The outgoing President Thomas Jefferson signed the repeal of the
controversial Embargo on 1 March 1809, and he attended
the inauguration of James Madison on March 4.
Madison gave his inaugural address before he took the oath of office
as the fourth President of the United States under the Constitution.
He reviewed the beneficial policies of Jefferson’s Republican presidency.
This is his complete speech:
Unwilling to depart from examples of the most revered
authority, I avail myself of the occasion now presented to
express the profound impression made on me by the call of
my country to the station to the duties of which I am about
to pledge myself by the most solemn of sanctions.
So distinguished a mark of confidence, proceeding
from the deliberate and tranquil suffrage of a free and
virtuous nation, would under any circumstances have
commanded my gratitude and devotion, as well as filled
me with an awful sense of the trust to be assumed.
Under the various circumstances which
give peculiar solemnity to the existing period,
I feel that both the honor and the responsibility
allotted to me are inexpressibly enhanced.
The present situation of the world is indeed without a
parallel, and that of our own country full of difficulties.
The pressure of these, too, is the more severely
felt because they have fallen upon us at a moment
when the national prosperity being at a height not
before attained, the contrast resulting from the
change has been rendered the more striking.
Under the benign influence of our republican institutions,
and the maintenance of peace with all nations while
so many of them were engaged in bloody and wasteful
wars, the fruits of a just policy were enjoyed in an
unrivaled growth of our faculties and resources.
Proofs of this were seen in the improvements of
agriculture, in the successful enterprises of commerce,
in the progress of manufacturers and useful arts,
in the increase of the public revenue and the use
made of it in reducing the public debt,
and in the valuable works and establishments
everywhere multiplying over the face of our land.
It is a precious reflection that the transition from
this prosperous condition of our country to the scene
which has for some time been distressing us is not
chargeable on any unwarrantable views, nor as I trust,
on any involuntary errors in the public Councils.
Indulging no passions which trespass on the rights
or the repose of other nations, it has been the true
glory of the United States to cultivate peace by
observing justice, and to entitle themselves to the
respect of the nations at war by fulfilling their neutral
obligations with the most scrupulous impartiality.
If there be candor in the world, the truth
of these assertions will not be questioned;
posterity at least will do justice to them.
This unexceptionable course could not avail against
the injustice and violence of the belligerent powers.
In their rage against each other, or impelled by more
direct motives, principles of retaliation have been introduced
equally contrary to universal reason and acknowledged law.
How long their arbitrary edicts will be continued in
spite of the demonstrations that not even a pretext
for them has been given by the United States,
and of the fair and liberal attempt to induce a
revocation of them cannot be anticipated.
Assuring myself that under every vicissitude the determined
spirit and united councils of the nation will be safeguards to
its honor and its essential interests, I repair to the post
assigned me with no other discouragement than what
springs from my own inadequacy to its high duties.
If I do not sink under the weight of this deep conviction
it is because I find some support in a consciousness of
the purposes and a confidence in the principles which
I bring with me into this arduous service.
To cherish peace and friendly intercourse with all nations
having correspondent dispositions; to maintain sincere
neutrality toward belligerent nations; to prefer in all cases
amicable discussion and reasonable accommodation of
differences to a decision of them by an appeal to arms;
to exclude foreign intrigues and foreign partialities,
so degrading to all countries and so baneful to free ones;
to foster a spirit of independence too just to invade the
rights of others, too proud to surrender our own,
too liberal to indulge unworthy prejudices ourselves
and too elevated not to look down upon them in others;
to hold the union of the States as the basis of their peace
and happiness; to support the Constitution, which is the
cement of the Union, as well in its limitations as in its
authorities; to respect the rights and authorities reserved
to the States and to the people as equally incorporated
with and essential to the success of the general system;
to avoid the slightest interference with the right of
conscience or the functions of religion, so wisely exempted
from civil jurisdiction; to preserve in their full energy the
other salutary provisions in behalf of private and personal
rights, and of the freedom of the press; to observe economy
in public expenditures; to liberate the public resources by
an honorable discharge of the public debts; to keep within
the requisite limits a standing military force, always
remembering that an armed and trained militia is the firmest
bulwark of republics—that without standing armies their
liberty can never be in danger, nor with large ones safe;
to promote by authorized means improvements friendly
to agriculture, to manufactures, and to external as
well as internal commerce; to favor in like manner the
advancement of science and the diffusion of information as
the best aliment to true liberty; to carry on the benevolent
plans which have been so meritoriously applied to the
conversion of our aboriginal neighbors from the degradation
and wretchedness of savage life to a participation of the
improvements of which the human mind and manners are
susceptible in a civilized state—as far as sentiments and
intentions such as these can aid the fulfillment of my duty,
they will be a resource which cannot fail me.
It is my good fortune, moreover, to have the path
in which I am to tread lighted by examples of illustrious
services successfully rendered in the most trying
difficulties by those who have marched before me.
Of those of my immediate predecessor it
might least become me here to speak.
I may, however, be pardoned for not suppressing
the sympathy with which my heart is full in the rich
reward he enjoys in the benedictions of a beloved
country, gratefully bestowed or exalted talents
zealously devoted through a long career to the
advancement of its highest interest and happiness.
But the source to which I look or the aids which alone
can supply my deficiencies is in the well-tried intelligence
and virtue of my fellow-citizens, and in the counsels of
those representing them in the other departments
associated in the care of the national interests.
In these my confidence will under every difficulty be best
placed, next to that which we have all been encouraged
to feel in the guardianship and guidance of that Almighty
Being whose power regulates the destiny of nations,
whose blessings have been so conspicuously dispensed
to this rising Republic, and to whom we are bound to
address our devout gratitude for the past, as well as our
fervent supplications and best hopes for the future.1
President Madison maintained Albert Gallatin as Secretary
of the Treasury and relied on him as his closest advisor.
He nominated Jefferson’s Secretary of the Navy Robert Smith to be
Secretary of State, and as the brother of Senator Samuel Smith
of Massachusetts he was easily confirmed.
Madison aimed for geographical diversity and selected Dr. William Eustis
of Massachusetts as Secretary of War and
Paul Hamilton of South Carolina to be Navy Secretary.
He kept on Postmaster-General Gideon Granger
and Attorney General Caesar Rodney.
Unlike previous presidents Madison did not hold cabinet meetings frequently,
but rather he visited their offices for personal advice.
Madison submitted all the cabinet nominations on March 7,
and the United States Senate confirmed them that day.
On 17 March 1809 President Madison wrote this letter
to the United States Minister William Pinkney in London:
You will learn by the communications from the
Department of State that the discussions of
Congress on our foreign relations had an issue
less operative than was at one time looked for.
The aversion to war, the inconveniences produced
by or charged on the embargo, the hope of favorable
changes in Europe, the dread of civil convulsions in
the East, and the policy of permitting the discontented
to be reclaimed to their duty by losses at sea, had
each a share in producing the Nonintercourse Act.
Certain it is that no measure was ever adopted by so
great a proportion of any public body, which had the
hearty concurrence of so small a one; and it seems
to be as little satisfactory out of doors as it was within.
The most unfortunate feature in the act is its limitation
to the end of the next Session in May; which must
produce an apparent submission to the Foreign Edicts;
unless prevented by a prolongation of the act, or the
substitution of some other mode of resisting them,
against either of which the internal difficulties will
be very great in a short session, and may be
augmented by insidious manifestations from abroad.
It is impossible therefore to say what
may be the result of this Extra Session.
It is probable however that the members will derive
some vigor from the intermediate communication
with their Constituents; and it may happen also
that the representatives of the more commercial
districts may be stimulated by depredations if these
should be in time to operate on their deliberations.
It can scarcely be believed that a voluntary
acquiescence under the Edicts will in any State of things
take place; and it is a fair inference therefore,
that if the interval between the spring & the fall
sessions should leave the belligerents to an uncontrolled
career in their aggressions, it will be followed by some fresh
efforts to vindicate our rights or enforce our resentments.
With some the idea has prevailed that a system of
navigation and commercial regulations, excluding
foreign bottoms and favoring the manufactures of
friendly nations as well as our own, would be more
efficacious against Great Britain at least, than any
plans whatever of a temporary character.
One of the greatest obstacles at present would be the
feeling in the Southern people excited by the conduct of
the Eastern in first urging a struggle for maritime rights,
and then not only taking the opposite side, but reproaching
the struggle as a proof of hostility to Eastern interests.
You will see the lengths to which the Legislatures
of Massachusetts & Connecticut have proceeded;
and which are so well calculated to pamper
the views of Great Britain against us.
It ought to be understood however that appearances
are pushed beyond the reality with a reference to
the approaching Elections, and that the degree in
which this policy has been indulged may defeat itself.
I am very happy to find by your private letter
by the Union, that the freedom used with yours
of ? has been so kindly taken.
I am not the less mortified at the same time with
the abuses of confidence committed in Congress.
The Newspapers will show that the whole
of the documents confidentially sent to
Congress have found their way to the press.
There is no question that the copies furnished
were taken by members of that Body.
If no steps be taken to trace & prevent repetitions
of this scandalous proceeding, new rules of
communication from the Executive must follow
and of course from our Ministers abroad also.
Indeed it cannot be expected that they will be trusted by
foreign Governments with much worth communicating.
The official letter from Mr. Smith glances at a renewal of
general negotiations, in case the British Government should
open the way for it by putting aside the obstacle of the
Chesapeake business, which it is so easy for it to do,
and which there can be no decent pretext for not doing.
Notwithstanding the indignities as well as aggressions
persevered in, in spite of so many motives to a different
course, we are ready to adopt any arrangements not
too unreasonable for restoring harmony, and
establishing commerce between the two Countries.
But little can be hoped from the present
Cabinet in its present temper.
The manner as well as the matter of Mr. Canning’s note
on this little change made in the Orders of Council, at a
moment when the documents proving the fairness of this
Government in its neutral course were before him, and the
disasters in Spain thickening in prospect, exhibit a spirit from
which the most unfavorable inferences only can be drawn.
One of the characteristics of the times however is
the rapidity with which new turns are given to things;
and scarcely any new ones can be contemplated
which will not make them better.
I sincerely wish you health, happiness, and a successful
issue to your endeavors in the service of your Country.2
On 30 March 1809 Jefferson wrote in a letter
to Madison about his friend James Monroe,
Col. Monroe dined & passed an evening
with me since I came home.
He is sincerely cordial: and I learn from several that
he has quite separated himself from the junto which
had got possession of him & is sensible that they had
used him for purposes not respecting himself always.
He & John Randolph now avoid seeing one another,
mutually dissatisfied.
He solemnly disclaims all connection with the
anomalous paper of the place & disapproves it.
His only tie remaining is a natural one,
& that is said to be loosened.
I did not enter into any material political conversation
with him, & still less as to the present course of things
because I shall have better opportunities on his return
with his family, whom he is gone to bring permanently
to his residence here, and I think the daughter is expected
to make a part of his family during the summer at least.
On the whole I have no doubt that his strong &
candid mind will bring him to a cordial return to
his old friends after he shall have been separated
a while from his present circle, which separation
I think is one of the objects of his removal from Richmond,
with which place he expressed to me much disgust.3
Thomas Jefferson wrote in a letter to Madison on 17 April 1809,
I have to acknowledge your favor of the 9th and
to thank you for the political information it contained.
Reading the newspapers but little & that little but
as the romance of the day, a word of truth now & then
comes like the drop of water on the tongue of Dives.
If the British ministry are changing their policy
towards us, it is because their nation, or rather
the city of London which is the nation to them,
is shaken as usual by the late reverses in Spain.
I have for some time been persuaded that the government
of England was systematically decided to claim a dominion
of the sea by conquest & to levy contributions on all nations
by their licenses to navigate in order to maintain that
dominion to which their own resources are inadequate.
The mobs of their cities are unprincipled enough
to support this policy in prosperous times, but
change with the tide of fortune, & the ministers
to keep their places change with them.
I wish Mr. Oakley may not embarrass you with
his conditions of revoking the orders of council.
Enough of the non-importation law should be reserved
1. to pinch them into a relinquishment of impressments, &
2. to support those manufacturing establishments
which their orders & our interests forced us to make.
I suppose the conquest of Spain will soon
force a delicate question on you as to the Floridas
& Cuba which will offer themselves to you.
Napoleon will certainly give his consent
without difficulty to our receiving the Floridas,
& with some difficulty possibly Cuba.
And though he will disregard the obligation whenever
he thinks he can break it with success, yet it has a
great effect on the opinion of our people & the world
to have the moral right on our side of his agreement
as well as that of the people of those countries.
Mr. Hackley’s affair is really unfortunate.
He has been driven into this arrangement
by his distresses which are great.
He is a perfectly honest man, as is well known
here where he was born; but unaccustomed to
political subjects he has not seen it in that view.
But a respect for the innocence of his views cannot
authorize the sanction of government to such an example.
If Jarvis continues to wish to go to Rio Janeiro,
Lisbon would become vacant & would suit Hackley.
Ought the lying, malicious, & impudent conduct of
Meade to force him on the government for Cadiz?
I know that the present Secretary of State has not
seen his conduct in that light, or he would have
removed him as Navy agent: but such has been his
conduct in truth; and I have no doubt he will bring
forward the transaction between Hackley & Yznardi
in new appeals to the public through the newspapers.
Rather than he should obtain what he has so little merited,
I would suggest Mr. Jefferson as a competitor, although
I do not know that he has ever thought of a Consulship,
nor would I suggest him, if Yznardi remains in the way.
But as to all this do what circumstances will best permit;
I shall be satisfied that whatever you do will be right.
I now enclose you the statement which I promised,
with Le Maire’s note of the articles within his department.
If they were not found to be what he has stated, be so good
as to make the necessary corrections, & whatever the
amount is may be paid entirely at your own convenience
into the bank of the U. S. in diminution of my note.4
On April 19 President Madison issued this proclamation:
Whereas it is provided by the 11th Section of the Act of
Congress entitled “An Act to interdict the Commercial
Intercourse between the United States and Great Britain and
France, and their dependencies; and for other purposes”—
that “in case either France or Great Britain shall so revoke
or Modify her Edicts as that they shall cease to violate the
Neutral Commerce of the United States” the President is
authorized to declare the same by Proclamation, after which
the trade suspended by the said act, and by an act laying an
Embargo on all Ships and Vessels in the Ports and Harbors
of the United States and the several acts supplementary
thereto may be renewed with the Nation so doing.
And whereas the honorable David Montague Erskine,
His Britannic Majesty’s Envoy Extraordinary and
Minister Plenipotentiary, has by the order and in the
name of His sovereign declared to this Government
that the British orders in Council of January and
November 1807, will have been withdrawn as respects
the United States on the 10th day of June next.
Now therefore, I James Madison, President of the
United States do hereby proclaim that the orders in
Council aforesaid will have been withdrawn on the
said tenth day of June next; after which day the trade
of the United States with Great Britain, as suspended
by the act of Congress above mentioned and an act
laying an Embargo on all Ships and Vessels in the Ports
and Harbors of the United States and the several acts
supplementary thereto, may be renewed.5
On 24 April 1809 Madison in a short letter to Jefferson wrote,
You will see in the newspapers the result
of the Advances made by Great Britain.
Attempts were made to give shapes to the arrangement
implying inconsistency and blame on our part.
They were however met in a proper manner &
readily abandoned; leaving these charges in their
full force, as they now bear on the other side.
The British Cabinet must have changed its course under a
full conviction that an adjustment with this Country had
become essential; & it is not improbable that this policy
may direct the ensuing negotiation; mingling with it, at the
same time the hope that it may embroil us with France.
To this use it may be expected the Federalists
will endeavor to turn what is already done,
at the coming session of Congress.
The steps deemed proper to give the
proceeding a contrary turn will not be omitted.
And if France be not bereft of common sense,
or be not predetermined on war with us,
she will certainly not play into the hand of her Enemy.
Besides the general motive to follow the example of Great
Britain she cannot be insensible of the dangerous tendency
of prolonging the commercial sufferings of her Allies,
particularly Russia, all of them already weary of such a state
of things after the pretext for enforcing it shall have ceased.
She must be equally aware of the importance of our
relations to Spanish America, which must now become
the great object of Napoleon’s pride & Ambition.
Should he repeal his decrees with a view to this object, the
most probable source of conflict will be in his extending the
principle on which he required a prohibition of the Trade
with St. Domingo to the case of the Spanish Colonies.
Nor is it improbable that he may couple such a
requisition with an offer to cede the Floridas,
which would present a dilemma not very pleasant.6
In the long Congressional elections that ended on 5 May 1809
the Federalists took 22 seats away from the Republicans who
still retained a 94 to 48 majority in the House of Representatives.
In the Senate the Republicans lost only one seat and still dominated 27 to 7.
On 23 May 1809 President Madison sent
a message to Congress about foreign policy.
He wrote,
Fellow Citizens of the Senate
and of the House of Representatives.
On this first occasion of meeting you, it affords
me much satisfaction to be able to communicate
the commencement of a favorable change
in our foreign relations; the critical state of which
induced a Session of Congress at this early period.
In consequence of the provisions of the act, interdicting
commercial intercourse with Great Britain and France,
our Ministers at London and Paris were without delay
instructed to let it be understood by the French and British
Governments that the authority vested in the Executive to
renew Commercial intercourse with their respective nations
would be exercised in the case specified by that Act.
Soon after these instructions were dispatched, it was
found that the British Government anticipating from early
proceedings of Congress at their last Session the state of
our laws which has had the effect of placing the two
belligerent powers on a footing of equal restrictions and
relying on the conciliatory disposition of the United States
had transmitted to their Legation here provisional
instructions, not only to offer satisfaction for the attack
on the frigate Chesapeake and to make known the
determination of His Britannic Majesty to send an Envoy
Extraordinary with powers to conclude a Treaty on all the
points between the two Countries; but moreover to signify
his willingness in the meantime to withdraw his Orders in
Council in the persuasion that the intercourse with Great
Britain would be renewed on the part of the United States.
These steps of the British Government led
to the correspondence and the Proclamation
now laid before you; by virtue of which, the
commerce between the two Countries, will be
renewable after the tenth day of June next.
While I take pleasure in doing justice to the Counsels
of His Britannic Majesty, which no longer adhering to
the policy which made an abandonment by France of
her Decrees a pre-requisite to a revocation of the
British Orders have substituted the Amicable course
which has issued thus happily; I cannot do less than
refer to the proposal heretofore made on the part of the
United States embracing a like restoration of the suspended
commerce; as a proof of the spirit of accommodation
which has at no time been intermitted; and to the result
which now calls for our congratulations as corroborating the
principles by which the public Councils have been guided
during a period of the most trying embarrassments.
The discontinuance of the British Orders, as they
respect the United States, having been thus arranged, a
communication of the event has been forwarded in one of
our public vessels to our Minister Plenipotentiary at Paris;
with instructions to avail himself of the important addition
thereby made to the considerations which press on the
justice of the French Government, a revocation of its
decrees or such a modification of them, as that they shall
cease to violate the neutral commerce of the United States.
The revision of our Commercial laws proper
to adapt them to the arrangement which has
taken place with Great Britain will doubtless
engage the early attention of Congress.
It will be worthy at the same time of their just and provident
care to make such further alterations in the laws as will
more especially protect and foster the several branches
of manufacture which have been recently instituted or
extended by the laudable exertions of our Citizens.
Under the existing aspect of our affairs I have thought it
not inconsistent with a just precaution to have the Gun-Boats
with the exception of those at New Orleans placed in
a situation, incurring no expense beyond that requisite for
their preservation and convenience for future service;
and to have the crews of those at New Orleans reduced
to the number required for their navigation and safety.
I have thought also that our Citizens detached in quotas of
Militia amounting to one hundred thousand under the Act of
March 1808 might not improperly be relieved from the
state in which they were held for immediate service.
A discharge of them has been accordingly directed.
The progress made in raising and organizing the
additional military force for which provision was made
by the Act of April 1808 together with the disposition of
the troops will appear by a Report which the Secretary
of War is preparing and which will be laid before you.
Of the additional Frigates required by an Act
of the last Session to be fitted for actual service,
two are in readiness; one nearly so and the fourth
is expected to be ready in the month of July.
A report which the Secretary of the Navy is
preparing on the subject to be laid before Congress
will show at the same time the progress
made in officering and manning these ships.
It will show also the degree in which the
provisions of the act relating to the other
public-armed ships have been carried into execution.
It will rest with the judgment of Congress to
decide how far the change in our external prospects
may authorize any modifications of the laws relating
to the Army and Navy establishments.
The works of defense for our seaport towns and harbors,
have proceeded with as much activity as the season
of the year and other circumstances would admit.
It is necessary, however, to state that the appropriations
hitherto made, being found to be deficient, a further
provision will claim the early consideration of Congress.
The whole of the Eight percent stock remaining due
by the United States amounting to
five millions three hundred thousand dollars
had been reimbursed on the last day of the year 1808.
And on the first day of April last, the sum in the
Treasury exceeded nine and a half millions of dollars.
This together with the receipts of the current year on
account of former revenue bonds will probably be nearly, if
not altogether sufficient to defray the expenses of the year.
But the suspension of exports and the
consequent decrease of importations during
the last twelve months will necessarily cause
a great diminution in the receipts of the year 1810.
After that year should our foreign relations
be undisturbed, the revenue will again be
more than commensurate to all the expenditures.
Aware of the inconvenience of a protracted
Session at the present season of the year,
I forbear to call the attention of the Legislature
to any matters not particularly urgent.
It remains therefore only to assure you of the fidelity
and alacrity with which I shall co-operate for the welfare
and happiness of our Country; and to pray that it may
experience a continuance of the Divine blessings
by which it has been so signally favored.7
On May 26 Madison sent to the Congress his
administration’s report by the Secretary of War William Eustis.
Madison wrote this letter to Thomas Jefferson on May 30:
The newfangled policy of the federal party, you will have
noticed, has made a considerable figure in the Newspapers.
Some of the Editors are resuming the Old cant,
and the others will doubtless soon follow the example.
Nothing could exceed the folly of supposing that the
principles & opinions manifested in our foreign discussions
were not in the main at least common to us;
unless it be the folly of supposing that such
shallow hypocrisy could deceive any one.
The truth is the sudden & unlooked for turn of the
British Cabinet has thrown the party entirely off the Center.
They have at present no settled plan.
There is reason to believe that the leaders are
soured towards England and much less disposed than
heretofore to render our interests subservient to hers.
Expressions have been used by one at least of the
Essex Cabinet, whether sincerely or insidiously may
not be absolutely certain, from which it is inferred that
a disposition exists in that quarter not even to continue
the Non-intercourse Act against France.
Certain it is that the desire of war with her
is no longer manifested; that the deficiency
of the English markets excites a keen appetite
for a trade with the Continent; and that a real
uneasiness is felt lest the negotiations with
Great Britain should end in sacrifices on our part,
which they have been reproaching the
Administration for not being ready to make.
As one proof of their present feelings, the federal
leaders show a marked alienation from Erskine.
The Elections in Massachusetts as well as in
New Hampshire & New York have issued unfavorably.
But the smallness of the majority, and the
overstrained exertions it has required seem
to depress rather than flatter the successful party.
No confidence is felt in the permanency of the triumph.
Not a line has been received of late
from any of our foreign Agents.
All that is known is therefore to be gathered
from the ordinary and fallacious channels.8
Also on May 30 Madison wrote this letter in response
to one from the Assembly in the state of Tennessee:
I have received, fellow Citizens, your Address
bearing date the 22nd of April.
The circumstances of the period which led to this expression
of your sentiments were well calculated to produce anxiety
in the minds of Citizens cherishing an ardent love of peace,
though ready to maintain the rights of their Country,
even at the expense of that blessing of any culpable
share in bringing on so extraordinary a state of things.
You very justly acquit the Government and people of the
United States who have given the most ample proofs of
their desire to preserve the relations of Amity with all
nations without requiring more in return, than an
undisturbed enjoyment of the fruits of their honest industry.
In this expectation, reasonable as it was,
we were disappointed.
No appeals either to the justice or the sound interests
of the great contending Nations arrested the multiplied
wrongs which assailed our honor and our rights.
One of those powers at length, yielding to
better Counsels, has stepped forward in a spirit
of conciliation, which according with that always
entertained on our side, has issued in a removal of the
weight which more immediately pressed on our situation.
And should the same spirit be extended, as is promised,
to the remaining points of difference, it may lead
to that permanent harmony and confidence which
a mutual interest prescribes to both.
Nor will we suppress the hope that correspondent
inducements, seconded by such an example,
may produce a like change in the policy of other
Belligerents and thus lay a foundation for the general
tranquility & unobstructed prosperity of our Country.
In the meantime prudence forbids an unlimited
reliance on a favorable course of events; while
patriotism enjoins a Union of all Citizens in a readiness
to maintain the national rights & honor, and a
discountenance of attempts to weaken by dividing them.
I tender my sincere thanks for the kind manner in which
you express the interest you take in the successful
discharge of the arduous trust committed to me.
Whatever inadequacy I feel in other respects,
I can pledge myself for an undiminished attachment
to the Independence, the Union, and the Constitution
of our Country; and for those zealous endeavors to
advance its happiness, in which I am promised the valuable
support & co-operation of the Citizens of Tennessee.9
President Madison appointed John Quincy Adams to be minister to Russia,
but the US Senate again rejected having such a position.
Madison wrote to Emperor Alexander that he would renew the nomination.
A special session of Congress began in May,
and the mission of Adams was approved on June 27.
Congress adjourned the next day.
Madison discharged 100,000 militia, and he had all gunboats
decommissioned except those at New Orleans.
Four frigates under construction were fitted for service.
At the end of Jefferson’s second term Congress had repeale
the unpopular embargo and passed a non-intercourse law.
The British continued to impress American sailors, and their attack
on the Chesapeake still had not been resolved.
A recent law had opened world trade to American
ships except for France and Britain.
Madison hoped to reinstate trade with them if they
would end their restrictions on American commerce.
On March 19 he sent the same instructions to the Minister Plenipotentiary
William Pinkney in England and to Minister John Armstrong in France.
The British Foreign Secretary George Canning offered to renew commerce,
but Madison rejected that as an insulting continuation of the British policy
of allowing their ships to interfere with American ships bound for France.
On April 19 an agreement was made with the new British ambassador
David Erskine that revoked the objectionable Orders in Council.
Madison proclaimed that this would take effect on June 10.
The British Order in Council on April 26 revoked most of the general
blockade
of all ports under French control and opened neutral commerce in other ports.
Yet on May 25 the American envoy in London learned that the former
Treasurer of the British Navy George Canning had cancelled the agreement.
That news did not reach Washington for six weeks
while Madison was at his Montpelier home in Virginia.
He asked Joel Barlow to purchase the 93 volumes
of the Encyclopedie Methodique for $488.88.
On May 31 President Madison and his wife Dolley
held her first Wednesday evening levee.
On 9 June 1809 Joel Barlow sent to the White House library
93 volumes of the Encyclopedie Methodique along with some other
books including foreign language dictionaries, and the bill was $488.88.
This shocked some Congressmen even though
Barlow had saved a little over $100 on the deal.
Madison on June 20 wrote in a concise letter to Thomas Jefferson:
The Gazette of yesterday contains the mode
pursued for re-animating confidence in the pledge
of the British Government given by Mr. Erskine
in his arrangement with this Government.
1 The puzzle created by the order of April struck every one.
2 Erskine assures us that his Government was under such
impressions as to the views of this, that not the slightest
expectation existed of our fairly meeting its overtures,
& that the last order was considered as a seasonable
mitigation of the tendency of a failure of the experiment.
This explanation seems as extraordinary
as the alternatives it shows.
The fresh declarations of Mr. Erskine seem to have
quieted the distrust which was becoming pretty strong;
but has not destroyed the effect of the ill grace stamped
on the British retreat and of the commercial rigor evinced
by the new & insidious duties stated in the newspapers.
It may be expected, I think, that the British Government
will fulfil what its Minister has Stipulated; and that if it
means to be trickish, it will frustrate the proposed
negotiation and then say their orders were not permanently
repealed but only withdrawn in the meantime.
The only question likely now to agitate
Congress will be on the Bill which opens our
ports to French, as well as British ships of war.
The Senate have passed it unanimously.
Whether the Feds were sincere or wished
the debate &c to take place in the House
of Representatives remains to be seen.10
President Madison sent about 2,000 soldiers to New Orleans in 1809.
In the spring General James Wilkinson stationed most of them at the
malaria-infested Terre aux Boeufs camp below New Orleans.
The camp was finally moved in September after 816 soldiers
had died; 745 were still in hospitals.
General Wilkinson survived a court martial, and Madison
like Jefferson kept the controversial officer in command.
On 20 July 1809 President Madison left the city of Washington to
spend summer months at his Montpelier home that was being remodeled.
The news of Canning’s disavowal of Erskine’s agreement arrived in America
on July 22
and merchants had time to send their cargoes to sea before the government acted.
On July 23 Madison sent this letter to the City Council of New Orleans:
I have received, fellow Citizens, Your act
of June 10th with the sensibility due to the
kindness of its expressions towards me personally;
and with all the gratification which the just & patriotic
view it takes of the public welfare ought to inspire.
The peace & plenty which have distinguished our Country,
amid the convulsions and calamities forming the general
character of the times and under the perplexities resulting
to our own affairs, claim for the policy which has preserved
those blessings the approbation you bestow on it.
Such marks of attachment to the solid interest of
our Country and of confidence in the public Councils
are the more to be valued, as the trials imposed on us
by foreign Injustice have not yet ceased; and as it is
among those who are most averse to War while it
can be honorably avoided that we are at all times
to look for the most unyielding support of the national
rights when peace can no longer be preserved.
I behold with the truest satisfaction the advantages
which the Territory and City of New Orleans have
reaped from their incorporation with the United States;
and especially that you are so fully sensible of the degree
in which they are the fruits of our free system of
Government administered in the spirit which belongs to it.
The Nation into whose bosom you have been received
must always rejoice at your prosperity, because it at
once indicates & promotes the General prosperity.
Never was such a connection more distinctly pointed
out by nature herself; nor can the reciprocal benefits
of it ever cease while the laudable and enlightened
sentiments which you proclaim shall continue to
pervade the great Body of our fellow Citizens.11
On 24 July 1809 Treasury Secretary Gallatin wrote in a letter to Madison,
I had intended to leave this for Orange tomorrow;
but under an impression that the late accounts from
England must necessarily bring you here for a few days
in order to make the arrangements & give the directions
required by this unexpected change of circumstances,
I have concluded to wait at least for your answer.
That will reach this city on Sunday morning; and if you
conclude not to come, I will on the ensuing day go to you.
Mr. Hamilton has concluded to wait till then, & I have
written to Rodney to return, as even if you do not come,
I will try to induce him to accompany me to your Seat.
As the British Government must have something
to show in justification or palliation of their conduct,
we may conclude that the tenor of their instructions
to Mr. Erskine, (founded on what from Campbell’s
report & the first reported non-intercourse bill they
supposed would be the result of the Congressional
deliberations,) contemplated a prohibition of intercourse
on our part with Holland as well as with France & England.
But if the omission of Holland in our prohibitory
laws had been the true cause as well as the pretense
of the refusal of Great Britain, that Government would
not have failed to give as far as practicable an evidence
of their sincerity & good faith by ratifying so much of
Mr. Erskine’s arrangement as was not liable to the
above-mentioned objection, & withdrawing
therefore their orders so far as related to France.
Assured as they were that we would not, pending the illegal
decrees of that country, renew our commerce with her,
I cannot perceive any other motive on the part of the British
ministry for not doing an act which, if they were sincere,
cost them nothing, than a determined adherence to the
principle of a proclamation blockade of France & Holland,
and a fear that their withdrawing their orders would afford
an opportunity to Bonaparte to imitate their example,
& thereby restore the freedom of neutral commerce.
I take it therefore for granted that from the
present ministry we cannot expect a change
of system so far as relates to France & the other
countries prohibited by their last orders of April.
If France was to repeal their decrees which violate
the law of Nations & retain their municipal prohibitory
laws, the British Ministry would probably make that
the pretense of continuing their illegal orders.
What course ought we then to pursue?
This certainly is a most serious question &
which so far as relates to any permanent
system I do not mean to discuss in this hasty way.
But there are some points which seem to require
immediate consideration & decision & to which
our attention must without delay be turned.
1. Considering the Tenor of the 11th Section
of the Non Intercourse Act & of your proclamation
of the 20th of April, do not the prohibitions of that
Act naturally revive in relation to England?
I am inclined to the affirmative; and it is principally
on that point that I wish Rodney to be with us.
It is desirable that we may be enabled to decide in that way,
because it will relieve us to a considerable degree from the
awkward & embarrassed situation in which we have been
thrown by the refusal of England to ratify the arrangement.
For it would then restore our equality of prohibition
to the state in which they were prior to the 20th
of April, prevent a quarrel or at least our being
in the wrong with France, and perhaps also
supersede the necessity of a special call of Congress.
2. Ought Congress to be called?
If we can by the mere operation of law
revive the prohibitions in relation to England,
that inconveniency may be avoided; unless some
advantages be expected from the effect produced
on the public opinion by the conduct of England.
3. In what manner shall we treat, & act with,
Mr. Francis James Jackson the new British minister?
He may be daily expected, and is certainly the same
person who was under the Addington administration,
minister to Prussia with Caramajor for his Secretary.
He was also, as I believe but am not certain, the Envoy
sent to Denmark previous to the attack on Copenhagen
& to whom the Prince Regent said that he had
undertaken a dishonorable mission.12
Madison responded to Gallatin on July 30 with this letter:
Since my last I have received yours of the 26th.
If the sketch of Erskine’s instructions be faithful,
it shows as clearly that Canning was determined to
prevent an adjustment, as that Erskine was to effect it.
The proof is the stronger of Canning’s insidiousness,
as he must have known from the answer of
Mr. Pinkney to the expedient which would substitute
the capture of our trade under our laws for captures
under British Orders, that so degrading an idea
would be received with disgust & indignation.
I recollect that the conversation left Mr. Pinkney under
the impression that it would never be even urged on this
Country; or rather that if it had before been seriously
entertained, this treatment of it had put it out of question.
The idea is indeed too absurd and insulting
ever to have been sincerely counted upon.
Recollect the British language held against
the Bayonne Decree, which went no farther
than to derive from our laws a circumstantial
evidence to warrant an execution of their own.
The statement of conversations with
the Heads of Department must certainly
be erroneously charged on Erskine.
It seems impossible that he could have so understood
any of us; particularly on the point of letting British
Ships capture our vessels bound to Continental Ports.
I have been endeavoring to recollect the tenor of the
Act modifying a continuance of the Non-intercourse Act;
but cannot succeed, so as to authorize any opinion on the
question whether the failure of the British arrangement
puts the act in force as to her as well as to France.
Should this be the case, however apropos
it may be in some views; it involves some
very serious difficulties in your Department.
As the last Order is not even a temporary fulfilment of
the bargain; this must be considered as void ab initio.
The trade under it therefore is not only unlawful
since the 20th of July; but all the direct exports &
imports, and all the indirect imports of British productions,
previous to that date are retrospectively condemned.
This consequence seems the more inevitable inasmuch
as a temporary compliance, if commensurate with the
range of the bargain could not give it even a temporary
validity, an unqualified compliance being an essential
condition on both sides and actually executed on ours.
From this view of the case I am extremely anxious to learn
what is ascertained to be the true construction of the Act;
the more so, as there is reason to dread that a restoration
& retrospective execution of the non-intercourse Act against
Great Britain may be made pretexts by her for a general
warfare on the extensive property already exposed to it.
The effect which this will have on our Merchants & through
them on the public makes the Executive responsibility,
particularly that of Mr. Rodney singularly delicate.
It would be fortunate if the case could
at once be brought before Congress.
As this is impossible, it remains to be decided
whether the short anticipation of their meeting which
is practicable, will recommend or not an extra Call.
The main body of the difficulties must
unavoidably precede the effect of it.
I hope by the next mail, which comes on
Wednesday, to be advised on this subject,
as well as on that of my return to the City.
I observe in the Newspapers a loud outcry
against F. J. Jackson as proscribed by his diplomatic
enormities, & inadmissible as a public Minister here.
I do not know or recollect enough of
his history to decide on his character.
My general impression is that he has been
represented by Rufus King as arrogant in
his temper & manners, and that he has been
the instrument for certain offensive transactions.
Under the latter aspect, the objection
lies to his Masters more than to him.
If there be personal objections of any sort
to him, he might be rejected on that ground
without just offense to his Government.
But unless his demerits be very flagrant, such indeed
as to mark his mission as obviously disrespectful,
a refusal to receive him would make both the man
& the mission of too much importance; to say nothing
of the purposes to which it might be perverted.
In the meantime the choice of such a man to heal
the wound in our relations does not look well.
It would be refining too much perhaps to
suspect that he was chosen to be rejected.
But it is certainly not so, to believe that he
would not have been chosen, if the Mission
was bona fide meant to be a conciliatory one.
The death of Judge Ducket, communicated
by Mr. Duval, calls for a succession.
As you are so near Mr. Duval’s, will you
ascertain his idea of the most proper one,
particularly of Mr. Alexander Scott of George Town,
recommended from very respectable quarters.
Ascertain also whether the course of
business makes it material that the vacancy
be filled before the Meeting of Congress.13
Madison on 3 August 1809 wrote this letter to Thomas Jefferson:
Herewith you will receive a packet, which being
wrapped up in a large one for me from the Department
of State was taken out of the mail of yesterday and
not observed before the rider had set out.
I find myself under the mortifying necessity of
setting out tomorrow morning for Washington.
The intricate state of our affairs with England
produced by the mixture of fraud & folly in
her late conduct, and the important questions
to be decided as to the legal effect of the failure
of the arrangement of April on our commercial
relations with her, are thought by the Heads of
Department to require that I should join them.
The main question is whether the non-intercourse
act as continued at the last Session comes
into force against England, thereby putting
her on the same footing with France.
You will see by the instructions to Erskine as
published by Canning, that the latter was as much
determined that there should be no adjustment,
as the former was that there should be one.
There must however have been other instructions
comprehending the case of the Chesapeake, and
other communications from Canning accompanying
the British Orders of April 26 as referred to in
Erskine’s Quieting declaration last made to Mr. Smith.
I believe also that Erskine’s letter to Canning
not disclosed by the latter, will not warrant his
ascribing to Erskine the statement of conversations
with Mr. Gelston, Mr. Smith & myself.
Pinkney will also disavow what
Canning has put into his mouth.
I presume from letters which reached me yesterday
that Mr. Smith has communications from Paris as late
as the 10 or 12 of June; whether by the return of
Mr. Coles or another conveyance is uncertain.
The disavowal in England reached Paris the day after
the arrival of the arrangement transmitted by Mr. Gelston.
Our affairs with France had taken no
decided turn; owing as alleged, to the
absence & occupation of the Emperor.
The return of Gelston will probably put
us in possession of a final estimate.14
9 August 1809 Madison issued another
presidential proclamation which declared:
Whereas in consequence of a communication from His
Britannic Majesty’s Envoy Extraordinary and Minister
Plenipotentiary, declaring that the British Orders in Council
of January and November 1807 would have been withdrawn
on the tenth day of June last; and by virtue of authority
given in such event by the eleventh section of the act of
Congress entitled “An act to interdict the commercial
intercourse between the United States and Great Britain
and France and their dependencies and for other purposes,”
I, James Madison, President of the United States, did issue
my Proclamation bearing date on the nineteenth of April last,
declaring that the Orders in Council aforesaid would have
been so withdrawn on the said tenth day of June, after
which the trade suspended by certain acts of Congress
might be renewed; and whereas it is now officially made
known to me that the said Orders in Council have not been
withdrawn agreeably to the communication and declaration
aforesaid: I do hereby proclaim the same, and consequently
that the trade renewable on the event of the said orders
being withdrawn, is to be considered as under the operation
of the several acts by which such trade was suspended.15
He announced this because the Orders in Council had not been withdrawn.
Thus he proclaimed that legal trade with Britain
was banned under the revived non-intercourse law.
His opponents complained that Congress had not given him power to do that.
Madison did not want a war, but pressure
in the country against the British was mounting.
He returned to his home at Montpelier so that he
would not have to receive Francis James Jackson.
President Madison on August 16 in a letter wrote to Jefferson:
I got home from my trip to Washington on Saturday last;
having remained there three days only.
You will have seen in the Proclamation issued, the result
of our consultations on the effect of what has passed
on our commercial relations with Great Britain.
The enforcement of the non-intercourse act against her
will probably be criticized by some friends and generally
assailed by our adversaries on the ground that the power
given to the Executive being special was exhausted by
the first exercise of it; and that the power having put
out of force the laws to which it related could under
no possible construction restore their operation.
In opposition to this reasoning, it was considered that
the Act of the last Session continuing the non-intercourse,
no otherwise excepted Great Britain than by a proviso that
it should not affect any trade which had been or might be
permitted in conformity with the section of the original act
authorizing a proclamation in favor of the nation revoking
its Edicts; and that the proclamation in favor of
Great Britain was not conformable to that section.
It was not so in substance because the
indispensable pre-requisite, a repeal of
the Orders in Council did not take place.
It was not so even in form; the law requiring a past and
not a future fact to be proclaimed, and the proclamation
on its face pointing to a future, not to a past fact.
This difficulty was felt at the time of issuing the first
proclamation; but it yielded to the impossibility of
otherwise obtaining without great delay the coveted
trade with Great Britain and an example that might be
followed by France; to the idea that the mode in which
the repeal though future, of the orders & of the law was
coupled by the proclamation might on the occurrence of
the former give a constructive validity to the latter; and
to the opportunity afforded by an intervening session of
Congress for curing any defect in the proceeding.
In one respect it would have been clearly proper for
Congress to have interposed its Authority, as was
frequently intimated to members; that is, to provide
for the contingency, not so much of a disavowal by
Great Britain which was never suspected, as of her not
receiving the Act of her Minister till after the 10th of June.
Congress however never could be brought to attend to
the subject, although it was pressed by several members
I believe certainly by Gardenier on the general ground
that the Proclamation, however acceptable, was not in a
form or under the circumstances contemplated by law.
In some of the instructions given by Mr. Gallatin’s circular
a liberty has been taken having no plea but manifest
necessity and as such will be before Congress.
Erskine is in a ticklish situation with his Government
I suspect he will not be able to defend himself against
the charge of exceeding his instructions, notwithstanding
the appeal he makes to sundry others not published.
But he will make out a strong case against Canning,
and be able to avail himself much of the absurdity &
evident inadmissibility of the articles disregarded by him.
He can plead also that the difference between his
arrangement & the spontaneous orders of April 26
is too slight to justify the disavowal of him.
This difference seems indeed to limit its importance
to the case of Holland & to consist in the direct trade
admitted by the arrangement and an indirect one
through the adjoining ports required by the orders.
To give importance to this distinction the Ministry must
avow what if they were not shameless they never would
avow, that their object is not to retaliate injury to an Enemy;
but to prevent the legitimate trade of the U. S. from
interfering with the London smugglers of Sugar & Coffee.16
On August 17 Jefferson wrote this letter
to Madison about the current situation:
I received your’s of yesterday by Mr. Coles.
My journey to Bedford has been delayed
by sickness among my laboring people.
No new case having arisen for some time,
I am in hopes it is at an end.
Still no particular object fixing my departure to
any precise time, it lies over for convenience,
and should I fix a time before we have the
pleasure of seeing yourself & Mrs. Madison
here, I shall certainly inform you of it for my
own sake, that I may not by absence lose
what will be a great gratification to me.
An ancient promise from Mr. & Mrs. Gallatin entitles
me to hope they will extend their journey thus far,
and give us a portion of the time they have to spare.
I never doubted the chicanery of the Anglomen
on whatsoever measures you should take in
consequence of the disavowal of Erskine.
Yet I am satisfied that both the
proclamations have been sound.
The first has been sanctioned by universal approbation.
Although it was not literally the case foreseen by
the legislature, yet it was a proper extension of their
provision to a case similar though not the same.
It proved to the whole world our desire
of accommodation & must have satisfied
every candid federalist on that head.
It was not only proper on the well grounded
confidence that the arrangement would be
honestly executed, but ought to have taken place
even had the perfidy of England been foreseen.
Their dirty gain is richly remunerated to us
by our placing them so shamefully in the wrong,
& by the union it must produce among ourselves.
The last proclamation admits of quibbles of which
advantage will doubtless be endeavored to be taken by
those to whom gain is their god, & their country nothing.
But it is soundly defensible.
The British minister assured that the orders of
council would be revoked before the 10th of June.
The Executive, trusting in that assurance, declared
by proclamation that the revocation was to take place,
& that on that event the law was to be suspended.
But the event did not take place, & the
consequence, of course, could not follow.
This view is derived from the former non-intercourse
law only, having never read the latter one.
I had doubted whether Congress must not be called;
but that arose from another doubt whether their
2nd law had not changed the ground so as to
require their agency to give operation to the law.
Should Bonaparte have the wisdom to correct his injustice
towards us, I consider war with England as inevitable.
Our ships will go to France & it’s dependencies,
and they will take them.
This will be war on their part,
& leaves no alternative but reprisal.
I have no doubt you will think it safe to act
on this hypothesis & with energy.
The moment that open war shall be apprehended
from them, we should take possession of Baton rouge.
If we do not, they will, and New Orleans
becomes irrecoverable & the Western
country blockaded during the war.
It would be justifiable towards Spain on this ground,
& equally so on that of title to West Florida
& reprisal extended to East Florida.
Whatever turn our present difficulty may take,
I look upon all cordial conciliation with England
as desperate during the life of the present king.
I hope & doubt not that Erskine will justify himself.
My confidence is founded in a belief of his integrity,
& in the unprincipled rascality of Canning.
I consider the present as the most shameless
ministry which ever disgraced England.
Copenhagen will immortalize their infamy.
In general their administrations are so changeable,
& they are obliged to descend to such tricks to keep
themselves in place, that nothing like honor or morality
can ever be counted on in transactions with them.
I salute you with all possible affection.17
On 19 August 1809 William Pinckney wrote
this letter from London to President Madison:
I have had the Honor to receive your kind Letter
of the 21st of April and now send the last
Edition of War in Disguise as you request.
As we are turning our Attention to Wool, I have
added a Tract lately published here on the Merino
& Anglo-Merino Sheep which may be of use.
I trust that we shall continue to cultivate such
Manufactures as suit our Circumstances.
Cottons now and woollens hereafter must flourish among us.
American Newspapers have been received
here showing that the Disavowal of Mr. Erskine’s
arrangement has excited much Ferment in the U. S.
I cannot subdue my first Regret that it was found to
be necessary at the last regular Session of Congress
to falter in the Course we were pursuing and to give
Signs of Inability to persevere in a System which
was on the point of accomplishing all its Purposes.
That it was found to be necessary I have no Doubt;
but I have great Doubts whether if it had fortunately
been otherwise, we should have had any Disavowals.
It is to be hoped, however, that
everything will yet turn out well.
That you will do all that can be done at this perilous Moment
for the Honor & advantage of our Country I am sure.
I congratulate you heartily on the abundant proofs
of general Confidence which have marked the
Commencement of your Administration.
I venture to prophecy that they will multiply as you
advance, and that in the Maturity of your Administration
it will be identified in the opinions of all Men with the
Strength & Character & prosperity of the State.
You will see from the English Journals that
the British Army in Spain has fought gallantly.
They make more of this Affair
here than perhaps it deserves.
Cressy & Poictier & Agincourt!!!
The French Account will not exactly agree with
the exulting Inferences drawn by the people
of England from Sir Arthur Wellesley’s Dispatch,
which indeed leaves a great deal to Inference.
It is clear that the Allied Army greatly outnumbered the
French—that it was advantageously posted—that, if the
Spaniards (forming the right Wing to the Number of
upwards of 40,000 Men) were not actively engaged,
they must have occupied or kept in Check an adequate
Number of the French, or have been in a Situation to
turn the left Flank of the French while they were
engaged with the British—that, on the first of these
Suppositions, the British (on the Left) could not have
been attacked (as is here universally supposed) by
the whole French Force—that on the second
Supposition it is quite unaccountable that the French
were not turned, taken in rear, and utterly exterminated.
This splendid Victory, after all, amounts to no more than a
Repulse by nearly 70,000 Men, enjoying every Advantage
of Position, of between 40 & 50,000 Assailants.
The Loss of the British is understood
to have been tremendous.
What the Spanish Loss was is not known—
but it was undoubtedly considerable.
Sir Arthur Wellesley admits that the French retired
in the most regular Order—& it is not pretended
that they were pursued or molested in their Retreat.
It is not to be believed that anything
can come of this supposed Victory.
We have no Data to enable us to judge of
the probable Result of the further projected
Operations of the British Expedition in the Scheldt.
It will depend, of Course, on the relative Strength of
its Opponents, which cannot be otherwise than great.
I shall be greatly deceived if France relaxes at
this Time from her Decrees against Neutral Rights.
I should rather have expected additional Rigor if General
Armstrong had not given me Reason to hope better Things.
The maritime Arrondissement now so near its
Completion will furnish new Inducements to
perseverance in the anti-commercial System.
It appears from the Newspapers that Mr. Adams has
been appointed Minister plenipotentiary to Petersburgh.
I rejoice at this Appointment for many Reasons.
While I am speaking of a new diplomatic Station, will
you forgive me if I intimate that the old can scarcely
remain much longer on their present Establishment.
The Salary is so dreadfully inadequate that I am ruining
myself here in spite of all the Care I can take to avoid it;
and I presume that General Armstrong is not much
better off at Paris, although the necessary Expenses
of Paris are less than those of London.18
On August 20 John Armstrong in Amsterdam wrote this letter to Madison:
This will be handed to you by Joseph Tate who,
after an absence of fifteen years, returns to the
U. S. heartily sick of all he has seen abroad.
His story may not be unknown to you and
is less recommendatory than his character.
In the five years I have been in Paris, though
oppressed by poverty and injustice, his conduct
has at all times been regular and respectable.
He was the Acquaintance of Mr. Monroe and
became mine, not merely on the introduction,
but on the recommendation also of that Gentleman.
There may be some use in
listening to him for half an hour.
You will find him well informed with regard
to the past & current events of Europe.
The embarrassed state of our Commerce
in this country, which you will see from
Bourne’s letters which I send to Mr. Smith,
and many letters claiming my interference
with this Government has recently brought
me hither, and I hope with some useful effect.
No one can be more anxious than the King to
be on good terms with us, but alas! his power to
follow those dispositions is often as deficient as the
dispositions themselves are abundant and sincere.
Among the facts not mentioned in my public letter is one
you ought to know Viz. that he will privately instruct his
ambassador at Paris to make common cause with me in
resisting French depredations and in endeavoring to bring
about a change in the councils and conduct of his brother.
The business of Austria being finished you may
now look forward to the subjugation of Spain.
It is even an Article of the peace that Austria shall
acknowledge Joseph as King of that unhappy country.
Should you not think it useful or proper to break with
France, and should your business become more difficult
and embroiled with England, the shortest and perhaps
safest course to reconciliation with the former will be
through Joseph-Louis and the present King of Naples.
These powers, if United with Russia, could do much.
They are poor and want commerce and would
make great efforts to reproduce between
them and us relations so useful to all.
To effect this, however, you must acknowledge
Joseph & Joachim and send a Minister
to each, or one Minister to both.
Between this course and open hostilities or a continuation
of measures leading to these, I see no middle way.
I set out to-morrow for Paris.
When I get there, my object will be to
obtain a private audience of the Emperor.
This course has been suggested by a Minister
much in his confidence, who the Night before
I left Paris, called upon me to urge an experiment
of it and offered his services to bring it about.
As however the motion must come from the Emperor,
and as he is not always disposed to grant such indulgences,
we must wait his own conviction of its usefulness.
The demand of my passports is the circumstance
most likely to produce the effect, and this I shall try.19
About September 11 Republicans meeting in Nashville, Tennessee
led by Dr. William Dickson formed a committee,
which included General Andrew Jackson.
Dickson sent the following report to President Madison:
Resolved, That the late conduct of the British Government
towards the United States in disavowing the acts
of their minister Mr. Erskine is in the opinion of those,
composing this meeting, base and perfidious and
proves that the cabinet of that country makes
her interest alone their rule of action—
Resolved, That we highly approve of the conduct of the
President of the United States in promptly declaring and
putting in full force those laws of our own government which
were intended to counteract the evil effects that might arise
from the operation of the British orders in council—
Resolved also, That we will support the constituted
Authorities of our country in carrying into effect
such measures as they may adopt for the purpose of
enforcing a strict observance of the Non Intercourse Laws:
and should Congress in their wisdom determine that arms
shall be resorted to against those, who have so often
insulted and injured us, we will risk our lives and
fortunes to support the Cause of our country—
Resolved, That a copy of the Foregoing be transmitted
to the President of the United states to each of our senators
to our representatives in Congress and that the same be
published in the Impartial Review & Clarion.20
Also in September similar Republican meetings were held in Washington County
of New York, McIntosh County of Georgia, Washington County of Kentucky, and
Muskingum County of Ohio, and they each sent their reports to President Madison.
On September 30 General William Henry Harrison and chiefs
of the Delawares, Potowatomi, and the Miami agreed to a treaty at
Fort Wayne in the Indiana Territory that provided money and supplies
to natives in exchange for some land where Americans could settle.
Ambassador Erskine was recalled and replaced by
Francis James Jackson who had delivered the ultimatum to Denmark
just before the British Navy began bombarding Copenhagen.
After his usual summer break Madison returned to Washington
and received the new British minister Jackson on October 3.
Jackson accused the Americans of double-dealing, and
on the 9th Madison ordered the State Department
to communicate with Jackson only in writing.
On the 19th Jackson was informed that he had not explained
the reasons for his government not fulfilling its pledge.
Finally on November 8 Madison sent a letter to Jackson advising
him that no further communications would be received from him
and that he should pass that message on to his government.
On 23 October 1809 President Madison wrote this
in a letter to William Pinkney in London:
My last was enclosed in the dispatches which in
consequence of a failure in reaching the British Ship
of war at Norfolk, were committed to Mr. A. Lee.
I conclude therefore that although out of season,
it finally got safe to hand.
You will see in the communications from the
Department of State what has passed with Mr. Jackson.
No reply to Mr. Robert Smith’s answer has yet been made.
It appears that the British Government
continues to be equally ignorant of our character,
& of what it owes to its own.
From the conversation of Mr. Canning on the
2nd & 3rd conditions in the printed instructions
to Mr. Erskine it was justly inferred that they
would have been erased from the Ultimatum.
And it could hardly be supposed that to the occlusion
of our Trade to Holland, the only apparent difficulty
remaining, every consideration of Justice, dignity,
and even consistency would be so readily sacrificed.
For it is impossible not to see that the avowed
object is no longer to retaliate on an enemy,
but to prevent our legitimate commerce from interfering
with the London Smugglers of Sugar & Coffee.
How can a nation expect to retain the respect of Mankind
whose Government descends to so ignoble a career?
What will be the future course of Mr. Jackson
or that of his Government or of Congress, I do not
undertake to anticipate farther than that Congress
will in some form or other keep up a counteraction
to the misconduct of both Belligerents.
As to Mr. Jackson it cannot be supposed that he has any
effective authority to overcome the difficulties before him.
Although we continue sincerely anxious to facilitate his doing
so, yet not a little indignation is felt at the mean & insolent
attempt to defraud the U. S. of the exculpatory explanation
dictated by the respect due to them; and particularly at the
insinuation in Jackson’s answer that this Government
colluded with Mr. Erskine in violating his instructions.
You will observe by the Gazettes that the
Mr. Luis de Onís, appointed by the Spanish Junta,
is just arrived here as a Minister Plenipotentiary of
Ferdinand; and that efforts are made to turn the
question of his being received to party purposes.
The principle of neutrality on one hand, and on the other,
the limited authority of the Executive which does not
extend beyond the point of fact could never permit the
reception of Mr. Onís in the actual state of things in Spain.
The wonder is that the Junta should have
exposed themselves to such an experiment;
more especially at the moment chosen for it.
But it is not wonderful that the measure should be ascribed,
as it universally is here, to instigations of the British
Government calculating that a reception of Onís, if that
should unexpectedly happen, would lead to a rupture
with France; & that a rejection might throw some advantage
into the hands of the party opposed to the administration,
and by displeasing old Spain & perhaps the Colonels
favor the monopolizing views of Great Britain.
If such was their policy, it may be hoped
that they will be disappointed.
It is a remark in every mouth, that it was a mockery
of the Junta to press on it such an experiment at
the very moment the British army was abandoning
the cause of Ferdinand as desperate.
The public opinion or rather that of the
discontented party has already undergone
a considerable change in favor of the system
pursued in our foreign relations,
and the change is still going on.
In Maryland & Vermont the fact
is shown by the late elections.
And all accounts from the Eastward prognosticate that
the next elections in Massachusetts, New Hampshire,
& Rhode Island will reverse those which took place
during the fever which the Embargo was made to produce.
Reflection alone would probably
have brought about such a change.
But it has been hastened by the disappointment
of all parties as to the Conduct of Great Britain
on the subject of Mr. Erskine’s Arrangement;
and by the severe experience, that a trade
limited to the British dominions is but a mouthful,
and not as the people were told it would be a bellyful.
The shipments to the West Indians have been ruinous.
In the Mediterranean the losses owing to captures,
recaptures & markets glutted from England will
not be less than 25 or 30 percent.
In the Baltic & the North of Europe the
speculations are still more entirely blasted.
The lumber merchants who struck at the great
demand in England have been successful; and the
others have been saved from loss by the expected
consequence of the Disavowal of Mr. Erskine.
The most remarkable feature in our internal
prospects is the astonishing progress of manufactures,
more especially in the Household way.
Throughout the middle, Southern & Western countries,
they have taken a lasting root; it being found, that with
the aid of the machineries accommodated to the family
scale & of habit, clothing & many other articles can
be provided both cheaper & better than as heretofore.
Passion is spur also to interest in the case.
Nor is necessity without its influence; for in truth
the planters & farmers being deprived of the customary
markets & prices for their produce can no longer pay
for their customary supplies from Abroad.
Our Season has been everywhere remarkably cold &
with some local exceptions, so destitute of rain, that the
crops of Indian Corn is the shortest known for many years.
The case is the same with Tobacco & some other articles.
Our Wheat Crop was of good quality but short in quantity;
and the dryness of the fall is unfavorable to the next crop.21
On 25 October 1809 Robert R. Livingston, the former minister
to France and a member of the American Philosophical Society,
wrote this letter to President Madison:
Though I know that your time is occupied by more
important concerns, yet the interest you take in the
introduction of merino sheep induces me to hope that you
will find leisure (at least when you return to your farm) to
run over the little treatise which accompanies this letter.
It was written with a view to remove the
prejudices of common farmers, who are
suspicious of everything new & to instruct them
as to the mode of forming & managing a flock.
For four years past I have been pursuing this object
in the course of which I have written several little
essays which have had more affect than I had hoped.
I compute that there will next spring be
at least 35,000 descendants from my
flock within this State & Massachusetts.
Though many of these will only be quarter Merino,
yet even that degree of blood makes a very
considerable difference both in the Quantity &
quality of the wool as well as in the beauty of form.
I was extremely disappointed that your friendly
intentions were frustrated by General Armstrong’s
not having interest to procure a permit for sheep to
be sent by the Mentor & the rather, as he had written to
Col. Livingston when at Bordeaux, that it would meet with
no difficulty, & that a permit should be sent when wanted.
Had not Col. Livingston relied upon this, he might himself
have obtained one at Paris, or when at Bayonne from
the Emperor, who as well as the Empress showed
many civilities to him & my daughter & made many
inquiries relative to my pursuits in America or from
Mr. De Champagny who made them many polite
offers & expressed a wish to serve them.
Fortunately however, I have reared
a fine flock from those I have imported.
I am satisfied that in the course of ten or twelve
years wool will be as important a staple of the
northern as cotton now is of the southern states.
You can hardly conceive the ardor we now
very generally manifest for the improvement
of our flocks in this & the eastern States.
No price is thought too great for a tup,
& mine are all bespoke two years in advance.
Many of us have increased our flocks tenfold;
I shall myself winter this year 600.
These flocks are all composed of picked sheep selected
with a view to their being crossed with merino rams.
So that I trust you will not find my hope so
extravagant as it may appear at first view.
Let us keep peace & sacrifice nothing for
a precarious commerce, and we shall find
resources within ourselves to supply all our wants.
Permit me now Sir, to touch upon a painful subject
which delicacy to Mr. Jefferson has hitherto kept me & my
connections from saying anything upon, but which has now
become a matter of so much notoriety & excited such alarm
among men of all parties in this & the neighboring states
where the rights of property seem to be more an object of
attention than in some others, that further silence might
be construed into an approbation of the measure or a
disregard for the interests of one that we esteem & Love.
You will easily see, sir, that I allude to the eviction of
my brother from a property dearly earned by exile from
his friends & family, & which is essential to the settlement
of his affairs with his public & private creditors.
I am satisfied that Mr. Jefferson must have been
grossly imposed upon by the misstatement of some
malicious person, or he never could have been led to
wound by such an act of severity the interest of a man
who certainly had rendered him essential services at
the time of his election, or the feelings of a family to
whom he has owed his principal support within this state.
I enter no further into the merits of the case,
than to say, though my education & habits have
led me much into the company of eminent lawyers,
I have never yet met with one that had a doubt either
as to the merits of his title or of the unconstitutionality
of the means used to divest my brother of his estate.
Reflecting men of all parties & among them the warmest
of Mr. Jefferson’s friends, acknowledge that if under the
shadow of a law which would be unconstitutional if it
really applied to the case, an individual can be deprived
of his estate without the forms of law, if the inferior
officers of the executive can trample on the process
of the courts with impunity, that we have ceased
to live under a free Government.
Forgive me Sir, if I add that as this wrong was done by the
executive, a reference to the legislature cannot dispense
with the claim he has upon the executive to see him righted.
I flatter myself, Sir, that however free these remarks
may appear, your candor will admit that they are not
less dictated by my personal esteem for you & my
conviction that the constitution & the law will be your
constant guide than by my affection for my brother.22
On October 29 the Secretary of the Treasury
Albert Gallatin wrote this letter to Madison:
It having been understood last autumn that a number
of intruders had settled on the public lands in Madison
County (Bend of Tennessee) Mississippi Territory.
Mr. Thomas Freeman was instructed by direction
of the President to notify those persons that unless
they signed declarations that they had no claim to
the land & obtained permissions to remain as
tenants at will, they would be removed by force.
A very general compliance took place, the heads
of three to four hundred families having signed
the requisite declaration, and a Mr. Michael Harrison
who appeared to be the only Yazoo claimant
on the land having promised to remove.
But after the lands had been advertised for sale he
published an advertisement herein enclosed dated
from Madison County giving notice of his claim &c.
This induced me to write to Mr. Dickson the Register
whose answer I have now the honor to enclose.
The threats & notices have not effected the sales:
for about 24,000 acres have been sold in three
weeks for a sum exceeding Sixty thousand dollars.
But the Sheriff has stated that there are more
than three hundred families of intruders who
he thinks will keep forcible possession.
Under these circumstances it is submitted whether
Michael Harrison should be immediately removed
by force, or whether it would be desirable that
Congress should in the first place extend the time for
granting permissions to remain on the land as tenants
at will and afterwards to carry rigorously the law into
effect on those who shall not have complied with its terms
or will refuse to give possession to the purchaser.23
Also on October 29 John G. Jackson sent to Madison
on behalf of a regiment in the Virginia militia
this letter with the enclosure below:
I have the honor to transmit to you the enclosed
resolutions in compliance with the wishes of the officers
and privates of the 119th regiment of Virginia militia.
I derive peculiar satisfaction from assuring you that
notwithstanding many of the persons who united in the
resolutions have been inimical to the last and to the
present administration, their hostility is particularly offered
up upon the altar of their country’s safety; whereby they
evince that when it becomes a question—not which of two
rival parties shall fill the great offices of state, but whether
the rights, the honor, and liberties we enjoy, shall be
invaded with impunity, or maintained in the same spirit
with which they were established—all the petty feuds
and minor dissentions amongst them, will be disregarded,
and but one voice be heard for Union and our Country.
They indeed show, that theirs is an honest difference
of opinion subordinate to the great duties of patriotism;
to the paramount interests of the nation; and afford
a pleasing presage of what the government may
justly expect from all ranks of citizens whose
feelings and interests are truly American, when
necessity shall drive it to the last resort of nations.
For myself, sir, and in the name of the regiment,
I solicit that if the services of the militia be wanted,
our tender may be accepted.
I have the honor to be, Your most obedient,
J. G. Jackson
(Enclosure)
At a regimental muster of the 119th regiment of
Virginia militia held at William Martin’s in the
county of Harrison on the 28th of October, 1809—
John G. Jackson, Lieut. Col. Commandant, was
appointed Chairman and Major Isaac Coplin Secretary.
The Chairman addressed the regiment upon the critical
situation of our affairs, proceeding from the injustice of
foreign nations—adverted to the reliance which the
government and people place upon the militia as the
natural, best defense of the state, and firmest bulwark
of its liberties; enjoined upon them the strictest attention
to discipline and to the measures of the government;
so that if the legions of the United States were called into
service, knowing their duty, the justice of their cause and
the necessity of the appeal to arms; they may strike terror
into the mercenary ranks of their enemies and by a prompt,
decisive blow stop the ravages of a protracted war.
The Chairman then submitted the following resolutions,
and the question being put upon them severally,
they were unanimously adopted.
Resolved, That we will, at all hazards, maintain
the rights and liberties of our country, transmitted
to us by the fathers of the revolution, against the
unjust aggressions of all nations.
Resolved, That the freedom we enjoy can be
preserved alone by vigilantly attending to the
faithful administration of our national concerns.
Resolved, That we have been mindful of our duty
in examining those concerns, and the result is a
conviction that our government has asked nothing
which can be honorably abandoned or justly refused.
Resolved, That the injustice of foreign nations has
convinced us of the necessity of relying upon our
energies alone for the maintenance of our rights,
and if they persist in their attacks upon us, we will
rally around our government and exert those energies
for the chastisement of the aggressors in the most
effectual manner which God and nature shall enable us.
Resolved, That we place a firm reliance upon the wisdom
and discretion of the President and Congress of the
United States to assert our rights in the manner our
honor requires;—and we hereby tender our services
to our country, if they shall determine to resort to war,
for maintaining those rights.
Resolved, That the Chairman be requested, on behalf of the
officers and privates of the regiment, to forward a copy of
these resolutions to the President of the United States.24
Another letter on October 29 was sent by the US Secretary of State
Robert Smith to President Madison about Francis James Jackson:
I have not yet sufficiently regained my health to give
the necessary attention to Mr. Jackson’s last letter.
But it appears to me that we can’t consider it a satisfactory
explanation, especially after having so solemnly declared
that to be satisfactory it must show not merely a violation of
instructions but must moreover show reasons strong & solid.
What then are the reasons which we can
admit or can consider strong & solid?
We cannot accept this without in my Opinion
abandoning the ground taken in the preceding notes.
I am disposed, at present, to think it best to
discontinue the correspondence with Jackson as
unworthy of the attention of the government and to say
to Pinkney whatever we wish to be laid before Congress.
I will be fully able to attend at any hour tomorrow a
consultation upon the question whether Mr. Jackson
ought to be answered or upon any other subject.25
Madison wrote this short letter to Thomas Jefferson on 6 November 1809:
Enclosed are several letters for you received
from France by the return of the Wasp.
You will see the propriety of my adding one to
myself from Mr. Short; to be returned after perusal.
Our information from Paris of the 19th of
September gives no countenance to the
rumored renewal of hostilities in Austria.
The delay of peace in form alone
keeps alive such rumors.
But why should such an event
flatter the hopes of Great Britain?
According to all the lessons of experience it would quickly
be followed by a more complete prostration of her Ally.
Armstrong had forwarded to the French Court the measure
taken here in consequence of the disavowal of Erskine’s
arrangement, but there had not been time for an answer.
The answer to the previous communication had been
let England annul her illegal blockade of France, & the
Berlin decree will be revoked; let her then revoke her
Orders of November, & the Milan decree falls of course.
This State of the question between the two Powers
would promise some good; if it were ascertained
that by the Blockade of France previous to the
Berlin decree was meant that of May, extending
from the Elbe to Brest or any other specific Act.
It is to be feared, that there is an intentional
obscurity, or that an express & general renunciation
of the British practice is made the condition.
From Great Britain we have only Newspaper intelligence.
The change in the Ministry seems likely to make bad worse;
unless we are to look for some favorable change
in the extremity to which things must rapidly
proceed under the quackeries & corruptions of an
administration headed by such a Being as Percival.
Jackson is proving himself a worthy
instrument of his Patron Canning.
We shall proceed with a circumspect attention
to all the circumstances mingled in our affairs;
but with a confidence at the same time, in a just
sensibility of the Nation to the respect due to it.26
Spencer Percival was the British Prime Minister
from 4 October 1809 to 11 May 1812.
About November 9 Secretary of State Robert Smith drafted
this letter to William Pinkney, the US Minister to Britain:
By the frigate L’Africaine I transmitted to you
copies of my letters to Mr. Jackson bearing date
the 9 & 19 of October and also a Copy of his
letter to me bearing date the 11th October.
You will by this Conveyance receive duplicates
of those letters and also the sequel of the
Correspondence consisting of three letters from
him of 23 & 27 October & of the 4 November and
of two letters from me of the 1st & 8 November.
This correspondence will afford you a view of what
has taken place between Mr. Jackson & this Government
and of the painful necessity of my last letter.
You will thence perceive our distressing dilemma
between our disposition to make another
experiment in Negotiation and our regard
for the honor and character of this Government
Offended and traduced in the letters of this Gentleman.
We, however, took the step we did with respect to
Mr. Jackson altogether on account of his personal
misconduct and under the persuasion that so reprehensible
a proceeding was not within the views of his Sovereign.
Of this you will not fail to give to the British Government
the most explicit assurance and in a manner the most
likely to ensure it a favorable Consideration.
And it is confidently believed that this determination
of the American Government cannot be regarded
but as the result of an unavoidable necessity.
Had this Course not been taken, our only alternative
would have been either an implied acquiescence
by our silence in an insinuation, which we knew
to be utterly groundless, or a submission on the
part of this Government to the task of discussing
with a foreign minister so gross an accusation.
To such humiliation, it cannot be expected
that this Government could stoop.
If our discussions with Mr. Jackson had not been
thus interrupted, it is evident, they would not have
terminated in an adjustment of the existing differences,
either as to the affair of the Chesapeake or as to the
revocation of the orders in Council.
As to the affair of the Chesapeake nothing has been
tendered by him but a cold proposition to restore the
seamen taken out of the frigate and to make a provision
for the families of such men as were killed.
And this has been tendered as a satisfaction for the
insulted honor of the United States and as a reparation
for the expensive injuries to the frigate, for the
mortifying frustration of her intended cruise, for
the numerous inconveniences incident to that
disappointment, for the men killed and wounded
and for the wanton invasion of the State of Virginia.
In the Offer to restore the men there is a
reservation of a right in his British Majesty
to claim the discharge of such of them as shall
be proved to be deserters from his Majesty’s service.
It will recur to your recollection that the three seamen
claimed by us are Citizens of the United States that
they had been taken out of Merchant Vessels and
impressed into the British service and when the ship,
in which they were, had come into the waters of the
United States, that they deserted from her.
Under this reservation then the Government is
asked to recognize a right in his Britannic Majesty
to exercise a Control over these three men after
they shall have been restored to the bosom of their
Country and to the privileges of American Citizens,
merely because they had been deserters from the
British service into which they had been forced in
violation of every principle of Natural & Political Law.
In the arrangement made with Mr. Erskine, it was
among other things, formally stated by that Minister
that his Britannic Majesty was desirous of making an
honorable reparation for the aggression Committed
on the frigate the Chesapeake, that in addition to his
prompt disavowal of the act, his Majesty, as a Mark
of his displeasure, did immediately recall the offending
Officer from a highly important & honorable Command
and that he was willing, if acceptable to the American
Government, to make a suitable provision for the wounded.
Reasonable & equitable as these terms
obviously are, nothing of the kind is to be
found in the proposition made by his successor.
His Britannic Majesty has in this case disavowed
the aggression, and yet has rewarded the aggressor
by promoting him to a distinguished Command.
He has disclaimed the act of taking the men
from our frigate, and yet has claimed the
right of withholding them from us.
And the ungracious Offer now made to restore them is
ascribed to the alleged Circumstance of the President’s
Proclamation of the 7th July 1807 having been annulled,
as if the United States had been the aggressor and had
accordingly made the first advance towards conciliation.
As to the orders in Council it is evident that Mr. Jackson
had not been authorized to make to this Government
any propositions with respect to their revocation, nor to
accede to any made to him but upon the terms specified in
the letter of instruction to Mr. Erskine of the 23rd January.
Upon this subject he was in my several
Conferences with him very distinct and unreserved.
But in his letter of the 11th October instead of the
frank exposition requested in my letter of the 9th
in case I had in any instance misapprehended his
meaning, he has exhibited an elaborate argument
to show that he could not have made such a statement
“with that view” which my representation had presented.
But with whatever view the statement may have been
made by him, the objection to it on the part of the United
States cannot but remain in principle precisely the same.
In his last letter of the 4th Inst., instead of a plain
precise denial of the admissions ascribed to him, he
has deemed it expedient to refer us to his two preceding
letters, as showing that he had in no way given room to
suppose that he had ever made any such statement.
And when we recur to these letters we perceive
that they Contain, as I have just stated, not an
absolute but a more qualified objection to the
statement in my letter of the 9 October.
And it will not escape your notice, that the qualification
annexed to the Objection does not make any essential
change in the Original representation.27
On 15 November 1809 the Vermont General Assembly
wrote this letter to Madison:
On your being invited to the highest office in the gift of a
great and happy nation by a large majority of the unbiased
suffrages of a free and independent people, the General
Assembly of the state of Vermont avail themselves of the
earliest opportunity to express their high satisfaction at your
elevation, which results from a full confidence in your long
tried wisdom and integrity, as well as for that uniform zeal
and attachment, which you have invariably manifested to
promote the best interests of your country.
With peculiar gratification we reflect, that a person
is advanced to the presidential chair, who has long
been associated with the illustrious Jefferson and his
co-patriots, and whose useful labors have tended to
advance the honor, maintain the rights, and secure
the peace and happiness of our common country.
The wise, prudent and impartial measures of your
predecessor, aided by your faithful co-operation,
have under the blessing of Divine Providence long
preserved this highly favored nation from all those
fatal evils which have for so many years spread misery,
devastation and death throughout devoted Europe.
It is a truth, however melancholy the reflection,
that a disgraceful spirit of opposition and insubordination
to the laws of the general government has been
excited and fomented in some parts of the Union,
and by those who have long claimed the exclusive
confidence of the people; but it is equally true that
notwithstanding the inflammatory addresses, protests,
and resolutions presented to the public, together with
the combined influence of foreign intrigue and domestic
treachery, a spirit of returning patriotism and of union
has lately dawned upon us from which we anticipate
the most happy effects both at home and abroad.
The embarrassed state of our foreign relations, has
been and still is productive of the most serious evils to
the commercial and agricultural interests of this country.
The belligerent powers of Europe under a color of
retaliating upon one another, have issued and enforced
orders and decrees aimed at the entire destruction of
our lawful commerce, the insulting pretensions and
injurious effects of which too plainly shows that lawless
plunder stimulated by unprincipled avarice and a thirst
for universal dominion are the governing objects.
The visionary blockade of almost a whole continent,
the order forbidding neutrals to trade from one port to
another of an enemy, the destruction of our vessels on
the high seas by fire, and the total interdiction of our
lawful commerce, except on the conditions of tribute
and submission to the mandates of a foreign power
are hostile to the spirit and opposed to every ingenuous
and patriotic feeling which inspires a nation of freemen.
Yet these are not all nor even the
greatest injuries we have received.
Orders have been issued apparently designed to excite
our citizens to insurrection, and acts of disobedience to
the government and laws of this country.
Our seamen, not only on the common highway of nations,
but also in sight of our own shores, after long and
dangerous voyages, and in momentary expectation
of treading their native soil among their families
and friends, have been impressed, torn from
everything they held dear and forced into an
ignominious servitude on board of foreign ships of war.
Our territorial jurisdiction has been violated, the
hospitality of our ports and harbors abused, our citizens
murdered while in the peaceable pursuit of domestic
concerns, our national flag insulted, the blood of our
seamen wantonly shed, and the perpetrators of these
horrible acts have been secured and protected from
punishment by mock trials, or in some instances by
an exemption from trial; and as a further reward
for such deeds, have enjoyed the smiles and
received the promotions from that very government,
under whose authority they acted, while it
hypocritically pretended to disavow the deed:
nor has any reparation been yet tendered, except on
terms more humiliating than the outrages themselves.
And while they adhere to the tenor of their proclamation
of the 16th day of October, 1807, little hopes are
entertained that they will be disposed to enter into
suitable arrangements to redress such aggravated evils.
These accumulated injuries and unprovoked aggressions
upon national rights are not however without their
beneficial effects; for they have at last awakened the
great majority of the American people to a just sense
of their true interests and excited a laudable spirit of
ambition throughout the Union to promote the establishment
of domestic manufactures and other internal improvements,
which under the fostering care and guardianship of an
enlightened government will in the end render us in
a great measure independent of the old world.
The people of Vermont, though almost wholly devoted to
agricultural pursuits, have during our late and present
commercial embarrassments, felt a common interest
with her sister states and have long and anxiously
waited in the hope that the strict and impartial neutrality,
maintained by the general government towards all
nations, the just and reasonable offers of accommodation
it has repeatedly made, would have before this brought
the offending nations to a sense of justice, and created
a disposition to restore to us the peaceable enjoyment
of our national rights; but in this they have been
disappointed, and with extreme concern behold the most
friendly, just and pacific overtures treated with silent
contempt by one nation and by another met with what
(if possible) is still worse, faithless, delusive propositions
and arrangements, calculated solely to weaken the hands
of government and to defeat those wise precautionary
measures adopted to obtain a redress of wrongs.
Surely there is a point among nations as well as individuals,
beyond which longer forbearance would become criminal,
and honorable and manly resistance our indispensable duty:
And we view the freedom of commerce upon the ocean,
when pursued conformable to the established law of
nations, the restoration of our impressed seamen,
exemption and security against further impressment,
among those rights which ought not to be
surrendered but with our national existence.
While impressed with these weighty considerations,
we can discover no just cause for despondency or alarm,
and we are strengthened in this opinion from this pleasing
reflection, that the path of our present political pilot is lighted
by the most illustrious examples of virtue and patriotism,
which have gone before him, and that the same principles
which inspired the sages and heroes of the revolution will
continue to guide the policy of our present administration;
and if honorable adjustments cannot be made, however
reluctant we may be to hazard our fortunes upon the
warring elements; yet rather than relinquish any of our
sacred rights, or should justice be longer unreasonably
denied us, we confidently assure you, that we will rally
round the standard of government, cheerfully obey the
first call of our country and unite with them in the last
solemn appeal to nations, relying and trusting in that
Almighty Being who directs and controls the destinies
of the world to guide us to a favorable issue.28
On 28 November 1809 Charles C. Pinckney, who had run
for President in 1804, wrote this letter to Madison:
I wrote to you a few days ago stating the nature of
the Trade carried on between Amelia & the southern
states & how highly advantageous to Great Britain
the present nonintercourse act was in enabling her
to pour her manufactures in upon us free of duty to
bring them in her own Ships & carry away in them
all our produce that she wants at her own prices.
I did not know whether this state of things was known
to you & thought it ought to be communicated as soon
as possible—this I did in compliance with the Wishes of
our best friends & hope you have long since received it.
Knowing how things are here I was not at all surprised
at Mr. Jackson’s late conduct, because I do not see how
any other conduct on his part could have procrastinated the
negotiations between the two countries or long continued
a state of things so highly advantageous to Great Britain.
If he had commenced negotiations seriously, these must in
the course of a short time have either ended in a treaty, or
(if it was possible to want further conviction) in giving to the
American People a final proof that Great Britain would never
form an equal treaty with them or forbear invading their
neutral rights—either of these results would have been
dreadful to her—in the first American Commerce would
have been restored to its former extent, energy & enterprise
& herself rivalled & outdone not only in every other part of
the world, but even in her own ports domestic & colonial—
in the second she must have either risked the consequences
of a War or Embargo perhaps worse to her than War.
To avoid this she dispatched Mr. Jackson to make a treaty
if he could on their own terms, but if he could not; at any
rate to procrastinate & prevent things coming to a crisis.
Failing in his Expectations & seeing that our Government
would not listen to improper offers, he had but one
course to pursue which was at any rate to endeavor
to continue the present state as long as possible by
giving such an affront as could not be unnoticed,
& to do it in such a way as to make it a personal affair
to prevent if possible committing his Government.
He expected & no doubt came prepared to be dismissed
& to be replaced by another Minister, but all this will
take up six Months, in which time he hopes things
will remain as they are, & this is the grand object.
In that time they will pour in Goods to the amount
of Millions on Millions free of duty; they will get all
our Wheat, Cotton, Naval stores & Rice &c &c.
they want at their own prices & employ their own
Shipping & have time to wait Events in Europe.
Convinced that You must be of this Opinion & have been
so from the moment it occurred, I have taken the liberty
of throwing these thoughts on paper on the road to
Columbia & of sending them to be forwarded from
Charleston with the assurance that the people of this State
will with ardor & unanimity support their Government in
every measure they shall conceive the Crisis demands.29
Congress had convened on November 27, and two days later in his
First Annual Message to Congress fulfilling the constitutional mandate
of reporting on the state of the union President Madison noted the
intransigence of the British while asking Congress for guidance.
This is the entire text:Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and House of Representatives:
At the period of our last meeting I had the satisfaction
of communicating an adjustment with one of the principal
belligerent nations, highly important in itself, and still
more so as presaging a more extended accommodation.
It is with deep concern I am now to inform you that
the favorable prospect has been over-clouded by a
refusal of the British Government to abide by the act
of its minister plenipotentiary, and by its ensuing
policy toward the United States as seen through the
communications of the minister sent to replace him.
Whatever pleas may be urged for a disavowal of
engagements formed by diplomatic functionaries in cases
where by the terms of the engagements a mutual ratification
is reserved, or where notice at the time may have been
given of a departure from instructions, or in extraordinary
cases essentially violating the principles of equity, a
disavowal could not have been apprehended in a case
where no such notice or violation existed, where no such
ratification was reserved, and more especially where, as is
now in proof, an engagement to be executed without any
such ratification was contemplated by the instructions given,
and where it had with good faith been carried into
immediate execution on the part of the United States.
These considerations not having restrained the British
Government from disavowing the arrangement by
virtue of which its orders in council were to be revoked,
and the event authorizing the renewal of commercial
intercourse having thus not taken place, it necessarily
became a question of equal urgency and importance
whether the act prohibiting that intercourse was not
to be considered as remaining in legal force.
This question being after due deliberation determined in
the affirmative a proclamation to that effect was issued.
It could not but happen, however, that a return to this state
of things from that which had followed an execution of the
arrangement by the United States would involve difficulties.
With a view to diminish these as much as
possible the instructions from the Secretary
of the Treasury now laid before you were
transmitted to the collectors of the several ports.
If in permitting British vessels to depart without giving
bonds not to proceed to their own ports it should appear
that the tenor of legal authority has not been strictly
pursued, it is to be ascribed to the anxious desire which
was felt that no individuals should be injured by so
unforeseen an occurrence; and I rely on the regard of
Congress for the equitable interests of our own citizens to
adopt whatever further provisions may be found requisite
for a general remission of penalties involuntarily incurred.
The recall of the disavowed minister having been
followed by the appointment of a successor, hopes
were indulged that the new mission would contribute
to alleviate the disappointment which had been produced,
and to remove the causes which had so long embarrassed
the good understanding of the two nations.
It could not be doubted that it would at least
be charged with conciliatory explanations of the
step which had been taken and with proposals
to be substituted for the rejected arrangement.
Reasonable and universal as this expectation was,
it also has not been fulfilled.
From the first official disclosures of the new minister it
was found that he had received no authority to enter into
explanations relative to either branch of the arrangement
disavowed nor any authority to substitute proposals as to
that branch which concerned the British orders in council,
and finally that his proposals with respect to the other
branch, the attack on the frigate Chesapeake, were founded
on a presumption repeatedly declared to be inadmissible by
the United States, that the first step toward adjustment was
due from them, the proposals at the same time omitting
even a reference to the officer answerable for the
murderous aggression, and asserting a claim not less
contrary to the British laws and British practice than
to the principles and obligations of the United States.
The correspondence between the Department
of State and this minister will show how
unessentially the features presented in its
commencement have been varied in its progress.
It will show also that, forgetting the respect due
to all governments, he did not refrain from
imputations on this, which required that no further
communications should be received from him.
The necessity of this step will be made known to His
Britannic Majesty through the minister plenipotentiary
of the United States in London; and it would indicate
a want of the confidence due to a Government which
so well understands and exacts what becomes foreign
ministers near it not to infer that the misconduct
of its own representative will be viewed in the
same light in which it has been regarded here.
The British Government will learn at the same time
that a ready attention will be given to communications
through any channel which may be substituted.
It will be happy if the change in this respect should be
accompanied by a favorable revision of the unfriendly policy
which has been so long pursued toward the United States.
With France, the other belligerent, whose trespasses
on our commercial rights have long been the subject
of our just remonstrances, the posture of our relations
does not correspond with the measures taken on the
part of the United States to effect a favorable change.
The result of the several communications made to her
Government in pursuance of the authorities vested
by Congress in the Executive is contained in the
correspondence of our minister at Paris now laid before you.
By some of the other belligerents, although professing
just and amicable dispositions, injuries materially affecting
our commerce have not been duly controlled or repressed.
In these cases the interpositions deemed
proper on our part have not been omitted.
But it well deserves the consideration of the Legislature
how far both the safety and the honor of the American
flag may be consulted, by adequate provisions against
that collusive prostitution of it by individuals unworthy
of the American name which has so much flavored
the real or pretended suspicions under which the
honest commerce of their fellow citizens has suffered.
In relation to the powers on the coast of Barbary,
nothing has occurred which is not of a nature
rather to inspire confidence than distrust as
to the continuance of the existing amity.
With our Indian neighbors the just and benevolent
system continued toward them has also preserved
peace, and is more and more advancing habits
favorable to their civilization and happiness.
From a statement which will be made by the
Secretary of War it will be seen that the fortifications on
our maritime frontier are in many of the ports completed,
affording the defense which was contemplated, and that
a further time will be required to render complete the
works in the harbor of New York and in some other places.
By the enlargement of the works and the employment
of a greater number of hands at the public armories
the supply of small arms of an improving quality
appears to be annually increasing at a rate that,
with those made on private contract, may be expected
to go far toward providing for the public exigency.
The act of Congress providing for the equipment
of our vessels of war having been fully carried
into execution, I refer to the statement of the
Secretary of the Navy for the information
which may be proper on that subject.
To that statement is added a view of the
transfers of appropriations authorized by the
act of the session preceding the last and of
the grounds on which the transfers were made.
Whatever may be the course of your deliberations
on the subject of our military establishments, I should
fail in my duty in not recommending to your serious
attention the importance of giving to our militia, the
great bulwark of our security and resource of our power,
an organization best adapted to eventual situations
for which the United States ought to be prepared.
The sums which had been previously accumulated
in the Treasury, together with the receipts during the
year ending on the 30th of September last
(and amounting to more than $9M), have enabled
us to fulfill all our engagements and to defray the current
expenses of Government without recurring to any loan.
But the insecurity of our commerce and the
consequent diminution of the public revenue will
probably produce a deficiency in the receipts of the
ensuing year, for which and for other details I refer to the
statements which will be transmitted from the Treasury.
In the state which has been presented of our affairs
with the great parties to a disastrous and protracted war,
carried on in a mode equally injurious and unjust to the
United States as a neutral nation, the wisdom of the
National Legislature will be again summoned to the
important decision on the alternatives before them.
That these will be met in a spirit worthy the councils
of a nation conscious both of its rectitude and of its rights,
and careful as well of its honor as of its peace, I have an
entire confidence; and that the result will be stamped by
a unanimity becoming the occasion, and be supported by
every portion of our citizens with a patriotism enlightened
and invigorated by experience, ought as little to be doubted.
In the midst of the wrongs and vexations
experienced from external causes there is much
room for congratulation on the prosperity and
happiness flowing from our situation at home.
The blessing of health has never been more universal.
The fruits of the seasons, though in particular articles
and districts, short of their usual redundancy, are
more than sufficient for our wants & our comforts.
The face of our country everywhere presents
evidence of laudable enterprise, of extensive
capital, and of durable improvement.
In a cultivation of the materials and the extension of
useful manufactures, more especially in the general
application to household fabrics, we behold a rapid
diminution of our dependence on foreign supplies.
Nor is it unworthy of reflection that this revolution
in our pursuits and habits is in no slight degree a
consequence of those impolitic and arbitrary edicts
by which the contending nations in endeavoring each
of them to obstruct our trade with the other, have so far
abridged our means of procuring the productions and
manufactures of which our own are now taking the place.
Recollecting always that for every advantage which
may contribute to distinguish our lot from that to which
others are doomed by the unhappy spirit of the times
we are indebted to that Divine Providence whose
goodness has been so remarkably extended to this
rising nation, it becomes us to cherish a devout gratitude,
and to implore from the same omnipotent source a blessing
on the consultations and measures about to be undertaken
for the welfare of our beloved country.30
Thomas Jefferson wrote to Madison on November 30.
I received last night yours of the 27th
& rode this morning to Col. Monroe’s.
I found him preparing to set out tomorrow morning for
Loudon, from whence he will not return till Christmas.
I had an hour or two’s frank conversation with him.
The catastrophe of poor Lewis served
to lead us to the point intended.
I reminded him that in the letter I wrote to him
while in Europe proposing the Government of Orleans;
I also suggested that of Louisiana if fears
for health should be opposed to the other.
I said something on the importance of the post,
its advantages &c. expressed my regret at the curtain
which seemed to be drawn between him & his best friends,
and my wish to see his talents & integrity engaged in the
service of his country again, and that his going into any
post would be a signal of reconciliation, on which the
body of republicans, who lamented his absence from
the public service would again rally to him.
These are the general heads of what I said
to him in the course of our conversation.
The sum of his answers was that to accept of that office
was incompatible with the respect he owed himself, that he
never would act in any office where he should be
subordinate to anybody but the President himself,
or which did not place his responsibility substantially
with the President and the nation: that at your accession
to the chair, he would have accepted a place in the cabinet,
& would have exerted his endeavors most faithfully in
support of your fame and measures; that he is not un-ready
to serve the public, and especially in the case of any difficult
crisis in our affairs; that he is satisfied that such is the
deadly hatred of both France & England, and such their
self reproach & dread at the spectacle of such a government
as ours, that they will spare nothing to destroy it; that
nothing but a firm union among the whole body of
republicans can save it, & therefore that no schism
should be indulged on any ground; that in his present
situation he is sincere in his anxieties for the success
of the administration & in his support of it, as far as
the limited sphere of his action or influence extends.
That his influence to this end had been used with those
with whom the world had ascribed to him an influence
he did not possess until whatever it was, it was lost.
(He particularly named John Randolph who he said
had plans of his own on which he took no advice)
and that he was now pursuing what he believed his
properest occupation, devoting his whole time & faculties
to the liberation of his pecuniary embarrassments,
which 3 years of close attention he hoped would effect.
In order to know more exactly what were the kinds of
employ he would accept, I adverted to the information of
the papers which came yesterday, that General Hampton
was dead, but observed that the military life in our
present state offered nothing which could operate
on the principle of patriotism; he said he would sooner
be shot than take a command under Wilkinson.
In this sketch I have given truly the substance
of his ideas, but not always his own words.
On the whole I conclude he would accept a place in
the Cabinet, or a military command dependent on the
Executive alone; and I rather suppose a diplomatic mission,
because it would fall within the scope of his views,
& not because he said so, for no allusion was made
to anything of that kind in our conversation.
Everything from him breathed the purest patriotism,
involving however a close attention to his own honor
& grade, he expressed himself with the utmost
devotion to the interests of our own country, and
I am satisfied he will pursue them with honor & zeal
in any character in which he shall be willing to act.
I have thus gone far beyond the single view
of your letter that you may under any circumstances
form a just estimate of what he would be disposed to do.
God bless you & carry you safely
through all your difficulties.31
On 10 December 1809 the American Ambassador William Pinkney
sent this report from London to President Madison:
Your Letter of the 23rd of October
reached me on the 25th of last Month.
That of the 23rd of April was sent to me by Mr. Lee
as soon as he arrived in England;
and was answered on the 19th of August.
I see with great pleasure the Ground taken by the
Secretary of State in his Correspondence with Mr. Jackson,
connected with the probability that our people are
recovering from recent Delusion, and will hereafter be
disposed to support with Zeal & Steadiness the Efforts of
their Government to maintain their Honor & Character.
Jackson’s Course is an extraordinary one—
and his Manner is little better.
The British Government has acted for some Time upon an
Opinion that its partisans in America were too numerous &
strong to admit of our persevering in any System of
Repulsion to British Injustice; and it cannot be denied that
Appearances countenanced this humiliating & pernicious
Opinion; which has been entertained even by our Friends.
My own Confidence in the American people was great;
but it was shaken nevertheless.
I am re-assured, however, by present Symptoms,
and give myself up once more to Hope.
The prospect of returning Virtue is cheering;
and I trust it is not in Danger of being obscured
& deformed by the Recurrence of those detestable
Scenes which lately reduced our patriotism to a Problem.
The new Ministry (if the late Changes entitle it
to be so called) is at least as likely as the last
to presume upon our Divisions.
I have heard it said that it was impossible
to form a Cabinet more unfriendly to us, more
effectually steeped and dyed in all those bad
principles which have harassed and insulted us.
I continue to believe that, as it is now constituted,
or even with any Modifications of which it is susceptible,
it cannot last; and that it will not choose to hazard much in
maintaining against the U. S. the late Maritime Innovations.
The people of England are rather better disposed
than heretofore to accommodate with us.
They seem to have awaked from the flattering Dreams
by which their Understandings have been so long abused.
Disappointment & Disaster have dissipated the brilliant
Expectations of undefined Prosperity which had dazzled
them into moral Blindness & had cheated them of their
Discretion as well as of their Sense of Justice.
In this State of Things America naturally resumes her
Importance, and her Rights become again intelligible.
Lost as we were to the View of Englishmen during an
overpowering Blaze of imaginary Glory and commercial
Grandeur, we are once more visible in the sober Light to
which Facts have tempered & reduced the Glare of Fiction.
The Use of this opportunity depends upon ourselves,
and doubtless we shall use it as we ought.
It is, after all, perhaps, to be doubted whether
anything but a general peace (which, if we may
judge from the past, it is not unlikely France will soon
propose) can remove all Dilemma from our Situation.
More Wisdom & Virtue than it would be quite reasonable
to expect must be found in the Councils of the two great
belligerent parties, before the War in which they are
now engaged can become harmless to our Rights.
Even if England should recall (and I am convinced
she could have been and yet can be compelled to recall)
her foolish orders in Council, her maritime pretensions
will still be exuberant and
many of her practices most oppressive.
From France we have only to look for
what Hostility to England may suggest.
Justice and enlightened Policy are
out of the Question on both Sides.
Upon France, I fear, we have
no Means of acting with Effect.
Her Ruler sets our ordinary Means at Defiance.
We cannot alarm him for his Colonies,
his Trade, his Manufactures, his Revenue.
He would not probably be moved by our attempts to do so
even if they were directed exclusively against himself.
He is less likely to be so moved
while they comprehend his Enemy.
A War with France, I shall always contend,
would not help our Case.
It would aggravate our Embarrassments in all Respects.
Our Interests would be struck to the Heart by it.
For our Honor it could do nothing.
The Territory of this mighty Power is absolutely
invulnerable; and there is no mode in which we
could make her feel either physical or moral Coercion.
We might as well declare War against the Inhabitants
of the Moon or even of the Georgium Sidus.
When we should have produced the entire Exclusion
of our Trade from the whole of Continental Europe
& increased its Hazards everywhere, what else could
we hope to achieve by Gallantry or win by Stratagem?
Great Britain would go smuggling on as usual;
but we could neither fight nor smuggle.
We should tire of so absurd a Contest long before
it would end (and who shall say when it would end?)—
and we should come out of it, after wondering how
we got into it, with our Manufactures annihilated by
British Competition, our Commerce crippled by an
Enemy & smothered by a Friend, our Spirit debased
into Listlessness & our Character deeply injured.
I beg your pardon for recurring to this Topic;
upon which I will not fatigue you with another Word,
lest I should persecute you with many.
The Ministry are certainly endeavoring
to gain Strength by some Changes.
It is said that Lord Wellesley is trying to bring
Mr. Canning back to the Cabinet; and if so,
I see no Reason why he should not succeed.
One Statement is that Mr. Canning is to go to the
admiralty—another that he is to return to the
foreign Department, that Lord Wellesley is to
take the Treasury, & Mr. Perceval to relapse
into a mere Chancellor of the Exchequer.
It is added that Lord Camden (President of the Council)
and Lord Westmoreland (Privy Seal) are to go out.
If Mr. Canning should not join his old Colleagues
before the Meeting of parliament he will probably soon fall
into the Ranks of opposition, where he will be formidable.
There will scarcely be any Scruple in receiving him.
If he should join his old Colleagues,
they will not gain much by him.
As a Debater in the House of Commons he would
be useful to them; but his Reputation is not at this
Moment in the best possible plight, and his Weight
& Connections are almost nothing.
I am not sure that they would not lose
by him more than they could gain.
If Lord Grenville & Lord Grey should be
recalled to Power, Lord Holland would be likely
to have the Station of foreign Secretary
(Lord Grey preferring as it is said the Admiralty).32
On 26 December 1809 President Madison sent
this short letter to the Vermont General Assembly:
I have received the address of the General Assembly
transmitted to me on the 15th ult. with the impressions
which ought to be made by the sentiments expressed in it.
Conscious as I am, how much I owe the high trust with
which I am invested, to a partiality in my fellow citizens
which overrated my qualifications, I am compelled to mingle
my regret that these are not more adequate with the
gratification afforded by the confidence of so respectable
a body; and by the tribute which is so justly paid to the
success of my illustrious predecessor, under the blessing of
Divine Providence in preserving our nation from the wars by
which Europe has been so long and so dreadfully afflicted.
Such, nevertheless, has been the extraordinary
character of those wars, that it was not possible
for the councils of our government, however prudent
and pacific, to avoid a participation in the injuries
which have been extended to those not parties to them.
The United States still experience these unprovoked
aggressions; and with the recent addition of
circumstances admonishing them to be prepared
against more hostile fruits of the reigning policy.
In this conjuncture, it is to be lamented,
that any difference of opinion should prevail,
with respect to the measures best suited to it,
and more particularly, that any measures actually
adopted should have been opposed in modes calculated
to embolden foreign hopes and experiment by presenting
appearances of internal divisions and weakness.
The full strength of every nation
requires a union of its citizens.
To a government like ours, this truth is peculiarly applicable.
If its importance has not heretofore been sufficiently felt on
occasions which seemed to demand it, we shall not, I trust,
be disappointed of the satisfaction promised by the dawn of
a more universal support of the constituted authorities in
the measures for maintaining the national honor and rights.
In this view the sentiments which animate the
Legislature of Vermont are entitled to the warmest
commendation; which I sincerely tender, with assurances
of my friendly respects and high consideration.33
Notes
1. “First Inaugural Address” in Writings by James Madison, p. 680-682.
2. The Papers of James Madison: Presidential Series, Volume 1 1 March—
30 September 1809 ed. Robert A. Rutland et al, p. 55-57.
3. Ibid., p. 91-92.
4. Ibid., p. 122-123.
5. Ibid., p. 125-126.
6. Ibid., p. 135-136.
7. Ibid., p. 199-202.
8. Ibid., p. 213-214.
9. Ibid., p. 215.
10. Ibid., p. 261-262.
11. Ibid., p. 297-298.
12. Ibid., p. 299-301.
13. Ibid., p. 311-313.
14. Ibid., p. 317.
15. Ibid., p. 320-321.
16. Ibid., p. 327-328.
17. Ibid., p. 330-332.
18. Ibid., p. 335-336.
19. Ibid., p. 337-338.
20. Ibid., p. 372-373.
21. The Papers of James Madison: Presidential Series, Volume 2 1 October 1809
—2 November 1810, p. 27-29.
22. Ibid., p. 32-34.
23. Ibid., p. 45.
24. Ibid., p. 46-47.
25. Ibid., p. 49-54.
26. Ibid., p. 55-56.
27. Ibid., p. 65-67.
28. Ibid., p. 68-71.
29. Ibid., p. 89-90.
30. Ibid., p. 90-94.
31. Ibid., p. 95-96.
32. Ibid., p. 121-123.
33. Ibid., p. 145-146.