To James Madison from Pierce Butler, 19 January 1815
From Pierce Butler
Philada. January 19. 1815.
Dear Sir
I am solicited by the Citizens of a considerable portion of the Sea Coast of Georgia, to request of you to permit them, at their own expence, to send Lumber to replace the Buildings in the Bahamas, destroy’d by Captain Thompson of the Privateer Midas.1 I do not feel myself at liberty to decline making known their request—they may be influenced by a two fold consideration—a desire for an opportunity of exercising benevolent feelings; and a view to security of their own settlements, exposed to the depridations of a small Privateer, by a laudable example. I am very respectfully Your most obedient
P. Butler
RC (DLC). Docketed by JM.
1. Alexander Thompson, captain of the Midas, oversaw the destruction or plundering of twenty-seven houses in the Bahamas in the fall of 1814, allegedly in retaliation for the British burning of Washington. JM revoked the Midas’s commission owing to Thompson’s “wilful deviation” from “the usages of civilized nations,” but on 3 Jan. 1815 the ship was recommissioned under a new captain, with Thompson as part owner (Garitee, Republic’s Private Navy, 92–93).