James Madison

Inarguably, James Madison was one of the most significant creators of the United States and a genius among geniuses. Even many other Founding Fathers could never come close to his brilliance and importance. Although this article will contain many criticisms, I cannot stress how much I admire Madison and his work as a Founding Father. He not only convinced the Constitutional Convention to abandon the Articles of Confederation and to draft a more stable charter of government but also was a member of the Committee of Style and Arrangement that worded the convention's ideas. Under the pseudonym "Publius", he worked with Alexander Hamilton and John Jay in the months immediately following the convention to argue that New York should approve the Constitution in the 85 Federalist Papers, of which he wrote 29. Once the Constitution took effect in 1788 and 1789, he assembled what is now known as the Bill of Rights. James Madison was an incredible thinker and politician. But sadly, that did not translate into an incredible presidency.

James Madison was inaugurated on March 4, 1809, to replace Thomas Jefferson as president. While he took the oath of office, the US was embroiled in a major diplomatic crisis: Tensions between America and Europe's duopoly of power - Britain and France - were at an all-time high, at least in the world post-Revolutionary War. In 1803, during Jefferson's first term, Britain and France became embroiled in the Napoleonic Wars, pitting Britain and the rest of Europe against Paris. To obtain more soldiers in the war, both British and French naval forces began attacking random ships and forcing those on board to enlist in their militaries. This strategy, known as impressment, disproportionately impacted American sailors. For this reason, impressment created tensions between the US and the Anglo-French powers. Many expansionists also desired control of Canada (then a British colony), a fact that worsened these tensions.

On November 21, 1806, Napoleon Bonaparte issued the Berlin Decree, placing a French naval blockade around Britain. The idea of the Berlin Decree was to cut off the flow of supplies and imports to Britain, something that would place economic pressure on London to surrender. Americans greatly valued principles like freedom of the seas and free trade, so the Berlin Decree worsened tensions between the US and France. However, on January 7, 1807, Britain retaliated against the Berlin Decree with the first of two policies known as the Orders in Council. The first Order in Council prohibited neutral ships from trading with France and explained that any ship found violating the Order in Council by British authorities would be destroyed. Its scraps would then be sold to fund the war effort. On November 11, 1807, upon realizing how hard the first edict was to enforce, Britain issued the second Order in Council, expanding the ban to include all of continental Europe. For the same reason as the Berlin Decree, the Orders in Council worsened tensions between the US and Britain.

Fortunately, Jefferson was wise enough to know that war was unnecessary and would ultimately cause more harm than good. So, he sought a more peaceful solution. On December 22, 1807, he signed the Embargo Act. The law banned all trade between the US and the outside world. Jefferson believed that the Embargo Act would work in resolving impressment for two reasons: First, since American ships wouldn't out trading with other countries, they would be less vulnerable to impressment. Second, the law would deprive Britain and France of American goods and the profits they could make from trading with the US. The Embargo Act would be repealed once the economic pressures it pursued took effect. The idea was a good one on paper, but not in practice. Britain and France were so self-reliant that they were hardly impacted by the Embargo Act.

Madison inherited these crises and his response was very irresponsible. On March 7, 1809, as one of his first acts in the White House, Madison signed the Non-Intercourse Act. This law repealed all bans on trade between the US and other countries with two exceptions: Britain and France were still unable to legally trade with the US. Overall, the Non-Intercourse Act was positive. It reversed most of the Embargo Act and thus allowed for economic recovery in an America previously blocked off from trade. However, Madison also should have lifted the bans on trade with Britain and France. Not only were those bans ineffective and economically damaging, but maintaining the bans as all other bans on trade between the US and the outside world were lifted made London and Paris feel singled out. As a result, tensions increased and the odds of war increased.

About a year later, on May 1, 1810, Madison signed Macon's Bill No. 2. This law lifted the ban on trade with Britain and France until March 3, 1811. During that period, Britain and France would be expected to lift their restrictions on neutral countries' trade. France would be expected to repeal the Berlin Decree and Milan Decree (a reply to the Orders in Council that banned neutral countries from trading with Britain) and Britain would be expected to repeal the Orders in Council. If the deadline came and went with these restrictions in-tact, then the ban on trade would be restored. Additionally, after the first country lifted its restrictions, the second country would have to do the same within 3 months. France complied with Madison's suggestions in September 1810, causing trade between US and France to be permanently legalized. Britain never lifted the Orders in Council, causing the ban on trade between the US and the UK to continue. Tensions amplified as a result.

This law was an atrocious idea. It went after the Orders in Council, Milan Decree, and Berlin Decree when Madison should have focused on impressment. Britain and France were in the wrong when they suppressed freedom of the seas, of course, but not to the extent that they were when engaging in impressment. The Orders in Council and Milan Decree were bad, but they weren't causing any serious damage. Sailors saw a loss in profits and people couldn't import all the products they desired, but impressment was killing people and forcing sailors to be soldiers. If Madison could fight against one, he should have selected impressment. He also shouldn't have required the second country to revoke its restrictions within 3 months of the first nation. They should have had until March 3, 1811, or maybe an even later deadline. The flow of information was very slow in the 1800s and 1810s, especially during wartime. The 3-month limit was unfair and unrealistic.

On November 7, 1811, future-President and then-Governor of the Indiana Territory William Henry Harrison defeated indigenous forces led by Tecumseh and Tenskwatawa in the Battle of Tippecanoe. Following this incident, Britain began providing support to Native Americans resisting westward expansion, a fact that increased US-British tensions. Madison's retaliation was literally punishing Britain for helping indigenous people fight oppression and settler colonialism. Around the time of the Battle of Tippecanoe, an Irish immigrant to the US named John Henry traveled to London. There, he asked for financial compensation for a report he had composed on American members of the Federalist Party opposed to Madison and the ruling Democratic-Republican Party. He did not receive that money and, on the way back to the United States, met a French conman named Eduard de Crillon. De Crillon convinced Henry to sell the reports to Madison. Henry liked this idea and gave the reports to the Madison Administration in exchange for a sum equal to the budget of the whole intelligence branch of the state department.

4 months following the Battle of Tippecanoe, on March 9, 1812, Madison presented Henry's report to Congress. Britain had been spying on opposition movements in the US! Madison was right to expose the report to Congress and the public, but the way he handled it was awful. Without any evidence, he accused Henry of having sought to excite secessionist fringes in New England. These allegations made the Henry-de Crillon Affair far more explosive than it would have been and caused tensions between the US and Britain to explode. On June 1, 1812, kowtowing to a faction of Congress known as the War Hawks, Madison sent a message to Congress requesting a declaration of war against Britain. Despite the smallest margin for any declaration of war in US history, Congress obliged and signed the declaration of war on June 18, 1812, beginning the War of 1812. Madison had just sparked a useless war that easily could have been avoided had he been more rational. But how did he lead us during that war? Not very well!

Just a few weeks later, on July 12, 1812, Madison ordered a 3-pronged invasion into Canada. He assumed that this invasion would be extremely easy. Jefferson, now in retirement, even joked that the annexation would be "a mere matter of marching". Madison and others made this assumption for 2 reasons. The first was rather level-headed and rational: Britain was distracted by the Napoleonic Wars, so they couldn't resist the American invasion of Canada very effectively. The second reason was far more bizarre and unsubstantiated: Canadians would welcome the invasion as a "liberation". This ended up being an absurd prediction. Canadians enjoyed British rule (at the time) and Native Americans were scared of US expansionism, so they combined forces to knock back the invasion. Madison also neglected to acknowledge British control over the Great Lakes, which further doomed his invasion.

On April 27, 1813, American troops marched into Canada a second time and attacked York. While there, they also destroyed several government buildings. In retaliation, British troops attacked Washington DC on August 24, 1814. The White House, legislature, and Library of Congress were all burned down. Hundreds of American and British soldiers were killed. The nation was humiliated. All of this could have been avoided if Madison had appointed better generals to protect the capital. Instead, he appointed William Winder. Winder was known for his incompetence, but Madison appointed him all because he was the nephew of a Federalist politician and Madison wanted to boost the war's approval amongst members of the Federalist Party. I also tend to hold politicians accountable for what their cabinets and lower officials do. Since John Armstrong, Madison's secretary of war downplayed reports of a potential British attack on Washington DC, I also hold that against Madison.

Federalist opposition to the War of 1812 was actually a major problem. Federalists supported close ties between the US and Britain, a fact that obviously made them dislike the war. For this reason, when Madison ordered Federalist-stronghold Massachusetts to lend its state militia to the federal government as a war measure, it refused. Madison retaliated - and rightfully so, as states should not be allowed to nullify federal orders.- by refusing to help Massachusetts financially recover from the war. Federalist politicians from several Federalist-majority states then met on December 15, 1814, in the Hartford Convention to decide what to do next. The convention, which adjourned on January 5, 1815, was very secretive (a fact that contributed to the dissolution of the Federalist Party), and yet Madison decided not to respect this fact. He sent troops to Hartford under the guise of recruiting soldiers for the war. But in reality, they were there to spy on the Hartford Convention. For a man who was so instrumental to the birth of American civil liberties, spying on opposition meetings and then lying about it is especially pathetic.

During the Hartford Convention, the Treaty of Ghent was signed on December 24, 1814. Upon its ratification by both the British and American legislatures, the Treaty of Ghent would end the War of 1812. Four days later, on December 28, 1814, Parliament approved the Treaty of Ghent. Soon after, on February 17, 1815, the Treaty of Ghent was approved by the Senate, formally ending the War of 1812 in a draw. From here, one of the biggest accomplishments of Madison's tenure took place. In the wake of the war, Henry Clay - a former-War Hawk and even a delegate to the peace conference in Ghent - proposed a trio of policies he hoped would help the economy recover from the conflict's financial fallout. Known as the American System, the plan called for:

• A temporary national bank that would exist for 20 years in order to stabilize finances and enforce beneficial economic policies
• Higher tariffs would make imported goods more expensive, discouraging the shipment of jobs overseas and maintaining high employment numbers at home
• Increased funding to roads in order to facilitate more travel between the various regions of the country and thus more commerce

Wisely, Madison adopted these policies, which allowed the economy to swiftly recover from the War of 1812. I actually consider this a major achievement. Madison's presidency in general was very lackluster. He made irresponsible choices that inflamed tensions between the US and Britain and resulted in a devastating war. And that war became even more devastating due to Madison's poor leadership. However, Madison also owed up to his mistakes. Had he allowed the economy to collapse in the wake of the war, then New England states - and other states too - very well may have seceded. What James Madison accused John Henry of attempting to do would be completed by none other than the man in the White House: James Madison. The American experiment was only a few decades old, yet would have led to 4 wars (the Revolutionary War, the Quasi-War, the First Barbary Pirates War, and the War of 1812), several recessions, and two constitutions in a short span. Why stay? By curbing the potential economic consequences of the War of 1812, Madison preserved American civilization. He caused a crisis, but he also nipped it in the bud before it could blossom into death, destruction, and disunion.