The seventh volume of the Secretary of State Series covers Madison's tenure in that office from 2 April to 31 August 1804, a period in which the bulk of his correspondence dealt with U.S. relations with Great Britain, France, and Spain and the constant struggle to maintain U.S. neutrality in a world at war. Nearly every foreign policy issue with which Madison wrestles in this volume is rooted in European conflict. The large and ever-growing American mercantile fleet, whose ships could be found in all parts of the globe, was required to sail through a minefield of French, British, and Spanish maritime regulations designed to destroy each other's economies. Thus Madison fields complaints about British blockades and impressment in correspondence with James Monroe, George W. Erving, and a host of consuls; the armed trade with Saint-Domingue and French privateering in correspondence with Robert R. Livingston and the French charge d'affaires Louis-Andre Pichon; and the failure of the Spanish to ratify the claims convention of 1802, which provided for compensation for U.S. claims against Spain, in correspondence with Charles Pinckney and Spanish minister Carlos Fernando Martinez de Yrujo. The volume also includes correspondence with William C. C. Claiborne, the governor of Orleans territory, which covers in great detail events in Louisiana as the newly purchased territory begins to be integrated into the United States. Readers interested in the U.S. naval war with Tripoli and Barbary affairs in general will find a wealth of material in the consular correspondence from the Mediterranean basin during this time, including the fallout over the burning of the Philadelphia and Edward Preble's attack on Tripoli. Among a variety of domestic affairs that Madison handled and that are fully represented in this volume, the ratification of the Twelfth Amendment was most important. In addition to his official correspondence, there are a number of Madison's personal letters in this volume. As in all volumes in this series, thorough annotation and a detailed index provide access to people, places, and events.

Volume 6 of the "Presidential Series" covers the eight-month period between 8 February and 24 October 1813, during which the United States continued its military struggle against Great Britain. The volume opens with newly appointed Secretary of War John Armstrong's memorandum on the spring campaign against Canada, recommending attacks on Kingston and York (Toronto). United States forces took York in late April, but humiliating defeats followed in June, leading Armstrong to replace Maj. Gen. Henry Dearborn as commander of the Northern army with Maj. Gen. James Wilkinson. In the fall, Wilkinson opted to bypass Kingston and march directly to Montreal, but illness, bad weather, and personnel problems dogged the campaign, which later ended in failure.

The nation faced financial and diplomatic challenges as well. With war expenses mounting, Treasury Secretary Albert Gallatin kept the government solvent by negotiating a $16-million loan. A few months later, he sailed for St. Petersburg as a peace commissioner under the mediation offer of Alexander I of Russia, leaving the financial affairs of the nation to Navy Secretary William Jones. Early in August, however, Madison wrote Gallatin that the Senate had "mutilated the Mission to St Petersburg" by rejecting Gallatin's nomination as commissioner. The president spent the remainder of the period covered in this volume at Montpelier, regaining his health after a life-threatening bout of fever.

The volume also documents the United States' evolving relationship with Spain's American colonies, quarrels among U.S. consuls in France, rivalries within the Cabinet, and Oliver H. Perry's victory on Lake Erie. Access to people, places, and eventsdiscussed is facilitated by detailed annotation and a comprehensive index.

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, centers 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.

Volume 7 of the Presidential Series, covering the period between late October 1813 and June 1814, documents Madison's response to diplomatic developments and European military events affecting the war between the United States and Great Britain. Early in 1814 the president accepted an offer of direct peace negotiations, although his country's military situation did not augur well for the outcome. He sought to improve U.S. diplomatic prospects by strengthening commercial ties with Europe in the wake of Napoleon's defeat, but also supervised planning and financing for continuing U.S. military campaigns if necessary. Some of Madison's private affairs are documented through family correspondence and a vituperative letter from a disgruntled former White House steward. In addition, there is the Edinburgh Review editor Francis Jeffrey's revealing account of conversations with Madison in November 1813. Access to people, places, and events of the period is facilitated by detailed annotation and a comprehensive index.

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.

This volume documents the ongoing influence of European events on U.S. affairs in the seven months following the War of 1812. Plans to reduce the army and send a naval force against Algiers were suspended in April when Madison learned of Napoleon's return to power. After weighing the risk of renewed conflict with Great Britain, the president allowed plans to proceed. Results were good, but final vindication of his decision did not arrive until August and September, with news of Napoleon's defeat at Waterloo and the receipt of a commercial convention indicating British goodwill. In the meantime, Madison directed efforts to implement the Treaty of Ghent, learned that Americans had been killed at Dartmoor Prison in England, mediated a major dispute in the Navy Department, responded to Maj. Gen. Andrew Jackson's enforcement of martial law in New Orleans, thwarted Joseph Bonaparte's attempt to visit Montpelier, modified the administration's position regarding the still-unrecognized Spanish minister Luis de Onis, oversaw plans to repair the burned Capitol, and received reports on Treasury Secretary Alexander J. Dallas's efforts to solve the government's financial problems. Access to people, places, and events of the period is facilitated by detailed annotation and a comprehensive index.

The five months covered by this volume encompass the end of Jefferson's first administration and point toward his second. At home, the government was still digesting the Louisiana Purchase, establishing territorial governments for the Orleans and Louisiana Territories, and trying to ascertain the boundaries of the acquisition. Abroad, the shifting alliances resulting from the ongoing war in Europe affected American relations with European nations and obstructed Madison's and Jefferson's goals in international affairs.

Changes in the diplomatic corps led to confusion, as Robert R. Livingston was replaced as minister to France by his brother-in-law, John Armstrong Jr., and as Charles Pinckney, America's minister to Spain, given permission to return, opted instead to remain in Madrid and assist James Monroe in negotiations there. Monroe, who had been unable to accomplish his mission of negotiating a convention with Great Britain that would prevent impressment, went to Madrid hoping to persuade Spain to ratify the Convention of 1802, accept the American interpretation of the Louisiana boundaries, and sell East Florida to the United States. Monroe's task was made more difficult by the refusal of France to support the U.S. position, something he learned at Paris while en route to Madrid. James Bowdoin, named to succeed Pinckney, was prevented by ill health from departing until spring. In the United States, British minister Anthony Merry's health kept him at Philadelphia for months and Spanish minister Carlos Yrujo's outrageous behavior and arrogant letters finally forced Madison to seek his recall.

In North Africa the crewmen of the U.S. frigate Philadelphia continued to languish in Tripolitan prisons. Morocco and Algiers, though restive at being prevented by U.S. blockades from trading with Tripoli, exercised caution in view of the increased American naval force in the region. A forceful Edward Preble was replaced as naval commander in the Mediterranean by Samuel Barron, whose long-term illness, reported in consular dispatches, hampered his effectiveness in the war against Tripoli.

Madison's correspondence also shows the growing impact of the European war on American commerce and shipping as ship captains, merchants, and family members wrote to complain of vessels seized under the increasing restrictions placed by Britain and France on neutral trade, and of sailors impressed by both major belligerents. British and French privateers also played havoc with American shipping and seamen, and their victims wrote Madison to complain. Requests for appointments, problems with Monroe's financial affairs, wine purchases, and family land issues also occupied Madison's time over this winter.

Included in the supplement are documents that have been acquired since the publication of the last series supplement in volume 17 of the Papers of James Madison, Congressional Series, in 1991. Access to people, places, and events discussed in this volume is facilitated by detailed annotation and a comprehensive index.