To James Madison from James Monroe, 13 June 1816
From James Monroe
Washington June 13. 1818 [1816]
Dear Sir
I hope that you & Mrs Madison derive all the satisfaction & comfort which the country can afford, after the fatigue of the last winter here. My daughter continues to be very weak, but as Mr Hay has arrivd; they, with Mrs M. will probably set out on their intended journey sometime next week. After their departure, I shall leave this for Albemarle by Loudoun, calling on you as I pass, of which you shall be apprized before I set out.
The papers inform’d you of the time when Mr Pinkney saild.1 Mr Gallatin had not gone on the 10th., tho I presume, he was detaind by hard winds only.
Mr Fromentin interposed with great zeal in favor of a special messenger to Christope in favor of Duplessis. As you had decided to send Com: Lewis to So. America, I have taken the liberty to instruct him to pass by St Domingo, to endeavor to obtain the discharge of Mr D., which Mr Fromentin writes me to day, that he highly approved.2
Col: Austin suggests the idea of his, visiting, the bay of Fundy, with Mr Holmes, to acquire knowledge which may be useful in establishing the boundary in that quarter, & requests that one of the gun boats at Boston, may be employed in the service.3 Mr Crowninshield says that one may be spard without any inconvenience to the service. I am persuaded that much advantage might be derivd from it, as I also am, that it would be equally useful to give an instruction to that effect to Col. Hawkins. The movment, especially in the former instance, will draw attention in the eastern states, which will even in that respect produce a good effect. It will shew very distinctly that the delay in running the line, is imputable altogether to the British govt.
I have answerd all the notes of Mr Onis,4 and brought up the affairs of the dept., in every branch of the business, more fully, than at any period before, since I was charged with it. With great respect & esteem your friend & servant
Jas Monroe
RC (DLC: Rives Collection, Madison Papers). Filed at 13 June 1818; date corrected here based on JM’s docket: “June 13. 1816.”
1. The 10 June 1816 issue of the Daily National Intelligencer reported that William Pinkney left Annapolis on his missions to Naples and Russia on 7 June 1816.
2. On 7 June 1816 Eligius Fromentin, senator from Louisiana, wrote to Monroe, requesting the release of E. O. Duplessis, an American merchant, who had been arrested as a French spy in Haiti by Henri Christophe, ruler of the northern region of the island. Fromentin suggested that a letter might be sent to Christophe. Monroe agreed and on 13 June he directed Capt. Jacob Lewis, whom JM had recently appointed as a special agent to Cumaná, Venezuela, and Maracaibo, to make a stop in Haiti for that purpose (DNA: RG 59, ML; DNA: RG 59, IC; Wriston, Executive Agents in American Foreign Relations, 428–29). On 24 July 1816 the Daily National Intelligencer reported that Duplessis had been released through the intercession of the governor of Louisiana and the commander of the Firebrand.
3. James T. Austin and John Holmes, both from Massachusetts, had been appointed boundary commissioners under article 4 of the Treaty of Ghent to determine the boundary among the islands of Passamaquoddy Bay.
4. On 10 June 1816 Monroe sent a lengthy note to Onís, largely in response to Onís’s letters to him of 22 Feb. and 30 May 1816. The issues in this correspondence centered on the long-standing boundary disputes between Spain and the United States in Florida and Texas and whether the administration could be held responsible for hostile expeditions launched against Spanish territory from the United States. Monroe restated the basis for American claims to Florida and Texas, denied that the United States had ever breached its neutral obligations toward Spain, and claimed that there were no expeditions organized on American territory against Spain’s American possessions (DNA: RG 59, Notes to Foreign Ministers and Consuls; printed in , Foreign Relations, 4:429–31).