To Thomas Jefferson from James Madison, 9 April 1804
From James Madison
Washington Apl 9. 1804
Dear Sir
I recd. last night the inclosed letters from Mr Livingston, which afford another proof that the French Government, however deficient it may be in other attributes is an enlightened one. It would be better no doubt if our objects could be attained by our own means only, but friendly interpositions of other Govts. in such a case ought not only to be accepted but to be acknowledged with respect & sensibility. And I shall presume so far on your concurrence in this idea, as to authorise Mr. Livingston to make such an acknowledgment. I have recd. also by the last mail letters from Mr. Pinkney down to Jany. 24. The principal one being long & in Cypher cannot be forwarded by this opportunity. It appears from the others that he is teazing the Spanish Govt. on the subject which was not to be touched without the presence or the advice of Mr. Monroe. Under the prohibition to make & the permission to accept offers, he is continually offering to accept. And it is pretty evident that he is spurred on from intermediate quarter from motives sufficiently obvious. I hope to be able to forward the communications by the next mail.
The Annual register for 1764 contains the orders of the French Govt. to Abbedie to deliver Louisiana to Spain, referring to the 3 of Novr. as the date of the Cession by France, & to the 13 of that Month for the acceptance of Spain; and observes that these acts accompany the orders. It being probable that they remain among the archives of the Province I write this day to Claibourne, to search for & transmit copies with copies of any other documents applicable to the question.1 I have taken up the subject of our title to the Perdido with some particularity since your departure, and shall substitute what I have written in place of the brief observations which I read you in the letter to Mr. Livingston. I thought it proper that he should be furnished with all our ideas, considering the importance of the French Govt. in the question, and it only anticipated the task which would be incident to the instructions to Mr. Monroe.
No answer has yet been recd from Russell.
With respectful attachment yrs
James Madison
P.S.
I inclose herewith an Exequatur for a French Consul whose case is explained by communications from Mr. Pichon also inclosed. Under the circumstances of the case it appears to me expedient to grant the exequatur. It has been granted on slighter grounds. And I am assured by Mr. P. that the appt. to Kentucky was made solely with a view to give him his salary as Consul which is 12,000 livres a year. Mr. P. expects that he will be appd. to N. Orleans, & would have sent him thither instead of to Natches, if Mr. Laussat had not interposed a functionary at the former port. The idea of a Consul for Kentucky was suggested it seems by an Exequatur formally granted to a Spanish Consul whose Commission comprehended Virginia & Kentucky.
The Leyden Gazette will be worth your reading for the sake of the comment on the Rept. of the Committee of Congress touching the acquisition of N.O. & the Floridas
RC (DLC); at foot of page with signature: “The President”; endorsed by TJ as received from the State Department on 13 Apr. and “Bonap’s offices with Tripoli—Louisa.—Fr. Consul a[t] [. . .]” (torn) and so recorded in SJL. Enclosures: (1) Probably Robert R. Livingston to Madison, 18 Jan. 1804, from Paris, enclosing a copy of Talleyrand’s letter to the French commercial agent at Tripoli, Bonaventure Beaussier, dated 25 Nivôse (16 Jan.), informing him of the first consul’s concern for the imprisoned crew of the Philadelphia and instructing him to use his office to secure their release and to promote the establishment of a mutually advantageous peace between the United States and Tripoli; Livingston adds his opinion that the rank, powers, and instructions of the American minister at Paris should be extended to courts where the United States has no resident minister; Livingston does not make this suggestion with himself in mind, however, “because I do not intend to Stay here So long as to receive any new power or new instructions, but as a consideration that Should influence the choice & power of my Successor” (, 6:357-9; , 3:332; see also Vol. 42:396-7, 398n). (2) Louis André Pichon to Madison, 7 Apr. 1804, from Georgetown, enclosing a commission from the first consul naming Paul Marie Louis Martel commercial agent for Kentucky and asking that the president issue an exequatur; the commission omits naming a place of residence, but Pichon assumes the post will encompass the Mississippi Territory and asks that the exequatur permit Martel to reside at Natchez; the commission is largely intended as a reward for Martel’s previous service as commercial agent at Norfolk and Baltimore (, 7:10-11). Other enclosures not identified.
letters from mr. pinkney: see Madison to TJ, 12 Apr.
An extract of the 21 Apr. 1764 orders to Jean Jacques Blaise d’Abbadie regarding the transfer of Louisiana to Spain appeared in the Annual Register for 1765. Madison enclosed a copy in his 9 Apr. letter to William C. C. Claiborne and instructed him to search the archives in New Orleans for copies of the 1762 treaty ceding Louisiana to Spain and Spain’s act of acceptance, as neither had ever been made public and they might have “an interresting application” to the administration’s claim that West Florida should be included in the territory ceded to the United States (The Annual Register, or A View of the History, Politicks, and Literature, For the Year 1765 [London, 1766], pt. 1, 271-2; , 7:22-3; , 2:140-3).
letter to mr. livingston: Madison to Livingston, 31 Mch., which detailed the administration’s claim that the Perdido River constituted the eastern boundary of Louisiana (, 6:636-48).
Writing to Jonathan russell on 22 Mch., Levi Lincoln informed him of his nomination as consul at Tunis, an office “peculiarly important at the present moment,” and hoped that Russell would accept in time to take passage in one of the frigates preparing for the Mediterranean. Writing again on 30 Mch., Lincoln enclosed Russell’s commission and added that his duties would also include negotiating “some business at the court of Naples, in reference to some proposed navel operations on Tripoli.” Lincoln hoped to receive Russell’s answer by the return of the mail, which he would forward to the president at Monticello (RPB: Jonathan Russell Papers).
Sylvanus Bourne, the U.S. consul at Amsterdam, enclosed the leyden gazette for January 1804 in a 2 Feb. dispatch to Madison. “The late report of Congress on the Subject of Louisiana & the Floridas,” Bourne stated, “appears to have excited no small degree of attention here & even of comment as betraying symptoms of undue ambition in our Country” (, 6:424-5). The “report” was the confidential report of a House committee appointed on 12 Jan. 1803 to consider a $2 million appropriation for the acquisition of New Orleans and the Floridas. Due to an injunction of secrecy on the subject, however, the report was not made public until 22 Oct., when the House lifted the injunction and ordered the report to be printed. It appeared in the National Intelligencer four days later (Report of the Committee, To Whom Was Referred on the 12th Ultimo, A Motion for Appropriation of Two Millions of Dollars … 11th February, 1803 [Washington, D.C., 1803]; , 2:202; , 12:370-4; 13:383-5; Vol. 39:584; Vol. 40:201-2n).
1. Preceding ten words interlined.