To James Madison from Stephen Pleasonton, 18 August 1815
From Stephen Pleasonton
Department of State August 18 1815
Sir,
There being a Mail only once a week to the Sulphur Springs whither Colo Monroe has gone, and his stay there being too short to admit of the establishment of a daily one, as I am informed by the Post Master Genl., I have thought it best to forward all letters, requiring consideration, directly to yourself. You can best judge whether any and which of the letters ought to be forwarded to Colo Monroe while he remains at the Springs. Should you wish to communicate with him oftener than is practicable by the weekly mail, the Post Master Genl has given directions to his deputy at Orange C.H. to forward your Communications specially and as often as you shall desire.
I have the honor to inclose, on the present occasion, a letter from Mr. Daschkoff in relation to Count Romanzoff’s vessel,1 and another from Genl Pinckney concerning the Agency of Mr Spalding.2 To these I add a file of French Newspapers sent by Mr. Lee’s clerk at Bordeaux, he himself having had an arm broken and his shoulder dislocated by a fall from his carriage. He is not however, considered in danger. With the greatest respect & Esteem I have the honor to remain Sir your ob Set.
S. Pleasonton
Capt. Jones has written to know what ought to be done with the Neptune and her crew. He states that there is a balance due the latter of 4000 dollars, which they are anxious to receive. The vessel you will recollect Sir, is the property of this Department, purchased in consequence of the Mission to St Petersburg. As we shall not in all probability have any further use for her, would it not be well to sell her at auction, by means of some Agent in Philada. Would it not be advisable also Sir, to give a short credit to the purchaser? I find in this way a better price is often obtained.
RC (DLC). Docketed by JM. For enclosures, see nn.
1. Pleasonton enclosed Andrei Dashkov’s 11 Aug. 1815 letter to James Monroe (3 pp.; in French; DNA: RG 59, NFL, Russia), which asked that the Russian ship Rurik, captained by Otto von Kotzebue of the Russian navy and circumnavigating the globe on a scientific and exploratory voyage under the auspices of Russian chancellor Nikolai P. Rumiantsev, be welcomed in any U.S. ports it might enter and be assisted by U.S. Navy ships at sea if necessary. The Rurik set out from St. Petersburg in July 1815 and did not stop in the United States but rounded Cape Horn, explored the Alaskan coast in a vain search for the Northeast Passage, proceeded west via the Cape of Good Hope, and arrived in St. Petersburg on 3 Aug. 1818 (Keith R. Benson and Philip F. Rehbock, eds., Oceanographic History: The Pacific and Beyond [Seattle, 2002], 111–14). The expedition is chronicled in Kotzebue’s Voyage of Discovery, into the South Sea and Beering’s Straits, for the Purpose of Exploring a North-East Passage, Undertaken in the Years 1815–1818, … (3 vols.; London, 1821).
2. The enclosure was Thomas Pinckney to Monroe, 10 Aug. 1815 (2 pp.; DNA: RG 76, Preliminary Inventory 177, entry 185, Great Britain, Treaty of 1814, Mixed Claims, Misc. Records, box 4, folder 22), in which Pinckney enclosed a copy of Thomas Spalding’s 5 Aug. 1815 letter to him from Sapelo Island, Georgia (7 pp.; ibid.), explaining why Spalding “would not wish to resume the Agency in the West Indies at this particular time” (for Spalding’s mission, see JM to Monroe, 26 June 1815, and n. 5). Pinckney wrote that he considered it unlikely that anyone who replaced Spalding would be able to retrieve U.S. slaves from the West Indies, but that he would select another agent if asked to do so. He also inquired what should be done with the funds Spalding still held. On the cover Pleasonton summarized the contents of the letter and penciled a note to JM: “With respect to the accts of Mr Spalding & the balance in his hands S Pleasonton will give the proper answer, and will add what the President may think proper to direct on the above subject.”