To James Madison from Jonathan Russell, 23 December 1811 (Abstract)
§ From Jonathan Russell
23 December 1811. Introduces Thomas L. Halsey, Jr., who will hand this letter to JM and is “a Gentleman with whom I have been well acquainted from his childhood.” Halsey desires either to serve in the army, if the country should be involved in war, or to obtain a consular appointment to South America. He will faithfully discharge any trust, and “I shall feel personally much gratified in the success of his application.”1
FC (RPB-JH: Russell Papers). 2 pp. Undated; date assigned here on the basis of Russell’s docket.
1. JM also received letters on Halsey’s behalf from a committee of New York merchants, 25 May 1812, and from Asher Robbins, 28 May 1812 (DNA: RG 59, LAR, 1809–17, filed under “Halsey”). A letter from James Fenner, governor of Rhode Island, to JM, dated 24 Apr. 1812, probably soliciting Halsey’s appointment to office, has not been found (listed in Good-speed’s Catalogue, “The Flying Quill,” March 1941, p. 4). Halsey applied to Monroe on 6 June 1812 for the position of consul at Buenos Aires, at which time he presented the secretary of state with several other recommendations on his behalf (ibid.). JM appointed Halsey as consul at Buenos Aires on 16 June 1812 (, 2:277).