PrC (DLC); faint; at foot of text: “The Secretary at War.”

WE HAVE RECIEVED INFORMATION: for the dispatches received from James Simpson and Richard V. Morris, see TJ to Madison, 9 Aug.

WHEAT TO GO TO TRIPOLI: early in 1802, a Tripolitan ambassador in Morocco had requested and received a gift of wheat from Mawlay Sulayman, who also granted permission to load the cargo in Moroccan ports. Reporting these events in his dispatches from Tangier, James Simpson at first doubted that vessels could be chartered for Tripoli while that place was under blockade. The sultan, however, persisted in the plan. In May, Simpson reported that the sultan had ordered a Moroccan schooner to load wheat for Tripoli, and that a British brig had been chartered in Gibraltar for the same purpose. The motives behind the sultan’s generosity toward Tripoli were unclear to Simpson, who could not decide whether it was an act of charity toward fellow Muslims or “an aid in their present Contest” and an attempt by the sultan to “get quit” of the 1786 treaty with the United States. Later in the same month, Simpson and the Swedish consul, Peter Wyk, received word from the sultan’s chief minister, Muhammad Ibn Abd al-Salam al-Salawi, that if the wheat were permitted to ship with the departing Tripolitan ambassador as the property of the sultan, “it will be very well.” If not, Simpson and Wyk were to “do what is regular, and as is established by the Treaties of Peace” between their countries and Morocco. The 1786 treaty contained no provision for such a case, however, and Simpson reiterated his lack of authority to grant the requested passports. On 13 June, the governor of Tangier, Abd al-Rahman Ashash, informed Simpson that the sultan had directed the vessels carrying wheat to Tunis instead of Tripoli, much to Simpson’s relief. Writing James Madison the following day, the consul praised the sultan’s change of mind, “as by that means we get rid of what threatened to be a very unpleasant piece of busyness.” At the governor’s request, Simpson wrote the emperor to explain “the powerfull motives why I could not sanction Vessels going to Tripoly,” but that he was ready to grant “the usual Certificates” for Tunis (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 ., 2:379, 481; 3:50, 221–2, 278, 307; NDBW description begins Dudley W. Knox, ed., Naval Documents Related to the United States Wars with the Barbary Powers, Washington, D.C., 1939–44, 6 vols. and Register of Officer Personnel and Ships’ Data, 1801–1807, Washington, D.C., 1945 description ends , 2:66, 149; Mohamed El Mansour, Morocco in the Reign of Mawlay Sulayman [Wisbech, Eng., 1990], 12, 19–20, 50).

FRIENDLY LETTER: TJ to Mawlay Sulayman, Sultan of Morocco, [5 Aug.].

WE EXPECT THE BOSTON: on 13 July, Robert Smith had sent orders recalling Captain Daniel McNeill and the frigate Boston to Washington, where the vessel was to be placed in ordinary (NDBW description begins Dudley W. Knox, ed., Naval Documents Related to the United States Wars with the Barbary Powers, Washington, D.C., 1939–44, 6 vols. and Register of Officer Personnel and Ships’ Data, 1801–1807, Washington, D.C., 1945 description ends , 2:201).