Interesting political discussion : the diplomatic policy of Mr. Madison unveiled : in a series of essays containing strictures upon the late correspondence between Mr. Smith and Mr. Jackson

John Lowell

Place of publication not identified, 1910.

Pamphlet. 54p. Binding restitched. Pages tanned with toning and foxing. Pencil notation throughout to margins. Lacking final leaf. Foxing. American variant of Sabin 42446. This pamphlet deals with the issue of the Madison presidency’s diplomatic attempts to repel the embargos acts issued by Great Britain and France along with the Chesapeake affair. David Erskine was originally the Minister to the United States. But in 1809, Erskine was recalled by the Foreign Secretary, George Canning, for having offered the withdrawal of the Orders in Council of 1807 against the Americans and his resolution of the Chesapeake-Leopard Affair. The British refused to ratify the offer and replaced Erskine with Francis James Jackson.

Madison had a heavy hand in the negotiation with the new Minister and his Secretary of State, Robert Smith, basically, minimizing the talks to written correspondence. Furthermore, most of the discussion was written by Madison himself, rejecting most of Smith’s drafts. The details of the talks would be issued in an “Exposition of the Conduct of the Honorable Francis James Jackson, in His Correspondence with Robert Smith Esq.,” in the National Intelligencer on 4 and 6 December 1809.

Many subsequent readers of the Smith-Jackson letters, moreover, did not hesitate to affirm, that James Madison was the writer of this correspondence.Lowell, in the pamphlet, aligns with resolving the Embargo with Great Britain and not France; he vindicates Madison as staunchly the opposite, silent on French actions against Americans and dealing poorly with the British envoys.