From James Madison to James Monroe, 2 March 1805
To James Monroe
Washington Mar. 2 1805
Sir:
I enclose herewith sundry letters for you which I presume will be more likely to find you in London than at Madrid. I forward this and them by Capt. Seth Sanger, who proceeds to London in prosecution of an appeal from a decision in the British Vice Admiralty at Antigua.1 The papers on the subject having been transmitted to England, have not been seen by me. According to his state of the case, it ought to find a remedy in the appeal, and will be entitled to all the patronage and aid usually given by the public functionaries of the U. States. I am the more induced to recommend him to your attention as I learn from General Smith that he has a respectable standing in Baltimore. Very sincerely &c.&c.
James Madison
Letterbook copy (DNA: RG 59, IM, vol. 5).
1. The Augusta, owned by Baltimore residents Seth Sanger (1765–1812) and James Clark, together with the cargo, which belonged to Sanger, were condemned at St. John’s, Antigua, on 15 Sept. 1804 by Edward Byam, presumably for trading with a French colony. Sanger had cleared Leghorn for St. Thomas on 20 June 1804 with a mixed cargo of Italian goods and said he intended to continue thence to Boston. After arriving at the West Indies, he stopped at Guadeloupe to try the market but sold nothing. Several crew members deposed that the ship was steering for Martinique, not St. Thomas, when it was seized by the British frigate Emerald, under Capt. James O’Brien (William Law Learned, comp., The Learned Family … Being Descendants of William Learned Who was of Charlestown, Massachusetts, in 1632, 2d ed. [Albany, N.Y., 1898], 150; DNA: RG 76, Preliminary Inventory 177, Great Britain, Treaty of 1794 [Art. VII], entry 180, British Spoliations, ca. 1794–1824, box 1, folder A; New-York Gazette & General Advertiser, 18 Feb. 1812; James, Naval History of Great Britain [1902 ed.], 3:255).