President James Madison Instructs His Secretary of War to Release British Deserters Who Had Fought For the U.S. During the War of 1812 Only If the British Will Not Punish Them When They Return Home

In an unpublished letter, he touches on the very subject - British deserters in U.S. service - that led him to ask for a declaration of war: “Their willingness to incur this danger [of punishment at home] will not release our humanity from the obligation".

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He also works to appoint an agent for the Creek Indians

William H. Crawford was U.S. ambassador to France during the negotiations to end the War of 1812. During those negotiations, he was responsible for superintending the American consuls in Europe and keeping them informed of developments. He was also an important...

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President James Madison Instructs His Secretary of War to Release British Deserters Who Had Fought For the U.S. During the War of 1812 Only If the British Will Not Punish Them When They Return Home

In an unpublished letter, he touches on the very subject - British deserters in U.S. service - that led him to ask for a declaration of war: “Their willingness to incur this danger [of punishment at home] will not release our humanity from the obligation".

He also works to appoint an agent for the Creek Indians

William H. Crawford was U.S. ambassador to France during the negotiations to end the War of 1812. During those negotiations, he was responsible for superintending the American consuls in Europe and keeping them informed of developments. He was also an important negotiator from a distance. He was called home and appointed Secretary of War by President James Madison on August 1, 1815, succeeding James Monroe. Crawford served in the post about a year, and was then named Secretary of the Treasury by Madison. When Monroe entered the White House, he continued Crawford in office, and Crawford remained at Treasury until the end of Monroe’s administration.

The War of 1812 was a conflict in part engendered by British impressment of sailors from American ships, meaning that the British would board these ships on the high seas and take some of the seamen under the pretext that they were British deserters. The Treaty of Ghent that ended the war did not address the issue of impressment, because although it started out as the main point the Americans wanted, the British refused to budge on their claimed right, and the U.S. yielded the point had it become moot with the advent of peace.

Charles Bagot was the British Ambassador to the United States in the aftermath of the War of 1812. Though the war was ended, the British were unable to let go of their focus on deserters. Bagot formally petitioned the American government complaining about the employment of British deserters in the American armed forces.  He went straight to Secretary of State James Monroe, who said he knew of no such act but that he would institute an investigation, which he did. In July 1816, that report came back showing no such deserters had been enlisted, and that furthermore it was against the policy of the War Department to do so. As Secretary of War, Crawford was involved in this and was communicating directly with President James Madison on the subject.

Bagot was not convinced. In August 1816, he requested permission to search, himself, after he had heard of at least two deserters who had taken into the American service in the Great Lakes area.  President Madison wrote to Monroe and asked him to have Crawford look into the issue, but he also reiterated the U.S. position that no further boarding of American vessels would be tolerated.  “After perusing the letter from Genl. McComb, send it to the War Dept. Bagot must be given to understand that a search of our vessels for deserters, on the high way of the Lakes, cannot be permitted without mutual stipulations on the Subject.”

Two British subjects had deserted the British service and voluntarily entered the U.S. Army.  One had been injured in battle, and after the kind and capable care he received during his recovery, expressed his gratitude that way. The deserters had appeared before Bagot requesting permission to return home to Britain.  Bagot navigated the diplomatic channels and reached out to Crawford to learn if the U.S. would willingly release the British subjects, or if they must remain in America. Crawford informed Bagot that if the enlistments had taken place after the peace agreement, there would be no difficulty in releasing them.

Of course, Bagot confirmed, both soldiers would be prosecuted for treason upon their return home, and this worried Crawford and Madison, as they surely would be killed.

In 1816, Dr. William Wyatt Bibb, Senator from Georgia, was in jeopardy of losing his seat in the Senate, the seat he had taken over when Crawford resigned.  Reports from Georgia at the time reveal that Dr. Bibb had made himself unpopular by voting for the Compensation bill,  which, amongst other things, provided salaries “to each Senator, member of the House of Representatives, other than the Speaker” in the amount of $1500, a huge sum then, in lieu of the previous per diem payments. Madison had previously argued during his time in Virginia that such laws should take effect only after the resumption of a new Congress.  But he and Bibb were close.  Despite looking for a way to bolster Bibb for reelection or find him a cabinet position, Madison and Crawford were unable to come up with anything.  Bibb ultimately lost his seat over his support for the Compensation Bill.

Madison did eventually offer Bibb the position of Indian Agent to the Creek Nation in present day Georgia and Alabama, a politically important position, but Bibb declined and was subsequently elected as the first governor of Alabama.  David Brydie Mitchell accepted the post of Creek Agent, though not without reluctance, as it was a step down from his previous position as Governor of Georgia.  In 1818 and again in early 1821, Mitchell negotiated treaties between the federal government and the Creeks. These successes, however, were overshadowed by accusations, leveled by John Clark, that Mitchell had smuggled African slaves into Georgia and transported them to Alabama, in violation of federal law banning the African slave trade.

Autograph letter signed, as President, Montpellier, September 4, 1816, to Secretary of War Crawford, in which Madison discusses the candidates for agent to the Creek Indians, and also shows him as an advocate for British soldiers who deserted the Crown during the War of 1812. “Dear Sir, Previous to the receipt of yours of the 30th August I had, in acknowledging that written from Georgia, said what occurred on the subject of Dr. Bibb.  I can add nothing new but a suggestion for consideration how far the Creek Agency could with propriety be offered to him.  I am aware at the same time of the great probability that it would not be accepted, and of the possibility that the offer well might not be agreeable. These impressions are strengthened by your omission of any hint as to the Doctor in speaking of Governor M [David Brydie Mitchell] who considers the appointment as sufficiently respectable to merit his attention. On the supposition that Dr. B is out of the question the appointment of the governor would be unexceptionable but for the condition attached to it. The services he has rendered and the respect I have for his character dispose me to favor every accommodating arrangement, but is it not to be apprehended that so great a proportion of absence from his station would subject his appointment to the charge of partaking too much of a sinecure?  You can appreciate better than I can the public opinion in that quarter and how far the weight of personal character would balance that objection. Should the result of your reflections on these points be favorable to the experiment and you think Dr. Bibb ought not to be thought of, be so good as to forward a commission to Governor Mitchell.

“I just received yours of the 31st August stating the application of Mr. Bagot in the case of the two British soldiers enlisted with our service. The only objection to their discharge is the danger they may incur in the return to Great Britain. Their willingness to incur this danger will not release our humanity from the obligation to attend to it.  If they wish a discharge after being apprized of their danger and Mr. Bagot will engage to make a representation in their favor, and particularly that in discharging them we calculated that their motives for entering our service and their voluntary return home would save them from the penalties of the law, it will be proper to let them go. The arrangement will be the better the less the formality of it.”

This letter provides a fascinating insight into how Madison handled the delicate diplomacy required after the War of 1812, and the inner workings between the President and his Secretary of War. It is also a very uncommon fine content letter of Madison as President, touching on the very subject – British deserters in the U.S. service – that led him to ask for a declaration of war in the first place.

On September 9, 1816, Madison instructed Crawford to permit the release of the soldiers only if Bagot represented “that the American government, in discharging the men with a view to their being sent back, calculated, that the motives which induced them return, as well as those which produced their discharge, would exempt them from the Penalties due to the offenses they had committed.”

We obtained this letter directly from the Crawford descendants, and has never before been offered for sale.

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