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James Madison #4
James Madison: Secretary of State: 1800-1809
Irving Brant's publishers are proud to present the fourth distinguished volume of his definitive like of James Madison. Is is the story of his career as Jefferson's Secretary of State, and is strikingly timely. For in this 150th year of the Louisiana Purchase, new evidence uncovered by the author has rewritten its history. And amazing parallels to the political events of the present day appear in those of the early nineteenth century.
Like the preceding volumes, this one increases Madison's stature as a statesman, not by opinion, but by facts hitherto unknown. Indeed the biography might be called The Unknown Madison. It places him in the topmost rank of American Secretaries of State, with a vastly greater over-all influence in the Jefferson administration than has previously been realized.
Up to this time, written history has shown Madison as merely carrying out the orders of his distinguished chief and devoted friend. It was not true. Again and again, when he disagreed with Jefferson originally, Madison carried the day. Modest as always, however, in personal and diplomatic correspondence he invariably referred to decisions as the President's.
From American senators and European diplomats, even from the psychopathic assaults of Randolph of Roanoke, the testimony shows the steady rise of Madison within the Jefferson administration. He "entirely directs the cabinet," wrote French Minister Turreau in 1806. And he added in July 1808 that, owing to Madison's great and growing influence, "one must treat him as if he were already President." But this personal elevation of Madison does not depreciate the Jefferson administration. On the contrary, the evidence credits it with a stronger and more rational defense of American interests than has been allowed by historians who either accepted the Federalist verdict or took too little account of the lopsided distribution of power in the world.
Commonly regarded by historians as a mild man and accused of timidity by Federalist politicians, Madison actually had a reputation among foreign diplomats for hard, tough dealing, warm temper and an unforgiving disposition. "Appalling mistranslations" of French dispatches by historian Henry Adams have misled historians.
Out of French and American diplomatic archives has come Mr. Brant's new picture of the Louisiana Purchase—a purchase for which Madison's brilliantly conceived and executed diplomacy furnished the basis: France's military position in the Western Hemisphere was undermined, and Louisiana became impossible to hold. Drawing on American diplomatic dispatches which have lain undeciphered in the archives for a century and a half, and on others which have been available but unused, the author drastically alters the familiar conceptions of Livingston, American Minister to France, and Talleyrand and Napoleon's brothers. Livingston wished to used bribery, a method Madison refused to countenance. Talleyrand and Joseph and Lucien Bonaparte wished to be bribed.
The deciphering of these old dispatches was done by Hazeldean Brant, the author's wife, who devoted many weeks to a reconstruction of the Madison-Monroe and Madison-Livingston ciphers.
In his dealings with Great Britain and France on issues growing out of the Napoleonic Wars, Madison comes forth as a redoubtable negotiator. Besides challenging the impressment of American seamen, he denied the right of the British Navy to reclaim Britons serving voluntarily in American ships. The flag of the United States on the high seas, he insisted, offered complete protection to everyone under it, except soldiers of another belligerent. The nonintercourse act and embargo law—chief weapons of the Jefferson administration in defense of American neutrality—were Madison's.
The 1808 Presidential campaign forms an amazing counterpart to the politics of today. Presented through the interplay of public events and newspaper articles and editorials, it sets forth no comparisons. But the reader cannot fail to see the parallel to current political tensions. The French Revolution alarmed the world of its time as the Revolution in Russia alarmed our own. Napoleon was the Stalin of his day. Newspaper editors and Federalist congressmen warned, excited, and alarmed the people as others do today, while Madison as candidate for President was made the chief target of their appeals to fear and prejudice.
Imagine a 1952 Presidential campaign in which the Democratic nominee was a Secretary of State who had been elected a citizen of the Soviet Union fifteen years before, and the parallel would be nearly complete. But the people judged him by his character and his record, rejected the "tool of Napoleon" cry, and elected him President in spite of a three-way split in his own party.
To them he was, as Mr. Brant shows him to us, "the great little Madison."
Like the preceding volumes, this one increases Madison's stature as a statesman, not by opinion, but by facts hitherto unknown. Indeed the biography might be called The Unknown Madison. It places him in the topmost rank of American Secretaries of State, with a vastly greater over-all influence in the Jefferson administration than has previously been realized.
Up to this time, written history has shown Madison as merely carrying out the orders of his distinguished chief and devoted friend. It was not true. Again and again, when he disagreed with Jefferson originally, Madison carried the day. Modest as always, however, in personal and diplomatic correspondence he invariably referred to decisions as the President's.
From American senators and European diplomats, even from the psychopathic assaults of Randolph of Roanoke, the testimony shows the steady rise of Madison within the Jefferson administration. He "entirely directs the cabinet," wrote French Minister Turreau in 1806. And he added in July 1808 that, owing to Madison's great and growing influence, "one must treat him as if he were already President." But this personal elevation of Madison does not depreciate the Jefferson administration. On the contrary, the evidence credits it with a stronger and more rational defense of American interests than has been allowed by historians who either accepted the Federalist verdict or took too little account of the lopsided distribution of power in the world.
Commonly regarded by historians as a mild man and accused of timidity by Federalist politicians, Madison actually had a reputation among foreign diplomats for hard, tough dealing, warm temper and an unforgiving disposition. "Appalling mistranslations" of French dispatches by historian Henry Adams have misled historians.
Out of French and American diplomatic archives has come Mr. Brant's new picture of the Louisiana Purchase—a purchase for which Madison's brilliantly conceived and executed diplomacy furnished the basis: France's military position in the Western Hemisphere was undermined, and Louisiana became impossible to hold. Drawing on American diplomatic dispatches which have lain undeciphered in the archives for a century and a half, and on others which have been available but unused, the author drastically alters the familiar conceptions of Livingston, American Minister to France, and Talleyrand and Napoleon's brothers. Livingston wished to used bribery, a method Madison refused to countenance. Talleyrand and Joseph and Lucien Bonaparte wished to be bribed.
The deciphering of these old dispatches was done by Hazeldean Brant, the author's wife, who devoted many weeks to a reconstruction of the Madison-Monroe and Madison-Livingston ciphers.
In his dealings with Great Britain and France on issues growing out of the Napoleonic Wars, Madison comes forth as a redoubtable negotiator. Besides challenging the impressment of American seamen, he denied the right of the British Navy to reclaim Britons serving voluntarily in American ships. The flag of the United States on the high seas, he insisted, offered complete protection to everyone under it, except soldiers of another belligerent. The nonintercourse act and embargo law—chief weapons of the Jefferson administration in defense of American neutrality—were Madison's.
The 1808 Presidential campaign forms an amazing counterpart to the politics of today. Presented through the interplay of public events and newspaper articles and editorials, it sets forth no comparisons. But the reader cannot fail to see the parallel to current political tensions. The French Revolution alarmed the world of its time as the Revolution in Russia alarmed our own. Napoleon was the Stalin of his day. Newspaper editors and Federalist congressmen warned, excited, and alarmed the people as others do today, while Madison as candidate for President was made the chief target of their appeals to fear and prejudice.
Imagine a 1952 Presidential campaign in which the Democratic nominee was a Secretary of State who had been elected a citizen of the Soviet Union fifteen years before, and the parallel would be nearly complete. But the people judged him by his character and his record, rejected the "tool of Napoleon" cry, and elected him President in spite of a three-way split in his own party.
To them he was, as Mr. Brant shows him to us, "the great little Madison."
533 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1953
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About the author
Irving Brant
34 books3 followersThe son of a local newspaper editor, Irving Newton Brandt earned his BA in 1909 at the University of Iowa, in Iowa City. He worked as a reporter and editorial writer for the St. Louis Star-Times from 1918 to 1923, and 1930 to 1938. Though the author of works of poetry, short stories, plays, and children's novels, he is best known for his six-volume scholarly biography of James Madison.
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