Title: To James Madison from Carlos Martínez de Yrujo, [2 July] 1803
From: Yrujo, Carlos Martínez de
To: Madison, James

Sir
[Philadelphia 2 de Julio 1803]
His Excellency Mr. Pedro Cevallos Secretary of State of the King my master has been pleased to send me a copy of the official letter which he sent on the 31 of March last to the Minister of these States to His Majesty whereby I hope the President of the United States will have seen confirmed the sentiments of amity and good intelligence which his majesty wishes to maintain with the United States as well as of that condescention and justice which I have anticipated to you in my frequent conferences upon the conduct of the Intendant of Luisiana. At the same time that the King my master orders me to assure this government again in his royal name of the sincere desires which animate him to preserve the ties of amity and good harmony with this country I have received also the order to manifest to the President, thro’ you, as I do, that it is not possible for him to comply with the request of the United States to enlarge with Spanish possessions the limits of this territory; because, beside that this cannot be realized without dismembering his States to the injury of his reputation and of his obligation to preserve them in their integrity as far as possible, it would excite complaints from the maritime powers of Europe to whom Spain has stipulated in various treaties from that of Utrecht inclusively, not to alien any of her colonial possessions. To which ought to be added that this compliance would be offensive to France which was desirous of having the cession of the Floridas, offering advantageous terms and nevertheless his Majesty did not accede to it notwithstanding the ties and considerations which unite us with that power. [B Mo. de V. S Su mas ato. y sego Sr
El Marques de Casa Yrujo]

   RC (DNA: RG 59, NFL, Spain, vol. 2); Tr (DLC: Rives Collection, Madison Papers). RC in Spanish; in a clerk’s hand, except for Yrujo’s complimentary close and signature; copytext is Wagner’s interlinear translation. Tr in Brent’s and Wagner’s hands, partly in code; marked “Translation”; enclosed in JM to Monroe, 29 July 1803; docketed by Monroe: “8 July 1803./ with Sph. minister.”

   For the contents of Cevallos’s letter, see Charles Pinckney to JM, April 1803 (PJM-SSRobert J. Brugger et al., eds., The Papers of James Madison: Secretary of State Series (5 vols. to date; Charlottesville, Va., 1986–)., 4:469–71 and n. 4).


Title: To James Madison from Sylvanus Bourne, 2 July 1803 (Abstract)
From: Bourne, Sylvanus
To: Madison, James

2 July 1803, Baltimore. Has deferred his return to Amsterdam because of the “late agitated & unsettled position of the affairs of Europe.” Reliable reports state that “War … was renewed on the 16h Ulto an event which must materially affect” U.S. commerce. Doubts that Spain and the Netherlands will be able to maintain their neutrality, “as the connection of those Countries with France must inevitably draw them into the Contest.” The last war proved the importance of the port of Emden in Prussia for U.S. trade with the Netherlands. Suggests that a commercial agent be appointed for that place and recommends P.J. Abegg for the post “as one meriting confidence.” Should the president “think fit to make the appointment mentioned,” Bourne could carry the commission with him. Will remain in Baltimore “for a time.” Would welcome a “temporary agency or Commission” in Europe, should events there dictate a change in his public service.

   RC (DNA: RG 59, CD, Amsterdam, vol. 1). 3 pp.; docketed by Wagner as received 5 July.

   A full transcription of this document has been added to the digital edition.


Title: To James Madison from William Lee, 4 July 1803 (Abstract)
From: Lee, William
To: Madison, James

4 July 1803, Bordeaux. Encloses a bill of lading for thirteen cases of wine directed to the care of Thorburn and Donaldson, merchants at Norfolk. “I have depended on my partner to choose this wine having been too ill myself to attend to it. I hope the quality will please you.”

   RC and enclosures (DLC). RC 1 p. The enclosures (2 pp.) are a bill of lading and a receipt, both dated 2 July, for thirteen cases of “Vin de Grave” and “Clarified frontignac” wine. Filed at 20 Sept. 1803 is a shipping receipt (1 p.) for $19.46 for this shipment.


Title: To James Madison from John Church, 5 July 1803 (Abstract)
From: Church, John
To: Madison, James

5 July 1803, Cork. Received JM’s circulars of 23 Mar. [not found] and 9 Apr. and “shall carefully ⟨a⟩ttend to their Contents.” “Agreeable to your Desire, I now hand enclosed the best Remarks I can now make of the Charges on Ships entering this Port for Light money.” Will forward as usual at year’s end “the Returns of the different Cargos.” Adds “that all Respect whatever is paid here to American Papers which accompany the Ships in regular Form, & that there is no Complaint of Object to mention with Respect to American Seamen, being pressed as was the Case last War.”

   RC and enclosure (DNA: RG 59, CD, Cork, vol. 1). RC 2 pp.; torn. The enclosure, marked “Document No. VI” and headed “Remarks from the Port of Cork in Ireland” (3 pp.), describes the lighthouse duties and quarantine charges at Cork and Kinsale.

   PJM-SSRobert J. Brugger et al., eds., The Papers of James Madison: Secretary of State Series (5 vols. to date; Charlottesville, Va., 1986–)., 4:491–93.

   A full transcription of this document has been added to the digital edition.


Title: To James Madison from James Maury, 5 July 1803 (Abstract)
From: Maury, James
To: Madison, James

5 July 1803, Liverpool. Wrote last on 1 July. “In your circular of 1st August 1800 you have given me ample instructions in respect of foreign vessels purchased here by, or for, our citizens. I now request you will be pleased to give me farther instructions for my conduct in sanctioning the sale of American registered vessels. In these three cases, I presume, I may sanction Vizt. 1st when purchased by an American citizen resident in this Country, but partner of an House established in the United States 2dly by a person here duly authorized by Citizens resident in the U. S to purchase for them & 3dly by such as hold the office of Consul of the U.S.A.” Wishes to know how he is to conduct himself “with respect to our Citizens out of these three cases, who may be temporary residents or itinerant in this Country.”

   RC (DNA: RG 59, CD, Liverpool, vol. 2). 1 p.; in a clerk’s hand, signed by Maury; docketed by Wagner as received 31 Aug.

   Circular Letter to American Consuls and Commercial Agents, 1 Aug. 1801 (PJM-SSRobert J. Brugger et al., eds., The Papers of James Madison: Secretary of State Series (5 vols. to date; Charlottesville, Va., 1986–)., 2:1–4).

   Comptroller of the Treasury Gabriel Duvall, to whom this letter was forwarded, provided the requested guidance in his letter to Jacob Wagner, 10 Sept. 1803 (DNA: RG 59, ML).

   A full transcription of this document has been added to the digital edition.


Title: To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 6 July 1803 (Abstract)
From: Jefferson, Thomas
To: Madison, James

6 July 1803. Invites “Mr. Madison & family […] at half after […].” “Many thanks to mrs. Madison for the trouble she has been so good as to take.”

   RC (owned by Charles M. Storey, Boston, Mass., 1961). 1 p.; torn and blotted so as to be nearly indecipherable. Dated “Wednesday”; since Jefferson left Washington on 19 July, this invitation could have been dated 6 or 13 July.

   Below this line, in another hand and crossed out, is written: “The favour of an answer is asked.”


Title: To James Madison from Enoch Robins and Others, 6 July 1803 (Abstract)
From: Robins, Enoch
To: Madison, James

6 July 1803, Philadelphia. “We took the liberty of addressing you some months back on the subject of our detention at Jacmel (Hispa) by General Pageot, the Commanding Officer there; and claiming the interference of Government to obtain our enlargement.” Were liberated, after being moved from Jacmel to Aux Cayes by order of General Brunet, and granted passports to return to the U.S. “We have conceived it our duty, in Consequence of our application to Government, to apprize you of our enlargement.”

   Tr (NHi: Livingston Papers). 1 p.; marked “(Copy)”; in Brent’s hand, including signatures of Enoch Robins and James J. Barry “for self & Joseph Gardner.”

   Enoch Robins and others to JM, 11 Apr. 1803 (PJM-SSRobert J. Brugger et al., eds., The Papers of James Madison: Secretary of State Series (5 vols. to date; Charlottesville, Va., 1986–)., 4:503).

   Jean-Baptiste Brunet (1765–1824) served in numerous campaigns of the French revolutionary wars, including that in Italy (1800). He commanded a brigade in the Leclerc expedition to Saint-Domingue, though he is perhaps best known for his arrest of Toussaint L’Ouverture. Brunet was captured by the British after the evacuation of the island and was held prisoner until 1814 (Biographie universelle [1843–65 ed.], 6:28).


Title: To James Madison from William Willis, 6 July 1803 (Abstract)
From: Willis, William
To: Madison, James

6 July 1803, Barcelona. Has received two affidavits from Cathalan, one made by Thomas Lewis and the other by William Baker, “almost every sentence of which is false.” Is “astonish’d at the easy manner in which they swear to the most attrocious falsehoods.” Encloses an affidavit made by Benjamin B. Mumford and William B. Bowen “which contradicts some of the assertions of Lewis & Baker.” “My health has been so much hurt and my intellects so much injured by a poisonous medicine given me by some one (no doubt) employ’d by these Vilains.” Reports that Captain Mills is the “secret agent” of these men and “the depository of their papers which he has lately sent on to Marseilles.” Mills has refused “to make oath to the facts.” “He told me … he saw a Complete set of American Papers in the hands of an English Captain but did not let me know till the Vessell was gone.” Mills told him a set of papers “can be bought in almost Every port of Europe for a Guinea.” If this is the case, the form should be changed. Mumford left Barcelona at night, without a passport, and joined Baker at Marseilles. Believes they have with them “a large Quantity of false papers.” “Ogden Schwartz & Co are their agents in Marseilles.”

   RC (DNA: RG 59, CD, Barcelona, vol. 1). 3 pp. Enclosure not found.

   For the affidavits of Lewis and Baker, see Cathalan to JM, 9 June 1803, and n. 2.

   A full transcription of this document has been added to the digital edition.


Title: From James Madison to Daniel Clark, 6 July 1803
From: Madison, James
To: Clark, Daniel

Letter not found. 6 July 1803. Acknowledged in Clark to JM, 12 Aug. 1803. Announces the purchase of the Louisiana Territory.


Title: From James Madison to Carlos Martínez de Yrujo, 7 July 1803
From: Madison, James
To: Yrujo, Carlos Martínez de

Sir,
Washington Department of State July 7th. 1803.
I have lately received a letter from the Merchants of this District, stating the inconveniencies they suffer from the circumstance of no Consul or Commercial Agent of His Catholic Majesty being established nearer to it than Baltimore, whilst the Royal ordinances of Spain require their certificates as essential to the admission of American vessels into its ports. They have also intimated their hope that you would not be averse to appointing such an agent to reside among them.
The Consuls of Spain are few in the United States, and their number, compared with that of the ports of entry, as exhibited in the enclosed list, will manifest that the intercourse of the two countries must meet with very serious obstruction by the continuance of the ordinances in their present form. Viewing moreover the object of the certificates as not susceptible of being secured, where they relate to vessels clearing from ports different and remote from the residence of the Consul to whose agency recurrence is had, and as they are not reciprocally exacted by the United States from spanish vessels, we can the more confidently appeal to the intelligence and justice of your Government to dispense with them. These considerations will hereafter be further impressed upon its attention; but in the mean time permit me to recommend to your favor the case of the merchants of this District, and, if your powers are competent, that you will adopt the same means of extenuating similar inconveniencies in such of the other ports as you may see fit.
As the season is advancing when the maladies which have occasionally afflicted our seaports have, in former years, made their appearance, and as our Commerce to spain has been subjected, under the influence of alarms excited by the apprehension of those maladies, to very severe precautionary regulations, enforced in the most rigid manner, I avail myself of this occasion to request you to take the measures which may seem best calculated to secure us against the unnecessary and premature application of them, and which may be coincident with the arrangment taken on our part to satisfy the spanish authorities upon the subject. With great consideration and respect, I have the honor to be &ca.
James Madison.

   Letterbook copy (DNA: RG 59, DL, vol. 14). Enclosure not found.

   Letter not found.


Title: To James Madison from Lafayette, 7 July 1803
From: Lafayette, Marie-Joseph-Paul-Yves-Roch-Gilbert du Motier, marquis de
To: Madison, James

Aulnay 18th. Messidor 7th July 1803.
I Have received my dear Friend, your Letter, May the 1st. and it has been a most lively heartfelt pleasure for me to revise the Expression of a Friendship on which my dependance has ever been entire as it was deeply founded on the Reciprocity of my Sentiments for you. I Hope you have had my Letters of Congratulation for the happy Cession of Louisiana to the United States. An Event which the more I think of it, the greater Joy and Satisfaction it affords to me. To the Diplomatic Correspondance I refer you for European news. There is a Russian Mediation going on. Some private Attempts Have also been made. Yet I much fear the die for War is Cast. May Liberty and peace be ever the Happy Lot of the United States!
I Have writen to the President and to you Expressing my gratitude for the bountiful, flattering grant with which I have been honoured by Congress, and my affectionate Sense of the part M. Jefferson, You, and Some other friends Have taken in that transaction. I am much obliged to M. Gallatin for his benevolent Concern in my Behalf and for the Interesting Letter a Copy of which you have forwarded to me.
Having not had the official Information from the Executive I do not know whether yet, or how it is proper to present my official Thanks for which I Shall again Consult With the American Ministers—here I am going to Answer your Kind Communication and friendly Offers.
Of the three Ways mentionned by M. Gallatin, the Second appears to me, as well as to him, by far preferable viz. to Locate the Lands on any of the vacant ones of the United States north of the Ohio and above the Mouth of Kentucky River. The first mode, to Locate on the military Tract is evidently Inferior. The third one, to Sell Warrants is, I confess, better adapted to my pecuniary Embarassements. But the Reluctance I feel to part with such an honourable property, at Least the Totality of it, has been in a Temporary manner Alleviated by a Loan for Which I am indebted to my good Friend Daniel Parker, and I am the more inclined not to part with it at the Rate mentionned in the Letter, as by a Letter from Mr. Jefferson to Doctor Bollmann, March the 4th. I find his own Estimate Goes to a probability of an actual Value of four or five Dollars an Acre. I think therefore the best Way is that pointed out by M. Gallatin and to M. Jefferson, to you, to M. Gallatin I with all confidence refer myself for all the Arrangements which will appear to you the most proper. I am told a Power of Attorney must be given by me. The House of our old Excellent Friend Dupont has my Powers for General Affairs I might happen to have to transact in America. Dr. Bollmann to whom you Know my obligations has been pleased to ask for my powers, and kindly to offer his Services. I have writen to them that the President and you being my Intimate friends, I had Entirely for the Affair itself, for the Mode and the choices, if any to be made, refered myself to M. Jefferson and to you. Permit me therefore to inclose a power of Attorney with names in blank, as I did not Know whether it was proper to fill it With names in High public Station, and with that power, as well as with the Whole affair I request you, my dear Friends to do as you think fitt.
This Letter is the only one I write to day, as M. Munro who Expects His passport Every Hour is Waiting for it. He has been so Kind to have the power of Attorney drawn up and sent to me, as I am still detained by the Wounds resulting from the Cure of my fracture—a Compleat Cure indeed—But dearly purchased. I hope however in a fortnight to be able to bid adieu to Surgeons and to return to Lagrange. Be pleased to Communicate my Letter to M. Jefferson With affectionate and Grateful Respects. I am my dear Madisson, with High Esteem and warm Attachement Your friend
Lafayette

   RC (PEL: David Bishop Skillman Library, Lafayette Collection); RC (PHi). First RC in an unidentified hand; marked “duplicate”; docketed by JM and by Wagner as received 19 Sept. Second RC in Lafayette’s hand.

   Letter not found but mentioned as an enclosure in JM to Monroe, 1 May 1803 (PJM-SSRobert J. Brugger et al., eds., The Papers of James Madison: Secretary of State Series (5 vols. to date; Charlottesville, Va., 1986–)., 4:562–63).

   Lafayette to Jefferson, 4 June 1803 (DLC: Jefferson Papers), and Lafayette to JM, 4 June 1803.

   Letter not found.

   Massachusetts native Daniel Parker (d. 1829) had been a contractor who supplied the French and Continental armies in the last two years of the Revolutionary War. In 1784 Parker fled to Europe to escape his creditors and during the French Revolution established himself in Paris, where he lived lavishly thereafter as a merchant, financier, and speculator (E. James Ferguson et al., eds., The Papers of Robert Morris, 1781–1784 [9 vols.; Pittsburgh, 1973–99], 4:497–98 n. 9; Yvon Bizardel, Les Américains à Paris sous Louis XVI et pendant la Révolution: Notices biographiques [Alençon, 1978], pp. 141–42).

   See Lafayette to JM, 4 June 1803, and n. 4.

   Enclosure not found.


Title: To James Madison from Edward Savage, 7 July 1803
From: Savage, Edward
To: Madison, James

Letter not found. 7 July 1803. Acknowledged in Daniel Brent to Savage, 12 July 1803 (DNA: RG 59, DL, vol. 14). Requests partial payment on an order of Mediterranean passports.


Title: From James Madison to Carlos Martínez de Yrujo, 8 July 1803
From: Madison, James
To: Yrujo, Carlos Martínez de

Sir,
Department of State July 8th. 1803
I have received and submitted to the President your letter of the 2d inst, referring to the communication made on the 31st March last, by the Spanish Secretary of State to the Minister Plenipo: of the United States at Madrid on the subject of the decree of the intendant at New Orleans interrupting the American right of deposit at that place; and communicating the disinclination of his Catholic Majesty to draw into arrangements with the United States for annexing to them adjoining territories of Spain.
The communication made by Mr Cevallos on the 31st of March had been previously received from Mr Pinckney. In the assurance which it gave that the right of deposit would be immediately restored the President saw with satisfaction such an evidence of the upright and friendly dispositions of the Spanish Government. It could not escape attention however that this correction of the misconduct of the intendant was ascribed, inadvertently it is presumed to the condescension and generosity of His Catholic Majesty instead of that justice and good faith which had been violated and to which alone the appeal had been made. Altho arrangements of a recent date may preclude future occasions of a like sort it is proper to keep in view the meaning of the treaty and the right of the United States as the basis of indemnifications justly claimed from His Catholic Majesty for the wrongs committed by his Officer.
The President learns with regret that any views should have been taken by His Catholic Majesty of an alienation of the Floridas unfavorable to the proposition made on the part of the United States. He relies much however on the effect of a fuller consideration of the subject and of events of subsequent date in removing objections which appear to have weighed with His Majesty. The sincere desire of the United States to cherish the strictest friendship and harmony with Spain enforces their other motives to so convenient an arrangement. And whilst they are concerting with other powers a removal of all occasions for territorial disputes and collisions it may reasonably be hoped as it ought to be mutually wished, that the example will be followed by a seasonably [sic] and complete removal of the inquietudes involved in the relations of that part of the Spanish possessions to the United States. The president considers the friendly dispositions and assurances of His Catholic Majesty as a pledge that an effectual arrangement for this purpose will recommend itself more and more to his reflections and his concurrence.

   FC (DLC: Rives Collection, Madison Papers); letterbook copy (DNA: RG 59, Notes to Foreign Ministers and Consuls, vol. 1). FC in a clerk’s hand. Italicized words are those encoded by a State Department clerk and decoded here by the editors (for the code, see PJM-SSRobert J. Brugger et al., eds., The Papers of James Madison: Secretary of State Series (5 vols. to date; Charlottesville, Va., 1986–)., 4:352 n. 1). A partial copy of this letter, not in code, can be found in the State Department letterbooks misaddressed to Charles Pinckney, 8 July 1803 (DNA: RG 59, IM, vol. 6), with the following note appended in the bottom margin: “[The above beginning of a letter was addressed to the Marquis D’Yrujo but by mistake was inserted there as being to Mr Pinckney when it was only an enclosure to him.]” A copy of this letter was enclosed in JM to Pinckney, 29 July 1803.


Title: To James Madison from Rufus King, 8 July 1803
From: King, Rufus
To: Madison, James

Private
Dr Sir,
New york July 8. 1803
I have just recd. and am obliged to you for your letter of the 5th. the settlement of my family will for some time call for and engage my time and attention, after this shall have been done, I will cheerfully upon an intimation from you, visit the seat of Govt. and make any such personal Communications as you may require.
Had I supposed that you had not recd. dispatches from Paris of a date subsequent to the signature of the treaty of cession, I should have said a word or two to you on that important Subject—which my frequent & confidential correspondence with Mr. Livingston would have enabled me to do—the Extent of the cession appears by my correspondence with our Envoys—the Conditions are not known by me with precision, but I have understood from Mr. Livingston that we assume of Debt due from france to our Citizens a sum not exceeding 20,000,000 livres (a provision for the liquidation whereof is contained in the Treaty) and pay “a large sum in 6 per Cent Stock to France.” This phrase is too vague to afford any distinct idea, and perhaps is made use of to reconcile us easily to a moderate Amount. I however do not suppose the sum small, nor do I think we shd. hesitate in providing a large one, provided the Act of Cession includes no commercial or political Regulation with which we might be dissatisfied. On these points I feel considerable confidence, as they have been again & again discussed in the correspondence between me & Mr. Livingston: I trust no political Engagements with wh we shd. be dissatisfied have been made, and the preferences in commerce are confined to the ceded Territory and do not exceed twelve years. Most faithfully Yr. ob. ser.
Rufus King
P.S. I am obliged to you for conferring with the Secy of the Treasury respecting my Furniture &c, and am in hopes that he will be of opinion that the Effects &c of a returning Minr. are or ought to be (by a Provision to this Effect if one be required) exempt from Duty.

   RC (DNA: RG 59, DD, Great Britain, vol. 10). Docketed by Wagner as received 14 July.


Title: To James Madison from Thomas Appleton, 8 July 1803 (Abstract)
From: Appleton, Thomas
To: Madison, James

8 July 1803, Leghorn. Encloses his “account of disbursements to distressed American seamen during the preceeding year amounting to” $894.52. “A vast number of Sailors” have resorted to this port “to find vessels returning to the U: States—more than one half the sum I have advanced was to men from Trieste, Naples, the island of Sicily and Genoa.” Has been careful “to discriminate between the unfeigned distressed seaman, entitled to charity, and the vagabond profligate who was undeserving the bounty of government.” Has heard that new laws respecting American seamen have been enacted but has not received any correspondence from the State Department, except a printed circular, or any of the laws of the U.S. for three years. Has drawn on the State Department in favor of Philadelphia merchant Samuel Emery for the sum of the above account. Encloses also a list of ships that entered Leghorn from 1 Jan. to 30 June 1803. Informs JM “of the embarrassments our Vessels now labour under” since Leghorn was declared by the French to be in a state of siege. Encloses a copy of his letter to Livingston, describing the circumstances attending the “arrestation of three American vessels of late.” “My only weapon is remonstrance, and the existing treaty between the U: States, and the Republick of france: to which their commissaries oppose volumes of new maritime Regulations, where there does not appear a line to except from their rigour, vessels of nations with whom they may be united by treaties of Amity or of Commerce.” Cites one of the new regulations: “‘toutes les lettres trouvées sur des batimens neutres, seront ouvertes et lues en presence de l’armateur, ou de son representant; et Celles qui seront de nature à donner des éclaircissemens sur la Validité de la prise seront jointes à la procedure; les autres lettres seront addressées au Ministre de la Marine et des Colonies’—How applicable this may be, you will easily judge.” Presumes Livingston “will obtain an exception in favor of our Commerce, or procure the Acknowledgement of a general principle” by which Appleton may “secure our flag from any future insults, and the proprietors of Vessels from a repetition of such injuries.”

   RC and enclosure (DNA: RG 59, CD, Leghorn, vol. 1). RC 3 pp.; docketed by Wagner as received 13 Oct. with the notation: “Sent the enclosed accounts to the Treasury Department.” For surviving enclosure, see n. 1.

   Appleton enclosed a copy of his letter to Robert R. Livingston, 8 July 1803 (3 pp.; docketed by Wagner), which described the seizure by French authorities of ship’s papers from the Adelaide of Baltimore and the Syren of Philadelphia “under the most unjustifiable pretext, that the property might belong to subjects of his Britannic Majesty.” Appleton “remonstrated against this procedure” on the basis of article 14 of the Convention of 1800, but in vain. The ships were freed after a detention of twenty days. A similar incident involved the Boston of Philadelphia. Appleton called on Livingston to protest these abuses.

   “All letters found on neutral ships will be opened and read in the presence of the ship-owner or his representative, and those which are of a kind to give some explanation of a prize’s validity will be added to the proceedings; the other letters will be sent to the minister of the marine and colonies” (editors’ translation).

   A full transcription of this document has been added to the digital edition.


Title: To James Madison from James Leander Cathcart, 8 July 1803 (Abstract)
From: Cathcart, James Leander
To: Madison, James

8 July 1803, Leghorn. No. 8. Informs JM that “the report of the capture of Mr. Smith has proved to be false, he arrived safe at Malta, as did the ship Prudent.” “A respectable merchant at Genoa” reports “that the Dey of Algiers, having order’d his Cruisers to capture all british merchantmen that had not changed their old passports according to stipulation with the british consul…, had actually captured two or three vessels & sent them to Algiers, in consequence of which the british Admiral sent a ship of the line & two Frigates in quest of the Algerine Cruisers who fell in with eleven sail large & small near the waters of Tunis.” The British fired on the Algerines “to chastize their temerity” and “chased them into Tunis bay where the[y] arrived in a most shatter’d condition.” The British then ordered the dey to “liberate the british vessels & crews immediately,” or British ships in future would “sink indiscriminately every Algerine vessel they should fall in with.” Presumes it was Nelson who commanded this action, as he arrived in the Mediterranean on 5 June. “I hesitate not a moment to assert that if a Nelson had commanded our squadron in this sea, for the last fifteen months (small as it is) that at this moment that little inconsiderable nest of Pirates Tripoli would lay prostrate at our feet & the other States would at least treat us with more respect.… I have heard nothing of or from our squadron since my last & therefore presume it is cruising before Tripoli, probably negotiating.” Adds in a postscript: “Enclosed is Mr. Eatons receipt” [not found] for U.S. property “which he is accountable for I forgot to forward it with my accompts.” Adds in a postscript dated 9 July: “The report of yesterday is the general topic of conversation to day, some say that the vessels captured by the Algerines were two Polaccas belonging to the Island of Malta & that two Frigates being dispatch’d from that Island for the purpose of intercepting them … fell in with a Squadron of Tunisian cruisers & attackd them.” Thinks it best not to place “implicit confidence” in this report, “lest this should prove such another engagement as that reported to have taken place between the Boston & tunisian Cruisers last year.” In a further postscript asks JM “to excuse the liberty he has frequently taken of forwarding letters under cover to the Department of State as he has invariably found it the safest conveyance.”

   RC (DNA: RG 59, CD, Tripoli, vol. 2). 3 pp.; docketed by Wagner as received 3 Nov.

   See JM to Eaton, 22 Aug. 1802 (PJM-SSRobert J. Brugger et al., eds., The Papers of James Madison: Secretary of State Series (5 vols. to date; Charlottesville, Va., 1986–)., 3:505–7 and n. 1).

   A full transcription of this document has been added to the digital edition.


Title: To James Madison from John M. Forbes, 8 July 1803 (Abstract)
From: Forbes, John M.
To: Madison, James

8 July 1803, Hamburg. Reports that accounts from Great Britain to 1 July indicate that the Elbe River will be “closely blockaded,” forcing all British and American trade to other Baltic ports and totally suspending trade with Hamburg. Believes it necessary that he establish his agency in Lübeck or Rostock, in the circle of Lower Saxony. Has “repeatedly solicited” an extension of his commission to this circle “with a mere view to the public Service.” “But now that it becomes an object of private as well as increased public interest, that our trade should be suitably protected, I flatter myself that … the United States … will not refuse to give me that commercial encouragement which is my only reward.” Reports that “the second Capitulation of the Hanoverians … is confidently asserted to have taken place.” The French general Mortier is now in Hamburg on a visit of two or three days.

   RC, two copies, and enclosures (DNA: RG 59, CD, Hamburg, vol. 1). First RC 2 pp.; marked “Triplicate”; docketed by Wagner as received 26 Sept. Second RC begins on second page of Forbes to JM, 30 June 1803. The enclosures (15 pp.) are copies of the following: Forbes’s “Circular to the Americans leaving this Port,” n.d.; a translation of von Sienen to Forbes, 30 June 1803, requesting depositions from the crew of the Astrea in the case of an impressed seaman; Forbes to von Sienen, 6 July 1803, rejecting as a breach of diplomatic etiquette the invitation to provide depositions and reiterating his formal remonstrance; Forbes’s statement, 5 July 1803, of the circumstances of the sailor’s impressment off the Astrea; and enclosures 6–9 and 12 described in Forbes to JM, 13 June 1803, n. 1.

   A full transcription of this document has been added to the digital edition.


Title: From James Madison to Louis-André Pichon, 9 July 1803
From: Madison, James
To: Pichon, Louis-André

Sir
Department of State July 9th. 1803.
In addition to what I had the honor formerly to communicate to you, respecting the steps taken on the complaint against the Captain of the British frigate Boston, for an outrage committed, in Hampton Roads, upon the French vessel called the Ann, I have now to observe, that the material facts of the case having been ascertained thro’ the Collector at Norfolk, a representation has been made to the British Government, respecting it, from which ought to be expected both a proper animadversion upon the conduct of the Captain of the Boston in this instance, and preventive measures against the repetition of such acts of disrespect to the territorial sovereignty of the United States. I have the honor to be &ca.
James Madison.

   Letterbook copy (DNA: RG 59, DL, vol. 14); Tr (AAE: Political Correspondence, U.S., 56:29). Tr in French.

   For details of the case, see Pichon to JM, 18 Apr. 1803 (PJM-SSRobert J. Brugger et al., eds., The Papers of James Madison: Secretary of State Series (5 vols. to date; Charlottesville, Va., 1986–)., 4:533–34).

   See JM to Edward Thornton, 1 June 1803.


Title: To James Madison from John Breckenridge, 9 July 1803
From: Breckenridge, John
To: Madison, James

Dear Sir
Lexington (Kentucky) July 9. 1803.
Inclosed is a letter for Colo. Monroe which I will be thankful to you to inclose him in the first packett which may go to him from your Department.
We are all here in a state of perfect tranquillity, awaiting with patience & good temper the result of the mission. The present prospects in Europe have greatly heightened our expectations, and our disappointment in case of failure, will consequently be much keener. We have our hearts strongly set on the Island of Orleans, beleiving that our commerce will never flourish untill our jurisdiction is extended to the mouth of the Missi. Our present crops of wheat are smaller & more unpromising than usual. Fortunately for us, we are not in debt to each other. The loss of our crops, does not therefore break in on our capitals.
Our Elections will commence in three weeks. There is but one candidate in the State who is even suspected of federalism (& which he denies), & I believe he has little prospect of his election. I am vexed at the Hand Virginia has made of her elections. She deserves it; for a different result might with certainty have been produced, by a more judicious & equally convenient organization of the districts. With great respect & esteem I am dear sir Your friend & very Hbl svt.
John Breckinridge

   RC (DNA: RG 76, Preliminary Inventory 177, entry 125, box 2, Correspondence of John Breckinridge, 1791–1803); draft and FC of enclosure (DLC: Breckinridge Family Papers). For enclosure, see n. 1.

   Breckinridge’s letter to Monroe, dated 9 July 1803, concerned Monroe’s Kentucky land claims, local political affairs, the restoration of the deposit, and the importance of Monroe’s French mission to the trans-Appalachian west.

   In the April 1803 election in Virginia, Federalists gained three seats in the U.S. House of Representatives (National Intelligencer, 25 May 1803).


Title: Proposed Constitutional Amendment, [ca. 9 July] 1803
From: Madison, James
To:

[ca. 9 July 1803]
For amendment to the Constitution
Louisiana as ceded by France is made part of the U. States. Congress may make part of the U. S. other adjacent territories which shall be justly acquired.
Congress may sever from the U. S territory not heretofore within the U. States, with consent of a majority of the free males above 21 years, inhabiting such territory

   Ms (DLC). Undated; for conjectural date, see n. 1. Docketed by JM, probably at a later date, “project of J. M.”

   Madison probably drafted this constitutional amendment in response to one Jefferson wrote after 4 July, when news of the Louisiana treaty reached Washington, and which the president circulated among his cabinet secretaries for comment. Robert Smith and Albert Gallatin both responded on 9 July, and it is likely that Madison did as well. In any event, Jefferson clearly had Madison’s draft by the time he rewrote the amendment in late August; the first line of that draft is taken directly from Madison’s proposed amendment (Ford, Writings of JeffersonPaul Leicester Ford, ed., The Writings of Thomas Jefferson (10 vols.; New York, 1892–99)., 8:241–49; Malone, Jefferson and His TimeDumas Malone, Jefferson and His Time (6 vols.; Boston, 1948–81)., 4:314–16; Brant, MadisonIrving Brant, James Madison (6 vols.; Indianapolis and New York, 1941–61)., 4:141–45).


Title: To James Madison from Edward Thornton, 10 July 1803
From: Thornton, Edward
To: Madison, James

Sir,
Philadelphia 10th July 1803
Intelligence having reached this country of the renewal of hostilities between His Majesty and the French Republic, I hope I shall be excused in presenting to your consideration some reflections arising out of this new state of things, and in expressing my hope that the President will second the views in every thing which may appear not inconsistent with the laws of the United States.
I beg to assure you of my entire conviction, that he is animated with a most sincere desire of preserving the strictest impartiality between the belligerent powers, and you may be persuaded, that in the little which depends upon me no exertion shall be wanting to avert or to soften the vexations, of which the American masters of vessels complain, and which unhappily a state of war renders in many cases almost inevitable. Perhaps both these views may be promoted in some degree by what I take the liberty of suggesting in this letter.
His Majesty’s Consul General in this port observed, that immediately after the receipt of the foregoing intelligence some small vessels destined for St. Domingo (one of them commanded by a Frenchman capable of any abandoned enterprize) had taken guns on board on pretence of defending themselves against the negro barges infesting the coasts of that Island, and he applied to the Collector of the Customs for the detention of the vessels, until the opinion of the American Government could be obtained. I find that the Collector by an unaccountable misapprehension, of which he has since been made sensible, requested instructions from the Treasury as to the propriety of allowing the exportation of military stores, which in the present state of things could never be brought into question; but I beg you to bestow some consideration on the real point which Mr Bond submitted to the Collector.
There can be no pretence for requesting, that bonâ fide American vessels engaged in an honest traffic, and bound to the coasts of St. Domingo, to those of the Barbary Powers in the Mediterranean, some of whom are at war with the United States, or to the East Indies, should not be allowed to arm themselves for defence against the dangers, to which they are peculiarly exposed; but if some obligation is not imposed even upon these or at least upon the former of them (which from peculiar circumstances are liable to greater abuses than the others) that they shall be obliged to return to the United States with the same warlike equipment, or that by the alienation of the vessel that equipment shall not be made use of for purposes of hostility, there is no extent, to which the evil may not be carried against the interests of Great Britain. A voyage of ten days may convert a neutral vessel, which under that character may be allowed to pass without molestation, into a dangerous enemy, perfectly equipped for offensive hostility and prepared to act on the proper theatre. The very arming of vessels, pretending to be engaged in a neutral and legitimate commerce, is sufficient to excite suspicions of their real intentions; and a resistance to the lawful examination of the cruizers of belligerent nations, which may be attended with the most serious consequences in the case of an equality of force, must unavoidably be followed by capture and condemnation in every case of an encounter with a superior.
Without entering into discussions, which unless I have orders from my superiors I have no inclination to renew, I beg to observe that by the twenty fourth Article of the Treaty of 1794 it is expressly stipulated that no foreign privateers shall be allowed to sell, what they have taken, in the ports of the United States, and to suggest to you for the full accomplishment of this object, that if such prizes should arrive in the American ports, they may not be allowed to enter at the Custom House except for the simple purpose of reporting themselves, by which means their cargoes cannot even be landed without a violation of the law. Colonel Pickering, the late Secretary of State gave, if I mistake not, at the suggestion of His Majesty’s Minister, directions to this effect to the different Collectors in the ports of the Union.
Towards the close of the last war, His Majesty’s Consul General at New York applied to the Federal Commanding Officer in that port to detain for the space of twenty four hours a French Privateer which was preparing to follow to sea an unarmed British Merchantman, according to a regulation adopted by the United States in the year 1794. The officer refused, alledging that he had received from the Government no directions to enforce such a regulation; and I should have mentioned the matter to you at the time, had not the signature of the preliminary articles of peace, of which an account had just reached America, rendered it unnecessary to trouble you with any application. I hope you will have the goodness to give orders upon this point, should there be any danger of its repetition. I have the honour to be with perfect truth and respect, Sir, Your most obedient humble servant,
Edwd Thornton

   RC and enclosure (DNA: RG 59, NFL, Great Britain, vol. 2); Tr (PRO: Foreign Office, ser. 5, 38:220–23). RC docketed by Wagner as received 14 July with the notation: “Arming of Am. vessels / Sale of prizes / Neutrality of the Ports.” For enclosure, see n. 1.

   The enclosure is a copy of Peter Muhlenberg to Thornton, 8 July 1803 (3 pp.), correcting some assertions made by Phineas Bond, the British consul in Philadelphia, about the Nancy and the Adventure, two schooners engaged in the trade with Saint-Domingue.

   Miller, TreatiesHunter Miller, ed., Treaties and Other International Acts of the United States of America (8 vols.; Washington, 1930–48)., 2:262.

   See Perkins, First Rapprochement, p. 47.

   The regulation referred to was an executive order of 18 June 1794 which required a twenty-four-hour interval between the departures of hostile vessels in U.S. ports (JM to Thornton, 11 May 1801 [PJM-SSRobert J. Brugger et al., eds., The Papers of James Madison: Secretary of State Series (5 vols. to date; Charlottesville, Va., 1986–)., 1:154–55 and n. 1]).


Title: To James Madison from Benjamin Hawkins, 11 July 1803
From: Hawkins, Benjamin
To: Madison, James

Creek agency 11th. July 1803
I have had the pleasure to receive your favour by Mr. Hill, and am glad that you have had the opportunity of hearing from so honest a man a plain detail of occurrences in this quarter. You must have seen the issue of some interesting occurrences in this agency during the winter and spring in my communications to the war office. I was a good deal agitated during this period ’till after I had, on a correct view of our affairs brought my mind to do that with the warriors by force, which I had planed in november to be done by the chiefs themselves, in case of a failure on their part. The few white people intrusted with the plan had no confidence in it, but that did not lessen my confidence in the assurances of the chiefs.
It was inconceivable to me that Bowles who understood a good deal of the Indian language, had been here formerly and visited General McGillivray, should not have been able to make the necessary distinction between the past and present. He must have seen a material change in the manners of the Indians; and must have known, that there had been two Indians, and 3 Negros shot, 23 indians publicly whiped, some negros wounded and one white man whiped, under the new arrangements since his arrival in the fall of 1799, and yet he goes on reacting his former part of Director General, untill he was apprehended in the midst of his guards, and adherents and at the eve in imagination of being a king of the four nations, and quit the stage in Irons.
Without venturing a speculative opinion, on the infraction of our right of deposit, by the Spanish intendant at N. Orleans, I concur in the idea, that it was unjust and premature to make war without giving an opportunity for Voluntary justice to us, and the event I believe has or will verify it. Those who have advocated a contrary doctrine have avowed such a deadly hatred to the views of the government, that they render themselves liable to the suspicion at least of not being candid, if not of an intention to mislead. I am for peace on any terms except an actual violation of our rights. I have brought my red charge to embrace this doctrine, and to declare in the most solemn manner, “that they are resolved on eternal peace with all the world, that when they are dead and gone, their children may grow up in peace, repeat and remember this talk, and take it to the end of the world.” This declaration, and the spirit which produced it, is important to us, as well as our neighbours of spain who have been a good deal irritated and perplexed with the war with the Simonolies.
Tell Mrs. Madison we are all Quakers, in the Indian agency, and there is little or no difference now between our annual meetings, and the annual meetings of our white brethren, we are full as silent, as grave, and circumspect here as in Philadelphia. We are under the guidance of reason, and they under the light of the gospel, in pursuit of the same object, content and a competency in this life, and neighbours face hereafter. We are more solicitous for the first than the last believing it more immediately concerns us, and that our faculties are limited to our sphere of action here. If our doctrine of hereafter is unformed, in the opinion of our white friends, we will exchange our guide, for their light, and subscribe to whatever they recommend, provided they will assist us here, to preserve the birth right portion of the planet we inhabit. To this end, the little that we require, is, that the followers of the meek and humble Jesus will believe we are their neighbours, and treat us accordingly. We have availed ourselves of the aid and instruction afforded us by the government, and already feel the happy effects, we are better clothed and better fed than heretofore, our little daughters have extended their petticoats from the knee to the ancle, by their industry, and in like manner have clothed some of them, our fathers and mothers. Labour is no longer a disgrace in our land, and our men lend a hand. Hunting has become insufficient to clothe and subsist us, and will soon be only resorted to as an amusement for our young men. We shall in future rely on stockraising, agriculture and household manufactures, our means for these objects are not commensurate with our wishes, but they increase annually by the bounty of the government and our own exertions. We solicit the benevolent of all parties to aid us with their good wishes.
I shall leave this in three days for the upper towns to complete the arrangements preparatory to the treaty proposed to be held with the Creeks on the 6 of august after then you will hear again from him who is very sincerely your friend and dear sir, your ob svt.
Benjamin Hawkins

   RC (DLC). Docketed by JM.

   Letter not found. For William Hill, see Hawkins to JM, 13 Jan. 1803 (PJM-SSRobert J. Brugger et al., eds., The Papers of James Madison: Secretary of State Series (5 vols. to date; Charlottesville, Va., 1986–)., 4:254).

   For the capture of Bowles at the Hickory Ground (near present-day Montgomery, Alabama) in May 1803, see Wright, William Augustus Bowles, pp. 162–68.

   For the unsuccessful negotiations in August 1803, see Hawkins to John Milledge, 6 Sept. 1803 (Grant, Letters of Benjamin Hawkins, 2:459–60).


Title: To James Madison from David Humphreys, 11 July 1803
From: Humphreys, David
To: Madison, James

Sir
New Haven July 11th 1803
I had the honour to receive, upon my return to this Place, your letter dated the 14th of April last; in which you informed me, that the Accounts of Messrs John Bulkeley & Son had been adjusted at the Treasury. I immediately sent an extract of yours to that House; and I doubt not you will have forwarded the same statement. This prevents me from trespassing on your time with any remark, altho I perceive there is some difference between the sum claimed & that found due by the beforementioned adjustment.
I note with respectful attention what you observe on the subject of the Accounts of Sums expended for the Barbary negociations, and that it was presumed from my having been Commissioner for conducting them, that I could “trace with facility the channels in which much of the money reached its final expenditure & designate the accountable Persons.” And that, “as soon as my leisure would conveniently permit,[”] I was desired “to give such elucidations as would contribute to the purpose in view.[”]
Permit me to say, Sir, that, if in addition to the long, complicated, ungrateful & thankless task which was imposed upon me, without emolument & without the assistance even of a Secretary except in the short & solitary instance of Mr Nathl Cutting, relative to the execution of this Barbary business, altogether foreign to the ordinary functions of my Office as Minister at a particular Court, I could by any present exertion of mine furnish you the information requested, it would afford me real & great satisfaction. In passing many Drafts & transferring much Money, all I could do was to strive to prevent the public interest from suffering more detriment than was inevitable; and to transmit in its current time Documents or Receipts with my Correspondence, to demonstrate that no part of the property of the U. S., thus entrusted to my management, remained in my possession. A recurrence to the files in the Department of State will justify this assertion. The following is all the information which I can at present give respecting the Agency or responsibility of others. A small tin case, containing some Accounts of Mr James Simpson is put into the hands of the Post Master here, to be forwarded to you. I had imagined that a duplicate of some of Mr Rob: Montgomery’s Accounts was with my official Papers—but I do not find it after a considerable length of time spent in the search. As the Receipt given by him for money & property belonging to the U. S. left with him by me in the year 1794, made him responsible for accounting directly with the Department of State, I cannot hesitate in believing that he has rendered the said Account to that Department. I know that more than one Copy of that Receipt was deposited there. Mr Nathl Cutting, who was sent to me by Mr Jefferson when Secretary of State for the express & sole purpose of keeping the Accounts of expenditures for Barbary negociations, I know, likewise made out a state of his Accounts while with me for the Department of State, which are doubtless in your Office. As those of the Messrs Barings must be. According to the best of my recollection & belief the principal part of the residue of the funds appropriated for those purposes before alluded to, ought to have been accounted for by Captn. OBrien Mr Donaldson & Mr Barlow, by whose intervention they reached their final expenditure.
My delay in answering your letter, which merits an explanation, has been occasioned by the absence & division of my Papers—a portion of them having arrived not long since from Spain, & the rest having come to America by way of Portugal.
I note also the intimation which you are pleased to annex as having been suggested by the occasion, “that my Diplomatic Accounts altho’ they have probably been duly rendered have not been settled.” In precise conformity to the instruction given to me by Mr. Jefferson when Secretary of State, I did, during the whole continuance of my Mission in Portugal & Spain, by the earliest opportunity which occurred after the first day of July in every year, transmit my Accounts to the Department of State, with Vouchers for all extraordinary & contingent expenditures. In which, I am conscious, there is nothing unjust or wrong intentionally debited. If they are not settled, I flatter myself it is not to be imputed to my negligence or fault. When I was at the Seat of Government last winter, it was as I informed the President with the object & wish of giving any satisfactory elucidations, on any subject connected with my Mission, which might be in my power. With sentiments of great respect & esteem I have the honour to be, Sir Your Mo: ob: & Mo: hble Servt
D. Humphreys

   RC (DNA: RG 59, DD, Spain, vol. 5).

   PJM-SSRobert J. Brugger et al., eds., The Papers of James Madison: Secretary of State Series (5 vols. to date; Charlottesville, Va., 1986–)., 4:518–19.

   For Humphreys’s mission to Algiers, 1793–95, see Irwin, Diplomatic Relations with the Barbary Powers, pp. 56–62, 69–72.

   Nathaniel Cutting (d. 1824) was a Massachusetts native who arrived in France in 1788 and lived there as a merchant and financial speculator. In 1793 he served as Humphreys’s secretary during the abortive mission to Algiers, and in 1803 he was appointed secretary of the claims commission established by the Louisiana Purchase treaty. On his return to the U.S. sometime before 1806, he became a resident of Washington, D.C., where he came to know JM personally (Columbian Centinel, 17 Mar. 1824; Nathaniel Cutting to JM, 13 June 1809 [PJM-PSRobert A. Rutland et al., eds., The Papers of James Madison: Presidential Series (4 vols. to date; Charlottesville, Va., 1984–)., 1:247–49 and nn.]; Bizardel, Les Américains à Paris: Notices biographiques, pp. 49–52).


Title: To James Madison from Robert R. Livingston, 11 July 1803
From: Livingston, Robert R.
To: Madison, James

No. 79
Dear sir
Paris 11. July 1803
I have nothing to add to my Letter of the 25th of June which you will receive by this conveyance it having been written to send by Mr. Monroe who has been detained for want of a passport ’till now. He sets off tomorrow. I have yet no answer to my Notes owing to the Consuls and Ministers absence and I presume that every thing is for the present laid aside to give place to the operations of War, and the festivity of the Tour. I should have mentioned to you that I have strong reasons to believe that the Spanish cession contained an agreement not to part with Louisiana to any other power, this I have thro’ a channel that I think I can rely upon, and tho’ it will not effect our right it should hasten your measures in availing yourselves of the Treaty. I have a Letter from Mr. Graham in which he says that he thinks our Treaty will be very displeasing to Spain and Expresses very little hope of Mr. Pinckneys success in his new demand on the Government. However the change in circumstances may I think operate there. The war measures continue with great activity & great unanimity on the part of the people the Consul is rendered extremely popular by the measures of England. The report of the vessel said to be taken in going from Sicily mentioned in my last is as I believe unfounded having recd. Letters from Marseilles of a late date that make no mention of it. I think it would be prudent as many Privateers will be fitted out from France to put your ships in Commission & grant Convoys as this would free them from search by our convention with France and of course from plunder. On the part of Britain I have reason to believe they will be respected, by charging Convoy money a great part of the expence would be defrayed and while our seamen acquired experience our Nation would derive consequence from an appearence of strength in the government. I have just now received your favor of the 28th May to Mr. Monroe and myself, it is not yet deciphered when it is it will be answered jointly. I do not know whether I shall now go to England as there may be some difficulty in the way and our board still appear to want me. Your desire in your Letter to Mr. Monroe that I should write by way of England, this will be very difficult in the present State of things or indeed to write any way as merchant vessels do not like to charge themselves with Letters. I have the honor to be Sir with great Esteem & Respect Your Most Obt Hbe. Sert
R R Livingston

   RC (DNA: RG 59, DD, France, vol. 8A); FC (NHi: Livingston Papers). RC in a clerk’s hand, signed by Livingston; docketed by Wagner as received 19 Sept.


Title: To James Madison from William Pinkney, 11 July 1803
From: Pinkney, William
To: Madison, James

Sir
London July 11th. 1803
I had the Honor to receive two Days ago, your Letter of the 3d. of May, with its Enclosures, charging me with the future Management of the Affair of the Maryland Claim; and I beg you to have the Goodness to assure the President that I entertain a just Sense of the high Value of this flattering Mark of his Confidence & of that of the Government of Maryland; and that I shall apply myself without Loss of Time to the Fulfilment, so far as may depend on me, of the Views to which it relates. The Footing upon which Mr. King finally left this Claim may undoubtedly authorize a Hope that the principal Obstacles to its speedy and satisfactory Adjustment have been already removed. In the Course of a few Weeks it will perhaps be practicable to ascertain, with some Degree of Certainty, how far this Expectation is likely to be justified by the Event. In the mean Time my utmost Efforts, to which I shall take the Liberty to ask the Aid of the American Minister on his Arrival, shall be employed for its Accomplishment. I have the Honor to be with the greatest Respect & Esteem—Yr. mo. obed Servt.
Wm. Pinkney

   RC (DNA: RG 76, Great Britain, Treaty of 1794 [Art. 7], Papers Relative to the Commissioners, vol. 4). Docketed by Wagner as received 5 Sept.

   PJM-SSRobert J. Brugger et al., eds., The Papers of James Madison: Secretary of State Series (5 vols. to date; Charlottesville, Va., 1986–)., 4:568, 569.

   For the business of the Maryland bank stock, see PJM-SSRobert J. Brugger et al., eds., The Papers of James Madison: Secretary of State Series (5 vols. to date; Charlottesville, Va., 1986–)., 2:164 n. 1.


Title: To James Madison from James Monroe, 11 July 1803 (Abstract)
From: Monroe, James
To: Madison, James

11 July 1803, Paris. “Permit me to present to yr. acquaintance & attention the bearer Mr. Helbran a naturalised citizen of the UStates. He is a young man of merit of very respectable connections, who reside principally at Bordeaux, and he returns to the UStates with commercial views where he has resided for several years, as his documents shew. Having recd. much attention from his friends there, I feel interested on theirs as on his acct. in his success in his adopted country.”

   RC (DLC: Rives Collection, Madison Papers).


Title: From James Madison to Louis-André Pichon, 12 July 1803
From: Madison, James
To: Pichon, Louis-André

Department of State 12th. July 1803
The Secretary of State presents his respects to Mr. Pichon and has the honor to inform him, that the three citizens of the United States mentioned in the Secretary’s letter of the 20th. May as being detained at Jacmel, have been since liberated. Any further interpositions, therefore can now have for their objects nothing more than indemnity to these citizens for the wrongs committed against them, and precautions against similar infractions of the rights of citizens of the United States.
James Madison.

   Letterbook copy (DNA: RG 59, DL, vol. 14); Tr (AAE: Political Correspondence, U.S., 56:29). Tr in French.

   JM to Pichon, 20 May 1803.


Title: To James Madison from Robert R. Livingston and James Monroe, 12 July 1803
From: Livingston, Robert R.,Monroe, James
To: Madison, James

No 83
Sir
Paris 12th July 1803
We have been honored by your favors of the 18th April & the 28th May, as they both relate to measures that might lead to the accomplishment of the Treaty which was executed previous to their arrival no remarks upon them are necessary Except that one idea is held out in the last that Britain interested herself in preventing the possession of Louisiana by France. The fact is that she was totally indifferent to it—that Lord Whitworth had (as he informed Mr. Livingston) no sort of instruction on the subject, that it was never mentioned in any of the state papers laid before Parliament and that on announcing the cession to the U:States to parliament Lord Haw[ke]sbury declares he had no knowledge of the transaction ’till after he had been officially informed of the Treaty by Mr. King, who himself knew nothing of it ’till it was concluded. The blockage of the fleet was under an apprehension that they might either strengthen the garrison of Martinique or attack some of the British Islands. We have considered that part of your letter which directs Mr. Monroe to go to England as not depending upon the contingency mentioned in the previous paragraph, and he is accordingly preparing to set out. We omitted to mention to you that Mr. Skipwith has been appointed by us as Agent to attend the board of comptability, this will give him much trouble, & will intitle him to an additional pay beyond that which he receives as Commercial Agent. We have not taken upon us to settle the pay of the Commissioners and their Clerk &c but have left it to your determination & made them an advance by draft on our Banker of five thousand dollars.
Mr. Livingston has not received your Letter of the 25th. mentioned in yours of the 28th. We have the honor to be Sir with the highest Respect Your Most Obt. Hbe. Serts.
Robt R Livingston
Jas. Monroe

   RC (DNA: RG 59, DD, France, vol. 8); draft (NHi: Livingston Papers). RC in a clerk’s hand, signed by Livingston and Monroe; docketed by Wagner as received 19 Sept.

   PJM-SSRobert J. Brugger et al., eds., The Papers of James Madison: Secretary of State Series (5 vols. to date; Charlottesville, Va., 1986–)., 4:527–32, 533.


Title: To James Madison from Edward Thornton, 12 July 1803
From: Thornton, Edward
To: Madison, James

Dear Sir,
Philadelphia 12 July 1803
I beg the favour of you to send me two or three copies of Mr Gallatin’s letter of 1801, that I may transmit them to England and to some of our Consuls here.
Mr Olsen sailed last Wednesday from Newcastle on Delaware, and is by this time probably en pleine mer. He was in tolerable health and in high spirits. I find his successor was in London in the middle of May.

Should you hear anything certain of Mr Merry’s departure from England, you will do me a particular favour by imparting it to me: for he writes only by the Packet, nor then in the most regular manner.
I shall wait here or at New York the arrival of the June mail. With my best compliments to the Ladies of your family I remain ever Dear Sir Your faithful and obedient servt
Edwd Thornton

   RC (DLC). Docketed by Wagner “(Private).”

   For the requested letter, see JM to Thornton, 8 July 1803, and n. 1.


Title: To James Madison from Robert W. Fox, 12 July 1803 (Abstract)
From: Fox, Robert W.
To: Madison, James

12 July 1803, Falmouth. In accordance with JM’s 9 Apr. circular, encloses a list of charges “payable by Americans on their Tonnage ⅌ Register, & all other foreign Shipping, there is also a list of what is paid by English Shipping for the same Voyages.”

  “At Falmouth the pierage of English Vessels is
  1/
  ⅌ Mast
  ⅌ Month

  & of American & other foreign Shipping
  1/
  do:
  do:

  Castle dues &
  Anchorage
  of Americans &c:

  4/6
  ⅌ Ship

  do:
  do:
  of English

  2/6
  do:

  At Dartmouth
  English
  1/ ⅌ Ship,
  Americans &c:

  6/
  do.

  Pierage
  do:
  1/6   do: ,
  do.

  3/
  do:

  Groundage
  do:
  1/    do: ,
  do:

  2/
  do:

& at some other ports of my district the charge of pier dues, Anchorage &c: is trifling.” Has written to Plymouth, “but my Consular Agent there has injured his Eye & cannot conveniently write, but I understand the expences were trifling.” Pilotage varies greatly at all places “depending on the weather & the Masters make the best bargain they can.” The quarantine charge “is 3/ ⅌ Ton, according to the Ships measurement.” Quarantine regulations mean that “if a Ship from Philadelphia touches here for orders (at the time Vessels from Philadelphia are ordered to be put under Quarantine by this Government),” it is put into quarantine and charged the duty. Believes some regulation should allow ships not discharging cargoes, or “airing their Cargoes,” not to pay quarantine duties. There is no lazaretto in any of the ports in his district, though this is much needed.
British cruisers have captured a great number of French and Dutch ships, and Great Britain “is arming very fast.” People expect “that the French will make one or more attempts to invade this Country,” though it is generally believed they will not be successful.
“Our Harvest promises well.” The price of American flour has risen since June. Wheat, tobacco, and rice sell well; West India produce and cotton wool are not so much in demand, “in consequence of the demand for export being so much chequed by the Blockade of the Elbe by a British Squadron.”
U.S. seamen “are pretty well protected in general, none of the Officers in the Impress Service being desirous to meddle with men who are clearly Citizens of the U S of A.” Has freed some by certifying that they were U.S. citizens. Has not found lately any vessels sailing under the American flag that were not U.S. property.

   RC and enclosure (DNA: RG 59, CD, Falmouth, vol. 2). RC 3 pp.; docketed by Wagner as received 30 Sept. Enclosure (1 p.) is a note on shipping duties.

   PJM-SSRobert J. Brugger et al., eds., The Papers of James Madison: Secretary of State Series (5 vols. to date; Charlottesville, Va., 1986–)., 4:491–93.

   A full transcription of this document has been added to the digital edition.


Title: To James Madison from Colin and James Ross, 13 July 1803
From: Ross, Colin,Ross, James
To: Madison, James

Sir
Fredg. 13th. July 1803
We have received your favors of the 26th. May & the 10th. currt. respecting your Tobo. at Roystons We. The price here is fm. 26/ to 30/ one or two Crops of superior quality has been sold a little higher but on long time. In Richmond the price is various from 33/ to 51/ as the purchaser likes the quality the fair 60 day price there for lists of good weights that have not been ⟨review’d?⟩ we are inform’d is fm. 36/ to 40/. For your crop we will give 30/ Cash and in proportion for any time you may wish to ⟨give on?⟩ it; Your being so near Alexandria and as the Bank at that place will discount our paper if it is any accommodation to you we have no objection to give our Note p’ble & negotiable at the Bank of Alexandria. If you wish to Ship your Tobacco we will make the advance in the Country £10 stg p.Hhd. and remain very respectfully Sir Your mo. Ob. servts.
Colin & James Ross

   RC (DLC).

   Letters not found.

   For Royston’s Warehouse, see Colin and James Ross to JM, 19 Dec. 1802 (PJM-SSRobert J. Brugger et al., eds., The Papers of James Madison: Secretary of State Series (5 vols. to date; Charlottesville, Va., 1986–)., 4:202–3 and n. 4).


Title: To James Madison from Stephen Cathalan, Jr., 13 July 1803 (Abstract)
From: Cathalan, Stephen
To: Madison, James

13 July 1803, Marseilles. Confirms his last letters of 27 May and 9 June. Received JM’s circular letter on 1 June, with a copy of the last session’s laws and “a Copy of the Act Supplementary to the Act Concerning Consuls &ca. and for the further protection of American Seamen.” Has “paid due attention” to the last: “I hope … we will not See in future Such a number who after having been discharged into foreign ports by their Captains, are wandering from ports to ports, as the Captains will not, now, discharge them unless they Should Comply to the Execution of that law.” Has shipped four American seamen on the brig Ann of New York, Peter Parker, master. Paid seven other sailors twelve cents per day until they were hired by an American captain. Their wages will save the government ten dollars per man. “I have also put into Execution” the third section of that law “for a man discharged with mutual Consent by Captn. Isaac Atkins of the Brig Mentor of Salem who has deposited in my hands in his presence three months wages on advance and besides his wages due to him.” Encloses a list of American vessels entering and clearing this district’s ports from 1 Jan. to 30 June 1803 and a letter for JM. Encloses also a copy of tonnage duties laid on foreign vessels in this harbor. No light money is paid here. American ships “do not pay more or less than the other foreign Vessells.” French ships “pay a Very triffling duty of tonnage and half tonnage, this latter duty has been lately laid, to apply its amount to the repairs of harbors, Lighthouses, Rivers &ca.” A special duty on brandy exported from Cette is charged “for peculiar repairs to that port.” Quarantine charges are the same on all ships, “all depending from whence they arrive and on the nature of the goods Composing their Cargoes.” Encloses “a Copy of a bill for a quarantine of observation, performed by the Vessell and Crew at the entrance of this harbor.” These run from six to twenty days; ships from the West Indies sometimes perform quarantines of thirty days. Refers JM to the regulations of the Marseilles lazaretto sent to Timothy Pickering on 12 May 1799 with his “printed memorials on the yellow fever,” which will inform JM “of the whole.”
“Just now” is informed of the arrival of a French merchant ship from Tripoli. “I hope the Letters She Brings Will Confirm the happy intelligence that our Squadron have Captured at the latter days of May the Tripoline Admiral of 36 guns as well as 4 Smaller tripoline Cruisers Conveyed to Malta and that now the Bey of Tripoly is begging for peace With the United States.” For about a month a British squadron of twelve frigates has been cruising off Toulon, but so far neutral ships and property have not been molested, and French ships “are often escaping to their Vigilance.” JM may rely on his “Exactness to Comply to the Strict Execution” of sections 7 and 8 of the law of 28 Feb. 1803.
“I have received a letter from Rob. R. Livingston Esqr. of the 12th. July in answer to mine inclosing him a Copy of my Letter to the Commissary General of Policy [sic] to be forwarded to you after his Perusal.” Livingston approves its contents, “adding ‘in the affair of the Passports you have acted with the Strictest propriety & I would recommend to you the utmost attention not to be imposed upon, as I Would by no means have our Passports openly a deception on the French Government.’” Encloses a letter for the president.

   RC and enclosure (DNA: RG 59, CD, Marseilles, vol. 2). RC 4 pp.; docketed by Wagner: “Answ. to the Circular of April 1803.” For surviving enclosure, see n. 3.

   Circular Letter to American Consuls and Commercial Agents, 9 Apr. 1803 (PJM-SSRobert J. Brugger et al., eds., The Papers of James Madison: Secretary of State Series (5 vols. to date; Charlottesville, Va., 1986–)., 4:491–93).

   U.S. Statutes at LargeThe Public Statutes at Large of the United States of America … (17 vols.; Boston, 1848–73)., 2:203–5.

   Cathalan enclosed a copy of the account for the quarantine of the brig Mentor of Baltimore, Capt. Isaac Atkins, dated 11 Prairial an XI (31 May 1803), amounting to 43 francs (1 p.).

   Sections 7 and 8 of “An Act supplementary to the ‘act concerning Consuls and Vice-Consuls, and for the further protection of American Seamen,’” 28 Feb. 1803 (U.S. Statutes at LargeThe Public Statutes at Large of the United States of America … (17 vols.; Boston, 1848–73)., 2:204–5), prohibited consular officers from falsely certifying foreign property as U.S. property and from granting U.S. passports to known aliens on pain of fine and imprisonment.

   See Cathalan to JM, 9 June 1803, n. 3.

   The enclosed letter was probably Cathalan to Jefferson, 12 July 1803 (DLC: Jefferson Papers).

   A full transcription of this document has been added to the digital edition.


Title: To James Madison from Willink and Van Staphorst, 13 July 1803 (Abstract)
From: Willink and Van Staphorst
To: Madison, James

13 July 1803, Amsterdam. Wrote last on 16 June. Inform JM that Charles Pinckney has, in consequence of JM’s letter of 11 Sept. 1801, received a credit with Patrice Joyes & Sons of Madrid. Pinckney availed himself of that credit at first but then began to draw on Drouilhet & Company and wished, as the chief partner of Joyes & Sons had died, to draw on other firms. “We replied that the House continued and that … He would there meet with every regard due his rank and personal merits.” Pinckney wished them to deposit credit with Kavara & Sons. This was done to the amount of Pinckney’s salary and that of his secretary, and the credit with Joyes was annulled. Pinckney “has expressed the greatest dissatisfaction” at this act “and wished to have credits opened both with Joyes & Kavara.” They have done this, leaving the credit for salary with Kavara and opening one for contingent expenses and consular payments with Joyes. “We only mention this circumstance to you … that you might be informed of the case.”

   RC, two copies (DNA: RG 59, Letters Received from Bankers). First RC 2 pp.; docketed by Wagner.

   PJM-SSRobert J. Brugger et al., eds., The Papers of James Madison: Secretary of State Series (5 vols. to date; Charlottesville, Va., 1986–)., 2:103.


Title: From James Madison to Tobias Lear, 14 July 1803
From: Madison, James
To: Lear, Tobias

Sir,
Washington, Department of State, July 14. 1803.
The opinion the President entertains of your unshaken integrity and firmness has led him to select you for the office of Consul General at Algiers, a station in which those qualities are eminently requisite, and which, as well on that account as of the importance of the trust to the peace and interests of your Country, is considered as highly honorable.
As you have already made yourself in some degree acquainted with the History and state of our transactions with the Regencies of Barbary, it is the less necessary to dwell upon explanatory details in the instructions with which you are furnished.
The Regency of Algiers being of most importance to the United States considering its influence with those of Tunis and Tripoli, and our stipulations with that Regency requiring the largest expenditures are the causes why the Consul General is established there. The relation of the Consuls for those other Regencies is therefore a subordinate one, and they will consequently be instructed to correspond regularly with you, as well as directly with the Department of State. In all cases of difficulty and urgency they are to ask and follow your opinion, especially when the state of our affairs may require immediate decision, and where the sacrifice to be made is either of an occasional and not a permanent nature, or of no very high value. They are to keep regular Journals of their proceedings, including their pecuniary transactions, and transmit transcripts, as often as may be, to you. Of so strict a necessity is this latter duty that they will be given to understand that no allowance for disbursements will be made to them unless registered in their Journals at the time and transmitted both to you and this Department, with the very first Dispatches they may write to either, after the expense is incurred. The same duty will be incumbent upon yourself with the Department of State.
The only written obligation under which the United States remain to Algiers is to pay her an annuity of 12.000 Algerine sequins, but usage, equally imperious, subjects them to the payment of a biennial present, calculated by Mr OBrien for the current term at 16.000 dollars, and a present, on the change of a Consul, of the value of 20.000 dollars, according to the same estimate. Neither the value nor the quality of these presents admits of certainty. They have generally been procured on the Coast of Barbary, but this mode must certainly be the least advantageous. Mr Cathcart was furnished with the sum of Twenty four thousand dollars, to enable him to procure a Consular present on his appointment to Algiers. He is therefore directed to return you the money if not invested, but if it has been done, to deliver you the articles for the present, and account for the balance, if any, as you may direct. In future you will be pleased to give us timely notice of what the biennial present is to consist, that it may be laid in here or in Europe. You will be provided with the sum of money necessary for that which becomes due on the 5th September, next, which is also the regular termination of the year, as it regards the annuity.
The annuity is stipulated to be paid in “maritime stores,” and “should the United States forward a larger quantity (than is due) the overplus is to be paid for in money by the Dey and Regency.” It will perhaps seldom happen that much more than is due will be forwarded at any time, and we should generally prefer that any occasional overplus should be carried to the account of the succeeding year.
Next September two years annuities will be due, for which two or three vessels have been engaged at Norfolk to make the Remittance. The whole will probably arrive before you, and be delivered and accounted for by Mr OBrien. The Articles for the annuity are dictated, from time to time, by the Dey’s order. Those lately sent complete the list last given by him, and they are presumed to be sufficient to produce a balance in our favor after September next. There is much room for address, to obtain the payment of the annuity in articles which are favorable and to avoid such as are disadvantageous; for they are not received at the current price but according to an established standard of value. Mr OBrien informs us that a loss of 3 or 4 Cent per Cent is incurred upon powder, cables, Cordage and Canvass, which is not the case with Timber, plank, scantling, small masts, spars, pipe-staves and spikes.
An experiment has been tried whether it were possible to procure a Change in the Treaty so as to enable us to pay the annuity in Cash instead of stores, which are sometimes difficult to be procured, according to the requisitions of the Dey, and are liable to accidents in the remittance. It succeeded for the last annuity paid, viz, for the year ending in Sepr 1801, which encouraged a repitition of the attempt for the succeeding years but without success, probably because the last order, which was for timber for building two frigates, had been partially complied with, and the Dey wished it to be compleated by us, as it now is. The present period, when he will receive together a biennial and a Consular present immediately after so large a quantity of stores, may be auspicious to an attempt to make the Commutation, into Cash, permanent, and you will accordingly exert yourself to effect it. You will also, from the best advice you can obtain, ascertain whether these presents may not be separately diminished from what is customary when they fall due at different periods, or whether they may not be blended, and their joint amount reduced.
Your salary will be at the rate of 4000 dollars per annum, with an allowance of the same sum as an outfit and a quarter’s salary for the expense of your return, to commence from the day of your receiving notice of your recall. You will also be allowed House Rent on a moderate but decent scale, the expense of Couriers, postage, printing, when necessary, of a Secretary’s and Drogermen’s services, and presents which the Custom of the Regency require to be made to its Officers. There may be calls for Charitable donations, but it has been judged most consonant with principle and the public Interest, to refer them to the Consuls private account, and to free the Treasury from them. Should you find any usage requiring national Charities, you will be pleased to state them and their amount for Consideration.
All proper means are to be used to prevent American vessels, which may come to Algiers, from taking freights there on account of the subjects of the Barbary states, as the Regencies assume it as a principle that Compensation is due from the Nation whose flag the vessel bears for any Capture it may be subjected to, and the estimate of the indemnity is regulated by an arbitrary price set upon the Cargo.
It is ascertained that the American Mediterranean Passport has been forged in Spain, and probably there may be some Copies of it in Circulation. To guard against the embarrassing effects of such a Circumstance and to obviate some imperfections in the form of the old passport, a new plate has been engraved, three impressions from which are herewith enclosed, one for yourself and each of the other Consuls. A fourth is enclosed for James Simpson Esqr, our Consul at Tangier. You will also receive Two hundred tops of this passport, to be divided amongst you, including Mr Simpson. You will be pleased to intimate to the Regency of Algiers this Change, and that it will take effect within nineteen months from the time of the intimation, of which you will immediately write to me by so many opportunities as will ensure an early receipt of the information. You will direct the Consuls at Tunis and Tripoli (should peace take place with the latter) to do the like towards the Governments at which they reside, and give me information in the same manner. According to this arrangement, the Barbary Cruisers will be immediately supplied with Tops of the new passport, and every vessel must be suffered to pass with either until the expiration of the nineteen months; after which the new passport will be the only one used.
You are apprised that after acquitting all our engagements to Tripoli, its Bashaw commenced an unprovoked war upon us. Mr Cathcart has been hitherto charged with negociations for peace with him; but the President has thought fit to entrust them to you, should they remain unsuccessful on your arrival in the Mediterranean. In conducting them, you will have referrence to the Instructions given to Mr. Cathcart (Copies of which are enclosed) and especially to those contained in my letter of the 9th April. A letter from the President to the Bashaw, acquainting him with your appointment, is enclosed.
It would be expedient that you should call at Gibraltar on your entering the Mediterranean to enquire of the situation of Mr Cathcart, as an interview with him appears to be essential previously to your entering on these negociations, in order that he may fully explain to you the state of our Barbary transactions. The instruction respecting the proposed biennial payment to Tunis, in lieu of its occasional demands, contained in my letter of the 9th April last to Mr Cathcart is also confided to you provided it remains unfinished, so that on your arrival he will be confined to the duties of his Consular appointment at Tunis.
Mr OBrien states that we are indebted in the sum of 15.073 dollars to the Banking House of Bacri & Busnach at Algiers. You will be supplied with money to discharge this debt if you find it just on a settlement taking place, which you are authorised to make.
Capt: Preble has orders to stop at Gibraltar or any other convenient port, to enable you to enquire for Mr Cathcart, and afterwards to concert with you the times and plans of visiting the other places which it may be requisite for you to touch at, in the execution of these instructions.
You will be supplied with the sum of 47.000 dollars for the objects stated in the enclosed estimate. With great Respect and Consideration I am, sir, Your very Obedt servt.
James Madison
P S. The universal toleration in matters of religion established in most of our states, and the entire want of power respecting them in the general government, has, as we understand, induced the Barbary powers to view us more favorably than other Christian nations, who are exclusively so, and with whom these powers consider themselves in perpetual hostility, suspended only at times by temporary truces. It is recommended to you to avail us of this fact and opinion, as far as it can be used to lessen the unequal condition of the intercourse between us.
All the extraordinary expenses to which you may be subjected by the negociations with Tunis and Tripoli will be reimbursed to you.

   RC (NNPM: The Gilder Lehrman Collection, on deposit); letterbook copy and letterbook copy of enclosure (DNA: RG 59, IC, vol. 1). RC in a clerk’s hand, signed by JM; docketed as received at Boston, 2 Aug. 1803. For surviving enclosure, see n. 4.

   Enclosure not found, but it was no doubt a copy of JM to James Leander Cathcart, 18 Apr. 1802 (PJM-SSRobert J. Brugger et al., eds., The Papers of James Madison: Secretary of State Series (5 vols. to date; Charlottesville, Va., 1986–)., 3:135–37).

   JM to Cathcart, 9 Apr. 1803 (PJM-SSRobert J. Brugger et al., eds., The Papers of James Madison: Secretary of State Series (5 vols. to date; Charlottesville, Va., 1986–)., 4:494–95).

   Enclosure not found.

   The sum furnished Lear in the enclosed estimate (1 p.) was $43,000, part of a total amount of $97,000, which included money sent to Cathcart for the consular present at Algiers ($24,000) and money sent to O’Brien for a year’s commutation ($30,000).


Title: To James Madison from John J. Murray, 14 July 1803 (Abstract)
From: Murray, John J.
To: Madison, James

14 July 1803, Glasgow. Wrote JM on 22 June and 1 July. Received JM’s circular of 9 Apr. with a copy of the law of 28 Feb. and the laws passed in the first session of the Seventh Congress. “In conformity with the Law of the 28 feby. several Ships Papers have been deposited in this office and, I am sorry to say that those that belong to regular Traders between the United States & the Clyde are, almost without exception, Illegal as the property of the Vessels is obviously vested in British Subjects. Some time before, but more particularly during, the last war, the profits and advantages derived by individuals concerned in American shipping was so great, that many of the Richest Merchants here, & in other parts of Britain, were induced to establish branches of their European Houses in the United States for the express purpose of getting possession of that valuable part of our commerce which, unfortunately for our Countrymen, they very soon effected, to a great extent at least, and, under the appearance of Legal Sanction, for their Partners & agents in the United States on becoming Citizens, which they did as soon as possible immediately became Ship owners which was at once realizing what the most sanguine projectors of the plan desired, as they then shared the profits of those Vessels, altho’ they were registered in the name of Persons residing in the United States & called American Citizens—thus, by our own Laws, particularly those of naturalization, has one of the greatest sources of wealth to Americans—the profits of navigation—been almost entirely monopolized by the avidity of British Merchants—even at this stage such is their lust for that trade that, their is hardly a Vessel bound to the United States that does not carry out Partners or Agents to establish new Houses there, upon the principles of the old ones, or, to succeed those, of their connexion, who may be disposed to return home. Thus, without Legislative interference will be perpetuated for ever a ruinous monopoly to Americans, ruinous because its whole products ultimately centers in a foreign Country instead of the United States where it justly belongs.” This situation “merits the Serious attention of Congress.” “Moral rectitude” is a “Virtue as necessary to the Support of Society as essential in Commerce—if it had existance here would indeed be sufficient to check, if not stop, the evil: but among the merchants of the old World Morality is worn thread bare.… The following case will illustrate some of the foregoing observations & clearly shew that we have no reason to depend upon European fidelity, or the Allegiance of the Set of Men who go to the United States, more especially from this Country, in Character of Merchants—and therefore, that we ought with all possible care, to guard against their being admitted to the Rights of Citizens, & particularly that right of owning American Vessels. Some years ago Mr. Robert Harvey & Archibald Campbell, natives of this Country, went to Charleston So Carolina, where they became Auctioneers & after wards Merchants—occupations in which they accumulated much money. About the beginning of the last War, these Gentlemen removed to Europe (it is supposed they might have become Citizens before) and established a mercantile House in London and one in this City. Mr. Harvey conducted the bussiness in London under the firm of Harvey Campbell & Co and Mr. Campbell conducted the bussiness here under the firm of Archibald Campbell & Co. They also established a House in Charleston under the firm of Campbell McLachlan & Co which was given in charge of Mr. McLachlan (Mr. Cs brother in Law) thus established these Gentlemen under the name & character of Citizens of the United States, became extensively concerned in American shipping and have enjoyed ever since, advantages therefore that probably no American House has equalled. This bussiness they might for ought I know, have continued in during their lives and transmitted it after wards to their posterity, had not the law of the 28 feby. last obliged a deposit of Ships Papers in the offices of our Consuls &ca. Upon seeing Mr. Campbell’s name, with which I am well acquainted, in the Register of the Ship Mary Ann of Charleston, and as a resident too of that City, I knew not whether to blame Mr Simons the Collector, most, for suffering it to be so declared in the Register, contrary to what he must certainly have known to be true, or Mr Campbell who is (he well knows) as permanent a resident of this City as any of his Brittanic Majestys Mercantile Subjects are, of any part of his dominions—I declare Sir that I could hardly believe my senses—yet to doubt was ridiculous as the Register plainly represented the fact—at first I was inclined to draw pen over the papers of the Mary Ann & transmit them to you with a statement of the case but a moments reflection convinced me that the Interests of my Country would be injured thereby—as upon the detention of the Mary Anns papers, which would soon be known abroad—all those of other Vessels not already deposited—and, that are situated as she is, would be kept from my view by the owners of such Vessels putting them in a Trade out of my jurisdiction—it therefore clearly appeared most advisable not to exercise the power that the above quoted Law authorized—to wit—to detain such papers bearing clear marks of fraud &Ca. provided the Vessels suspected should be destined direct for the United States, because by giving you timely advice all Vessels of the description alluded to, might be secured in the United States where if condemnation ensued, they would sell to better account than in a foreign Country, which would satisfy Justice, & serve our Country better—and, at the same time I should have it in my power, without suspicion, to go on in detecting Similar frauds against our lawful Citizens, of which the concerned in this Country would nothing [sic] about until too late. If any other evidence should be necessary to prove that the Mary Ann has British owners & that therefore she ought to be forfeited to the United States—the following is certainly incontrovertable. I have this moment officially certified to an Official Act of Archibald Campbell (who is said by Mr Simons to be a resident of Charleston) that he is cheif magistrate of this City—the Lord Provost being absent. If Congress does not interfere and, by some strong & decisive measure, put a Stop to foreigners owning American Vessels before the close of the present war the major part of the profits of our navigation will be shared in Europe.” Forwarded his letter and duplicate of 22 June by way of the U.S. consuls in London and Liverpool; sends this through them also.
In a postscript Murray added: “Register of the Mary Ann of Charleston, No 25, dated 19th day of February 1802. Granted by James Simons Collector of Charleston to Archibald McLachlan of the City of Charleston state of South Carolina Mercht. together with Robert Harvey and Archibald Campbell, both of Charleston aforesaid Merchants.”

   RC (DNA: RG 59, CD, Glasgow, vol. 1). 3 pp.; docketed by Wagner as received 19 Sept.

   PJM-SSRobert J. Brugger et al., eds., The Papers of James Madison: Secretary of State Series (5 vols. to date; Charlottesville, Va., 1986–)., 4:491–93.

   See Murray to JM, 22 June 1803, n. 1.

   A full transcription of this document has been added to the digital edition.


Title: To James Madison from Ferdinando Fairfax, 14 July 1803
From: Fairfax, Ferdinando
To: Madison, James

Letter not found. 14 July 1803. Calendared as a one-page letter in the lists probably made by Peter Force (DLC, series 7, container 2).