RC (DLC); undated; at foot of text: “The President of the U. States”; endorsed by TJ as received from the State Department on 29 Aug. and so recorded in SJL with notation “French negroes.” Enclosure: Thomas McKean to Madison, 16 Aug., explaining the delay in the investigation of the fracas that occurred in Philadelphia in April between ship carpenters and the crew of the Spanish brig Cabo de Hornos; McKean has “good reason” to believe that Carlos Martínez de Irujo “is now persuaded no indignity to his Sovereign or wrong to his Subjects was contemplated or committed,” and McKean attributes the “whole misunderstanding” to the “zeal” of the Spanish consul general, Valentín Tadeo Echavarri de Foronda (Madison, Papers, Sec. of State Ser. description begins William T. Hutchinson, Robert A. Rutland, J. C. A. Stagg, and others, eds., The Papers of James Madison, Chicago and Charlottesville, 1962–, 33 vols. Sec. of State Ser., 1986–, 9 vols.; Pres. Ser., 1984–, 6 vols.; Ret. Ser., 2009–, 1 vol. description ends , 3:493; “Yankey Doodle” to TJ, 14 Apr.; Madison to TJ, 11 May). Other enclosures not found.

PROPOSED TO OBSERVE TO THEM: Madison did not reply to the communication from Wade Hampton and Fontaine Maury. Instead, when he had occasion to write Hampton for another purpose on 8 Nov., he acknowledged receipt of their letter (Madison, Papers, Sec. of State Ser. description begins William T. Hutchinson, Robert A. Rutland, J. C. A. Stagg, and others, eds., The Papers of James Madison, Chicago and Charlottesville, 1962–, 33 vols. Sec. of State Ser., 1986–, 9 vols.; Pres. Ser., 1984–, 6 vols.; Ret. Ser., 2009–, 1 vol. description ends , 4:103).

Newspapers had printed an exchange of correspondence on 14–15 Aug. involving Edward Livingston, the MAYOR of New York City; Louis Arcambal, who was acting as French commissary for commercial affairs there; and Charles Nicolas La Caille, the commandant of the French ships that had stopped at New York. Livingston wrote to Arcambal about the “great number of negroes (slaves or prisoners) confined on board” the ships. He asked for assurance from the commander of the squadron that “none of those people shall under any pretence be permitted to land.” The mayor continued: “I hope too it will not be deemed an indiscretion, on a point so interesting to our police to ask whether the force on board is fully adequate to prevent any risque of insurrection or escape.” Arcambal passed Livingston’s concerns along to La Caille, who replied that the people being transported on his ships were peaceful. He added that “this country does not seem calculated to inspire them with any ideas of revolt.” The commandant, who had given strict orders that no “man of colour” from the ships was to have “any communication with the land,” declared that he had “more than sufficient” force aboard his ships to keep everything “in good order.” As a reassuring gesture, La Caille sent one frigate back to the harbor’s quarantine area. In a letter of thanks to Arcambal, Livingston referred to the people held on board the French ships as “the slaves” (New York Commercial Advertiser, 17 Aug.; Madison, Papers, Sec. of State Ser. description begins William T. Hutchinson, Robert A. Rutland, J. C. A. Stagg, and others, eds., The Papers of James Madison, Chicago and Charlottesville, 1962–, 33 vols. Sec. of State Ser., 1986–, 9 vols.; Pres. Ser., 1984–, 6 vols.; Ret. Ser., 2009–, 1 vol. description ends , 2:219–20; 3:525n, 599).

See TJ to Gallatin, 30 Aug., for the proposed CIRCULAR LETTER.