Chapter XXI: Conclusion (1)

Early in the war Mr. Madison said to a friend, in a letter "altogether _private_ and written in confidence," that the way to make the conflict both "short and successful would be to convince the enemy that he was to contend with the whole and not part of the nation." That it was a war of a party, and not of the people, was a discouragement to himself, however the enemy may have regarded it, which he could never see any way of overcoming. He could not listen to an opponent nor learn anything from disaster. "If the war must continue," said Webster within a year of its end, "go to the ocean. Let it no longer be said that not one ship of force, built by your hands since the war, yet floats. If you are seriously contending for maritime rights, go to the theatre where those rights can be defended.... There the united wishes and exertions of the nation will go with you. Even our party divisions, acrimonious as they are, cease at the water's edge.... In protecting naval interests by naval means, you will arm yourself with the whole power of national sentiment, and may command the whole abundance of national forces." Taking now in one view the events of those years, it is easy to see in our generation how mad were Madison and his party to turn deaf ears to such considerations as these. Their force and wisdom had already been proved by eighteen months of disaster on land, which had made the war daily more and more unpopular; and by brilliant success for a time at sea, when each fresh victory was hailed with universal enthusiasm. "Our little naval triumphs," was the President's way of speaking of the latter; and the only importance he seems to have seen in them was, that they excited some "rage and jealousy" in England and moved her to increase her naval force. How could Mr. Madison expect that the whole and not a part only of the nation could uphold an administration which, after eighteen months of fighting, could be reproached on the floor of Congress with not having launched a ship since the war was begun? Or did he only choose to remember that the navy, which alone so far had brought either success or honor to the national arms, was the creation of the Federalists in spite of the Jeffersonian policy? It surely would have been wiser to try to propitiate New England, with which he was in perpetual worry and conflict, by enlisting it in a naval war in which it had some faith. A large proportion of her people would have been glad to escape idleness and poverty at home for service at sea, though they were reluctant to aid in a vain attempt to conquer Canada.

Even to that purpose, however, Massachusetts contributed, in the second campaign of 1814, more recruits than any other single State; and New England more than all the Southern States together. New England could have given no stronger proof of her loyalty, if only Mr. Madison had known how to turn it to advantage. He was absolutely deaf and blind to it; but his ears were quick to hear and his eyes to see, when he learned presently that the New Englanders were seriously calculating the value of the Union under such rule as they had had of late. It was not often that he relieved himself by intemperate language, but he could not help saying now, in writing to Governor Nicholas of Virginia, that "the greater part of the people in that quarter have been brought by their leaders, aided by their priests, under a delusion scarcely exceeded by that recorded in the period of witchcraft; and the leaders themselves are becoming daily more desperate in the use they make of it." The "delusion" was taking a practical direction. Mr. Madison had learned before the letter was written that a convention was about to meet at Hartford, the object of which was to weigh in a balance, upon the one side, the continuation of such government as that of the last two or three years, and, upon the other side, the value of the Union. He ardently hoped that the commissioners, then assembled at Ghent, would agree upon a treaty; and there seemed to be no good reason why there should not be peace when nothing was to be said of the cause of the war, no apology demanded for the past, and no stipulation for the future. But if by any chance the commissioners should fail, Mr. Madison saw in the Hartford Convention the huge shadow of a coming conflict more difficult to deal with than a foreign war. It was the first step in dead earnest for the formation of a Northern Confederacy, and it is quite possible he may have felt that he was not the man for such a crisis. Every line of the letter pulsates with anxiety. The only consoling thought in it is that without "foreign coöperation revolt and separation will hardly be risked," and to such coöperation he hoped a majority of the New England people would not consent. A treaty of peace, however, came to save him and the Union. Within a few weeks the administration papers were laughing at Harrison Gray Otis of Boston, who had started for Washington as the representative of the Hartford Convention, but turned back at the news of peace; and were advertising him as missing under the name of Titus Oates. It was, however, the hysterical laugh of recovery from a terrible fright.

If ambition to be a second time President led Mr. Madison to consent against his own better judgment to a war with England, he paid a heavy penalty. It was the act of a party politician and not of a statesman; for the country was no more prepared for a war in 1812, when as a politician he assented to it, than it had been for the previous half dozen years when as a statesman he had opposed it. He gave the influence of the United States in support of a despotism that aimed at the subjugation of all Europe; he threw a fresh obstacle in the way of that power to which Europe could chiefly look to resist a common enemy; and he did both under the pretense that the just complaints of the United States were greater against one of these powers than against the other. He declared war mainly to redress a wrong which ceased to exist before a blow was struck; he then rejected an offer of peace because another wrong was still persisted in; but finally, of his own motion, he accepted a treaty in which the assumed cause of war was not even alluded to.

That Mr. Madison was not a good war President, either by training or by temperament, was, if it may be said of any man, his misfortune rather than his fault. But it was his fault rather than his misfortune that he permitted himself to be dragged in a day into a line of conduct which the sober judgment of years had disapproved. He is usually and most justly regarded as a man of great amiability of character; of unquestionable integrity in all the purely personal relations of life; of more than ordinary intellectual ability of a solid, though not brilliant, quality; and a diligent student of the science of government, the practice of which he made a profession. But he was better fitted by nature for a legislator than for executive office, and his fame would have been more spotless, though his position would have been less exalted, had his life been exclusively devoted to that branch of government for which he was best fitted. It was not merely that for the sake of the Presidency he plunged the country into an unnecessary war; but when it was on his hands he neither knew what to do with it himself nor how to choose the right men who did know.

It is our amiable weakness--if one may venture to say so of the American people--that all our geese are swans, or rather eagles; that we are apt to mistake notoriety for reputation; that it is the popular belief of the larger number that he who, no matter how, has reached a distinguished position, is by virtue of that fact a great and good man. This is not less true, in a measure, of Mr. Madison than of some other men who have been Presidents, and of still more who have thought that they deserved to be. But, if that false estimate surrounds his name, there is a strong undercurrent of opinion, common among those whose business or whose pleasure it is to look beneath the surface of things historical, that he was wanting in strength of character and in courage. He did not lack discernment as to what was wisest and best; but he was too easily influenced by others, or led by the hope of gaining some glittering prize which ambition coveted, to turn his back upon his own convictions. It was this weakness which swept him beyond his depth into troubled waters where his struggles were hopeless. Had he refused to assume the responsibility of a war which his judgment condemned, and which he should have known that he wanted the peculiar ability to bring to a successful and honorable conclusion, he might never have been President, but his fame would have been of a higher order. History might have overlooked the act of political fickleness in his earlier career, which was so warmly resented by many of his contemporaries. Abandonment of party is too common and often too justifiable to be accounted as necessarily a crime; and it can rarely be said with positiveness, whatever the probabilities, that a political deserter is certainly moved by base motives. It is rather from _ex post facto_ than from immediate evidence, as in Madison's case, that a just verdict is likely to be reached. But there can be neither doubt nor mistake as to the President's management of foreign affairs during the two years preceding the declaration of war against England; nor of the remarkable incompetence which he showed in rallying the moral and material forces of the nation to meet an emergency of his own creation.

Opposition to war generally and therefore opposition to an army and navy were sound cardinal principles in the Jeffersonian school of politics. Mr. Madison was curiously blind to the logical consequences of this doctrine; he could not see, or he would not consider, that, when war seemed advisable to an administration, the result must depend mainly upon the success of the appeal to the people for their countenance and help. But he unwisely sought to raise and employ an army for the invasion and conquest of the territory of the enemy in spite of the opposition of a large proportion of the wealthiest and most intelligent people in the country; while at the same time he refused to see any promise or any presage in a naval warfare which had opened with unexpected brilliancy, and would, had it been followed up, have been sure of popular support. His title to fame rests, with the multitude, upon the fact that he was one of the earlier Presidents of the republic. But it is that period of his career which least entitles him to be remembered with gratitude and respect by his countrymen.

Its crowning humiliation came with the capture of Washington in August, 1814, when the British admiral, Cockburn, entered the Hall of Representatives, at the head of a band of followers, and springing into the speaker's chair shouted: "Shall this harbor of Yankee Democracy be burned? All for it will say, Aye!" Early in the war Madison had written to Jefferson, "We do not apprehend invasion by land,"--the one thing, it would seem, that a commander-in-chief should have apprehended, whose single aim was the invasion and conquest of the enemy's territory. His devotion to this one purpose, to the exclusion of any other idea of either offense or defense, and in spite of continued failure, was almost an infatuation. Within a year of that expression of confidence to Mr. Jefferson the whole coast was blockaded from the eastern end of Long Island Sound to the mouth of the Mississippi. For a year before Washington was taken, the shores of Chesapeake Bay were harassed and raided and devastated by a blockading force, till the people were reduced almost to the condition of a conquered country. Two months before the British commanders, Ross and Cockburn, went up the Potomac, Mr. Gallatin, who was then in London, had informed the President that the fleet was to be reinforced for that very purpose; but neither he nor Congress took any effective measures to meet a danger so imminent. Their eyes were fixed with a far-off gaze across the Northern border, while only five hundred regular troops, a body of untrained militia who had never heard the whistle of a bullet, and a few gunboats on the Potomac, guarded the national capital against a British fleet, a thousand marines, and thirty-five hundred men from Wellington's best regiments. The President fleeing in one direction with the secretary of war, the secretary of state, and the general in command; Mrs. Madison fleeing in another, with her reticule filled with silver spoons snatched up in haste as she left the White House;[15] behind them all as they fled, the horizon red with the blaze of the largest navy yard in the country and of all the public buildings, but one, of the capital,--these incidents are an amazing commentary on the early assertion that invasion was not to be apprehended.

The end of this wretched war, which has been foolishly called the second war of independence, came four months afterward. Never was a peace so welcome as this was on all sides. England was exhausted with the long contest with Napoleon; and now, that being over, as there was no practical question to differ about with the United States, the ministry were not unwilling to listen to the demands of the commercial and manufacturing classes. In America so great was the universal joy that the Federalists and the Democrats forgot their differences and their hates, and wept and laughed by turns in each other's arms and kissed each other like women. One party was delivered from calamities for which, if continued much longer, there seemed only one desperate and dreaded remedy; the other was overjoyed to back out of a blunder which was the straight and broad road to national ruin. Of all men, Mr. Madison had the most reason to be glad for a safe deliverance from the consequences of his own want of foresight and want of firmness. Less than two years remained to him of his public career. In that brief period much was forgotten and more forgiven--as our national way is--in the promise of a great prosperity to be speedily achieved in the released energies of a vigorous and industrious people. He had not again to choose between differing factions of his own party, nor to carry out a policy against the will of a formidable opposition. To the Federalists hardly a name was left in the progress of events at home and abroad; while all immediate vital questions of difference vanished, the party in power remained in almost undisputed ascendency. The most important Democratic measures it then insisted upon were a national bank and a protective tariff. To the establishment of a bank Mr. Madison assented against his own conviction that any provision could be found for it in the Constitution; and a tariff, both for revenue and for the protection and encouragement of American industry, he agreed with his party was the true policy.

For nearly twenty years after his retirement to Montpellier--a name which, with rare exceptions, he always spelled correctly, and not in the American way--it was his privilege to live a watchful observer of the prosperity of his country. If it ever occurred to him in his secret soul that at the period of his preëminence he had done anything to arrest that prosperity, he gave no sign. He loved rather to remember and sometimes to recall to others the part he had taken in the nurture of the young republic in the feeble days of its infancy. Of his own administration and the events of that time he had much less to say than of the true interpretation of the Constitution, of the intent of its framers, and the circumstances that influenced their deliberations. His voluminous correspondence shows the bent of his mind as a legislator and a student of fundamental law; and on that, rather than on his ability and success as the chief magistrate of the nation, rests his true fame.

These twenty years, though passed in retirement, were not years of leisure. "I have rarely," he wrote in 1827, "during the period of my public life, found my time less at my disposal than since I took my leave of it; nor have I the consolation of finding, that as my powers of application necessarily decline, the demands on them proportionally decrease." Much as he wrote upon questions of an earlier period, there were no topics of the current time that did not arouse his interest. Upon the subject of slavery he thought much and wrote much and always earnestly and humanely. How to get rid of it was a problem which he never solved to his own satisfaction. Though it was one he always longed to see through, it never occurred to him that the way to abolish slavery was--to abolish it. How kind he was as a master, Paul Jennings bears witness. "I never," he says, "saw him in a passion, and never knew him to strike a slave, though he had over a hundred; neither would he allow an overseer to do it." He rebuked those who were in fault; but, adds Jennings, he would "never mortify them by doing it before others." It will be remembered that on the first occasion of his being a candidate for public office he refused to follow the universal Virginian habit of "treating" the electors. To the principle which governed him then he adhered through life, and his letters show the warm interest he always took in every phase of the temperance movement. "I don't think he drank a quart of brandy in his whole life," says Jennings. A single glass of wine was all he ever took at dinner, and this he diluted with water, when, says the same witness, "he had hard drinkers at his table who had put away his choice madeira pretty freely." This will go for something, considering the times, with even the most zealous of the modern supporters of that cause; but they must be quite satisfied to know that "for the last fifteen years of his life he drank no wine at all." Consideration for his own health, always feeble, may have led him to this abstinence; but it is rather remarkable that a man of his position should have held, fifty years ago, the advanced notions which he certainly did upon this question, and that the doubt only of the possibility of enforcing laws for prohibiting the manufacture and sale of spirits seems to have withheld him from proposing them.

Social as well as moral questions he discussed with evident interest and without passion or prejudice. Aside from the party meaning of the term, he belonged to that school of democracy, now extinct, which believed that the highest object of human exertion is to improve man's condition, and to secure to each the rights which belong to all. He did not agree with Robert Owen as to methods; but neither did he reject his schemes as inevitably absurd because they were new and untried. One would not gather from his correspondence with Frances Wright that this was the notorious Fanny Wright whom the world chose to consider, as its way is, a disreputable and probably wicked woman, inasmuch as she proposed some radical changes in its social relations which she thought would be a gain. He gave much attention to popular education, and all the influence he could command was devoted, through all the later years of his life, to the establishment and well-being of the University of Virginia. Education, he maintained, was the true foundation of civil liberty, and on it, therefore, rested the welfare and stability of the republic. It is probable that he would have drawn a line at difference of color then, simply because of the difference of condition implied by color. But he made no such distinction in sex. Sixty-three years ago he saw his way quite clearly on a question which is a sore trial now to many timid souls. The capacity of "the female mind" for the highest education cannot, he said, "be doubted, having been sufficiently illustrated by its works of genius, of erudition, and of science." The capacity, he assumed, carried with it the right. In short, he was ready always to consider fairly questions relating to the well-being of society which since his time have deeply agitated the country; and he approached them all much in the spirit of the reformer who hopes to leave the world a little better and happier because he has lived in it.

"Mr. Madison, I think," says Paul Jennings, "was one of the best men that ever lived." This is the testimony of an intelligent man whose opportunities of knowing the personal qualities of him of whom he was speaking were more intimate than those of any other person could be except Mrs. Madison. "He was guilty," says Hildreth, "of the greatest political wrong and crime which it is possible for the head of a nation to commit." One saw the private gentleman, always conscientious and considerate in his personal relations to other men; the other judged the public man, moved by ambition, entangled in party ties and supposed party obligations, his moral sense blinded by the necessities of political compromises to reach party ends. It is not impossible to strike a just balance between these opposing estimates, though one is that of a servant, the other that of a learned and judicious historian.

Mr. Madison left a legacy of "Advice to My Country," to be read after his death and to "be considered as issuing from the tomb, where truth alone can be respected, and the happiness of man alone consulted." It is the lesson of his life, as he wished his countrymen to understand it. "The advice," he said, "nearest to my heart and deepest in my convictions is, that the Union of the States be cherished and perpetuated. Let the open enemy to it be regarded as a Pandora with her box opened, and the disguised one as the serpent creeping with his deadly wiles into Paradise." The thoughtful reader, as he turns to the first page of this volume to recall the date of Mr. Madison's death, will hardly fail to note how few the years were before these open and disguised enemies, against whom he warned his countrymen, were found only in that party which he had done so much, from the time of the adoption of the Constitution, to keep in power.

FOOTNOTE:

[Footnote 15: Paul Jennings, who was a slave and the body servant of Mr. Madison, says in his _Reminiscences_: "It has often been stated in print, that when Mrs. Madison escaped from the White House, she cut out from the frame the large portrait of Washington (now in one of the parlors there) and carried it off. This is totally false. She had no time for doing it. It would have required a ladder to get it down. All she carried off was the silver in her reticule, as the British were thought to be but a few squares off, and were expected every moment. John Suse (a Frenchman, then doorkeeper, and still [1865] living), and Magraw, the President's gardener, took it down and sent it off on a wagon, with some large silver urns and such other valuables as could hastily be got hold of. When the British did arrive, they ate up the very dinner, and drank the wines, etc., that I had prepared for the President's party." On a previous page he had related that: "Mrs. Madison ordered dinner to be ready at three as usual; I set the table myself, and brought up the ale, cider, and wine, and placed them in the coolers, as all the cabinet and several military gentlemen and strangers were expected."]

INDEX

INDEX

Abolition Societies, petition for prohibition of African slave trade
to Louisiana, 250.

Adams, John, refers question of Presidential titles to Congress, 123;
his position in the matter, 123, 124, 125;
has popular sympathy in X Y Z affair, 231;
not a leader of a party, 231;
his quarrel with party leaders, 240;
effects of his foreign policy, 242.

Adams, John Quincy, erroneous statement regarding date of Madison's
death, 1-3;
attempt to expel from Congress, 185;
on good luck of Jefferson, 244, 253;
supports Jefferson's embargo policy, 245.

Alien and Sedition Acts, passed in 1798, 231;
their justification, 231, 232;
influence election of 1800, 240.

Ames, Fisher, opposes impost on molasses, 127;
on proposal to tax imported slaves, 130;
his doubts of any future development of West, 140;
on banks, 162;
on over-devotion to Constitution, 173 n.;
on Madison's partisanship, 192.

Annapolis Convention, events leading up to, 52-59;
proposed by Maryland, 55, 59;
meets with delegates from five States, 59;
calls a convention of all the States to revise Constitution, 59, 60;
its meeting due to Madison, 61.

Armstrong, John, on impotence of embargo, 269;
instructed to demand compensation for French spoliation, 284.

Bainbridge, Captain William, in war with Tripoli, 252.

Bank, United States, debated in Congress, 162;
arguments for and against, 162, 163;
favored by House, 163;
discussion concerning, in cabinet, 163;
bill creating, signed by Washington, 163;
Madison's hostility to, 177, 178;
act creating, signed by Madison as President, 319.

Barbary States, war with, during Jefferson's administration, 252.

Barlow, Joel, letters of Madison to, as minister to France, 292, 293,
294;
instructed by Madison to insist on explanations, 305;
urges Bassano for a definite statement as to decrees, 306.

Barron, Commodore Samuel, in war with Tripoli, 252;
in the Chesapeake-Leopard affair, 265.

Bassano, Duke de, shows ante-dated revocation of Berlin and Milan
decrees to Barlow, 305-307;
his reasons, 307.

Bayonne decree, 270.

Berlin decree, issued, 266;
negotiations concerning, 266-307.
See France.

Bonaparte, Napoleon, effect of his career on United States, 242;
sells Louisiana to United States, 249;
promulgates Berlin decree, 266;
the Milan decree, 268;
the Bayonne decree, 270;
causes conditional revocation of decrees, 282;
his policy and its success, 283;
issues Rambouillet decree, 284;
refuses compensation, 284;
his doctrine of blockade, 286, 288;
willingness of Madison to help, 288;
succeeds in forcing United States to declare war on England, 288, 289;
revokes decrees, 304.

Bradford, William, Jr., letter of Madison to, 11, 13, 26.

Breckenridge, John, offers Kentucky Resolutions of 1799, 239.

Brown, John, on advantages of slave trade for North, 130 n.

Burr, Aaron, interview of Jefferson and Madison with, 175.

Butler, Pierce, moves fugitive slave clause in Constitutional
Convention, 107.

Calhoun, John C., leads war party in Congress, 292;
reports from Committee on Foreign Relations in favor of war, 295;
denounces Henry affair, 298.

Canada, its conquest looked forward to by war party, 293, 294, 310;
reluctance of New England to invade, 310.

Canning, George, sends instructions to Erskine, 273;
his directions not obeyed, 274;
repudiates Erskine's acts and recalls him, 275;
bitter comments of Madison upon, 276;
not really responsible for failure of negotiations, 276, 277.

Capital, discussion of its site, 139-143;
settlement of question concerning, by Jefferson's and Hamilton's
bargain, 143, 151, 152.

Carrying trade acquired by United States during Napoleonic wars,
254-256.

Champagny, announces conditional revocation of Berlin and Milan
decrees, 282.

Chesapeake and Leopard affair, 264-266, 274.

Clay, Henry, leads war party in Congress, 292, 294;
expects easy conquest of Canada, 294.

Clinton, De Witt, interview of Jefferson and Madison with, 175;
desires presidential nomination as candidate of war party, 296.

Clinton, George, candidate for presidential nomination, 272.

Cockburn, Admiral George, burns capital at Washington, 316, 317.

Confederation, Articles of, their uselessness according to Hamilton, 36;
require taxation in proportion to land, 37;
proposal to amend by substituting population, 38;
unable to create commercial union, 51, 52;
military inefficiency of, shown by Shays's rebellion, 73;
proposal of Jay to disregard, in making Spanish treaty, 79, 80;
desire of one party in Constitutional Convention to retain, 85, 86.

Congress, Continental, impotence of, in 1780, 20;
financial powerlessness of, 21, 22, 29;
draws bills on France without waiting for its reply to demand for
loan, 28;
in danger from army, 29;
membership of, 30;
instructs Jay to insist on Mississippi navigation, 31;
reverses instructions, 32;
again changes to original position, 33;
proposes impost scheme to States, 33;
proposes five per cent. scheme, 33;
appoints committee to conciliate Rhode Island, 34;
proposes amendment to Articles of Confederation, 37;
adopts compromise concerning rate of taxing slaves, 41;
alarmed at Shays's rebellion, 73;
raises troops against, under pretext of attacking Indians, 73;
discusses proposal to abandon Mississippi navigation in return for
commercial treaty with Spain, 78;
authorizes Jay to make treaty, 79;
later retracts consent to abandon navigation, 80;
prohibits slavery in Northwest Ordinance, 91, 92;
provides for inauguration of government under federal Constitution,
116, 122.

Congress of the United States, its slowness to assemble, 122, 123;
debates question of presidential titles, 123-126;
disagreement in, between Senate and House, 124;
debates impost and tonnage duties, 126-136;
debate in, over proposal to tax imported slaves, 128-133;
arguments in, against the tax, 130, 131;
regrets proposal, 132;
imposes moderate duties, 133;
adopts policy of free trade in slaves, 133 and n.;
lays differential tonnage duties, 134-136;
leadership of Madison in, 136, 137;
passing bills organizing government, 137;
debates question of
removals from office, 137,138;
proposes amendments to Constitution, 139;
debates location of capital, 139-142;
position of parties in, 140;
votes for Pennsylvania, 141;
its action reversed by Madison, 141, 142;
finally decides on Potomac as site, 142, 143;
asks Hamilton to report on public credit, 144;
votes to pay foreign debt, 144;
debate in, as to payment of domestic debt, 144-150;
arguments in, against and for payment of domestic creditors, 145-147;
rejects compromise proposed by Madison, 148;
rejects proposal to assume state debt, 150, 151;
later led by Hamilton's and Jefferson's bargain to consent, 151, 152;
petitioned by Quakers to oppose slavery, 152, 153;
debate in, over its powers and on slavery, 153-161;
ends debate without action, 161;
later debate in, on similar petition, 161;
its power over slavery defined by Madison and Gerry, 159, 160;
prohibits slave trade in foreign vessels, 161;
debates proposed National Bank, 162;
votes in its favor, 163;
establishes newspaper postage, 172;
arranges presidential succession in emergency, 176, 177;
aims to exclude Jefferson, 177;
proposal in to refer various matters to Hamilton, 180, 181;
refuses to let Hamilton appear before it, 181;
passes resolutions of inquiry concerning Hamilton's conduct, 189;
rejects resolutions of censure, 191;
attempts to block Jay treaty, 216, 217;
review of Madison's leadership of, 222, 223;
adopts Alien and Sedition Acts, 231;
prohibits introduction of slaves into Louisiana except by actual
settlers, 250;
called by Jefferson to consider British aggressions, 267;
adopts embargo, 268; repeals it, 271;
unable to adopt a policy, 280;
suspends non-importation act with threat to renew unless England and
France revoke decrees, 280;
renews non-intercourse with England, 288;
determines on war with England, 293, 294;
passes embargo, 295;
declares war, 295, 296;
denounces John Henry letters as cause for war, 298;
adopts bank and tariff for protection, 319.

Connecticut, fails to appoint delegates to Annapolis Convention, 59;
its Revolutionary debt, 151.

Constitution of the United States, part of Madison in framing, 84, 85;
condemned by state-rights men as monarchical, 88, 89;
the slavery compromises in, 91-109;
strong and weak points in, 108, 109;
dissatisfaction of Madison with, 110;
his later efforts to secure adoption of, 110-112;
advocated by "The Federalist," 111, 112;
struggle in Virginia over its ratification, 112-116;
silent on removals from office, 137;
thought by Madison to justify impeachment for wanton removals, 138;
amendments to, proposed by Congress, 139;
said to be disregarded by petitioners against slavery, 153;
its relation to abolition defined by Madison, 156, 159;
and by Gerry, 159, 160;
Madison's strict construction of, surprises Federalists, 173, 174,
175;
held by Jefferson to prohibit Washington's neutrality proclamation,
196;
question of treaty power under, 216, 217;
the doctrine of nullification discussed, 234-240;
violated by Louisiana purchase, 247, 248.

Constitutional Convention, called by Annapolis Convention, 60;
difficulties in gaining attendance of States, 79;
its success endangered by feeling in South over proposed
abandonment of Mississippi navigation, 81-83;
part played by Madison in, the "Virginia" plan, 84; division of
parties in, 85;
attitude of States'-rights party, 86-88;
their secession from, 90;
difficulties in, between large and small States, 90;
divisions in, between free and slave States, 91;
question of representation in, 94;
argument of Northern men against counting slaves in representation,
95, 96;
character of the compromise demanded in, 96, 97;
position of Southern delegates in, 101, 103;
debate in, over slave trade, 101-105;
adopts compromise permitting slave trade and granting Congress
power over commerce, 106;
adopts fugitive slave clause, 107;
estimate of results of its labors, 107, 108.

Convention of Virginia. See Legislature.

Convention of Virginia for ratifying United States Constitution,
campaign in elections for, 112;
part played by Madison in, 113-115;
votes to ratify Constitution, 115;
adjourns, 116.

Conway, Nelly, mother of Madison, 3;
statement of Rives as to her name, 3;
statements of Madison concerning, 3, 4.

Craddock, Lieutenant, 7.

Craig, Sir James, governor of Canada, sends Henry to investigate New
England Federalists, 299, 300.

Curtis, George Ticknor, calls slavery compromise on representation an
"unimportant anomaly," 94.

Dearborn, Henry, attempt of Foster to arrange armistice with, 308.

Debt, public, debate over it in Continental Congress, 28;
in first Congress, 144-152;
policy of Hamilton concerning, 149, 150.

Decatur, Stephen, in war with Tripoli, 252.

Delaware, connection with Potomac navigation, 55;
sends delegates to Annapolis Convention, 59;
only Federalist State outside New England, 243.

Democratic party, formed in first Congress, 165;
its career, 165, 166;
opinion of Hamilton on its organization by Jefferson and Madison,
166-168;
reasons of Madison for joining, 178-184;
plans to ruin Hamilton, 189;
its attack defeated in Congress, 189-191;
attitude toward France, 193, 194;
criticises the neutrality proclamation, 198;
welcomes Genet, 200;
suffers from his extravagance, 202;
imitates French manners, 207;
causes for its success, 210;
its reasons for disliking England, 214;
attacks Alien and Sedition Laws, 233;
carries election of 1800, 241;
does not demand removal of Federalists from offices, 251;
attempts of Federalists to discredit its foreign policy, 263, 264;
elects Madison president, 272;
determines on war with England, 291, 292, 293;
renominates Madison, 296;
its policy during war, 310-318;
rejoices at peace, 318;
supports national bank and protective tariff, 319.

Dexter, Samuel, on social equality in New England, 207, 208.

Diplomatic history, neutrality debated between Hamilton and
Jefferson, 195;
neutrality proclamation issued, 196;
question as to validity of treaty engagements of 1778, 199, 200;
mission of Genet to United States, 199-202;
summary of Washington's foreign policy, 210, 211;
Jay treaty, 211;
its merits, defects, and reasons for acceptance, 211-218;
mission of Monroe to France, 218-220;
foreign relations under Jefferson's administration, 242, 243;
controversy over neutral commerce and impressments, 256-259;
Monroe-Pinkney treaty with England, 261-263;
Erskine's attempt to reconcile England and America, 272-277;
mission of Jackson to Washington, 278;
the offer of Congress to France and England, 281;
Napoleon's conditional revocation, 282-284;
England's refusal, 286;
further demands of Madison upon England, 287;
threatening language of Madison to France, 291-294;
circumstances preceding war with England, 304-308;
treaty of Ghent, 318.

Directory. See France.

Disunion, expected in 1783, if five per cent. scheme fails, 35, 36;
danger of, on account of slave taxation question, 39;
feared by Madison in 1787, 74, 75;
would probably have been preferred by South to abandonment of
Mississippi navigation, 81;
threatened by South in slavery debates in Constitutional
Convention, 99, 100, 102, 103, 109;
freely threatened during Washington's administration, 187;
denounced by Madison late in life, 237;
threatened by New England, 301, 302;
Madison's last words a warning against, 324.

Douai, Merlin de, President of French National Convention, receives
Monroe, 218.

Draper, Lyman C., letters of Madison to, on his ancestry, 3, 4 n., 6.

Ellsworth, Oliver, in Continental Congress, 30;
his education, 31;
disclaims interest of North for or against slave trade, 102;
makes cynical reply to Mason's condemnation of slavery, 102, 103.

Emancipation, movement for, in Northern States, 91;
petition of Benjamin Franklin in favor of, 152, 153;
of Warner Mifflin for, 161.

Embargo, recommended by Jefferson, passed by Congress, 268;
fails to affect England or France, 269;
its results in United States, 269;
leads to Bayonne decree, 270;
repealed, 271;
its failure explained by Madison, 278, 279;
renewed on eve of war with England, 295.

Emott, James, on doctrine of blockade, 286.

England, commercial retaliation against, proposed under the
confederation, 47;
Virginian trade with, 47, 48;
rejoices at prospect of trouble over Mississippi navigation, 78;
its constitution imitated in Federal Convention, 89, 90;
discriminated against in tonnage duties of first Congress, 134, 135;
prejudice of Madison against, 135;
war with France, 197;
Federalists declared by opposition to be partisans of, 194, 197,
198, 200, 203-205;
its policy encourages dislike in America, 209;
makes Jay treaty, 211;
necessity of avoiding war with, 211, 214;
causes for Democratic dislike of, 214;
its overbearing attitude, 214, 215;
real attitude of Federalists toward, 215;
temporary stoppage of friction with, 242, 243;
loses carrying trade to America, 254, 255;
obliged to adopt measures against neutrals in order to defeat
France, 256, 257;
inability of America to resist its depredations, 257, 258, 259;
impresses seamen from American vessels, 258;
non-importation measures adopted against, 260;
refuses to abandon impressment, 262;
makes treaty with Monroe, 262;
refuses to reopen negotiations, 263;
its part in Chesapeake controversy, 266;
issues order in council, 268;
not affected by embargo, 269;
attempted reconciliation with, made through Erskine, 272-275;
attempt of Congress to induce her to revoke orders, 280, 281;
view of Madison as to her policy, 282;
refuses to recognize France's alleged revocation of decrees, 286;
refuses to abandon blockade, 286;
growth of party desirous of war with, 292, 294;
war declared with, 295, 296;
position of Madison concerning war with, 296-303;
said to have plotted with New England, 298, 301;
points out to United States that France has not revoked decrees, 305;
promises to repeal order in council as soon as France revokes, 306;
does so, 307;
fails to prevent war on impressment issue, 308;
its successes in war, 316, 317;
makes peace of Ghent, 318.

Erskine, David M., confers with Madison before his inauguration, 272;
exceeds his instructions and promises a withdrawal of orders in
council, 273;
does not insist on other concessions, 274;
proposes settlement of Chesapeake matter, 274;
fails to resent remarks of Smith, 274;
his arrangement repudiated and himself recalled, 275;
comments of Madison on his behavior, 276;
replaced by Jackson, 277.

Essex Junto, said by Madison to have been proved through Henry
letters to plan secession, 298, 301.

"Federalist," Madison's share in, 111, 112.

Federalist party, Madison at first a member of, 164;
its career, 165;
survival of its principles, 166;
secession of Madison from, 17 2, 173;
views Madison with suspicion, 174-176;
in Congress, arranges presidential succession in emergency so as to
exclude Jefferson, 176, 177;
accuses Madison of changing opinions in hopes of place, 180, 181;
its deference to Hamilton, 180;
accused of desiring monarchy by Jefferson and Madison, 186;
and of favoring England, 194, 197, 198, 200, 203-205;
profits by reaction against Genet, 202, 203;
accused of deluding Washington, 204, 206;
the only impartial American party, 215;
commits blunders after X Y Z affair, 231;
passes Alien and Sedition Acts, 231;
its attitude toward foreign immigrants, 231, 232;
loses popularity, 233;
quarrels in, 240;
defeated in election of 1800, 240, 241;
loses ground everywhere, 243;
rejoices at peace of Ghent, 318;
disappears from politics, 319.

Ferrar, Will, 7.

Finances of the Revolution, their breakdown in 1780 described by
Madison, 20;
reforms suggested by Madison of state paper money, 21;
proposal to collect supplies and pay in certificates, 22;
drawing of bills on France without waiting for acceptance of loan, 28;
public debt in 1783, 28;
deficit in revenue, 29;
the impost scheme defeated by Rhode Island, 33;
the five per cent. scheme proposed, 33;
debate concerning, 34-37;
fails, 38;
paper-money craze in States, 67.

Floyd, Catherine, engaged to Madison, 42;
breaks the engagement, 43, 44.

Floyd, General William, wishes his daughter to marry Madison, 42.

Foster, Augustus J., British minister, tries to prevent outbreak of
hostilities on learning of revocation of orders in council, 307,
308.

France, trade with, preferred by Madison to English trade, 136;
enthusiasm of Jefferson and Madison for, 192;
cautious attitude of Hamilton in payments to, angers Democrats,
193, 194;
declares war against England, 195;
desire of Democrats to help, 197;
relations with, according to treaty of 1778, discussed, 199;
defended by Democrats in Genet case, 203;
gratitude to, traditional, 209;
mission of Monroe to, 218-220;
commits outrages on American merchant vessels, 219;
indignant at Jay treaty, 220;
takes Democratic view of American administration, 220;
relations with, during Adams's administration, 230;
X Y Z affair, 230;
improved relations of Jefferson's administration with, 242;
enforces Berlin decree against American vessels, 266, 267;
these aggressions not resented by Jefferson, 267;
attempt of Congress to induce it to revoke decrees, 280, 281;
expectations of Madison as to its policy, 282;
makes a conditional reply to the conditional offer of Congress,
282-284;
insists that England also withdraw, or that United States "cause
rights to be respected," 283;
refuses compensation for Rambouillet decree, 284;
succeeds in inducing Madison to accept revocation, 285;
continues to seize American ships, 285, 286;
partiality of Madison's policy toward, 287, 288;
success of French policy, 288, 289;
vigorous language of Madison toward, 291, 292, 293;
war with, threatened, 294;
does not really revoke decrees until war is about to break out
between United States and England, 304-305;
displays ante-dated revocation, 307.

Franklin, Benjamin, signs memorial for abolition of slavery, 152;
denounced by Southerners in Congress, 153.

French Revolution, applauded by
Democrats, 193;
desires of Democrats to assist, 194;
attitude of Federalists toward, 193, 195;
its phraseology and mannerisms imitated in America, 207.

Freneau, Philip, Madison's responsibility for his establishment in
State Department, 168;
Madison's purposes in recommending him to Jefferson, 169, 170;
his paper and its character, 170, 171;
his relations to Jefferson and Madison, 171;
care of Madison for, 172.

Gallatin, Albert, opposes Alien and Sedition Acts, 233;
career as secretary of treasury, 252;
condemned by opposition for failure of Erskine's negotiations, 275;
warns Madison of invasion of Chesapeake, 317.

Genet, Edmond Charles, his recognition opposed by Hamilton, 199;
upheld successfully by Jefferson, 200;
anxiety of Madison as to his reception, 200;
alienates Jefferson by his excesses, 201;
accuses Jefferson of duplicity, 201, 202;
at first promises good behavior, 202;
his recall, 207, 209;
effect of his presence on parties in United States, 207;
fears of Jefferson that his recall may cause an insurrection, 209.

Georgia, willing for sake of alliance with Spain to abandon
Mississippi navigation, 32;
fails to appoint delegates to Annapolis convention, 52;
attitude toward slavery in Constitutional Convention, 109.

Gerry, Elbridge, anticipated by Henry in device of gerrymandering, 120;
in first Congress opposes taxation of molasses, 127;
favors tax on imported slaves, 132;
asserts power of Congress to interfere with slavery and slave
trade, 159, 160.

Gerrymandering, used by Henry in Virginia to defeat Madison's
election to Congress, 120, 121.

Giddings, Joshua R., attempt to expel from Congress, 185.

Giles, W. B., offers resolutions demanding investigation of
Hamilton's conduct, 189;
offers resolutions of censure, 191.

Goodhue, Benjamin, opposes impost on molasses, 127.

Gorham, Nathaniel, seconds Pinckney's motion for extension of period
of slave trade, 106.

Guardoqui, ----, negotiates with Jay about Mississippi navigation, 79.

Hamilton, Alexander, in Continental Congress, 30;
equal to Madison in political information, 31;
opposes limitation of five per cent. scheme to twenty-five years,
34, 35;
does not wish to postpone crisis of confederation, 36;
supports Madison's slavery compromise concerning taxation, 41;
writes address of Annapolis Convention, 59;
on name "Federalist," 86;
in Constitutional Convention proposes representation according to
free population, 94;
his share in "The Federalist," 111;
carries New York for Constitution, 115;
his bargain concerning location of capital, 143, 151;
his report on public credit, 145;
suspected of purpose to throw government of country into hands of
wealthy, 149;
recommends a bank, 162;
his argument persuades Washington, 163;
becomes convinced of Madison's opposition, 166;
still believes him honest, 166;
begins to suspect sincerity of his motives, 166, 167;
accuses him of tampering with President's message, 167;
and of aiding Freneau, 168;
avows intention to treat Madison as an enemy, 181;
begins newspaper controversy, 185;
attacks Jefferson bitterly, 186;
consulted by Washington as to declining a second term, 186;
denies accusation of being a monarchist, 186;
violently attacked by Jefferson to Washington, 187;
his reply, 188;
his conduct attacked in Congress by Giles and Madison, 189, 190;
replies successfully, 190;
failure of resolution of censure against, 191;
personal hatred of Madison and Jefferson for, 192;
condemned also because of his attitude toward France, 193;
slow to pay French debt, 193;
defends neutrality in "Pacificus" papers, 198;
argues against alliance with France, 199;
and against receiving a minister from French Republic, 199;
stoned for defending Jay treaty, 212.

Hamilton, John C., asserts Madison's authorship of Giles's
resolutions, 189, 190.

Hartford Convention, its purpose, 311;
alarm felt toward, 312;
brought to nothing by peace of Ghent, 311.

Henry, John, his revelations bought by Madison, 297;
said to prove a plot for reannexing New England to Great Britain, 298;
said to be a just cause for war, 298;
his career as emissary of governor of Canada in Massachusetts, 299;
compromises nobody, 300, 301.

Henry, Patrick, opposes ratification of Constitution, 112;
considers state sovereignty attacked by Constitution, 114;
continues to oppose Constitution in Virginia Assembly, 118;
leads Assembly to call for a new convention, 118;
nominates and elects two anti-federalist senators, 119;
gerrymanders Madison's congressional district, 120;
fails to prevent his election, 120, 121.

Hildreth, Richard, on Madison's acquaintance with Kentucky
Resolutions, 234, 235;
on Madison's career, 323.

Humphreys, Colonel David, letter of Madison to, on secession of New
England, 302.

Impressment, its exercise by England, 258, 259;
discussion over, in Monroe treaty, 262;
abandoned in treaty, 262;
used as pretext for war of 1812, 308;
yet not mentioned in treaty of peace, 308.

Independence of colonies, urged by Virginia, 15, 16.

Jackson, Francis J., replaces Erskine as British minister to United
States, 278;
accuses Madison of bad faith, 278;
his recall demanded, 278.

Jay, John, instructed as minister to Spain, regarding Mississippi
navigation, 31-33;
tries to induce Congress to abandon Mississippi navigation in order
to make treaty with Spain, 79;
wishes to evade Articles of Confederation, 80;
his project opposed by Madison, 81, 82;
his share in "The Federalist," 87, 111;
his treaty with England, 211;
its character and justification, 211;
condemned in cities, 212;
his negotiations opposed by Monroe, 220.

Jay treaty, 211-218.
See Diplomatic History.

Jefferson, Thomas, letter of Madison to, on condition of country, 19,
20;
consoles Madison on his disappointment in love, 44;
at Madison's suggestion, confers with Maryland delegates on Potomac
navigation, 53;
his act for establishing religious freedom passed by legislature,
65;
comments on its passage, 65 n.;
wishes Madison to join him in Europe, 68;
corresponds with Madison on steamboats, 69, 70;
informed by Madison of prehistoric relics, 71;
on Shays's rebellion, 75;
on bargain in Constitutional Convention between New England and
slave States, 106;
letters of Madison to, on Constitution, 110, 116;
and on Virginia politics, 119, 120;
letter of Madison to, on debate over President's title, 124;
letter of Madison to, on foreign commerce, 136;
his views on removals from office, 138;
relation to bargain for location of capital, 143, 152;
opposes a national bank, 163;
influences Madison to abandon Federalist party, 164, 174;
his character and motives as viewed by Hamilton, 166, 167, 168;
connection with Freneau, 168-171, 175;
suggestion of Madison to, with regard to circulating Freneau's
paper, 172;
his tour in Eastern States misrepresented by Federalists, 175;
hatred of Federalists for, 176;
action of Federalists in Congress to prevent his accession as
president _pro tempore_, 176, 177;
attacked by Hamilton in press, 186;
condemns Hamilton in letter to Washington, 187, 188;
his personal hatred of Hamilton, 192;
dislikes him for attitude toward French Revolution, 193;
sympathizes with Jacobins, 193, 194;
objects to declaration of neutrality, 195, 196;
secures modification of proclamation, 196;
wishes to aid France as far as possible, 197;
urges Madison to reply to Hamilton, 198;
secures recognition of Genet, 200;
letters of Madison to, on Genet's reception, 200;
condemns Genet's excesses, 201, 202;
fears reaction in favor of administration, 202, 203;
letters of Madison to, on Washington, 204;
describes Washington's anger at Freneau, 205;
not sincere in considering him a dupe, 206;
fears recall of Genet may cause revolution, 209;
letter of Madison to, on Jay treaty in House of Representatives,
217;
his honest love for farming, 226, 227;
correspondence of Madison with, concerning farming, 228;
requested by Madison to furnish material for house, 228, 229;
writes Kentucky Resolutions, 234;
author of nullification, 234;
avoids public responsibility for resolutions, 235;
his probable reasons for writing them, 235, 236;
denied on erroneous grounds by Madison to have used term
"nullification," 239, 240;
offers Madison secretaryship of state, 241;
his inauguration, 242;
in his inaugural speech urges harmony, 243;
success of his first term, 244;
popular support of, called infatuation by Federalists, 244;
his absolute control as a leader, 245;
his secretive methods, 245;
boldness in assuming responsibility for Louisiana purchase and
other matters, 246;
overshadows and directs Madison, 246;
does not foresee consequences of Louisiana annexation in
stimulating slavery, 246, 247;
his purposes to insure peace, 247, 249;
abused by opponents, 247;
admits unconstitutionality of Louisiana treaty, 248;
comments on criticisms of Federalists, 248;
his fortune in seizing opportunity, 249;
sends expedition of Lewis and Clarke, 249;
gains credit for Gallatin's financial policy, 252;
other successes of his first term, 252;
becomes involved in foreign controversy, 254;
his naval policy, 257, 258;
supported by Madison in policy of commercial pressure, 260;
sends Pinkney to make a treaty with England, 261;
instructs to insist on abandonment of impressment, 262;
dissatisfied with treaty, 263;
after Leopard affair, orders British ships of war out of American
waters, 265;
reluctant to go to war with France, 267;
calls special session of Congress to consider England's
aggressions, 267;
recommends an embargo, 268;
receives news of order in council and Milan decree, 268;
loses control of party with failure of embargo, 270, 271;
dictates choice of successor, 272;
letter of Madison to, on Erskine affair, 276;
on preparations for war, 293.

Jennings, Paul, describes Madison's flight from British, 317 n.;
describes Madison's kindness to slaves, 321;
and his temperance, 321;
his estimate of Madison's character, 323.

Jones, Joseph, desires to be appointed delegate to Congress, 22.

Jordan, Cicely, suit of Pooley against, 7.

Kentucky Resolutions, their preparation by Jefferson, 234, 235.

King, Rufus, remark of Giles to, on Madison's authorship of
resolutions against Hamilton, 190.

Knox, General Henry, on Genet's course, 201.

Lee, Richard Henry, opposes Constitution, 112;
favors a high-sounding presidential title, 124.

Legislature, of Virginia, instructs delegates to Congress to urge
independence of colonies, 15, 16;
debates Bill of Rights, 16;
adopts religious liberty, 17, 18;
elects Madison member of Council, 19;
and delegate to Continental Congress, 19;
neglects to pay his salary, 23-25;
its vacillating course regarding
Mississippi navigation, 31-33;
revokes assent to impost law, 34;
but assents to five per cent. scheme, 34;
its power to make or mar central government, 46;
agrees to proposed amendment to Articles of Confederation, 46;
promises to pay requisitions and old debts, 46, 47;
agrees to temporary control by Congress of trade, 47;
led by Madison to establish ports of entry to regulate foreign
trade, 49, 50;
later modifies the law, 51;
appoints commissioners to discuss Potomac question with Maryland,
54;
considers petitions to improve trade, 55;
defeats attempt of Madison to instruct delegates to give Congress
power over financial and commercial questions, 56;
induced by influence of Maryland to appoint commissioners to
Annapolis Convention, 57, 58;
elects delegates to Federal Convention, 60;
disregards treaty provisions with England, 61, 62;
passes act to incorporate Episcopal Church, 63;
debates question of compulsory support of religion, 63, 64;
passes act for establishing religious freedom, 65;
resists paper-money craze, 67;
instructs delegates to oppose abandonment of Mississippi
navigation, 83;
led by Henry to call for a second Constitutional Convention, 118;
elects two anti-Federalist senators, 119;
gerrymanders Madison's congressional district, 120, 121;
Madison's visit to, in 1798, 230, 235;
adopts resolutions against Alien and Sedition Laws, 235;
part played by Madison in, 1799, 236.

Leopard and Chesapeake affair, 264-266, 274.

Lewis and Clarke, their expedition sent by Jefferson, 249, 250.

Library of Congress, proposed by Madison, 31.

Lincoln, Benjamin, captured at Charleston, 19;
defeats Shays's Rebellion, 73.

Little Belt affair, 290.

Livermore, Samuel, his ingenious argument as to taxing importation of
slaves, 131.

Liverpool, Lord, connection with John Henry letters, 300.

Livingston, Robert R., interview of Jefferson and Madison with, 175.