1. Tench Ringgold attended Monroe’s meeting with Brig. Gen. Robert Swartwout “on the Night of the 10th January 1815.” According to Ringgold’s memorandum of the same date, Monroe instructed Swartwout to “repair to the eastern states for the purpose of gaining correct intelligence of the real designs and intended movements of the Hartford Convention & the enemies of the General Government in those states.” Swartwout was given $350,000 to raise an army in New England if necessary to enforce the authority of the U.S. government there; if not, the sum was to be applied to the routine expenses of the quartermaster’s department and recruiting service. Monroe noted that having “just received” the Hartford Convention’s report, he and JM had not yet come to any conclusions regarding its consequences, but that their discussion of it the following day would enable him to send Swartwout more specific instructions “by the mail of the 12th.” In the meantime, Swartwout was to proceed to Springfield, Massachusetts, discreetly assess the situation and inform Monroe of his findings, and take steps to ensure the security of the U.S. armory there (NN: Monroe Papers). As demonstrated by an undated, unaddressed two-page memo from William Eustis in the Rives Collection of JM’s papers at the Library of Congress, the administration was well aware of the armory’s possible vulnerability to capture, particularly in the context of potential rebellion in New England. Four days earlier, Monroe had dismissed Henry Lechler, superintendent of the armory, and replaced him temporarily with former superintendent Benjamin Prescott, pending transfer of control of this critically important establishment to the U.S. Army’s ordnance department (Monroe to Lechler, 6 Jan. 1815, and Monroe to Prescott, 6 Jan. 1815, DNA: RG 107, LSMA; David A. Hounshell, From the American System to Mass Production, 1800–1932: The Development of Manufacturing Technology in the United States [Baltimore, 1984], 32–33).

2. Monroe referred to Samuel Dexter.

3. Monroe may have intended to speak with these congressmen about “An Act to authorize the President of the United States to accept the services of state troops and of volunteers,” 27 Jan. 1815, which had passed the Senate and was under consideration in the House of Representatives (U.S. Statutes at Large, description begins The Public Statutes at Large of the United States of America … (17 vols.; Boston, 1848–73). description ends 3:193; Annals of Congress, description begins Debates and Proceedings in the Congress of the United States … (42 vols.; Washington, 1834–56). description ends 13th Cong., 3d sess., 161–62, 166–67).