From James Madison to John Armstrong, 30 July 1814
To John Armstrong
July 30. 1814.
It ought certainly to be at the discretion of Izard to accommodate his movements to those of the Enemy, and to his information from the other Commanders.1
The question as to Col: Drayton appears to be precluded, by the list of original vacancies which includes none of his former rank.2
James Madison.
Tr (DLC, series 3). Headed: “Note To the Secretary of War on Izard’s letter of July 19.—asking if he ought not to move to the St. Laurence if necessary.”
1. In his 19 July 1814 letter to Armstrong (DNA: RG 107, LRRS, I-69:8), Izard expressed “uneasiness” about Maj. Gen. Jacob Brown’s campaign “to the westward,” and inquired whether in the event of “any Accident … in that Quarter” he should “move to the Saint Laurence & threaten the rear of Kingston.”
2. The query probably had to do with William Drayton’s recess appointment as colonel and inspector general on 1 Aug. 1814 ( 1:383). Drayton (1776–1846), a Charleston, South Carolina, lawyer and a Federalist, had been a member of the state house of representatives, 1806–8. He was honorably discharged from the army on 15 June 1815, held the post of recorder and judge of the Inferior City Court of Charleston from 1819 to about 1824, and served in the U.S. House of Representatives, 1825–33. Opposed to nullification, he moved to Philadelphia, where he was president of the Bank of the United States (ca. 1839–41) (Bailey et al., Biographical Directory of the South Carolina House of Representatives, 4:164–65).