J. C. A. Stagg - Böcker

In examining how the United States gained control over the northern borderlands of Spanish America, this work reassesses the diplomacy of President James Madison. Historians have assumed Madison’s motive in sending agents into the Spanish borderlands between 1810 and 1813 was to subvert Spanish rule, but J. C. A. Stagg argues that his real intent was to find peaceful and legal resolutions to long-standing disputes over the boundaries of Louisiana at a time when the Spanish-American empire was in the process of dissolution. Drawing on an array of American, British, French, and Spanish sources, the author describes how a myriad cast of local leaders, officials, and other small players affected the borderlands diplomacy between the United States and Spain, and he casts new light on Madison’s contribution to early American expansionism.

This book is a narrative history of the many dimensions of the War of 1812 - social, diplomatic, military and political - which places the war's origins and conduct in transatlantic perspective. The events of 1812-15 were shaped by the larger crisis of the Napoleonic Wars in Europe. In synthesizing and reinterpreting scholarship on the war, Professor J. C. A. Stagg focuses on the war as a continental event, highlighting its centrality to Canadian nationalism and state development. The book introduces the war to students and general readers, concluding that it resulted in many ways from an emerging nation-state trying to contend with the effects of rival European nationalisms, both in Europe itself and in the Atlantic world.

This book is a narrative history of the many dimensions of the War of 1812 - social, diplomatic, military and political - which places the war's origins and conduct in transatlantic perspective. The events of 1812-15 were shaped by the larger crisis of the Napoleonic Wars in Europe. In synthesizing and reinterpreting scholarship on the war, Professor J. C. A. Stagg focuses on the war as a continental event, highlighting its centrality to Canadian nationalism and state development. The book introduces the war to students and general readers, concluding that it resulted in many ways from an emerging nation-state trying to contend with the effects of rival European nationalisms, both in Europe itself and in the Atlantic world.

The Papers of James Madison project, housed at the University of Virginia, was established in 1956 to publish annotated volumes of the correspondence and writings of James Madison, the Virginia statesman most often remembered for his public service as ""Father of the Constitution"" and as fourth president of the United States. The published volumes provide accurate texts of Madison's incoming and outgoing correspondence, informative notes on textual and subject matters, and comprehensive indexes. They are incomparably rich sources for students of Madison's life and valuable research tools for those interested in the general history of the period in which Madison lived (1751-1836). The project has collected more than 27,000 copies of documents related to Madison's life, including letters, essays, notes, diaries, account books, ledgers, wills, legal papers, and inventories. The project serves the public by translating into print these decaying and often nearly illegible manuscripts, thereby preserving them for future generations and making them easier to use. The published volumes also make the contents of Madison related documents, the originals of which are housed in some 250 archives worldwide, easily accessible to libraries and interested individuals anywhere books travel. The Presidential Series,covering the years 1809 to early 1817, centres largely on Madison's record as commander-in-chief during the War of 1812, the first full-scale conflict to be waged under the U.S. Constitution of 1787. Madison's correspondence as president deals with a particularly wide range of concerns - national politics, international diplomacy and war, Indian affairs, the construction of the nation's capital, even petitions from ordinary citizens for charity and mercy - to which Madison responded.

During the time covered by this volume, Madison remained at Montpelier, with visits to neighbourhood friends and attendance at the Board of Visitor meetings at the University of Virginia. Madison wrote letters on a wide range of topics, corresponding with President James Monroe about domestic and international politics and discussing the building of the University of Virginia with Thomas Jefferson. The volume includes the minutes of those Board of Visitors meetings of the university attended by Madison, extensive discourse on the importance of public education, and comments on slavery. Finally, there are private letters dealing with daily life at Montpelier, including a typhus epidemic during the winter of 1820–21. The editors also provide a number of visitors’ accounts published in contemporary newspapers. Access to people, places, and events of the period is facilitated by detailed annotation and a comprehensive index.

During the six months covered in this volume, Madison contended with the failed negotiations between Spain and the United States to settle disputed boundaries, and the failure to win French support; Great Britain's refusal to respond to U.S. complaints of the impressment of American seamen and violations of neutral trade; reports from the territorial governors of Michigan, Orleans, and Louisiana; detailed accounts of the June 1805 treaty negotiations between the United States and Tripoli; and the arrival of the Tunisian ambassador, Soliman Melimeni, in November 1805. Madison spent three months of this period in Philadelphia, where he had taken Dolley Madison to seek treatment for her ulcerated knee. Also included is a lengthy correspondence between the Madisons, written after James's return to Washington in October 1805. Access to people, places, and events discussed in this volume is facilitated by detailed annotation and a comprehensive index.

During the period covered by this volume, James Madison continued to deal with the United States’ vexing relations with Europe. While firmly rejecting Britain’s maritime policy in his Examination of the British Doctrine, released in early January 1806 and published here for the first time with annotations, Madison, along with President Thomas Jefferson, actively promoted negotiations with the British government for an amicable settlement of these matters. Other problems such as border incursions between Spanish and American citizens, attacks by French and Spanish privateers, and the overreaching demands of the Tunisian ambassador as conditions for peace with his country also engaged Madison’s attention. Included in the volume are identifications of relevant individuals and a comprehensive index.

The final volume of the Presidential Series covers Madison's last ten months in office, during which he maintained a busy schedule despite taking the longest summer vacation in all his time in Washington. Foreign policy was dominated by crises with Spain and Algiers. Negotiations with Great Britain continued over trade access and the implementation of the Treaty of Ghent. On the home front, new treaties were negotiated with Indian nations on the frontier, and Madison issued several proclamations on the sale of public lands. The Treasury Department negotiated an agreement with leading banks to restore specie payments, laying the foundation for a uniform system of currency. Before returning to Washington for his final meeting with Congress, Madison wrote a sketch for a biography that never appeared. After delivering a farewell address to the nation, Madison concluded his public service with a controversial veto on his last day in office.

Volume 12 of the Secretary of State Series covers June through October 1806, during which Madison waited in vain for his diplomatic initiatives with Great Britain, Spain, and France to yield results, and received mounting evidence of Aaron Burr's suspicious activities in the West. Tensions with Great Britain over impressments and attacks on U.S. shipping persisted, as efforts to negotiate met with delays in London. Spain and France threatened U.S. territories to the south and west, while Napoleon hedged on his agreement to pressure Spain into selling the Floridas to the Americans. Spain avoided the issue by complaining about the U.S. government's treatment of its minister and the handling of Francisco de Miranda's expedition against Venezuela. Madison faced criticism at home for his role in these matters, multiplied by his refusal to testify at the trials of Samuel G. Odgen and William Stephens Smith for aiding Miranda. His patience was also tested over the summer and fall by unexpected difficulties in getting the capricious Tunisian ambassador, Soliman Melimeni, out of the country. Returning to Washington in October from a two-month visit to Montpelier, Madison prepared to address the additional complications in domestic and foreign policy created by Burr's alleged conspiracy.

Secretary of State James Madison grappled with conflicts in both Europe and the American West during the period included in this volume. Diplomats James Monroe and William Pinkney recorded some breakthroughs in their negotiations with Great Britain, but a new anti-British policy from France, the Berlin Decree, complicated progress. Britain responded with an order-in-council, and US neutral commerce became more precarious than it had been since the 1802–3 Peace of Amiens. After the two US representatives reached agreement with British negotiators on what became known as the Monroe-Pinkney Treaty, Madison helped President Thomas Jefferson assess its merits and determine whether to submit it to the Senate for advice and consent. To secure French Catholics’ loyalty to the United States, Madison reluctantly intervened in a dispute over the Roman Catholic Church’s episcopal authority over the Louisiana diocese when he feared that Napoleon had overstepped his boundaries. The Jefferson administration escalated its interest in former vice president Aaron Burr’s suspicious activities in the West, resulting in Burr’s arrest in early 1807. Madison played an integral role in the investigation and apprehension of Burr, maintaining a correspondence with governors of western territories and government agents charged with probing and countering Burr’s nebulous plans. The supplement contains notes that Madison took as he attempted to read law during the 1780s. The document, which is misfiled among Thomas Jefferson’s papers at the Library of Congress, represents the only surviving set of legal notes made by Madison.