Clement Caines came to the West Indies as a sugar planter about 1778. He wrote extensively on the desirability of humane treatment for plantation slaves and the abolition of the slave trade, as well as political topics, including his support for the Embargo (Caines, Letters on the Cultivation of the Otaheite Cane; the Manufacture of Sugar and Rum; the Saving of Melasses; the Care and Preservation of Stock; with the Attention and Anxiety Which is Due to Negroes [London, 1801], esp. 1, 70, 251; Lowell J. Ragatz, comp., A Guide for the Study of British Caribbean History, 1763–1834 [1932; repr. 1970], 283).

Caines wrote James Madison a similar letter on the same day (Madison, Papers description begins William T. Hutchinson, Robert A. Rutland, John C. A. Stagg, and others, eds., The Papers of James Madison, 1962– , 29 vols.: Congress. Ser., 17 vols.; Pres. Ser., 5 vols.; Sec. of State Ser., 7 vols description ends , Pres. Ser., 3:243). Although TJ only mentioned one volume in his 16 Sept. 1811 acknowledgment of this letter, the enclosed literary compositions may also have included three other works by Caines that found their way into TJ’s library: Brief Remarks on the Present and Former War with France, and on the Conduct and Opinions of the Deceased William Pitt (Saint Kitts, 1808; Sowerby, description begins E. Millicent Sowerby, comp., Catalogue of the Library of Thomas Jefferson, 1952–59, 5 vols. description ends no. 3381); Reflections on the Embargo, which has been Substituted by the United States of America, for Proclamations of War, and All the Evils and Horrors of Hostility (Saint Kitts, 1808; Sowerby, description begins E. Millicent Sowerby, comp., Catalogue of the Library of Thomas Jefferson, 1952–59, 5 vols. description ends no. 3382); and A Sketch of the Saxon Heptarchy (Saint Kitts, 1810; Sowerby, description begins E. Millicent Sowerby, comp., Catalogue of the Library of Thomas Jefferson, 1952–59, 5 vols. description ends no. 3380).