To James Madison from Alexander J. Dallas, 27 June 1816
From Alexander J. Dallas
27 June 1816.
Dear Sir.
At a meeting at the Department of State, Mr. Monroe brought under consideration the Algerine case, and the case of the whaling vessels in the Pacific. He will communicate the result in both cases; but I find, upon an explanation, that only one of the whaling vessels is known to have been seized by the Spaniards, though there are 24 at risque.
The dispatch from Mr. Harris is an unpleasant one;1 and places Mr. Dashcoffs dispositions and conduct towards us in the light of positive hostility. A fellow feeling (if the tales of Philadelphia be true) has made him wonderfully kind towards the failings of Mr. Kosloff. I do not know what has become of the complaints against him, and Mr. Eustaphieve;2 but I think the abrupt interdict of Mr. Harris’s visits at Court, is a strong contrast with the delicacy of your conduct towards the Emperor. I am persuaded, that you will think a high and decided tone as proper in the Baltic, as in the Mediterranean. If my information be correct, the course of proceeding in Mr. Kusloff’s case has been perfectly regular. We have done no wrong; and ought not to suffer insult, or outrage.
The question of the currency has not yet been answered; but I hope to be able to send the answer to you, before my departure from Washington.
I trouble you with the Comptroller’s statement in the case of the Schooner Mary.3 Having been Counsel in the case, I could not decide upon the petition for a remission of the forfe[i]ture, and, therefore, requested the Comptroller to examine the facts, and to state an opinion for your consideration. If you deemed it a case proper for remission, a pardon would produce the effect; but if you thought otherwise, a non-remittitur might be entered. If, however, you should think it adviseable to leave the question open, it may be decided, in the usual course, by my successor. I am, very respectfully & faithfully Dr Sir, Yr. mo. obed Sert
A. J. Dallas
RC (DLC); FC (PHi). For enclosure, see n. 3.
1. In November 1815 the Russian consul general in Philadelphia, Nikolai Kozlov, was arrested and jailed on a charge of raping a twelve-year old servant girl in his employ. The Russian minister, Andrei Dashkov, vigorously protested the proceedings, even after the Philadelphia court had dismissed the matter. Dashkov wanted Kozlov to be vindicated in a federal court, a demand the administration rejected. News of these developments was slow to reach St. Petersburg, but on 20 Mar. 1816 the American consul, Levett Harris, informed the State Department that he had been ordered away from the Russian court until the United States made reparation (Norman E. Saul, Distant Friends: The United States and Russia, 1763–1867 [Lawrence, Kans., 1961], 80–83; Harris to Monroe, 20 Mar. 1816 [DNA: RG 59, CD, Russia]).
2. Aleksei Evstaf’ev, Russian consul in Boston, was charged with illegally protecting British property in Boston during the War of 1812 (Saul, Distant Friends, 80).
3. The statement has not been found, but Dallas probably referred to the case of United States v. Hall and Worth (1810). The schooner Mary had departed from Philadelphia in December 1807, bound for Portland, Maine. It landed and sold its cargo in Puerto Rico, with the owner claiming that “the dangers of the sea” had compelled the change of course, which resulted in the forfeiture of the bond the vessel was required to post under the Embargo laws. A writ of error from the circuit court for the district of Pennsylania was filed in the U.S. Supreme Court, but Chief Justice John Marshall upheld the judgment of the circuit court (10 U.S. [6 Cranch] 171:171–76).