BECK index

Madison & British War in 1814

by Sanderson Beck

Madison’s War in January-July 1814
Madison’s War in August 1814
Madison’s War in September 1814
Madison’s War in October-December 1814

Madison’s War in January-July 1814

      On 30 December 1813 a British ship delivered a diplomatic package to Annapolis
proposing direct negotiations with Americans in London or Gothenburg, Sweden.
President James Madison sent Castlereagh’s letter to
Congress with his letter of acceptance on 6 January 1814.
Albert Gallatin was still in Europe, and Madison named him as an envoy.
      Madison nominated the Commission of John Quincy Adams, James A. Bayard,
Henry Clay, and Jonathan Russell on 14 January 1814,
and the US Senate confirmed them four days later.
Madison and Secretary of State James Monroe made this announcement:

   To all whom these Presents shall concern, Greeting.
Reposing especial Trust and confidence in the Integrity,
Prudence and Ability of John Quincy Adams at present
the Minister Plenipotentiary of the United States at the
Court of His Imperial Majesty Alexander I the Emperor of all
the Russias, James A. Bayard late a Senator of the United
States, Henry Clay Speaker of the House of Representatives
of the United States, and Jonathan Russell one of their
distinguished Citizens, I have nominated and by and with
the advice and consent of the Senate appointed them
jointly and severally Ministers Plenipotentiary and
Extraordinary of the United States with authority to meet
a minister or ministers, having like authority from the
Government of Great Britain, and with Him or them to
negotiate and conclude a settlement of the subsisting
differences and a lasting Peace and friendship between
the United States and that power: transmitting the Treaty
or Convention so to be concluded for the ratification of
the President of the United States by and with the advice
and consent of the Senate of the United States.1

After the British refused to attend negotiations in Russia, the American commissioners
left St. Petersburg and went to Gothenburg, Sweden in January 1814.
The British negotiators did not arrive there for several months.
In late June the peace treaty efforts moved on to Ghent in Belgium.
Gallatin arrived there on July 6.
      The absent Gallatin had been removed from the cabinet by Congress.
On February 7 Madison appointed George W. Campbell of Tennessee
to be Secretary of the Treasury, and he was confirmed two days later.
Because John Quincy Adams and Bayard might be deadlocked on impressments,
Madison also nominated the popular war hawk Henry Clay and
Jonathan Russell the Ambassador to Sweden as commissioners.
      The United States Congress decided against a draft but offered a bonus of $124
with 320 acres of public land to lure recruits,
the greatest inducements for joining the military so far.
Treasury Secretary Campbell estimated that $24,550,000 would be needed
for the Army and $6,900,000 for the Navy in 1814,
and he calculated that the annual deficit would be $29,400,000.
Congress authorized a loan of $24 million and $5 million in Treasury notes
and printing $5 million more if needed.
      Thomas Jefferson gave his advice to Madison
on financial issues with this letter on February 6:

   A letter from Col. Earle of South Carolina induces
me to apprehend that the government is called on
to reimburse expenses to which I am persuaded
it is no wise liable either in justice or liberality.
I enclose you a copy of my answer to him, as it may
induce further enquiry, & particularly of General Dearborn.
The Tennessee Senators of that day
can also give some information.
We have not yet seen the scheme of the new loan,
but the continual creation of new banks cannot fail to
facilitate it; for already there is so much of their trash afloat
that the great holders of it show vast anxiety to get rid of it.
They perceive that now, as in the revolutionary war,
we are engaged in the old game of Robin’s alive.
They are ravenous after lands and stick at no price.
In the neighborhood of Richmond, the seat
of that sort of sensibility, they offer twice
as much now as they would give a year ago.
200 millions in actual circulation and 200 millions
more likely to be legitimated by the legislative
sessions of this winter will give us about 40 times
the wholesome circulation for 8 millions of people.
When the new emissions get out, our legislatures
will see what they otherwise cannot believe,
that it is possible to have too much money.
It will ensure your loan for this year;
but what will you do for the next?
For I think it impossible but that the whole system must
blow up before the year is out: and thus a tax of 3 or 400
millions will be levied on our citizens who had found it a
work of so much time and labor to pay off a debt of 80
millions which had redeemed them from bondage.
The new taxes are paid here with great cheerfulness,
those on stills & carriages will be wonderfully productive.
A general return to the cultivation of tobacco
is taking place, because it will keep.
This proves that the public mind is
made up to a continuance of the war.2

      General Andrew Jackson with about 2,000 infantry, 700 cavalry,
and 600 Indian allies defeated the Creeks at Horseshoe Bend on March 27,
killing nearly 857 “Red Stick” warriors while only 47 Americans died.
He was made a major general and was put in command at Mobile in West Florida.
He persuaded the Creeks to capitulate on August 9, and the Treaty of Fort Jackson
transferred about 36 million square miles which was more than half their land.
      Bankers were asked to raise another loan of $10 million in early 1814,
the year many enlistments were set to expire.
Monroe, who wanted to be the next president,
urged Madison to remove Secretary of War John Armstrong.
New York’s Governor Daniel Tompkins asked the President
for 2,500 troops to defend against the British invasion.
Newspapers reported that New Englanders were negotiating a separate peace
with Britain, and they began selling food across the Canadian border illegally.
With additional revenues the Massachusetts legislature armed and trained
their state militia of 70,000 men, but none of them fought the British in this war.
Madison got Congress to stop New England from trading with the enemy
by adopting an embargo, and the Federalists became completely opposed
to what they called “Mr. Madison’s war.”
      On March 31 Madison sent this message to Congress recommending
the end of the embargo and resuming exports and imports in American ships
and those owned by nations at peace with the United States:

   Taking into view the mutual interest which the United
States and the foreign nations in amity with them have
in a liberal commercial intercourse, and the extensive
changes favorable thereto which have recently taken place.
Taking into view also the important advantages which
may otherwise result from adapting the state of our
commercial laws to the circumstances now existing:
   I recommend to the consideration of Congress the
expediency of authorizing after a convenient day,
exportations, specia excepted, from the United States,
in vessels of the United States and in vessels owned and
navigated by the subjects of powers at peace with them;
and a repeal of so much of our laws as prohibits the
importation of articles, not the property of Enemies, but
produced or manufactured only within their dominions.
   I recommend also as a more effectual safeguard and
encouragement to our growing manufactures, that the
additional duties on imports, which are to expire at the
end of one year after a peace with Great Britain, be
prolonged to the end of two years after that event; and
that in favor of our moneyed Institutions the exportation
of specia be prohibited throughout the same period.3

Both bills passed, and the President signed them on April 14.
William Pinkney replaced Caesar Rodney as Attorney General but quit
when Congress required him to live in Washington.
Madison appointed Richard Rush of Pennsylvania who edited the
Laws of the United States from 1789 to 1815.
Congress authorized funds to construct Robert Fulton’s first steam frigate
Demologos, and it would be launched from New York on October 31.
Secretary of War John Armstrong accused General William Henry Harrison
of not keeping good accounts, and Harrison, the hero of Tippecanoe, resigned.
      In the late spring the American and British diplomats agreed to move
the peace negotiations from Sweden to Ghent in Belgium,
and they did not meet again until July 6.
On June 4 Madison sent instructions to seek no gains and no concessions
on either side with disputed boundaries settled by joint commissions.
The British impressments of American sailors had already ended.
On April 25 the British had extended their blockade to New England ports
so that it covered the entire coast of the United States
from New Brunswick in Canada to Texas.
Napoleon’s abdication on April 11 freed British forces to come to America,
and about 13,000 veterans would arrive in Canada by September,
increasing their forces there to 30,000.
      On 20 May 1814 President Madison wrote this letter
to Secretary of War John Armstrong:

   I have received your letter of the 17th inst:
covering further communications from
General Pinkney; which are now returned.
   The supplies necessary to save the Indians from
starving cannot but be approved, notwithstanding
the failure of legal provision for the purpose.
It is a case of humanity & necessity which
carries its own justification with it.
   I mentioned in my last Col. Milton as a fit Commissioner
to succeed General Pinkney; and as apparently within
reach of the time & place for treating with the Indians.
If Governor Holmes be so, he will
be a very unexceptionable associate.
McKee also may be well qualified
and is probably not too distant.
But I think there will be a propriety in giving a preference
to the agent residing with the Cherokees, who is senior
to him in several respects, who is very intelligent as
well as experienced, and who will represent that
meritorious tribe of Indians as well as the U.S.
I know not how far his age or other
circumstances may admit of his attendance.
You can better decide with the information
you possess or may obtain on the spot.
There would be some advantage in associating
both of them with Col. Hawkins &c, but besides
the expense of a numerous Commission, there
may be more danger of the want of concord.
Make the selection you find best, out of all that have
been named, Col. Hawkins being of course retained.
   Whether the friendly Indians ought to be a party to
the arrangement with the hostile ones, is a question it
may be best to leave to the Commissioners, who can
best appreciate the considerations on which it depends.
It seems most suitable that although the terms of the
peace will be dictated to the hostile Indians, their
pride should not be irritated by excluding even the
form of Consent on their part; especially as it is
possible that a foreign enemy of the U.S. may still
make experiments on their character, if the future
circumstances of the war should suggest them.
Even this question however may be left with
the Commissioners, if they see in the other
course the surest precaution against revolt.
   The most critical part of the task will be the
demarcation of lands to be given up by the offenders,
& of lands to be secured to the friendly Creeks.
It may be proper also to reward the Cherokees,
if not the Choctaws by some accommodations to them;
and to consult the views of the States of Georgia,
and Tennessee as far as justice and policy will permit.
These are points on which the information &
discretion of the Commissioners must decide,
subject of course to the Constitutional ratification.
   Nothing better can be done with the leading offenders
who may be surrendered, than to have them effectually
secured with a report of the circumstances which ought
to influence the disposal to be respectively made of them.
The treatment of the aged Telasee King, may be
safely entrusted to the humanity of Col. Hawkins.
   I have much confidence in the judgment of
General Pinkney in relation to the number of
posts and men requisite for the conquered territory.
But in the prostrate condition of the savages, and
with the force which will be South of them, while
the terror of Georgia & Tennessee will be on other
sides of them, reductions in those respects, will
I hope be admissible very soon if not at present.
They are much to be desired as well on account of the
difficulty of keeping up regular supplies, as of the occasion
there may be for increased exertions in other quarters.
I am just possessed of the intelligence last from
France & Great Britain and the Proclamation of
Cochrane addressed to the Blacks.
They admonish us to be prepared for the worst
the Enemy may be able to effect against us.
The date concurs with the measure proclaimed,
to indicate the most inveterate spirit against the Southern
States, and which may be expected to show itself against
every object within the reach of vindictive enterprise.
Among these the Seat of Government
cannot fail to be a favorite one.4

      President Madison on May 21 wrote this letter
to Secretary of State James Monroe:

   I have received your two letters of the 16th & 20th the
last misdated, and the former delayed by high waters.
   Your letter to General Winder is best in
the moderated temper you have given it.
The return of the offensive paper from
Prevost will be, however lenient in the
manner, not a little grating to his pride.
There is so little prospect of an armistice through him,
that it is scarcely worthwhile to settle more precisely
the question of its duration, now the more difficult,
as the issue & date of the crisis at Gothenburg
appears to be less susceptible of calculation.
It will soon be known whether there will be occasion
to resume the subject; and as nothing can be done,
without a resort to the naval commander, there will
be time to be more particular in our explanations.
   The aggregate intelligence from Europe with Cochrane’s
Proclamation to the Blacks warn us to be prepared for the
worst measures of the Enemy and in their worst forms.
They suggest the earliest attention to the wants
of the Treasury and the policy of securing
them with less scruple as to the terms.
As it appears that Mr. Gallatin was in Holland, I hope he
may have done something there, provisionally at least.
We may count however on the influence of England
there as a collateral obstacle that may be fatal.
It is not improbable that the intention of the Dutch
Government to send a Minister here is delayed,
if not abandoned in consequence of that interposition.
If I understand Bourne & the Dutch Secretary of
Foreign Affairs the old Treaty of 1802 is to be put
to death against the construction most respectful to
the Dutch Government and contrary to the principle
on which Bourne’s consular character is recognized.
May not this also be the effect of British management
directed against the neutral principles of that Treaty,
if not against the tendency of it to cherish
commerce between the two Countries?
   But the strongest evidence of British influence on the
Continent in opposition to our views is seen in the unkind
and even uncivil treatment of our Envoys in Russia.
It is painful to see such a blot on the character
of Alexander, as it is ominous to our expectations
from his friendship & importance.
While the tide of British ascendancy continues
to direct the movements of that and probably
the other sovereigns having a common interest
with us, we must be patient in the hope that it will
not be of long duration, and must endeavor to
shorten it by all honorable means of conciliation.
   I have run over Mr. C’s letter to Lee &c.
His remarks appear to be decisive; but as there
is not now a necessity for our decision, it may
be as well to let Lee be heard on the subject.
As it is a question of Law, ask Mr. Rush to look into it.
The whole business of applying by construction
& analogy a law of the U.S. as a rule obligatory
within a foreign jurisdiction is itself an anomaly.
   With respect to Mr. Brent I regard him as
an estimable young man, and should feel a
gratification in consulting the wishes of his friends.
We must keep in mind however, that Cadiz is among
the most valuable of the Consulates, that there are
known Candidates of veteran pretensions; and that
others may appear, who or whose patrons would
test the appointment by the strictest rule of comparison.
It is a question, I presume, not of immediate urgency.
What is the State of the Consulate at
Barcelona & other ports of value in Spain?5

      On 17 June 1814 President Madison made this proclamation:

   Whereas, information has been received that a number
of individuals, who have deserted from the Army of the
United States, have become sensible of their offenses,
and are desirous of returning to their duty:
   A full pardon is hereby granted and proclaimed
to each and all such individuals as shall within
three months from the date hereof, surrender
themselves to the commanding officer of any military
post within the United States or the territories thereof.
   In testimony whereof, I have caused the seal of
the United States to be affixed to these presents,
and signed the same with my hand.6

      On June 29 Madison and Secretary of State Monroe
signed this Presidential Proclamation:

   Whereas it is manifest that the Blockade, which has
been proclaimed by the Enemy of the whole Atlantic coast
of the United States, nearly two thousand miles in extent,
and abounding in ports, harbors and navigable inlets,
cannot be carried into effect by any adequate force,
actually stationed for the purpose; and it is rendered a
matter of certainty and notoriety, by the multiplied and
daily arrivals and departures of the public and private
armed vessels of the United States and of other vessels,
that no such adequate force has been so stationed:
And whereas a Blockade thus destitute of the character of a
regular and legal blockade as defined and recognized by the
established law of Nations, whatever other purposes it may
be made to answer, forms no lawful prohibition or obstacle
to such neutral and friendly vessels, as may choose to visit
and trade with the United States; and whereas it accords
with the interest and the amicable views of the United
States to favor and promote, as far as may be, the free
and mutually beneficial commercial intercourse of all
friendly nations disposed to engage therein, and with
that view to afford to their vessels destined to the
United States, a more positive and satisfactory security
against all interruptions molestations or vexations
whatever from the Cruisers of the United States:
Now be it known that I James Madison, President of
the United States of America, do by this my Proclamation,
strictly order and instruct all the public armed vessels
of the United States and all private armed vessels
commissioned as privateers, or with letters of marque
and reprisal, not to interrupt detain or otherwise molest
or vex any vessels whatever belonging to neutral powers
or the subjects or citizens thereof; which vessels shall
be actually bound and proceeding to any port or place
within the jurisdiction of the United States; but on the
contrary to render to all such vessels all the aid and
kind offices which they may need or require.7

      Madison anticipated a British attack on Washington and asked for 10,000 men,
and Armstrong did not agree with him.
At a cabinet meeting on July 1 they assumed they had 3,140 regular troops
and 10,000 militiamen to defend Washington.
Monroe learned of warnings from Gallatin in London and Crawford in Paris,
and he advised the President to prepare for an attack.
Secretary of War Armstrong argued that the militia should not be called out
until the enemy was strong enough to attack.
      The American General Jacob Brown led the recapture of Fort Erie on July 3
in the Battle of Chippewa with a much larger army of 3,564 men
over about 2,000 British, though only 2,109 Americans participated in the battle.
      President Madison in Washington wrote in a
letter to Vice President Elbridge Gerry on July 5:

   The last intelligence from Europe was, as you
will have inferred, no wise decisive with respect
to our affairs with Great Britain: nor can it well be so
until the views of the latter are disclosed in negotiation.
In the meantime ostensible preparations, perhaps real
expeditions, will be adapted to her purposes, whether
peace be her object at Gothenburg, or war her object here.
As we do not know whether the British Cabinet will
consult its sober interests or the passions of the moment,
or be made to understand & feel the policy of the great
powers of the Continent in relation to this Country,
it is impossible to divine the course it will pursue.
If her views are limited to the questions embraced
by the war, it is a reasonable expectation that
with the facility afforded by the peace in Europe
an adjustment with us may take place.
Should new pretensions grow out of the state
of things in Europe, or out of a misconceived
state of things here, we can see nothing before
us but another combat, pro aris et focis.
It would seem scarcely credible that a subversion
of our Government can enter into the calculations of
the British Cabinet and yet it is not easy to set bounds
to the delusion which may be produced on willing minds
by the food for it supplied by displays among ourselves.8

      Also on July 5 Secretary of State Monroe wrote in a letter to Madison:

   A great number of small objects with the
necessity I was under to answer some letters,
prevented my calling on you today as I intended.
I have written to the British commander to ask a passport
for Mr. Purviance & for a vessel to take him to our
commissioners, wherever they may be, & instructed Me.
Skinner to take it to him without delay.
I have also written to Mr. Pederson & enclosed him a
letter to Count Bernstorff, suggesting to Mr. Pederson the
possibility of a better conveyance being afforded him—
Mr. Purviance will be ready to
proceed at a moment’s notice.
He will call on you tomorrow to be instructed
by you in everything which may occur.
   I will write the letters and forward them,
either from some stage on the road or from Richmond,
immediately after my arrival at Richmond.
There will be little to say.
It seemed to be your idea that the messenger should
bear duplicates only of the late letters and a short
letter to Mr. Adams and Mr. Russell instructing them
in case Great Britain should prosecute the war to
adopt some prompt and effectual means to make
her views known to Russia & Sweden.
   Should anything occur to you, be so good
as to intimate it to me at Richmond.
I shall be back as soon as possible.9

      Jacob Brown’s army of 2,600 American regulars failed to join
Commodore Chauncey at Fort George, and the British and American
armies both suffered a beating at Lundy’s Lane on July 25.
Brown reported that he had 174 men killed and 572 wounded
while Upper Canada’s Governor and General Gordon Drummond
lost 84 killed and 559 wounded.
US Navy Secretary Jones removed Chauncey and
gave Stephen Decatur command of Lake Ontario.
General Izard moved 4,000 Americans from Plattsburg to Sackett’s Harbor in August
and the British siege of Fort Erie that began on August 4 was lifted on September 21.
The Americans had lost 213 killed, 565 wounded, and 240 captured
while the British suffered 283 killed, 508 wounded, and 748 captured.
      On July 15 General Moses Porter informed Armstrong that
another British squadron had entered Chesapeake Bay.
When Armstrong did authorize General William Winder to mobilize 2,000 men
from Virginia and 5,000 from Pennsylvania, his letter
sent by ordinary mail did not reach Winder for 22 days.

Madison’s War in August 1814

      Madison and his cabinet had visited Fort Washington on August 9,
and he called for a special session of Congress to begin on September 19;
he put General Winder in command of the capital’s defense.
He requested 6,000 men from Maryland while Armstrong dismissed the rumor
that the British would attack from Chesapeake Bay.
General Philip Stuart, who was also a Congressman, asked for more ammunition
and stronger guns, and Madison over-ruled Armstrong and had munitions
and 350 regulars sent to Stuart at Upper Marlboro.
On August 13 Madison wrote this letter to Secretary of War Armstrong:

   On viewing the course which the proceedings of the War
Department have not unfrequently taken, I find that I owe it
to my own responsibility as well as to other considerations,
to make some remarks on the relations in which the Head
of the Department stands to the President, and to lay down
some rules for conducting the business of the Department,
which are dictated by the nature of those relations.
   In general the Secretary of War, like the Heads of the
other Departments as well by express statute as by the
structure of the Constitution, acts under the authority &
subject to the decisions & instructions of the President:
with the exception of cases where the law may vest special
& independent powers in the head of the Department.
   From the great number & variety of subjects,
however, embraced by that Department and the
subordinate & routine character of a great portion
of them, it cannot be either necessary or convenient
that proceedings relative to every subject should
receive a previous & positive sanction of the Executive.
In cases of that minor sort it is requisite only that they
be subsequently communicated as far and as soon as
a knowledge of them can be useful or satisfactory.
   In cases of a higher character & importance,
involving necessarily and in the public
understanding a just responsibility of the
President, the acts of the Department ought to be
either prescribed by him or preceded by his sanction.
   It is not easy to define in theory the cases falling
within these different classes, or in practice
to discriminate them with uniform exactness.
But a substantial observance of the distinction is
not difficult and will be facilitated by the confidence
between the Executive & the Head of the Department.
   This distinction has not been sufficiently kept in view.
   I need not repeat the notice heretofore taken
of the measure consolidating certain regiments;
a measure highly important under more than one
aspect; and which was adopted & executed without
the knowledge or sanction of the President; nor was
it subsequently made known to him otherwise than
through the publication of the act in the newspapers.
   The like may be said of certain rules & regulations,
particularly a Body of them for the Hospital &
Medical Departments of which the law expressly
required the approbation of the President, and
which comprise a rule to be observed by the
President himself in future appointments.
His first knowledge of these latter regulations
was derived from the newspapers.
   A very remarkable instance is a late
general order prohibiting Duels & challenges
on pain of dismission from the army.
However proper such an order may be in itself,
it would never be supposed to have been issued
without the deliberate sanction of the President;
the more particularly as it pledged an exercise of one
of the most responsible of the Executive functions,
that of summarily dismissing from military offices without
the intervention of the military Tribunal provided by law.
This order was adopted & promulgated without the
previous knowledge of the President nor was it ever
made known to him otherwise than by its promulgation.
   Instructions to military Commanders relating to important
plans & operations have been issued, without any previous
or even any subsequent communication thereof to the
Executive; and letters expressly intended & proper for the
knowledge & decision of the Executive have been received
& acted on without being previously communicated,
or the measures taken being made known to him.
Other illustrations might be drawn from instances
of other sorts, leading to the result of these remarks.
The above may suffice with the addition of one which
with the circumstances attending it, will be explained
by a reference to the letter of resignation from
General Harrison to the letter of the President to the
Secretary of War of May 24; to the issuing of the
Commission of Major General to General Jackson,
and the letter of the Secretary of War accompanying it.
The following course will be observed in future:
To be previously communicated to the President:
1. Orders from the Department of War
establishing general or permanent regulations.
2. Orders for Courts of Enquiry or Courts Martial
on General Officers; or designating the
numbers or members of the Courts.
3. Commissions or notifications of appointment to officers
other than regular promotions in uncontested cases.
4. Dismissions of officers from the service.
5. Consolidations of Corps or parts of Corps & translations
of Federal officers from one Regiment to another.
6. Acceptances & refusals of resignations
from officers above the rank of Captains.
7. Requisitions & receptions of militia
into the service & pay of the U.S.
8. Instructions relating to Treaties with Indians.
9. Instructions to officers commanding
military Districts, or Corps or Stations,
relative to military movements or operations.
10. Changes in the boundaries of military Districts,
or the establishment of separate commands therein;
or the transfer of General officers from one District
or Command to another District or command.
In the absence of the President from the
seat of Government previous communications
to him may be waived in urgent cases;
but to be subsequently made without delay.
All letters giving military intelligence or
containing other matters intended or proper
for the knowledge of the President will of course
be immediately communicated to him.
These rules may omit cases falling within, and
embrace cases not entirely within the reason of them.
Experience therefore may improve the rules.
In the meantime they will give a more suitable order &
course to the business of the Department, will conduce to
a more certain harmony & cooperation in the proceedings
of the several Departments, and will furnish the proper
opportunities for the advantage of Cabinet consultations
on cases of a nature to render them expedient.10

      On August 20 General Winder ordered three regiments
from Baltimore to go to Washington.
      Major General Robert Ross had commanded English forces against Napoleon,
and he led 3,400 British regulars and 700 Royal Marines from a squadron
in Chesapeake Bay that landed on August 22.
The people of Washington realized they were being invaded, and many fled.
Madison ordered that government archives were to be taken to Virginia
and that the Maryland militia were to go toward Bladensburg.
      The next morning Madison and Monroe rode through General Winder’s camp.
The President sent a message to his wife Dolley to prepare to flee,
and others had already clogged the roads out of Washington.
Madison, Armstrong, and Jones returned to the capital that afternoon.
Monroe’s warning that the enemy was marching
on Washington reached Madison at midnight.
      On August 24 President Madison wrote this Memorandum
on General John Armstrong, the Secretary of War:

   In the morning a note by an Express
from General Winder was handed me.
It was addressed to the Secretary of War.
Not doubting the urgency of the occasion, I opened &
read it; and it went on immediately by the Express to
General Armstrong who lodged in the seven Buildings.
Finding by the note that the General requested the
speediest Counsel, I proceeded to his Head Quarters
on the Eastern Branch, trusting for notice to the
Secretary of War to follow, to the note from Winder.
On my reaching his quarters, we were
successively joined by the Secretary of State
(who soon with our approbation repaired to Bladensburg),
the Secretary of the Navy & Mr. Rush the attorney General.
After an hour or so, the Secretary of the Treasury arrived
and quickly after, the Secretary of War.
The latter had been impatiently expected,
and surprise at his delay manifested.
General Winder was at the moment setting off to hurry
on the Troops to Bladensburg in consequence of certain
intelligence that the Enemy had taken that direction.
Barney’s Corps was also ordered thither,
leaving the Bridge to be blown up if necessary.
On General Armstrong’s coming into the room,
he was informed of the certain march of the Enemy
for Bladensburg and of what had passed before his arrival;
and he was asked whether he had any arrangement
or advice to offer in the emergency.
He said he had not, adding that as the battle
would be between Militia & regular troops,
the former would be beaten.
   On coming out of the house & mounting our horses,
the Secretary of the Treasury, who though in a very
languid state of health had turned out to join us,
observed to me privately, that he was grieved
to see the great reserve of the Secretary of War
(he lodged in the same house with him)
who was taking no part on so critical an occasion;
that he found him under the impression, that as the means
of defending the District had been committed to General
Winder, it might not be delicate to intrude his opinions
without the approbation of the President; though with
that approbation he was ready to give any aid he could.
Mr. Campbell said that notwithstanding his just confidence
in General Winder, he thought, in the present state of
things which called for all the military skill possible,
the military knowledge and experience of the Secretary
of War ought to be availed of, and that no considerations
of delicacy ought to jeopardize the public safety.
With these impressions, he said, he had thought it
his duty to make this communication, and was very
anxious, that I should take some proper steps in the case.
I told him I could scarcely conceive it possible
that General Armstrong could have so misconstrued
his functions and duty as Secretary of War;
that he could not but know that any proper
directions from him would receive any sanction
that might be necessary from the Executive;
nor doubt that any suggestions or advice from
him to General Winder would be duly attended to
(in this case it had been requested in writing).
I told Mr. Campbell that I would speak to the Secretary
of War explicitly on the subject: and accordingly turning
my horse to him, expressed to him my concern &
surprise, at the reserve he showed at the present crisis,
and at the scruples I understood he had at offering his
advice or opinions; that I hoped he had not construed
the paper of instructions given him some time before
(See the paper of August 13, 1814.)
so as to restrain him in any respect from the exercise
of functions belonging to his office; that at such a juncture
it was to be expected that he should omit nothing within
the proper agency of Secretary of War towards the public
defense; and that I thought it proper particularly that he
should proceed to Bladensburg, and give any aid to
General Winder that he could; observing that if any
difficulty on the score of authority should arise, which
was not likely, I should be near at hand to remove it.
(It was my purpose in case there should be time,
to have the members of the Cabinet together in
Bladensburg, where it was expected General Winder
would be, and in consultation with him to decide on
the arrangements suited to the posture of things).
He said in reply that he had put no such construction
on the paper of instructions as was alluded to: and that
as I thought it proper, he would proceed to Bladensburg,
and be of any service to General Winder he could.
The purport of this conversation I communicated
to Mr. Campbell who remained near us.
The Secretary of War set off without delay for Bladensburg.
   After a short turn to the Marine Barracks whither
the Secretary of the Navy had gone, I mentioned to
Mr. Rush, who was with me, my purpose of going
to Bladensburg and my object in so doing.
He readily accompanied me.
On approaching the Town, we learned from
William Simmons, that Winder was not there
and that the Enemy were entering it.
We rode up to him instantly.
The Secretaries of State & War were with him.
I asked the latter whether he had spoken with General
Winder on the subject of his arrangements & views.
He said he had not.
I remarked that though there was so little time for it,
it was possible he might offer some advice or suggestion
that might not be too late to be turned to account;
on which he rode up to the General as I did myself.
The unruliness of my horse prevented me from joining
in the short conversation that took place.
When it was over, I asked General Armstrong
whether he had seen occasion to suggest any
improvement in any part of the arrangements.
He said that he had not; that from his view of them
they appeared to be as good as circumstances admitted.
   When the battle had decidedly commenced, I observed
to the Secretary of War and Secretary of State that it
would be proper to withdraw to a position in the rear,
where we could act according to circumstances;
leaving military movements now to the military
functionaries who were responsible for them.
This we did, Mr. Rush soon joining us.
When it became manifest that the battle was lost,
Mr. Rush accompanying me, I fell down into the
road leading to the City and returned to it.
   It had been previously settled that in the event of the
Enemy’s taking possession of the City, and the necessity of
Executive consultations elsewhere, Frederick Town would
be the proper place for the assembling of the Cabinet.11

      In the battle for the capital Washington on August 24 Generals George Cockburn
and Robert Ross led 4,250 British soldiers against 7,640 Americans who were
commanded by President Madison and Secretary of War Armstrong.
About 30 British were killed.
Ross ordered the burning of the government buildings including the White House,
and Ross would be killed in the battle at North Point, Maryland on September 12.
Cockburn did not attack homes unless shooting came from them.
He said to the citizens, “You may thank old Madison for this (destruction);
it is he who has got you into this scrape….
We want to catch him and carry him to England for a curiosity.”12
      The British attacked Bladensburg on August 24, and Madison prudently retreated.
Armstrong admitted to the President that he had not yet
talked to General Winder about arranging defense.
The American militiamen outnumbered the British.
Yet Winder ordered 2,000 men to retreat before firing a shot,
and many fled from the British veterans who pillaged and burned.
Some Americans looted too.
The British concentrated mainly on government buildings,
leading many to believe that a spy was guiding them.
They burned the Capitol, the State-War-Navy building, and all the nonmilitary
public buildings except the one that housed the General Post Office and Patent Office.
They destroyed the Library of Congress with its thousands of books.
Dolley Madison organized the removal of the important documents
and Gilbert Stuart’s portrait of Washington from the President’s Hous
before the British came and burned the building.
President Madison crossed the Potomac River to Virginia,
and he returned to Washington three days later.
For more than four days the 63-year-old Madison spent more than 15 hours a day
on horseback arranging for public safety and to find
the shortest way to resume contact with the Army.
On August 28 the British blew up Fort Washington by the Potomac River.
      After August 28 Secretary of State Monroe wrote this
“Draft Memoranda on the Events of 24-28 August 1814 at Washington.”

   The President crossed the Potomac after the affair of
the 24th accompanied by the Attorney General & General
Mason and remained on the south side of the river a
few miles above the lower falls; on the following day
the Secretary of State likewise crossed the river shortly
after him with Mr. Ringgold & remained that night in the
same quarter, whence he proceeded & joined General
Winder at Montgomery courthouse on the 25th.
The Secretary of the Navy was on the south;
the Secretaries of War & of Treasury
remained on the north side.
   General Winder rallied the principal part of the militia
engaged in the affair of the 24th at Montgomery courthouse,
where he remained on the 25th & part of the 26th.
At about mid-day on the 26th he received intelligence
that the enemy was in motion towards Bladensburg,
probably with intention to visit Baltimore.
He formed his troops in column & commenced
his march immediately towards Ellicott’s Mills
with design to hang on their left flank and to meet
them at the mills, if they took that route.
Late in the evening of that day he resolved to
proceed in person to Baltimore to prepare that
city for the attack with which it was menaced.
As commander of the military district, it was his duty
to look to every part & to prepare it for defense, & none
was then in greater danger or had stronger claim to
attention than the flourishing & populous city of Baltimore.
In setting out he instructed generals Stansbury
& Smith to watch the movements of the enemy
and to act with the forces under their command,
as circumstances might require.
The Secretary of State remained
with Generals Stansbury & Smith.
   On the 27th the Secretary of State, having heard that
the enemy had evacuated the city, communicated the
intelligence by express to the President by Mr. Robinson
of Fairfax county with advice that he would return
immediately & re-establish the government there.
Shortly afterwards on the same day he joined the
President at Brookville who set out immediately with the
Secretary of State & the Attorney General for Washington,
where they arrived about 6 in the afternoon.
The squadron of the enemy was then engaged
in battering Fort Washington, which was
evacuated & blown up the same evening
by the commander without resistance.
The inhabitants of Alexandria, unprotected, immediately
afterwards capitulated, & those of Georgetown & of
the city were preparing to follow the example.
There was no force organized in either town for its defense,
nor indeed in the district; and the enemy’s squadron being
predominant in that quarter; and his army, lately victorious,
menacing Baltimore, and evidently superior to any force
that could be immediately opposed to it in the field, a
well-founded anxiety was felt for the consequences.
   Such was the state of affairs when the
President entered the city on the 27th.
Never was there a time when greater promptitude,
decision & energy were necessary.
The late disaster would probably produce a
very unfavorable effect throughout the union,
if it was not immediately retrieved.
In the approaching attack on Baltimore
it could not fail to be severely felt.
It was known also that the enemy relieved from the
war in Europe was pouring their forces on every
quarter of the union in the hope of overwhelming us.
It was necessary that the check should be given
in the city where the pressure was greatest.
   After the affair of the 24th General Winder rallied
the principal part of the militia engaged in it at
Montgomery courthouse, where he remained on
the 25th & part of the 26th preparing for a new
movement the necessity of which he anticipated.
The Secretary of State joined him at
Montgomery courthouse on the 25th.
A portion of the forces from Baltimore
had returned to that city.
About Mid-day on the 26th the general having received
intelligence that the enemy were in motion towards
Bladensburg, probably with intention to visit Baltimore,
formed his troops without delay and commenced his
march towards Ellicott’s Mills with intention to hang on
the enemy’s left flank in case Baltimore was their object,
& of meeting them at the mills, if they took that route.
Late in the evening of that day he resolved to
proceed in person to Baltimore to prepare that
city for the attack with which it was menaced.
As the commander of the military district, it was
his duty to look to every part & to make the
necessary preparation for its defense, and none
appeared then to be in greater danger, or to have a
stronger claim to his attention than the city of Baltimore.
He announced this his resolution to Generals Stansbury
& Smith, instructing them to watch the movement of the
enemy and to act with the force under their command,
as circumstances might require and departed about 7 p.m.
The Secretary of State remained
with Generals Stansbury & Smith.
The President crossed the Potomac on the evening
of the 24th accompanied by the Attorney General
& General Mason and remained on the south side
of the river a few miles above the falls, the 25th.
On the 26th he recrossed the Potomac & went to
Brookville in the neighborhood of Montgomery
courthouse with intention to join General Winder.
On the 27th the Secretary of State, having heard that
the enemy had evacuated the city, notified it by express to
the President and advised his immediate return to the city
for the purpose of reestablishing the government there.
He joined the President on the same day at Brookville,
who accompanied by the Secretary of State & Attorney
General, set out immediately for Washington,
where they arrived at 5 in the afternoon.
The enemy’s squadron was then battering Fort Washington,
which was evacuated & blown up by the Commander
on that evening without the least resistance.
The unprotected inhabitants of Alexandria in
consternation capitulated & those of Georgetown
& the city were preparing to follow the example.
Such was the state of affairs when the President
entered the city on the evening of the 27th.
There was no force organized for its defense.
The Secretary of War was at Frederick town,
and General Winder at Baltimore.
The effect of the late disaster on the whole union
and the world was anticipated.
Prompt measures were indispensable.
Under these circumstances the President requested
Mr. Mason to take charge of the Department of War
and command of the district ad interim,
with which he immediately complied.
   On the 28th in the morning the President with
Mr. Mason & the Attorney General visited the navy
yard, the arsenal at green Leafs point, and passing
along the shore of the Potomac up towards Georgetown,
Mr. Mason as Secretary of War & military commander,
adopted measures under sanction of the President
for the defense of the city & of Georgetown.
As they passed near the Capitol, the President
was informed that the citizens of Washington
were preparing to send a deputation to the British
commander for the purpose of capitulating.
He forbade the measure.
It was then remarked that the situation of the inhabitants
was deplorable, there being no force prepared for their
defense, their houses might be burnt down.
Mr. Mason then observed that he had been charged
by the President with authority to take measures for
the defense of the city, & that it should be defended:
that if any deputation moved towards the enemy,
it should be repelled by the Bayonet.
He took immediate measures for mounting a battery
at green leafs point another near the Bridge, a third,
at the windmill point, and sent an order to Col. Wilkinson
who was in charge of some cannon on the opposite
shore above the ferry landing, to move three of the
pieces to the lower end of Mason’s Island & the
others some distance below that point on the
Virginia shore to cooperate with the batteries
on the Maryland side, Col. Wilkinson refused to
obey the order on which Mr. Mason passed the
river, and riding to the Col. gave the order in person.
The Col. replied that he did not know Mr. Mason
as Secretary of War or commanding general.
Mr. Mason then stated that he acted under the
authority of the President, & that he must
either obey the order or leave the field.
The Col. preferred the latter.13

      The mayor of Alexandria capitulated to the British, and on August 29 they delivered
their naval stores and private merchandise which filled 21 ships seized by the British.
Commodore Rodgers was sent from Baltimore with 650 seamen to protect Georgetown.
General Samuel Smith, who was also a senator, took command of about 9,000 soldiers,
and he ordered Winder to turn over 3,185 regulars to General John Stricker
who defended Baltimore behind barricades.

Madison’s War in September 1814

      George Prevost organized 10,000 men at Montreal
and invaded the United States on August 31.
On September 1 Madison and Secretary of State Monroe
announced this Presidential Proclamation:

   Whereas the enemy by a sudden incursion have
succeeded in invading the capital of the nation, defended
at the moment by troops less numerous than their own,
and almost entirely of the militia: during their possession
of which, though for a single day only, they wantonly
destroyed the public edifices having no relation in their
structure to operations of war, nor used at the time for
military annoyance; some of these edifices being also costly
monuments of taste and of the arts, and others depositories
of the public archives, not only precious to the nation as
the memorials of its origin and its early transactions, but
interesting to all nations, as contributions to the general
stock of historical instruction and political science:
   And whereas advantage has been taken of the loss
of a fort, more immediately guarding the neighboring
town of Alexandria, to place the town within the range
of a naval force, too long and too much in the habit of
abusing its superiority wherever it can be applied, to
require, as the alternative of a general conflagration,
an undisturbed plunder of private property, which has
been executed in a manner peculiarly distressing to the
inhabitants, who had inconsiderately cast themselves
upon the justice and generosity of the victor.
   And whereas it now appears by a direct communication
from the British commander on the American station to be
his avowed purpose to employ the force under his direction
“in destroying and laying waste such towns and districts
upon the coast as may be found assailable;” adding to this
declaration the insulting pretext that it is in retaliation for a
wanton destruction committed by the army of the United
States in Upper Canada, when it is notorious that no
destruction has been committed, which notwithstanding the
multiplied outrages previously committed by the enemy,
was not unauthorized, and promptly shown to be so;
and that the United States have been as constant in their
endeavors to reclaim the enemy from such outrages by
the contrast of their own example, as they have been
ready to terminate on reasonable conditions the war itself:
   And whereas these proceedings and declared purposes,
which exhibit a deliberate disregard of the principles of
humanity and the rules of civilized warfare, and which must
give to the existing war a character of extended devastation
and barbarism at the very moment of negotiations for
peace invited by the enemy himself, leave no prospect of
safety to anything within the reach of his predatory and
incendiary operations, but in a manly and universal
determination to chastise and expel the invader.
   Now, therefore, I, James Madison, President
of the United States do issue this my Proclamation,
exhorting all the good people thereof, to unite
their hearts and hands in giving effect to the
ample means possessed for that purpose.
I enjoin it on all officers, civil and military,
to exert themselves in executing the duties
with which they are respectively charged.
And more especially, I require the officers commanding
the respective military districts to be vigilant and alert in
providing for the defense thereof; for the more effectual
accomplishment of which, they are authorized to call to the
defense of exposed and threatened places portions of the
militia most convenient thereto, whether they be or be not
parts of the quotas detached for the service of the United
States under requisitions of the general government.
   On an occasion which appeals so forcibly to the proud
feelings and patriotic devotion of the American people,
none will forget what they owe to themselves; what they
owe to their country and the high destinies which await it;
what to the glory acquired by their fathers, in establishing
the independence which is now to be maintained by their
sons with the augmented strength and resources with
which time and Heaven have blessed them.
   In testimony whereof I have hereunto
set my hand and caused the seal of the
United States to be affixed to these presents.14

      On September 6 about 8,000 British attacked the Americans on the north shore
of the Saranac River, and the Battle of Plattsburg went on for six days as 272 men died.
The British and Canadian forces at Plattsburg outnumbered the Americans three to one,
but only 104 Americans were killed compared to 168 British.
The British also had more wounded, and they lost 317 captured and 234 who deserted.
After this American victory the state of Vermont joined the war.
      The Congress met in the Post Office and Patent Office building
and debated moving the nation’s capital to Philadelphia.
Dolley Madison found the Octagon House where the French minister had been staying,
and the first family moved in there.
The President had held a cabinet meeting on August 29,
and he confronted Armstrong for his incompetence during the crisis.
Armstrong claimed he was a victim of intrigue and offered to resign
and did so in a letter on September 4.
The next day Monroe once again temporarily took over the War Department
in addition to the State Department, and he wrote to General Andrew Jackson.
Ignoring his request to attack Pensacola, Monroe ordered Jackson
to prepare for a British invasion of New Orleans.
Madison issued a proclamation complaining that the British had violated the rules
of civilized warfare, especially since they had recently initiated peace negotiations.
      In a battle from September 6 to 11 the two sides were evenly matched
on Lake Champlain where Captain Thomas Macdonough won an impressive victory,
forcing Canada’s Governor General Prevost to retreat with 14,000 men.
      When the British Admiral Alexander Cochrane anchored nearly fifty ships
14 miles below Baltimore on September 11, Smith had 15,588 men.
They learned that about 8,000 British soldiers and marines had landed.
On the 12th they attacked Baltimore, and an American
sharpshooter mortally wounded General Ross.
The next day Cochrane used his fleet to bombard Fort McHenry
and sent 1,200 seamen on a flanking movement.
The American guns proved to be more accurate as
most of the British 1,500 rounds burst in the air.
The American Prisoner Exchange Agent Col. John Stuart Skinner and
Francis Scott Key were guests of British officers and were held during
the battle because of their knowledge of British forces;
but they were able to observe the battle, and Key wrote “The Star Spangled Banner.”
The next morning the American flag was still flying over Fort McHenry.
The British retreated on the 15th, and on September 19 Cochrane’s fleet
sailed for Halifax, leaving a few ships that stayed until October 14.
The Royal Navy had captured naval stores, weapons,
gunpowder, and 21 seaworthy American ships.
      On 20 September 1814 President Madison sent his Sixth Annual Message
to Congress that said they were working for peace on honorable terms.
Here is the entire message:

Fellow Citizens of the Senate and of
the House of Representatives.
   Notwithstanding the early day which had been fixed
for your session of the present year, I was induced to
call you together still sooner, as well that any inadequacy
in the existing provisions for the wants of the Treasury
might be supplied, as that no delay might happen in
providing for the result of the negotiations on foot with
Great Britain; whether it should require arrangements
adapted to a return of peace, or further and more
effective provisions for prosecuting the war.
   That result is not yet known.
If, on one hand, the repeal of the orders in Council,
and the general pacification in Europe, which withdrew
the occasion on which impressments from American
vessels were practiced, suggest expectations that peace
and amity may be re-established; we are compelled, on
the other hand by the refusal of the British Government
to accept the offered mediation of the Emperor of Russia,
by the delays in giving effect to its own proposal of a
direct negotiation; and above all by the principles and
manner in which the war is now avowedly carried on;
to infer that a spirit of hostility is indulged, more violent
than ever against the rights and prosperity of this Country.
   This increased violence is best explained by the two
important circumstances, that the great contest in Europe
for an Equilibrium guaranteeing all its states against the
ambition of any has been closed without any check on
the overbearing power of Great Britain on the ocean;
and that it has left in her hands disposable armaments
with which, forgetting the difficulties of a remote war
against a free people and yielding to the intoxication
of success with the example of a great victim to it
before her eyes, she cherishes hopes of still further
aggrandizing a power already formidable in its abuses
to the tranquility of the civilized and commercial world.
   But whatever may have inspired the Enemy with these
more violent purposes, the public councils of a nation,
more able to maintain than it was to acquire its
Independence, and with a devotion to it rendered
more ardent by the experience of its blessings, can
never deliberate but on the means most effectual for
defeating the extravagant views or unwarrantable passions,
with which alone the war can now be pursued against us.
   In the events of the present Campaign, the Enemy
with all his augmented means and wanton use of them,
has little ground for exultation unless he can feel it in
the success of his recent enterprises against this
Metropolis, and the neighboring Town of Alexandria;
from both of which his retreats were as precipitate,
as his attempts were bold and fortunate.
In his other incursions on our Atlantic frontier his
progress, often checked and chastised, by the martial
spirit of the neighboring Citizens, has had more effect
in distressing individuals and in dishonoring his arms,
than in promoting any object of legitimate warfare.
And in the two instances mentioned, however deeply
to be regretted on our part, he will find in his
transient success, which interrupted for a moment
only the ordinary public business at the seat of
Government, no compensation for the loss of character
with the world by his violations of private property,
and by his destruction of public Edifices, protected as
monuments of the arts by the laws of civilized warfare.
   On our side we can appeal to a series of achievements,
which have given new luster to the American arms.
Besides the brilliant incidents in the minor operations
of the campaign, the splendid victories gained on the
Canadian side of the Niagara by the American forces
under Major General Brown, and Brigadiers Scott and
Gaines have gained for these Heroes, and their
emulating companions, the most unfading laurels;
and having triumphantly tested the progressive
discipline of the American soldiery, have taught the
Enemy that the longer he protracts his hostile efforts,
the more certain and decisive will be his final discomfiture.
   On our Southern border victory has continued
also to follow the American Standard.
The bold and skillful operations of Major General Jackson,
conducting troops drawn from the Militia of the States
least distant, particularly of Tennessee, have subdued
the principal Tribes of hostile savages; and by establishing
a peace with them, preceded by recent and exemplary
chastisement, has best guarded against the mischief of
their cooperation with the British enterprises which may
be planned against that quarter of our Country.
Important Tribes of Indians on our North Western
Frontier have also acceded to stipulations, which
bind them to the interests of the United States
and to consider our Enemy as theirs also.
   In the recent attempt of the Enemy on the city of
Baltimore, defended by Militia and volunteers aided
by a small body of Regulars and Seamen, he was
received with a spirit which produced a rapid retreat
to his ships; while a concurrent attack by a large
Fleet was successfully resisted by the steady and well
directed fire of the fort and batteries opposed to it.
   In another recent attack by a powerful force on our
Troops at Plattsburg, of which regulars made a part
only, the enemy after a perseverance for many hours
was finally compelled to seek safety in a hasty retreat
with our gallant bands pressing upon him.
   On the Lakes, so much contested throughout
the war, the great exertions for the command
made on our part have been well repaid.
On Lake Ontario our Squadron is now and
has been for some time in a condition to confine
that of the Enemy to his own port; and to favor
the operations of our land forces on that Frontier.
   A part of the Squadron on Lake Erie has been
extended into Lake Huron and has produced the
advantage of displaying our Command of that Lake also.
One object of the expedition was the reduction of Mackinaw,
which failed with the loss of a few brave men, among whom
was an officer justly distinguished for his gallant exploits.
The expedition ably conducted by both
the land and the Naval commanders,
was otherwise highly valuable in its effects.
   On Lake Champlain, where our superiority
had for some time been undisputed, the
British squadron lately came into action with
the American commanded by Captain McDonough.
It issued in the capture of the whole of the Enemy’s ships.
The best praise for this Officer and his intrepid comrades
is in the likeness of his triumph to the illustrious victory
which immortalized another officer and established at a
critical moment our command of another Lake.
   On the ocean the pride of our Naval arms
has been amply supported.
A second Frigate has indeed fallen into the hands
of the Enemy, but the loss is hidden in the blaze
of heroism with which she was defended.
Captain Porter, who commanded her, and whose previous
career had been distinguished by daring enterprise and
by fertility of genius, maintained a sanguinary contest
against two ships, one of them superior to his own,
and under other severe disadvantages till humanity tore
down the colors which valor had nailed to the mast.
This officer and his brave comrades have added much to
the rising glory of the American flag and have merited all
the effusions of gratitude which their country is ever ready
to bestow on the champions of its rights and of its safety.
   Two smaller vessels of war have also become prizes
to the Enemy; but by a superiority of force, which
sufficiently vindicates the reputation of their commanders;
while two others, one commanded by captain Warrington,
the other by captain Blakely, have captured British ships
of the same class, with a gallantry and good conduct,
which entitle them and their companions to a just
share in the praise of their country.
   In spite of the naval force of the Enemy accumulated
on our coasts, our private cruisers also have not ceased
to annoy his commerce and to bring their rich prizes
into our ports; contributing thus with other proofs,
to demonstrate the incompetency and illegality of
a Blockade, the Proclamation of which is made
the pretext for vexing and discouraging the
commerce of neutral Powers with the United States.
   To meet the extended and diversified warfare adopted by
the Enemy, great bodies of Militia have been taken into
service for the public defense, and great expenses incurred.
That the defense everywhere may be both more convenient
and more economical, Congress will see the necessity
of immediate measures for filling the ranks of the
regular Army; and of enlarging the provision for special
corps, mounted and unmounted, to be engaged for
longer periods of service than are due from the Militia.
I earnestly renew at the same time a recommendation of
such changes in the system of the Militia, as by classing and
disciplining for the most prompt and active service the
portions most capable of it, will give to that great resource
for the public safety all the requisite energy and efficiency.
   The monies received into the Treasury during the nine
months ending on the thirtieth day of June last amounted
to thirty-two millions of dollars, of which near eleven
millions were the proceeds of the public Revenue
and the remainder derived from loans.
The disbursements for public expenditures
during the same period exceeded thirty-four
millions of dollars and left in the Treasury
on the first day of July near five millions of dollars.
The demands during the remainder of the
present year already authorized by congress,
and the expenses incident to an extension of
the operations of the war will render it necessary
that large sums should be provided to meet them.
   From this view of the national affairs Congress
will be urged to take up without delay, as well the
subject of pecuniary supplies, as that of military force,
and on a scale commensurate with the extent
and the character which the war has assumed.
It is not to be disguised that the situation
of our country calls for its greatest efforts.
Our Enemy is powerful in men and in money,
on the land and on the water.
Availing himself of fortuitous advantages, he is aiming
with his undivided force a deadly blow at our
growing prosperity, perhaps at our national existence.
He has avowed his purpose of trampling on the usages
of civilized warfare and given earnests of it in the
plunder and wanton destruction of private property.
In his pride of maritime Dominion and in his thirst of
commercial monopoly, he strikes with peculiar animosity
at the progress of our navigation and of our manufactures.
His barbarous policy has not even spared those monuments
of the arts and models of taste with which our country
had enriched and embellished its infant Metropolis.
From such an adversary, hostility in its greatest force
and in its worst forms may be looked for.
The American people will face it with the
undaunted spirit, which in their Revolutionary
struggle defeated his unrighteous projects.
His threats and his barbarities, instead of dismay,
will kindle in every bosom an indignation,
not to be extinguished but in the disaster
and expulsion of such cruel invaders.
In providing the means necessary the national
Legislature will not distrust the heroic and
enlightened patriotism of its constituents.
They will cheerfully and proudly bear every burden of every
kind, which the safety and honor of the Nation demand.
We have seen them everywhere paying their taxes, direct
and indirect, with the greatest promptness and alacrity.
We see them rushing with enthusiasm
to the scenes where danger and duty call.
In offering their blood they give the surest pledge,
that no other tribute will be withheld.
Having foreborne to declare war until to other aggressions
had been added the capture of nearly a thousand American
vessels, and the impressment of thousands of American
seafaring Citizens; and until a final declaration had been
made by the Government of Great Britain, that her hostile
orders against our commerce would not be revoked,
but on conditions as impossible as unjust, while it was
known that these orders would not otherwise cease,
but with a war which had lasted nearly twenty years,
and which, according to appearances at that time,
might last as many more; having manifested on every
occasion and in every proper mode a sincere desire to
arrest the effusion of blood and meet our Enemy on the
ground of justice and reconciliation; our beloved country,
in still opposing to his persevering hostility all its energies
with an undiminished disposition towards peace and
friendship on honorable terms must carry with it the good
wishes of the impartial world and the best hopes of
support from an omnipotent and kind Providence.15

      William C. C. Claiborne was from Virginia and
was educated at the College of William and Mary.
He represented Tennessee in the House of Representatives
from November 1797 to March 1801.
Then from May 1801 until March 1803 he was
Governor of the Mississippi Territory.
He governed the Territory of Orleans for the United States
from December 1803 through April 1812.
Then he became Governor of Louisiana and
would hold that position until December 1816.
In New Orleans on 22 September 1814
Claiborne wrote this letter to President Madison:

   We have the afflicting intelligence of the fall of the City of
Washington but are not yet furnished the particulars; the
public Buildings it is reported are all destroyed, but we are
left to hope that private property has been respected.
This event will excite throughout the Union the deepest
Regret; But it may be an evil for a Good; It Surely will
revive the Spirit of Seventy Six, and call forth the most
immediate, Zealous and united efforts to expel the Invader.
We consider ourselves here Sir, as much exposed,
And are making every exertion to place
the Country in a State of defense.
In this city there is certainly Some disaffection to the
Government, and it is to be found also in other parts
of the State; But it is at the present moment by no means
as considerable, as I had (very lately) Supposed;
the natives of Louisiana are beginning to manifest the
most patriotic disposition; I shall not only be enabled
to complete the requisition, but to call into the field
an additional auxiliary force when the occasion demands;
if however the Enemy should contemplate
a Serious Invasion of this State,
(And this Seems to be the General opinion),
the country must fall, if it be left to her own Resources.
I have in consequence deemed it my duty in Letters
to the Governors of Kentucky & Tennessee,
to urge them to hasten on reinforcements.
General Jackson Continues at Mobile, And is making
the best disposition of his forces on that Quarter;
very lately, a Combined attack by land & Water,
of the English, Indians, & Some volunteer Spaniards
on Fort Boyer at the point of Mobile, was gallantly
repelled by our little Garrison, the particulars of which
you will doubtless receive from General Jackson.
The Enemy is intriguing with our negroes in this State
and to his Still greater disgrace, has even made
overtures of friendship to the Pirates and Smugglers of
Barataria; But the evil he meditates will I hope be averted.
We have from Mexico reports which at the Present Crisis,
I consider as highly interesting to the United States.
It is said the vice Roy has delivered the
City of Mexico to the Revolutionists, and
that all parties had declared for Independence.
If this news be true, it will add to the Security of Louisiana;
it will at least make our present neighbors the most
Sincere friends if it should Comport with the Policy
of the United States (as I hope it may)
to Acknowledge the Independence of Mexico.
There is now in this city a field Marshal in the Service
of the Revolutionists; he is an intelligent man and Seems
very much disposed to favor the interests of his country.
I have told him that he could not calculate upon the Support
of the United States until the people of Mexico had Agreed
to a formal Declaration of Independence and established
for themselves a Constitution or form of Government.
That this being done, a Minister duly appointed by the
Mexican Government, near the Government
of the United States would probably be received,
and a minister Sent to Mexico in return.
Such a State of things would unquestionably at the
present Crisis add much to the Security of this Section
of the Union and therefore it is, that I earnestly wish it.
But the very partial attempts at Revolution, which have
lately been made in the Province of Texas and for the
most part by unprincipled Adventurers, promise no other
effects than to draw to the Frontiers of Louisiana many
Persons of Desperate Character and fortune, & to
increase the Wretchedness of the people, whose interest
they profess to Support; That these Attempts, So far as
they have been Set on foot or promoted Within the limits
of this State, have not long Since been put down,
Cannot be attributed to a want of exertion on my part;
But the fact is I have not been able to cause my orders
on this Subject to be executed without the aid of Force,
and a Competent force has not been at my disposition.
The Militia were at first resorted to;
but I Soon found they were not of the
description of Troops to be used on Such Service.16

      Thomas Jefferson on September 24 wrote this letter to Madison:

   It is very long since I troubled you with a letter,
which has proceeded from discretion, & not want of
inclination; because I have really had nothing to
write which ought to have occupied your time.
But in the late events at Washington I have felt so much for
you that I cannot withhold the expression of my sympathies.
For although every reasonable man must be sensible that
all you can do is to order, that execution must depend on
others, & failures be imputable to them alone; yet I know
that when such failures happen they afflict even those
who have done everything they could to prevent them.
Had General Washington himself been now at the head of
our affairs, the same event would probably have happened.
We all remember the disgraces which befell us in his time
in a trifling war with one or two petty tribes of Indians,
in which two armies were cut off by not half their numbers.
Everyone knew, and I personally knew, because I was
then of his council, that no blame was imputable to him,
and that his officers alone were the cause of the disasters.
They must now do the same justice.
I am happy to turn to a countervailing event,
& to congratulate you on the destruction of a
second hostile fleet on the lakes by McDonough;
of which however we have not the details.
While our enemies cannot but feel shame for
their barbarous achievements at Washington,
they will be stung to the soul by these repeated
victories over them on that element on which
they wish the world to think them invincible.
We have dissipated that error.
They must now feel a conviction themselves that we can
beat them gun to gun, ship to ship, and fleet to fleet:
and that their early successes on the land have been
either purchased from traitors or obtained from raw
men entrusted of necessity with commands for which
no experience had qualified them, and that every day
is adding that experience to unquestioned bravery.
   I am afraid the failure of our banks will occasion
embarrassment for a while, although it restores to us
a fund which ought never to have been surrendered
by the nation, and which now, prudently used, will
carry us through all the fiscal difficulties of the war.
At the request of Mr. Eppes, who was chairman of
the committee of finance at the preceding session,
I had written him some long letters on this subject.
Col. Monroe asked the reading of them
some time ago, and I now send him another,
written to a member of our legislature,
who requested my ideas on the recent bank-events.
They are too long for your reading, but Col. Monroe
can in a few sentences state to you their outline.
   Learning by the papers the loss of the library of Congress,
I have sent my catalogue to Samuel H. Smith to make to
their library committee the offer of my collection,
now of about 9 or 10,000 volumes which may be
delivered to them instantly on a valuation by
persons of their own naming and be paid for in
any way and at any term they please; in stock,
for example, of any loan they have unissued, or of
any one they may institute at this session; or in such
annual instalments as are at the disposal of the committee.
I believe you are acquainted with the condition
of the books, should they wish to be ascertained of this.
I have long been sensible that my library would be an
interesting possession for the public, and the loss Congress
has recently sustained, and the difficulty of replacing it,
while our intercourse with Europe is so obstructed, renders
this the proper moment for placing it at their service.17

      Congress authorized a regular army of 62,488,
while on September 30 they had only 34,029 men.

Madison’s War in October-December 1814

      As Speaker Henry Clay was in Europe, the House of Representatives
elected Madison’s critic Langdon Cheves of South Carolina as speaker.
They investigated the disaster in Washington, and Armstrong claimed that
he was never given command in the field.
The report ended up not blaming anyone.
On October 5 President Madison nominated the Philadelphia lawyer
Alexander J. Dallas to be Secretary of the Treasury because of his financial connections.
He brought about reforms including a national bank
that would be approved by the Senate on December 9.
James Monroe had replaced Armstrong as Secretary of War.
New York’s Governor Tompkins chose not to run the State Department
and Monroe also acted as Secretary of State.
On October 8 George M. Dallas returned from the talks at Ghent and reported that
the British were making excessive demands that included more territory for Canada.
      Thomas Jefferson offered to revive the burned Library of Congress
by selling his valuable collection of books for what Madison considered a low price.
Congress debated the issue and appropriated $23,950 for the 6,487 books.
On 10 October 1814 Madison wrote this letter to Jefferson:

   Your favor of the 24th ult: came duly to hand.
I learn that the Library Committee will report favorably on
your proposition to supply the loss of books by Congress.
It will prove a gain to them, if they have the wisdom
to replace it by such a Collection as yours.
Mr. Smith will doubtless write you on the subject.
   I have not yet read your last communication
to Mr. Monroe on the subject of finance.
It seems clear, according to your reasoning in the preceding
one, that a circulating medium to take the place of a bank
or metallic medium may be created by law and made to
answer the purpose of a loan or rather anticipation of a tax;
but as the resource cannot be extended beyond the amount
of a sufficient medium, and of course cannot be continued
but by successive re-emissions & redemptions by taxes,
resort must eventually be had to loans of the usual sort,
or an augmentation of taxes according to the public
exigences: I say augmentations of taxes because these
absorbing a larger sum into circulation will admit an
enlargement of the medium employed for the purpose.
In England where the paper medium is a legal tender in
paying a hundred millions of taxes, thirty millions of interest
to the public creditors &c &c, and in private debts, so as to
stay a final recovery, we have seen what a mass of paper
has been kept afloat with little if any depreciation.
That the difference in value between the circulating notes
and the metals proceeded rather from the rise in the latter
than from the depreciation of the former is now proved by
the fact that the notes are, notwithstanding a late increase
of their quantity, rising towards a par with the metals in
consequence of a favorable balance of trade which
diminishes the demand of them for foreign markets.
   We have just received dispatches from Ghent,
which I shall lay before Congress today.
The British sine qua non excluded us from fishing within the
sovereignty attached to her shores, and from using these
in curing fish—required a Cession of as much of Maine as
would remove the obstruction to a direct communication
between Quebec & Halifax, confirmed to her the
Passamaquoddy Islands as always hers of right—
included in the pacification the Indian Allies,
with a boundary for them,
(such as that of the Treaty of Greenville)
against the U.S. mutually guaranteed, and the Indians
restrained from selling their lands to either party, but free
to sell them to a third party—prohibited the U.S. from
having an armed force on the Lakes or forts on their shores,
the British prohibited as to neither—and substituted for the
present North West limit of the U.S. a line running direct
from the West end of Lake Superior to the Mississippi
with a right of Great Britain to the navigation of this river.
Our ministers were all present & in perfect harmony
of opinion on the arrogance of such demands.
They would probably leave Ghent shortly after
the sailing of the vessel just arrived.
Nothing can prevent it but a sudden change in the British
Cabinet not likely to happen, though it might be somewhat
favored by an indignant rupture of the negotiation,
as well as by the intelligence from this Country,
and the fermentations taking place in Europe.
   I intended to have said something on the changes in the
Cabinet involving in one instance circumstances of which
the public can as yet very little judge, but cannot do it now.
   The situation of Sacketts Harbor is very critical.
I hope for the best, but have serious apprehensions.18

      New England Federalists still opposed the war, and on October 17
the Massachusetts legislature by a vote of 260-90
recommended a regional convention at Hartford.
Rhode Island and Connecticut sent delegates.
Vermont and New Hampshire declined,
though some delegates from there went on their own.
      Madison ordered Kentucky, Tennessee, and Georgia to increase
Jackson’s militia to 15,000 plus 2,300 regulars.
The Spanish governor ignored the British warnings of an American attack on Pensacola.
On November 7 Jackson violated his orders by attacking with 4,100 soldiers
and Indians the 200 British who destroyed the Spanish forts and departed by sea.
About 500 Spanish troops did not resist, and
Jackson gave Pensacola back to the Spaniards and returned to Mobile.
He moved into New Orleans on December 2 and found Claiborne’s volunteers there.
Jackson promised the free Africans in Louisiana the same rights
as white volunteers if they enlisted for the duration of the war.
      The peace in Europe meant that the British no longer needed
to impress American sailors into their navy.
The British in England and the Canadians expressed the view that
the burning of government buildings in Washington was
“a just retribution for the outrages committed by the American force
at the seat of the government of Upper Canada”19
when they burned wooden buildings in the smaller capital at York.
      Madison on 18 November 1814 sent this letter to the United States Senate:

   I lay before the Senate for their consideration, whether
they will advise and consent to the ratification thereof a
Treaty concluded on the twenty-second day of July last,
with the Tribes of Indians, called the Wyandots,
Delawares, Shawnees, Senecas, and Miamis.
   I lay before the Senate, also for the like purpose an
Instrument entitled Articles of agreement and capitulation
made and concluded on the ninth day of August last,
between Major General Jackson and the Chiefs,
Deputies, and warriors of the Creek nation of Indians.
These communications are accompanied
by Documents having relation to them.20

      Vice President Elbridge Gerry died on November 23,
and the Senate elected the president pro tem
John Gaillard of South Carolina to replace him.
On November 26 Madison wrote this letter to Wilson Cary Nicholas:

   I did not receive your favor of the 11th instant
till a few days ago; and I have till now been
too much indisposed to acknowledge it.
   You are not mistaken in viewing the conduct of the
Eastern States as the source of our greatest difficulties
in carrying on the war; as it certainly is the greatest, if not
the sole inducement with the Enemy to persevere in it.
The greater part of the people in that quarter have been
brought by their leaders, aided by their priests under a
delusion scarcely exceeded by that recorded in the period
of witchcraft; and the leaders are becoming daily more
desperate in the use they make of it.
Their object is power.
If they could obtain it by menaces,
their efforts would stop there.
These failing, they are ready to go every length
for which they can train their followers.
Without foreign cooperation, revolt & separation
will hardly be risked; and what the effect of so
profligate an experiment may be first on deluded
partisans, and next on those remaining faithful to
the nation who are respectable for their consistency
and even for their numbers, is for conjecture only.
The best may be hoped,
but the worst ought to be kept in view.
In the meantime the Course to be taken by the Government
is full of delicacy & perplexity; and the more so under the
pinch which exists in our fiscal affairs, & the lamentable
tardiness of the Legislature in applying some relief.
   At such a moment the vigorous support of the well
disposed States is peculiarly important to the General
Government, and it would be impossible for me to doubt
that Virginia under your administration of its Executive
Government will continue to be among the foremost in
zealous exertions for the national rights and success.21

      On December 15 the 26 delegates from New England met at Hartford
and blamed Madison for the war, hoping to get concessions.
The Convention proposed constitutional amendments to reduce the representation
of slave states in Congress, to require a two-thirds vote to declare war,
to restrain commerce or admit new states,
to exclude those born outside of the United States from federal offices,
and to limit the President to one term.
They also wanted to authorize the states to defend themselves
and the country and to withhold the cost from federal taxes.
If the war continued, they called for a new convention in June 1815.
      Madison in a letter to John Adams on December 17
wrote about the treaty negotiations that involved his son John Quincy Adams:

   Your favor of the 28th Ult. was duly received,
though with more delay than usually attends the Mail.
I return the interesting letter from your son
with my thanks for the opportunity of perusing it.
   I have caused the archives of the Department of State
to be searched with an eye to what passed during the
negotiations for peace on the subject of the fisheries.
The search has not furnished a precise
answer to the enquiry of Mr. Adams.
It appears from one of your letters referring to
the instructions accompanying the Commission to
make a Treaty of commerce with Great Britain that
the original views of congress did not carry their
ultimatum beyond the common right to fish in waters
distant three leagues from the British shores.
The negotiations therefore, and not the instructions,
if no subsequent change of them took place,
have the merit of the terms actually obtained.
That other instructions, founded on the Resolutions
of Congress issued at subsequent periods cannot
be doubted, though as yet they do not appear.
But how far they distinguished between the common use
of the sea and the use then common also of the shores,
in carrying on the fisheries, I have no recollection.
   The view of the discussions at Ghent presented
by the private letters of all our ministers there,
as well as by their official dispatches leaves no
doubt of the policy of the British Cabinet, so forcibly
illustrated by the letter of Mr. Adams to you.
Our Enemy knowing that he has peace in his own hands,
speculates on the fortune of events.
Should these be unfavorable he can at any moment,
as he supposes, come to our terms.
Should they correspond with his hopes,
his demands may be insisted on or even extended.
The point to be decided by our ministers is whether
during the uncertainty of events a categorical alternative
of immediate peace or a rupture of the negotiation
would not be preferable to a longer acquiescence
in the gambling procrastinations of the other party.
It may be presumed that they will before this
have pushed the negotiations to this point.
   It is very agreeable to find that the superior
ability which distinguishes the notes of our
Envoys extorts commendation from the
most obdurate of their political Enemies.
And we have the further satisfaction to learn that
the cause they are pleading is beginning to
overcome the prejudice which misrepresentations
had spread over the continent of Europe against it.
The British Government is neither inattentive to this
approaching revolution in the public opinion there,
nor blind to its tendency.
If it does not find in it a motive to immediate peace,
it will infer the necessity of shortening the war by
bringing upon us the ensuing Campaign, what it will
consider as a force not to be resisted by us.
   It were to be wished that this consideration had more
effect in quickening the preparatory measures of Congress.
I am unwilling to say how much distress in every branch
of our affairs is the fruit of their tardiness; nor would it be
necessary to you, who will discern the extent of the evil
in the symptoms from which it is to be inferred.22

      In the negotiations at Ghent the British asked for
no American fishing off the Grand Banks, an Indian boundary favoring Canadian traders,
no American navy in the Great Lakes, more territory for Canada in the northwest,
and giving the British the right to navigate the Mississippi River.
Clay persuaded his colleagues that the British were bluffing,
and the Americans rejected all these arrogant demands.
New York’s Governor Daniel Tompkins declined to be Secretary of State,
and Madison kept Monroe on running two departments.
Navy Secretary William Jones resigned on December 19,
and the President appointed Benjamin Crowninshield
from Massachusetts to succeed him.
Madison appointed the US Attorney Alexander Dallas
of Pennsylvania to be Secretary of the Treasury.
      On December 24 the American commissioners Albert Gallatin, John Quincy Adams
James Bayard, and Henry Clay accepted an agreement with the British.
They all agreed to make peace treaties
with the Indian nations they had fought in the war.
They also condemned the slave trade,
and they promised to work toward the abolition of slavery.
      William Harris Crawford in Paris wrote this letter
to President Madison on December 28:

   On the 26th inst. I received a note from the
Duke of Wellington informing me that peace was
signed on the 26th and Congratulating me on the event.
Yesterday evening he called upon me, as well as
the Secretary of legation Lord Fitzroy Somerset.
I am informed he dispatched a messenger
immediately for Vienna.
It is generally believed that nothing has
been satisfactorily arranged at that place.
The Conclusion of peace with the U.S will probably restore
the declining influence of the English at the Congress.
   The advances made by the British embassy
will be met in the true spirit of Conciliation by me.
Indeed, I had no right to expect them, as the first
visit ought to have come from me, whenever the
relations of the two countries authorized it.
I had some doubts whether the signing of the peace
authorized this official intercourse, but there can be
no difficulty on my part after what has taken place.
   I believe the French court are
extremely glad of this event.
They were constantly apprehensive of collision.
Their pride was mortified at the idea of yielding any of
their rights to the apprehension of hostilities with England.
This pride however was not sufficient
to overcome that apprehension.
The general temper of the nation
required the most rigid concealment of it.
   This temper becomes every day more violent
& threatens the security of the throne.
The new minister of war has kindled a flame which
may burn with destructive fury and resist all the
efforts which he will be able to make to extinguish it.
General Exelmans, whose case you will see stated in the
proceedings of the legislative body, is the son in law
of Marshal Oudinot, one of the favorites of the family.
He was arrested in the House of General Count Maison,
military governor of Paris, whose duty it was to arrest him.
His cause has been espoused in the house
of peers by Maison, the Duke of Dantzig,
and several other marshals & generals.
Cartridges have been given out to the guards,
and the watch word has been changed
several times in the course of one night.
   Notwithstanding all this I believe it will blow over,
& that the family will remain on the throne.
   Mr. Hughes, the Secretary of the Embassy,
a very estimable man, is desirous of going
out Secretary to the Embassy at London.
To enable him to take his family,
an addition to the salary will be necessary.
This will hardly be made by law, and there are but few
cases in which it can be done correctly without law.
As the treaty renders the liquidation of the expenses
incurred in the support of prisoners necessary,
I have thought that this liquidation might be properly
confided to the Secretary of the legation, which would
make a temporary addition to the salary which
would enable him to gratify his wishes in this respect.
He has exerted much zeal and considerable talent
in the office which he now holds, and has something
like a claim to such an indulgence in his favor.
It is possible that Mr. Beasley may
think himself entitled to this emolument.
Between the pretensions of these two gentlemen,
I have no right to decide, but if I had to decide,
I certainly should gratify Mr. Hughes.
   I hope you will excuse this obtrusion of the
private wishes of an individual upon your attention.
I know your time may be much more beneficially employed.
If I had had time, I would have sent you a triplicate
Copy of a long letter which I have written to you.
   I trust that peace will strengthen the republican party,
which is indissolubly connected with your administration.
I congratulate you most sincerely upon the conclusion
of the war under circumstances which will prevent
the necessity of a speedy recurrence to arms.23

      On 29 December 1814 the Mississippi Territory Legislature
sent this resolution to President Madison:

   We the Representatives of the people of the Mississippi
Territory of the United States in General assembly
convened have seen with lively indignation the haughty
propositions made by the ministers of the British
Government to our ministers at Ghent as the basis
of a treaty of peace between the two Countries.
These propositions afford an additional manifestation of
the imperious spirit of that Government, and the deadly
hostility which it entertains against our national prosperity:
To accede to them would be to surrender not only
our national honor, but our existence as a free,
sovereign, and independent people, Wherefore:
   Resolved unanimously, as the representatives of the
people of the Mississippi Territory that we tender to the
General Government our undivided support in repelling the
aggressions and unjust demands of our enemy, and that
we prefer a sacrifice of our lives and fortunes to the
surrender of our rights or our national dignity.24

      Madison’s embargo took its economic toll in 1814.
New York’s exports in 1811 had surpassed $12,250,000,
but in 1814 they were only $209,000, and Virginia’s fell
from more than $3 million in 1812 to $1,819,000 in 1813 and only $17,581 in 1814.

Notes
1. The Papers of James Madison: Presidential Series, Volume 7 25 October 1813—
30 June 1814
ed. J. C. A. Stagg et al, p. 213.
2. Ibid., p. 308.
3. Ibid., p. 400.
4. Ibid., p. 502-503.
5. Ibid., p. 508-509.
6. Ibid., p. 568.
7. Ibid., p. 597.
8. The Papers of James Madison: Presidential Series, Volume 8 July 1814—
18 February 1815 with a supplement December 1779-18 April 1814
, p. 9.
9. Ibid., p. 11.
10. Ibid., p. 98-101.
11. Ibid., p. 134-136.
12. James Madison: A Biography by Ralph Ketcham, p. 579.
13. The Papers of James Madison: Presidential Series, Volume 8, p. 149-152.
14. Ibid., p. 166-168.
15. Ibid., p. 224-229.
16. Ibid., p. 234-236.
17. Ibid., p. 401-402.
18. Ibid., p. 246-247.
19. Ibid., p. 297-298.
20. James Madison: The President 1809-1812 by Irving Brant, p. 319.
21. The Papers of James Madison: Presidential Series, Volume 8, p. 390.
22. Ibid., p. 441-442.
23. Ibid., p. 469-470.
24. Ibid., p. 473.

Copyright © 2024 by Sanderson Beck

President Madison in March 1809
President Madison in 1810
President Madison in 1811
Madison Before a British War in 1812
Madison’s War with Britain in 1812
Madison & British War in 1813
Madison & British War in 1814
President Madison in 1815
President Madison in 1816-17
President Madison & Indian Nations 1809-17
Madison & Slavery Issues in 1819 & 1833
James Madison Summary & Evaluation
Bibliography

Herbert Hoover

Woodrow Wilson

Thomas Jefferson

George Washington

John Adams

James Madison to 1808

Uniting Humanity by Sanderson Beck

History of Peace Volume 1
History of Peace Volume 2

ETHICS OF CIVILIZATION Index
World Chronology
Chronology of America

BECK index