To James Madison from Thomas Jefferson, 28 August 1806
From Thomas Jefferson
Monticello Aug. 28. 06.
Dear Sir
On my return the day before yesterday I found here your’s of the 15th. As the Russian ships are expected at Philadelphia are connected with the Imperial family, and their report will certainly be made to the emperor, would it not be well for you to write either to mr. Gallatin, or at shorter hand, to Muhlenberg to recommend them to his particular attention good offices & indulgence, & those of the other officers of the customs.1 The case of the Indostan on which we complained to Turreau,2 and some of the groundless cases on which he has complained to us, shew that we ought on neither side to act on any complaint until the facts are supported by affidavits. After we shall have begun to observe this rule ourselves we may require from the foreign ministers to be furnished with affidavits of the facts on which they complain, & it will save to both parties a great deal of useless trouble. I think Fitzsimmons should be told we can do nothing on general surmises.3 The cases of wrong by privateers should be specified & supported by affidavits, & then we will act according to our means. The instructions asked by Simpson on ransoming from the Arabs are very difficult.4 They had better lie till we meet. If Dr. Thornton’s complaint of Latrobe’s having built inconsistently with his plan of the middle part of the capitol be correct, it is without my knolege, & against my instructions.5 For altho’ I consider that plan as incapable of execution, yet I determined that nothing should be done which would not leave the question of it’s execution free. I have sent to mr. Wagner your letter to DeWitt Clinton & mine to the K. of Wirtemberg amended as you proposed. Meade’s conduct towards Yznardi excites real indignation.6 I will write to mr. Smith to revoke Campbell’s unauthorised nomination of him as Navy agent, & to instruct the officers when they are in a port where there is no agent, to apply to the Consul for the port.
I inclose you a letter from Monroe.7 Capt Lewis of the Leander I see is returned.8 I think we had better have his m⟨o⟩tions watched & arrest him in Jersey, Pensylvania Columbia, or Norfolk should he be found in either.
All the papers recieved from you are now returned, except recommendations to office which I retain as usual. Accept affectionate salutations
Th: Jefferson
RC (DLC); FC (DLC: Jefferson Papers). For enclosure, see n. 6.
1. For the ships, see Levett Harris to JM, 29 Apr. 1806, 11:521–22 and n. 4.
2. For the Indostan, see Louis-Marie Turreau to JM, 2 Aug. 1806 (second letter).
6. See Josef Yznardy to JM, 9 May 1806, 11:553 and n. 1, and Yznardy to JM, 10 June 1806. Yznardy also wrote Jefferson about the dispute on 16 July 1806 (DNA: RG 59, CD, Cádiz, vol. 2).
7. The enclosure was probably James Monroe to Jefferson, 8 July 1806 (2 pp.; DLC: Jefferson Papers; printed in , 4:477–78), declining Jefferson’s offer of an appointment as governor of Louisiana or Orleans territory and reporting that Charles James Fox’s illness was delaying Monroe’s and William Pinkney’s treaty negotiations in London.
8. The 18 Aug. 1806 issue of the New-York Evening Post reported that “captain Lewis, late of the ship Leander,” had arrived in New York from Grenada two days earlier. Lewis had been indicted by the New York grand jury, along with Samuel G. Ogden, William Stephens Smith, William Armstrong, and Francisco de Miranda, in April 1806 (New-York Gazette & General Advertiser, 8 Apr. 1806).