To James Madison from Bradley & Mulford, 20 January 1806 (Abstract)
From Bradley & Mulford, 20 January 1806 (Abstract)
§ From Bradley & Mulford.1 20 January 1806, New Haven. “We take the liberty of transmitting you Documents relative to Capture, likewise Sentence of Condemnation of part the Brig William’s Cargo taken on her passage from St. Croix to New York by the French Privateer Resouied, Peter Journan Commander, Commissiond, by General Ferrand from St. Domingo.
“The particulars we shall here omit, they being expressed in the necessary papers herewith Sent. We beg your interference to our Government in this Case which we think Can hardly be Evaded without notice, when Considering our Amity with the Government of France; If this had been done by a French Pirate, we should have given it up, but contrary from this to be robbed in so fair a trade by a Privateer duly Commissioned by an Agent from under the Government of France, is abusive to the Citizens of the U.S. & ought not to be laid aside without ample restitution.
“We will omit, Sir, being lengthy in this Letter but beg leave to remark that our Revenue Contrasted with private Interest must dwindle if depredations of this nature are permitted to pass unnoticed.
“We conclude by Saying we beg your reference to this, and hope that a way for restitution may be found for our Loss.”
RC (DNA: RG, 76, Preliminary Inventory 177, entry 322, Spain, Treaty of 1819 [Art. XI] [Spoliation], Misc. Records, ca. 1801–24, box 5, envelope 7, folder 13, brig William). 1 p.; marked “Copy.” Enclosed in Hervey Mulford to Joseph Forrest, 7 May 1833.
1. New Haven merchant Hervey Mulford (1777–1847) graduated from Yale College in 1794, as the youngest in his class. He lost a great deal of money owing to French spoliations and pressured Congress for action on the cases. Under the 1831 treaty with France, Mulford received $1,598.75 for the William (Dexter, Biographical Sketches of the Graduates of Yale College, 5:118–19; “Statement Showing the Payments of Awards of the Commissioners Appointed under the Conventions between the United States and France …,” Senate Exec. Documents, 49th Cong., 1st sess., no. 74, pp. 60, 175). Abraham Bradley (1741–1817) was a merchant, a founder of the New Haven Bank, and sometime clerk and treasurer of the Wharf Company of New Haven (Lucy Ann Morris Carhart, comp., Genealogy of the Morris Family: Descendants of Thomas Morris, of Connecticut [New York, 1911], 126; New Haven Connecticut Herald, 13 Dec. 1808; New Haven Connecticut Journal, 17 Feb. 1803, 16 July 1807).