Borderlines in Borderlands
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James Madison and the Spanish-American Frontier, 1776-1821
J. C. A. Stagg
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In examining how the United States gained control over the northern borderlands of Spanish America, this work reassesses the diplomacy of President James Madison. Historians have assumed Madison’s motive in sending agents into the Spanish borderlands between 1810 and 1813 was to subvert Spanish rule, but J. C. A. Stagg argues that his real intent was to find peaceful and legal resolutions to long-standing disputes over the boundaries of Louisiana at a time when the Spanish-American empire was in the process of dissolution. Drawing on an array of American, British, French, and Spanish sources, the author describes how a myriad cast of local leaders, officials, and other small players affected the borderlands diplomacy between the United States and Spain, and he casts new light on Madison’s contribution to early American expansionism.
J. C. A. Stagg is professor, Department of History, and editor in chief, The Papers of James Madison, at the University of Virginia. He lives in Charlottesville, VA.
“In this authoritative account of American-Spanish relations on the Southern borderland during Madison’s administration, J.C.A. Stagg has brought a fresh and fair-minded approach to some old issues. His fascinating narrative combines high level policy-making and diplomatic maneuverings in Washington with all the grubby filibusters, plots, rebellions, and free-lance operations that took place on the ground along the Gulf Coast. This is old-fashioned archive-based history at its best.”—Gordon S. Wood, Brown University
“Stagg writes for the first time an overall, integrated account of the disputes, struggles, and negotiations along the Spanish-American frontier, stretching from
“A bold but measured effort to set straight the historical record on President Madison’s thinking, strategies, and diplomacy on southeastern boundary issues.”—Jack Rakove,
"Scholars of the early republic have long respected J.C.A. Stagg as a historian's historian. Borderlines in Borderlands reaffirms his reputation, and offers a powerful contribution to the continuing reassessment of James Madison's underestimated presidency."—Sean Wilentz, Princeton University
“There is hardly a more suitable scholar than J. C. A. Stagg to examine James Madison’s frontier policy. . . . Stagg has produced a work relevant not only for students of Madison but also for those of Atlantic and borderland history.”
—Robert J. Alderson, Journal of American History“[An] excellent diplomatic history.”—Virginia Magazine
Publication Date: February 3, 2009
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