51From James Madison to John Armstrong, 17 May 1814 (Madison Papers)
Obstructions to the mail retarded for several days, your letter of the 9th. instant, accompanied by a correspondence between Generals Wilkinson & Izzard, on the subject of the Court Martial. The letter from the former to the Dept. of War, referred to in the correspondence, was omitted. The objection made to the validity of the order for a Court Martial cannot be sustained. Altho’ orders derive...
52From James Madison to John Armstrong, 18 June 1814 (Madison Papers)
Besides the tendency of the proposed attempt for removing the Indians North of the State of Ohio, to disquiet them, there are other objections to the measure. It may have a like tendency in its bearing on other Indians connected with the district given in exchange: And what merits particular attention, the territories contiguous to this district, whose peace and security might be affected,...
53From James Madison to John Armstrong, 19 July 1813 (Madison Papers)
I have recd. yours by Mr. Mercer. The little enterprize projected by Mr. Monroe, would if compleatly successful have a seasonably good effect. But the view you have taken of it, is a very interesting one. The smallness of your effective force in Regulars, and the possible consequence of such a detachment from it, to such a distance, at Such a crisis, will doubtless have the weight with him...
54From James Madison to John Armstrong, 12 August 1814 (Madison Papers)
Note to the Secretary of War on letters from him to Brown of July 19 —and to Izard of July 27. and August 2. with a memorandum of the Secretary on the two last, “that in case the attack on Kingston be rendered impracticable, and that the moment of ascendancy on the Lake Ontario may not be lost, 2000 of Izard’s men may be carried to the west end of the Lake to join Gaines; being landed on the...
55From James Madison to John Armstrong, 24 September 1813 (Madison Papers)
Since my letter of the state of the Treasury has been transmitted to me. It is more favorable than I had anticipated, and will be able at least for a short period, to keep the army in an efficient state. I have just recd. a confirmation of the fine blow struck by Perry. Harrison’s movements in consequence of it will I hope be not only effectual agst. Proctor, but be felt in our other...
56From James Madison to John Armstrong, [13 August 1814] (Madison Papers)
If not more than 200 warriors have gone to Detroit with Govr. Cass, the residue with the militia called for will suffice for the expedition recommended by him & Genl. Harrison. The pledges given by them to the Indians employed must be fulfilled of course, & the case with similar ones, submitted to Congs. Govr. Cass may receive the superintending & discretionary power as to Indians &c. wch....
57From James Madison to John Armstrong, 18 June 1814 (Madison Papers)
Note on this note of the Secy. of War covering letters of Col. Croghan to Capt. Sinclair of May 26. As the order to Majr. Holmes required a resort to his superior Officer Col. Croghan, and as Capt. Sinclair was ordered to communicate with the latter, it might have been better, to have conveyed the orders to Majr. Holmes thro’ Col. Croghan, than vice versa, as well as to have apprized Col:...
58From James Madison to John Armstrong, 20 May 1814 (Madison Papers)
I have recd. your letter of the 17th. inst: covering further communications from Genl. Pinkney; which are now returned. The supplies necessary to save the Indians from starving cannot but be approved, notwithstanding the failure of legal provision for the purpose. It is a case of humanity & necessity which carries its own justification with it. I mentioned in my last Col: Milton as a fit...
59From James Madison to John Armstrong, 20 June 1814 (Madison Papers)
General Wilkinson it appears, addressed an application to the P. on the 6th. ult: for an opportunity of securing testimony wch. may be lost by the casualties of the campaign. This is reasonable; and may be effected by depositions taken in the usual mode a Judge advocate attending on the part of the public. Give the proper instructions for the purpose, & let the Genl. be informed that his...
60From James Madison to John Armstrong, [21 June 1814] (Madison Papers)
The taking of Soldiers for the Navy, is a disagreeable circumstance in several respects: but an efficient State of the Navy is so essential even to land operations on the Canada frontier that it seems unavoidable occasionally until a sufficiency of Seamen can be obtained, for which every exertion is doubtless made. The expedient of volunteers adopted by Genl. Izard, as a diminution of the...
61From James Madison to John Armstrong, 24 February 1811 (Madison Papers)
Letter not found. 24 February 1811. Mentioned in Armstrong to JM, 3 Mar. 1811 , as discussing the character and conduct of David Bailie Warden in relation to the American consulate in Paris. Also mentioned in Armstrong to Jonathan Russell, 5 Mar. 1811, as JM’s answer to Armstrong’s suggestion that Russell be appointed as minister to France. “You had,” Armstrong wrote Russell, “no friends in...
62From James Madison to John Armstrong, 16 August 1814 (Madison Papers)
Note to Secy. of War, on Gaines lette⟨r⟩ of Aug: 7. It ought certainly to be at the discretion of Gaines to cross the Niagara. This may be made prudent by large re-inforcemts. to the Enemy, even after receivg 2000 from Izard’s army. Buffalo & Black rock must also claim his attention; whilst the Enemy are placed so conveniently for enterprizes agst. them. If Izard should be unable by leaving a...
63From James Madison to John Armstrong, 18 September 1813 (Madison Papers)
I have recd. yours of the lt. inst. from Utica, and of the 5th. from Sackets Harbour. I have written to Mr Jones with a view to an extra half Million pr. Month for War purposes during the sequel of the Campaign, but am not without apprehensions that the state of the Treasury may produce difficulties, unless re-inforced by loans not yet ascertained. He will however feel all the importance of...
64From James Madison to John Armstrong, 14 January 1813 (Madison Papers)
The inclosed Commission will inform you of your appointment to the direction of the Department of War. I hope it will not be incompatible with your views, to avail the public of your services in that important trust; and that you will be able, without delay, to relieve the Secretary of State, who has been charged ad interim, with that addition to his other duties. Accept assurances of my great...
65From James Madison to John Armstrong, 24 May 1814 (Madison Papers)
I have received yours of the 20th. inst. The sufferings of the Troops from want of clothing & pay is the worse to be lamented as they cannot fail to damp the recruiting service, & particularly the reenlistment of the men who are soon to be discharged. It seems strange that arrears of pay should run back for more than a year; & that supplies of clothing should have been so deficient that the...
66From James Madison to John Armstrong, 2 August 1814 (Madison Papers)
The Secretary of War will cause the supply of ammunition requested to be furnished. If the arrangements of Genl. Winder shd. not have anticipated the other want and the cannon can be furnished, orders to that effect will al⟨s⟩o be given. Draft ( DLC ); Tr ( DLC , series 3). JM labeled the draft: “On a letter from Genl. Stuart, requesting 200 rounds of Grape Cannister &c also a few 9s or...
67From James Madison to John Armstrong, 2 July 1814 (Madison Papers)
In analogy to the arrangement yesterday decided on in reference to this City & Baltimore and with a view to a systematic provision agst. invading armaments, the Secretary of war will digest & report to the President, corresponding precautionary means of defence, in reference to the other more important and exposed places along the Atlantic Frontier; particularly Boston, New York, Wilmington...
68From James Madison to John Armstrong, 17 August 1814 (Madison Papers)
Where, on what service & under what commission is Genl. Swartwout to be employed? If out of service as the last army Register imports, he cannot be employed without a new appointment. Wanted The number of men enlisted into the Rifle Corps, & not yet furnished with rifles. • The number of rifles on hand, according to the last returns, and the dates of those returns. Draft ( DLC ); Tr ( DLC ,...
69From James Madison to John Armstrong, 19 August 1814 (Madison Papers)
Note to Secy. of War, on Genl. Browns letter of Aug. 7. If there be no opposing considerations unknown to me, Col. Miller is entitled to brevet promotion. Majrs. Wood & McRae at least seem to merit attention also. What is best as to Ripley FC ( DLC ); Tr ( DLC , series 3). FC in JM ’s hand; included among documents dated 16 Aug. 1814 in the Index to the James Madison Papers. Maj. Gen. Jacob...
70From James Madison to John Armstrong, 4 August 1814 (Madison Papers)
Note accompanying a return of sundry Brevets sent filled up and sealed from the Office. The Secretary of War will not in future permit Commissions to be filled up in the Office, until it be ascertained that the appointments are approved. In the Brevets to General Scott and the other Officers who so well merited them, the irregularity could not but be without effect. But when appointments are...
71From James Madison to John Armstrong, 20 August 1814 (Madison Papers)
Note to Secy. of War on the proposed consolidation of 8 Regts—30. 31. &c The consolidations proposed are approved. The information for assisting the selection of officers to be retained is extremely scanty whilst the task is both important & difficult. The Secy. of war will suggest the names which appear on the whole most fit to remain in service. FC ( DLC ); Tr ( DLC , series 3). See...
72From James Madison to Benjamin Austin and Others, 7 March 1815 (Madison Papers)
I have recd. fw. Citizs. the address transmitted by you on the 23d. of Feby.; with the attention due to the occasion which gave rise to it, & to the view which it takes of past scenes & events. Whatever difference of opinion may have existed, among good Citizens, all will rejoice in the happy result of the Contest in which we have been engaged. If this has been attended with difficulties &...
73From James Madison to Isaac Ball, 4 April 1809 (Madison Papers)
Letter not found. 4 April 1809. Acknowledged in Ball to JM, 11 Apr. 1809 . Authorizes Ball to list JM as a patron of a proposed new edition of his work, An Analytical View of the Animal Economy .
74From James Madison to James Barbour, 26 February 1814 (Madison Papers)
Your letter of the 17th. inst. accompanied by a Resolution of the House of Delegates of Virginia has been duly received. An Engineer has been designated to make a further examination & report, with respect to Fort Powhatan; and it is intended to strengthen its works, and to place therein a suitable Garrison. Accept assurances of my consideration and esteem RC ( Vi : Executive Papers); FC ( DLC...
75From James Madison to James Barbour, 16 June 1814 (Madison Papers)
I have duly recd. your letter of the 13th instant. That the late events in Europe will put it in the power of G.B. to direct a much greater force agst. the U.S. cannot be doubted. How far she may be restrained from so doing by an estimate of her interest in making peace, or by a respect for the sentiments of her allies, if these should urge it, can not yet be known. It is incumbent on us to...
76From James Madison to John Barker, 21 February 1810 (Madison Papers)
I have recd. your letter of the 17th. covering the Address & Resolutions adopted in the first Congressional District of the State of Penna. and avail myself of the same channel, for conveying an answer to the former. I tender at the same time, my acknowledgments for your kind expressions, and assurances of my respect & good wishes. To the Republican Citizens of the 1st. Congressional District...
77From James Madison to Joel Barlow, 11 August 1812 (Madison Papers)
As I write on short notice and in cypher, I must be very brief. The conduct of the F. Govt. explained in yours of May. 12. on the subject of the decre⟨e⟩ of April ⟨18⟩11 will be an everlasting reproach to it . It is the more shameful as, departing from the declar⟨a⟩tion to general armstrong of which the enforcement of the non importation was the effect the revoking decre⟨e⟩ assumes this as the...
78From James Madison to Joel Barlow, 17 November 1811 (Madison Papers)
You will receive by this conveyance the proper communications from the Dept. of State. You will see in them, the ground now avowed for the B. Orders in Council. It must render them co-durable with the war; for nothing but a termination of it will re-open the continental market to British products. Nor is it probable that peace will do it in its former extent. The pretension which requires the...
79From James Madison to Joel Barlow, 24 February 1812 (Madison Papers)
Mr. Morris delivered yesterday morning the dispatches committed to him, including your letters to me. The reasons for hastening the departure of the vessel now ordered to France, will not permit the Secy. of State to do much more than acknowledge the receipt of your communications. The instructions you wish relative to the question of a Commercial Treaty with F. at this time, as well as the...
80From James Madison to Omar Bashaw, [ca. 12 April 1815] (Madison Papers)
Your highness having declared war against the United States of America, and made captives of some of their Citizens, and done them other injuries, without any just cause, the Congress of the United States at its last Session, to repel this act of aggression, authorized, by a deliberate and solemn act, hostilities against your Government and people. A squadron of our ships of War, to be...
81From James Madison to John Bassette, ca. 20 July 1810 (Madison Papers)
Letter not found. Ca. 20 July 1810. Mentioned in JM to Jefferson, 24 July 1810 . Replies to Bassette’s inquiry about Dutch accounts of early Virginia history.
82From James Madison to James R. Pringle and Thomas Bennett, 10 February 1817 (Madison Papers)
I have duly received your letter of January 25th, with the Resolutions of the Senate and House of Representatives of the State of South Carolina, which it Covered. On retiring from the public Service, I shall count among the circumstances grateful to my recollection, this unanimous expression of approbation and regard from the legislature of South Carolina. The period during which the...
83From James Madison to Jeremy Bentham, 8 May 1816 (Madison Papers)
I have a greater debt of apology, I fear, than I can easily discharge, for having so long omitted to answer your letter of 1811. I flatter myself however that you will not do me the injustice to beleive that the failure has proceeded from any insensibility to the importance of its contents, or to the generous motives which dictated it; and as little from a want of respect for the very...
84From James Madison to William Bentley, 8 July 1810 (Madison Papers)
I have received your favor of the 2d. inst: accompanied by a likeness of General Stark. I thank you for both. The latter, in its execution, seems to do so much credit to the talent of your pupil, that I, the more readily, confide in its likeness; and shall place it by the side of others, whose originals are known to have inspired the General with that esteem of which they are worthy. The...
85From James Madison to William Bentley, 28 October 1809 (Madison Papers)
I received in due time your friendly letter of August 12. last. My respect for your sentiments as well as justice to my own, require that I should say, in explanation of my not complying with your considerate hint, that I was restrained by an apprehensiveness, that an expression, at that period, of the gratitude and admiration which I feel in a degree exceeded by no Citizen, for the venerable...
86From James Madison to William Bentley, 28 December 1816 (Madison Papers)
Mr. Crowninshield having made me acquainted with the passage in your letter to him, which speaks with so much personal kindness towards me, and so favorably of my discharge of the public trust which is about to close, I can not forego an expression of the value I put on such sentiments from such a source. The approbation of the wise and the worthy is the recompence which ought to be next to...
87From James Madison to William Bentley, 27 December 1809 (Madison Papers)
In consequence of your favor of the 11th. instant, I have addressed the few lines inclosed, to General Stark. If the possession of this sincere testimony of my esteem be entirely satisfactory, it may perhaps be as well, that it should not be followed by a publication; the sole object being, to contribute in that form, whatever gratification may be afforded him, by learning the sentiments of...
88From James Madison to John Binns and Others, 11 February 1813 (Madison Papers)
I have recd. your communication on behalf the naturalized Citizens in & near Philada. who were born within the B. Dominions, occasioned by the proclamation of the Prince Regent of G. Britain dated the 26. of Ocr. last, and by other indications of a purpose of subjecting to the penalties of British law, such of that description of Citizens as shall have been taken in arms agst. G. Britain. As...
89From James Madison to Willie Blount, 10 December 1811 (Madison Papers)
I have recd. your letter of Novr. 23. covering an address from the Legislature of the State of Tennessee. The patriotic sentiments which it expresses are an honorable sample of those which animate the great body of our fellow Citizens. The wrongs which have been so long borne by our Country, in the hope that a sense of justice and the true policy inseparable from it would have put an end to...
90From James Madison to Bossange & Masson, 7 January 1811 (Madison Papers)
Letter not found. 7 January 1811. Acknowledged in Bossange & Masson to JM, 5 July 1811 . Accepts the offer of a translation of the Iliad (see PJM-PS Robert A. Rutland et al., eds., The Papers of James Madison: Presidential Series (3 vols. to date; Charlottesville, Va., 1984—). , 2:474 ).
91From James Madison to Carlo Giuseppe Guglielmo Botta, [ca. 1 January 1817] (Madison Papers)
I have been some time in debt for the obliging favor of your “Camillo.[”] Its subject as well as its Author makes me regret more than ever that my knowlege of the Italian does not enable me to do justice to the merits & enjoy the beauties of a poem in that language. A translation into English, well executed may mitigate my disappointment. In G. Britain this may take place. In this Country, the...
92From James Madison to Sarah Bowdoin, 6 June 1812 (Madison Papers)
J. Madison has received the little volume which Mrs. Bowdoin has had the goodness to send him. The sensibility which he begs leave to express to her, is much quickened, by his high respect for the memory of the distinguished Patriot, to whom the public is indebted for the valuable Legacy. RC ( MHi ). James Bowdoin, U.S. minister to Spain from 1804 to 1808, had died in October 1811. Possibly JM...
93From James Madison to Robert and Mrs. Brent, 22 April 1816 (Abstract) (Madison Papers)
§ To Robert and Mrs. Brent. 22 April 1816. “Mr. & Mrs. Madison requests the favor of Mr and Mrs Brent to dine with them on Thursday next at 4 o’clock. An answer is requested.” RC ( NN : Lee Kohns Memorial Collection). 1 p.; printed invitation, with blank spaces for names and date, filled by John Payne Todd.
94From James Madison to Robert Brent, [ca. 11 September] 1813 (Madison Papers)
The mode provided in the letter to General Harrison, for distances in pay-offices, may answer. But blank Appointments would seem a more regular mode. The filling them implies the same confidence only, and in both cases the appts. are equally annullable. As assistant paymasters are not named in the act, it may be better to appt. additional paymasters in the same District with instructions...
95From James Madison to Obadiah B. Brown, 1 September 1815 (Madison Papers)
I inclose for your perusal the letter and document covered by yours of the 22 Ult: and of which the contents were unknown to you. They present a case so very extraordinary, that uninformed as I am with respect to the writer, I may err in the proper answer. This will be an apology for my requesting your perusal of the one sent, and that you will be so good as not to forward it, if you should...
96From James Madison to the Bunker Hill Association, 24 July 1810 (Madison Papers)
J. Madison presents his respects to Benjamin Homans, J. E. Smith, & William Blagrove, Esqrs. from whom he has received the copy of Mr. Lincoln’s Oration delivered on the 4th. of July; and returns his thanks for the polite attention, to which he is indebted for this opportunity of expressing the pleasure he has felt in perusing a performance equally distinguished for its polished eloquence, and...
97Memorandum to the Cabinet, 14 June 1809 (Madison Papers)
J. Madison requests a consultation with the heads of the Depts. today at 12 O’C. Printed copy (John Heise Autograph Catalogue No. 2457 [1928]).
98From James Madison to George W. Campbell, 25 May 1814 (Madison Papers)
I have just recd. your favor of the 23d. inclosing two letters from Mr. Astor. As the resource of loans to a considerable amount in addition to taxes is necessary to our Treasury, and as money is cheaper in Europe than here, especially whilst disaffection witholds the greater part of the capital from market, it is obviously desireable that we should avail ourselves of the foreign market, now...
99From James Madison to George W. Campbell, 2 November 1814 (Madison Papers)
The Committee appointed by the H. of Reps. to enquire into the causes of the late military events in this District, have called for information on the members of the Cabinet, and the call will embrace you. That you may be under no restraint whatever from official or personal confidence, I think it proper to intimate to you that in relation to myself, I hope no information you may be able to...
100From James Madison to George W. Campbell, 7 May 1814 (Madison Papers)
I have had the pleasure of receiving yours of the 4th. inst. Altho’ a just estimate by the lenders ought to have afforded us better terms, yet under all the circumstances of the moment, the loan has been obtained on terms equal to the public expectation, and will have a favorable influence on our affairs. I hope no difficulty will grow out of the individual case you mention. The fulfilment of...