From James Madison to J. Townsend and Company (Abstract), 11 March 1805
§ To J. Townsend and Company1
11 March 1805, Department of State. “I have received your letter of the 22d. ult, [not found] with its inclosures. In conformity to usage it is incumbent upon you to prosecute an appeal from the sentence of condemnation in Santo Domingo to the proper tribunal in France. Should justice not be obtained by these means either from the captors or their sureties, it will remain for such ulterior interposition of the Executive as may be required by the circumstances of the case. The papers are returned on account of some of them being official exemplifications.”
Letterbook copy (DNA: RG 59, DL, vol. 14). 1 p.
1. Shipping merchant Jeremiah Townsend Jr. (1761–1805) was a 1779 graduate of Yale College who entered into business with his father-in-law, Jeremiah Atwater. “A Gentleman of amiable manners, good abilities and exemplary integrity,” Townsend died of yellow fever on 22 July 1805 (Franklin Bowditch Dexter, Biographical Sketches of the Graduates of Yale College with Annals of the College History [6 vols.; New York, 1885–1912], 4:128; Connecticut Centinel, 30 July 1805).