Authorization for Gideon Gooch, [23 May] 1809
Authorization for Gideon Gooch
[23 May 1809]
I hereby authorize Gideon Gooch or such person as he may substitute, to sell whatever Tobacco may have been inspected in my name, and be in the Warehouses at Richmond at any time previous to the tenth day of June next.1 Given under my hand this 23 day of May 1809.
James Madison
Ms (owned by Charles M. Storey, Boston, Mass., 1961). In JM’s hand. Accompanied by Gooch’s release of the tobacco to Robert H. Rose and Rose’s endorsement permitting Isaac Webster to “sell the within Tobacco on my account.” Rose was JM’s brother-in-law (, 1: following p. 212).
1. JM obviously fixed a time that would establish proof that he was not attempting to profit from the date (10 June) when some foreign commerce would become legal under the Nonintercourse Act and his 19 Apr. proclamation. In anticipation of the renewal of trade with Great Britain, commodity prices in Virginia spurted in late April and early May, with tobacco rising from $4.50 per hundredweight to as much as $7.00 (Richmond Enquirer, 4 Apr., 23 May, 13 June 1809).