To James Madison from James Monroe, [ca. 15 December 1814]
From James Monroe
[ca. 15 December 1814]
The enclosed plan for raising 20.000 men in New York, was submitted to my view yesterday by Genl Scott, that I might state, as he passed to day on his way to Baltimore, whether it ought to be carried into effect, as aiding, or declind as interfering with the plans of the genl govt.1 I will thank you to say what you think of it. From the hasty perusal I have given it, I shod. doubt the propriety of interfering to prevent it. Being a species of drafted militia, I do not see how the genl govt., under whom it is to be put, can oppose it.
J. M.
I send a letter just recd. from Mr Ingersoll.2
RC (DLC: Rives Collection, Madison Papers). Undated; dated October 1814 in the Index to the James Madison Papers; conjectural date assigned here based on evidence in nn.
1. During the winter of 1814–15, while recuperating at Baltimore from wounds received in the Battle of Lundy’s Lane, Brig. Gen. Winfield Scott twice traveled to Washington for military consultations. The plan mentioned here by Monroe may have been an offshoot of an act passed by the New York legislature on 24 Oct. 1814, authorizing governor Daniel D. Tompkins to raise a force of twelve thousand men for the defense of the state if Congress agreed to take them into federal service. The bill, as proposed by Tompkins, had originally called for twenty thousand men. On 27 Jan. 1815, Congress passed an act authorizing the president to accept the services of state troops and volunteers, but the number to be received from the state of New York was limited to fewer than six thousand (Scott, Memoirs of Lieut.-General Scott, 1:139, 145, 147–53; An Act to Authorise the Raising of Troops, for the Defence of this State [Albany, 1814; 32286], 3; Hastings, Public Papers of Daniel D. Tompkins, 3:498, 545, 590; 3:193).
2. Charles Jared Ingersoll’s 15 Dec. 1814 letter to Monroe enclosed a recommendation of Samuel Wilcocks for an appointment as judge advocate (DNA: RG 94, Letters Received, filed under “Wilcocks”).