of human nature.
As the war was just in its origin and necessary and
noble in its objects, we can reflect with a proud
satisfaction, that in carrying it on no principle of
justice or honor, no usage of civilized nations, no
precept of courtesy or humanity have been infringed.
The war has been waged on our part with
scrupulous regard to all those obligations; and
in a spirit of liberality which was never surpassed.
How little has been the effect of this
example on the conduct of the Enemy?
They have retained as prisoners of war,
citizens of the United States, not liable to
be so considered under the usages of war.
They have refused to consider as prisoners of war
and threatened to punish as traitors and deserters
persons emigrating without restraint to the United States;
incorporated by naturalization into our political family,
and fighting under the authority of their adopted
Country in open and honorable war for the
maintenance of its rights and safety.
Such is the avowed purpose of a Government,
which is in the practice of naturalizing by thousands citizens
of other countries, and not only permitting but compelling
them to fight its battles against their native Country.
They have not, it is true, taken into their own hands the
Hatchet & the knife devoted to indiscriminate massacre;
but they have let loose the savages armed with these
cruel instruments; have allured them into their service
& carried them to battle by their sides: eager to glut
their savage thirst with the blood of the vanquished
and to finish the work of torture and death on
maimed and defenseless captives.
And what was never before seen, British Commanders
have extorted victory over the unconquerable valor of
our troops by presenting to the symphony of their chief,
awaiting massacres from their savage associates.
And now we find them in further contempt of the modes
of honorable warfare, supplying the place of a conquering
force by attempts to disorganize our political society,
to dismember our confederated Republic.
Happily, like others, these will recoil on the authors:
but they mark the degenerate councils from which
they emanate: and if they did not belong to a series
of unexampled inconsistencies might excite the
greater wonder, as proceeding from a Government
which founded the very war in which it has been so
long engaged on a charge against the disorganizing
and insurrectional policy of its adversary.
To render the justice of the war on our part
the more conspicuous, the reluctance to commence it,
was followed by the earliest and Strongest
manifestations of a disposition to arrest its progress.
The Sword was scarcely out of the Scabbard
before the Enemy was apprised of the reasonable
terms on which it would be resheathed.
Still more precise advances were repeated and have
been received in a spirit forbidding every reliance,
not placed on the military resources of the nation.
   These resources are amply sufficient
to bring the war to an honorable issue.
Our Nation is in number more than
half that of the British Isles.
It is composed of a brave, a free,
a virtuous and an intelligent people.
Our Country abounds in the necessaries,
the arts, and the comforts of life.
A general prosperity is visible in the public countenance.
The means employed by the British Cabinet to
undermine it have recoiled on themselves; have
given to our national faculties a more rapid
development; and draining or diverting the precious
metals from British circulation & British vaults,
have poured them into those of the United States.
It is a propitious consideration that an unavoidable war
should have found this seasonable facility
for the contributions required to support it.
When the public voice called for war, all knew and still
know, that without them it could not be carried on
through the period which it might last; and the patriotism,
the good sense, and the manly spirit of our fellow Citizens
are pledges for the cheerfulness with which they will bear,
each his share of the common burden.
To render the war short and its success sure,
animated and systematic exertions alone are necessary;
and the Success of our arms now may long preserve our
Country from the necessity of another resort to them.
Already have the gallant exploits of our
naval heroes proved to the world our inherent
capacity to maintain our rights on one element.
If the reputation of our arms has been thrown
under clouds on the other, presaging flashes of
heroic enterprise, assure us that nothing is wanted
to correspondent triumphs there also, but the
discipline & habits which are in daily progress.7

      US Secretary of War John Armstrong was politically
ambitious and considered General Harrison and
Secretary of State Monroe his rivals for the presidency.
After news arrived of Napoleon’s failed invasion in Russia,
Madison wrote to Jefferson on March 10:

   I have received your two favors of the 8 & 21 Ult.
The conduct & character of the late Commander at Niagara,
as portrayed in the narrative enclosed in the first,
had been before sufficiently brought to our knowledge.
Some of his disqualifications for such a trust were indeed
understood when he was appointed Inspector General.
General Dearborn seems not to have been apprised
of some of the sides of his character; though he
has an apology for what he did in the paucity of
general officers provided for the army at that time
and the difficulty of making a satisfactory selection.
The narrative is returned as you desire.
It gives me pleasure to receive a confirmation of the
unchanged dispositions of those whose sympathies
with Robert Smith could not fail to be most excited.
The opportunity of proving to one of them, that I
have not permitted my belief or my dispositions to be
affected by reports or presumptions inconsistent with
his penetration, candor, and justice, has been promptly
embraced as you will see by the late military appointments.
His son has just received the rank of Major.
You will see also that I have taken the liberty of
naming Mr. Randolph to the Senate for the command
of a Regiment, & that it is now within his acceptance.
I was aware of all the considerations &c embracing
those around him, which were mingled with the subject:
But knowing his superiority in the talents and military
acquirements so much needed in our army, and that
they had occurred to others of his friends as well as
myself, I could not do less than give the public a
chance of having the benefit of them.
I should indeed have taken the same liberty
in the original nominations, but for the less
decided State of things than that now existing.
   If you do not receive the New York Mercantile
advertiser, the enclosed will give you the Russian
account of the Catastrophe of the French Army.
It is doubtless much exaggerated; but there is
no doubt that the losses are beyond example.
Whether they can be replaced so as to prevent
the defection of allies, and to present another
formidable countenance to the North is uncertain.
It does not appear that anything like despondence
is felt at Paris; and so many interests on the Continent
have become associated with the ascendancy of
Napoleon, that it will not be surprising, if with the
terrors of his name, he should surmount his difficulties.
In England the usual exultation is indulged on the
recent events; and united with the rage & jealousy
produced by our little naval triumphs, account for the
gigantic force she is bringing against us on the water.
In the meantime Russia, as you will observe, is tendering
her mediating friendship; with the collateral view, there is
reason to believe, of deriving advantage from our neutral
interference with British monopoly in the trade with her.
We shall endeavor to turn the
good will of Russia to the proper account.
Whether England will accede to the mediation,
or do so with evasive purposes remains to be seen.
That she has brought it about, I cannot readily suppose,
because I think she would not promote our political
intercourse with the Baltic, where she apprehends a
sympathy with our maritime doctrines, and not with hers.
The present occasion proves the good policy
of having cultivated the favorable dispositions
of the Emperor Alexander.
We have good reason to believe that Sweden
is as well inclined towards us as Russia.8

      On March 19 Armstrong’s War Department established the
Eighth Military District that included the states of Kentucky and Ohio
and the future states of the Indiana, Missouri, Michigan, and Illinois territories.
      John Fellows about March 29 wrote this letter to President Madison
about how the British were mistreating American prisoners of war:

   The treatment of American prisoners by the English,
particularly in the West India Islands,
is shockingly barbarous.
They are not only supplied with unwholesome
provisions, hard bran bread for instance, which
had been half destroyed by worms, but are also
deprived of that common privilege of nature, air.
Being crowded into the holes of prison ships,
as they call them, where they are almost wholly
excluded from that element so essential to life.
I have seen several who have been exchanged
that are extremely emaciated, arising,
as they say, from this mode of treatment.
They are fully of opinion that a very considerable
portion of those who remain as prisoners in that
climate in the summer season must expire.
Being intimate with a gentleman, a Mr. Sandford,
who has a son imprisoned at Jamaica, I have had
an opportunity of learning the number of prisoners
now at that place; which is above two hundred.
They complain bitterly that no Cartel is sent to their relief.
Young Sandford was one of the eight who lately cut a hole
through the prison ship, made their escape from her,
& swam to a guardship taking a boat from alongside
and putting to sea with an expectation of reaching Cuba.
They were however intercepted and brought back.
What must be the condition of prisoners
who would deliberately run such a risk?
Could not an arrangement be made with the English
Government for keeping prisoners on shore by an
American Agent’s Stipulating in behalf of our
Government for their safe keeping?
And if they will not comply with this demand, should not
we confine our prisoners in the same manner as they do?
In any event I beg leave to suggest the propriety
of sending Cartels often to the West India Islands,
and particularly one to Jamaica soon as possible.
   Having no other object in writing you this letter
than to serve the cause of justice & humanity,
I am confident you will not take it amiss.9

      On about April 1 Madison wrote in a letter to Secretary of State Monroe:

   The views with which the U.S. entered into the war,
necessarily dispose them to a just peace.
The promptitude with which the mediation of His Imperial
Majesty was accepted and the purpose of sending
ministers to St. Petersburg without waiting for the
determination of Great Britain is proof of this disposition.
An armistice as sparing an effusion of blood,
& as contemplating an auspicious result to the
mediation, cannot therefore but accord with
the sentiments actuating this Government.
   With a view to this experiment
it will only remain to be ascertained
1st that Admiral Warren is possessed of
the adequate powers from his Government.
2ndly that he is willing to include a removal of
the Blockade which is itself a measure of the
strongest hostility in an armistice to be agreed on.10

      John Nicholas had been a Representative from Virginia in the
US Congress 1793-1801, and Madison sent him this letter on April 2.

   Your favor of the 11th March came duly to hand,
and I feel myself obliged by the friendly spirit
of the observations it contains.
The circumstances under which the war
commenced on our part require that it should
be reviewed with a liberality above the ordinary
rules and dispositions indulged in such cases.
It had become impossible to avoid or even delay war
at a moment when we were not prepared for it, and
when it was certain that effective preparations would
not take place while the question of war was undecided.
Another feature was the discord and variety of opinions and
views in the public councils; of which sufficient evidence has
been seen in the public debates and proceedings; and of
which much more is known than ever has been published.
The Calculations of the Executive were that
it would be best to open the war with a force
of a kind and amount that would be soon
procured & that might strike an important blow
before the Enemy, who was known to disbelieve
the approach of such an event could be reinforced.
Those calculations were defeated, as you observe by
mixing and substituting preparations necessarily producing
fatal delays; and in some respects thwarting each other.
At this moment, notwithstanding the additional stimuli,
it is not certain that the regular force exceeds that
which was in the first instance recommended,
which would have been more an overmatch for
the then strength of the enemy, than the force
voted, if realized, would be for his present strength;
and which could have been easily augmented as fast
as might be necessary to maintain conquered ground
or meet reinforcements from Europe or elsewhere.
The failure of our calculations with respect to
the expedition under Hull needs no comment.
The worst of it was that we were misled by a
reliance authorized by himself on its securing
to us the command of the Lakes.
The decisive importance of this advantage has
always been well understood; but until the first
prospect ceased, other means of attaining it were
repressed by certain difficulties in carrying them into effect.
These means have since been pushed with alacrity;
and we hope will enable us to open the campaign
in relation to Canada with a retort of the success
which the last turned against us.
With the command of Lake Ontario the
treasonable commerce at which you point will probably be
found too hazardous to be prosecuted.
I have furnished your hints however,
for the consideration of the proper Departments.
   We are at present occupied with the Mediation of Russia.
That is the only power in Europe which can
command respect from both France and England;
and at this moment it is in its zenith.
We shall endeavor to turn this mediation to
the best account in promoting a just peace.
We are encouraged in this policy by the known
friendship of the Emperor Alexander to this country;
and by the probability that the greater affinity
between the Baltic and American ideas of maritime law,
than between those of the former and of Great Britain
will render his interposition as favorable as will be
consistent with the character assumed by him.11

      On 17 April 1813 President Madison and Secretary of State Monroe
appointed Albert Gallatin, John Quincy Adams, and the Federalist Senator
James A. Bayard of Delaware as the Commission to go to Russia to
negotiate commercial and peace treaties with Britain and Russia.

   Whereas his Imperial Majesty the Emperor of all the
Russias, as the common friend of the United States and
Great Britain, has offered them his mediation, with a view to
the restoration of Peace and the establishment of permanent
harmony between them; and the invitation having been
accepted on the part of the United States in contemplation of
a like acceptance on the part of Great Britain: Now be it
known, That reposing special Trust and confidence in the
Integrity, prudence and Abilities of Albert Gallatin, Secretary
of the Treasury of the United States, John Quincy Adams,
their Minister Plenipotentiary at the Court of His Imperial
Majesty, and James A. Bayard, a Senator of the United
States, I have appointed them jointly and severally Envoys
Extraordinary and Ministers Plenipotentiary of the United
States, to repair to St Petersburg in Russia, with authority to
meet under the said mediation a Minister or Ministers,
having like authority from the Government of Great Britain;
and with him or them to negotiate and conclude a
settlement of the subsisting differences, and a
lasting peace and friendship between the
United States and that power; transmitting
the Treaty or Convention so to be concluded,
for the ratification of the President of the
United States, by and with the advice and
consent of the Senate of the United States.12

      Chief Tecumseh had visited the south again in the fall of 1812
and helped inspire the Creek Confederation.
By April 1813 he had returned to Fort Malden with 600 recruits from Illinois tribes.
General Brock had been killed at Niagara, and Tecumseh considered
Col. Henry Procter incompetent for not stopping a massacre of prisoners.
      General James Wilkinson had been commissioned a major general on 2 March 1813.
On April 15 he led an attack on West Florida and
captured the British garrison of 80 men at Mobile.
On April 25 a thousand British led by Procter and 1,200 Indians led by Tecumseh
besieged Fort Meigs that was defended by 1,100 men under General Harrison.
Secretary of War Armstrong sent General Dearborn across Lake Ontario
against Kingston, but instead on April 27 he and the naval Captain Isaac Chauncey
attacked Upper Canada’s little capital at York (now Toronto).
An American army of 1,700 regulars led by Commodore Isaac Chauncey’ warships
and Brigadier General Zebulon Pike with 1,700 men
defeated about 600 British soldiers and some 45 natives.
The Americans triumphed, but Brigadier General Zebulon Pike was killed.
The Americans had 55 men killed and 265 wounded while
the Canadians lost 82 dead, 112 wounded, and had 274 captured.
In the next three days the Americans plundered this capital of Upper Canada,
burned the public buildings of the Legislative Assembly, and destroyed the printing press.
The British Major General Sheaffe had the powder magazine blown up,
and the explosion killed about 200 people including Pike.
The Americans captured military supplies and left Canada on May 8.

Madison & War in May 1813

      General William Henry Harrison’s American army of
about 2,800 men besieged 1,250 tribal warriors and about
900 British soldiers at Fort Meigs from April 28 to May 9.
On May 5 Brigadier General Green Clay arrived with 1,200 men
and attacked the British; but while pursuing the retreating British
the disorganized Kentucky militia were counter-attacked by
Tecumseh’s warriors and suffered 160 killed, about 300 wounded,
and 530 captured while the British suffered only about 100 casualties.
Once again Proctor allowed prisoners to be killed by Indians.
Tecumseh intervened to protect them and told Proctor that
he was unfit for command and should put on petticoats.
Tecumseh said he conquered to save while Proctor did so to murder.
Dearborn’s army captured Fort George at the mouth of the Niagara by Lake Ontario
as the British Army escaped on May 27, the day Dearborn became ill.
      On May 8 Albert Gallatin, before leaving for Russia,
advised Secretary of State Monroe not to occupy East Florida,
and he warned him that Mobile in West Florida was fortified.
Madison refused to accept an armistice during the negotiations in Russia
unless the British agreed to remove their blockade of the United States coast.
The British responded to the re-election of Madison to a second term
by increasing their war effort in America.
The British were also fighting France, and
Madison denied that the United States was allied with France.
British Admiral Warren ordered the Royal Navy to raid the American coas
in order to draw US troops away from Canada.
By spring they were blockading Chesapeake Bay, Delaware Bay, New York City,
Charleston, Port Royal, Savannah, and the mouth of the Mississippi River.
US Navy Secretary Jones had the American ships sneak out to operate on the high seas.
Rodgers on the USS President managed to take twelve prizes.
The British captured the USS Chesapeake again in Boston harbor on June 1.
      Madison summoned the new Congress for an early session
to begin on May 24 instead of the usual December.
He sent this message to the Congress on May 25:

Fellow Citizens of the Senate,
and of the House of Representatives.
   At an early day after the close of the last Session of
Congress, an offer was formally communicated from His
Imperial Majesty, The Emperor of Russia, of his mediation,
as the common friend of the United States and Great Britain,
for the purpose of facilitating a peace between them.
The high character of the Emperor Alexander, being a
satisfactory pledge for the sincerity and impartiality of his
offer, it was immediately accepted; and as a further proof
of the disposition on the part of the United States, to meet
their adversary in honorable experiments for terminating
the War, it was determined to avoid intermediate delays,
incident to the distance of the parties by a definitive
provision for the contemplated negotiation.
Three of our eminent Citizens were accordingly
commissioned with the requisite powers to conclude
a Treaty of peace with persons clothed with like
powers on the part of Great Britain.
They are authorized also to enter into such
conventional regulations of the commerce between
the two Countries, as may be mutually advantageous.
The two Envoys who were in the United States at
the time of their appointment, have proceeded to
join their Colleague already at St. Petersburg.
   The Envoys have received another commission,
authorizing them to conclude with Russia a
Treaty of commerce with a view to strengthen
the amicable relations and improve the beneficial
intercourse between the two Countries.
   The issue of this friendly interposition of the
Russian Emperor and this pacific manifestation on
the part of the United States time only can decide.
That the sentiments of Great Britain towards
that Sovereign will have produced an acceptance
of his offered mediation must be presumed.
That no adequate motives exist to prefer a
continuance of war with the United States to the
terms on which they are willing to close it is certain.
The British Cabinet also must be sensible, that with respect
to the important question of impressment on which the war
so essentially turns, a search for or seizure of British
persons or property on board Neutral vessels on the high
Seas is not a belligerent right derived from the law of
nations; and it is obvious that no visit or search or use
of force for any purpose on board the Vessels of one
independent power on the high Seas can in war or peace
be sanctioned by the laws or authority of another power.
It is equally obvious that, for the purpose of preserving to
each state, its seafaring members by excluding them from
the Vessels of the other the mode heretofore proposed by
the United States and now enacted by them, as an Article of
municipal policy cannot for a moment be compared with the
mode practiced by Great Britain without a conviction of its
title to preference; inasmuch as the latter leaves the
discrimination between the mariners of the two nations to
officers exposed by unavoidable bias, as well as by a defect
of evidence to a wrong decision; under circumstances
precluding for the most part the enforcement of controlling
penalties; and where a wrong decision, besides the
irreparable violation of the sacred rights of persons, might
frustrate the plans and profits of entire voyages: Whereas
the mode assumed by the United States guards with studied
fairness and efficacy against errors in such cases;
and avoids the effect of casual errors on the safety of
navigation and the success of mercantile expeditions.
   If the reasonableness of expectations drawn
from these considerations could guaranty their
fulfilment, a just peace would not be distant.
But it becomes the wisdom of the national Legislature
to keep in mind the true policy or rather the indispensable
obligation of adapting its measures to the supposition,
that the only course to that happy event is in the
vigorous employment of the resources of war.
And painful as the reflection is, this duty
is particularly enforced by the spirit and manner
in which the war continues to be waged by the Enemy;
who, uninfluenced by the unvaried examples of humanity
set them, are adding to the savage fury of it on one
Frontier, a system of plunder and conflagration on the other,
equally forbidden by respect for national character,
and by the established rules of civilized warfare.
As an encouragement to persevering and invigorated
exertions, to bring the contest to a happy result, I have
the satisfaction of being able to appeal to the auspicious
progress of our arms both by land and on the water.
In continuation of the brilliant achievements of our
infant navy, a signal triumph has been gained by Captain
Lawrence and his companions in the Hornet sloop of war;
which destroyed a British sloop of war with a celerity
so unexampled and with a slaughter of the Enemy,
so disproportionate to the loss in the Hornet, as to
claim for the conquerors the highest praise and the full
recompense provided by Congress in preceding cases.
Our public ships of war in general, as well as the
private armed vessels, have continued also their
activity and success against the commerce of the
Enemy; and by their vigilance and address have
greatly frustrated the efforts of the Hostile Squadrons
distributed along our Coasts to intercept them in
returning into port and resuming their cruises.
   The augmentation of our naval force, as authorized
at the last Session of Congress, is in progress.
On the Lakes our superiority is near at hand,
where it is not already established.
   The events of the Campaign so far as they are
known to us, furnish matter of congratulation and
show that, under a wise organization and efficient
direction, the Army is destined to a glory not less
brilliant, than that which already encircles the navy.
The attack and capture of York is in that quarter a presage
of future and greater victories; while on the western
Frontier the issue of the late siege of Fort Meigs leaves us
nothing to regret but a single act of inconsiderate valor.
   The provisions last made for filling the ranks and
enlarging the Staff of the Army have had the best effects.
It will be for the consideration of Congress,
whether other provisions depending on their
authority may not still further improve the
military establishment and the means of defense.
   The sudden death of the distinguished Citizen, who
represented the United States in France without any
special arrangements by him for such a contingency,
has left us without the expected sequel to his last
communications: Nor has the French Government taken
any measures for bringing the depending negotiations to a
conclusion through its representative in the United States.
This failure adds to delays,
before so unreasonably spun out.
A successor to our deceased minister has been
appointed and is ready to proceed on his mission.
The course which he will pursue in fulfilling it is that
prescribed by a steady regard to the true interests
of the United States, which equally avoids an
abandonment of their just demands, and a connection
of their fortunes with the systems of other powers.
   The receipts into the Treasury from the 1st of October
to the 31st day of March last, including the sums
received on account of Treasury Notes and of the
loans authorized by the Acts of the last and the preceding
Sessions of Congress have amounted to fifteen Millions
four hundred and twelve thousand dollars.
The expenditures during the same period amounted to
Fifteen million, nine hundred and twenty thousand dollars,
and left in the Treasury on the 1st of April, the sum of one
million, Eight hundred and fifty seven thousand dollars.
The loan of sixteen millions of dollars authorized by the
act of the 8th of February last has been contracted for.
Of that sum more than a million of dollars had been
paid into the Treasury prior to the 1st of April and
formed a part of the receipts as above stated.
The remainder of that loan amounting to near
fifteen millions of dollars with the sum of five millions
of dollars authorized to be issued in Treasury notes
and the estimated receipts from the Customs and the
sales of public Lands amounting to nine millions three
hundred thousand dollars and making in the whole
twenty nine millions three hundred thousand dollars
to be received during the last nine months of the
present year will be necessary to meet the
expenditures already authorized and the engagements
contracted in relation to the public debt.
These engagements amount during that period to
ten millions five hundred thousand dollars, which with near
one million for the Civil, miscellaneous and diplomatic
expenses, both foreign and domestic, and Seventeen
millions eight hundred thousand dollars for the military and
naval expenditures including the ships of war building and
to be built will leave a sum in the Treasury at the end of
the present year equal to that on the first of April last.
A part of this sum may be considered as a resource for
defraying any extraordinary expenses already authorized
by law beyond the sums above estimated; and a farther
resource for any emergency may be found in the sum of
one million of dollars, the loan of which to the United States
has been authorized by the state of Pennsylvania;
but which has not yet been brought into effect.
   This view of our finances, while it shows that
due provision has been made for the expenses
of the Current year, shows at the same time by
the limited amount of the actual revenue and the
dependence on loans, the necessity of providing
more adequately for the future supplies of the Treasury.
This can be best done by a well digested system of
internal revenue in aid of existing sources; which
will have the effect, both of abridging the amount of
necessary loans and on that account, as well as by
placing the public credit on a more satisfactory basis of
improving the terms on which loans may be obtained.
The loan of Sixteen millions was not contracted for
at a less interest than about seven and a half percent;
and although other causes may have had an agency,
it cannot be doubted that with the advantage of a
more extended and less precarious revenue a lower
rate of interest might have sufficed.
A longer postponement of this advantage could not
fail to have a still greater influence on future loans.
   In recommending to the National Legislature
this resort to additional Taxes, I feel great satisfaction
in the assurance that our Constituents, who have
already displayed so much zeal and firmness in the
cause of their Country will cheerfully give every
other proof of their patriotism which it calls for.
Happily, no people with local and transitory exceptions,
never to be wholly avoided, are more able than
the people of the United States to spare for the
public wants a portion of their private means;
whether regard be had to the ordinary profits
of industry or the ordinary price of subsistence
in our Country compared with those in any other.
And in no case could stronger reasons be felt
for yielding the requisite contributions.
By rendering the public resources certain and
commensurate to the public exigences the
constituted authorities will be able to prosecute
the war the more rapidly to its proper issue;
every hostile hope founded on a calculated failure
of our resources will be cut off; and by adding to
the evidence of bravery and skill in combats on the ocean
and the land an alacrity in supplying the treasure necessary
to give them their fullest effect; and thus demonstrating
to the world the public energy, which our political
institutions combine with the personal liberty distinguishing
them by the best security will be provided against future
enterprises on the rights or the peace of the nation.
   The contest in which the United States are engaged,
appeals for its support to every motive that can animate an
uncorrupted and enlightened people to the love of Country,
to the pride of liberty, to an emulation of the glorious
Founders of their Independence by a successful vindication
of its violated attributes; to the gratitude and sympathy
which demand security from the most degrading wrongs of
a class of Citizens, who have proved themselves so worthy
the protection of their Country by their heroic Zeal in its
defense; and finally to the sacred obligation of transmitting
entire to future generations that precious patrimony of
national rights and independence, which is held in trust
by the present from the goodness of Divine Providence.
   Being aware of the inconveniences to which a protracted
Session at this Season would be liable, I limit the present
communication to objects of primary importance.
In special messages which may ensue, regard
will be had to the same consideration.13

       Tsar Alexander I of Russia had offered to mediate a peace treaty,
and Madison appointed James Bayard and Gallatin to go to the peace conference
at St. Petersburg and join John Quincy Adams who was already there.
The American mission departed on May 9.
Yet the Senate rejected this effort and Madison’s appointment of a minister to Sweden.
The President approved Gallatin’s proposed direct tax
of $3 million and a loan authorization for $7.5 million.
      In late May an American army of 4,000 infantry overwhelmed
1,300 British soldiers and 50 natives at Fort George near Niagara.
American officers included Dearborn, Morgan Lewis, Winfield Scott, and Oliver Perry.
The British fled from Fort Erie on May 27.
      On 31 May 1813 the General Land Office Commissioner
Edward Tiffin sent this letter to President Madison,

   On the 25th of April 1812 an Act was passed by
Congress entitled “An Act for ascertaining the titles
and claims to land in that part of Louisiana which lies
east of the River Mississippi and Island of New Orleans.”
   This Act established two land districts, one east, the other
west of Pearl River and provided for the appointment of two
boards, each composed of one Commissioner and Clerk.
To the board east of Pearl River, eighteen months were
allowed, and to the board west, two years, for the
completion of their official duties.
Soon after the passage of the Act, Mr. William
Crawford was appointed Commissioner for the
eastern and Mr. James O. Cosby (both of Georgia)
Commissioner for the western district; their Commissions
and instructions were immediately forwarded from
this department and were received by them.
   Mr. Crawford immediately went to his post and is
discharging his duties in a manner highly honorable
to Himself and with due regard to the interests of
the United States; while it appears Mr. Cosby
has never made his appearance in his district—
at least we can get no information relative
to him since he received his commission &ca.
Mr. Magruder, the former Senator from Louisiana,
addressed several notes to this department,
urging the appointment of some other person,
who would attend to the duties of the appointment.
Mr. Robertson, the Representative from Louisiana,
is also very uneasy at the delay or neglect of Mr. Cosby,
and also urges another appointment, from the consideration
that one half the time allowed by Law for the completion
of the business has expired, and the uneasiness of the
people for the fate of their land claims in that district.
   I have therefore thought it my duty to present a
statement of the case for your consideration, and
to enclose a letter from Mr. Magruder, and two from
the Honorable Mr. Tait of Georgia in answer to our
enquiries respecting Mr. Cosby, and to ask the favor
of your instructions how to act on this occasion.14

Madison & War in June 1813

      Harry Toulmin from Fort Stoddert on 2 June 1813
wrote to Madison about the situation in West Florida:

   I had lately the pleasure of a visit from
Governor Holmes and accompanied him to Mobile.
   While we were there, he became much impressed with
a conviction of the necessity existing for the establishment
of a federal court in this territory, & addressed a
communication upon the subject, not only to the
Secretary of State but also to many members of congress.
Thinking it desirable that I should be transferred
from the territorial to the federal establishment,
he suggested his wishes as to this point to his
correspondents and recommended it to me at
the same time to address you on the subject.
I therefore take the liberty of saying to your excellency,
that should a federal court be established either for the
Mississippi Territory at large or for that part of it which
lies east of Pearl River, it would be very acceptable
to me to receive the appointment of judge of that
court in place of the office which I hold at present.
   The obvious occasion which there is for a court
exercising full federal jurisdiction in a port the most
ready of access of any, which we hold on the waters
of the gulf of Mexico, and in a country which will shortly
become, (if indeed it be not already becoming) the great
thoroughfare for the introduction of smuggled articles,
and especially of British commodities into all the southern
and western states, and the impracticability of such
jurisdiction being exercised with any effect by the courts
which are occupied with the local business of the territory;
it has been here supposed, will prompt the national
legislature to take the subject into immediate consideration.
   Indeed it does not seem reasonable to burden the judge
of this district, who already attends the superior courts of
seven counties, spreading over a wide extent of country,
with any portion of that kind of business which properly
belongs to the courts of the United States, especially in a
district where the business will probably become more
weighty than in many of the original federal districts.
   That union of the country east of Pearl River and
south of the 31st degree to the federal judicial district
of the state of Louisiana, which seems to be contemplated
by the act admitting that state into the Union, will be
attended with such incessant vexation and monstrous
expense and inconvenience to suitors, that I cannot
believe that the plan will be persisted in.
Whether such a union now exists or not; came lately
into view in the case of the San Pedro, which I take
leave to enclose: and my belief that it does exist has
created no small degree of alarm in the town of Mobile.
   It was on this account and to avoid the danger of
misrepresentation, that I acceded to a request to
suffer an opinion, (very hastily written)—which I
gave on the subject to be printed.
There are some who (feeling the great embarrassment
resulting from this extensive jurisdiction of the federal
court of Louisiana) doubt the accuracy of the opinion
which admits its existence, and warmly contend that
when Mobile was added to our territory, its connection
with Louisiana and the Louisiana district was utterly
dissolved; not duly attending, as it seems to me, to
the entire independence of federal judicial boundaries,
and of state & territorial boundaries of each other.
I trust that legislative power, however, will afford
a remedy out of the reach of judicial construction.
Should a federal court accordingly be established here;
may I take the liberty of recommending as attorney, Mr.
Matthew D. Willson of Virginia, now residing in this district?
He has attended to almost all the public business which
has been done here in behalf of the United States.
His learning, morals, civil character,
and talents stand high in my estimation.
He is a friend to the government of
his country and will support its laws.
   I fear that we shall have some difficulty with
relation to the public records, formerly kept in Mobile.
General Wilkinson felt, I believe,
at some loss on the occasion.
However, though not instructed to demand the papers,
he expressed a wish to the Spanish Commandant,
that they might be left in consequence of an
application to the General by Mr. D’Acre,
clerk to the Commission for recording land claims.
They were accordingly professedly
delivered to the Governor in my presence.
We took an account of them, & although I could obtain
from the officer who delivered them no satisfaction as to
the remainder, I was satisfied that they were not all there.
The Governor afterwards requested me to
apply in his name for the remainder,
if I should be confirmed in my suspicions.
I since find that they were well founded and
that several boxes of public records have been
carried (by mistake it is said) to Pensacola.
I have written on the subject to the Governor
of Pensacola but have not yet received his answer.15

      On 3 June 1813 President Madison sent this
short message to the United States Senate:

   In compliance with their resolution of the 3rd instant,
the Senate are informed that the office of the Secretary
of the Treasury is not vacated, and that in the absence
of Albert Gallatin, commissioned as one of the Envoys to
treat with Great Britain and Russia, the duties of that office
are discharged by William Jones, Secretary of the Navy,
authorized therefor according to the provisions of the act
of Congress, entitled “An act making alterations in the
Treasury and War Departments,” passed May 8, 1792.16

      Madison on June 6 wrote this letter to Thomas Jefferson:

   I received your favor of ? and now return the letter of
Doctor Waterhouse with the Newspapers sent with it.
He appears to be a man of ability & learning,
and to have been rendered interesting to several
distinguished friends to the administration by the
persecutions he has suffered from its Enemies.
Like many others however, I see at present
no reward for him but in his own virtues.
The Treasury of the Mint was allotted
by the general sentiment to Dr. J. Rush.
And Doctor Tilton has long since been had in view for the
superintendence of the Medical Department of the Army.
   Your suggestions for protecting the trade of the
Chesapeake by Gun boats at the South End of it
with a safe retreat provided for them, have been
taken into consideration with all the respect due
to the importance as well as the motives of them.
The present Secretary of the Navy is not unfriendly to Gun
boats; and in general the call for them by the Inhabitants
of the Coast proves a diffusive sense of their Utility.
It seems agreed at the same time, that being too
slow in sailing and too heavy for rowing, they are
limited in their use to particular situations and
rarely for other than defensive co-operations.
That an adequate number of them in Lynnhaven Bay
with a Safety of retreat would be useful, cannot be doubtful;
but if the Enemy choose to bring such a force as they have
applied & with appearances of an intended increase, the
number of Gun boats necessary to control them would be
very great; and their effect pretty much restricted to
guarding the interior navigation of the Bay.
Cruisers on the outside of the Capes beyond the range of
the Gunboats would Still blockade the external Commerce.
   Commodore Barney has suggested a species of
Row Galley which he considers as better fitted for
protecting the interior trade of the Bay than the Gun boat
or rather as an essential auxiliary to the Gun-boats.
His plan is to allow them twenty oars & Muskets
on each side to be planked up for protection of the
oarsmen against small arms in the Enemies’ launches;
& to have one long & heavy Gun; their construction
to fit them for speed & for shallow water, & their
length & form to be such that at the end of the war they
might be easily raised on & become ordinary Coasters.
Twenty of these costing 50 or 60 thousand dollars, he thinks
would put an end to the depredations of the smaller vessels,
which have been the greatest, and might even attack large
ones in the night or used in special circumstances.
I have not yet ascertained the opinion of the
Secretary of the Navy, who adds to a sound judgment
a great deal of practical knowledge on such subjects.
   You have in the Newspapers all the
latest news both foreign & domestic.17

      Paul Cuffe wanted to get a license to trade with Sierra Leone,
and on June 16 he wrote this letter to Madison:

   The memorial and petition of Paul Cuffe of Westport
in the State of Massachusetts, respectfully shows;
That your Memorialist actuated by motives which he
conceives are dictated by that philanthropy, which is
the offspring of Christian benevolence, is induced to ask
the patronage of the Government of the United States,
in affording aid in execution of a plan which he cherishes
a hope may ultimately prove beneficial to his brethren
of the African race within their native climate.
   In order to give a complete view of the object in
contemplation, it may not be considered trespassing
too much on your time to premise some of the leading
circumstances which have led to the present application.
Your memorialist being a descendant of Africa, and early
instructed in habits of sobriety and industry, has gratefully
to acknowledge the many favors of a bountiful Providence,
both in preserving him from many of the Evils which the
people of his color too often have fallen into; and also by
blessing his industry with such a portion of the comforts
of life, as to enable him in some degree not only to
commiserate but to relieve the sufferings of his fellow
creatures, and having Early found implanted in his heart
the principles of Equity and justice, he could but view the
practice of his brethren of the African race in selling their
fellow creatures into a state of slavery for life, as very
inconsistent with that divine principle; and in his mature
age having been greatly interested in the abundant labor of
many pious individuals both in this country and in England,
to produce a termination of the wrongs of Africa, by
prohibiting the slave trade and also to improve the
condition of the degraded inhabitants of the land of his
ancestors, he conceived it a duty incumbent on him as a
faithful Steward of the mercies he had received, to give up
a portion of his time and his property in visiting that country,
and affording such means as might be in his power to
promote the improvement and civilization of the Africans.
   Under these impressions he left his family and
with a sacrifice of both time and money visited
Sierra Leone, and there gained such information
of the country and its inhabitants as enabled him
to form an opinion of many improvements that
appeared to him essential to the well being of that people.
These he had an opportunity of communicating to several
distinguished members of the Royal African Institution in
London, and he had the satisfaction at that time to find that
his recommendations were approved by the celebrated
philanthropists, the Duke of Gloucester, William Wilberforce,
Thomas Clarkson, William Allen and others; and has since
learned that the institution have so far acceded to his plans,
as to make some special provision to carry them into effect.
One of these objects was to keep up an intercourse
with the Free people of color in the United States
in the expectation that some persons of reputation
would feel sufficiently interested to visit Africa and
Endeavor to promote habits of industry, sobriety,
and frugality among the nations of that country.
   These views having been communicated by your
petitioner to the Free people of color in Baltimore,
Philadelphia, New York and Boston, they with a zeal
becoming so important a concern, have manifested a
disposition to promote so laudable an undertaking;
and several families whose characters promise
usefulness, have come to a conclusion if proper
ways could be opened to go to Africa in order to give
their aid in promoting the object already adverted to.
Your petitioner still animated with a sincere desire of
making the knowledge he has acquired and the sacrifices
he has already made more permanently useful in promoting
the civilization of Africa solicits your aid so far as to grant
permission that a vessel may be employed (if liberty can
also be obtained from the British Government) between this
country and Sierra Leone to transport such persons and
families as may be inclined to go as also some articles of
provision, together with implements of husbandry and
machinery for some mechanic arts and to bring back such
of the native productions of that country as may be wanted.
For although pecuniary profit does not enter into calculation
in the object in contemplation nor does it afford any very
promising prospects yet without a little aid from the trifling
commerce of that country, the expense would fall too
heavy on your petitioner, and those of his friends
who feel disposed to patronize the undertaking.
Your petitioner therefore craves the attention of
congress to a concern which appears to him very
important to a portion of his fellow creatures who
have been long excluded from the common advantages
of civilized life and prays that they will afford him and his
friends such aid as they in their wisdom may think best.18

A bill to fund such a commercial voyage was passed in the US Senate
but was defeated in the House of Representatives in January 1814.
      On 17 June 1813 the Society of Friends in New England wrote this letter:

   To the President, Senate, and House of Representatives
of the United States in Congress assembled, the religious
Society of Friends, commonly called Quakers in New
England, met in their Annual Assembly on Rhode Island,
respectfully represent:
   That during our deliberations upon the religious
concerns of our Society, the great object of which
is to promote the cause of righteousness on the earth,
our minds have been affected with deep and serious
consideration upon account of the present national calamity
of War, in which our once happy country is involved.
   And although it is well known that a fundamental
principle of our Faith leads us to believe, that War of
every kind is unlawful to us, yet permit us to remark,
what we consider very interesting to all who profess
the Christian name, that the introduction of the Gospel
dispensation was hailed by the Angelic host, with
“Peace on earth, good will to Men.”
And by our gracious Redeemer it was pronounced,
“Blessed are the Peace-Makers;
for they shall be called the children of God.”
   We have with great unanimity concurred in the belief,
that it is our religious and civil duty to address you
at this time and most respectfully to solicit your
reconsideration of the effects and consequences
of the present unhappy War, upon the religious,
moral, and temporal prosperity of the Citizens of
our beloved country; and to entreat that you will
be pleased to omit no opportunity of sheathing
the sword, even during the pending negotiations,
and to restore to our nation the blessings of Peace.
   We feel emboldened in thus addressing you
from a consciousness that we love our country,
that we feel deeply interested in its preservation
and prosperity and are very desirous of doing
everything in our power to promote its welfare.
And under the consideration that it is “Righteousness
that exalts a nation,” it is the solicitude of our hearts,
that He who “rules in the kingdom of men and gives it to
whomsoever he will,” may so influence your minds as to
enable you impressively to feel the responsibility attached
to your stations—that you may seek after the counsel of
his will and be obedient thereunto; that thereby you may
be instrumental in exalting the standard of Righteousness
to the hastening of that happy period foretold by the
Prophet wherein, “Nation shall not lift up sword against
nation, neither shall they learn War anymore!”19

      Thomas Jefferson wrote this letter to his friend Madison on June 21:

   Your favor of the 6th has been received,
and I will beg leave to add a few supplementary
observations on the subject of my former letter.
I am not a judge of the best forms which may be
given to the gunboat; and indeed I suppose they
should be of various forms suited to the varied
circumstances to which they would be applied.
Among these no doubt Commodore Barney’s
would find their place.
While the largest & more expensive are fitted for moving
from one seaport to another coast-wise, to aid in a
particular emergency; those of smaller draught & expense
suit shallower waters; and of these shallow &
cheap forms must be those for Lynnhaven River.
Commodore Preble in his lifetime undertook to build such
in the best manner for two or three thousand Dollars.
Col. Monroe, to whose knowledge of the face of the country
I had referred, approves in a letter to me of such a plan of
defense as was suggested, adding to it a fort on the Middle
grounds, but thinks the work too great
to be executed during a war.
Such a fort certainly could not be built
during a war in the face of an enemy.
Its practicability at any time has been doubted,
and although a good auxiliary is not a
necessary member of this scheme of defense.
But the canal of retreat is really a small work of a few
months execution; the laborers would be protected by
the military guard on the spot, and many of these
would assist in the execution for fatigue rations & pay.
The exact magnitude of the work I would not affirm;
nor do I think we should trust for it to Tatham’s survey:
still less would I call in a Latrobe, who would
immediately contemplate a canal of Languedoc.
I would sooner trust such a man as Thomas Moore to take
the level, measure the distances, and estimate the expense.
And if the plan were well matured the ensuing winter, &
laborers engaged at the proper season, it might be executed
in time to mitigate the blockade of the next summer.
On recurring to an actual survey of that part of the country,
made in the beginning of the Revolutionary war under the
orders of the Governor & Council by Mr. Andrews, I think,
a copy of which I took with great care, instead of the half
dozen miles I had conjectured in my former letter,
the canal would seem to be of not half that length.
I send you a copy of that part of the map, which may
be useful to you on other occasions, & is more to be
depended on for minutiae probably, than any other existing.
I have marked on that the conjectured route of the canal,
to wit, from the bridge on Lynnhaven River
to Kemp’s landing on the Eastern branch.
The exact draught of water into Lynnhaven River
you have in the Navy office.
I think it is over 4 feet.
   When we consider the population & productions
of the Chesapeake country, extending from the
Genissee to the Saura towns and Albemarle sound,
it’s safety & commerce seem entitled even to
greater efforts, if greater could secure them.
That a defense at the entrance of the bay can be made,
mainly effective, that it will cost less in money, harass
the militia less, place the inhabitants on its interior
waters freer from alarm and depredation, & render
provisions and water more difficult to the enemy, is so
possible as to render thorough enquiry certainly expedient.
Some of the larger gunboats or vessels better uniting
swiftness with force would also be necessary to
scour the interior & cut off any picaroons
which might venture up the bay or rivers.
The loss on James River alone this year is
estimated at 200,000 barrels of flour now on hand,
for which the half price is not to be expected.
This then is a million of Dollars levied on a single water of
the Chesapeake & to be levied every year during the war.
If a concentration of its defense at the entrance of
the Chesapeake should be found inadequate,
then we must of necessity submit to the expenses
of detailed defense to the harassment of the militia,
the burnings of towns & houses, depredations of farms,
and the hard trial of the spirit of the middle states,
the most zealous supporters of the war, and therefore
the peculiar objects of the vindictive efforts of the enemy.
Those North of the Hudson need nothing,
because treated by the enemy as neutrals.
All their war is concentrated on the Delaware
& Chesapeake; and these therefore stand in
principal need of the shield of the Union.
The Delaware can be defended more easily.
But I should not think 100 gunboats
(costing less than one frigate) an overproportioned
allotment to the Chesapeake country, against
the overproportioned hostilities pointed at it.
I am too sensible of the partial & defective state
of my information to be over-confident or
pertinacious in the opinion I have formed.
A thorough examination of the ground will settle it.
We may suggest, perhaps it is a duty to do it.
But you alone are qualified for decision by the
whole view which you can command: and so
confident am I in the intentions as well as wisdom
of the government that I shall always be satisfied that
what is not done, either cannot, or ought not to be done.
While I trust that no difficulties will dishearten us,
I am anxious to lessen the trial as much as possible.20

      In June 1813 Madison was ill with what
he thought was influenza for more than a month,
and in June the British fleet arrived in Chesapeake Bay near the capital.
Vice President Elbridge Gerry was also ill, and the Senate president pro-tem
William Branch Giles thought he might become president.
Madison recovered and left the heat in Washington
to go home for a while in late July.

Madison & War in July 1813

      On 4 July 1813 the peacemaker George Logan
wrote another letter to President Madison:

   In that spirit of Truth which you so highly and justly
appreciate, I have communicated to you my Letters
to the American and British Administration on the
all-important subject of restoring Peace and Friendship
between the two Governments, particularly necessary
at this tremendous crisis, when a military Despot is
contemplating the subjugation of the whole civilized world.
While a member of the Senate at Washington
I had frequent opportunities of conversing with
Mr. Jefferson then President of the United States.
I suggested to him the necessity of having a Treaty
of commerce and Friendship with Great Britain.
I do not remember the precise words made use of,
but an impression was made on my mind that
Mr. Jefferson did not at that time wish a Treaty
of Peace and Friendship with England.
I perfectly recollect that he terminated a
conversation on this subject by observing that
before a Treaty could be ratified with Great Britain,
she might no longer exist as an independent nation.
I am of opinion that Mr. Jefferson declined making a
Treaty with England, not from his hatred to that country,
but from his fear of the overwhelming power of Buonaparte.
   In some degree the present calamity of our country
may be attributed to the contracted Policy and Secrecy
of the Executive respecting our foreign relations.
I hope the Present Congress will develop
every Act of the President and of his ministers,
necessary for the information of the People.
   As to “the Orders in Council” the ostensible
cause of declaring War against Britain, the most
objectionable part of them was removed in 1809.
The remaining part was contemplated to have been
repealed before the meeting of Parliament in 1810.
This Information I received while in London from
Gentlemen connected with the Government.
And it is confirmed by the last Letter of Mr. Foster
to Mr. Monroe, dated “Washington June 14th 1812,”
in which he observes: “It was France, and afterwards
America that connected the Question relative to the right
of Blockade with that arising out of the Orders in Council.
You well know that if these two Questions
had not been united together, the Orders
in Council would have been in 1810, Revoked.”
Unfortunately for the Peace of our Country,
not content with the Revocation of the Orders in Council
as dictated by the Law of Congress of May 1810.
Mr. Pinkney in his Letter to Lord Wellesley of
September 31st 1810 demands a Repeal not only of
the Blockade from Elbe to Brest, but of those of Zealand,
and of the Isles of Mauritius and Bourbon.
And in his letter of January 14th 1811 to the same Minister,
he speaks also of other Blockades (including that of the
Island of Zealand) which the United States expected
to see Recalled, besides the Blockade of May.
In this letter he suggests an idea directly calculated, and
perhaps designed to alarm the British Ministry as to the
ulterior views of our Government on the subject of Blockade
in general, and to discourage them from a compliance
with our demand concerning the Blockade of May.
He observes—“It is by no means clear that it may not be
fairly contended that a Maritime Blockade is incomplete
with regard to States at Peace, unless the Place which
it would affect is invested by land as well as by sea.
The United States however have called
for the recognition of no such Rule.
They appear to have contented themselves with
urging in substance “That Ports not actually Blockaded
by a Present adequate Stationary force &c &c.”
   Apprehensive that some shuffling conduct of this kind
would be the result of an official communication with
Mr. Pinkney, I urged in my Letter to Sir John Sinclair,
and to other Gentlemen in London with whom I conversed,
that the King should voluntarily and immediately,
remove or suspend the “Orders in Council:” Not only as
an Act of Justice to the United States, but as a measure of
sound Policy with regard to the British Nation, as tending
to silence the jealous and strengthen the well disposed
real American Citizens in the United States.21

      On 8 July the steamboat inventor Robert Fulton wrote to Madison:

   I have succeeded in some very interesting experiments
on firing cannon under water of which I intended sending
you the drawings and details, but as I wished also to
communicate them to Mr. Jefferson and fearing that your
indisposition would not at the time permit you to Study
them with attention, I Sent them to him;
he will forward them to you; enclosed is
Commodore Decatur’s opinion of this new
mode of maritime war, Which opinion ought
to have much influence in bringing it into practice;
   The undeniable facts are:
   First. That a Ball 100 pounds weight 9 inches
diameter has been fired through 6 feet of water
and 3 feet of solid oak: and a like shot would
have passed through the side of any ship of war.
   Second. That such guns can be placed in a
Ship four or more feet below her waterline
and there be loaded and fired through her
side by machinery made for that purpose,
   Third. That such Vessels may have their
sides above the waterline so thick as to be
bullet proof and guard their men from danger.
   Fourth. That an enemy’s ship cannot prevent such Ships
coming close to her side within 10, 8 or 6 feet and there
drive their 9-inch Balls through her sides six or more feet
below the water line, in which case she must sink.
Consequently this is a mode of attack which has no medium
between an approach of 10 feet and Annihilation, in such
case there can be no calculations on chances of safety;
destruction of ship and crew must be the result of one
broadside, for it is not possible to stop holes made by 4 or 6
Balls 9 inches diameter 6 or more feet below the waterline.
   It is now to be considered whether the interest of the
nation does not require that this plan be put into immediate
practice, either by appropriating part of the funds destined
for frigates or by applying to Congress for an appropriation
of 100,000 dollars to build and equip one Vessel.
The flattering prospect of complete success and the
immense object to be obtained, that of driving the enemy
from our coast, and compelling them to respect us at sea
Merits a fair and liberal experiment of one Vessel;
which if approved, Numbers can be built with more
dispatch and economy and Secure to us a greater
power for a given Sum expended than by any other means.
   Our present Contest and indeed all wars may be
considered experiments to obtain a certain object,
hence the expenditure of Millions of money is for
trying the experiment; I therefore hope while
millions are expending in experiments of the
usual kind 100 thousand dollars to improve the
apparatus which may give us a decided superiority
will be Viewed by the nation as money well applied.22

      William C. C. Claiborne was Governor of the Orleans Territory
from 20 December 1803 until he became the Governor
of the Louisiana Territory on 30 April 1812.
On 9 July 1813 he wrote this letter to President Madison:

   I sincerely Wish the Mediation of Russia may
eventuate in an early and honorable adjustment of
differences between the United States and Great Britain.
   But I much fear England has not yet Sufficiently felt
the pressure of the War to induce her to be just:
I trust however, that the valor and enterprise of our naval
Heroes will Soon be equaled by our Land Forces, and that
the fall of Canada Will Convince the Enemy that he may
lose much and can gain little by a Continuance of the War.
   In this quarter we hitherto have only felt the
effects of the war on Commerce and agriculture.
But I entertain great apprehensions that
a Strong force and a judicious disposition of it
may Soon be necessary for our Security.
The agents of Spain at Havana & Pensacola express
considerable dissatisfaction at the late occupancy of
Mobile by the troops of the United States, and an
expedition is fitting out at Havana avowedly
(as is Stated) for the recapture of that Post.
Indeed, it is confidently reported, the expedition was on the
point of Sailing, but that the Captain General of Cuba was
advised by “a Council of War” to await further operations
until the Supreme Government of Spain Could be Consulted.
In the meantime the Governor of Pensacola has in a letter
to the officer commanding at Mobile Complained of the
taking possession of that Post, as also of Baton-Rouge as
acts of aggression & requires their immediate evacuation.
I further learn that the Spanish authorities have of late
been unusually attentive to the Creek and Choctaw
Indians and had made them Considerable presents.
How far this course of Conduct may be dictated by
the Enemy time will unfold; But my impression has
always been, that he would not force Spain to break
with the United States until it became his policy to attack
Louisiana and that there all the power and the Supposed
Influence of Spain in Louisiana would be enlisted against us.
The War on the Continent will afford ample employment
for the French Armies, and it is probable that their
veteran Troops will be withdrawn from the Peninsula.
This will lead to a diminution of the British Force
in that quarter, and a part of it may be ordered to
Spanish America, as well with a view to menace
Louisiana, as to preserve the Mexican Provinces.
An attack on Louisiana will necessarily divide
the American Forces and may perhaps
protract the conquest of Lower Canada.
The Spanish Mexican Provinces involved in all the
horrors of civil war will Soon cease to be useful
to Spain or her allies unless a “Force that can
look down all opposition” Shall Speedily arrive.
But to enlarge is unnecessary.
Your means of information will enable you to anticipate
the Enemy at every point, nor do I doubt but this
Section of the union will when the occasion demands,
receive as ample Support, as your means will permit.
In Speaking of the Mexican Provinces it Seems to me,
that the movements of the Revolutionists in Texas
are of great Concern to our Country.
It is true the capital of the Province, St. Antonio,
has been taken, and that the Revolutionists have
hitherto met with little opposition; But the Savage
and imprudent conduct of the chiefs have
already indisposed & disgusted the people.
Bernardo the Leader has all the qualities
of a Tyrant; Weak, Cowardly and Cruel.
After the capture of St. Antoine he rested from his
Labors & gave time for the Royalists again to embody;
nor has he taken measures to organize a Government
or to provide permanently for the Support of his army.
Anarchy prevails—and an Arbitrary destruction of
Life, character & property is the order of the day.
It is rumored that Bernardo is deposed,
and a General Toledo (last from Philadelphia)
called to the Supreme command.
But the change is too late.
A regular Force of three thousand men
(the greater part from Vera Cruz) is Certainly
advancing toward St. Antonio and will in all probability
drive the Revolutionists back on Louisiana.
In Such event I fear Some disorders on our
Frontiers will be Committed, and I am not without
apprehensions, that these disorders may be followed
by acts of hostility on the Part of the Royalists.
   General Flournoy is providing for the defense
of Mobile and has Sent thither Strong reinforcements.
He is exclusively devoted to his military duties
and Seems to me to have made a most
judicious disposition of his command.
   I have given orders today for a Regiment of Militia
drawn from the first Brigade (by draft) to be held
in readiness for Service, and So Soon as the Militia
of the more distant Counties can be organized in
conformity to the provisions of a late law, I Shall
add three other Regiments to this disposable force.
I add with regret, that it has not been, and I fear
will not be for Some time in my power to render
the militia of Louisiana efficient, The heterogeneous
mass of which our population is composed; The
Contrariety of Language Spoken, the dispersed
Situation of our Settlements, & the want of
arms present Serious embarrassments.
I however Shall not be wanting in exertion and
will in time of need give to the General Government
all possible aid in the defense of the State.
   It is believed that vast Sums of money have
been recently expended in providing for the
Safety of Louisiana; How far these Sums
have been judiciously expended, time will evince.
But from my Knowledge of the Country and the
means of approaching it, I feel no hesitation in
Saying that a Water defense is not only the most
economical, but the Safest that could be resorted to.
The Block Ship destined (I learn) for the lakes is
in great forwardness and will with a few gun boats
be a formidable defense in that quarter.
Two large Block Ships with a few look-out Boats
on the Mississippi, and one Block Ship and five or Six
gun Boats on the Mobile would give greater Security,
than all the fortifications that could be erected.
   In Speaking of Fortifications it is understood
that Several recently commenced are left in an
unfinished State, the proper officers being without
means of Completing them, nor can they procure them,
Since the protest of a number of the Bills of Colonel
Shaumburg the Deputy Quarter Master General,
has greatly affected the credit of the War Department.
Indeed Sir, the General distrust of the Bills of
the Quarter master & pay master of the army
have already created much embarrassment,
& will I fear, Seriously injure the Service.
   Mr. Fulwar Skipwith has been here for Some days
without being unable to obtain a passage to his port
of destination; he has vested a Mr. William Taylor of
this State with Special powers, & this Gentleman departs
hence for the Havana in a few days in hopes of obtaining
a passage for thence to the Port of St. Domingo.
Mr. Skipwith did me the honor to apprise me
of the nature of his mission and to consult me
as to the course proper to be pursued.
It Seemed to me imprudent for him, who I Knew
was obnoxious to & would excite the Suspicion of
the Spanish authorities, to venture himself at Havana;
as regards Mr. Taylor, I believe him to be
a discrete, honest, capable young man &
will execute the trust reposed with great fidelity.
   I do not recollect ever to have seen the
Mississippi as high as the Present Year, and
really the effects have been most distressing.
The loss of cattle, Hogs &c. have been Considerable.
Crops that would have Sold at half a Million Dollars have
been destroyed, and the injury done to Houses, Fences,
Levées & lands would not be repaired for that Sum.
But a Still greater misfortune is apprehended: a prevalence
of Disease (one of the effects of high Waters) throughout
the State, and the death of many valuable Citizens.23

      President Madison on 20 July 1813 sent this confidential
message to the United States Congress:

   There being sufficient ground to infer, that it is the
purpose of the Enemy to combine with the Blockade of
our Ports special licenses to neutral vessels or to British
vessels in neutral disguises, whereby they may draw
from our Country the precise kind and quantity of Exports
essential to their wants, while its general commerce
remains obstructed; keeping in view also the insidious
discrimination between the different Ports of the United
States; and as such a system, if not counteracted will have
the effect of diminishing very materially the pressure of the
war on the Enemy, and encouraging a perseverance in it,
at the same time that it will leave the general Commerce
of the United States under all the pressure the Enemy can
impose; thus subjecting the whole to British regulation in
subservience to British monopoly; I recommend to the
consideration of Congress, the expediency of an immediate
and effectual prohibition of Exports, limited to a convenient
day in their next Session and removable in the meantime,
in the event of a cessation of the Blockade of our Ports.24

Monroe’s Report to Madison in July 1813

      On 12 July 1813 Secretary of State James Monroe sent President Madison
this very long report describing what occurred since 10 May 1810:

   The Secretary of State, to whom was referred several
resolutions of the House of Representatives of the 21st ult.,
requesting information on certain points relating to the
French decree of the 28th April 1811 has the honor to
make to the President the following report:
   In furnishing the information required by the House
of Representatives the Secretary of State presumes
that it might be deemed sufficient for him to state what
is now demanded, what part thereof has been
heretofore communicated, and to supply the deficiency.
He considers it however more conformable to the
views of the House to meet at this time without
regarding what has been already communicated,
every enquiry, and to give a distinct answer to each
with the proper explanation relating to it.
   The House of Representatives has requested information
when, by whom, and in what manner the first intelligence
was given to this Government of the Decree of the
Government of France, bearing date on the 28th April 1811,
and purporting to be a definitive repeal of the decrees of
Berlin and Milan; whether Mr. Russell late Charge d’Affaires
of the United States to the Government of France ever
admitted or denied to his Government the correctness of
the declaration of the Duke of Bassano to Mr. Barlow,
as stated in Mr. Barlow’s letter of the 12th May 1812
to the Secretary of State, that the said decree had been
communicated to his, Mr. Barlow’s predecessor there,
and to lay before the House any correspondence with
Mr. Russell on that subject which it may not be improper
to communicate, and also any correspondence between
Mr. Barlow and Mr. Russell in possession of the Department
of State; whether the Minister of France to the United States
ever informed this Government of the existence of the said
decree, and to lay before the House any correspondence
with the said Minister relative thereto, not improper to be
communicated; with any other information in possession of
the Government which he may not deem it injurious to the
public interest to disclose, relative to the said decree,
tending to show at what time, by whom, and in what
manner it was first made known to this Government,
or to any of its representatives or Agents; and lastly
to inform the House whether the Government of the
United States has ever received from that of France any
explanation of the reasons of that decree being concealed
from this Government, and its Minister for so long a time
after its date, and if such explanation has been asked by
this Government, and has been omitted to be given by
that of France, whether this Government has made any
remonstrance or expressed any dissatisfaction to the
Government of France at such concealment.
   These enquiries embrace two distinct objects.
The first relates to the conduct of the
Government of France in regard to this Decree.
The second to that of the Government of the United States.
In satisfying the call of the House on this latter point,
it seems to be proper to meet it in a two-fold view;
first as it relates to the conduct of this Government
in this transaction; secondly, as it relates to its
conduct toward both belligerents, in some
important circumstances connected with it.
The resolutions do not call specially for a report of such
extent, but as the measures of the Executive and the acts of
Congress founded on communications from the Executive,
which relate to one of the belligerents, have by necessary
consequence an immediate relation to the other, such a
report seems to be obviously comprised within their scope.
On this principle the report is prepared in the expectation
that the more full the information given on every branch of
the subject, the more satisfactory will it be to the House.
   The Secretary of State has the honor to report in reply
to these enquiries, that the first intelligence which this
Government received of the French decree of the 28th April
1811 was communicated by Mr. Barlow in a letter bearing
date on the 12th of May 1812, which was received by this
Department on the 13th of July following: that the first
intimation to Mr. Barlow of the existence of that decree,
as appears by his communications was given by the Duke
of Bassano in an informal conference on some day
between the 1st and 10th of May 1812, and that the official
communication of it to Mr. Barlow was made on the 10th
of that month at his request: that Mr. Barlow transmitted
a copy of that decree and of the Duke of Bassano’s letter
announcing it to Mr. Russell in a letter of May 11, in which
he also informed Mr. Russell, that the Duke of Bassano
had stated that the decree had been duly communicated
to him that Mr. Russell replied in a letter to Mr. Barlow
of the 29th of May, that his first knowledge of the decree
was derived from his letter, and that he has repeatedly
stated the same since to this Government.
The paper marked A is a copy of an extract of Mr. Barlow’s
letter to the Department of State of May 12—1812—
B of the Duke of Bassano’s letter to Mr. Barlow of the 10th
of the same month: C of an extract of Mr. Barlow’s letter
to Mr. Russell of May 11th: D of an extract of Mr. Russell’s
answer of the 29 May, and E of Mr. Russell’s letter
to the Department of State of the 30th.
   The Secretary of State reports also, that no
communication of the decree of the 28th April 1811
was ever made to the Government by the Minister
of France or other person, than as is above stated
and that no explanation of the cause of its not
having been communicated to this Government and
published at the time of its date, was ever made to
this Government, or so far as it is informed, to the
representatives or Agents of the United States in Europe.
The Minister of France has been asked to explain the
cause of a proceeding apparently so extraordinary
and exceptionable, who replied that his first intelligence
of that decree was received by the Wasp in a letter from
the Duke of Bassano of May 10th 1812, in which he
expressed his surprise that a prior letter of May 1811,
in which he had transmitted a copy of the decree for the
information of this Government, had not been received.
Further explanations were expected
from Mr. Barlow, but none were given.
The light in which this transaction was viewed by this
Government was noticed by the President in his message
to Congress and communicated also to Mr. Barlow in
the letter of the 14 July 1812 with a view to the
requisite explanation from the French Government.
On the 9th day of May 1812 the Emperor
left Paris for the North, and in two days
thereafter the Duke of Bassano followed him.
A negotiation for the adjustment of injuries and
the arrangement of our commerce with the
Government of France, long depending, and said to
have been brought nearly to a conclusion at the time
of Mr. Barlow’s death, was suspended by that event.
His successor, lately appointed, is authorized
to resume the negotiation and to conclude it.
He is instructed to demand redress of the French
Government for every injury, and an explanation of its
motive for withholding from this Government a knowledge
of the Decree for so long a time after its adoption.
   It appears by the documents referred to, that
Mr. Barlow lost no time, after having obtained a
knowledge of the existence of the French decree
of the 28 April 1811, in demanding a copy of it, and
transmitting it to Mr. Russell, who immediately laid it
before the British Government, urging on the ground
of this new proof of the repeal of the French decrees,
that the British orders in Council should be repealed.
Mr. Russell’s note to Lord Castlereagh bears date
on the 20 May; Lord Castlereagh’s reply on the
23rd, in which he promised to submit the decree
to the consideration of the Prince Regent.
It appears, however, that no encouragement was given
at that time to hope that the orders in Council would be
repealed in consequence of that decree; and that although
it was afterwards made the ground of their repeal, the
repeal was, nevertheless, to be ascribed to other causes.
Their repeal did not take effect until the 23rd June,
more than a month after the French decree had been
laid before the British Government; a delay indicating
in itself at a period so momentous and critical, not
merely neglect but disregard of the French decree.
That the repeal of the British orders in Council
was not produced by the French decree,
other proofs might be adduced.
I will state one, which in addition to the evidence contained
in the letters from Mr. Russell herewith communicated
(marked G) is deemed conclusive.
In the communication of Mr. Baker to Mr. Graham on the
9th August, 1812, (marked H) which was founded on
instructions from his Government, of as late date as the
17th June, in which he stated, that an official declaration
would be sent to this Country, proposing a conditional repeal
of the orders in Council, so far as they affected the United
States, no notice whatever was taken of the French decree.
One of the conditions then contemplated was, that the
orders in Council should be revived at the end of 8 months,
unless the conduct of the French Government and the result
of the Communications with the Government of the United
States should be such, as in the opinion of the British
Government, to render their revival unnecessary:
a condition which proves incontestably that the French
decree was not considered by the British Government a
sufficient ground on which to repeal the orders in Council.
It proves also that on that day the British Government had
resolved not to repeal the orders on the basis of that
decree; since the proposed repeal was to depend, not on
what the French Government had already done, but on
what it might do and on arrangements to be entered into
with the United States, unconnected with the French repeal.
   The French decree of the 28th April, 1811 was
transmitted to the United States by the Wasp, a public
vessel, which had been long awaiting at the ports of Great
Britain and France dispatches from our Ministers relating
to these very important concerns with both governments.
It was received at the Department of State
on the 13th July, 1812, nearly a month after
the declaration of War against Great Britain.
Intelligence of the repeal of the orders in Council was not
received until about the middle of the following month.
It was impossible therefore that either of those acts,
in whatever light they might be viewed, should have
been taken into consideration, or have had any
influence in deciding on that important event.
   Had the British Government been disposed
to repeal its orders in Council in conformity with
the principle on which it professed to issue them,
and on the condition which it had itself prescribed,
there was no reason to delay the repeal until such
a decree as that of the 28 April 1811 should be produced.
The declaration of the French Government of August 5
1810 had fully satisfied every claim of the British
Government according to its own principles on that point.
By it the decrees of Berlin and Milan were declared
to be repealed, the repeal to take effect on the 1st
November following, on which day it did take effect.
The only condition attached to it was either that
Great Britain should follow the example and repeal
her orders in Council, or that the United States should
carry into effect against her their nonimportation act.
This condition was in its nature subsequent,
not precedent, reserving a right in France to revive
her decrees in case neither alternative was performed.
By this declaration it was put completely in the power
of Great Britain to terminate this controversy
in a manner the most honorable to herself.
France had yielded to her the ground on a condition,
with which she had declared her willingness to comply.
Had she complied, the nonimportation act
would not have been carried into effect,
nor could the French decrees have been revived.
By refusing to comply she has made herself
responsible for all that has since followed.
   By the decree of the 28 April 1811 the decrees
of Berlin and Milan were said to be definitively repealed,
and the execution of the non-importation act against
Great Britain was declared to be the ground of that repeal.
The repeal announced by the declaration of
the 5th August 1810 was absolute and final,
except as to the condition subsequent attached to it.
This latter decree acknowledges that that condition
had been performed, and disclaims the right to
revive it, in consequence of that performance;
and extending back to the 1st of November,
confirms in every circumstance the preceding repeal.
The latter act therefore as to the repeal
is nothing more than a confirmation of the former.
It is in this sense that those two acts
are to be understood in France.
It is in the same sense that they are
to be regarded by other powers.
   In repealing the orders in Council on the pretext of
the French decree of the 28th of April 1811, the
British Government has conceded that it ought to have
repealed them on the declaration of the 5th August 1810.
It is impossible to discriminate between the two acts,
or to separate them from each other, so as to justify
on sound and consistent principles the repeal of the
orders in Council on the ground of one act,
and the refusal to repeal them on that of the other.
The second act makes the repeal definitive;
but for what reason?
Because the nonimportation act had been
put in force against Great Britain in compliance
with the condition subsequent, attached to the
former repeal and her refusal to perform it.
That act being still in force, and the decree of the 28th April
1811 being expressly founded on it, Great Britain repeals
her orders in Council on the basis of this latter decree.
The conclusion is therefore irresistible that by this repeal,
under all the circumstances attending it, the British
Government has acknowledged the justice of the claim
of the United States to a repeal on the former occasion.
By accepting the latter repeal, it has sanctioned the
preceding one; it has sanctioned also the conduct of this
Government in carrying into effect the nonimportation act
against Great Britain, founded on the preceding repeal.
   Other important consequences result from
this repeal of the British Government.
By fair and obvious construction the acceptance
of the decree of the 28th April 1811 as the ground
of the repeal of the orders in Council, ought to be
construed to extend back to the 1st Nov 1810,
the day on which the preceding repeal took effect.
The Secretary of State has full confidence that if the
question could be submitted to the judgment of an
impartial judicial tribunal, that such would be its decision.
He has equal confidence that such will be the judgment
pronounced on it by the enlightened and impartial world.
If however these two acts could be separated from each
other, so as that the latter might be made the basis of the
repeal of the orders in Council, distinct from the former,
it follows that bearing date on the 28th April 1811,
the repeal ought to have relation to that date.
In legal construction between nations as well as
individuals, acts are to be respected from the time
they begin to operate, and where they impose a
moral or political obligation on another party, that
obligation commences with the commencement of the act.
But it has been urged that the French decree was not
promulgated or made known to the British Government
until a year after its date.
This objection has no force.
By accepting an act bearing date a year before
it was promulgated, it is admitted that in the
interval nothing was done repugnant to it.
It cannot be presumed that any Government would accept
from another, as the basis on which it was to found an
important measure, an act of anterior and remote date,
pledging itself to a certain course of conduct which that
Government had in the interval departed from and violated.
If any Government had violated an act the injunctions
of which it was bound to observe by an anterior one,
in relation to a third party, and which it professed to
have observed, before its acceptance by the other,
it could not be presumed that it would cease
to violate it after the acceptance.
The conclusion is irresistible that if the other Government
did accept such act with a knowledge of its antecedent
violation, as the foundation of any measure on its own part,
that such act must have been the ostensible only,
and not the real motive to such measure.
   The declaration of the Prince Regent of the
21st April 1811 is in full confirmation of these remarks.
By this act of the British Government it is formally
announced on the authority of a report of the Secretary
of foreign affairs to the conservative senate of France
that the French decrees were still in force, and
that the orders in Council should not be repealed.
It cannot fail to excite considerable surprise that the
British Government should immediately afterwards,
that is, on the 23d June, repeal its orders in Council,
on the ground of the French decree of the 28th April 1811.
By this proceeding the British Government
has involved itself in manifest inconsistency.
It has maintained by one act, that the French decrees
were in full force, and by another that they were
repealed during the same space of time.
It admits also, that by no act of the French Government,
or of its cruisers, had any violation of the repeal
announced by the declaration of the French Government
of the 5th August 1810, been committed, or at least,
that such violation had not had sufficient weight
to prevent the repeal of the orders in Council.
   It was objected that the declaration of the French
Government of the 5 August 1810 was not such an act
as the British Government ought to have regarded.
The Secretary of State is thoroughly satisfied
that this objection is altogether unfounded.
It was communicated by the Emperor through his highest
official Organ, the Secretary of Foreign Affairs, to the
Minister Plenipotentiary of the United States at Paris.
It is impossible to conceive an act more formal, authentic or
obligatory on the French Government, than that alluded to.
Does one Government ever ask or expect from another
to secure the performance of any duty, however important,
more than its official pledge, fairly, and fully expressed?
Can better security be given for its performance?
Had there been any doubt on this subject,
the conduct of Great Britain herself, in similar cases,
would have completely removed it.
The whole history of her diplomatic intercourse
with other Powers on the subject of blockade is in
accord with this proceeding of the French Government.
We know that when her Government institutes a blockade,
the Secretary of Foreign Affairs announces it to the
Minister of other Powers at London, and that the
same form is observed when they are revoked.
Nor was the authenticity of either act,
thus announced, ever questioned.
   Had a similar declaration been made by the
Minister of France in the United States to this Government,
by the order of his own, would it not have been
entitled to respect and been respected?
By the usage of Nations such respect
could not have been withheld.
The arrangement made with Mr. Erskine is a full proof
of the good faith of this Government and of its
impartiality in its transactions with both the belligerents.
It was made with that Minister on the ground
of his public character and the confidence due to it:
on which basis the nonintercourse was removed
to England & left in full force against France.
The failure of that arrangement was imputable
to the British Government alone, who in rejecting it
took on itself a high responsibility not simply in regard
to the consequences attending it, but in disavowing
and annulling the act of its minister without showing
that he had exceeded his authority.
In accepting the declaration of the French Minister
of Foreign Affairs in proof of the French repeal,
the United States gave no proof of improper
credence to the Government of France.
On a comparison of both transactions, it will appear that
if a marked confidence and respect was shown to
either Government, it was to that of Great Britain.
In accepting the declaration of the Government
of France in the presence of the Emperor,
the United States stood on more secure ground,
than in accepting that of a British Minister in this Country.
   To the demand made by the United States of
the repeal of the British Orders in Council, founded on
the basis of the French repeal of August 5th 1810,
the British Government replied by demanding a Copy
of the orders issued by the French Government
for carrying into effect that repeal; a demand
without example in the intercourse between Nations.
By this demand it ceased to be a question whether
the French repeal was of sufficient extent,
or was founded on justifiable conditions.
The pledge of the French Government was doubted;
a scrutiny was instituted as to the manner in which
it was to be discharged, and its faith preserved,
not by the subsequent conduct of its cruisers
towards the Vessels of the United States,
but by a Copy of the orders given to its cruisers.
Where would this end?
If the French Government intended a fraud
by its declaration of repeal announced to the
Minister of the United States and afterwards
to this Government, might it not likewise commit
a fraud in any other communication which it might make?
If credit was refused by the British Government to the act
of the French Government, thus formally announced,
is it probable that it would have been given by it, to any
document of inferior character directed to its own people.
Although it was the policy and might be the interest
of the British Government to engage the United States
in such a controversy with the French Government,
it was far from comporting with their interests to do it.
They considered it their duty to accept the repeal
already made by the French Government of its decrees,
and to look to its conduct and to that of its cruisers,
sanctioned by the Government for the
faithful performance or violation of it.
The United States having been injured by both powers,
were unwilling in their exertions to obtain justice of either,
to become the instrument of the other.
They were the less inclined to it in the present instance,
from the consideration, that the party making the pressure
on them maintained in full force its unlawful edicts against
the American Commerce, while it could not deny that a
considerable advance, at least, had been made by the
other towards a complete accommodation, it being
manifest to the world, not only that the faith of the
French Government stood pledged for the repeal of the
decrees, but that the repeal did take effect on the
1st of November 1810 in regard to the United States;
that several American Vessels taken under them had been
delivered up; and judicial decisions suspended on all by its
order, and that it also continued to give the most positive
assurances that the repeal should be faithfully observed.
   It has also been urged that the French repeal was
conditional, and for that reason could not be accepted.
This objection has already been fully answered.
It merits attention however that the Acts of the
British Government relating to this subject,
particularly the declaration of the 21st April 1812,
and the repeal of the 23d June of the same year
are equally and in like manner conditional.
It is not a little surprising, that the British
Government should have objected to a
measure in another Government, to which
it has itself given a sanction by its own acts.
It is proper however to remark that this objection
has been completely waived and given up by the
acceptance of the decree of the 28th April 1811.
   The British Government has urged also,
that it could not confide in the faithful performance
by the French Government of any engagement
it might enter into relative to the repeal of its decrees.
This objection would be equally applicable to
any other compact to be entered into with France.
While maintained, it would be a bar to any Treaty,
even to a Treaty of Peace between them.
But it also has been admitted to be unfounded by
the acceptance of the decree of the 28th April 1811.
   The Secretary of State presumes that these facts
and explanations, supported as they are by authentic
documents, prove first that the repeal of the British
orders in Council was not to be ascribed to the
French decree bearing date on the 28 April 1811;
and secondly, that in making that decree the basis
of their repeal the British Government has conceded
that it ought to have repealed them on the ground of the
declaration of the French Government of 5th August 1810,
so as to take effect on the 1st November following.
To what cause the repeal of the British
orders in Council was justly attributable cannot
now remain a doubt with any who have marked
with a just discernment the course of events.
It must afford great consolation to the
good people of these States to know that
they have not submitted to privations in vain.
   The discussion of other wrongs, particularly,
that relating to impressment, had been closed
sometime before the period alluded to.
It was unworthy the character of the United States
to pursue the discussion on that difference when it was
evident that no advantage could be derived from it.
The right was reserved to be brought forward
and urged again when it might be done with effect.
In the meantime the practice of impressment
was persevered in with rigor.
   At the time when war was declared against Great Britain,
no satisfactory arrangement was offered, or likely to be
obtained respecting impressment, and nothing was more
remote from the expectation of this Government,
than the repeal of the Orders in Council.
Every circumstance which had occurred tending to
illustrate the policy and views of the British Government,
rendered such an event altogether improbable.
From the commencement of that system of hostility,
which Great Britain had adopted against the United States,
her pretensions had gradually increased, or at least become
more fully unfolded, according to circumstances, until at the
moment when war was declared, they had assumed a
character which dispelled all prospect of accommodation.
The orders in Council were said to have been adopted
on a principle of retaliation on France, although at the
time when the order of May 1806 was issued, no measure
of France had occurred on which it could be retaliatory,
and at the date of the next order, January 1807,
it was hardly possible that this Government should have
even heard of the decree of Berlin, to which it related.
It was stated at the time of their adoption,
and for some time afterwards, that they should
be revoked as soon as France revoked her decrees,
and that the British Government would proceed with
the Government of France pari passu in the revocation.
After the declaration, however, of the French
Government of the 5th August 1810 by which
the Berlin and Milan decrees were declared to be repealed,
the British Government changed its tone and continued to
rise in its demands to the moment that war was declared.
It objected first, that the French repeal was conditional, and
not absolute; although the only condition attached to it was
that Great Britain should follow the example,
or the United States fulfil their pledge
by executing the non-importation act against her.
It was then demanded that France should repeal her
internal regulations as a condition of the repeal
of the British Orders in Council.
Next, that the French repeal should be extended to all
neutral nations, as well as to the United States, and lastly,
that the Ports of her Enemies and all Ports from which the
British flag was excluded, should be opened to British
manufactures in American Vessels: Conditions so
extravagant as to satisfy all dispassionate minds, that they
were demanded not in the expectation that they would or
could be complied with, but to terminate the discussion.
   On full consideration of all circumstances, it appeared
that the period had arrived when it became the duty
of the United States to take that attitude with
Great Britain, which was due to their violated rights,
to the Security of their most important interests,
and to their character as an independent nation.
To have shrunk from the crisis would have been
to abandon everything valuable to a free people.
The Surrender of our Seamen to British impressment
with the destruction of our navigation and commerce,
would not have been its only evils.
The desolation of property however great and
widely spread affects an interest which admits of repair.
The wound is incurable, only which
fixes a stigma on the national honor.
While the spirit of the people is unsubdued, there will
always be found in their virtue a resource equal to
the greatest dangers and most trying emergencies.
It is in the nature of free government to inspire in the
body of the people generous and noble sentiments,
and it is the duty of the constituted authorities to
cherish and to appeal to those sentiments and
rely on the patriotic support of their constituents.
Had they proved themselves unequal to the crisis,
the most fatal consequences would have resulted from it.
The proof of their weakness would have
been recorded; but not on them alone,
would its baneful effects have been visited.
It would have shaken the foundation of the Government
itself and even of the sacred principles of the revolution
on which all our political institutions depend.
Yielding to the pretentions of a foreign power without
making a manly effort in defense of our rights without
appealing to the virtue of the people or to the strength
of our Union, it would have been charged and believed
that in these sources lay the hidden defects.
Where would the good people of these States,
have been able to make another stand?
Where would have been their rallying point?
The Government of their choice, having been dishonored,
its weakness and that of their institutions demonstrated,
the triumph of the Enemy would have been complete.
It would also have been durable.
   The constituted authorities of the United States
neither dreaded or anticipated these evils.
They had full confidence in the strength of the Union,
in the firmness and virtue of the people and were satisfied,
when the appeal should be made, that ample proof would
be afforded, that their confidence had not been misplaced.
Foreign pressure, it was not doubted would soon dissipate
foreign partialities and prejudices, if such existed, and unite
us more closely together as one people.
   In declaring war against Great Britain,
the United States have placed themselves in a situation
to retort the hostility, which they had so long
suffered from the British Government.
The maintenance of their rights was the object of the war.
Of the desire of this Government to terminate the war
on honorable conditions, ample proof has been afforded
by the proposition made to the British Government
immediately after the declaration of war, through the
chargé des affaires of the United States at London,
and by the promptitude and manner of the
acceptance of the mediation of the Emperor of Russia.
   It was anticipated by some, that a declaration of war
against Great Britain would force the United States
into a close connection with her adversary,
much to their disadvantage.
The Secretary of State thinks it proper to remark,
that nothing is more remote from the fact.
The discrimination in favor of France, according to law,
in consequence of her acceptance of the proposition
made equally to both powers, produced a difference
between them in that special case, but in that only.
The war with England was declared without any concert
or communication with the French Government;
it has produced no connection between the United States
and France or any understanding as to its
prosecution, continuance, or termination.
The ostensible relation between the two countries
is the true and only one.
The United States have just claims on France for spoliations
on their commerce on the high Seas and in the Ports of
France, and their late minister was, and their present
minister is instructed to demand reparation for these
injuries and to press it with the energy due to the justice
of their claims and to the character of the United States.
The result of the negotiation will be
communicated to Congress in due time.
The papers (marked I) contain copies of two letters,
addressed from this Department to Mr. Barlow,
one of the 16th June 1812, just before the declaration of
war, the other of the 14th July following, which show
distinctly the relation existing between the United States
and France at that interesting period.
No change has since occurred in it.
All which is respectfully submitted.25

Madison & War in August-November 1813

      While recovering from his illness, Madison on August 2 sent a report
to Albert Gallatin in St. Petersburg informing him using code
how the Senate was debating their diplomatic project.
      On 30 August 1813 Secretary of State Monroe wrote this letter to Madison:

   For several days past I have been in the hands
of Dr. Elzey in consequence of a slight bilious attack,
never so bad, that I might not have written to you,
had there anything of importance to communicate.
I am now recovered.
There being however no duty to detain me here,
I propose to set out home on Wednesday,
should nothing occur to prevent it.
I shall take the stage, partly to avoid the sun and
partly on account of the injury received by my
horses in the excursion down the Potowk, sometime
since from which they have not yet recovered.
I regret that this will deprive me of the
pleasure of calling on you as I pass.
I shall request the deputy Postmaster
(the principal being absent) to continue the mail
which now goes to your house on to mine after
Wednesday, with which I hope he will comply.
   I have reason to believe that very great abuse
is practiced & much injury received by the too great
frequency of communication with the enemy by flags.
The governor of this state sends them on even the most
trifling occasion, and although Mr. Skinner, the officer of
this government at Annapolis, a very respectable citizen
of that place, and every way deserving its, as well as the
public confidence, visits frequently the admiral’s vessel
with a flag, and is always ready to execute any object
in which the citizens of this state are interested, provided
he is instructed by this governor; the governor of Maryland
passes him by & sends his own aide de camp.
A remarkable instance of this kind lately occurred.
The governor wrote to me, requesting permission
for a Mrs. Dunlevy of the Eastern shore, who had
been plundered at Georgetown to go on board to
ask reparation for her losses, intimating that he
thought it more proper that she should have
permission from this government than that of Maryland.
I gave immediate instruction to Mr. Skinner, who was
going on board on other business, to take her with him,
& wrote to the governor of Maryland that I had done so.
Before however Mr. Skinner set out, the governor
had sent her on board, although a few days only
had elapsed from the date of the governor’s letter,
to the opportunity afforded by Mr. Skinner’s visit.
To what other purposes this intercourse is made
subservient I know not, but it is understood,
that it certainly is to the retailing & circulation
of every pestilent story from the fleet among
the people, which can promote the contracted
views of those in power in this state.
It occurs to me that an order should be issued
appointing places in the bay from which flags
may in future go & inhibiting them from every other.
The order should direct that none be sent even from those
without the knowledge & sanction of the government
under certain exceptions applicable to military cases only.
This order might be drawn in such a manner, as to
prohibit the state authorities without mentioning them.
A commandant on the Eastern Shore ought to be designated
to prevent abuses there, or an agent be appointed there.
   The idea that the Russian mediation has been rejected
by the British government seems to gain strength from
every light which continues to be shed on the subject.
   Since writing the above, Mr. Parker has been with me on
some affairs of the war department in the Southern States.
It appears that certain tribes of the Creek nation in
a state of hostility with us have been supplied by the
governor of Pensacola with munitions of war for the
express purpose of making war on the United States.
This is received from Judge Toulmin & Mr. Gaines,
transmitted by Governor Holmes, who intimates
that a part of the Choctaws will join the Creeks.
The governor of Tennessee has put the troops of
that state under Major General Jackson, as is
understood a circumstance which may cause
difficulty about rank between the two states.
There appears also to be much difficulty respecting
supplies for the expedition, the quarter masters of
each state not being the best qualified for the
business & without funds, and those connected
with the commands of General Pinckney & Flournoy,
being neither of them instructed to act in the case.
It occurs to me that it would be most advisable
to order General Pinckney to take the command
of the expedition, in which case he would take
his staff with him & likewise his contractors.
If any change in the contract applicable to the troops
under General Pinckney along the coast should be
proper, he would be the fittest person to make it.
Under him it appears to me, that the expedition
might be immediately organized.
In the present train there may be difficulty in
making an organization that would be efficient.26

      President Madison responded to Monroe’s letter
with this private letter on September 1:

   I this moment receive your favor of the 30th.
It gives me much pleasure, that you
have so soon got rid of your fever.
Whenever you come on your visit to Albemarle,
I should be glad to see you, if you could make this
a Stage and be reconciled to the little delay it would incur.
I can with great convenience give you a conveyance
for the residue of the journey; and if apprised in time
would have horses for you at the Court House.
As this slight interruption would avoid the fatigue of
proceeding without rest in the Stage from that place,
it may on that account deserve consideration.
   I see nothing better in the present posture of things
to the South than to charge Pinkney with the Expedition
against the Hostile Indians, as you will find by a note
in the enclosed papers for the Department of War.
I fear only that his distance & unavoidable delays
may substitute other difficulties for those which
are to be overcome by such a measure.
   The abuse stated by Mr. Skinner is a most serious one.
You may recollect that some regulation against it
in other respects, particularly that of ransoms,
was suggested by what was passing on the coast
of New England, and was under our consideration.
The expedient you hint at might be applicable to all
cases, and if you should be detained long enough,
I wish you would consult on a proper form with
the Secretary of the Navy & General Bloomfield.
As the matter relates to the Governors of States
there is much delicacy in it:
1. perhaps in a constitutional point of view;
2. in cases where the States are very distant & the
occasions pressing; which might however perhaps be
guarded against by some proviso relative to them.
3. in relation to the misuse which might be
made of such a prohibition by referring it
to a political hostility to particular Governors.
On this consideration it would be well to choose a prudent
moment and to use terms not essentially involving the
State Authorities; though the reasons might do so.
I make these remarks in great haste and
consequently with a possibility of mingling
error which further reflection would correct.27

      Madison wrote to Monroe again on September 2:

   I am just favored with yours of August 31.
In allotting General Pinkney to take charge of the
Expedition, I was governed by the sole consideration
that it was in a manner necessary to an effective
organization of the military supplies.
In every other view the arrangement is ineligible.
It will risk delays.
It may be unsatisfactory to others, particularly
Governor Mitchell who derives weight from his
talents, as well as his patriotism & station.
And it would probably be unacceptable to the troops to be
under his command, who would have more confidence in
their ordinary leaders, and whose feelings, as they will bear
the character of volunteers, ought the more to be consulted.
This remark is peculiarly applicable to the troops from
Georgia, whose feelings are most alive to the expedition,
that State being most immediately & deeply interested in it;
and Governor Mitchell being doubtless regarded
by them as best fitted by his experience &
knowledge of Indian affairs to be their Commander.
On a junction of the troops from Georgia & Tennessee,
collision as to command will be avoided I presume by the
title of Mitchell and by the consideration that the Theatre
of operations is likely to be within the limits of his State.
It will be best therefore to let the business take the course
originally intended, if provision can be made for the several
species of supplies in the way you suggest or any other.
And the War office on being apprised of this will
readily avail itself of your friendly communications
with it on the subject; and for which I shall feel
myself much indebted, as well as for your kindness
in protracting your stay in Washington.
   I see nothing that can be done in the case explained
by Captain Campbell to the Secretary of the Navy,
but that the erroneous impressions in Florida with
respect to an understanding between the Government
of the U.S. & the patriots be corrected by him as far
as he can; and that such communications be made
to the Government of Georgia, as will produce a
maintenance of the laws of the State: and to the proper
authority of the U.S. in case of a violation of their laws.28

      President Madison wrote to Secretary of War
John Armstrong on 8 September 1813:

   I have received yours from Albany of the 28th ult.
So much depends on the ultimate character of the present
campaign, that while I have the fullest confidence that the
best exertions will be made, I cannot suppress my anxieties;
and the less so, as one of the elements on which
we are to act is of so inconstant a nature.
The loss of our command of Lake Champlain
at so critical a moment is deeply to be regretted.
I cannot but hope from the measures taken & the character
of McDonaugh, that it will be regained in time for the
co-operation of Hampton, or that the latter will be able
to get forward by land the essential means of wresting
from the enemy the ports at their end of the lake.
Chauncy I see has gone once more
in search of the British Squadron.
I trust in his good sense & firmness as a
security against his being hurried by an
impatience to fix the public opinion in his favor.
In the North Western Quarter it would seem that
Harrison has not been able to keep time with Perry.
If no augmentation of the British squadron should deprive
ours of its superiority, the delay may have little effect.
   I received lately from Mr. Parker a letter from
Governor Shelby of August 1st with your
acknowledgment of it, intimating that a final answer
would result from a transmission of the letter to me.
From a note of Mr. Parker’s to me it appeared that you
had not taken the meaning of one to you on the subject.
I returned the letter to the War office with a few notes,
rendered of little moment by the lapse of time, but which
might have a bearing on the answer which it may be still
proper for you to give to the Governor as it was promised.
   The British fleet under Warren has returned to the South
end of the Chesapeake; whether to renew operations in that
quarter to seek Shelter against the approaching equinox,
or to proceed to New London or elsewhere is uncertain.
New London would occur as a probable object,
if the particular season were not unfavorable to it.
The two frigates there are the next in importance
to the objects presented in the Chesapeake.
Whatever the immediate destination may be, it will be
well to keep in mind, that as soon as the progress of
the season renders a northern position unmanageable,
the ulterior destination according to their apparent plan
of warfare will be a Southern one, that is to say the
Coasts & ports of South Carolina & Georgia.
Nor is it beyond the range of calculation, that
New Orleans will be an object, more especially
if our success in Canada should suggest such a set-off.
   You will have learned from the War office, the difficulties
which adhered to the Expedition against the hostile Indians.
In order to remove them I had adopted
the idea of putting Pinkney at the head of it.
The objections to the expedient acquired such force
from reflection, that it was abandoned,
and the command left with Governor Mitchell.
You will see by a letter from Governor Mitchell
of August 24 the measures taken by him
and those not taken by Governor Blount
relative to the Indian expedition, and Mr. Parker will
have informed you of his remittances for the use of it.
I cannot reconcile what is stated by Governor Mitchell,
as to the purpose of Governor Blount with the
letter from Governor Blount of July 30 to you,
as noted to me by Mr. Parker.
The augmented force called out by Governor Mitchell
will, it is to be hoped, ensure success, should any
failure happen on the part of the Governor of Tennessee,
and if there should be no failure, we must console
ourselves for the augmented expense by the
necessity made doubly sure, & by the more
lasting awe which will be impressed on the Savages.
You will receive a letter of August 23 from Col. Hawkins
with a correspondence between him & Governor Mitchell.
It is not a moment for discussing
the question on which it turns.
The doctrine of Governor Mitchell who is regarded as a man
of strong understanding must have been hastily formed.
   If General Dearborn wishes the command of a district,
it is fortunate that so important a one as
that of New York can be assigned to him.
I apprehend however that you must
have been misinformed on the subject.
I find that he feels severely his temporary exile
from Command, especially the mode of it; and
that he thinks a Court Martial or of Enquiry
due to him, previous to a recall into service.
He will doubtless also compare the importance
of the operations against Canada with the
probable inactivity of the scene at New York.
   I have received a letter from Andrew Ellicott
by which it appears that he infers from a letter
from you, that it was in contemplation to appoint
him a professor in the Military Academy.
He is a man of talents & science, but if great injustice
has not been done him in different respects, and his
standing in Pennsylvania be what report makes it, the
tendency of such a selection would merit consideration.
   The Secretary of State was with me
yesterday morning on his way to his family.
No information from abroad had been received by him.29

      Commander Oliver Hazard Perry on September 10, while
flying the banner “Don’t give up the ship,” led nine ships against
the British squadron on Lake Erie and defeated them.
He reported to General Harrison, “We have met the enemy, and they are ours.”
      On October 5 William Henry Harrison and his army of 3,000 men
attacked the British near Thamesville, Ontario and won another victory,
and this time Chief Tecumseh was killed.
Casualties on both sides were light, but about 570 British soldiers were captured.
Two days later the Americans burned Moraviantown.
On October 13 General Harrison discharged the Kentucky volunteers,
and he went back to Detroit.
On the 16th he agreed to an armistice with the Potawatomis,
Miamis, Ottawas, Ojibwas, Weas, and Wyandots.
Secretary of War Armstrong persuaded President Madison to dismiss
commander Dearborn, and General James Wilkinson was chosen to attack Kingston.
Wilkinson accused Col. Samuel Hammond of drunkenness,
and Madison replaced them both with Jacob Brown and George Izard.
By November the British had the entire Atlantic coast
south of New England under a blockade.
      General Andrew Jackson of Tennessee was leading a campaign against the Creeks
who were called “Red Sticks” because they used red clubs.
On October 4 Jackson assembled 5,000 militiamen at Fayetteville.
On November 3 he sent General John Coffee with 900 Tennessee
militia and volunteers and some friendly Cherokees,
and they killed 186 Red Sticks in the Battle of Tallushatchee.
Jackson learned that 1,100 Red Sticks were besieging friendly Creeks at Talladega,
and on November 9 his force of 1,200 infantry and 800 cavalry killed about 300 of them.
Jackson did not want his men to leave his army and threatened to shoot those who tried.
John Woods refused to obey orders, and he was court-martialed and shot.
On the 29th General John Floyd with 950 troops from Georgia and about
400 friendly Creeks led by William McIntosh attacked Autosee and
burned it along with Tallassee, killing about 200 Indians.

Madison & War in December 1813

      Madison sent the longest of his eight annual messages to Congress
on 7 December 1813, and again it was all about the war.
Here is the entire message:

Fellow Citizens of the Senate
and of the House of Representatives.
   In meeting you at the present interesting conjuncture,
it would have been highly satisfactory, if I could
have communicated a favorable result to the Mission
charged with negotiations for restoring peace.
It was a just expectation from the respect due to the
distinguished Sovereign, who had invited them by his
offer of mediation; from the readiness with which the
invitation was accepted on the part of the United States;
and from the pledge to be found in an act of their
Legislature, for the liberality which their Plenipotentiaries
would carry into the negotiations, that no time would
be lost by the British Government in embracing the
experiment for hastening a stop to the effusion of blood.
A prompt and cordial acceptance of the mediation on that
side was the less to be doubted, as it was of a nature not
to submit rights or pretentions on either side to the decision
of an umpire; but to afford merely an opportunity,
honorable and desirable to both for discussing, and if
possible, adjusting them for the interest of both.
   The British Cabinet, either mistaking our desire of peace
for a dread of British power or misled by other fallacious
calculations has disappointed this reasonable anticipation.
No communications from our Envoys
having reached us, no information on the
subject has been received from that source.
But it is known that the mediation was declined in the
first instance; and there is no evidence, notwithstanding
the lapse of time that a change of disposition in the
British Councils has taken place or is to be expected.
   Under such circumstances a nation proud of its rights
and conscious of its strength has no choice but an
exertion of the one in support of the other.
   To this determination the best encouragement is derived
from the success with which it has pleased the Almighty
to bless our arms both on the land and on the water.
   While proofs have been continued of the enterprise
and skill of our cruisers public and private on the Ocean,
and a new trophy gained in the capture of a British
by an American vessel of war after an action giving
celebrity to the name of the victorious Commander;
the great inland waters on which the Enemy were
also to be encountered have presented achievements
of our naval arms, as brilliant in their character,
as they have been important in their consequences.
   On Lake Erie the Squadron under command of Captain
Perry, having met the British squadron of superior force,
a sanguinary conflict ended in the capture of the whole.
The conduct of that officer, adroit as it was daring and
which was so well seconded by his comrades justly
entitles them to the admiration and gratitude of their
Country; and will fill an early page in its naval annals
with a victory never surpassed in luster, however
much it may have been in magnitude.
   On Lake Ontario the caution of the British Commander,
favored by contingences, frustrated the efforts of the
American commander to bring on a decisive action.
Captain Chauncey was able however, to establish
an ascendancy on that important theatre;
and to prove by the manner in which he effected
everything possible that opportunities only were
wanted for a more shining display of his own talents
and the gallantry of those under his command.
   The success on Lake Erie having opened a passage
to the Territory of the Enemy, the officer commanding
the North Western Army transferred the war thither;
and rapidly pursuing the hostile troops fleeing with
their savage associates forced a general action,
which quickly terminated in the capture of the
British and dispersion of the savage force.
   This result is signally honorable to Major General
Harrison by whose military talents it was prepared;
to Colonel Johnson and his mounted volunteers,
whose impetuous onset gave a decisive blow to the
ranks of the Enemy; and to the spirit of the volunteer
Militia, equally brave and patriotic, who bore an interesting
part in the scene; more especially to the chief Magistrate
of Kentucky at the head of them, whose heroism, signalized
in the war which established the Independence of his
Country, sought at an advanced age, a share in hardships
and battles for maintaining its rights and its safety.
   The effect of these successes has been to rescue
the inhabitants of Michigan from their oppressions,
aggravated by gross infractions of the capitulation
which subjected them to a foreign power;
to alienate the savages of numerous tribes from
the Enemy by whom they were disappointed and
abandoned; and to relieve an extensive region of country
from a merciless warfare which desolated its frontiers,
and imposed on its citizens the most harassing services.
   In consequence of our naval superiority on
Lake Ontario, and the opportunity afforded by it for
concentrating our forces by water, operations which
had been provisionally planned, were set on foot against
the possessions of the Enemy on the St. Laurence.
Such however was the delay produced in the first
instance by adverse weather of unusual violence
and continuance and such the circumstances
attending the final movements of the Army, that the
prospect at one time so favorable was not realized.
   The cruelty of the Enemy in enlisting the savages into a
war with a nation, desirous of mutual emulation in mitigating
its calamities has not been confined to any one quarter.
Wherever they could be turned against us,
no exertions to effect it have been spared.
On our southwestern border the Creek Tribes,
who yielding to our persevering endeavors
were gradually acquiring more civilized habits,
became the unfortunate victims of seduction.
A war in that quarter has been the consequence, infuriated
by a bloody fanaticism recently propagated among them.
It was necessary to crush such a war before it could
spread among the contiguous tribes, and before it
could favor enterprises of the Enemy into that vicinity.
With this view a force was called into the service
of the United States from the states of Georgia and
Tennessee, which with the nearest regular troops
and other corps from the Mississippi Territory
might not only chastise the savages into present
peace, but make a lasting impression on their fears.
   The progress of the expedition, as far as is yet known,
corresponds with the martial zeal with which it was
espoused; and the best hopes of a satisfactory issue
are authorized by the complete success with which a
well planned enterprise was executed against a body
of hostile Savages by a detachment of the volunteer
Militia of Tennessee under the gallant command of
General Coffee; and by a still more important victory
over a larger body of them gained under the immediate
command of Major General Jackson, an Officer equally
distinguished for his patriotism and his military talents.
   The systematic perseverance of the Enemy in
courting the aid of the savages in all quarters,
had the natural effect of kindling their ordinary
propensity to war into a passion which even among
those best disposed towards the United States was ready,
if not employed on our side to be turned against us.
A departure from our protracted forbearance to accept the
services tendered by them has thus been forced upon us.
But in yielding to it the retaliation has been mitigated as
much as possible, both in its extent and in its character;
stopping far short of the example of the enemy,
who owe the advantages they have occasionally
gained in battle chiefly to the number of their savage
associates; and who have not controlled them, either
from their usual practice of indiscriminate massacre on
defenseless inhabitants or from scenes of carnage
without a parallel on prisoners to the British arms,
guarded by all the laws of humanity and of honorable war.
For these enormities the enemy are equally responsible,
whether with the power to prevent them, they want the
will or with the knowledge of a want of power,
they still avail themselves of such instruments.
   In other respects the Enemy are pursuing a course
which threatens consequences most afflicting to humanity.
   A standing law of Great Britain naturalizes, as is well
known, all aliens complying with conditions, limited to
a shorter period than those required by the United States;
and naturalized subjects are in war employed by her
Government in common with native subjects.
In a contiguous British Province regulations promulgated
since the commencement of the war compel citizens of
the United States being there under certain circumstances,
to bear arms; while of the native Emigrants from the
United States, who compose much of the population
of the Province, a number have actually borne arms
against the United States within their limits; some
of whom after having done so, have become prisoners
of war and are now in our possession.
The British Commander in that province, nevertheless,
with the sanction as appears of his Government,
thought proper to select from American Prisoners
of war and send to Great Britain for trial as criminals,
a number of individuals, who had emigrated from the
British Dominions long prior to the state of war between
the two nations, who had incorporated themselves into
our political society in the modes recognized by the law
and the practice of Great Britain; and who were made
prisoners of war under the banners of their adopted
country, fighting for its rights and its safety.
   The protection due to these citizens, requiring
an effectual interposition in their behalf a like
number of British prisoners of war were put into
confinement with a notification that they would
experience whatever violence might be committed
on the American prisoners of war sent to Great Britain.
   It was hoped that this necessary consequence of
the step unadvisedly taken on the part of Great Britain,
would have led her Government to reflect on the
inconsistences of its conduct; and that a sympathy with
the British, if not with the American sufferers, would
have arrested the cruel career opened by its example.
   This was unhappily not the case.
In violation both of consistency and of humanity,
American officers and non-commissioned officers in double
the number of the British soldiers confined here were
ordered into close confinement; with formal notice that in
the event of a retaliation for the death which might be
inflicted on the prisoners of war sent to Great Britain for
trial, the officers so confined would be put to death also.
It was notified at the same time, that the commanders
of the British fleets and armies on our coasts are
instructed in the same event to proceed with a
destructive severity against our towns and their inhabitants.
   That no doubt might be left with the Enemy of our
adherence to the retaliatory resort imposed on us,
a correspondent number of British officers, prisoners of war
in our hands were immediately put into close confinement
to abide the fate of those confined by the Enemy; and the
British Government has been apprised of the determination
of this Government to retaliate any other proceedings
against us, contrary to the legitimate modes of warfare.
   It is as fortunate for the United States that they
have it in their power to meet the Enemy in this
deplorable contest, as it is honorable to them, that
they do not join in it, but under the most imperious
obligations and with the humane purpose of effectuating
a return to the established usages of war.
   The views of the French Government on the subjects
which have been so long committed to negotiation, have
received no elucidation since the close of your late session.
The Minister Plenipotentiary of the United States at Paris
had not been enabled by proper opportunities to press the
objects of his Mission, as prescribed by his instructions.
   The Militia being always to be regarded as the great
bulwark of defense and security for free states, and
the Constitution having wisely committed to the national
authority, a use of that force, as the best provision
against an unsafe military establishment, as well as
a resource peculiarly adapted to a country having
the extent and the exposure of the United States,
I recommend to Congress a revision of the militia
laws for the purpose of securing more effectually the
services of all detachments called into the employment
and placed under the Government of the United States.
   It will deserve the consideration of Congress also,
whether among other improvements in the militia laws,
justice does not require a regulation under due precautions
for defraying the expense incident to the first assembling,
as well as the subsequent movements of detachments,
called into the national service.
   To give to our vessels of war, public and private, the
requisite advantage in their cruises, it is of much importance
that they should have, both for themselves and their prizes,
the use of the ports and markets of friendly powers.
With this view I recommend to Congress the expediency
of such legal provisions as may supply the defects,
or remove the doubts of the Executive Authority,
to allow to the cruisers of other powers at war
with Enemies of the United States, such use of the
American ports, as may correspond with the privileges
allowed by such powers to American Cruisers.
   During the year ending on the 30th of September last,
the receipts into the Treasury have exceeded
thirty seven Millions and a half of dollars, of which
near twenty four millions were the produce of loans.
After meeting all the demands for the public service,
there remained in the Treasury on that day near
seven millions of dollars.
Under the authority contained in the act of the
2nd of August last for borrowing seven millions
and a half of dollars, that sum has been obtained on
terms more favorable to the United States than those
of the preceding loan made during the present year.
Further sums to a considerable amount will be
necessary to be obtained in the same way during
the ensuing year; and from the increased capital
of the country from the fidelity with which the public
engagements have been kept, and the public credit
maintained, it may be expected on good grounds, that
the necessary pecuniary supplies will not be wanting.
   The expenses of the current year,
from the multiplied operations falling
within it have necessarily been extensive.
But on a just estimate of the campaign, in which the
mass of them has been incurred, the cost will not be found
disproportionate to the advantages which have been gained.
The campaign has indeed in its latter stages in one
quarter been less favorable than was expected,
but in addition to the importance of our naval success,
the progress of the campaign has been filled with
incidents, highly honorable to the American Arms.
   The attacks of the Enemy on Craney Island,
on Fort Meigs, on Sacket’s Harbor, and on Sandusky
have been vigorously and successfully repulsed; nor
have they in any case succeeded on either Frontier
excepting when directed against the peaceable dwellings
of individuals or villages unprepared or undefended.
   On the other hand the movements of the American Army
have been followed by the reduction of York and of Forts
George, Erie, and Malden; by the recovery of Detroit and
the extinction of the Indian war in the West; and by the
occupancy or command of a large portion of Upper Canada.
Battles have also been fought on the borders of the
St. Laurence, which though not accomplishing their
entire objects reflect honor on the discipline and prowess
of our Soldiery the best auguries of eventual victory.
In the same scale are to be placed the late successes in
the South over one of the most powerful, which had
become one of the most hostile also of the Indian Tribes.
   It would be improper to close this communication
without expressing a thankfulness, in which all ought
to unite for the numerous blessings with which our
beloved country continues to be favored; for the
abundance which overspreads our land, and the
prevailing health of its inhabitants; for the preservation
of our internal tranquility and the stability of our free
institutions; and above all for the light of divine truth and the
protection of every man’s conscience in the enjoyment of it.
And although among our blessings we cannot number
an exemption from the evils of war; yet these will
never be regarded as the greatest of evils by the
friends of liberty and of the rights of nations.
Our country has before preferred them to the degraded
condition which was the alternative, when the sword
was drawn in the cause, which gave birth to our national
Independence; and none who contemplate the magnitude,
and feel the value of that glorious event, will shrink from
a struggle to maintain the high and happy ground,
on which it placed the American people.
   With all good citizens the justice and necessity of
resisting wrongs and usurpations no longer to be
borne will sufficiently outweigh the privations
and sacrifices inseparable from a state of war.
But it is a reflection, moreover, peculiarly consoling,
that while wars are generally aggravated by their
baneful effects on the internal improvements and
permanent prosperity of the nations engaged in them,
such is the favored situation of the United States, that
the calamities of the contest into which they have been
compelled to enter are mitigated by improvements and
advantages of which the contest itself is the source.
   If the war has increased the interruptions of our
commerce, it has at the same time cherished and
multiplied our manufactures; so as to make us independent
of all other countries for the more essential branches,
for which we ought to be dependent on none; and is even
rapidly giving them an extent, which will create additional
staples in our future intercourse with foreign markets.
   If much treasure has been expended, no inconsiderable
portion of it has been applied to objects durable in their
value and necessary to our permanent safety.
   If the war has exposed us to increased spoliations on
the ocean and to predatory incursions on the land, it has
developed the national means of retaliating the former, and
of providing protection against the latter; demonstrating to
all that every blow aimed at our maritime independence is
an impulse accelerating the growth of our maritime power.
   By diffusing through the mass of the nation the elements
of military discipline and instruction, by augmenting and
distributing warlike preparations applicable to future use;
by evincing the zeal and valor with which they will be
employed and the cheerfulness with which every
necessary burden will be borne; a greater respect
for our rights and a longer duration of our future peace
are promised, than could be expected without these
proofs of the national character and resources.
   The war has proved, moreover, that our free
Government, like other free Governments,
though slow in its early movements, acquires,
in its progress a force proportioned to its freedom;
and that the union of these States, the guardian of
the freedom and safety of all and of each
is strengthened by every occasion that puts it to the test.
   In fine, the war with all its vicissitudes is illustrating the
capacity and the destiny of the United States to be a great,
a flourishing and a powerful nation; worthy of the friendship
which it is disposed to cultivate with all others; and
authorized by its own example to require from all
an observance of the laws of justice and reciprocity.
Beyond these their claims have never extended; and
in contending for these we behold a subject for our
congratulations in the daily testimonies of increasing
harmony throughout the nation, and may humbly repose
our trust in the smiles of heaven on so righteous a cause.30

Madison reported that the British had declined the Russian mediation offer.
The President accused the British of using “savages” against the United States.
Madison also blamed the British for using more aliens.
He also asked the Congress to revise the militia laws so that
they could be used more effectively in the war, and he reported that the revenues
of $37,500,000 for the previous fiscal year included nearly $24 million in loans.
      On 9 December 1813 Madison sent this confidential letter
to the United States Congress:

   The tendency of our commercial and navigation laws in
their present state, to favor the Enemy and thereby prolong
the war, is more and more developed by experience.
Supplies of the most essential kinds find their
way, not only to British ports and British armies
at a distance, but the armies in our neighborhood,
with which our own are contending, derive from
our ports and outlets, a subsistence attainable
with difficulty if at all from other sources.
Even the fleets and troops infesting our coasts
and waters are, by like supplies, accommodated and
encouraged in their predatory and incursive warfare.
   Abuses having a like tendency
take place in our import trade.
British fabrics and products find their way into our ports
under the name and from the ports of other countries;
and often in British vessels disguised
as neutrals by false colors and papers.
   To these abuses it may be added that illegal
importations are openly made with advantage
to the violators of the law, produced by undervaluation,
or other circumstances involved in the course
of the Judicial proceedings against them.
   It is found also that the practice of ransoming
is a cover for collusive captures and a channel
for intelligence advantageous to the Enemy.
   To remedy as much as possible these evils,
I recommend: That an effectual embargo on
exports be immediately enacted.
   That all articles, known to be derived either not at all,
or in an immaterial degree only, from the productions of
any other Country than Great Britain, and particularly the
extensive articles made of wool and cotton materials,
and ardent spirits made from the cane, be expressly
and absolutely prohibited from whatever port or place,
or in whatever vessels, the same may be brought
into the United States; and that all violations of the
non-importation act be subjected to adequate penalties.
   That among the proofs of the neutral and
national character of foreign vessels, it be
required that the Masters and Supercargoes,
and three fourths at least of the crews, be citizens or
subjects of the country under whose flag the vessels sail.
   That all persons concerned in collusive captures
by the Enemy, or in ransoming vessels or their cargoes
from the Enemy, be subjected to adequate penalties.
   To shorten as much as possible, the duration of the war,
it is indispensable that the Enemy should feel all the
pressure that can be given to it; and the restraints
having that tendency will be borne with the greater
cheerfulness by all good citizens, as the restraints
will affect those most, who are most ready to sacrifice
the interests of their country in pursuit of their own.31

      Congress met in secret and passed the Embargo Act
that Madison signed on December 17.
The embargo prohibited all American ships and goods from
being exported and banned customary imports from Britain,
some foreign ships from trading in American ports, and ransoming ships.
The army authorization was increased to 62,500 men.
      The British regained Fort George in December, and on the 19th a British force
of 562 men led by Col. John Murray made a surprise attack on Fort Niagara.
Then in three days about 500 British led by General Phineas Riall
invaded American territory and destroyed Lewiston, New York
and other towns, capturing 358 soldiers and war supplies.
On 30 December 1813 they landed at Black Rock with
about 1,400 regulars and Indians, and they defeated 2,011 Americans
and then looted and burned Black Rock and Buffalo, New York.

Notes
1. Speech in Congress on the War of 1812 (Online).
2. The Papers of James Madison: Presidential Series, Volume 5 10 July 1812—
7 February 1913
ed. J. C. A. Stagg  et al, p. 577-579.
3. Ibid., p. 594.
4. Ibid., p. 645-646.
5.  Ibid., p. 650-657.
6. The Papers of James Madison: Presidential Series, Volume 6 8 February—
24 October 1813
ed. J. C. A. Stagg, p. 61.
7. Ibid., p. 85-87.
8. Ibid., p. 100-101
9. Ibid., p. 164.
10. Ibid., p. 170.
11. Ibid., p. 175-176.
12. Ibid., p. 209-210.
13. Ibid., p. 339-343.
14. Ibid., p. 356-357.
15. Ibid., p. 362-364.
16. Ibid., p. 364.
17. Ibid., p. 370-371.
18. Ibid., p. 389-391.
19. Ibid., p. 393-394.
20. Ibid., p. 396-398.
21. Ibid., p. 401-402.
22. Ibid., p. 409-410.
23. Ibid., p. 413-415.
24. Ibid., p. 449-450.
25. Ibid., p. 418-429.
26. Ibid., p. 576-577.
27. Ibid., p. 581-582.
28. Ibid., p. 583-584.
29. Ibid., p. 601-603.
30. The Papers of James Madison: Presidential Series, Volume 7 25 October 1813—
30 June 1814
ed. J. C. A. Stagg et al, p. 82-89.
31. Ibid., p. 94-95.

Copyright © 2024 by Sanderson Beck

Herbert Hoover

Woodrow Wilson

Thomas Jefferson

George Washington

John Adams

James Madison to 1808

Uniting Humanity by Sanderson Beck

History of Peace Volume 1
History of Peace Volume 2

ETHICS OF CIVILIZATION Index
World Chronology
Chronology of America

BECK index