With customary understatement, Madison later told Smith that he had absorbed Jackson’s “gross insinuation” with “no small degree of surprise.” Advised that the Minister had refused to retract his charge, which suggested that Britain felt free to insult any American it wanted—even the President—Madison issued Jackson’s diplomatic death warrant, ordering him informed “that no further communications will be received from you, and that the necessity of this determination will, without delay, be made known to your Government.” Copenhagen Jackson’s tenure as a functioning envoy in Washington had
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