From James Madison to Hoyt and Tom, 18 November 1803

To Hoyt and Tom

Department of State. November 18th. 1803.

Gentlemen.

I have received your letter of the 8th. inst.1 Whether the case of your Sloop Hiram is embraced by the Convention with France may be considered as doubtful. It would therefore be advisable for you to take the advice of Counsel upon that point, and upon the steps necessary for you to pursue in order to bring it within the purview of the Treaty, if any further proceedings are incumbent upon you; for the 5th. Article of the Convention seems to restrict the compensation stipulated “to captures of which the Council of prizes shall have ordered restitution &c. and only in case of the insufficiency of the captors.”2

The Convention with Spain respecting Captures remains before the Senate without ratification, and I have no advice of any progress being made in the adjustment of your other claim as an individual case.3 I am &c.

James Madison.

Letterbook copy (DNA: RG 59, DL, vol. 14).

1. Letter not found. Hoyt and Tom may have written about the Hiram, Captain Wilson, which was bound from New York to St. Thomas when it was seized about August 1800 by a French privateer and carried into San Juan, Puerto Rico. Gould Hoyt of New York was one of the principals in the “great East India firm of Hoyt & Tom” (Statement by W. Athearn, 4 Sept. 1800 [printed in Knox, Naval Documents, Quasi-War description begins Dudley W. Knox, ed., Naval Documents Related to the Quasi-War between the United States and France (7 vols.; Washington, 1935–38). description ends , 6:318]; Barrett, Old Merchants of New York City, 2:210).

2. For Article 5 of the Claims Convention of 1803, see Miller, Treaties description begins Hunter Miller, ed., Treaties and Other International Acts of the United States of America (8 vols.; Washington, 1930–48). description ends , 2:518–19.

3. See John and Isaac Laurence and others to JM, 20 Jan. 1802, and JM’s 26 Jan. reply (PJM-SS description begins Robert J. Brugger et al., eds., The Papers of James Madison: Secretary of State Series (6 vols. to date; Charlottesville, Va., 1986–). description ends , 2:413 and n., 423).

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Source Project: Madison Papers
Title: From James Madison to Hoyt and Tom, 18 November 1803
Author: Madison, James
Recipient: Hoyt & Tom
Date: 18 November 1803

Reference

Cite as: “From James Madison to Hoyt and Tom, 18 November 1803,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Madison/02-06-02-0063. [Original source: The Papers of James Madison, Secretary of State Series, vol. 6, 1 November 1803 – 31 March 1804, ed. Mary A. Hackett, J. C. A. Stagg, Ellen J. Barber, Anne Mandeville Colony, and Angela Kreider. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2002, pp. 61–62.]