To James Madison from William Harris Crawford, 28 September 1816
From William Harris Crawford
War Department 28th Sept. 1816
Dear Sir
The enclosed papers recd. from Genl Jackson are transmitted, tho’ they contain nothing more than what I had anticipated.1 A private letter from Mr Irvine to the Secretary of State States facts calculated to remove the impression which Colo. Jessup’s communication has produced of an invasion of New Orleans by a Spanish force. He believes the exertions now making to raise an army in Spain is to wrest the Kingdom of Eutruria from the Emperor of Austria.2
The proposition made by Major Jamison for permission for certain Indian Chiefs to visit the Seat of Government, is worthy of consideration.3 It is questionable whether it ought to extend to any tribe within the acknowledged limits of Spain, as long as our affairs with that nation are unsettled, which I think will probably be as long as we remain at peace with them. Our complaints have reciprocally been extended & rendered so complex during the last twenty years, that it is extremely improbable that they will ever be adjusted without an appeal to force. It is problematical whether we ought by our acts, to hasten that appeal.
The letter to Genl Jackson, a Copy of which I transmitted to you is I believe a sufficient answer at present to his letter.4 I have the honor to be Your most obt & very humbl Servt
Wm H Crawford
RC and enclosure (DLC). RC docketed by JM with his note: “enclosures from Genl. Jackson &ce.” For surviving enclosure, see n. 1.
1. Crawford enclosed a copy of a 7 Sept. 1816 letter he had received from Andrew Jackson, which in turn covered a copy of Lt. Col. Duncan L. Clinch’s report on the destruction of the “Negro Fort” (Clinch to Robert Butler, 2 Aug. 1816 [DLC]). Crawford also forwarded extracts from two letters Jackson had received from Col. Thomas Sydney Jesup. These extracts were probably taken from Jesup’s 18 and 21 Aug. 1816 letters to Jackson, the first describing the defenses of Florida and the second containing more evidence that Spain would attack New Orleans, to which Jesup intended to respond by invading Cuba (Smith et al., Papers of Andrew Jackson, 4:60–61 and n. 2, 443). From these letters, Jackson concluded that “a War with Spain may take place,” though he added “if we take into consideration the actual condition of Spain there would seem to be but little ground, for such a belief, but the present Ruler of that Nation approaches so near the character of a madman, that we may be deceived in our calculations.” Jackson wished “to meet events, as they occur,” and he stressed the importance of securing “the Lower Country, including Orleans and Mobile and the Command of the Rivers Mississippi & Mobile.” He also suggested that the Eighth Regiment of Infantry and the Rifle Corps be ready “to meet every Contingency & thus be able to act Offensively or Defensively, as circumstances may authorize.” For that purpose Jackson recommended that troops be withdrawn from Detroit to relieve those currently under the command of Col. Thomas A. Smith. Jackson forwarded a communication he had received from Smith to the effect that the troops under his command were not “in that efficient state” because Maj. Gen. Alexander Macomb and Maj. Gen. Jacob Brown had opposed Jackson’s efforts to move troops from the Northern Division of the army to the Southern Division (ibid., 61–62 and n. 4).
2. On 29 and 31 Aug. 1816 George W. Erving sent James Monroe two letters from Madrid, the second of which was marked “private & confidential.” Both letters made it plain that Spain was in no condition to undertake military or naval operations of any sort, but it was the first letter that mentioned that Spain had recently attempted to raise a force of forty to sixty thousand men, ostensibly to settle a dispute with Portugal. Erving believed, however, that “the immediate cause of that extraordinary armament was the dispute with Austria relative to the territory in Italy claimed by Spain for the queen of Etruria, the disposal of which by the Congress of Vienna Spain did not accede to; tho’ it must be confessed that the idea that such an armament could in any degree promote a favorable settlement of that dispute is the most absurd conceivable” (DNA: RG 59, DD, Spain).
3. John Jamison (d. 1819) served in the U.S. Army between 1808 and 1815, rising to the rank of major. He was Indian agent at Natchitoches (, 1:570). His letter requesting permission for Indian chiefs to visit Washington has not been found.
4. See Crawford to JM, 27 Sept. 1816 [first enclosure].