In the 1810 fiscal year the national debt was reduced by about $4 million
to about $53 million, and in 1811 the debt was reduced another $4 million.
That year expenditures were about $8 million while revenues were $13.5 million.
Spending on the Navy, which had been nearly $3 million in 1809,
fell to $1.6 million in 1810, and Congress appropriated $1.87 million for 1811.
On 3 January 1811 President Madison sent this secret message to Congress:
I communicate to Congress in confidence a letter
of the 2nd of December from Governor Folch of
West Florida to the Secretary of State and another
of the same date from the same to John McKee.
I communicate in like manner a letter
from the British Chargè d’affaires to the
Secretary of State with the answer of the latter.
Although the letter cannot have been written in
consequence of any instruction from the British
Government, founded on the late order for taking
possession of the portion of West Florida, well known
to be claimed by the United States; although no
communication has ever been made by that
Government to this of any stipulation with Spain,
contemplating an interposition which might so materially
affect the United States, and although no call can have
been made by Spain in the present instance for the
fulfilment of any such subsisting engagement; yet the
spirit and scope of the document with the accredited
source from which it proceeds required that it should
not be withheld from the consideration of Congress.
Taking into view the tenor of these several
communications, the posture of things with which they are
connected, the intimate relation of the country adjoining the
United States Eastward of the River Perdido to their security
and tranquility, and the peculiar interest they otherwise
have in its destiny, I recommend to the consideration of
Congress the seasonableness of a declaration, that the
United States could not see without serious inquietude
any part of a neighboring territory in which they have in
different respects so deep and so just a concern, pass from
the hands of Spain into those of any other Foreign power.
I recommend to their consideration also the expediency
of authorizing the Executive to take temporary
possession of any part or parts of the said territory in
pursuance of arrangements, which may be desired by
the Spanish authorities, and for making provision for
the Government of the same during such possession.
The wisdom of Congress will at the same time
determine how far it may be expedient to provide
for the event of a subversion of the Spanish authorities
within the territory in question, and an apprehended
occupancy thereof by any other foreign power.1
Thus he declared that the United States would not let any part of a
neighboring territory be transferred from Spain to any other foreign power.
On 10 January 1811 Judge Harry Toulmin from Fort Stoddert
wrote this long letter to Madison describing the current events in West Florida:
When I last took the liberty of addressing you,
I was engaged I believe in the examination
of Reuben Kemper and John Caller.
Col. Kennedy of the conventional army had been arrested
and held to bail, and had thereupon applied to me for a
writ of habeas corpus to bring up the recognizance;
in consequence of which I stand charged before the public
of denying to a freeman the sacred writ of liberty.
Captain McFarland had been arrested
and had assured the sheriff that he would
have the blood of the judge & had escaped.
Major Hargrave had been notified of the Sheriff’s
approach, & had joined the little band below the line,
& was the same night made prisoner & is now
confined in Prison near Pensacola.
The examination of Kemper and Caller continued
from Sunday Evening till Thursday evening.
It took place at their own request, as I offered to admit
them to bail at once: but I suspect that in fact they found
that they could not raise so great a force as they expected,
and being also disappointed in their expectations of succor
from Baton Rouge, they were rather glad to have some
excuse for keeping themselves out of danger.
Certain it is, that my embracing the first moment of their
coming above the line to issue process against the leaders;
gave a discouragement to their enterprise, of the effects
of which they were undoubtedly sensible.
On the evening of the last day of their examination,
our representatives in Assembly came with the
Presidents Proclamation, full of vehement indignation
at the check which had been given to the conspirators,
forward to bail them, and eager to assure us that
the whole of the Baton Rouge business was fully
understood by the general government, that everything
was done in concert with it, and that Mr. Skipwith was
elected governor at their particular instance.
Caller (who had been appointed Col. to command
the militia detachment) brought orders from Governor
Holmes & Governor Claiborne (founded no doubt on
the presumption that Col. Cushing had arrived with
the troops & the gun boats) addressed to Col. Cushing
the commanding officer at Fort Stoddert, authorizing
him to order such portions of the militia as he may
deem necessary to be ready for actual service.
Caller immediately acquired a perfect ascendancy
over the mind of Col. Sparks: Kemper was taken
into favor and was in habits of constant, daily, familiar
and confidential intercourse with Col. Sparks, his officers,
of whom some had actually renounced the United States,
& all had subscribed an oath of allegiance to the Convention,
were adopted and authorized by Caller, as officers to
command the Militia, and the idea was thrown out and
circulated that Col. Sparks had full authority to call the
Militia into actual service & to proceed instantly without
waiting for Col. Cushing to take possession of Mobile.
Kemper had had the hardihood even to tell me after
your proclamation was received that the Conventional
Flag should fly on the fort of Mobile, before that of the
United States: and I had heard from other quarters of
his holding up the pretension, (seriously and as if he
had authority to enforce it) to 640 acres of land for each
of his followers, as well as the more important one,
(which has probably given birth to this famous revolution,
& procured for it so many patrons in Orleans & the
Mississippi Territory) that a confirmation of all grants made
by the Spanish government since the cession of Louisiana,
would be a necessary requisite to their acquiescence in
the occupation of Florida by the United States.
I will confess therefore that I was alarmed when I
beheld the open and undisguised patronage given to
Kemper, the ground of whose defense itself seemed
to rest on his disclaiming the character of an American
citizen, and more especially when I saw the privates who
had served under him incorporated with the militia to be
armed, fed & paid by the U. S. and the Command of the
detachment given to the men who had either acted as
his officers or been his avowed advocates and partisans.
Orders (it also lately appears) were sent by Col. Caller &
Col. Sparks to Pascagoula, directing one Dupree (who
had been at the head of a band of plunderers under the
name of patriots) to take possession of that part of the
country in behalf of the United States, and it is reported
by some who have come from thence that, the best
friends of the United States, who had opposed the
plundering system, had on his acquiring this new power
been denounced as enemies, and that he had given orders
to shoot them down, if found at large, as wild beasts.
Some allowance, perhaps, ought however to be
made on both sides for the violence of party spirit.
As to Kemper himself, whether he really expected to
establish his extravagant pretensions or merely wished
by associating his men with the militia to hold up the
idea of a connection between him and the federal
government, and to pave the way for his personal
influence and for the advancement of his followers
under the new order of things to be established by
Governor Claiborne, I do not know & can scarcely
conjecture: but as there unquestionably have been
foreign parties, both British & French, in the settlements
on the Mississippi, it is possible that Kemper might
have belonged to one of them and might have
calculated on finally establishing a government in
Florida independent of the U. S. or at least of obtaining
such a hold in the country as would completely have
procured success to their favorite land speculations.
He had not patience, however, to wait till the
militia could be collected, but determined to try
his fortune with a little band of his own.
On Friday the 21st December he set out
(himself I believe from the house of Col. Sparks, though
I do not know that the latter was aware for what purpose)
with between 30 and 40 men mostly on horseback.
I knew nothing of this till after dark, when Mr. Darling (the
Collector) informed me of what was going on and that they
meant to enter Mobile next evening before the commandant
had retired to the fort, & by seizing & carrying off him and
Mr. Innerarity, to compel him to deliver up the Fort.
I sent in to the fort to inform Captain Gaines, and it
was agreed that he should acquaint Col. Sparks with
it in order that proper measures might instantly be
taken to defeat a project so incompatible with the
dignity & probably with the interests of the United States.
Col. Sparks seemed to have great doubts about it,
but on learning that the information came from a
person actually residing in his family, he no longer
disputed the fact, but expressed his belief that Kemper
was countenanced by the general government.
However, upon sending for some of his officers &
learning their opinion he determined to send Captain
Gaines down that night with the greater part of the
troops to oppose Kemper in any illegal attempts on
the fort: but at the same time he sent two messengers
in the night after Kemper to apprise him of the steps
which had been taken and to induce him to return.
He gave to Captain Gaines full power to demand the fort.
The latter step he took by the advice of his officers
under the presumption that he was authorized by
instructions which they had not seen, & which
I believe they are since convinced never existed.
Finding that the detachment had taken scarcely any
provisions I went down (as the contract is in my hands)
with a small supply on the Sunday following: & as I did
not notify Col. Sparks of my departure, (as to notify him
would have been to notify Kemper whose disappointed
followers were on the road) it has been since alleged that
I went down at midnight to correspond with the enemy.
When at Mobile I learned by a letter from Col. Sparks
to Captain Gaines that in four days he meant to
follow with from three to 4 hundred militia.
I knew that the necessary consequence of their
arrival would be the utter demolition of the town
from the guns of the fort, and that it could be
productive of no good, inasmuch as a place of
that strength never could be taken by small arms.
I was satisfied besides, that if they could succeed,
nothing but confusion would follow, as no arrangements
had been made for the civil government of the province.
Indeed this consideration was in my mind decisive,
that no such powers had been communicated as
were assumed by Col. Sparks and Col. Caller.
I deemed it essential that Col. Cushing should
be apprised of the existing state of things.
A messenger had been sent to him, but he had not returned.
He was a Spanish subject: he might have been careless,
or he might have been unfaithful.
I offered to go myself.
I sailed in a canoe down the bay, and in 28 hours
I found Col. Cushing detained by contrary winds
about 20 leagues from Mobile.
He was astonished at the precipitancy of Col. Sparks:
he did not think that he seriously intended what he
promised: but lest he should be so far overcome by
the influence of others, he wrote a letter to him
to suspend calling out the militia or to dismiss
them if they had been called out.
Contrary winds & boisterous weather rendered
my return dangerous & tardy: and much did I
suffer from the apprehension of a destruction
in the meantime of the property of unoffending
individuals and the loss of valuable lives.
Happily only a few of the militia had arrived at Mobile:
the rest, amounting to about 2501 found at Fort Stoddert.
Many of them had been two or three weeks drawn
from home: but they had only recently reached this place
and were to march for Mobile the next morning.
They were discontented with me for not having a full
supply of provisions, though there was enough for the
current demands of the place, and I had received no
intimation of the necessity of any extraordinary supply.
Col. Sparks did not communicate to them the orders
he had received from Col. Cushing: but sent to Col. Cushing
with copies of the instructions received from Governor
Claiborne, and with representations, as it was said of the
necessity of calling out the militia, a young man of the
name of Carson, a partisan or at least an advocate of
the Kemper expedition and a militia Colonel whom
he had made commandant at Fort Stoddert.
Carson came back with a renewed order from
Col. Cushing to permit the militia to return home.
Caller on Saturday last, when this order was to be made
public, read to his men formed in a hollow square a most
vehement invective on the measure, and concluded with
denouncing me by name as a traitor, an intriguer &c &c.
I had the moment before heard of the projected attack
and attempted a public defense: but the moment I came
to any material or impressive observation my voice was
drowned by his incessant bellowing of traitor, liar, dam—d
saltwater son of a b——h, British emissary, & other epithets
of the same elegant and gentlemanly description familiar
from daily use in his vocabulary; but such as I cannot
even recollect: and all this from a man who has repeatedly
observed to me that there was not one single act of mine,
which my enemies could lay hold of, anxious as they were,
to found a charge against me.
Having thus represented me, and having as I have been
informed by others, been for three days assisted by
McFarland, Kemper, Kennedy & Pollard in holding me up to
the men as a person who had abused them to Col. Cushing
and prevented the glorious prize from reaching their hands
at the moment that they were ready to grasp it;
it is no wonder that their soldiers, friends of Kemper &
his plans, most of them new comers in the country and
strangers to me and to my incessant exertions for its
prosperity, & indeed for the most part mere birds of
passage, who are here today & will be perhaps in
some other part of the uncivilized world tomorrow;
it is no wonder that a large majority of such men
should without knowledge & without reflection put
their hands to a statement of facts addressed to
congress as a ground for my impeachment, which
none of them could possibly know anything about.
This petition was brought forward by J. P. Kennedy
and charged me, as far as I could hear it,
1st with partiality in giving or refusing bail,
2ndly with carrying on for three months a secret
negotiation with the Spanish authorities,
3rdly with going from my post at midnight to Consult
with the enemy below the line and proceeding from
thence with misrepresentations to Col. Cushing.
As to the first I know not what cases are alluded to and
can only say that I have always ingenuously followed
the light of my own understanding: as to the 2nd you,
Sir, are acquainted with everything I have said or done.
I have held no correspondence with Spanish officers:
and if I have with earnestness & anxiety expressed my
ideas & wishes to persons residing below the line, it has
only been that their government would save their people
from the anarchy and ruin portended by Kemper by making
a surrender to the United States of the disputed territory:
and as to the 3rd I fortunately had a friend with me
(a stranger in the country, Mr. Lewis of Athens)
during the whole time alluded to, who can
certify every tittle of it to be false.
There was, indeed, a 4th charge, which I had forgotten.
I had examined the witnesses in the case of
Kemper and Caller in a federal garrison.
It is true I did examine them in the dwelling house of
Captain Gaines; which is within the pickets,
but I believe not within the chain of sentinels.
As to the latter however, I am not sure.
I live about one mile and a quarter from the fort.
Woods only intervene.
Hargrave had escaped.
McFarland had broken custody: and from one
to 200 men were expected to assemble at the
same time not far from us below the line.
Col. Kirby, my predecessor, had transacted
similar business in the same place.
The court of land claims was held there.
No other house could be got any way convenient.
No duress, no restriction, no exhibition
of military force was used or thought of.
I doubt much, after all, whether it be really
intended to forward this petition to congress.
I suspect that the main use contemplated may be
an effect to be produced by it on Governor Claiborne,
for the purpose of throwing the practical power of
making appointments in the district below into the
hands of the same faction which has obtained the
ascendancy on this side of the line.
If it should have this effect,
this will be completely a ruined country.
Mr. Darling the collector, a worthy man attentive to his
duties and a firm supporter of the laws is attempted to be
displaced as collector of the district of Mobile in favor of a
young man of the name of Carson, whose negative qualities
induced Captain Gaines four or 5 years ago to recommend
him but whose positive ones since exhibited as the patron
and supporter of an abandoned faction, have fully
satisfied him to be a very improper person.
Mr. Darling has removed to this place
on account of his office, & is ready to remove
to Mobile & certainly will with a little experience
become a very accurate & respectable officer.
As to myself, I hardly know how to act.
I cannot obtain a sight of the petition.
The facts are of such a nature, that the petitioners
who are generally poor ignorant strangers, who live
at a distance from me, could know nothing about:
and Caller encouraged them to sign by stating
that its object was merely to ask an enquiry.
By his abusive and outrageous treatment of me,
he incited his followers to personal violence, &
when he stopped the arm of one of his captains who
offered to cleave me down with his sword, it was only to
have an opportunity of boasting the next day “that he had
saved one old, damned rascal from being murdered:” and
the “damned cowardly villain Col. Cushing” is in his elegant
declamation coupled with the damned traitor of a judge.
I pray, Sir, that you will grant me pardon for this style
of writing so offensive to myself as well as to you:
but in many cases one can never give an accurate idea
of the spirit of a writer but by literal quotations.
As to the address itself, I am at a loss how to act.
An acquittal would be no triumph where such men are
the adversaries: and to do any act which would produce
suspense, either in the public mind or in my own destiny,
would be to afford them all the success which their
most extravagant expectations can dream of.
In the meantime all the arrangements for the future
organization of the government of this country
would be completed, and in the defeat or even
temporary adumbration of one man who had stood
foremost in defense of the laws and of the security
of property whether of a friend or an enemy,
they will see all the success and triumph which
their hearts can desire or anticipate and erect an awful
monument as a warning to future officers of government
on the waters of the Mobile, not to dare to encroach
on the sacred, sovereign right of plunder & desolation.
I doubt, therefore, whether to adhere to the idea,
which first struck my mind, of petitioning for an enquiry.
I shall consult my friends & determine accordingly.
I think I shall write a line to Mr. Rhea
& Mr. R. M. Johnson but have not time to write fully.
Col. Cushing is now at Mobile waiting for orders.
He finds none to justify the measures already taken.
Governor Claiborne is to be there in ten days.2
Madison commissioned General George Mathews and Col. John McKee
to take over East Florida and redeliver it if a lawful sovereign insisted.
West Florida’s Gov. Claiborne and David Holmes, Governor of the
Mississippi
Territory, with the militia planned to go to West Florida early in the new year.
Federalists complained that American troops had invaded.
Yet on 15 January 1811 the Republican Congress authorized President Madison
to take control of East Florida, and they appropriated $100,000 to move
American troops into East Florida “if the local authorities were willing
to deliver it up or if any foreign power attempted to occupy it.”
They also passed legislation that put the disputed West Florida
under the jurisdiction of the Orleans Territory.
That month General Mathews led a task force into East Florida, and he reported
to Senator William H. Crawford that it would be difficult to hold the territory.
Also on January 15 Virginia’s Governor John Tyler had resigned to becom
a federal judge, and the legislators elected James Monroe governor.
President Madison had found Secretary of State Robert Smith
so incompetent that he had to write his important letters for him.
He learned that Smith had told the British chargé d’affaires that
the President was bluffing and that if the English persisted, the American sanction
would fall apart because Madison knew that Napoleon’s decrees were still in effect.
The President knew by previous precedent that he could dismiss a cabinet officer
without the consent of the Senate, and he forced Smith to resign.
Smith was offered the diplomatic position in Russia,
but he wanted London and was refused.
Smith retaliated by publishing a 40-page pamphlet in June
that was also printed in many newspapers.
Harry Toulmin wrote another letter to Madison on January 23.
As I have observed in the instructions from the
Secretary of State to Governor Claiborne, which have
lately reached this Country; that weekly communications
from him were expected relative to the State of things
in West Florida; I feel less apprehensive of being
considered as guilty of intrusion, in the frequent reports
which I have thought it proper to trouble you with relating
to events more immediately under my own observation.
I came from Mobile yesterday morning.
Governor Claiborne had not then arrived at that place:
nor did there appear to be any sufficient
ground for expecting him immediately.
Indeed it is not likely that he would leave Orleans
till the answer from Governor Folch to his communications,
(which I think went on to Orleans from this office only 9
days ago,) should be received by him: and as it is hardly
to be expected that this answer will be perfectly and
decisively satisfactory, if we make a reasonable
allowance for the effect produced probably on the
mind of the Spanish governor by the threatening
attitude which has been assumed in this country and
neighborhood, and by the strong manifestation of a
spirit of cordiality and co-operation between our public
officers here and the agents of the conventional party;
my only hopes of our obtaining possession of the residue
of Louisiana rest on those arrangements, which under a
full knowledge of the present actual posture of affairs
will be made at the seat of the general government.
The late step taken by the Governor of Orleans of
laying off parishes as far as the Bayou Battrie
(12 or 15 miles east of Pascagoula and where the only
family between that river and the Mobile resides) and
sending a parish judge to Pascagoula has been a wise
and happy one, as it will strengthen the confidence of
the inhabitants in the American government and restrain
those outrages which the tyrannical officers of the
Baton rouge party, lately pretending to federal authority,
have been practicing in that unfortunate country.
The judge, I understand, entered upon the work of
endeavoring to compel a restitution of stolen property,
immediately on his arrival: but as a good deal has been
consumed, and some divided among the partisans
above the line; he will be only partially successful.
The appearances of war exhibited in this
settlement have put our cattle in jeopardy.
Two men were lately detected near this place in driving
off about 100 head belong to me and my neighbors:
and prudent persons I find are cautious of sending their
negroes far from home alone; lest they should be taken
off on the pretense of their being Spanish property.
Col. Cushing proposes continuing at Mobile with
three companies till he receives farther orders; &
he has taken a house in the town for himself & family.
This step has given much confidence to the inhabitants,
who having again been confirmed in their fears of
remaining in town by the assembling of the Militia
have now begun to return once more.
Their fears indeed have been grounded as much on the
resentment of the Spanish authorities, as on the violence
of the adherents of Kemper: and on the appearance of the
President’s proclamation, understanding the promise of
protection in their rights & property to have instant
operation & not to have relation to the state of things which
should take place after the actual occupation of the country
by the U. S. many men expressed themselves more freely
concerning the existing government & its ministers, than
they would have deemed it prudent to do had they
calculated on the possibility of their being afterwards
abandoned to the exercise of Spanish power.
It is true that Col. Cushing neither exercises nor
indicates a wish to exercise any authority beyond the limits
of his camp: but while he is there, the people feel satisfied
that the Spanish officers will not venture to molest them;
and possibly the Spanish officers themselves may be
impressed with the apprehension that the sword which
hangs over them is really suspended by a hair.
They were at first extremely shy and suspicious.
They confined themselves entirely to the fort and cut
away the embrasures of the fort so as to enable them
to bring the guns to bear on the gun boats in the river.
But on Col. Cushing’s paying a visit to the commandant in
the fort about a week ago, their hostile or rather suspicious
feelings seemed to wear away; the commandant returned
the visit next day and indicated much ease of mind, and
since that time a friendly intercourse seems to have
prevailed between the Spaniards and Americans.
The commandant readily permitted me to land
provisions for the American troops at the Bay’s wharf.
Mr. Kemper left this place for Baton Rouge on
Thursday last after having, as I am informed, held during
the 3 preceding days at different places high courts of
impeachment against the judge who had the presumption
to doubt the authority of the plenipotentiary of the
Floridian republic within the U. S., and to arrest the
military career of him & his patriotic adherents.
The result, I suppose, will be laid before Congress.
The apology, I am informed, which is now given by
Col. Caller for calling out or inducing Col. Sparks to
Call out the militia to make an attack on Mobile, so
contrary to the evident intentions of government is
that it had been intimated to him by Col. Claiborne at
Natchez, as if in the name of his brother, (whose official
station prevented his saying it) that if he could hurry
down the militia and take Mobile, the proclamation
would bear him out; but that if it was left to the ordinary
operations of government not a blow would be struck.
I mention this as I received it without giving any credit
to the suggestion, as it relates to the governor.3
The February 2 deadline went by, and Napoleon had not cancelled his decrees.
The charter of the United States Bank was set to expire
after twenty years and needed to be renewed by Congress.
On 20 February 1811 the Senate voted 17-17, and Vice President George Clinton
cast the deciding vote against the bill, ending the first Bank of the United States.
Madison and many others had argued that the Constitution
did not authorize Congress to create a bank.
Some were concerned about the concentration of financial power,
and stockholders in the state banks opposed the competition.
Others resented that two-thirds of the bank’s stock was held by foreigners,
and some just wanted to attack Treasury Secretary Gallatin.
After Congress adjourned on March 3, Gallatin submitted his resignation,
but Madison would not do without his capable advisor.
They began making plans to replace the Secretary of State
Robert Smith with James Monroe.
Congress appropriated funds to support the Salem Meeting House Baptists
in the Mississippi Territory and the Episcopal church
in Alexandria in the District of Columbia.
President Madison vetoed both bills because of the first amendment
prohibition against the governmental establishment of religion.
On February 21 Madison sent this veto message to the Congress:
Having examined and considered the Bill, entitled
“An Act incorporating the protestant Episcopal Church
in the Town of Alexandria in the District of Columbia,”
I now return the Bill to the House of Representatives,
in which it originated, with the following objections:
Because the Bill exceeds the rightful authority,
to which Governments are limited by the essential
distinction between Civil and Religious functions, and
violates, in particular, the Article of the Constitution
of the United States which declares, that “Congress
shall make no law respecting a Religious establishment.”
The Bill enacts into and establishes by law sundry rules
and proceedings relative purely to the organization and
polity of the Church incorporated and comprehending
even the election and removal of the Minister of the same;
so that no change could be made therein, by the
particular Society or by the General Church of which
it is a member and whose authority it recognizes.
This particular Church therefore would so far be a religious
establishment by law; a legal force and sanction being given
to certain articles in its constitution and administration.
Nor can it be considered that the articles thus established,
are to be taken as the descriptive criteria only of the
corporate identity of the Society; in as much as this identity
must depend on other characteristics; as the regulations
established are generally unessential and alterable
according to the principles and canons by which Churches
of that denomination govern themselves; and as the
injunctions & prohibitions contained in the regulations
would be enforced by the penal consequences applicable
to a violation of them according to the local law.
Because the Bill vests in the said incorporated Church
an authority to provide for the support of the poor and
the education of poor children of the same; an authority
which being altogether superfluous if the provision is to
be the result of pious charity would be a precedent for
giving to religious Societies as such a legal agency in
carrying into effect a public and civil duty.4
Madison in a letter to Jefferson on March 18 wrote,
A sketch in manuscript was brought by yesterday’s
Mail from New York, saying that a vessel just arrived,
stated that the Prince Regent had appointed his Cabinet;
that Lord Holland was prime Minister, Grenville
Secretary of State, Moira Commander in Chief &c.
and that a new Parliament was to be called.
Whether these details be correct or not, it is highly probable
that some material change in the general policy of the
Government in relation to this Country as well as in other
respects will result from the change of the Men in power.
Nor is it improbable that a repeal of the orders in Council
will be accompanied by a removal in some form or other
of the other condition required by the Act of May last.
Still the attachment to maritime usurpations on public law,
and the jealousy of our growing commerce are sources
from which serious difficulties must continue to flow,
unless controlled by the distress of the Nation, or by
a magnanimity not to be expected even from the
personification of Fox in Lord Holland.
Grenville is known to be very high in his notions of British
rights on the Ocean; but he has never contended for more,
on the subject of blockades than that cruising squadrons,
creating a manifest danger in entering particular ports, was
equivalent to a stationary force having the same effect.
His principle however though construable into an
important restriction of the modern practice,
may be expanded so as to cover this abuse.
It is, as you remark, difficult to understand
the meaning of Bonaparte towards us.
There is little doubt that his want of money and his
ignorance of commerce have had a material influence.
He has also distrusted the stability & efficacy of our pledge
to renew the non-intercourse against Great Britain and has
wished to execute his in a manner that would keep pace
only with the execution of ours; and at the same time leave
no interval for the operation of the British orders without
a counter operation in either his or our measures.
In all this his folly is obvious.
Distrust on one side produces & authorizes it
on the other and must defeat every arrangement
between parties at a distance from each other or
which is to have a future or a continued execution.
On the whole our prospects are far from being
very flattering; yet a better chance seems to exist
than with the exception of the adjustment with
Erskine, has presented itself for closing the scene
of rivalship in plundering & insulting us & turning it
into a competition for our commerce & friendship.
In the midst of other perplexities, foreign & internal,
a source has been opened very near me, and where
co-operation against them was to have been rightfully
expected from personal obligations, as well as public duty.
I find also that the appointment of Warden is to draw
forth the keenest resentments of Armstrong.
I have no doubt however that the ground on which we
stand is sufficiently firm to support us with the Nation
against individual efforts of any sort or from any quarter.5
Napoleon on March 17 at the Tuileries had announced to deputies
of the Hanseatic League that the Berlin and Milan
decrees were fundamental laws of his empire.
On March 20 Madison wrote this short letter to James Monroe:
I may perhaps consult too much my own wishes public
& personal and too little a proper estimate of yours in
intimating the near approach of a vacancy in the
Department of State, which will present to your comparison,
as far as lies with me, that sphere for your patriotic
services with the one in which they are now rendered.
Should such a transfer of them be inadmissible or
ineligible on whatever considerations this communication
will I am sure be viewed in the light to which its motives
entitle it and may rest in confidence between us.
In a contrary result be so good as to let me have
your agreeable determination as soon as possible.
Permit me to add that even in this result, it will be best
for reasons reserved for personal explanation that the
precise turn of the communication may be confidential.
I am the more anxious to hear from you as soon as
possible, since besides the more obvious calls for it,
the business of that Department is rendered by the
present conjuncture peculiarly urgent as well as important.
It would be of the greatest advantage, if it could
be in the hands which are to dispose of it in
about two weeks from this date and receive a
close attention for a short period thence ensuing.
It is probable that an interval of relaxation would thereby
be rendered consistent with the public interest.
Accept assurances of my great esteem
and sincere friendship.6
Monroe responded from Richmond with this
letter to the President on March 23:
Your letter of the 20th instant
reached me yesterday morning.
The subject which it presents to my view is highly
interesting and has received all the consideration
which so short a time has enabled me to bestow on it.
My wish to give you an early answer in compliance with
your request has induced me to use all the dispatch which
the delicacy & importance of the subject would permit.
The proof of your confidence which the proposition
communicated by your letter affords is very gratifying to
me and will always be remembered with great satisfaction.
I have no hesitation in saying that I have
every disposition to accept your invitation
to enter into the department of State.
But in deciding this question, on your part as well
as on mine, some considerations occur which claim
attention from us both & which candor requires to
be brought into view & weighed at this time.
My views of policy towards the
European powers are not unknown.
They were adopted on great consideration and are
founded in the utmost devotion to the public welfare.
I was sincerely of opinion, after the failure of the
negotiation with Spain or rather France, that it was for
the interest of our country, to make an accommodation
with England, the great maritime power, even on moderate
terms rather than hazard war or any other alternative.
On that opinion I acted afterwards, while
I remained in office, and I own that I have
since seen no cause to doubt its soundness.
Circumstances have in some respects changed,
but still my general views of policy are the same.
If I come into the government my object will be
to render to my country & to you all the service in
my power according to the light, such as it is, of my
knowledge & experience faithfully & without reserve.
It would not become me to accept a station & to act
a part in it which my judgment and conscience did
not approve, and which I did not believe would
promote the public welfare and happiness.
I could not do this, nor would you wish me to do it.
If you are disposed to accept my services under these
circumstances and with this explanation, I shall be ready
to render them whenever it may suit you to require them.
In that event a circumstance of importance and delicacy
will require attention from you as well as from me.
It relates to the office which I now hold.
I feel much difficulty in withdrawing from it,
nor could I do so but on considerations which it is fair
to presume would be satisfactory to my constituents.
I am persuaded that my fellow citizens would have
no objection to my leaving this station to go into the
general government at a crisis so important to the
public welfare and to the republican cause from an opinion,
as the security of those great interests depends in the
present conjuncture more on the councils and measures
of the general than of the State government, that
I might be able to render more service there than here.
They would I am satisfied be reconciled to the act,
if I received an invitation from you suggesting a
motive for it arising out of the present state of
public affairs, which I might lay before the council
when I communicated to it my acceptance of an
appointment under the general government.7
Madison wrote back to Monroe on March 26.
I have received your letter of the 23rd
and learn with much pleasure that you are
not disinclined to the Station which the one
answered by it, presented to your consideration.
In discharging the duties of this Station I am aware that
the Functionary must carry into it a just respect for his own
principles and above all for the dictates of his Conscience.
But with the mutual knowledge of our respective
views of the foreign as well as domestic interests
of our Country I see no serious obstacle on either
side to an association of our labors in promoting them.
In the general policy of avoiding war by a strict & fair
neutrality towards the Belligerents and of settling
amicably our differences with both; or with either, as
leading to a settlement with the other; or that failing, as
putting us on better ground against him, there is & has been
an entire concurrence among the most enlightened who
have shared in the public Councils since the year 1800.
A like concurrence has prevailed in the opinion, that while
on one hand it is of great importance to the interests of
the U. S. that peace should be preserved, and commerce
obtained with the Continent of Europe, there are on the
other hand powerful reasons in favor of an adjustment
with the great Maritime power who, though liable to suffer
much from our enmity, is capable also of doing us much
harm or good according to her disposition towards us.
In favor of a cordial accommodation with Great Britain
there has certainly never ceased to be a prevailing
disposition in the Executive Councils,
since I became connected with them.
In the terms of accommodation with that as with other
powers, differences of opinion must be looked for, even
among those most agreed in the same general views.
These differences however lie fairly within the compass of
free consultation and mutual concession, as subordinate to
the necessary Unity belonging to the Executive Department.
I will add that I perceive not any commitments even in the
case of the abortive adjustment with that power, that could
necessarily embarrass deliberations on a renewal of
negotiations; inasmuch as the variance of opinion
turned not a little on different understandings of
certain facts & constructive intentions, rather than
on the merits of the questions decided; and as the
questions more immediately interesting to the harmony
of the two Countries, namely as to the Chesapeake,
the orders in Council and Blockades are either of
subsequent date or left without any positive decision.
The strong ties which bind you to your present Station
did not fail to occur, but having no doubt myself that the
range & scope of the business in the Department of State,
in times like the present at least, give to talents & services
there more importance than belongs to a local sphere,
I readily concluded that the delicacy of the exchange
proposed to you was superseded not only by that
consideration, but by the fair presumption that it would
equally accord with the patriotic views of your Constituents.
I shall of course accompany the commission
to be forwarded with a line referring to it.
But it deserves our joint consideration whether remarks for
a public use not usual & connecting the magnitude of the
Crisis with a particular selection of services might not afford
to local or personal feelings elsewhere an occasion for
disadvantageous misconstructions or perversions.
The Commission will bear date the 1st of April
the date of the vacancy to be filled.
Would it be possible for you to be here
within a day or two after?
You will find it convenient on every account to come
in the first instance without your family; and there is
important business that claims the earliest attention.8
On 1 April 1811 Madison wrote this letter to Jefferson:
I intimated to you the offense taken by Armstrong
at the re-enstatement of Warden.
It is not improbable that it will be
the ground of an open hostility.
This will call into view his present denunciations of Warden
which are pointed against him as an Adventurer & Impostor
from the commencement to the end of his career, in
comparison with the patronage so long continued to him,
and the sentiments heretofore expressed of him.
Will you be so good as to send me the extract from
Armstrong’s letter written in the summer or Fall of 1808,
which notifies the appointment of Warden as Consul,
and gives the favorable side of his character, as well as
the objections to a confirmation of the appointment.
That letter was the only communication
made on the subject.
You will have inferred the change which is
taking place in the Department of State.
Col. Monroe agrees to succeed Mr. Smith,
who declines however the mission to Russia,
at first not unfavorably looked at.
I was willing, notwithstanding many trying
circumstances, to have smoothed the transaction
as much as possible, but it will be pretty sure
to end in secret hostility, if not open warfare.
On account of my great esteem & regard for
common friends such a result is truly painful to me.
For the rest I feel myself on firm ground, as well
in the public opinion, as in my own consciousness.
Wilkinson I find has lately received a letter
from you, which he has shown to his friends
with much apparent gratification.
I understand at the same time, that the letter is cautious
and limited to the charge of privity with Burr.
Did he disown to you the anonymous letter printed
in Clark’s Book, or say anything relative to that subject?
The latest information from Europe
will be found in the enclosed papers.
The indications from France are rather favorable.
Should the Old King displace the Regent in England,
little is to be hoped from that quarter, unless
forced on the Cabinet by national distress.
In the last correspondence of Pinkney with Wellesley,
the latter sufficiently showed his teeth; and received the
severest scourging that was ever diplomatically inflicted.9
Jonathan Russell was in charge of the American legation in Paris,
and on April 4 he wrote that no American ship without a license
had been allowed entry since February 4.
Madison then appointed his fellow Virginian James Monroe
who began running the State Department on April 1,
though his unanimous confirmation by the Senate did not occur until November 25.
The Congress cooperated and extended the Embargo to 90 days.
On April 28 Napoleon repealed the Berlin and Milan decrees
retroactive to 1 November 1810, and the French Foreign Minister Bassano
gave the document to the US Ambassador Joel Barlow on May 10.
The British wanted proof that Napoleon had cancelled his decrees.
The French later claimed that Napoleon had signed a new decree
at Saint-Cloud on April 28 to carry out the promises of the Cadore letter;
but this was not known in the United States until much later,
and it was believed that the decree had been postdated a year later.
President Madison did not recognize Napoleon’s brother
on the Spanish throne and would not discuss that.
On May 16 John Rodgers, who commanded the USS President,
thought the British sloop Little Belt was the HMS Guerrière near New York harbor,
and after hailing it shots were exchanged,
and the USS President retaliated with a broadside.
In the American investigation fifty officers testified that the Little Belt
had fired the first shot, but the British had other accounts.
The Little Belt had 9 of their crew killed and 23 wounded.
The new British minister John Foster was not aware of this incident
when he was instructed to negotiate a solution to the Chesapeake incident.
He was also told to object to the seizing of
West Florida as unprovoked and unjustifiable.
On 24 May 1811 President Madison explained
the situation to the people of New Haven,
I have received, fellow Citizens, the petition
which you have addressed to me, representing
the inconveniences experienced from the existing
non-importation law, and soliciting that the
National Legislature may be speedily convened.
It is known to all, that the Commerce of the United States
has for a considerable period been greatly abridged and
annoyed by Edicts of the belligerent powers; each
professing retaliation only on the other; but both violating
the clearest rights of the United States as a neutral nation.
In this extraordinary state of things the Legislature, willing
to avoid a resort to war, more especially during the
concurrent aggressions of two great powers, themselves
at war, the one with the other, and determined on the other
hand against an unqualified acquiescence, have endeavored
by successive and varied regulations affecting the
commerce of the parties to make it their interest to be just.
In the Act of Congress out of which the existing
non-importation has grown, the state of commerce
was no otherwise qualified than by a provision, that
in case either of the belligerents should revoke its unlawful
Edicts, and the other should fail to do the same, our ports
should be shut to the vessels and merchandize of the latter.
This provision which, like our previous offers,
repelled the very pretext set up by each, that
its Edicts against our trade with the other was
required by an acquiescence in like Edicts of the
other, was equally presented to the attention of both.
In consequence of the communication, the French
Government declared that its Decrees were revoked.
As the British Government had expressed reluctance
in issuing its orders and repeatedly signified a wish to
find in the example of its adversary an occasion for
putting an end to them, the expectation was the more
confident, that the occasion would be promptly embraced.
This was not done; and the period allowed
for the purpose having elapsed, our ports
became shut to British ships and merchandize.
Whether the conduct of the French Government has been,
and will be such as to satisfy the authorized expectations
of the United States; or whether the British Government
may have opened or will open the way for the Executive
removal of the restrictions on British commerce with the
United States, which it continues in its power to do, by
revoking its own unlawful restrictions on our commerce,
is to be ascertained by further information, which
will be received and employed by the Executive
with that strict impartiality, which has been
invariably maintained towards the two belligerents.
Whatever may be the inconveniences resulting in the
meantime from the non-importation Act, it was not to have
been supposed, that while it falls within the necessary
power and practice of regulating our commercial intercourse
with foreign Countries, according to circumstances, the Act
would be regarded as not warranted by the Constitution;
or that while it was a partial restriction only and had for its
object an entire freedom of our commerce by a liberation
of it from foreign restrictions unlawfully imposed,
it could be viewed as destroying commerce; and least
of all, that a likeness could be seen between a law enacted
by the representatives of the Country with a view to the
interest of the Country; and Acts of a Government in which
the Country was not represented, framed with a view to
the interest of another Country at the expense of this.
If appeals to the justice of the Belligerents through
their interests involve privations on our part also;
it ought to be recollected that this is an effect
inseparable from every resort by which one nation
can right itself against the injustice of others.
If sacrifices made for the sake of the whole, result
more to some than to other districts or descriptions
of Citizens, this also is an effect, which though always
to be regretted, can never be entirely avoided.
Whether the appeal be to the sword or to
interruptions or modifications of customary
intercourse, an equal operation on every
part of the community can never happen.
Nor would an unqualified acquiescence in belligerent
restrictions on our commerce, if that could be reconciled
with what the nation owes to itself, be less unequal in
its effect on different local situations and interests.
In estimating the particular measure which has been
adopted by the National Councils, it may be reasonably
expected therefore from the candor of enlightened Citizens,
that with the peculiarity of the public situation, they will be
impressed also with the difficulty of selecting the course
most satisfactory and best suited to diminish its evils or
shorten their duration; that they will keep in mind, that
a resort to war must involve necessary restrictions on
commerce; and that were no measure whatever opposed
to the belligerent acts against our commerce, it would
not only remain under the severe restrictions now
imposed by foreign hands, but new motives would
be given for prolonging and invigorating them.
These observations are not meant to anticipate the
policy which the Legislature may henceforward find best
adapted to support the honor or promote the interest of
the nation; or to prejudge questions relative to particular
changes, which may be pointed out by experience, or
be called for by the state of our foreign relations.
Neither do they imply any predetermination
as to the measure of convening the Legislature,
which it will be a duty to adopt or decline,
as our national affairs may appear to require.
The view of our situation presented to your patriotic
reflections has been suggested by that contained in your
address; and it will have its desired effect, if it recalls your
attention to the peculiar embarrassments with which the
National Councils have had to contend; and enforces the
importance of manifesting that union of all in supporting
the measures of the constituted authorities while actually
in force, which is as necessary to their effect at home
and abroad, as it is consistent with the right and with
the legitimate modes of seeking a revisal of them.
In the mode which the Town of New Haven has employed,
I witness with satisfaction, that in exercising the right of
freemen, the obligation of Citizens has not been forgotten;
and that it affords a pledge and an example,
which I am far from undervaluing.10
On 7 June 1811 President Madison in a letter to Jefferson wrote,
I return the letter from you to Duane
on the subject of Mr. Gallatin.
He seems to be incorrigible.
If I am not misinformed, his eyes are opening to the conduct
& character of Mr. Smith with respect to both of which he
has suffered himself to be misled partly by his own
passions, partly by those who took advantage of them.
You see the new shapes our foreign relations are taking.
The occurrence between Rogers & the British ship
of war, not unlikely to bring on repetitions, will
probably end in an open rupture or a better
understanding as the calculations of the British
Government may prompt or dissuade from war.
Among the items in these will be the temper here,
as reported by its partisans.
The state of parties in Massachusetts is in this view
important, especially as it will attract particular notice
by its effect in degrading Pickering who has made
himself so conspicuous in the British service.
On the other hand much impatience is showing
itself in the Eastern States under the nonimportation.
The little embarrassment which occurs in
procuring returns for the apples & onions sent
from Connecticut to the West Indies is generating
remonstrances as in the case of the Embargo.
I have been obliged to answer one from New Haven
headed by Hillhouse, which they have not yet published.
The protracted delay of the Essex still leaves
us a prey to the ignorance & interested
falsehoods which fill our newspapers.
It would seem that Great Britain is determined against
repealing her orders, and that Bonaparte is equally so
against the destruction of her commerce, to which he
readily sacrifices his own commerce with the U. S.
As to the blockade of England (the decree
to which alone the Act of Congress & the
Proclamation have reference), there is no
evidence of its being continued in force.
All the Official evidence is on the other side.
And yet by a confusion of ideas or artifice of
language the appearance is kept up that the
ground of the non-importation has failed, and
that it is consequently a wrong to Great Britain.
After all, we must remain somewhat in the dark
till we hear more on the subject; probably till the
return of the vessel that carried to France, the
Act of Congress putting in force the non-importation,
for which Bonaparte seems to be waiting.
After a severe drought we have had a copious rain.
I hope you have shared in it & that it will have aided
the wheat-fields in their conflict with the Hessian fly.11
The death of Justice William Cushing in the fall of 1810
and then of Samuel Chase on 19 June 1811 gave
Madison two appointments to the Supreme Court.
After the Senate rejected Alexander Wolcott of Connecticut,
President Madison nominated the Republican convert
John Quincy Adams for the US Supreme Court.
Although he was confirmed unanimously, Adams, who
was still the Ambassador in Russia, declined the position.
Madison finally chose his friend, the Treasury comptroller Gabriel Duvall,
and 31-year-old Joseph Story, and they were
confirmed by acclamation on November 15.
Joseph Story of Massachusetts would join the Supreme Court
in February 1812 and would serve until 1845.
The new British minister August Foster arrived at Annapolis on 29 June 1811,
and Madison met with him on July 2 and found he had little to offer.
Foster was instructed to delay offering reparations for the Chesapeake incident
until they determined how many British sailors had been killed on the Little Belt.
News arrived in the middle of July that American ships
sequestered in France since November 2 had been freed.
Joel Barlow was appointed minister to France,
and he sailed in late summer and arrived at Paris in September.
The Spanish Governor Folch refused to give up Mobile and Pensacola,
and Madison told the eager Claiborne to hold what
they had gained in West Florida without violence.
On July 24 President Madison issued a proclamation
calling on the Congress to meet on 4 November 1811.
The 12th Congress met on that day, and Henry Clay of Kentucky
was elected the youngest Speaker of the House ever at the age of 34.
He had supported Jefferson’s embargo so strongly
that he fought a duel over the issue.
On 30 October 1811 Jeremy Bentham in London sent to
Madison a 28-page document that begins with this offer:
The offer which it is the ambition of this Address
to submit to the consideration of the President of
the United States is addressed
(you will see immediately)
not to the person, but to the Office.
By an explanation thus early made
some reading will be saved to you.
The respect, of which the offer itself is its
own best testimonial needs not, I presume,
any more words for the expression of it.
To come to the point at once—Give me, Sir,
the necessary encouragement, I mean, a Letter
importing approbation of this my humble proposal,
and, as far as depends upon you yourself—
Acceptance I will forthwith set about drawing up,
for the use of the United States, or such of them,
if any, as may see reason to give their acceptance
to it, a complete body of proposed law, in the form
of Statute law, say in one word a Pannomion
a body of Statute law, including a succedaneum to that
mass of foreign law, the yoke of which in the wordless,
as well as boundless, and shapeless shape of common,
alias Unwritten law, remains still about your necks—a
complete body or such parts of it as the life and health of a
man whose age wants little of four and sixty may allow of.
This letter Sir, I mean the letter above stipulated for,
when once I have it in hand, I have my reward.
I have my employment: and the honor inseparable
from the employment is the only retribution,
that can be accepted for the labor of it.
I say accepted, Sir, not required or expected but
accepted: for from this word corollaries will be deduced,
the utility of which with reference to the proposed Service,
will, I flatter myself, when brought to view, as they
will be presently, not appear exposed to doubt.
The plan of the proposed work, and therein the
supposed advantageous results, the prospect of which
forms what the proposal has to depend upon for its
acceptance, the circumstances of advantage attached
to the nature of the terms on which the work would
be executed, the declared objections which it ought to be
prepared for together with the answers which those
objections seem to admit of, the latent, but not the less
powerful, obstacles which it may have to contend with, the
sort of personal assistance in the way of information, which
should it be thought serviceable I should be ready and
willing to receive for the purpose of it, the advances already
made towards the execution of it, on all these several topics
some sort of explanation may naturally be looked for:
on all of them something in the way of explanation shall
accordingly be attempted, though in that state of extreme
and proportionably disadvantageous compression, without
which no reasonable hope could be entertained of that
promptitude of return which may be requisite to success.12
Bentham’s letter ended with this P. S.:
In the event of acceptance I would beg the favor of you
Sir, to give the necessary orders for the forming as Speedily
as may be, a collection as complete as possible of the Laws
of the several States as well as of those of Congress down
to the then present time and transmitting them to me here.
Immediately on delivery the expense
(purchase money, freight and all other
necessary charges included)
will be thankfully paid by me to the
person by whom delivery is made.
To these I would beg might be added three Copies
of the latest statistical account extant of the United States—
that by Blodget would I suppose be the book.
About 3 years ago I had a momentary sight of it,
year of publication I believe 1806 or 1807, but from
that time to this, all my endeavors to obtain the property,
or so much as a sight of a Copy have been without effect.
Also a Copy of the Works of General Alexander Hamilton
lately published at New York 3 Vol.
Also of such Papers as have been published
under the name or in the character of official Reports—
whatsoever promise to be serviceable
in any way to the intended purpose.
Underneath is a List of all the Books of United States Law
I have been able to procure, and for most of them I have
been indebted to various accidents—enquiries made at the
Booksellers for others, and in particular for information of
the Laws of Congress have proved fruitless.
1 Computation of the several Independent
States of America—2nd Edition 8 vo by
the Rev. W. Jackson, London 1783.
2. A Review of the Laws of the United States of America—
the British Provinces & West India Islands Anonymous
London 8 vo: Printed for Otridge Strand 1790.
3. A Defense of the Constitution of Government
of the United States of America against the attack
of M. Turgot in his Letter to Dr. Price dated
22nd March 1778 by John Adams L.L.D. &c in 3 Vol
8 vo: New Edition London Printed for Stockdale 1794.
4. The Pennsylvania State Trials, containing the
Impeachment Trial & Acquittal of Francis Hopkinson
& Jn. Nicholson Esqr. 8 vo. Vol 1 Philadelphia
Printed by Francis Busby for Edmund Hogan 1794.
5. A System of the Laws of the State of Connecticut in Six
Books by Zephaniah Swift 2 Vol: 8 vo: Windhams printed
by John Byron for the Author Vol 1—1795.—Vol 2 1796.
6. Acts passed at the First Congress of the United States
of America begun and held at the City of New York
4 March Anno 1789 Philadelphia printed by Francis Child
Printer of the Laws of the United States 1795.
7. Do. of the Second Congress begun & held at the
City of Philadelphia 24 October 1791 ibid. 1795.
8. Do. of the Third Congress Do 2 October 1793 ibid. 1795.
9. Do. of the first Session of the 4th Congress begun
and held at Philadelphia 7th December 1795.
Printed by Thomas Dobson 1797.
10. Do. of the second Session of the 4th Congress
begun and held at Philadelphia 5 December 1796 ibid.
Printed by T. Dobson 1797.
List of the Works sent with this Letter.
Panopticon 3 Vol:
Essay on Political Tactics
Defense of Usury
Views of the Hard Labor.
Sketches relative to the Poor 4 Nos.
Draught of a Plan for the Judicial Establishment in France
Address to the National Convention of France,
proposing the emancipation of their Colonies
Escheat vice Taxation.
Protest against Law Taxes
Traités de Législation 3 Vol:
Panopticon versus New South Wales
& Plea for the Constitution
Summary view of a Plan for a Court
& Lords Delegates
Scotch Reform
Théorie des Peines et des Récompenses
Works not sent, being out of print and not procurable:
An introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation,
printed in the year 1780, and now first published by
J. Bentham Esqr. of Lincoln’s Inn, London
Printed for T. Payne and Son at the Mews Gate 1789.
A Fragment on Government.13
In his Third Annual Message to Congress on November 5 President Madison
noted that the United States had grievances against both the French and the British,
and he requested harbor fortifications and more ships for the Navy.
This is the entire message:
Fellow Citizens of the Senate,
and of the House of Representatives.
In calling you together sooner than a separation from
your homes would otherwise have been required;
I yielded to considerations drawn from the posture of
our foreign affairs; and in fixing the present for the time
of your meeting; regard was had to the probability of
further developments of the policy of the Belligerent
Powers towards this Country, which might the more
unite the national councils in the measures to be pursued.
At the close of the last session of Congress it was
hoped that the successive confirmations of the extinction
of the French Decrees, so far as they violated our
neutral commerce would have induced the Government
of Great Britain to repeal its orders in Council;
and thereby authorize a removal of the existing
obstructions to her commerce with the United States.
Instead of this reasonable step towards satisfaction and
friendship between the two nations the orders were at a
moment when least to have been expected, put into more
rigorous execution; and it was communicated through the
British Envoy just arrived that while the revocation of the
Edicts of France, as officially made known to the British
Government was denied to have taken place; it was an
indispensable condition of the repeal of the British orders
that commerce should be restored to a footing that would
admit the productions and manufactures of Great Britain,
when owned by neutrals, into markets shut against them
by her Enemy; the United States being given to understand
that in the meantime a continuance of their Non-importation
Act would lead to measures of retaliation.
At a later date it has indeed appeared that a
communication to the British Government, of
fresh evidence of the repeal of the French Decrees
against our neutral trade was followed by an
intimation that it had been transmitted to the British
Plenipotentiary here in order that it might receive
full consideration in the depending discussions.
This communication appears not to have been received:
But the transmission of it hither, instead of founding on it,
an actual repeal of the orders or assurances that the
repeal would ensue will not permit us to rely on any
effective change in the British Cabinet.
To be ready to meet with cordiality, satisfactory
proofs of such a change; and to proceed in the
meantime in adapting our measures to the views
which have been disclosed through that Minister
will best consult our whole duty.
In the unfriendly spirit of those disclosures,
indemnity and redress for other wrongs have
continued to be withheld; and our Coasts and the
mouths of our harbors have again witnessed scenes,
not less derogatory to the dearest of our national rights,
than vexatious to the regular course of our trade.
Among the occurrences produced by the conduct of
British ships of war hovering on our Coasts was an
encounter between one of them and the American
Frigate commanded by Captain Rodgers rendered
unavoidable on the part of the latter by a fire commenced
without cause by the former; whose commander is
therefore alone chargeable with the blood unfortunately
shed in maintaining the honor of the American flag.
The proceedings of a Court of Enquiry requested by
Captain Rodgers are communicated; together with the
correspondence relating to the occurrence between the
Secretary of State and His Britannic Majesty’s Envoy.
To these are added the several correspondences
which have passed on the subject of the British
Orders in Council; and to both the correspondence
relating to the Floridas in which Congress will be
made acquainted with the interposition, which the
Government of Great Britain has thought proper
to make against the proceedings of the United States.
The justice and fairness which have been evinced
on the part of the United States towards France,
both before and since the revocation of her Decrees,
authorized an expectation that her Government
would have followed up that measure by all such
others as were due to our reasonable claims,
as well as dictated by its amicable professions.
No proof, however, is yet given of an intention to repair the
other wrongs done to the United States; and particularly to
restore the great amount of American property seized and
condemned under Edicts; which, though not affecting our
neutral relations, and therefore not entering into questions
between the United States and other Belligerents were
nevertheless founded in such unjust principles, that
the reparation ought to have been prompt and ample.
In addition to this and other demands of strict right
on that nation: the United States have much reason
to be dissatisfied with the rigorous and unexpected
restrictions to which their trade with the French dominions
has been subjected; and which if not discontinued,
will require at least corresponding restrictions on
importations from France into the United States.
On all those subjects our Minister Plenipotentiary,
lately sent to Paris has carried with him the necessary
instructions; the result of which will be communicated to
you; and by ascertaining the ulterior policy of the French
Government towards the United States will enable you to
adapt to it that of the United States towards France.
Our other foreign relations remain
without unfavorable changes.
With Russia they are on the best footing of friendship.
The Ports of Sweden have afforded proofs of
friendly dispositions towards our commerce,
in the Councils of that Nation also.
And the information from our Special Minister to
Denmark shows that the Mission had been attended
with valuable effects to our Citizens, whose
property had been so extensively violated and
endangered by Cruisers under the Danish flag.
Under the ominous indications which
commanded attention it became a duty
to exert the means committed to the Executive
Department in providing for the general security.
The works of defense on our maritime frontier have
accordingly been prosecuted with an activity, leaving
little to be added for the completion of the most
important ones; and as particularly suited for
co-operations in emergencies a portion of the Gunboats
have in particular harbors been ordered into use.
The ships of war before in commission with the
addition of a Frigate have been chiefly employed,
as a cruising Guard to the rights of our Coast.
And such a disposition has been made of our
land forces, as was thought to promise the
services most appropriate and important.
In this disposition is included a force consisting of
regulars and militia embodied in the Indiana Territory
and marched towards our Northwestern frontier.
This measure was made requisite by several murders
and depredations committed by Indians;
but more especially by the menacing preparations and
aspect of a combination of them on the Wabash under the
influence and direction of a Fanatic of the Shawanese Tribe.
With these exceptions the Indian Tribes retain their
peaceable dispositions towards us and their usual pursuits.
I must now add that the period is arrived which claims
from the Legislative Guardians of the National rights a
system of more ample provisions for maintaining them.
Notwithstanding the scrupulous justice, the protracted
moderation, and the multiplied efforts on the part
of the United States to substitute for the accumulating
dangers to the peace of the two Countries all the mutual
advantages of re-established friendship and confidence;
we have seen that the British Cabinet perseveres,
not only in withholding a remedy for other wrongs,
so long and so loudly calling for it; but in the execution,
brought home to the threshold of our Territory of measures
which, under existing circumstances, have the character
as well as the effect of war on our lawful commerce.
With this evidence of hostile inflexibility in trampling
on rights which no Independent Nation can relinquish;
Congress will feel the duty of putting the United States
into an armor and an attitude demanded by the crisis and
corresponding with the national spirit and expectations.
I recommend accordingly that adequate provision
be made for filling the ranks and prolonging the
enlistments of the regular troops; for an auxiliary
force to be engaged for a more limited term; for
the acceptance of volunteer Corps, whose patriotic
ardor may court a participation in urgent services;
for detachments, as they be wanted of other portions
of the Militia; and for such a preparation of the great Body,
as will proportion its usefulness to its intrinsic capacities.
Nor can the occasion fail to remind you of the importance
of those Military Seminaries which in every event will form
a valuable and frugal part of our Military establishment.
The manufacture of cannon and small arms has
proceeded with due success, and the stock and resources of
all the necessary munitions are adequate to emergencies.
It will not be inexpedient, however, for Congress to
authorize an enlargement of them.
Your attention will of course be drawn to such provisions
on the subject of our naval force, as may be required for
the services to which it may be best adapted.
I submit to Congress the seasonableness also
of an authority to augment the stock of such
materials, as are imperishable in their nature,
or may not at once be attainable.
In contemplating the scenes which distinguish
this momentous Epoch, and estimating their
claims to our attention, it is impossible to overlook
those developing themselves among the great
communities, which occupy the southern portion of
our own hemisphere and extend into our neighborhood.
An enlarged philanthropy and an enlightened forecast
concur in imposing on the national Councils an obligation
to take a deep interest in their destinies; to cherish
reciprocal sentiments of good will; to regard the
progress of Events; and not to be unprepared for
whatever order of things may be ultimately established.
Under another aspect of our situation the early attention
of Congress will be due to the expediency of further guards,
against evasions and infractions of our Commercial laws.
The practice of smuggling, which is odious everywhere, and
particularly criminal in free Governments where the laws
being made by all for the good of all, a fraud is committed
on every individual as well as on the State, attains its
utmost guilt when it blends with a pursuit of ignominious
gain, a treacherous subservience in the transgressors to
a foreign policy adverse to that of their own Country.
It is then that the virtuous indignation of the public
should be enabled to manifest itself through the
regular animadversions of the most competent laws.
To secure greater respect to our mercantile flag and
to the honest interests which it covers; it is expedient
also that it be made punishable in our Citizens to
accept licenses from foreign Governments for a trade
unlawfully interdicted by them to other American Citizens;
or to trade under false Color or papers of any sort.
A prohibition is equally called for against the acceptance
by our Citizens of special licenses to be used in a trade
with the United States; and against the admission into
particular ports of the United States of vessels from foreign
Countries authorized to trade with particular ports only.
Although other subjects will press more immediately
on your deliberations, a portion of them cannot but be
well bestowed on the just and sound policy of securing
to our manufactures the success they have attained
and are still attaining in some degree under the
impulse of causes not permanent; and to our navigation
the fair extent of which it is at present abridged by
the unequal regulations of foreign Governments.
Besides the reasonableness of saving our manufacturers
from sacrifices, which a change of circumstances might
bring on them; the national interest requires that with
respect to such articles at least, as belong to our defense
and our primary wants, we should not be left in
unnecessary dependence on external supplies.
And while Foreign Governments adhere to the existing
discrimination in their ports against our navigation;
and an equality or lesser discrimination is enjoyed
by their navigation in our ports, the effect cannot be
mistaken because it has been seriously felt by our
shipping Interests: and in proportion as this takes place,
the advantages of an independent conveyance of our
products to foreign markets and of a growing body of
mariners trained by their occupations for the service
of their Country in times of danger must be diminished.
The receipts into the Treasury during the year ending
on the thirtieth of September last have exceeded thirteen
Millions and a half of Dollars and have enabled us to
defray the current expenses including the Interest on
the public debt and to reimburse more than five Millions
of Dollars of the principal; without recurring to the
loan authorized by the Act of the last session.
The temporary loan obtained in the latter end of the year
one thousand eight hundred and ten, has also been
reimbursed and is not included in that amount.
The decrease of revenue arising from the situation of
our commerce and the extraordinary expenses which have
and may become necessary, must be taken into view
in making commensurate provisions for the ensuing year.
And I recommend to your consideration the propriety
of ensuring a sufficiency of annual revenue,
at least to defray the ordinary expenses of Government
and to pay the interest on the public debt;
including that on new loans which may be authorized.
I cannot close this communication without expressing
my deep sense of the crisis in which you are assembled,
my confidence in a wise and honorable result to your
deliberations and assurances of the faithful zeal with
which my co-operating duties will be discharged; invoking
at the same time the blessing of Heaven on our beloved
Country and on all the means that may be employed
in vindicating its rights and advancing its welfare.14
Gallatin had advised Madison to moderate the militancy of his speech
and to continue non-intercourse because measures necessary for war
would be unpopular and could result in defeat and a disgraceful peace.
The President still warned the British that attacks
on commerce must cease, or war could result.
Madison indicated the war was a ways off when he said he
was going to wait for the return of the Hornet in the spring.
Foster was told that the President would not send a minister
to London until the British stopped warring on American commerce.
This prevented a top diplomat from being there to negotiate peace.
Madison reported the American victory against the Indian revolt at Tippecanoe.
On November 7 in the Indian Territory the Governor William Henry Harrison
led about 700 militia with 250 infantry and 90 cavalry in a major battle in
Tippecanoe County against Tecumseh’s Confederacy with about 600 warriors.
Each side suffered about 60 men killed, and the Americans had more men wounded.
Harrison believed he won the battle the next day by destroying their Prophetstown
that was named after Tecumseh’s younger brother Tenskwatawa
who led the fight while Tecumseh was away.
On 15 November 1811 President Madison wrote in a letter
to John Quincy Adams who was the Minister in Russia:
I have received your several favors of
February 8, April 19, June 3, and August 17,
all of them in triplicates or duplicates.
I need not say how agreeable it would have been
to me, and I am persuaded satisfactory to the public,
if your inclination and circumstances had favored
the new allotment of your Services.
Being ignorant of the obstacle arising from the particular
state of your family, and inferring from considerations
known to you, that such an exchange might not be
unwelcome, I had proceeded so far in anticipating a
decision different from that which took place in your mind,
as to hold out the station at St Petersburg to another.
It has happened that no disappointment of any sort,
ensued to your contemplated Successor.
But I ought not to omit, that I did not so far lose sight
of the possibility, that you might be induced to decline
the new appointment, as not to have meditated a
provision for that event, which would have,
probably, deprived it of its embarrassments.
In the present state of things, I have only to wish
that your diplomatic situation may continue to be
less incommodious than it was at first found; and
that opportunities of rendering it useful to your
Country may equal her confidence in the fidelity
and ability which you will apply to them.
Count Pahlen has just delivered his letter
of leave in pursuance of the order of the
Emperor which translates him to Rio Janiero.
His excellent dispositions and amiable deportment
have justly rendered him so highly and universally
agreeable here that we take for granted, that no
doubt on that point can have been among the reasons
of his Sovereign for this change of his destination.
You will receive by this conveyance from the
Department of State, the late communications to
Congress, including the adjustment of the rusty
and corrosive affair of the Chesapeake.
The pretension of Great Britain which requires us,
as a neutral nation, to assert against one belligerent,
an obligation to open its markets to the products of the
other shows a predetermination to make her orders in
Council co-durable with the war; for she cannot be
unaware that nothing but a termination of the war,
if even that will fulfill the condition annexed to their repeal.
The question to be decided therefore by Congress,
according to present appearances, simply is,
whether all the trade to which the Orders are,
and shall be applied, is to be abandoned; or the
hostile operation of them, be hostilely resisted.
The apparent disposition is certainly not in favor of
the first alternative; though it is more than probable,
that if the second should be adopted, the execution of it
will be put off till the close of the Session approaches;
with the exception perhaps of a license to our
merchantmen to arm in self-defense, which can
scarcely fail to bring on war in its full extent unless
such an evidence of the determination of the U. S. to
prefer war to submission should arrest the cause for it.
The reparation made for the attack on the American
Frigate Chesapeake, takes one splinter out of our wounds;
but besides the provoking tardiness of the remedy,
the moment finally chosen, deprives it of much of
its effect by giving it the appearance of a mere
anodyne to the excitements in Congress and the
nation produced by the contemporary disclosures.
It will afford you pleasure to know that the aggregate
of our Crops was never greater than for the present year.
The grain part of them is particularly abundant.15
President Madison on 17 November 1811 welcomed the poet
and diplomat Joel Barlow to the State Department with this letter:
You will receive by this conveyance the proper
communications from the Department of State.
You will see in them the ground now
avowed for the British Orders in Council.
It must render them co-durable with the war;
for nothing but a termination of it will re-open
the continental market to British products.
Nor is it probable that peace will do it in its former extent.
The pretension which requires the U. S. as a neutral
power to assert an obligation on one belligerent
to favor by its internal regulations the manufactures of
another is a fitter subject for ridicule than refutation.
It accordingly has no countenance here even among
the most devoted Champions of Great Britain.
Whether some of them by arming themselves with
simulated facts & sophistical distinctions may not be
emboldened to turn out in her defense will soon be seen.
Nothing has yet passed in Congress disclosing the sense of
that Body with respect to the moment & manner of meeting
the conduct of Great Britain in its present hostile shape.
A disposition appears to enter at once on preparations,
which will probably be put in force or not,
as the effect of them on the British Councils
shall be ascertained in the course of the session.
In the meantime it is not improbable that the merchant
vessels may be permitted to arm for self-defense.
This can scarcely fail to bring on maritime reprisals;
and to end in the full extent of war; unless a change
in the British system should arrest the career of events.
All proceedings however relating to Great Britain will be
much influenced by the conduct of France not only as it
relates to a violation of our neutral rights; but of our
national ones also, and to justice for the past as well as
for the future and that too not only in cases strictly Frenc,
but in those in Naples & elsewhere indirectly so.
Although in our discussions with Great Britain we have
been justified in viewing the repeal of the French decrees
as sufficiently substantiated to require a fulfilment of the
pledge to repeal the orders in Council; yet the manner
in which the French Government has managed the
repeal of the decrees and evaded a correction of other
outrages has mingled with the conciliatory tendency of
the repeal as much of irritation and disgust as possible.
And these sentiments are not a little strengthened by
the sarcastic comments on that management, with
which we are constantly pelted in our discussions
with the British Government, and for which the French
Government ought to be ashamed to furnish the occasion.
In fact without a systematic change from an appearance of
crafty contrivance and insatiate cupidity to an open manly
& upright dealing with a nation whose example demands it,
it is impossible that good will can exist; and that the ill will
which her policy aims at directing against her enemy should
not by her folly and iniquity be drawn off against herself.
The late licentiousness of the French privateers in the Baltic,
the ruinous transmission of their cases to Paris, and the
countenance said to be there given to such abuses are
kindling a fresh flame here: And if a remedy be not applied,
& our merchantmen should arm, hostile collisions will as
readily take place with one nation as the other.
Were it not that our frigates would be in danger
of rencounters with British Ships of superior force
in that quarter, there could be no scruple at sending
thither some of them with orders to suppress by
force the French and Danish depredations.
I am aware that a pretext for these has been
sought in the practice of our vessels in accepting
British Convoy; but have they not in many instances
at least been driven to this irregular step by the
greater irregularities practiced against them?
We await the return of the Constitution not without a
hope of finding the good effect of your remonstrances in
a radical change of the French policy towards this Country.
The reparation for the outrage on the Chesapeake
frigate, which you will find in the correspondence
between Mr. A J. Foster & Mr. Madison though in a
style & extent sufficiently admissible under actual
circumstances has been so timed as to lose its conciliatory
effect by wearing the appearance of a diplomatic ruse.
Those who value it most do so on the calculation that
Mr. A. J. Foster is authorized to go forward in the road
from which he has removed the stumbling block.
In this they allow their wishes to mislead their judgments.
From a late communication of Mr. Russell to the
Secretary of State it appears that the French Emperor
has very wisely made up his mind for the Independence
of Spanish America; and for the possession of East
as well as West Florida by the U. S.
It is to be hoped that no unworthy attempts
will be made to extract money from the occasion.
1. because it is incompatible with the assumed
idea that Spanish America must be independent.
2. because without our occupancy,
that of Great Britain would be interposed.
3. & essentially because the pecuniary value
of the territory is due from Spain to the U. S.
You ought to know that there is good reason to believe
that an agent (Keene) for certain grasping land Jobbers
of New Orleans & possibly elsewhere, has been treating
with the Cortes for the vacant lands in East Florida.
And it may be counted on that equal art
& avarice will mingle themselves with
every opportunity for corrupt speculations.
Hitherto the Continental Colonies of South America
have masked their views of independence under
a nominal adherence to Ferdinand as the head
of the whole empire in contradistinction to the
Cortes governing the European part of it only.
Venezuela however has thrown off this mask,
has communicated to us its declaration of
Independence and solicits our acknowledging
it by receiving a public Minister &c.
Mexico, according to our intelligence which
is difficult & obscure, is still in the struggle
between the revolutionary & royal parties.
In what manner Great Britain will proceed
in the case of Venezuela, & other districts
following its example does not yet appear.
While Ferdinand was acknowledged, it was less
difficult to steer between the Cortes and the Colonies.
It will require more dexterity to reconcile
her political connections with the former,
and her commercial views towards the latter.
If our information from Cadiz be not
very erroneous, she is doing us all the
mischief there which her influence can effect.
What her conduct may be in the event of our
taking possession of East Florida cannot yet be said.
The game she will play with Cuba,
may more readily be conjectured.
But like most of her others it may in the end be a losing one.
You will receive from the Department of State
a set of Newspapers & will see the public
countenance as reflected in that Mirror.
I add one or two which happen to be at hand
and to contain some things worth perusal.16
On 17 December 1811 Treasury Secretary Gallatin sent President Madison
a letter describing the number of Canada’s forces (not counting Quebec)
at various locations with a total estimate of 1,850 men in Lower Canada,
780 around Montreal, and 720 in Upper Canada.
Also on the 17th the Quaker George Logan wrote this letter to Madison:
Every friend of the civilized world, must
contemplate with deep regret the melancholy
spectacle of discord and disorder, the present
barbarous system of commercial warfare has introduced.
Flourishing states in place of striving together
in industry, in science and in policy; are
sneakingly engaged in destroying the domestic
comforts of the most destitute of mankind.
It is to little purpose to inquire by whose fault
such a state of things has been brought about.
All that is now necessary is to impress on the citizens of
the United States a just abhorrence of that spirit of revenge
which has unhappily broke out and which has cast so deep
a stain on the character and policy of modern times.
Of the evils brought upon the world by this system,
there can be no doubt—commerce has been deranged
and discouraged—every sort of obstacle has been
thrown in the way of industry and improvement—
and all those who depend for a subsistence on trade
have been exposed to severe suffering—the merchant
has been distressed, in many cases ruined—
the farmer impoverished, and the laborer deprived
of employment has been disabled from providing by
his industry for himself and his dependent family.
These are the glories of this new system of
hostility, which has converted war from a chivalric
and generous contest between fleets and armies
into a paltry and cruel attack on the most destitute.
When we see the rulers of nations, the natural guardians
of human happiness, so quietly acquiescing in the misery of
mankind, and under the pretext of great national objects
playing the game of their own little passions and prejudices,
is there not some reason to doubt whether any sentiment
of pity for the numerous train of helpless sufferers, who
are ruined by their measures ever touches their breasts?
They are surely not ignorant that the great body
of mankind live by their labor, and that in every
interruption to the settled course of industry, large
classes of men are thrown idle, and plunged into
all the anxiety incident to so perplexing a situation.
This is itself a great evil and a serious objection to
the policy of the measure; for sound policy will never
be found at variance with humanity: and there is no
quality which is so desirable in a statesman as a quick
sensibility to the sufferings of his fellow creatures;
whether considered with a view to its own intrinsic
excellence or as the decided mark of an exalted mind.
It is an indisputable maxim of sound policy, that where
any measure is to produce evils, certain, immediate and
extensive, we ought to be well assured that its remoter
effects will far outweigh its present inconveniences.
This is precisely the vulnerable point of all those schemes
which have been projected for the annoyance of commerce.
It is a fact deserving the serious attention of the statesman
that the French decrees—British orders in council, and the
commercial warfare of the United States; besides inflicting
on these several nations the disgrace of an inhuman and
dishonorable warfare are operating more to injure their
own individual prosperity than to destroy their enemy.
As to an actual declaration of war against Great Britain:
it is an affair that requires the most mature consideration.
I trust you will not give up your own sound judgment
to the clamors of a few individuals amongst us—
Men as destitute of honor as of genuine patriotism.
If we investigate the motives of these Men,
we shall find them influenced by restless ambition,
or desperate fortune; breathing the factious spirit
of party—not the universal spirit of public good.
The republican form of our government and the
nature of our population in the southern States
should engage us as a nation at this momentous
crisis of the World to avoid a state of war;
even supported by the most just resentment.
But why is it necessary that we should pass
through war to arrive at peace?
The situation of the United States is by no means
so desperate as to preclude the hope of an
amicable settlement with Great Britain the happy
termination of which will do you honor as a
statesman and will be a blessing to your country.
To these considerations permit me to add,
that you have an established reputation to support.
The fame you so justly acquired in promoting the liberties
of your country and in establishing the present happy form
of government of the United States; should now engage
you as chief magistrate to make use of your influence
to prevent war by which both may be endangered.17
On 18 December 1811 Madison wrote this
short letter to the United States Congress:
I lay before Congress two letters received from Governor
Harrison of the Indiana Territory, reporting the particulars
and the issue of the expedition under his command, of which
notice was taken in my communication of November 5th.
While it is deeply lamented that so many valuable lives
have been lost in the action which took place on the 7th,
Congress will see with satisfaction the dauntless spirit
and fortitude victoriously displayed by every description
of the troops engaged, as well as the collected firmness
which distinguished their Commander on an occasion
requiring the utmost exertions of valor and discipline.
It may reasonably be expected that the good effects
of this critical defeat and dispersion of a combination of
savages which appears to have been spreading to a
greater extent will be experienced not only in a
cessation of the murders and depredations committed
on our frontier, but in the prevention of any hostile
incursions otherwise to have been apprehended.
The families of those brave and patriotic Citizens
who have fallen in this severe conflict, will doubtless
engage the favorable attention of Congress.18
On December 19 the United States Senate approved the Giles bill
to raise 25,000 men for five years, and in the House of Representatives
an amendment reduced the number to 15,000.
From 1803 to 1812 about 6,000 American citizens were taken
from their ships and impressed to serve on British vessels.
New York’s Mayor DeWitt Clinton and Gouverneur Morris persuaded
Madison to endorse their ambitious plan to build the Erie Canal,
though the President believed federal funding might not be constitutional.
The steamboat New Orleans was built in Pittsburgh in 1811 and
was the first to operate on the Ohio and Mississippi rivers.
The first steamboat to return upstream to Pittsburgh was the Enterprise in 1816.
John Jacob Astor’s American Fur Company competed against
the Canadian North West Company, but in 1811 they agreed to divide
the western trade that gave Astor’s South West Company trading rights
east of the Rocky Mountains and the Canadians the territory farther west.
On December 23 President Madison sent to Congress this letter
on a possible canal from the Great Lakes to the Hudson River:
I communicate to Congress copies of an Act
of the Legislature of New York, relating to a
canal from the Great Lakes to Hudson river.
In making the communication I consult the respect due to
that State; in whose behalf the commissioners appointed
by the Act have placed it in my hands for the purpose.
The utility of canal navigation is universally admitted.
It is not less certain that scarcely any Country offers more
extensive opportunities for that branch of improvements
than the United States, and none perhaps inducements
equally persuasive to make the most of them.
The particular undertaking contemplated by the State of
New York, which marks an honorable spirit of enterprise,
and comprises objects of national as well as more limited
importance will recall the attention of Congress to the
signal advantages to be derived to the United States
from a general system of internal communication
and conveyance; and suggest to their consideration,
whatever steps may be proper on their part,
towards its introduction and accomplishment.
As some of those advantages have an intimate connection
with arrangements and exertions for the general security,
it is at a period calling for these that the merits of such
a system will be seen in the strongest lights.19
On 19 December 1811 the diplomat Joel Barlow wrote this letter
to Madison from Paris, and he also included an enclosure describing
in detail boundaries that Spain has acknowledged and other relevant matters.
In my private letter to you of the 19th I took the liberty
to intimate that I might address you by the frigate on the
subject of connecting the indemnities due to our citizens
with a convention of boundaries of Louisiana.
I have had many hints on this subject
both from Spanish & French authority.
I have always discouraged the idea by a declaration
as general & vague as might be, that I am not
instructed by my government & therefore can say
nothing that shall draw to any sort of consequence.
I thought it not prudent to make any specific
exception to any part of the proposition, such as
the right of the party ceding the value of the proposed
cession or the conditions on which it might be made.
Thus reserving the power of being consistent with myself
in case any circumstances should induce propositions
that in your opinion ought to preclude such exceptions.
Here is a Spanish agent of rank who has formerly
been minister at home and ambassador in France, &
who now enjoys the confidence of both governments.
He is charged with full powers by King Joseph to
negotiate & conclude a convention of boundaries
with the French or American authorities on terms,
as he thinks, so advantageous to the United States
that their government cannot refuse them.
In repeated conversations with this person I have
collected the substance of the convention that he &
the French Government will probably agree to.
Indeed he would have proposed them before now had
he supposed they would be accepted or even discussed.
I did not let him know that I should reduce them
to writing or propose them to you in any shape.
I have however put them on paper as precisely
as I can methodize the ideas, and I now take the
liberty to lay them before you with some observations
that have occurred to me as worthy your attention.
I assume as a general principle that it now becomes
more than ever important to the peace & interest of
the United States that the limits of Louisiana should
be fixed & acknowledged by all parties concerned.
The present appears the most favorable moment
to do this for reasons which will apply more
or less to each of those parties.
1st Spain. King Joseph is in want of money,
& the sum he will get out of the six millions of dollars,
the first grant mentioned in the project, is represented
as a great object to him at this moment.
It cannot be long before a change
will take place in his situation.
He will either cease to be King of Spain by the
effect of a union of that country to France; or his
power as King of Spain will become more consolidated,
when a million or two of dollars will be of less consequence
to him; or remaining King of Spain while Mexico shall
be acknowledged independent, he will have no legal
power to establish the limits in question.
He is now to all intents & purposes of public law the
legitimate King of Spain, acknowledged by every power
of Europe except England, & she is at war with him.
The treaty of St. Ildefonso is well known to have been left
defective as to the limits of the territory therein ceded.
It requires explanation.
Joseph, as King of Spain, is the only power
that can (in concert with France) explain
that treaty & define those limits.
And no other power or people has a right to complain,
provided their acknowledged rights are not thereby invaded.
Spain as a power, whoever is her king,
owes the citizens of the United States
considerable indemnities for captured property.
This is a certain way, a legal way & the only
way in which such indemnities can be had.
It will be well viewed in Spain & in the U S; & the
terms thus obtained by our citizens will be so much
recovered as if from the bottom of the sea; for it
would be folly to expect payment in any other way.
The change of dynasty in Spain since the debts were
contracted would be a sufficient pretext for refusing
payment, if a constant refusal for ten or fifteen years
preceding that change had not already reduced
the claimants to a desperate silence.
2nd France. This being the only power with which
we contracted for Louisiana it is to the emperor alone
that we can look for an explanation of its limits.
By the convention of 1803 we receive that territory from
France with such limits as she receives it from Spain.
And the emperor in the convention of boundaries
now proposed explains the former convention
with the same authority with which he made it.
This he offers to do now, but there is no
probability that he will do it at a later period,
because he will not have the same inducement.
It is well known that he now has the double motive
of paying his own debts to our citizens & relieving
his brother Joseph from pecuniary embarrassments.
Without these motives he probably would not have
listened to the project now brought forward.
He owes our citizens a considerable sum,
probably from four to six millions of dollars.
Whatever may be his means he certainly has not
the intention of paying them in any other way.
We know how difficult it is to draw money from his
coffers at any rate for the best acknowledged debts
when not so circumstanced that a refusal to pay
would immediately clog his military operations.
And in a case like this, where he can risk nothing but the
animadversions of a few Diplomatic notes and the censure
of American newspapers, he will feel such a perfect
impunity in refusing to pay by any direct drain upon
his treasury, that he will probably never think of it.
Indeed I am assured of this, not only from his conduct
in common cases, but by the private declaration of
his intentions, as I am told, in this particular case.
3rd England. The Government of England
expressed in a formal manner its
acquiescence in our purchase of Louisiana.
And it cannot pretend that the party who had the right
to cede had not the right to fix the limits of the Cession.
By your message to Congress of the 5th November
it seems that England is interfering with your
operations in one of the Floridas.
What this interference may be I know not,
for I have seen no other document but that message.
She probably does this on the ground that
such territory was not included in the cession.
But when she sees that the same powers that made the
cession acknowledge that such territory was included
therein, then that pretext at least is removed;
and if after that she persists in meddling with
this affair it must be on other grounds than
those of obtaining justice for a pretended ally,
& she may be opposed by other arguments.
4th Mexico including the provinces
between that and Louisiana.
These provinces have never yet formed an
organized power capable of declaring a national will.
It has all along been contended by us,
and never contradicted by them, that
our western limit was the Rio Bravo.
But whether we own the Country or not,
the Mexicans certainly do not own it.
According to the received doctrines of public law
& colonization the government of Spain was the
only power that had the right to form and
declare the limits of provinces in that region.
Spain had a right to buy and sell these
provinces as well as fix their limits.
Spain had before bought Louisiana; she has lately sold
Louisiana, and she now declares what Louisiana is.
But the provinces now in insurrection to the west
of the Bravo, to say the most of their rights, have no
rights beyond their own limits, neither is it the interest
of Mexico to extend her boundary farther to the East.
If any power or people in those territories are to be
consulted it is that which I am going next to mention.
5th The people living on the ceded lands.
We find that the people of Louisiana living on the Mississippi
& in West Florida have acquiesced and rejoiced in
becoming part of us and belonging to the United States.
There is every reason to believe that those of East Florida
and those of Texas &c. partake of the same sentiments.
But these dispositions may change in a short time after
they shall have formed other connections or other
habits, incompatible with the union now proposed.
This is the moment of revolutionary
ideas in all those colonies.
It is therefore the most proper moment to settle them
down in habits and attachments that may be permanent.
It is remarkable that the whole business of Louisiana has
been hitherto conducted without shedding a drop of blood.
It has done honor to our government
as well as to the people in question.
But the limits being yet unsettled there must, at no distant
day, be a breaking up somewhere; and it would be more
convenient, more safe and probably more peaceful to have
it done now, before the lands are much peopled and before
local interests and habits become enforced by local power.
6th The United States. Their object is to live in peace with
all the world and to cultivate those natural advantages
which ought to secure their greatest happiness as a nation.
For this purpose they should be sufficiently populous and
powerful to be able to feel that they can at all times do
justice, as well as command it, without any other effort
than that of forming a national will.
It is only on habits of justice, that
those of peace can be established.
And the best security for both in the case now in question
is to settle those great frontier discussions before they shall
appear to be great, and while all the other parties concerned
are more willing or more complying than they ever can be
hereafter; especially before some of them shall cease to
have the right, and we ourselves cease to have the power.
7th Your administration. Excuse me, my dear Sir,
if I reckon this among the parties concerned.
A desire to render your administration popular
is a sentiment of patriotism, and not merely of
friendship and attachment to you; and the
expression of this desire is not flattery; it is not
a profession of love to you but to the country.
You were called to administer the Government at
a time when there existed a great moral struggle
between republican principles and their opposites.
The contest is of awful magnitude, & it is not yet decided.
Its decision depends greatly on your success;
& I have accustomed myself to regard the
triumph of your administration as identified
in some measure with that of our constitution.
This you may think is taking a strong hold of the subject,
and I cannot but perceive a great cause of congratulation
and triumph in the indemnities to so many of our citizens
as are involved in the proposed arrangement; especially
do I perceive it in the peaceable acquisition of so great an
additional territory and fixing the limits of several thousand
miles of our most contested frontier, and this cheaper
than was ever expected and of much greater extent.
Indeed I cannot foresee any probable time when,
or principle on which the western & northwestern boundary
of that country will be settled, if not terminated now.
On the whole you are doubtless more familiar
with the Object than I am, and know better how
these terms compare with what you have before
offered and what you have tried to obtain.
I have understood that the sum you offered was far
greater, and the limits you demanded were far less.
In fact you here give nothing.
You allow the party to retain six millions of acres
out of the two hundred Millions he gives you beyond
what you were willing before to consider as your limits.
I recollect the paper you showed me last summer
containing the proposition transmitted by Mr. Russell.
The present one differs from that, as well
as I recollect it in a variety of respects.
1st. it takes in a much greater territory than
that did, even four degrees of latitude from
the middle of the continent to the south sea.
2d. It indemnifies your citizens, and a very clamorous class
of them to the amount of forty two millions of Francs.
3d. It admits grants of land upon you to a less amount
by twelve millions of acres; his proposal being, if I
remember right, thirty two millions, this twenty millions.
4th. The state of Europe is different from what it was a year
ago and admits more readily the legality of Joseph’s power.
5th the most striking difference perhaps
is in the manner of the transaction.
That had the appearance of a new grant in which the right
of the grantor might be scrutinized; this is nothing but an
explanation of an old grant; an explanation by the only
power on earth that can now explain it, and a grant that
all the world knows was left unexplained, has need of
explanation, and must and will lead to disputes,
probably to wars, if left much longer unexplained.
My duty seems to require that I should state to you
one fact, at least what I believe to be a fact,
that in this transaction there is no corruption
or underhand dealing in contemplation.
The Spanish Agent has no under agents.
He assures me in the most solemn manner that
King Joseph is in great distress for money for his
domestic expenses, and that he will really receive every
dollar that can be raised out of the six millions of Acres.
And that the loan is to enable him to live till he can get the
land surveyed and in a state to sell for his sole account.
This agent will doubtless be well paid;
but farther than that I believe the negotiation
proposed is just what it purports to be.
Should you think proper to pursue this business
under any modifications that would not greatly change
the substance, I should not despair of obtaining them.
You will judge of the propriety of giving me as speedy
an answer as may be, as I expect this agent will not
long delay to make his proposition in form, or if not, his
master may forbid anything farther to be said about it.
You will judge of the propriety of giving me as speedy
an answer as may be, as I expect this agent will not
long delay to make his proposition in form, or if not, his
master may forbid anything farther to be said about it.
With great respect & attachment your obedient Servant
Joel Barlow
Enclosure
Sketch of a Convention of boundaries
Spain acknowledges that the boundaries of the country
ceded to France under the general name of Louisiana by the
treaty of St. Ildefonso was not clearly defined in that treaty.
And as doubts have arisen and disputes may hereafter arise
with respect to the precise boundaries intended, she now
declares as a supplementary article to said treaty that the
country therein ceded to France is bounded as follows.
First beginning at the mouth of the Rio Bravo sometimes
called rio del norté in the gulf of Mexico and running
eastward and southward with the coast of North America
bordering said Gulf till it joins the Atlantic Ocean, thence
northward with the coast of North America bordering
said Ocean to the mouth of the river St Mary’s which
now forms the boundary of the State of Georgia,
comprehending all Islands both of said ocean
and said Gulf within three leagues of said coast
of North America in the extent above mentioned.
Next beginning at the mouth of the said Rio Bravo and
running up the same in the middle of its channel till it
intersects the 30th degree of north latitude, thence on a due
north line to the completion of the 42nd degree of North
latitude, thence on a due west line to the Pacific Ocean.
The navigation of the Rio Bravo from the gulf to the
30th Degree will be declared equally free for the
inhabitants on each side of said River, And the other
limits of Louisiana are declared to extend so as to
comprehend in the cession thereof all the territories,
by whatever local names they may have been called,
that on the day of the signature of said Treaty of Saint
Ildefonso belonged to the Spanish monarchy in the
continent of North America to the northward and
Eastward of the lines and limits above described.
All grants of land made by the Spanish government either
before or after the date of said Treaty of St. Ildefonso that
now remain unsurveyed & unlocated are declared to be
null and void except one grant of six millions of acres made
on the 5 day of 6 to A. B. his heirs and assigns in fee
simple, and another grant of fourteen millions of acres
to said A. B. and by him transferred to the Register of
the Treasury of the United States in trust as hereinafter
mentioned; which two grants shall be valid, and the
intention thereof executed on the following conditions:
The grant of six Millions of acres is to be laid out,
a half a Million thereof in east Florida, and the other
five millions and a half between the Rio Bravo, and
the river Sabine, both at the choice of A. B. to be
surveyed at the expense of A. B. and the warrants for
the location of the lots are to issue from the Treasury
of the United States to be signed by the Register.
The grant of fourteen Millions is to be placed on any
vacant lands between the Mississippi and the Bravo and
south of the 33rd degree of latitude within the limits of
Louisiana as above described at the choice of the Secretary
of the Treasury of the United States, to be surveyed at the
expense of said A. B. in lots of five thousand acres each.
This latter grant is appropriated to the indemnification
of the American citizens for the Spoliations committed
on their property contrary to the law of nations in
Spain and France, to be more particularly
designated in the convention.
It is conjectured that these spoliations may amount
to forty two millions of Francs, that is twelve millions
in Spain and thirty millions in France.
The lands, being surveyed in tracts of five thousand acres
and the warrants signed by the Register ready to be
delivered at the Treasury, are considered as worth three
francs an acre, And are to be received at that rate in
full payment for the spoliations by the claimants.
The United States are to make a loan to the said A. B.
of one million dollars in a stock bearing interest at
six percent per annum payable quarterly in
Washington the principal redeemable in ten years.
Said loan to A. B. to bear an equal interest of 6 percent.
To secure the repayment of this money, as well interest
as principal, the warrants for the six Millions of Acres
granted to A. B. shall remain in the Treasury of the
United States to be given out by the Register only as
fast as the repayment of the loan is effected, and that
only in the ratio or at the rate of forty cents an acre.
So that a warrant for five thousand acres can be given
out only on the repayment of two thousand dollars,
plus the interest that will have accrued thereon.
At which rate the warrants for only two millions and
a half of acres, out of the six millions, will be delivered
when the whole loan is reimbursed, at which time all
the remainder of said warrants shall be given up.
And to insure the faithful performance of that part
of the contract which regards the survey of the fourteen
Millions of Acres, one fifth of the loan, or two hundred
thousand dollars, shall remain in the Treasury, and the
lands shall be surveyed by the surveyors of the United
States and paid by the Treasury out of the two hundred
thousand dollars thus retained for that purpose.
And in case that expense of survey should amount to
more or less than the two hundred thousand dollars the
difference can be adjusted by a clause in the convention.
No greater sum than forty two millions of francs shall be
found due for these spoliations and paid for in this way.
And a commission shall be established in Paris
in the manner to be pointed out by the President,
to apportion that sum, or as much thereof as
may be justly due among the sufferers.
The commission shall decide according to equity and
the law of nations; and the rule for estimating the value
to be paid for shall be the prime cost of ship and Cargo.
But in case the American Government should prefer
not to confirm the grant of fourteen millions of Acres,
but to keep that portion of the land to itself, it shall be
at liberty so to do, provided it shall pay its own citizens
to the full amount of what shall be found due not exceeding
forty two millions of francs; and in that case the two
hundred thousand dollars shall be retained as the just
price of the survey, which the Government is at liberty
to make or not; and the two hundred thousand dollars
shall nevertheless be considered, as a part of the loan
to A. B. and repaid accordingly as above stated.20
Notes
1. The Papers of James Madison: Presidential Series, Volume 3 3 November 1810—
4 November 1811 ed. J. C. A. Stagg et al, p. 93-94.
2. Ibid., p. 110-116.
3. Ibid., p. 129-131.
4. Ibid., p. 176.
5. Ibid., p. 224.
6. Ibid., p. 226.
7. Ibid., p. 229-230.
8. Ibid., p. 235-236.
9. Ibid., p. 239-240.
10. Ibid., p. 316-318.
11. Ibid., p. 329-330.
12. Ibid., p. 505-506.
13. Ibid., p. 532-533.
14. The Papers of James Madison: Presidential Series, Volume 4 5 November 1811—
9 July 1812 with a supplement 5 March 1809—19 October 1811 ed. J. C. A. Stagg
et al, p. 1-5.
15. Ibid., p. 16-17.
16. Ibid., p. 19-22.
17. Ibid., p. 71-72.
18. Ibid., p. 73-74.
19. Ibid., p. 87-88.
20. Ibid., p. 97-103.