To James Madison from James Monroe, 22 April 1815
From James Monroe
WASHINGTON april 22. 1815.
Dear Sir
I send you within, copies of the other letters that were address’d to General Pinckney.1 I find that one only had been forwarded to you. A gentleman recommended by general mason, mr magruder, who resided sometime in the w. Indies has been sent, on a like agency to Bermuda, to go thence where circumstances may invite for the two fold purpose of establishing sales, & getting the slaves back. Every possible precaution has been taken to avoid expence, tho’ such a pursuit, arrangd on a scale, to accomplish the object, will cost something. The price of 10. or 15. negroes, in the effort will weigh little, compar’d with the consequences likely to attend, a neglect of so important an interest. 6. or 8000. slaves have probably been taken off; the owners ought to see that the govt. has done all that it could to recover them.2 A preparation on the other point, by sifting it to the bottom is equally important.
I will I hope be able to send you copies of the letters to mr Changuyon, by this mail.3
Commodores Rodgers & Porter called again to day, on the subject of Captn Henry, who is here, and who they say would willingly take the appointment to gibralter, which I had intimated would be open if mr Beasley declind.4 I mention’d to you as well as I recollect before you left this, that mr. Patterson informs me that Beasley would not go to Gibralter. How wod. it do to give Henry a conditional appointment to Gibralter, dependant on that contingency, with the expectation of alic⟨a⟩nt or malaga or Tunis, in case it did not occur. You requested me to notify to Noah his dismission;5 Commodore Porter says that the Turks & other people on the Barbary coast believe that every Jew who dies turns into a Jack ass, & that the christians mount & ride them instantly, & directly, to the Devil. If this is the impression the reason for removing him is the stronger.
I mentiond before the case of Commodore Lewis who will accept the appointment to malta.
Mr Dexter requested me to state to you the propriety of giving an order for issuing warrants, under the decisions of the commissrs. sitting on Yassou claims, for the lands granted to each proprietor. He says that they will have terminated their duties in a few days, & that he wishes, for greater dispatch the order proposed that the necessary preparation be made in time. The warrant will be issued of course by the Treasury dept.
We are all rather better to day. Affecy & respectfully yours
Jas Monro⟨e⟩
RC (DLC: Rives Collection, Madison Papers). For enclosures, see nn. 1 and 3.
1. Monroe evidently enclosed a copy of either his 1 or 6 Apr. letter to Maj. Gen. Thomas Pinckney (see Monroe to JM, 11 Apr. 1815, and n. 3). The only other letter from Monroe to Pinckney on this topic, which has been found, is that of 12 Mar. 1815 (DNA: RG 107, LSMA; 1 p.), instructing him to see that all slaves and other private American property were reclaimed from the British within his military district in accord with the terms of the Treaty of Ghent.
2. Monroe’s estimate of the number of slaves that fled to the British during the War of 1812 was probably high, but not as extravagantly so as the official total of 3,580 established by the postwar commission to compensate their former owners would suggest. Owing to strict documentation requirements, deaths, and migrations, many slaveholders failed to report their losses to the commission or to substantiate their claims. A higher estimate is also supported by British naval records, which document the transportation of at least 4,192 U.S. slaves to Nova Scotia, Trinidad, and New Brunswick from 1813 through 1816. Approximately 800 additional escapees likely either died before reaching these colonies, went into British service elsewhere, or fled from Georgia to Florida and remained there, raising the probable total to about 5,000 (Taylor, Internal Enemy, 441–42).
3. JM to Monroe, 24 Apr. 1815, indicates that Monroe did indeed send copies of his 23 Mar. and 12 Apr. 1815 letters to François D. Changuion under cover of this letter. For the letters, see Monroe to JM, 12 Apr. 1815, n. 2.
4. See Monroe to JM, 21 Apr. 1815, and n. 2.
5. See Mordecai Noah’s Mission to Algiers: Spanish-American Relations and the Fate of a Jewish Consul in Madison’s Administration, 20 Feb. 1815, Editorial Note.