To James Madison from Edward Caffarena, December 1820
From Edward Caffarena
Genoa Decr: 1820.
Sir
In answer to your favor dated Novr: 1st: 18171 I had the honor to present my respects in June 1818;2 confirming by duplicate last Year the same, & not finding myself honor’d with an answer, I suppose they must have been lost. I hope You will excuse me if I intrude for a third time to express my sentiments, that it never was my intention to offend You Sir, in forwarding the Statue of Napoleon, and hope you will excuse the Liberty. Your desire is to know the price of the same, the original cost was $90.. as you can verify by Mr: Causici who is at present employ’d in Washington.
Permit me Sir to make you observe, that I do not ask the worth of this price [sic], leaving the decision agreable to your Pleasure.
Mr: John B. Sartori3 of Trenton, New Jersey, my intimate good friend, has the charge of those few concerns, that I may have in the U.S., and you may Sir settle the whole with the same, as with myself. I shall in all times feel happy to receive your commands. While I have the honor to remain Sir Your Most Ob & Hble Servt:
Edward Caffarena
RC (DLC). Docketed by JM.
2. Letter not found.
3. John Baptiste Sartori (1765–1853), a native of Rome, Italy, emigrated to Philadelphia in 1793. In 1797 he was appointed U.S. consul to the Papal States, though he returned to the United States in 1801 after deputizing his father in the position. He settled in Trenton, New Jersey, in 1803 on an estate he called Rosey Hill, where he manufactured pasta and played a prominent role in the life of the city. He was instrumental in building St. John the Baptist, the first Catholic church in New Jersey, in 1814, and in 1817 he established a calico printing factory on his estate. He returned to Rome in 1832 (Richard W. Hunter, Nadine Sergejeff, and Damon Tvaryanas, “Trenton Textiles and the Eagle Factory: A First Taste of the Industrial Revolution,” (http://trentonhistory.org/Documents/EagleFactory.html; 1:256, 2:340; John D. M’Cormick, “Catholicity in New Jersey,” American Catholic Historical Researches 14 [1897]: 46).