1From John Adams to William E. Richmond, 14 December 1819 (Adams Papers)
I am Old enough to remember the War of 1745, and its end—the War of 1755—and its close—the War of 1775, and its termination—the War of 1812, and its Pacification. every one of these Wars has been followed by a general distress Embarrassments on Commerce distruction of Manufactures, fall of the Price of Produce and of Lands similar to these we feel at the present...
2From John Jay to Peter Augustus Jay, 25 January 1819 (Jay Papers)
The election of Clintonian Obadiah German (1766–1842) to speaker of the state assembly. German was involved in the western canal project, and had opposed the War of 1812. It took five ballots for the Assembly to settle on German on 6 Jan. 1819. William Thompson (Anti-Clintonian), William A. Duer, Michael Ulshoeffer, and Federalist J. R. Van Rensselaer also ran. See
3To John Jay from Peter Augustus Jay, 22 November 1821 (Jay Papers)
James Miller (1776–1851), lawyer, brevet brigadier general in the War of 1812, governor of Arkansas Territory, and territory supervisor of Indian affairs (1819–24).
4From John Jay to the Committee of the Corporation of the City of New York (Jacob B. Taylor, John Yates Cebra, Richard … (Jay Papers)
4: 476–77. Jacob Morton (1756–1837), led the New York Militia during the War of 1812 and was clerk of the New York City Council from 1809 to 1836.
5To James Madison from James H. Blake, 4 March 1817 (Madison Papers)
...(ca. 1792–1820), son of Charles Carroll of Belle Vue in Maryland, served as Henry Clay’s secretary during the Anglo-American negotiations at Ghent and carried to Washington the peace treaty that ended the War of 1812. In 1818 President James Monroe appointed Charles Carroll to be land register for Howard County, Missouri Territory, and it was there that Henry Carroll was murdered in...
6To James Madison from Thomas L. McKenney, 4 March 1817 (Madison Papers)
Thomas Loraine McKenney (1785–1859) of Maryland, a veteran of the War of 1812, was appointed by JM superintendent of the Indian trade in 1816 and served until 1822. McKenney edited a newspaper, the
7To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 10 March 1817 (Madison Papers)
...school societies. He was an early supporter of the University of Virginia and served on its board of visitors from 1819 to 1852. David Watson, a 1797 graduate of the College of William and Mary and veteran of the War of 1812, was a lawyer who represented Louisa County in the Virginia General Assembly (Malcolm H. Harris,
8To James Madison from William Bainbridge, 27 March 1817 (Madison Papers)
William Bainbridge (1774–1833) was a U.S. naval officer who saw service in the Quasi-War, the war against the Barbary states, and the War of 1812.
9From James Madison to William Eustis, [ca. 31] March 1817 (Madison Papers)
...he practiced law and launched a political career in which his anti-tariff and nullification views eventually propelled him to the U.S. Senate, 1833–42. His uncle, James Patton Preston (1774–1843), a veteran of the War of 1812 who was severely wounded at the Battle of Chrysler’s Farm, served as governor of Virginia from 1816 to 1819 (
10From James Madison to Charles Carroll, 4 April 1817 (Madison Papers)
...American Revolution, signing the Declaration of Independence and serving in the Continental Congress, 1776–78. A lifelong Federalist, Carroll supported the U.S. Constitution, represented Maryland in the U.S. Senate, 1789–92, and opposed the War of 1812.
11To James Madison from Charles Valérie de Perron, 22 June 1817 (Madison Papers)
Winfield Scott (1786–1866) entered the U.S. Army in 1808 as a captain and fought with such distinction in the War of 1812 that he was promoted to major general. In 1815 he went to Europe to study military methods, returning to New York City in 1816. His subsequent career included command of the U.S. Army, the successful conduct......with France, the war with Tripoli, and the War of 1812. In the...
12To James Madison from Richard Bland Lee, 2 July 1817 (Madison Papers)
...Richard Bland Lee (1761–1827) was a Federalist congressman from Virginia, 1789–95. In 1815 he moved from his plantation, Sully, to Washington and in 1816, JM appointed him commissioner of claims for property destroyed in the War of 1812. He became judge of the Orphans’ Court in the District of Columbia in 1819 and held that post until his death.
13To James Madison from James Monroe, 27 July 1817 (Madison Papers)
...several thousand acres near Watertown in 1799. In 1809 he began what was to become a distinguished military career when he was appointed to command a militia regiment. At the outbreak of the War of 1812, he was a brigadier general of the New York militia, in which capacity he organized the successful defense of Sackets Harbor in 1813. Commissioned brigadier general in the U.S. Army in...
14From James Madison to George Joy, 15 August 1817 (Madison Papers)
For Joy’s letters to JM and his other political writings during the War of 1812, see
15From James Madison to John Coffee, 28 August 1817 (Madison Papers)
...John Coffee (1772–1833) was born in North Carolina and moved to Tennessee, where he conducted a series of small businesses and became a friend of Andrew Jackson. He served as commander of cavalry under Jackson in the War of 1812 and afterwards moved to Alabama (Sam B. Smith et al., eds.,
16To James Madison from Armistead T. Mason, 15 September 1817 (Madison Papers)
...Mason (1787–1819), son of Virginia senator Stevens Thomson Mason and grandson of George Mason, was a graduate of the College of William and Mary who rose to become a brigadier general in the Virginia militia during the War of 1812. He served in the U.S. Senate, 1816–17, and died in a duel with his brother-in-law, John Mason McCarty, at Bladensburg, Maryland.
17To James Madison from James Monroe, 24 November 1817 (Madison Papers)
John Caldwell Calhoun (1782–1850) was a South Carolina congressman, 1811–17, who strongly supported JM’s administration during the War of 1812. His terms of service included secretary of war, 1817–25, vice president, 1825–32, the U.S. Senate, 1832–43, secretary of state, 1844–45, and again in the U.S. Senate, 1845 until...
18To James Madison from Charles J. Ingersoll, 25 December 1817 (Madison Papers)
...histories, and political pamphlets. Active in state and local politics, he served in the U.S. House of Representatives, 1813–15 and 1841–49, and as U.S. district attorney, 1815–29. His history of the War of 1812 was first announced as a three-volume work,
19To James Madison from Samuel Dana, 6 February 1818 (Madison Papers)
For the Massachusetts Society for Promoting Agriculture, established in 1792, and its revitalization after the War of 1812, see Tamara Plakins Thornton,
20To James Madison from John S. Barbour, 18 April 1818 (Madison Papers)
...for eight terms between 1813 and 1834, and in the U.S. House of Representatives, 1823–33. He was a cousin of James and Philip Pendleton Barbour and served as an aide to Gen. William Madison in the War of 1812. Barbour’s eulogy of JM, delivered at Culpeper Court House on 18 July 1836, was published in the
21To James Madison from James Monroe, 5 October 1818 (Madison Papers)
...speaker. He was elected governor of Pennsylvania in 1808 and served two subsequent terms, leaving office in 1817, when he was elected to the state senate. A Jeffersonian Republican, he was a strong supporter of JM and the War of 1812.
22To James Madison from John Quincy Adams, 22 October 1818 (Madison Papers)
Joseph Bloomfield (1753–1823), a veteran of the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812, was governor of New Jersey, 1801–2 and 1803–1812, until JM appointed him brigadier general in the U.S. Army in 1812. He subsequently represented a New Jersey district in Congress, 1817–21 (
23To James Madison from James Taylor, 7 November 1818 (Madison Papers)
...Stewart Todd (1791–1871), the son of Thomas Todd and the son-in-law of former Kentucky governor Isaac Shelby, was a graduate of the College of William and Mary, a lawyer, and a veteran of the War of 1812. He served as U.S. minister first to Colombia, 1820–24, and later to Russia, 1841–46 (
24To James Madison from Richard Rush, 13 December 1818 (Madison Papers)
...the United States–Canadian border from Lake of the Woods to the Rocky Mountains. A temporary agreement was reached over mutual settlement of the Pacific Northwest. Finally, the question of compensation for slaves taken by the British during the War of 1812 was placed in arbitration. For a full description of the negotiation, see Powell,
25To James Madison from James Riley, 19 December 1818 (Madison Papers)
James Riley (1777–1840) was a Connecticut-born sea captain and veteran of the War of 1812 whose brig
26To James Madison from James Monroe, 21 December 1818 (Madison Papers)
William King (1768–1852), half-brother of Rufus King, was a merchant, shipbuilder, and Massachusetts state politician from Bath (District of Maine). He served in the War of 1812 as a militia major general, and after July 1813 as a colonel in the U.S. Army. King was an active supporter of Maine’s secession from Massachusetts and served as the new state’s first governor, 1820...
27To James Madison from William Eustis, 27 December 1818 (Madison Papers)
William Gray (1750–1825), a prosperous merchant of Salem, and later Boston, and a state politician, vigorously supported JM’s administration and the War of 1812. He was elected lieutenant governor of Massachusetts as a Republican in 1810 and 1811. In 1816 he was unanimously elected president of the Boston branch of the Second Bank of the United States, and he served in that...
28To James Madison from Tench Coxe, 2 February 1819 (Madison Papers)
in those workings of things, which produced, and gave complexion to the conduct of our government, in the war of 1812. Mr. Jefferson & you will perceive, that I have, tho I trust innocently, insinuated much that concerns those things, of which you and he were “
29To James Madison from William Shaler, 28 March 1819 (Madison Papers)
William Montgomery Crane (1784–1846) entered the U.S. Navy as a midshipman in 1799 and served in the Quasi-War, the War of 1812, and in the Mediterranean in the postwar period, rising successively through the ranks. He was commodore of the Mediterranean squadron, 1827–29.
30From James Madison to Richard Rush, 20 May 1819 (Madison Papers)
...and emigrated to the United States in 1783. He made a fortune in the fur trade and invested his profits in New York City real estate. He was instrumental in floating the 1814 loan in support of the War of 1812, and after JM’s death, Astor loaned money to Dolley Payne Madison, holding a mortgage on her Washington home. At his death he was deemed the richest man in America (Mattern and...
31To James Madison from Joseph C. Cabell, 10 July 1819 (Madison Papers)
John Chew, a former Virginia military accountant, in November 1815 was appointed commissioner for the settlement of accounts between the United States and the state of Virginia arising from the War of 1812 (“Journal of the House of Delegates of the Commonwealth of Virginia … [1816],”
32To James Madison from Edward Coles, 20 July 1819 (Madison Papers)
Moses Green (d. 1856), a planter who lived at Liberty Hall in Culpeper County, Virginia, was adjutant general of the Virginia militia during the War of 1812. He served in the Virginia House of Delegates, 1799–1802, and 1809–11 (Jones,
33From James Madison to David Porter, 20 July 1819 (Madison Papers)
in the War of 1812. JM appointed him a commissioner of the Navy Board in 1815, where he served until late 1822. He resided at Meridian Hill in Washington, D.C. He was commander of the West Indian squadron, 1823–25,
34To James Madison from Richard Bland Lee, 2 August 1819 (Madison Papers)
48467). Lee wrote of JM and the outcome of the War of 1812: “Thus President Madison had the happiness, in retiring from office, of leaving his country at peace abroad, united at home, with increased character, and irradiated with glory” (p. 14).
35To James Madison from Spencer Roane, 22 August 1819 (Madison Papers)
, 1804–45, and a political force for the Jeffersonian Republicans and later the Democratic Party in Virginia. He supported JM and served briefly in the War of 1812. Ritchie edited the Washington, D.C.,
36From James Madison to John Taylor and James Garnett, 10 September 1819 (Madison Papers)
...since their boyhood days at Donald Robertson’s school, Taylor found JM’s politics to be insufficiently Republican and opposed his candidacy for president in 1808 as well as the War of 1812. A writer on political and agricultural topics, Taylor served as president of the Virginia Society for Promoting Agriculture and delivered his presidential address in 1818. James Mercer Garnett (1770...
37To James Madison from James Monroe, 10 September 1819 (Madison Papers)
...1750–1828) was a Revolutionary War veteran, governor of South Carolina, 1787–89, minister to Great Britain, 1792–96, a member of Congress, 1797–1801, and a major general in the U.S. Army during the War of 1812 (
38From James Madison to James Monroe, [ante–24 November] 1819 (Madison Papers)
LeRoy Opie (d. 1819) was a veteran of the War of 1812 and served as U.S. Army paymaster for North Carolina and Virginia (
39To James Madison from Clarkson Crolius, 29 November 1819 (Madison Papers)
Clarkson Crolius (1773–1843) was a potter and stoneware manufacturer, a veteran of the War of 1812, and a New York state politician. In 1819 Crolius was grand sachem of the Tammany Society (William C. Ketchum Jr.,
40Account of the Agricultural Society of Albemarle, [ca. 6 December] 1819 (Madison Papers)
Isaac A. Coles (1780–1841), Dolley Payne Madison’s second cousin, briefly served as secretary to JM during his first year as president. A veteran of the War of 1812, Coles was a planter who lived at Enniscorthy in Albemarle County, Virginia (
41To James Madison from Francis Preston, 30 January 1820 (Madison Papers)
...Representatives, 1793–97, and represented Washington County, Virginia, in the House of Delegates, 1812–14, and in the state Senate, 1817–20. He rose to the rank of major general in the state militia during the War of 1812 (
42To James Madison from James Monroe, 5 February 1820 (Madison Papers)
...United States in 1803. He stood as the Federalist vice presidential candidate in 1804 and 1808, and as the Federalist presidential candidate in 1816. As U.S. senator, 1813–24, he opposed JM’s administration and the War of 1812; later, he opposed the Missouri Compromise of 1820, and was outspoken in his attacks on the extension of slavery (
43To James Madison from James Barbour, 10 February 1820 (Madison Papers)
...the U.S. House of Representatives, 1797–1801, the Massachusetts legislature, 1802–17, and the U.S. Senate, 1817–22. An active Federalist, he was a leader in the opposition to JM’s administration and the War of 1812, as well as spokesman for the Hartford Convention of 1814. In the debates over the Missouri question, he took a leading part against the extension of slavery into the territories.
44To James Madison from Martin Van Buren, 15 March 1820 (Madison Papers)
Daniel D. Tompkins (1774–1825) was governor of New York, 1807–17, and vice president of the United States, 1817–25. A strong supporter of JM’s administration and the War of 1812, Tompkins bolstered his state’s war effort with his personal fortune but bitterly disappointed JM by refusing the president’s offer to become secretary of state in 1814 (
45To James Madison from Alexander Tunstall, 10 May 1820 (Madison Papers)
Charles K. Mallory (1781–1820) was a Virginia legislator and lieutenant governor of the state during the War of 1812. In 1814 JM appointed him customs collector of Norfolk and Portsmouth, and he held this post until his death (
46To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 17 May 1820 (Madison Papers)
Robert Barraud Taylor (1774–1834) was a Norfolk lawyer, a veteran of the War of 1812, and a member of the original board of visitors of the University of Virginia, serving from 1819 to 1822 (Tyler,
47To James Madison from Joseph Wheaton, 1 July 1820 (Madison Papers)
For Wheaton’s detailed reports of his experiences during the War of 1812, see his letters to JM of 10, 23, 29, and 31 Dec. 1812, 3 and 8 Jan., 10, 12, and 26 Feb., 26 Apr., and 1 May 1813 (
48To James Madison from Andrew Ramsay, 5 August 1820 (Madison Papers)
George Graham (ca. 1772–1830) was a veteran of the War of 1812 from Dumfries, Virginia, who served as chief clerk in the War Department, 1814–18. In 1818 he was sent as a special agent to Texas. He was president of the Washington branch of the Second Bank of...
49To James Madison from Jacob De La Motta, 7 August 1820 (Madison Papers)
...in Savannah, Georgia, but spent most of his life in Charleston, South Carolina. He received his medical education in Philadelphia and held a commission as surgeon in the U.S. Army during the War of 1812. He was active in local politics and was a contributor to the scientific and literary discourse of his time. Among the many community and charitable organizations of which he was a member...
50To James Madison from Andrew Ramsay, 30 August 1820 (Madison Papers)
The Rev. William Hawley (d. 1845) was a veteran of the War of 1812 who served as the second rector of St. John’s Church in Washington from 1817 until his death (Van Horne,