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.

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.

During the period around volume 3 of the Retirement Series, James Madison remained largely at Montpelier, except for occasional visits to neighbors and attendance at ceremonial dinners and semiannual meetings of the Board of Visitors of the University of Virginia. Madison's correspondence in this period was wide-ranging and included replies to requests for advice from President James Monroe. His exchange of letters with Thomas Jefferson dealt primarily with the construction and financing of the university and the search for professors. In addition to responding to the host of individuals who sent him books and pamphlets and requested letters of introduction and recommendation to political office, Madison also engaged with such eminent men as Richard Rush, James Barbour, Henry Clay, Mathew Carey, Edward Livingston, and George Hay. In these letters he offers his opinion on constitutional issues, reiterates his support for strict separation between church and state, and expresses his views on the tariff, political parties, the common law, and public education. Finally, his private letters deal with daily life at Montpelier and the management of the plantation. Access to people, places, and events is facilitated by detailed annotation and a comprehensive index.

The tenth volume of the Presidential Series covers the period from Madison's return to Washington from Montpelier in October 1815 to the publication of the incendiary letters of the pseudonymous "Americanus" throughout April 1816. In the months between, Madison fielded requests for support from rebel governments in Spanish America, urged his diplomats to stand firm on U.S. claims in the settlement of post- war boundary disputes with Great Britain, and contemplated retaliation for British restrictions on American trade with its West Indian colonies. Increasingly, however, his attention was focused on domestic issues. These included putting in place a viable financial system with a central bank at its core, which Madison had come to believe was a necessity; increasing the nation's revenue stream through reductions in military expenditures; exports of American goods; and the imposition of tariffs on foreign imports that threatened domestic manufactures. He was, furthermore, required to remove squatters from the public lands and to referee disputes between white settlers and Indian nations over their post-1815 boundaries. He supervised the Commissioners for the Public Buildings as they rebuilt the capital and issued pardons to those who had committed petty crimes or who had violated U.S. revenue laws.

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.