President Madison promised peace with honor, but he was faced with the same challenges that had all but brought down his predecessor. Like Jefferson, he believed that "no nation can preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare." But France and England remained intractable. The cautious, often indecisive, new president was no match for Napoleon Bonaparte and cagey, duplicitous British foreign ministers. The young U.S. republic was the ball in a game of diplomatic ping pong, bouncing from one frustration to another.

To make matters worse, Madison had an ineffective secretary of state in Marylander Robert Smith (1757-1842). When the president replaced Smith with James Monroe (1758-1831), relations with Great Britain continued to worsen. In mid-1811, another incident at sea had British newspapers calling for revenge for "the blood of our murdered countrymen." The 44-gun U.S. frigate President, commanded by Marylander John Rodgers, had fired at night on the smaller H.M. sloop-of-war Little Belt, leaving behind thirty-two casualties.