On 11 January 1816 President Madison received
this letter from leaders in the Illinois Territory:
The members of the Legislative Council and House of
Representatives of the Illinois Territory, beg leave to
express their concern in the anticipation of the misery to
which a portion of the most worthy citizens of our country
will be reduced by the operation of the act of Congress
passed the 3rd day of March 1807 entitled “An Act to
prevent settlements being made on public land.”
Although we are sensible that under certain circumstances
such restrictions are proper and must be resorted to—
Yet we cannot see the policy or the necessity
of enforcing the said law in this Territory.
The rise and progress of its population has been slow and
imperceptible—many moved to the Territory peradventure
with the intention of purchasing lands, some of whom have
done so; others less fortunate are yet without the means,
their poverty we view as giving them an additional claim
on the indulgence of the government, since most if not
all of them have, instead of accumulating property, been
made to expend what little they had during the last three
years of war with our savage enemy, in which they were
actively engaged in maintaining and defending the country.
We your memorialists are persuaded that
no pretensions of claim are set up by any of
the settlers on public land within this Territory.
And confiding in the patriotism and orderly deportment
of this class of citizens, we can vouch for the prompt
and peaceable surrender of the lands so occupied
whenever demanded either by the government or
such as may in the meantime acquire a title by purchase.
As a precautionary measure however, should you
deem it expedient, permits might be granted,
on the conditions expressed in the aforesaid act.
We cannot believe that the unauthorized settlers on public
land are committing waste; on the contrary we believe
they are adding greatly to the prosperity of the country,
and rendering the land more valuable; and most of those
will be enabled to purchase a quarter section including their
improvements before the land will be applied for by others.
Indeed a very great number in the district of Kaskaskia
who have pay due them from the United States for services
to the amount of about two hundred thousand dollars
are only waiting for the Land Office to open
when they will secure their labor.
We your memorialists actuated by a sense of Justice,
are impelled to solicit your interposition in averting a
scene so afflicting to humanity as that which must
necessarily result from the operation of the aforesaid act.1
On January 18 Madison sent this message to the US Congress:
The accompanying extract from the occurrences at
Fort Jackson in August 1814 during the negotiation of
a Treaty with the Indians shows that the friendly Creeks,
wishing to give to General Jackson, Benjamin Hawkins
and others a national mark of their gratitude and regard,
conveyed to them respectively a donation of land with
a request that the grant might be duly confirmed
by the Government of the United States.
Taking into consideration the peculiar circumstances
of the case, the expediency of indulging the Indians in
wishes which they associated with the Treaty signed
by them, and that the case involves an inviting
opportunity for bestowing on an officer who has
rendered such illustrious services to his Country,
a token of its sensibility to them, the inducement to which
cannot be diminished by the delicacy and disinterestedness
of his proposal to transfer the benefit from himself:
I recommend to Congress that provision
be made for carrying into effect the wishes
and request of the Indians as expressed by them.2
On March 7 Congressman Richard M. Johnson’s committee had proposed changing
congressional pay from $6 per day to an annual salary of $1,500, and the President,
who made $25,000 a year, signed the Compensation Act on March 19.
Although most Federalists voted for it,
Federalist newspapers severely criticized the Compensation Act.
Only the Daily National Intelligencer in Washington approved the bill.
Public meetings of protest were held around the country, and
during the summer it was the most popular subject of discussion.
The Republicans followed the leadership of Madison on March 16
when their caucus in the Congress gave Madison’s friend James Monroe 65 votes to 54
for Secretary of War George W. Crawford of Georgia as their nominee for President.
The Federalists would nominate the US Senator Rufus King
of New York as their candidate for President.
On March 20 the US Supreme Court in Martin v. Hunter’s Lessee upheld a
previous decision that confirmed their power to rule on the decisions of state courts,
and Justice Joseph Story wrote for the Court.
On 30 March 1816 the US House of Representatives
passed the enabling bill for Indiana 108 to 3.
They recommitted Mississippi’s petition because
it would have become the largest state in the Union.
Madison approved the bill to enable Indiana statehood on April 19.
In 1792 James Madison had opposed the National Bank
proposed by the Federalist Alexander Hamilton
because he believed it was not authorized by the US Constitution.
On 10 April 1816 Madison signed the bill to create
the Second Bank of the United States.
He nominated five Republicans to be on the board of directors,
and he appointed the former Navy Secretary William Jones to be the head
of the Bank which opened for business in January 1817.
War taxes were continued, and the Army and Navy
still had funds to protect land and ships at sea.
Congressmen had been working for $6 per day,
and Madison approved for them an annual salary of $1,500.
The President’s salary remained at $25,000.
On 17 April 1816 the Congress created the Canal Commission
to survey and plan the Lake Erie and Lake Champlain canals.
Congress passed the tariff bill, and the President signed it on April 27.
Southerners managed to get the direct tax cut in half,
and the average rate of the tariff in 1816 was 20%.
On the 29th Madison signed the Naval Expansion Act.
President Madison on 24 April 1816 received this letter from the Dey of Algiers:
With the aid and assistance of Divinity and in the Reign of
our Sovereign, the asylum of the world, powerful and great
monarchy transactor of all good actions, the best of men,
the shadow of God, Director of the Good Order, King of
Kings, Supreme Ruler of the World, Emperor of the Earth;
Emulator of Alexander the Great, Possessor of Great
Forces, Sovereign of the two worlds and of the Seas,
King of Arabia and Persia, Emperor Son of an Emperor
and Conqueror, Mahmood Lan (may God end his Life
with prosperity and his reign be everlasting and glorious.)
His humble and obedient Servant, actual Sovereign,
Governor and Chief of Algiers, submitted forever to the
orders of his Imperial Majesty’s noble throne, Omer Pasha,
(may his Government be happy and prosperous).
To His Majesty the Emperor of America, its adjacent
and dependent Provinces and Coasts and wherever his
Government may extend, our noble friend, the Support
of Kings of the Nations of Jesus, the Pillar of all
Christian Sovereigns, the most glorious amongst the Princes,
elected amongst many Lords and Nobles, the happy, the great,
the amiable, James Madison, Emperor of America,
(may his reign be happy and glorious and his life long
and prosperous) wishing him long possession of the Seat
of his blessed throne, and long life and health, amen:
Hoping that your Health is in good state,
I inform you that mine is excellent
(thanks to the Supreme Being) constantly addressing
my humble prayers to the Almighty for your felicity.
After many years have elapsed, you have
at last sent a squadron commanded by
Admiral Decatur (your most humble Servant)
for the purpose of treating of Peace with us:
I received the Letter of which he was the Bearer and
understood its contents; the enmity which existed
between us having been extinguished, you desired to
make Peace as France and England have done:
Immediately after the arrival of your squadron in our
harbor, I sent my answer to your servant the Admiral
through the medium of the Swedish Consul, whose
proposals I was disposed to agree to, on condition that our
frigate and Sloop of war taken by you should be restored to
us and brought back to Algiers; on these same conditions
we would sign peace according to your wishes and request.
Our answer having thus been explained to your Servant the
Admiral by the Swedish Consul, he agreed to treat with us
on the above mentioned conditions; but having afterwards
insisted upon the restitution of all American Citizens as
well as upon a certain sum of money for several merchant
vessels made prizes by us and of every other object
belonging to the Americans, we did not hesitate a moment
to comply with his wishes, and in consequence of which
we have restored to the said Admiral (your Servant) all that
he demanded from us; in the meantime the said Admiral
having given his word to send back our two ships of war,
and not having performed his promise, he has thus
violated the faithful articles of peace which were signed
between us, and by so doing a new treaty must be made.
I inform you therefore that a treaty of Peace having
been signed between America and us during the reign
of Hassan Pasha twenty years past, I propose to renew
the said treaty on the same basis specified in it, and
if you agree to it our friendship will be solid and lasting.
I intended to be on the highest terms of amity
with our friends the Americans than ever before,
being the first nation with which I made peace;
but as they have not been able to put into
execution our present treaty, it appears necessary
for us to treat on the above mentioned conditions.
We hope with the assistance of God, that you
will answer this our Letter immediately after
you shall have a perfect knowledge of its contents:
If you agree, (according to our request)
to the conditions specified in the said treaty
please to send us an early answer:
If on the contrary you are not satisfied with my
propositions, you will act against the sacred duty
of men and against the Laws of Nations, requesting
only that you will have the goodness to remove
your Consul as soon as possible, assuring you
it will be very agreeable to us.
These being our last words to you,
we pray God to keep you in his Holy Guard.3
On 1 May 1816 Madison issued this proclamation
granting land to Canadian volunteers:
Whereas by the act entitled “An act granting
bounties in land and extra pay to certain Canadian
Volunteers,” passed the fifth of March, 1816, it was
enacted that the locations of the land warrants of the
said volunteers should “be subject to such regulations,
as to priority of choice, and the manner of location,
as the President of the United States shall direct:”
Wherefore, I, James Madison, President of the United
States in conformity with the provisions of the act before
recited, do hereby make known, that the land warrants of
the said Canadian Volunteers may be located agreeably
to the said act at the Land Offices at Vincennes, or
Jeffersonville in the Indiana territory on the first Monday
in June next with the Registers of the said Land Offices;
that the warrantees may in person or by their attorneys,
or other legal representatives, in the presence of the
Register and Receiver of the said land districts, draw lots for
the priority of location, and that should any of the warrants
not appear for location on that day, they may be located
afterwards according to their priority of presentation:
the locations in the district of Vincennes to be made at
Vincennes, and the locations in the district of
Jeffersonville to be made at Jeffersonville.4
Also on May 1 Madison wrote this belated reply
to the philosopher Jeremy Bentham:
I have a greater debt of apology, I fear,
than I can easily discharge, for having
so long omitted to answer your letter of 1811.
I flatter myself however that you will not do me
the injustice to believe that the failure has proceeded
from any insensibility to the importance of its contents,
or to the generous motives which dictated it; and as
little from a want of respect for the very distinguished
character you have established with the world by the
inestimable gifts which your pen has made to it.
It happened that your letter was received in the midst
of occupations incident to preparations for an anticipated
war, which was in fact the result of the anxious crisis.
During the period of hostilities, which apparently
became more and more uncertain in their duration,
there could not be leisure, if there were no
impropriety in opening a correspondence.
On the removal of these difficulties by the
happy event of peace, your letter was
among the early objects of my recollection:
But a variety of circumstances, which it would be
tedious to explain, deprived me of an opportunity
of bestowing the proper attention on it until the recent
busy Session of Congress became a further obstacle
which has just ceased with the adjournment of that body.
On perusing your letter, I see much to admire
in the comprehensive and profound views taken of
its subject; as I do everything to applaud in the
disinterested and beneficent offer which it makes
to the United States; and it is with the feelings naturally
flowing from these considerations, that I find myself
constrained to decide, that a compliance with your proposals
would not be within the Scope of my proper functions.
That a digest of our laws on sound principles with a
purgation and reduction to a text of the unwritten part
of them would be an invaluable improvement, cannot
be questioned; and I cheerfully accede to the opinion
of Mr. Brougham, that the task could be undertaken
by no hand in Europe so capable as yours.
The only room for doubt would be as to its
practicability, notwithstanding your peculiar
advantages for it within a space and a time
such as appear to have been contemplated.
With respect to the unwritten law, it may not be
improper to observe, that the extent of it has been not
a little abridged in this country by successive events.
A certain portion of it was dropped by our emigrant
forefathers as contrary to their principles,
or inapplicable to their new situation.
The Colonial Statutes had a further effect
in amending and diminishing the mass.
The revolution from Colonies to
Independent States lopped off other portions.
And the changes which have been constantly
going on Since this last event have everywhere
made and are daily making further reductions.
To these remarks I may be permitted to add that with
the best plan for converting the common law into a written
law, the evil cannot be more than partially cured;
the complex technical terms to be employed in the text,
necessarily requiring a resort for definition and explanation
to the Volumes containing that description of law.
These views of the subject, nevertheless,
should they have the validity attached to them,
still leave sufficient inducements for such a reform
in our code, as had employed your thoughts.
And although we cannot avail ourselves of them in
the mode best in itself, I do not overlook the prospect
that the fruits of your labors may in some other not
be lost to us; flattering myself that my silence will have
no wise diverted or suspended them, as far as the
United States may have a particular interest in them.
It will be a further gratification if it should experience from
your goodness the pardon which I have ventured to ask.
Whatever may be the result, I pray You, Sir,
to be assured of my distinguished esteem for your
Character and of the due sense I entertain of your
Solicitude for the Welfare of my Country.
James Madison
P.S. Be pleased to accept my thanks for the valuable
collection of your works which accompanied your letter.
I have directed a copy of Blodget’s Tables and of
Hamilton’s works to be procured & forwarded to you,
& will endeavor at some further return for your favor,
to have added to them a few other publications.5
Madison had appointed John Quincy Adams the minister to Britain in May 1815,
and he served their until August 1817.
Madison wrote this letter to Adams on 10 May 1816:
I have been favored with two letters from you,
which having come to hand during a most busy season,
have remained to this date unacknowledged.
The first of September 27, 1815 was brought by the person
to whom it referred as the medium of a communication to
this Government relating to the Ships of war at Venice.
Although the description and price of such an addition to
our naval force, and the effects which might result from it,
invited a favorable attention to the communication;
there were objections to the purchase in the view of our
naval councils, which gave a preference to the employment
of our internal means of multiplying our public ships.
It may be proper to add, that if a different decision had
taken place, there would have been strong objections
to the individual whose instrumentality presented itself.
The Second letter of December 24 accompanied
the little pamphlet by Mr. de Liagno.
I have read it with pleasure, as a favorable specimen
of the talents of the Author; and if you should have any
further communication with him, you will oblige me by
making my acknowledgements for his polite attention.
But notwithstanding his intellectual acquirements and
the faculties of his pen, seconded as they appear to be
by principles and dispositions friendly to the United States,
I think you have done him a very kind service in dissuading
him from transferring his fortunes to this side of the Atlantic.
The literary arms and tactics of a champion against
Chateaubriand are better adapted to the Theatre
of Europe than to that of the United States; so far
at least as they are the resource for a livelihood.
You will receive from the Secretary of State
the Communications relating to the topics
in discussion with the British Government.
Being sincerely desirous of maintaining peace
and friendship between the two countries,
we wish every fair experiment to be made for
guarding against causes which may interrupt them.
On questions such as Impressments and Blockades on
which we consider ourselves as standing on the ground
of right and of public law, & consequently connect a defense
of them with our honor and independence, collisions must
be unavoidable in the event of wars in Europe, unless
amicable adjustments precede them, or Great Britain
should be more yielding than we are authorized to expect.
It is much to be desired also that on questions not of right,
but of prudence and reciprocity, as a discontinuance
of armaments on the lakes and the commerce with
the West Indies, an understanding or stipulations
satisfactory to both parties should not be delayed.
You will learn that with respect to the lakes
Congress declined to make appropriations
for keeping pace with British armaments on them.
But it is not to be inferred that if these
should be actually carried on, they will not
lead at another Session to a different policy.
The effect of a display of British Superiority on the
upper lakes on the spirit of the Savages will be decisive.
In this view only the question of naval superiority in that
quarter is important to the U.S. while it is not so to Canada
which has no apprehensions from Savage inroads.
In any other view the extension of British armaments
on the Lakes would have nothing in them to be dreaded.
In time of peace they are harmless and in the event
of a future war, the object of the U.S. would be to
take the Lakes themselves, to which the inducement
would be strengthened by so rich a prize on them.
This was the first object in the late war and would
have Succeeded in any hands but those of General Hull.
On future occasions should they unfortunately not be
precluded, the U. S. will have greater comparative means
with an application of them enlightened by experience.
As to the commerce with the West Indies,
there can be but one Sentiment.
What passed on that Subject in Congress is a proof
that if intermediate negotiation be not successful,
it will be taken up at the next session with a
determination to put an end to the existing inequality.
If Great Britain will not admit American vessels
into the West India ports, American ports will be
shut against British vessels coming from those ports.
The consequence must be either that the intercourse
will cease, which though disadvantageous to the
United States will be not less so to Great Britain:
or that neutral ports will be interposed, which
will furnish a greater proportion of the navigation
employed to the American than to the British tonnage.
The present monopoly will be the less submitted
to, as it is found to destroy the equality which
was the object of the commercial convention
in the branches of trade embraced by it.6
President Madison on 12 May 1816 wrote this letter
to the US Ambassador in the Netherlands, William Eustis:
I duly received your two favors of August 10
& December 9th, 1815, but during so busy a
season that I have been obliged to postpone the
acknowledgement of them to the present date.
The picture you give of the Dutch humiliation as
exemplified in the tone of the Baron de Nagel on the
violation of the local sovereignty in the case of the seaman
impressed, exceeds what I could have inferred from the
relations of the New Kingdom to its powerful neighbor.
It is not politic in the latter to exact such sacrifices.
The feeling that makes them will show itself in a very
different character the moment any change of
circumstances shall give a free play to human nature.
The connection with Russia may hasten the transformation.
I observe that a deaf ear is turned to your cogent
reasoning in support of the just demands of indemnity.
In recognizing the principle that a nation is bound
by its established Government, it is impossible to
resist the inference in our favor because the
Government during the absence of the Prince
of Orange was in the relations of an established
Government or a Government de facto to the other
Governments of Europe; and the United States
considering it in the same light could not refuse
the ordinary intercourse between two friendly nations.
A Paternal sovereign ought not to wish the benefits of such
an intercourse to be withheld from a people beloved by him.
The Allies in the very act of restoring Lewis to the throne
of France have compelled him or rather the nation to
indemnify the sufferers from the spoliations of Napoleon
while he was de facto at the head of the French people.
You will learn from the Secretary of State that efforts will
be made to obtain everywhere the indemnities due by
the present for the wrongs of preceding Governments.
Mr. Pinkney, who is just departing as Minister to Russia,
will take Naples in his way with a view to that object.
And Mr. Gallatin, who will embark in a few days,
will press our demands at Paris.
The complexion of Europe as recently presented
to us seems to justify your view of its prospects.
The peace of Paris has left feelings in various quarters and
of various kinds, which are not auspicious to its duration.
A military establishment in Great Britain of
150,000 men; in Russia of half a million or more,
and the indications of jealousy & ambition among
other powers with the combustible materials in France,
prepare the mind for new agitations.
It is understood also that while the Governments
are forming their projects in relation to each other,
the people all over Europe have caught a spirit
and acquired a knowledge that presage events
of another, and, it is to be hoped, of a better kind.
Of all these matters however your position
gives you better opportunities for judging.
With respect to our Own Country, we are threatened
with no immediate collisions, unless one should grow out
of the questions with Spain, which we are taking measures
to bring, if practicable, to an amicable termination.
In our internal affairs our difficulties arise from
the state in which our finances were left by the war.
The measures provided for by Congress will, I hope,
alleviate, and with the aid of time gradually remove them.
The principal of these measures are the
establishment of a National Bank and a
continuance of a large portion of the war taxes.
You will see also that a very important provision
has been made for fostering our manufactures.
This will have the double effect of enlarging our
revenue for a time; and by lessening our future
importations aid in rescuing our Commerce from
that unfavorable balance which embarrasses all
our monied Institutions and financial operations.
You will gather from the newspapers sent you the
progress & complexions of the Elections General & local.
Notwithstanding the pressures of the war and those
on the heels of it, the nation seems determined
to lose nothing of the character it has gained.
You will have noticed the new symptom disclosed
in the Eastern quarter by the motion & proceedings
in Congress relating to the British monopoly of the
navigation between the U. S. & the British Colonies.
It is evident that the monopoly will be met at the
next session by countervailing regulations, unless
they be prevented by intermediate negotiation:
and that they will be urged most by those who
heretofore have so systematically combated them.
If such be the effect of this partial loss by the shipping
interest, what would have been the feelings if a total
loss had not been prevented by the commercial
Convention with Great Britain which abolished the
inequality under which that interest was placed by Mr. Jay’s
Treaty or rather by the countervailing regulations as they
were called, which were engrafted on it by Great Britain.
Mr. Dallas will leave his Department in the fall.
I shall delay as much as possible providing for the vacancy
with the greater propriety, as the step ought to consult
not merely my expiring relation to the Executive trust.
We have had a season without example
deficient both in warmth and in rain.
To the present date we have had but a few warm days.
And till a few days ago there has been a
continued & general drought for several months.
The farmers in many places are plowing up their
Wheat fields & planting Indian Corn; and the latter crop
is more unthrifty than was ever known at this season.
Every crop indeed is remarkably unpromising.7
A constitutional convention met at Corydon on June 10,
and the state constitution of Indiana banning slavery was proclaimed on the 29th.
Congress made the free state of Indiana the 18th state on December 11.
The defeat of the Tecumseh Confederacy in Indiana and the Creeks in the southwest
had resulted in treaties and opening land to settlers who moved west after the war.
The Mississippi Territory was divided in half,
and Mississippi became a state on 1 March 1817.
Republicans had met in a caucus on March 16, and they chose James Monroe
as their presidential candidate by a vote of 65 to 54 over William Crawford.
They selected Daniel Tompkins to be Vice President by a much larger margin.
Congress adjourned at the end of April.
Madison had Monroe write to John Quincy Adams in London to negotiate
with Castlereagh about armed vessels on the Great Lakes.
The Madisons left Washington on June 5 and stayed at Montpelier through the summer.
That summer lacked rain and was so cold that it was called the “year without summer.”
The air was cooled because of the ash from the volcano
on Sumbawa in Indonesia in April 1815.
Harvests were bad, and the price of grain increased.
The commodity price index went from 112 in 1815 to 202 in 1816.
Peace increased the trade that had been blocked, and American exports rose
from $52.5 million in 1815 to $82 million in 1816
while imports increased from $113 million to $147 million.
In 1816 and 1817 the Americans rebuilt Fort Wayne and Fort Harrison in Indiana.
Fort Shelby at Detroit and the forts Gratiot and Mackinac were garrisoned in Michigan.
Fort Dearborn was rebuilt and strengthened along with Fort Clark
to protect settlers in the Illinois Territory.
In 1816 the US Army built Fort Edward in western Illinois,
Fort Armstrong on Rock Island, Fort Crawford at Prairie du Chien,
and Fort Howard by the mouth of the Fox River.
On 11 July 1816 President Madison sent this letter to Secretary of State
James Monroe advising him on how to negotiate various issues with the British:
I have received yours of the 7th and
return the communications from Mr. Adams.
The arrangement of the fisheries is a delicate subject,
as it relates to the public sensibility;
to its intrinsic merits; and to the peculiar
importance attached to it by respectable names.
It will be better to do nothing, than to surrender the point
of right or to accept what may be of small value with
an actual privation of the residue formerly enjoyed.
I had hoped from the conversation of Lord Castlereagh
with Mr. Adams, that nothing more would be required of us,
than a concurrence in regulations which would prevent
smuggling and the annoyance of private interests;
and which would avoid any necessary implication that
the treaty of 1783 was still in force on this subject.
The proposition of Mr. Bagot is of a very different tenor.
It either necessarily implies that the treaty is not in force;
or it sacrifices our rights under it with respect to the
marine league and the shores elsewhere,
without equivalent or the shadow of reciprocity.
However controvertible the doctrine may be which saves
from the effect of war the stipulations of 1783 in our favor,
it is not without countenance from the peculiar character
of that treaty and can plead the sanction of high
authorities on the Law of Nations to the principle that
a war does not repeal engagements between the parties,
with which the causes of the war are unconnected.
The Edinburg Reviewers, if my memory be right,
distinctly maintain this principle.
We are to keep in view also that our Envoys
at Ghent carefully excluded from the treaty of
peace any admission or implication favorable to
the British doctrine or pretensions, that their country
might be left at full liberty to avail itself of its own.
All these considerations impose on us
much circumspection in the present case.
You have done very right therefore in taking measures for
obtaining information from quarters the best informed and
most interested; and we shall be justified in allowing much
weight to the opinions which may be communicated, if they
should place great value on what Mr. Bagot may be
authorized to yield, and little on what we should lose.
But reversing the supposition, it will be advisable
to leave the subject where it is for the present.
Our declining the offers made will rather strengthen
our cause; and perhaps the subject may be more easily
managed in connection with the further negotiations
with Great Britain on the general subject of commerce,
which cannot be very remote, or with the negotiations
relating to the trade with her colonies, which are already
in view, than when taken up for insulated discussion.
Should the difficulties of such a discussion,
however, be overcome, a safe & proper form
for the arrangement will be very requisite.
Perhaps it may be found necessary to omit a preamble
altogether; simply stating the stipulations entered into
and wording them so as to shun implications
for or against rights or claims on either side.
If a preamble be adopted, it might run, “The parties
being mutually disposed to guard against incidents
unfavorable to their harmony or injurious to particular
interests without authorizing inferences impairing the
rights or claims asserted by either, it is agreed &c.”
But it is scarcely possible to frame a recital
precisely suitable, until the terms & scope of
the agreement be settled & reduced to paper.
In what light is the Gulf of St Laurence
viewed by Great Britain?
As a water within her jurisdiction or as a high sea?
If as the former the use of the shores proposed
lose their value: if as the latter, and the
contiguous marine league be not made free also,
the value of the shores will be much impaired.
I presume that jurisdiction is not claimed beyond
the marine league, and that this would create no difficulty.
Indeed the use of the uninhabited shores, and of the marine
league adjoining them, ought nowhere to create difficulty;
nor the use even of the marine league, where the shores
are inhabited, considering the means which the Sovereign of
the Shores has of preventing violations of the revenue laws.
With respect to the naval forces on the Lake, I do not see
why Mr. Bagot should suspend an arrangement on that
subject, until the subject of the fisheries be disposed of.
There is no connection between the two;
and an immediate attention to the former is the more
necessary as it is said that an enlargement of the British
force, particularly on Lake Erie, is actually going on.
It would be far more proper to suspend this enlargement,
till the negotiations concerning it be concluded.
What seems expedient to be stipulated is
1. that no increase of existing armaments should take place.
2. that existing armaments be laid up.
3. that revenue Cutters if allowed at all
be reduced to the minimum of size and force.
There might be advantage in communicating on this
subject with persons best acquainted with it; perhaps with
Governor Tompkins and particularly with Governor Cass.
What is the practice with respect
to jurisdiction on the Lakes?
Is it common to both parties over the whole,
or exclusive to each on its side of the dividing line.
The regulation of revenue Cutters
may be influenced by this question.
There is an able argument of Judge Woodward
at Detroit in a case touching fugitives,
which may perhaps throw light on this point.
It was put on the files of the
Department of State some years ago.
Lord Castlereagh’s interview with Mr. Adams
betrays a consciousness that his Government
was exposed to suspicion in the business at Algiers.
He makes a limping retreat from the British
obligation to force the Barbarians out of
the practice of enslaving Christians.
Why more scrupulous in the case of Algiers than of Tunis?
Why more careful of the rights of the African blacks,
than of the European Whites?
Why more delicate towards the Dey of Algiers,
than the Kings of Spain & Portugal?
True, Great Britain does not make war in form
against them, but she disregards their sovereignty
in seizing & adjudging their slave ships.
Let her do the same with the slave ships of the Barbarians.
It would be equally effectual: nor is it less required by the
opinion of Europe & the dictates of humanity, by which
she justifies her interposition in behalf of the Negroes.8
Albert Gallatin declined to go back to his position as Treasury Secretary,
and he began serving as the Ambassador to France in July.
General Jackson sent 267 United States troops and Indian allies
led by Col. Duncan Clinch, and on July 27 they besieged Fort Negro in Florida.
After ten days the Choctaws and fugitive slaves surrendered.
As four soldiers lost their lives,
they killed 270 escaped slaves who had taken over the fort.
On 21 August 1816 President Madison wrote in a letter to the Dey of Algiers,
I have received your letter
bearing date the 24th of April last.
You represent that the two vessels of War captured by the
American squadron were not restored according to the
promises of its Commander Decatur; and inferring that this
failure violated the Treaty of peace, you propose as an
alternative a renewal of the former Treaty made many
years ago, or a withdrawal of our Consul from Algiers.
The United States being desirous of living
in peace and amity with all nations, I regret
that an erroneous view of what has passed
should have suggested the contents of your letter.
Your predecessor made War without cause on
the United States, driving away their Consul and
putting into slavery the Captain and Crew of one of
their vessels, sailing under the faith of an existing treaty.
The moment we had brought to an honorable conclusion,
our War with a nation, the most powerful in Europe
on the seas; we detached a squadron from our naval
force into the Mediterranean to take satisfaction
for the wrongs which Algiers had done to us.
Our squadron met yours, defeated it, and made
prize of your largest ship and of a smaller one.
Our Commander proceeded immediately to Algiers, offered
you peace, which you accepted, and thereby saved the rest
of your ships, which it was known had not returned into
port, and would otherwise have fallen into his hands.
Our Commander, generous as brave, although he would not
make the promise a part of the Treaty, informed you that
he would restore the two captured ships to your officers.
They were accordingly so restored.
The Frigate at an early day arrived at Algiers.
But the Spanish Government, alleging that the
capture of the Brig was so near the Spanish shore,
as to be unlawful, detained it at Cartagena,
after your officer had received it into his possession.
Notwithstanding this fulfilment of all that could be
required from the United States, no time was lost
in urging on that Government a release of the Brig,
to which Spain could have no right, whether the capture
were or were not agreeable to the law of nations.
The Spanish Government promised that the Brig should
be given up, and although the delay was greater than
was expected, it appears that the Brig as well as the
frigate has been actually replaced in your possession.
It is not without great surprise therefore, that we find you,
under such circumstances, magnifying an incident so little
important as it affects the interest of Algiers, and so
blameless on the part of the United States, into an occasion
for the proposition and threat contained in your letter.
I cannot but persuade myself that a reconsideration of the
subject will restore you to the amicable sentiments
towards the United States, which succeeded the War so
unjustly commenced by the Dey who reigned before you.
I hope the more that this may be the case,
because the United States, while they wish
for War with no nation, will buy peace of none.
It is a principle incorporated into the settled policy
of America, that as peace is better than War,
War is better than tribute.
Our Consul and our Naval Commander Chauncy are
authorized to communicate with you for the purpose
of terminating the subsisting difference by a mutual
recognition and execution of the Treaty lately concluded.
And I pray God that he will inspire you with
the same love of peace and justice which we feel,
and that he will take you into his holy keeping.9
On August 25 Madison wrote in a letter to Treasury Secretary Alexander J. Dallas:
Since the receipt of your several letters relating
to the Treasury proposition, and the decision of Bank
Deputies at Philadelphia, my thoughts have been
duly turned to the important and perplexing subject.
Although there may be no propriety in recalling the
proposition, it seems now certain that it will fail of its effect.
Should the Banks not represented
at Philadelphia come into the measure,
the refusal of those represented would be fatal.
The want of a medium for taxes in a
single State would be a serious difficulty.
So extensive a want would forbid at once
an enforcement of the proposition.
The Banks feel their present importance and seem
more disposed to turn it to their own profit, than
to the public good and the views of the Government.
Without their co-operation it does not appear
that any immediate relief can be applied to the
embarrassments of the Treasury or of the Currency.
This co-operation they refuse.
Can they be coerced?
Should the State Legislatures unite in the means
within their power, the object may be attained.
But this is scarcely to be expected;
and in point of time is too remote.
The national Bank must for a time
at least be on the defensive.
The interposition of Congress remains:
And we may hope the best as to a vigorous use of it.
But there is danger that the influence
of the local Banks may reach even that resource.
Should this not be the case,
the remedy is future not immediate.
The question then before us is whether any and
what further expedients lie with the Executive.
Although we have satisfied, by what has been
already attempted, our legal responsibility,
it would be still incumbent on us to make further
experiments, if any promising ones can be devised.
If there be such, I have full confidence that
they will enter into your views of the subject.
One only occurs to me, and I mention it because
no other does; not because I regard it as free
from objections which may be deemed conclusive.
The notes in the Treasury might be presented to the
Banks respectively with a demand of the specie due
on the face of them; on refusal suits might be immediately
instituted not with a view to proceed to execution, but to
establish a claim to interest from the date of the demand.
The notes thus bearing interest being kept in hand,
treasury notes bearing interest might be issued in
payments from the Treasury; and so far injustice to the
several classes of Creditors might be lessened, while a
check would be given to the unjust career of the Banks.
Such a proceeding ought to be supported by the
Stockholders, the Army, the Navy, and all the
disinterested and well-informed part of the community.
The clamor against it would be from the Banks
and those having interested connections with them,
supported by the honest part of the Community
misled by their fallacies; and the probability is
but too great that the clamor would be overwhelming.
I do not take into view the expedient of requiring
a payment of the Impost in specie in part at least,
because it could not be extended to the other taxes,
and would in that respect, as well as otherwise, be a
measure too delicate for the Executive Authority;
nor could its effect be in time for any very early purpose.
I have been led by the tenor of your letters
to put on paper these observations.
The report you are preparing will doubtless
enlighten my view of the whole subject.10
Madison wrote again to Dallas on September 15:
I have duly received yours of the 11th.
The difficulty which gave rise to the letter
from the Treasurer is much to be regretted,
and the regret is increased by the cause of it.
The condition at which you glance would have
been justly imposed on Mr. Sheldon.
His nomination to the Senate was postponed
to what was considered as the latest date,
with reference in part at least to a protraction
of his duties in the Treasury; and was made known
under the impression that the intention was not unknown.
Your answer to Dr. Tucker, and instruction to Mr. Taylor
are certainly the best remedy that the case admits of.
I sincerely wish it may terminate the
adventitious trouble thrown on you.
The favorable report of the Comptroller on
the accounts of Mr. Duplessis with the pecuniary
situation of Mr. Chew hinted in the recommendation
of him by Mr. Robertson, will justify a pause on our part—
perhaps till the meeting of Congress.
The offer of Commodore Porter may lie over for
a comparison with other sites for an Observatory.
Your answer to him was the proper one.
I have not yet heard from Mr. Clay.
Should he decline the proposal made to him,
the delicate considerations attending a completion
of the Cabinet will not be at an end.
Whatever may be the final arrangement, I hope
you will be persuaded that I have never contemplated
your purpose of retiring from the Treasury Department
without doing justice to your motives, or without recollecting
the great private sacrifices involved your acceptance of
and continuance in that important public Trust; that I feel
with full force the expressions in your letter which are
personal to myself, and that I take a sincere interest
in what may relate to your future welfare & happiness.
If there be no objection within the knowledge
of the Treasury Department to a pardon of
Augustus Johnson, whose petition is enclosed,
be so good as to have one made out.
I took the liberty of requesting through Mr. Rush,
the attention of yourself, and the other members
of the Cabinet at Washington, to the difficulties
arising in the business superintended by Col. Lane,
who thought with me that a decision on them could be
better formed on the spot than by myself at this distance.
I have just received the enclosed letter
from the Librarian, which presents a new one.
Between the alternatives of a temporary building,
and a continuance of the Library where it is,
the option seems to be prescribed by a want
of Legislative provision for the former.
Will you be so good as to obtain from Col. Lane
a full view of the case, and to decide on it as may
be found best by yourself and the other gentlemen.
Mr. Watterston is informed of this reference of the subject.
We have had a profusion of rain
after an unexampled drought.
It will be of great benefit to farmers & planters in several
respects, but it is too late to have any material effect on
the Crops of Indian Corn the great esculent staple in this
Country, and its excess gives it a bad as well as a good
effect on Tobacco, the other important crop at stake.
This is the 10th day since I have been able to
communicate with Mr. Monroe, who is
separated from me by a branch of James River.
The interruption, however, has been prolonged
by the want of exertion in the mail Carrier.11
On September 14 General Andrew Jackson signed a treaty with the Cherokees
that promised peace and friendship with the United States forever.
The Cherokees were forced to cede all their land south of the Tennessee River and
west of a ridge and the Coosa River in exchange for $5,000 sixty days after the
treaty was ratified and $6,000 annually for ten years.
The treaty was ratified by the entire Cherokee nation at Turkey Town.
The Chickasaws also made a treaty with Jackson on September 20 in which
they ceded all their land on both sides of the Tennessee River and east of the
Tombigbee River to the Choctaw border for $12,000 a year for ten years
and $4,500 in gifts to influential chiefs who were secretly bribed.
Secretary of War William Crawford wrote to President Madison
three short letters on September 21-22, and Madison responded with
these four letters to Crawford on September 21, 22, and two on 23:
September 21:
I return the letter from Mr. Hall
enclosed in yours of the 19th.
The fullest confidence is due to the truth
of his statement and to the purity of his views.
But it seems impossible to yield the sanction he suggests,
to the wishes of his neighbors respectable as they may be.
The difference between a forbearance to enforce a law,
on considerations forbidding the attempt, and a notice
that enforced which would amount to an invitation to
violate it, necessarily restrains the Executive.
Are not the orders also to the Military Commanders, and to
the Marshals actually issued, applicable to intruders on the
public lands everywhere not specially excepted by law.
The information from Governor Clarke is very agreeable,
and is another proof of the practicability of obtaining by
just means everything from the Indians,
as far and as fast as the public interest requires.
It were to be wished, that this view of
the subject prevailed in every quarter.
If Onis has common prudence he will be silent
with respect to the fort on the Chattahoochee.
If Spain cannot or will not prevent attacks on us
from such a position, we must defend ourselves
against them by attacking the position.
She seemed to feel the justice of this reasoning,
when Jackson drove our enemies out of Pensacola.
September 22:
I return with my approbation the additional regulations
for Mr. Lee, enclosed in yours of the 20th inst.
If you have been correctly informed of the evidence
on the claim of Mr. Carroll, it is truly extraordinary.
Whether a House was a military deposit or not must
depend on its being or not being occupied as such under
the defined authority, and on the exhibition or the want
of adequate proof of the occupancy and the authority.
The proof stated to you was certainly the very worst,
not the best proof, the case admitted of.
Would it be amiss to add some regulation
as a guard in such cases?
They will be of a class of largest individual amount.
If sufferers at Washington should happen
to receive indemnities not experienced in
other scenes of military events, the loudness
of the complaints may readily be anticipated.
Perhaps on consulting with Mr. Dallas, you will be
able to digest some proper mode of obviating the
payment of awards in favor of debtors to the public.
September 23 #1:
I have received yours of the 20th inst.
The claim of W. Knaggs involves an important question;
what is the effect produced on the salaries of persons
made prisoners by an Enemy by and during their captivity?
Civil officers are of two classes.
1st. Those holding during good behavior
2ndly. Those holding during pleasure.
While the offices of the 1st class continue, and
the officers are not removed in the mode authorized;
the salaries are legally due, and cannot be withheld
by the executive authority: and it is understood that
neither the capture of the Officer, nor even the capture of
the Office by that of the place including it (unless peace
should transfer the right to the possessor) annuls the office.
The former suspends the functions of the Officer,
and the latter the office itself.
In the former case, temporary provision when necessary
can only be made by the legislative authority.
In the latter case the temporary provision
will depend on the Conqueror.
With respect to Officers holding during pleasure,
their claim to their salaries appears to be legal,
while their offices continue, and no removal or other
appointment involving a removal takes place.
The claim of W. Knaggs then depends on the question
whether his two appointments or either of them,
was of a nature to cease with the capture of Detroit
and of himself; and if not, whether, as no direct removal
appears to have taken place, any other appointments
were made, actually superseding his.
The latter is a simple question of fact
to be decided by the evidence in the Department.
The former question must be decided by the
character of the appointments in the eye of the Law.
Is that of a Deputy Indian agent, an office, which would
be vacated only, not extinguished, by the Death, removal
or resignation of the person exercising it; or a personal
agency ceasing with the non-exercise of it?
Is the appointment of Indian Interpreter, in like manner,
an office or an agency as so distinguished?
Not finding it convenient in my present situation to
examine our laws fully in relation to those appointments,
and aware that there is nicety often in discriminating
between an Office and an agency, I cannot do better than
request you to communicate these observations with the
interesting ones contained in your letter, to the other
members of the Cabinet at Washington; And transmit
to me the result of the consultation on the whole subject.
Should there be no difference of opinion,
and delay be inconvenient, it may be
acted on without hearing further from me.
General Hull presented some time ago a claim
for two Salaries during his captivity and pressed
strongly the reasoning which gave most color to it.
His Military claim, I believe, was viewed in a
different light from his salary as Governor, the latter
being precluded by an understanding with the
Government at the time when he was charged with
the expedition which had So unfortunate an issue.
September 23 #2:
I have just received from Mr. Monroe a very
extraordinary communication confidentially
made to him by Col. Jessup.
A copy of it is enclosed.
An invasion by a Spanish force at the present period
might be pronounced a mere chimera, if a less
degree of folly reigned at Madrid; unless indeed
the Councils of Spain should be supported by a power
whose councils may reasonably be more confided in.
It is probable however that Onis is intriguing
at New Orleans, and the extent to which he
may mislead an ignorant proud & vindictive
Government cannot be calculated.
It is incumbent on us therefore to have an eye to
our South West Frontier, proportioning our precautions
to our means and to a fair estimate of the danger.
As General Jackson is apprised of the apprehensions
of Col. Jessup, though without some of the grounds
of them mentioned to Mr. Monroe, we may
expect soon to hear from him on the subject.
Are there any reinforcements or defenses, which
can be added to those now within his employment?
Should Jessup execute his purpose, it will be the
boldest project ever assumed by no higher authority.
I communicate the intelligence he gives
to the Secretary of the Navy.
Be so good as to do the same
to your Colleagues at Washington.12
After his longest vacation by any President that began on June 5 at his
plantation Montpelier, Madison returned to Washington on October 9.
General Jackson sent John Coffee, and he with John Rhea and John McKee
negotiated a treaty with the Choctaws at the Choctaw Trading House on October 24
whereby that nation ceded their land east of the Tombigbee River for annual payments
of $16,000 for twenty years and $10,000 in goods at the signing.
These three treaties opened up millions of acres to the white Americans and
connected
Tennessee to the Gulf of Mexico, but many Indians were unhappy with the agreements.
Only one-third of the Congress returned the next year.
Of the 81 members who voted for the Compensation bill, only 15 were re-elected
while 31 of 67 who voted against it were returned to Congress.
The Democratic-Republicans gained 25 seats in the
House of Representatives while the Federalists lost 24.
This gave the Republicans an overwhelming 144 to 40 majority.
The lame-duck Congress repealed the Compensation Act on 23 January 1817,
and the next Congress voted to set their pay at $8 a day with $8 per 20 miles of travel.
Northern states had already voted,
and it was clear that Monroe would be the next president.
Rufus King was the Federalist candidate, and he won only Massachusetts
(which still included what is now Maine), Connecticut, and Delaware.
Monroe won in the other 16 states that gave him 183 electoral votes to 34 for King.
Treasury Secretary Dallas resigned in October, and
Crawford was moved from the War Department to the Treasury.
Matthew Carey had published The Olive Branch in November 1814,
calling for party harmony rather than rage and rancor.
In his eighth and last Annual Message to Congress on December 3
Madison still complained about limits on American trade with the British.
Indian tribes were peaceful.
The militia system needed reform,
and they had not yet established uniform weights and measures.
Madison proposed a national university in the District of Columbia and promoted
education in general, and he wanted an improved system of roads and canals.
When Indiana became a state, they agreed to extend
the National Cumberland Road to a length of 113 miles.
Madison signed a bill that provided $100,000 to extend
the Cumberland Road farther to the West.
Here is the complete text of his 8th Annual Message:
In reviewing the present state of our country,
our attention cannot be withheld from the effect
produced by peculiar seasons; which have very
generally impaired the annual gifts of the Earth
and threaten scarcity in particular districts.
Such, however, is the variety of soils of climates
and of products within our extensive limits,
that the aggregate resources for subsistence
are more than sufficient for the aggregate wants.
And as far as an economy of consumption,
more than usual may be necessary; our thankfulness
is due to Providence for what is far more than
a compensation in the remarkable health
which has distinguished the present year.
Amidst the advantages which have succeeded the
peace of Europe and that of the United States with
Great Britain in a general invigoration of industry
among us, and in the extension of our commerce,
the value of which is more and more disclosing
itself to commercial nations; it is to be regretted,
that a depression is experienced by particular branches
of our manufactures and by a portion of our navigation.
As the first proceeds in an essential degree
from an excess of imported merchandize, which
carries a check in its own tendency, the cause
in its present extent cannot be of very long duration.
The evil will not, however, be viewed by Congress
without a recollection, that manufacturing establishments,
if suffered to sink too low or languish too long, may not
revive after the causes shall have ceased; and that in the
vicissitudes of human affairs, situations may recur, in
which a dependence on foreign sources for indispensable
supplies may be among the most serious embarrassments.
The depressed state of our navigation is to be ascribed in
a material degree to its exclusion from the colonial ports
of the Nation, most extensively connected with us in
commerce and from the indirect operation of that exclusion.
Previous to the late convention at London between the
United States and Great Britain, the relative state of the
navigation laws of the two Countries, growing out of the
Treaty of one thousand seven hundred and ninety four,
had given to the British navigation a material advantage
over the American in the intercourse between the
American ports and British ports in Europe.
The Convention of London equalized the laws
of the two Countries relating to those ports;
leaving the intercourse between our ports and
the ports of the British colonies subject, as before,
to the respective regulations of the parties.
The British Government enforcing now regulations
which prohibit a trade between its Colonies and the
United States in American vessels, while they permit
a trade in British vessels, the American navigation
loses accordingly; and the loss is augmented by the
advantage which is given to the British competition
over the American in the navigation between our
ports and British ports in Europe by the circuitous
voyages enjoyed by the one and not enjoyed by the other.
The reasonableness of the rule of reciprocity, applied to
one branch of the commercial intercourse has been pressed
on our part, as equally applicable to both branches,
but it is ascertained that the British Cabinet declines all
negotiation on the Subject, with a disavowal however,
of any disposition to view in an unfriendly light;
whatever countervailing regulations the United States
may oppose to the regulations of which they complain.
The wisdom of the Legislature will decide on the course,
which under these Circumstances is prescribed by a
joint regard to the amicable relations between the two
Nations and to the just interests of the United States.
I have the satisfaction to state generally,
that we remain in amity with foreign powers.
An occurrence has indeed taken place in the
Gulf of Mexico, which, if Sanctioned by the Spanish
Government, may make an exception as to that power.
According to the report of our naval commander on that
Station, one of our public armed vessels was attacked
by an overpowering force under a Spanish commander;
and the American flag with the Officers and crew,
insulted in a manner calling for prompt reparation.
This has been demanded.
In the meantime a Frigate and Smaller vessel of war
have been ordered into that Gulf
for the protection of our commerce.
It would be improper to omit that the representative
of his Catholic Majesty in the United States, lost no
time in giving the strongest assurances, that no hostile
order could have emanated from his Government;
and that it will be as ready to do as to expect,
whatever the nature of the case, and the friendly
relations of the two Countries shall be found to require.
The posture of our affairs with Algiers
at the present moment is not known.
The Dey, drawing pretexts from circumstances for which
the United States were not answerable, addressed a
letter to this Government, declaring the Treaty last
concluded with him to have been annulled by our
violation of it; and presenting as the alternative,
War, or a renewal of the former Treaty, which
stipulated among other things an annual Tribute.
The answer with an explicit declaration that the United
States preferred War to Tribute, required his recognition
and observance of the Treaty last made, which abolishes
Tribute and the Slavery of our Captured Citizens.
The result of the answer has not been received.
Should he renew his warfare on our Commerce,
we rely on the protection it will find in our naval
force actually in the Mediterranean.
With the other Barbary States
our affairs have undergone no change.
The Indian Tribes within our limits
appear also disposed to remain at peace.
From Several of them purchases of lands
have been made, particularly favorable to
the wishes and security of our Frontier Settlements;
as well as to the general interests of the nation.
In some instances the Titles, though not supported
by due proof, and clashing those of one Tribe with
the claims of another, have been extinguished by
double purchases; the benevolent policy of the
United States preferring the augmented expense
to the hazard of doing injustice; or to the enforcement
of justice against a feeble and untutored people
by means involving or threatening an effusion of blood.
I am happy to add, that the tranquility which has been
restored among the Tribes themselves, as well as between
them and our own population, will favor the resumption of
the work of civilization, which had made an encouraging
progress among some Tribes; and that the facility is
increasing for extending that divided and individual
ownership, which exists now in moveable property only to
the Soil itself, and of thus establishing in the culture and
improvement of it the true foundation for a transit from the
habits of the Savage to the arts and comforts of social life.
As a subject of the highest importance to the National
welfare, I must again earnestly recommend to the
consideration of Congress a reorganization of the Militia
on a plan which will form it into classes according to the
periods of life more and less adapted to military services.
An efficient Militia is authorized and
contemplated by the Constitution and
required by the Spirit and Safety of free government.
The present organization of our Militia is universally
regarded, as less efficient than it ought to be made,
and no organization can be better calculated to give
to it its due force, than a classification which will
assign the foremost place in the defense of the Country
to that portion of its citizens, whose activity and
animation best enable them to rally to its Standard.
Besides the consideration, that a time of peace is the time
when the change can be made with most convenience and
equity; it will now be aided by the experience of a recent
war in which the militia bore so interesting a part.
Congress will call to mind, that no adequate provision has
yet been made for the uniformity of Weights and measures,
also contemplated by the Constitution.
The great utility of a Standard fixed in its nature
and founded on the easy rule of decimal
proportions is sufficiently obvious.
It led the Government at an early stage to preparatory
steps for introducing it; and a completion of the work
will be a just title to the public gratitude.
The importance which I have attached to the
establishment of a university within this District on
a scale and for objects worthy of the American nation,
induces me to renew my recommendation of it
to the favorable consideration of Congress.
And I particularly invite again their attention to the
expediency of exercising their existing powers,
and where necessary of resorting to the prescribed
mode of enlarging them, in order to effectuate a
comprehensive system of roads and Canals;
such as will have the effect of drawing more closely
together every part of our Country by promoting
intercourse and improvements; and by increasing the Share
of every part in the common Stock of National prosperity.
Occurrences having taken place which show that the
Statutory provisions for the dispensation of criminal justice,
are deficient in relation both to places and to persons,
under the exclusive cognizance of the national authority;
an amendment of the law embracing such cases
will merit the earliest attention of the legislature.
It will be a Seasonable occasion also for enquiring
how far legislative interposition may be further requisite
in providing penalties for offenses designated in the
Constitution or in the statutes, and to which either no
penalties are annexed, or none with sufficient certainty.
And I submit to the wisdom of Congress, whether
a more enlarged revisal of the criminal code be not
expedient for the purpose of mitigating in certain
cases penalties which were adopted into it;
antecedent to experiments and examples which
justify and recommend a more lenient policy.
The United States having been the first to abolish,
within the extent of their authority, the transportation
of the natives of Africa into slavery by prohibiting the
introduction of slaves and by punishing their Citizens
participating in the traffic, cannot but be gratified at the
progress made by concurrent efforts of other nations
towards a general suppression of so great an evil.
They must feel at the same time the greater Solicitude
to give the fullest efficacy to their own regulations.
With that view the interposition of Congress appears
to be required by the violations and evasions which,
it is suggested are chargeable on unworthy citizens,
who mingle in the slave trade under foreign flags and with
foreign ports; and by collusive importations of slaves into
the United States through adjoining ports and territories.
I present the subject to Congress with a full assurance
of their disposition to apply all the remedy which
can be afforded by an amendment of the law.
The regulations which were intended to guard
against abuses of a kindred character in the trade
between the Several States ought also to be
rendered more effectual for their humane object.
To these recommendations I add for the consideration
of Congress the expediency of a remodification of
the judiciary establishment; and of an additional
Department in the executive branch of the Government.
The first is called for by the accruing business,
which necessarily swells the duties of the Federal Courts;
and by the great and widening space within which
justice is to be dispensed by them.
The time Seems to have arrived, which claims for
members of the Supreme court a relief from itinerary
fatigues, incompatible as well with the age which
a portion of them will always have attained, as with
the researches and preparations which are due to their
Stations and to the juridical reputation of their country.
And considerations equally cogent require a more
convenient organization of the Subordinate Tribunals,
which may be accomplished without an objectionable
increase of the number or expense of the Judges.
The extent and variety of Executive business also
accumulating with the progress of our country
and its growing population, call for an additional
Department to be charged with duties now
overburdening other Departments, and with such
as have not been annexed to any Department.
The course of experience recommends as another
improvement in the Executive establishment, that the
provision for the station of Attorney General, whose
residence at the Seat of Government, official connections
with it, and management of the public business before the
judiciary, preclude an extensive participation in professional
emoluments, be made more adequate to his services and
his relinquishments; and that with a view to his reasonable
accommodation and to a proper depositary of his official
opinions and proceedings, there be included in the
provision the usual appurtenances to a public office.
In directing the legislative attention to the state of the
finances, it is a subject of great gratification to find,
that even within the short period which has elapsed
since the return of peace, the revenue has far
exceeded all the current demands upon the Treasury;
and that under any probable diminution of its future
annual products, which the vicissitudes of commerce
may occasion, it will afford an ample fund, for the
effectual and early extinguishment of the public debt.
It has been estimated that during the year One thousand
eight hundred and sixteen, the actual receipts of revenue at
the Treasury, including the balance at the commencement
of the year and excluding the proceeds of loans and
Treasury notes, will amount to about the sum of Forty
seven millions of Dollars; that during the same year,
the actual payments at the Treasury including the
payment of the arrearages of the War Department,
as well as the payment of a considerable excess, beyond
the annual appropriations, will amount to about the sum
of Thirty eight millions of Dollars; and that consequently,
at the close of the year, there will be a surplus in the
Treasury of about the sum of nine millions of Dollars.
The operations of the Treasury continue to be obstructed
by difficulties arising from the condition of the National
currency; but they have nevertheless been effectual
to a beneficial extent in the reduction of the public debt
and the establishment of the public credit.
The floating debt of treasury notes and temporary loans
will soon be entirely discharged.
The aggregate of the funded debt, composed of debts
incurred during the wars one thousand seven hundred
and Seventy Six, and one thousand eight hundred and
twelve, has been estimated with reference to the
first of January next at a Sum not exceeding
One hundred and ten millions of Dollars.
The ordinary annual expenses of the Government
for the maintenance of all its institutions, civil,
military, and naval, have been estimated at
a Sum less than twenty millions of Dollars.
And the permanent revenue, to be derived from all the
existing sources, has been estimated at a sum of about
twenty five millions of Dollars.
Upon this general view of the subject,
it is obvious that there is only wanting to
the fiscal prosperity of the Government
the restoration of a uniform medium of Exchange.
The resources and the faith of the nation,
displayed in the system which Congress has established,
ensure respect and confidence both at home and abroad.
The local accumulations of the revenue have already
enabled the Treasury to meet the public engagements
in the local currency of most of the States;
and it is expected that the same cause will
produce the same effect throughout the union.
But for the interests of the community at large,
as well as for the purposes of the Treasury,
it is essential that the nation should possess a currency
of equal value, credit, and use, wherever it may circulate.
The Constitution has entrusted Congress,
exclusively with the power of creating and regulating
a currency of that description: and the measures
which were taken during the last Session in execution
of the power, give every promise of Success.
The Bank of the United States has been organized
under auspices the most favorable, and cannot fail
to be an important auxiliary to those measures.
For a more enlarged view of the public finances with a view
of the measures pursued by the Treasury Department,
previous to the resignation of the late Secretary,
I transmit an extract from the last report of that officer.
Congress will perceive in it ample proofs of the solid
foundation on which the financial prosperity of the nation
rests, and will do justice to the distinguished ability
and successful exertions with which the duties of the
Department were executed during a period remarkable
for its difficulties and its peculiar perplexities.
The period of my retiring from the public service
being at little distance, I shall find no occasion
more proper than the present for expressing to my
fellow Citizens my deep sense of the continued confidence
and kind support which I have received from them.
My grateful recollection of these distinguished marks
of their favorable regard can never cease; and with the
consciousness that if I have not served my Country with
greater ability, I have served it with Sincere devotion,
will accompany me as a source of unfailing gratification.
Happily I shall carry with me from the
public Theatre other sources, which those
who love their Country most, will best appreciate.
I shall behold it blessed with tranquility and prosperity
at home and with peace and respect abroad.
I can indulge the proud reflection, that the American people
have reached in safety and success their fortieth year
as an independent nation; that for nearly an entire
generation they have had experience of their present
Constitution, the offspring of their undisturbed deliberations
and of their free choice; that they have found it to bear
the trials of adverse as well as prosperous circumstances;
to contain in its combination of the federate and elective
principles a reconcilement of public strength with individual
liberty, of national power for the defense of national rights,
with a security against wars of injustice, of ambition or of
vain glory in the fundamental provision which subjects
all questions of war to the will of the nation itself,
which is to pay its costs and feel its calamities.
Nor is it less a peculiar felicity of this constitution,
So dear to us all that it is found to be capable without
losing its vital energies of expanding itself over a
spacious territory with the increase and expansion
of the community for whose benefit it was established.
And may I not be allowed to add to this gratifying Spectacle,
that I shall read in the character of the American people
in their devotion to true liberty and to the Constitution
which is its palladium sure presages, that the destined
career of my country will exhibit a Government,
pursuing the public good as its sole object and regulating
its means by the great principles consecrated in its charter,
& by those moral principles to which they are so well allied:
A Government which watches over the purity of elections,
the freedom of speech and of the press, the trial by Jury,
and the equal interdict against encroachments and
compacts, between religion and the State; which maintains
inviolably the maxims of public faith, the Security of
persons and property, and encourages in every
authorized mode, that general diffusion of knowledge
which guarantees to public liberty its permanency and to
those who possess the blessing the true enjoyment of it:
A Government, which avoids intrusions on the internal
repose of other Nations and repels them from its own;
which does justice to all nations with a readiness equal
to the firmness with which it requires justice from them;
and which while it refines its domestic code from
every ingredient not congenial with the precepts of
an enlightened age, and the sentiments of a virtuous
people seeks by appeals to reason and by its liberal
examples to infuse into the law which governs the
civilized world a Spirit which may diminish the frequency
or circumscribe the calamities of war, and meliorate
the social and beneficent relations of peace:
A Government, in a word, whose conduct within and
without may bespeak the most noble of all ambitions,
that of promoting peace on Earth and good will to man.
These contemplations, sweetening the remnant of
my days will animate my prayers for the happiness
of my beloved Country and a perpetuity of the
Institutions under which it is enjoyed.13
Madison’s decimal system of weights and measures would have been much easier
to implement then and has yet to be adopted by the United States.
He also urged other innovations that were eventually instituted
that included a revised criminal code (1825), a Department of the Interior (1849),
federal aid to education (1862), and appellate circuit courts (1911).
Noah Worcester in December 1814 had published
The Solemn Review of the Custom of War, showing that
war is the effect of popular delusion, and Proposing a Remedy,
and it had five editions in the next two years.
In 1815 David Low Dodge published
War Inconsistent with the Religion of Jesus Christ,
and in August he and thirty others in New York City
formed the first peace society in the world.
The Massachusetts Peace Society began in December and included the governor,
two judges, and the president and several professors from Harvard.
Worcester began writing its circular letters in March 1816,
and the group had 200 members by the end of the year.
William Ellery Channing gave his first address on war to the convention
of Congregational Ministers of Massachusetts at Boston in May 1816,
describing the miseries and crimes of war, their causes, and some possible remedies.
On 26 December 1816 President Madison sent this special message
to both houses of the United States Congress:
It is found that the existing laws have not the efficacy
necessary to prevent violations of the obligations of the
United States, as a nation at peace towards belligerent
parties, and other unlawful acts on the high Seas, by armed
vessels equipped within the waters of the United States.
With a view to maintain more effectually the respect due
to the laws, to the character, and to the neutral and pacific
relations of the United States, I recommend to the
consideration of Congress, the expediency of such further
legislative provisions as may be requisite for detaining
vessels actually equipped, or in a course of equipment with
a warlike force within the jurisdiction of the United States;
or, as the case may be, for obtaining from the owners or
commanders of such vessels, adequate securities, against
the abuse of their armaments with the exceptions in Such
provisions, proper for the cases of merchant vessels
furnished with the defensive armaments usual on distant &
dangerous expeditions; and of a private commerce in
Military stores permitted by our laws, and which the laws
of Nations does not require the United States to prohibit.14
On 2 January 1817 Peter Wendover of New York proposed a bill to keep
the number of stripes in the flag at thirteen but have one star for each state
as they increased, and it was eventually approved on 25 March 1818.
John Adams on 2 February 1817 in a letter to Thomas Jefferson concluded
by stating that in his opinion the Madison “Administration has acquired more glory
and established more Union, than all his three Predecessors
Washington, Adams, and Jefferson put together.”15
Madison on February 15 wrote this letter to Thomas Jefferson:
I received yesterday yours covering the letter
of Mr. Spafford, which was forwarded to him
as you suggested: His object in communicating
it I collect only from its contents.
He probably exhibited it as a proof of the spirit
and views of the Eastern States during the late war.
As with you the weather here has of late been
remarkable both for the degree & continuance
of Cold, and the winter throughout for its dryness.
The Earth has however had the advantage of
a cover of snow during the period most needing it.
The Wheat fields still have a slight protection from it.
This morning is the coldest we have yet had.
The Thermometer on the North side of the House
under an open shed was at 8 O Clock 4° above 0.
At this moment half after 9 O Clock it stands at 6° ½.
Yesterday morning about the same hour it was at 8°
and at 3 O Clock between 10° & 11°.
Our information from abroad has been very scanty
for a long time, and we are without any of late date.
From St. Petersburg nothing has been received showing
the effect of Mr. Coles’ communications on the Emperor.
Mr. Pinkney left Naples re infecta.
He had to contend with pride, poverty and want of principle.
Mr. Gallatin’s demands of indemnity are not
received with the same insensibility, but will
have a very diminutive success, if any at all.
The Government of Spain with its habitual mean cunning,
after drawing the negotiations to Madrid, has now sent
them back to Onis with powers without instructions.
They foolishly forget that with respect to the territorial
questions at least, we are in possession of that portion
of our claims, which is immediately wanted, and that
delay is our Ally and even Guarantee for everything.
The British Cabinet seems as well-disposed as is
consistent with its jealousies, and the prejudices
it has worked up in the nation against us.
We are anxious to learn the result of
our answer to the Dey of Algiers.
It is nearly 3 months since a line was received
from Chauncy or Shaler; nor has even a rumor
reached us since their return to Algiers.
All the latest accounts from Europe turn principally on
the failure of the harvests and the prospects of scarcity.
If they are not greatly exaggerated, the distress must be
severe in many districts and considerable everywhere.
When the failure in this Country comes to be known,
which was not the case at the latest dates,
the prospect will doubtless be more gloomy.
You will see that Congress have spent their time chiefly
on the Compensation law, which has finally taken the
most exceptionable of all turns; and on the Claims-law
as it is called relating to horses & houses destroyed
by the Enemy, which is still undecided in the Senate.
They shrink from a struggle for reciprocity in the West
Indies trade; but the House of Representatives have sent to
the Senate a navigation Act, reciprocating the great principle
of the British Act, which if passed by the Senate, will be felt
deeply in Great Britain in its example, if not in its operation.
Another Bill has gone to the Senate which I have not seen;
and of a very extraordinary character,
if it has been rightly stated to me.
The object of it is to compass by law only
an authority over roads & Canals.
It is said the Senate are not likely to concur in
the project, whether from an objection to the
principle or the expediency of it, is uncertain.
I shall hasten my departure from this place
as much as possible; but I fear I shall be detained
longer after the 4th of March than I wish.
The severe weather unites with the winding up
of my public business in retarding the preparations
during the Session of Congress, and they will from
their multiplicity be a little tedious after we can
devote ourselves exclusively thereto.16
Madison signed a bill in February 1817 retaliating against British
commercial restrictions, something he had been advocating since 1790.
The new Bank of the United States was functioning,
and Henry Clay had persuaded the Congress to leave it with a $1.5 million bonus
to use for improvements in interstate commerce and national defense.
Madison considered this a violation of the Constitution and vetoed the bonus bill
on his last full day in office on March 3, but the Congress over-rode his veto.
He wrote this letter to House of Representatives on March 3:
Having considered the bill this day presented to me
entitled “An Act to set apart and pledge certain funds for
internal improvements” and which sets apart and pledges
funds “for constructing roads and canals, and improving the
navigation of water courses in order to facilitate, promote
and give Security to internal commerce among the several
States, and to render more easy and less expensive the
means & provisions for the common defense;”
I am constrained, by the insuperable difficulty I feel in
reconciling the bill with the Constitution of the United States,
to return it with that objection to the House of
Representatives in which it originated.
The legislative powers vested in Congress are
specified and enumerated in the 8th Section of the
1st article of the Constitution; and it does not appear
that the powers proposed to be exercised by this bill
is among the enumerated powers; or that it falls by
any just interpretation within the power to make
laws necessary and proper for carrying into
execution those or other powers vested by the
Constitution in the government of the United States.
“The power to regulate commerce among the several
States,” cannot include a power to construct roads and
canals, and to improve the navigation of water courses,
in order to facilitate, promote, & secure such a
commerce without a latitude of construction departing
from the ordinary import of terms, strengthened
by the known inconveniencies which doubtless led
to the grant of this remedial power to congress.
To refer the power in question to the clause
“to provide for the common defense & general welfare,”
would be contrary to the established and consistent
rules of interpretation; as rendering the special
and careful enumeration of powers,
which follow the clause nugatory & improper.
Such a view of the Constitution would have the effect
of giving to Congress a general power of legislation
instead of the defined and limited one hitherto
understood to belong to them, the terms
“common defense and general welfare” embracing every
object and act within the purview of a legislative trust.
It would have the effect of subjecting both the Constitution
and laws of the Several States in all cases not specifically
exempted, to be superseded by laws of Congress;
it being expressly declared “that the Constitution of the
United States and laws made in pursuance thereof shall
be the supreme law of the land, and the judges of every
State shall be bound thereby, anything in the Constitution
or laws of any State to the contrary notwithstanding.”
Such a view of the Constitution, finally, would have the
effect of excluding the judicial authority of the United States
from its participation in guarding the boundary between
the legislative powers of the general & State governments;
inasmuch as questions relating to the general welfare,
being questions of expediency & policy, are
unsusceptible of judicial cognizance & decision.
A restriction of the power “to provide for the
common defense & general welfare” to cases
which are to be provided for by the expenditure
of money, would still leave within the legislative
power of Congress, all the great and most important
measures of government; money being the ordinary
and necessary means of carrying them into execution.
If a general power to construct roads & canals & to
improve the navigation and water courses with the
train of powers incident thereto be not possessed by
Congress, the assent of the states in the mode
provided in the bill cannot confer the power.
The only cases in which the consent and session of
particular states can extend the power of Congress,
are those specified and provided for in the Constitution.
I am not unaware of the great importance of
roads and canals, and the improved navigation
of water courses; and that a power in the national
legislature to provide for them might be exercised
with signal advantage to the general prosperity.
But seeing that such a power is not expressly given
by the Constitution; and believing that it cannot be
deduced from any part of it without an inadmissible
latitude of construction, and a reliance on insufficient
precedents; believing also that the permanent success of
the Constitution depends on a definite partition of powers
between the general and state government and that no
adequate land marks would be left by the constructive
extension of the powers of Congress as proposed in the bill,
I have no option but to withhold my signature from it;
and to cherish the hope that its beneficial objects may be
obtained by a resort for the necessary powers to the same
wisdom and virtue in the nation which established the
Constitution in its actual form, and providently marked
out in the instrument itself a safe and practicable mode
of improving it as experience might suggest.17
Each president from Washington to Madison took his papers home with him,
though each department’s papers remained with the government.
James Madison had been serving the people in the government since 1776,
and after 41 years he retired to his plantation, continuing the tradition
started by Washington of serving as President for only two terms.
Notes
1. To James Madison from the Illinois Territorial Legislature, 11 January 1816 (Online).
2. From James Madison to Congress, 18 January 1816 (Online).
3. To James Madison from the Dey of Algiers, 24 April 1816 (Online).
4. A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents 1789-1908,
Volume I by James D. Richardson, p. 573.
5. From James Madison to Jeremy Bentham, 8 May 1816 (Online).
6. From James Madison to John Quincy Adams, 10 May 1816 (Online).
7. Letters and other Writings of James Madison, Volume III 1816—1828, p. 2-5.
8. From James Madison to James Monroe, 11 July 1816 (Online).
9. Letters and other Writings of James Madison, Volume III 1816—1828, p. 15-17.
10. Ibid., p. 17-19.
11. Ibid., p. 19-21.
12. Ibid., p. 21-23.
13. A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents 1789-1908,
Volume I by James D. Richardson, p. 573-580.
14. Ibid., p. 582.
15. From John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 2 February 1817 (Online).
16. Letters and other Writings of James Madison, Volume III 1816—1828, p. 34-35.
17. Writings by James Madison, p. 718-720.