To James Madison from James Monroe, 18 October 1813
From James Monroe
Washington Octr 18. 1813
Dear Sir
I have yours by yesterday’s mail. You will have heard of the success agnst Proctor. I hope we shall soon get something from the st Lawrence that will correspond with it.
I enclose you a project relative to the southern business, which has become much involved by Genl. Williams’s visit thither. I do not understand, his statment, of the motive, in connection with that given you by Genl. Armstrong.1 I doubt whether they understand each other. On the principle, and reasons suggested in my last I have extended Pinckney’s command to the 7th. district, & written a letter to him, & one to Govr Mitchill, to that effect. If you approve, you will seal & forward them. If not return them, & I will forward others on the idea of Mitchills retaining the command.2
You will receive also a letter to Genl. Williams, which is intended to give him a just view of what he has to expect in that quarter.3 The inclosed letter from him was recd. since mine was written. Very respectfully & sincerely yours
Jas Monroe
RC (DLC: Rives Collection, Madison Papers). For enclosure, see n. 1.
1. In his letter to Monroe of 12 Oct. 1813 (NN: Monroe Papers), which Monroe evidently enclosed here, David R. Williams stated that the secretary of state would “learn best” from John Armstrong himself why he had sent Williams south, and added that Williams’s own motive for the move was “a solicitude to be employed in active opperations against the enemy and that only.” For Armstrong’s explanation of Williams’s departure from the Niagara peninsula, see his letter to JM of 5 Sept. 1813.
2. JM apparently did not approve Monroe’s proposed letters to David B. Mitchell, 16 Oct. 1813, and Thomas Pinckney, 18 Oct. 1813, copies of which survive in the Daniel Parker Papers (PHi). On 28 Oct. 1813, Monroe wrote Mitchell conveying JM’s wish that he provide leadership for the campaign to the extent that his duties as governor of Georgia allowed (MiU-C).
3. Monroe probably referred to his letter to Williams of 16 Oct. 1813 (NN: Monroe Papers), which he later marked “not sent.” The letter stated that Pinckney had been given command of the Seventh Military District and would decide whether or not Williams was to be employed in the campaign against the hostile Creeks. Monroe added that at present he could promise Williams no “agency of a political nature, relating to the Floridas.”