The Diplomatic Policy Of Mr. Madison Unveiled

Source

"The Political History of Mr. Madison will be first and briefly discussed m order to shew us what we had a right to expect of him and to prove that hatred to Great Britain and attachment to French politics were deeply root d in his own character totally independent of his connection with Mr. Jefferson."

Concerns About The Calamities Of War

From Incidents in the life of Jacob Barker, of New Orleans, Louisiana: with historical facts, his financial transactions with the government and his course on important political questions, from 1800 to 1855.

Also see Jacob Barker, Financier In The War blog post.

Charles Langlade In The British Service

Seventy-two years' recollections of Wisconsin, by Grignon, Augustin, b. 1780

"[The author] Augustin Grignon was the last in a long line of French fur-traders that stretched back to Charles de Langlade, the first European to live in Wisconsin."

"He [Charles Langlade's son, Charles] was in the British Indian service at the capture of Mackinaw, in 1812, and acted as interpreter for the Ottawas."

And the British loss of the Revolutionary War did not disrupt the life of balance and harmony in the Old Up Country [Wisconsin] until the War of 1812. [Source]

Prelude: Napoleon's Berlin Decree

Source

Berlin Decree of 21 November 1806 issued by Napoleon:

"The decree forbade the import of British goods into European countries allied with or dependent upon France, and installed the Continental System in Europe. His plan was to unite the European countries against Britain."

From The war of 1812 ...:  21st November 1806: Placed in a position of power apparently impregnable by his recent victory of Jena (14th Oct, 1806) which left the Prussian monarchy prostrate at his feet; but smarting still with the galling memory of Trafalgar, the French Emperor deemed the opportunity afforded by the complete humiliation of Prussia favorable for returning as fiercely and as fully as he could the terrible blow inflicted by Great Britain in the annihilation of his navy. 

Britain's response to the Berlin Decree, the Orders In Council (1807), caused tension between the United States and Britain, which eventually led to war between them.

William Tate's Request To Reenlist

Tate

Charleston (S.C.)
15th Nov. 1811

Sir,

The President's address has reached me; the indications of approaching war are more distinct than hitherto; I have therefore to request the honor of having my name enrolled, for the second time, in the list of defenders of the country......

Wm Tate

Late a head of Brigade in  _ French Army

Blockades And Counter-Blockades

War of 1812 Era

From the 1812, the war and its moral: a Canadian chronicle By William Foster Coffin:

In May, 1806, Mr. Fox, then leader of the British Government, had declared the coasts of France and Holland...to be in a state of blockade... .

In November, 1806, and in November, 1807, Napoleon, by Decrees dated from Berlin and Milan respectively, retaliated. He declared the whole British Islands to be in a state of blockade, authorized the seizure of any vessel of any nation bound to Britain... . Constructive blockade was an innovation in the enginery of war. It was blockading run mad.

Also see another post with this source.

Who's Who (Including Isaac Hull)

Source

Figuring out who is who from the website 1812 And All That:

Isaac Hull (1773-1843), the naval officer, must be distinguished from his uncle William Hull (1753-1825), the incompetent general. The John Armstrong (1755-1816) who fought the Miamis at Eel River on 18 October 1790 where the Kentucky militia panicked and he lost his sergeant and 21 of his 30 regulars, and hid under a log until the Indians were gone, is not the same as the John Armstrong (1758-1843) of New York who married a Livingston, was minister to France, and became Secretary of War in 1813.

Coveting Florida

"There were other sources of friction (other than the Indians). On the continent of Europe, Great Britain was engaged in a life-and-death struggle with Napoleon, and neither the British nor the French paid much attention to the rights of neutrals. The United States had legitimate grievances against both nations, but hostility toward Great Britain was intensified by her practice of seizing American seamen and forcing them to serve in the royal navy. Many Americans, moreover, coveted a chance to take the Floridas from Spain, Britain's ally in her was against France."

From The New Nation Grows... ,

Political Dynamite

Source

From the Star-Tribune (May 2012):

"Two hundred years ago (2012), President Madison dealt with what in our time might be dubbed 'Henry-gate.' He and James Monroe, were being accused of manipulating intelligence, as rumors of war roiled Washington."'

"With Secretary of State James Monroe, Madison learned that the Comte de Crillon and Capt. Henry possessed diplomatic dynamite."

Did he [Henry] start the war blog post as well as a post entitled Henry's Secret Pre-War Mission.

Excerpted from this site:

Count Edward de Crillon*...had met John Henry in London society. When he appeared on the Boston packet, a friendship arose between these two men so hardly treated by fortune. ...Crillon gave himself much concern in the affair, urging Henry to have no more to do with an ungrateful [British] government, but to obtain from the United States the money that England refused. The count offered to act as negotiator...to approach the Secretary of State.

*de Crillon was a fraud

A description of the imposter from this source:

"Crillon had hardly left the shores of America when a dispatch arrived in Washington... . To the chagrin of Madison and Monroe he [Barlow] announced that there was no Duc de Crillon... . Count Edouard de Crillon was an impostor. The only thing about him that was real was the $50,000 of government money he had in his pocket!"

Consideration Of A Triangular War

For my first foray into the substance of  The War of 1812 book, a valuable nugget of information was discovered.

As pre-war tensions were rising, President Madison faced a dilemma of great magnitude.  Since Great Britain AND France were "hostile to neutral shipping," how would the United States justify war against the British and ignore France's transgressions?  Would it be a "triangular war?"  Madison consulted with Thomas Jefferson (on May 25th); Jefferson's response (of May 30, 1812) was included in the book.

The correspondence between the Madison and Jefferson bespoke of a complicated relationship between the U.S. and France.