From James Madison to James Monroe, 1 September 1812
To James Monroe
Occoquon Mills. Sepr. 1. 1812
Dear Sir
The letter from Acheson, should be known in some of its contents. I inclose it to you for reasons on the face of it.1 I inclose also the letter from Gilbert Taylor,2 as a memento to the letter you are to write to the Govr. of Tennessee, on the subject of the illegal enterprize on foot in that State.3 We are so far well on our way. Yrs.
J. Madison
RC (DLC: Monroe Papers).
1. JM probably enclosed the 25 Aug. 1812 letter he had received from Thomas Acheson on the fall of Detroit.
2. Letter not found. Gilbert Dade Taylor (b. 1791), a grandson of Erasmus Taylor and the son of John and Anne Gilbert Taylor of Orange County, Virginia, was a kinsman of JM. He studied medicine in Philadelphia and moved in 1811 to Giles County, Tennessee. He later served as a surgeon with Andrew Jackson’s troops in the Creek War, then in 1819 gave up the practice of medicine to become a Methodist minister (Herbert Weaver et al., eds., Correspondence of James K. Polk [9 vols. to date; Nashville, 1969–], 1:584–85; 34 [1926]: 270).
3. On 3 Sept. 1812 Monroe wrote to Gov. Willie Blount to inform him that intelligence had been received suggesting that Tennessee citizens were “collecting in the county of Giles with intention to make an incursion into some of the provinces of Spain to join the revolutionary party in a contest against the existing government” in Mexico. Monroe pointed out that the U.S. was at peace with Spain and that “such a movement is prohibited by law under severe penalties.” He conveyed JM’s wish that Blount investigate this movement and “give it all discountenance” in his power (DNA: RG 59, DL). On 3 Oct. 1812 Blount informed Monroe that his inquiries had produced no evidence of any such activities in Tennessee (DNA: RG 59, ML).