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MONROE, James. Letter signed ("Jas Monroe") as Secretary of State, to Joel Barlow (1754-1812), U. S. Minister to France, "Dep t of State," Washington, D.C., 3 July 1812. 1 page, folio (12 11/16 x 7 5/8 in.), some browning, evidence of attachment on verso of integral blank . DECLARING WAR IN 1812: MONROE TRANSMITS THE PRESIDENTIAL MESSAGE AND DECLARATION OF WAR TO AMERICA'S MINISTER IN FRANCE A historically significant letter to Joel Barlow which accompanied a copy of the U.S. Declaration of War against Great Britain and the presidential message which requested it. Before 1812, the United States was plagued by continued violations of its neutral trade by the European belligerents in the continuing conflict of the French Revolution and Napoleonic wars. Beginning with the Administration of George Washington, the President, maintaining the stance that "free ships make free goods" and proclaimed American neutrality. Although the weight of international law justified the rights of a neutral, the powerful British navy largely ignored American claims to neutrality, and Parliament passed Orders in Council validating the seizure of ships and confiscation of goods destined France. The French responded with similar restrictions and similar violations of American neautrality. Although a temporary cessation of hostilities in 1800 provided America with a brief respite, the renewal of warfare in 1803 brought heightened seizures of U.S. vessels in addition to the British practice of impressment. Jefferson's response, economic sanctions under the Non-Intercourse Act and the Embargo Act, had, in the end, no appreciable effect. When Madison assumed the Presidency, the prospect of diplomatic resolution appeared increasingly bleak. While Barlow sought to negotiate an agreement with Napoleon's government, Madison "saw cause for war with both belligerents, but he saw, too, the impracticality of a double war, and therefore chose to act against the greater enemy...The United States found its worst menace in the commercial and maritime arrogance and power of Great Britain" (Ketcham, James Madison , pp. 526, 530). On 1 June 1812, the President's war message was read before Congress and subsequently, the Senate voted for a Declaration of War (see lot 34). Here Secretary of State Monroe forwards official copies of the historic Declaration and supporting documents to Barlow in France: "I have the Honor to transmit to you a Copy of a Declaration of War which passed Congress on the 28th Ult against Great Britain, with a Copy of the President's message to Congress, and of the Report of the Committee of Foreign Relations on the Subject. I transmit you Duplicates of the Letters of 23rd April and of 16th June, to which I have nothing further to add by this opportunity." Expressing his hopes for improved relations with France, especially now that the U.S. was at war with France's foremost enemy, Monroe writes: "We are in daily expectation of the return of the Wasp, by which vessel it is hoped that we shall receive Intelligence of a satisfactory arrangement of our affairs with France." In Madison's first wartime message to Congress, he reaffirmed the justification for the war in which the nation was engaged: "It is waged not in violation of the rights of others, but in maintenance of our own" (Ketcham, p. 533). The nation was unprepared for war, however, and only Britain's preoccupation with Napoleon prevented disaster for American arms.