1. Yale graduate, lawyer, and “Hartford Wit” Joel Barlow (1754–1812) was a poet and author who served in the American Revolution. In 1788 he went as land agent for the Scioto Company to Europe, where he stayed for the next seventeen years, making his living as a writer after the failure of his land company. He was U.S. consul to Algiers from 1795 to 1797 and negotiated treaties with that country, Tunis, and Tripoli, as well as arranging for the release of American prisoners held there. He returned to the United States in 1805 but went again to Europe when JM appointed him minister to France in 1811. He died near Kraków, Poland, in December 1812, after failing to meet with Napoleon during the latter’s campaign in Russia (Todd, Letters of Joel Barlow, 117, 148; PJM-SS description begins Robert J. Brugger et al., eds., The Papers of James Madison: Secretary of State Series (11 vols. to date; Charlottesville, Va., 1986–). description ends 9:444; PJM-PS description begins Robert A. Rutland et al., eds., The Papers of James Madison: Presidential Series (8 vols. to date; Charlottesville, Va., 1984–). description ends 3:359).

2. The enclosure has not been found but was probably a copy of Barlow’s Prospectus of a National Institution, to Be Established in the United States (Washington, 1806; Shaw and Shoemaker description begins R. R. Shaw and R. H. Shoemaker, comps., American Bibliography: A Preliminary Checklist for 1801–1819 (22 vols.; New York, 1958–66). description ends 9922), a copy of which was also sent to Jefferson and to Congress (Woodress, A Yankee’s Odyssey, 241).