181To Thomas Jefferson from James Madison, [16 November 1801] (Jefferson Papers)
J. Madison presents his respects to the President with a letter from Col. Burr & another from Col. Humphreys, the latter is a duplicate, with an exception of the postscript. J.M. has been so much indisposed since saturday evening that he could not call on the President, as he wished, in order to consult his intentions as to Mr. Thornton’s letter . If the President proposes to make it the...
182From James Madison to Elias Boudinot, 17 November 1801 (Madison Papers)
At the request of the Navy Department the President has given permission, that Mr. Harrison, or an artist under his direction, may use the machine for striking coins, belonging to the Mint, for the medal intended for Captain Truxtun, in virtue of a Resolution of Congress. But this permission is subject to the conditions, that the use to be thus made of the machine shall not materially retard...
183From James Madison to Louis-André Pichon, 17 November 1801 (Abstract) (Madison Papers)
17 November 1801, Department of State. In reply to Pichon’s note of 2 Nov. , states that the misunderstanding by which he issued passports for Saint-Domingue to French citizens having been rectified, the practice will cease. Adds, in reply to Pichon’s 29 Oct. note, that the Treasury Department has ordered the restitution to Mr. Barney of the duties paid at Baltimore on Pichon’s account. Tr (...
184From James Madison to Andrew Ellicott, 18 November 1801 (Madison Papers)
Mr. John Churchman, author of the magnetic Atlas, being desirous of testing the correctness of his theory by comparing it with actual observations of the variation of the needle, has applied to me by letter for a copy of those which he was informed were made under your direction on the Southern Boundary of the United States, and which he supposed were deposited in this office. The enclosed...
185From James Madison to Tobias Lear, 21 November 1801 (Madison Papers)
Your several letters from No. 1 to No. 12 inclusive have been duly received, and I have the pleasure to express to you the President’s approbation, both of your punctuality in transmitting information, and of the prudence which appears to have guided your conduct, since your entrance into the Station confided to you. Frequent and full communications will continue to be acceptable, from a...
186From James Madison to Isaac Hite, 24 November 1801 (Madison Papers)
Mr. Shields has been so good as to call & let me know that he left you & my sister well last week, and to give me an opportunity of saying that we are well as usual also. I have not lost ground in point of health since my return to this place, but do not find it yet as firm as I hope time & temperance may render it. Mr. Shields is possessed of a hand bill containing the official certainty of...
187From James Madison to Joseph Hamilton Daveiss, 26 November 1801 (Madison Papers)
I did not ⟨re⟩ceive till yesterday your letter of the 4th. instant. That of Sepr. 9. has never been received. The 10,000 Acres of land on Panther Creek surveyed in my father’s name, was a part of 40,000 Acres in which by contract he, Majr. Moore, and two Col. Barbours, were interested in common. Of my father’s interest about one fourth only has devolved on me, and a like proportion on my...
188From James Madison to Jeremiah Olney, 26 November 1801 (Madison Papers)
John Robinson, of Timber Town, Rhode Island, is stated to have been impressed into the British Ship of War, Tremendous, and to have been detained therein, at the Cape of Good Hope, when this Intelligence was sent hither. I request you therefore to give the publicity in this case which you have heretofore done in others of the same kind: and you will also be good enough to add the names of...
189From James Madison to John G. Jackson, 27 November 1801 (Madison Papers)
Letter not found. 27 November 1801. Acknowledged in Jackson to JM, 19 Dec. 1801 . Encloses a copy of the peace preliminaries between Great Britain and France.
190From James Madison to Albert Gallatin, 28 November 1801 (Madison Papers)
I have had the honor to receive your letter of the 20th. current respecting Mr. Fenwick’s accounts. As none of his claims were incurred subsequently to the 1st. of September 1800, it follows that if the authority given to the Secretary of State, under the President’s direction, to admit such claims should be considered to be more limited after that day, the principles of liquidating his...
191From James Madison to Elias Vander Horst, 28 November 1801 (Madison Papers)
I have the pleasure to acknowledge the receipt of your Letter of the 10th. of last month, and several others received from time to time, containing very acceptable information. It is not at present thought advisable to encrease the subscription to the Bristol Infirmary. Not knowing the state of the claim made on your behalf for Compensation for the four Casks of Indigo plundered by the French...
192From James Madison to Robert R. Livingston, 28 November 1801 (Abstract) (Madison Papers)
28 November 1801, Department of State, Washington. Requests Livingston’s aid in obtaining compensation for Elias Vander Horst, U.S. consul at Bristol, whose claim against the French government for the illegal seizure of some indigo by the French privateer Tyger is of long standing. Notes that Skip-with or Mountflorence can probably acquaint him with present state of the case. Letterbook copy (...
193From James Madison to Hans Rudolph Saabye, 28 November 1801 (Abstract) (Madison Papers)
28 November 1801, Department of State, Washington. Transmits papers concerning Henry Harrison, “son of a respectable Citizen of New Jersey.” Requests Saabye to extricate the young man from his “engagements” in the Danish service or at Copenhagen and “facilitate his return.” Letterbook copy ( DNA : RG 59, IC , vol. 1). 1 p. The young man may have been a member of the Harrison family that was...
194From James Madison to James Barry, 4 December 1801 (Madison Papers)
I return the notification which Mr. Palyart has given of your appointment to act in his place as Consul General of Portugal, during his absence; and beg leave to inform you, that there will be no impropriety in your giving it publicity. Any communications, which you may have to make to me, respecting the business of your charge, will be received and attended to in the manner which custom...
195From James Madison to Thomas Jefferson, 8 December 1801 (Madison Papers)
I have the honor to transmit herewith two copies of the second census (except for the State of Tennessee, which is not yet received) and to notice the following deviations from the law under which it was taken, affecting the uniformity of some of the returns. The return for the counties of Dutchess, Ulster & Orange in the District of New York was not recd. at this office until the 21st. of...
196To Thomas Jefferson from James Madison, 8 December 1801 (Jefferson Papers)
I have the honor to transmit herewith two copies of the second census (except for the State of Tennessee, which is not yet received) and to notice the following deviations from the law under which it was taken, affecting the uniformity of some of the returns. The return for the counties of Dutchess, Ulster & Orange in the District of New York was not recd. at this office until the 21st. of...
197From James Madison to Thomas Jefferson, [10 December] 1801 (Madison Papers)
J. M. havg received notice this afternoon of the oppy. by a packet, has hastily written to Mr. King. The President will please to read it & return it as soon as possible, that if approved, it may be got into the Mail tonight, witht. which the oppy. will be lost. RC ( DLC : Jefferson Papers). Docketed by Jefferson as received 10 Dec. 1801.
198From James Madison to Rufus King, 10 December 1801 (Madison Papers)
Notice being just given me that the Mail to be made up this evening will reach New York in time for a British Packet, I avail myself of the opportunity to inclose a Newspaper containing all that is yet published of the proceedings of the present Session of Congress, together with the message of the President. The accounts of peace have, with some interested exceptions, given the most sincere...
199From James Madison to Josef Yznardy, 10 December 1801 (Madison Papers)
Letter not found. 10 December 1801. Acknowledged in Yznardy to JM, 18 Dec. 1801 . Discusses the suspension of Patrick Mullony’s consular functions.
200To Thomas Jefferson from James Madison, [10 December 1801] (Jefferson Papers)
J. M. havg received notice this afternoon of the oppy. by a packet, has hastily written to Mr. King. The President will please to read it & return it as soon as possible, that if approved, it may be got into the mail tonight, witht. which the opportunity will be lost. RC ( DLC ); partially dated; endorsed by TJ as received from the State Department on 10 Dec. and so recorded in SJL with...
201From James Madison to Lewis M. O’Brien, 14 December 1801 (Madison Papers)
I have received with your Letter of the 23d. May last, the bond which you tender for the faithful performance of your official duties. The usage (founded on an obvious principle of expediency) requires that the sureties should in such cases be either residents of the United States, or holders of property of a permanent nature in them. Hence, altho’ I make no doubt that Messrs. Vial, Son & Co....
202From James Madison to the President of the Senate, 14 December 1801 (Madison Papers)
Agreeably to the “Act to revive and continue in force certain parts of the Act for the Relief and protection of American seamen, and to amend the same,” I have the Honor to lay before Congress an annual Return, ending the 9th Inst, containing an abstract of all the Returns made to the Secretary of State by the Collectors of the Customs for the different ports, pursuant to the “Act for the...
203Commissioners of the Sinking Fund to Congress, 16 December 1801 (Abstract) (Madison Papers)
16 December 1801, Washington. Transmits the secretary of the treasury’s 14 Dec. report and the proceedings of the treasury officers, in which are described the measures authorized by the board and completed since the commissioners’ report of 28 Nov. 1800. RC and enclosures ( DNA : RG 46, Reports from the Commissioners of the Sinking Fund, 7A-F7). RC 1 p.; signed by JM and the other...
204From James Madison to Robert R. Livingston, 19 December 1801 (Madison Papers)
The Convention with the French Republic as finally exchanged by Mr. Murray arrived here on the 9th day of Octr last in the hands of Mr. Appleton. As the form of ratification by the French Government contained a clause declaratory of the effect given to the meaning of the Treaty by the suppression of the 2d. Article it was thought by the President most safe as a precedent to ask anew the...
205From James Madison to Charles Pinckney, 19 December 1801 (Madison Papers)
I avail myself of the present conveyance just made known to me, to inclose you a copy of the Message of the President to Congress and a few newspapers containing such of their proceedings and debates as have been published. You will find that the injury threatened to our navigation by the activity which the peace will give to foreign regulations, particularly to the countervailing Act of Great...
206From James Madison to Elbridge Gerry, 22 December 1801 (Madison Papers)
I have duly recd. yours covering a letter for Mr Skipwith, which I have put in company with some despatches just forwarded to Mr. Livingston. I had long before recd. your favor of the 9th. Ult: on the subject of Mr. N. Fellows jr. whose name & pretensions I have laid before the President. The Consulate of the Havanna is not yet vacant, and it is uncertain what the policy of Spain may be with...
207From James Madison to Rufus King, 22 December 1801 (Madison Papers)
In my last of the 10th. instant, I took occasion to remark to you the extensive injury threatened to our navigation by the countervailing act of Great Britain, the inconsistency of that act, in our judgment, with the true sense of the Treaty of 1794, and the several remedies for the case which occured for consideration; among which, that of a revision of the British act, and an adjustment of...
208From James Madison to Benjamin Rush, 23 December 1801 (Madison Papers)
Letter not found. 23 December 1801, Washington. Offered for sale in Parke-Bernet Catalogue No. 484, “The Alexander Biddle Papers” (1943), pt. 2, item 200, which notes that the one-page letter “regards Dr. Rush’s son Richard who desired to visit Europe in the capacity of a private secretary to one of the American Ministers. Informs him that he will place the matter before the President.”
209From James Madison to Thomas Jefferson, 24 December 1801 (Madison Papers)
J. Madison’s respectful compliments to the President It appears that the Secy. of State, the Secy. of the Treasury, & the Attorney General were appd. Commissrs. to settle with Georgia, by their names, but with their official titles annexed. On the resignation of Col. Pickering, Mr. Marshal was appd. in his room , No resignation of his Commission for the Georgia business being referred to or...
210To Thomas Jefferson from James Madison, 24 December 1801 (Jefferson Papers)
J. Madison’s respectful compliments to the President It appears that the Secy. of State, the Secy. of the Treasury, & the Attorney General were appd. Commissrs. to settle with Georgia, by their names, but with their official titles annexed. On the resignation of Col. Pickering, Mr. Marshal was appd. in his room , No resignation of his Commission for the Georgia business being referred to or...
211From James Madison to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, 26 December 1801 (Madison Papers)
I have the honor to enclose my report on the memorial of Philip Sloan, referred to me by the House of Representatives on the 14th. inst. With perfect respect, I have the honor to be, sir, Your most obed. servt. The Secretary of State to whom was referred on the 14th. instant the memorial of Philip Sloan, praying the reimbursement of a sum of mon[e]y which the Petitioner obtained on loan for...
212From James Madison to George W. Erving, 31 December 1801 (Madison Papers)
You will receive this from the hands of Mr. Christie heretofore a member of Congress from the State of Maryland. He proposes a visit to England, and I beg leave to make him known to you as a fellow citizen entitled to your esteem & civilities. As he leaves this country at an interesting moment in our public affairs, he will be able to give you a variety of information which cannot be detailed...
213Account of State Department Salaries, 31 December 1801 (Abstract) (Madison Papers)
31 December 1801, Department of State. Lists names and quarterly salaries for JM and the seven full-time clerks, one “occasional clerk,” and one messenger of the State Department, totaling $3,174.94. Ms ( DNA : RG 217, First Auditor’s Accounts, no. 12,990). 1 p.; in a clerk’s hand, signed by JM. Other accounts signed by JM for salaries are 1 Apr. 1802 ( DNA : RG 217, First Auditor’s Accounts,...
214From James Madison to Caesar A. Rodney, [1 January] 1802 (Madison Papers)
… From a glance at the parts of the Delaware Constitution bound up in the collection in my hands, I am led to suppose that the election of your Governor is now made in pursuance of some changes since made on that subject; and am consequently at a loss to judge of the agency possessed by the Legislature. I do not question, how far its interposition as proposed would be an usurpation of power, I...
215From James Madison to William Arnold & Son, 1 January 1802 (Abstract) (Madison Papers)
1 January 1802, Department of State, Washington. Returns papers the firm had sent concerning the seizure of a ship “under circumstances, which Seem to bring it within the Clause of the Convention with France providing for restitution.” Suggests that the papers be forwarded to Livingston, the U.S. minister at Paris, who has been charged with pursuing such claims, or to the firm’s correspondent...
216From James Madison to David Lenox, 1 January 1802 (Abstract) (Madison Papers)
1 January 1802, Department of State, Washington. Acknowledges receipt of Lenox’s 12 Oct. letter and enclosures as well as his earlier letters. It is hoped that American seamen will be discharged from British service as ships return to England with the advent of peace. Accordingly, the president consents to Lenox’s return home in the spring. Erving, the consul at London, will handle any...
217From James Madison to David Lenox, 1 January 1802 (Abstract) (Madison Papers)
1 January 1802, Department of State, Washington. Encloses proofs of citizenship for Thomas G. Lay, supplied by Roger Griswold, and for Henry Bowlen. RC ( NjP : Crane Collection); letterbook copy ( DNA : RG 59, IC , vol. 1). RC 1 p.; in a clerk’s hand, signed by JM. Enclosures not found.
218From James Madison to James Monroe, 2 January 1802 (Madison Papers)
I beg leave to inclose you a complaint transmitted to this Department by the Agent of the U. States at Jamaica, of certain frauds in the case of flour shipped to that Island. As the facts stated have reference to places within the State of Virginia, it is thought most proper to communicate them to you, who will be best able to decide on the manner & measure of enquiry due to the subject. With...
219From James Madison to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, 5 January 1802 (Abstract) (Madison Papers)
5 January 1802, Department of State. In response to the 24 Dec. resolution of the House of Representatives, encloses a table of the comparative duties paid in British ports on goods imported there in American, foreign, and British vessels since 5 Jan. 1798. RC and enclosure ( DNA : RG 233, Reports and Communications from the Secretary of State, 7A-E1.1); Tr ( DNA : RG 233, Transcribed Reports...
220From James Madison to William Vans Murray, 7 January 1802 (Madison Papers)
I have presented to the President the subject stated in your Letter of the 3d. instant. He does not view the constitution as admitting the distinction between customary and extraordinary presents from Foreign Governments to persons in the employment of the United States; and consequently decides, that the consent of Congress is prerequisite to the acceptance of either. This construction of the...
221From James Madison to Tobias Lear, 8 January 1802 (Madison Papers)
My last was of the 24th day of November since which date I have received your several letters as far as No 18 inclusive. The peace between France and England has been officially known here for several weeks, but the measures likely to follow this event in relation to St. Domingo have reached us no otherwise than in scattered indistinct and unauthentic reports. An early idea appeared in the...
222From James Madison to James Monroe, 8 January 1802 (Madison Papers)
I have not yet thanked you for the copy of your Message, which I find has attracted attention, and circulates with advantage to yourself, as well as to the public. It is much to be wished that the same manly and enlarged sentiments, and the same just and enlightened policy, might distinguish the addresses of all the Republican Governors, and co-operate with the example set by the President, in...
223From James Madison to Thomas Jefferson, 11 January 1802 (Abstract) (Madison Papers)
11 January 1802, Department of State. Encloses an estimate of the cost of carrying into effect the convention with France. RC and enclosure, two copies ( DNA : RG 46, President’s Messages, 7A-E3; and DNA : RG 233, President’s Messages, 7A-D1). Each RC 1 p., in a clerk’s hand, signed by JM. Enclosed estimate (1 p.) lists expenses totaling $350,000, not including $32,839.54 worth of repairs to...
224From James Madison to Albert Gallatin, 12 January 1802 (Abstract) (Madison Papers)
12 January 1802, Department of State. “The Secretary of State presents his respects to the Secretary of the Treasury and has the honor to enclose a copy of a letter lately received from Samuel Cabot Esqr. together with the letter from the Secretary of State therein referred to.” RC and enclosures ( DNA : RG 217, First Auditor’s Accounts, no. 13,148). RC 1 p.; in Wagner’s hand; docketed by...
225From James Madison to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, 13 January 1802 (Abstract) (Madison Papers)
13 January 1802, Department of State, Washington . In response to the House resolution of 24 Dec. 1801, encloses three acts of the Northwest Territory—”An Act levying a territorial tax on land,” “An Act to regulate county levies,” and “An Act supplementary to the Act, entitled, ‘An Act laying a territorial tax on land’”—and, for the Indiana Territory, “A law supplemental to a law to regulate...
226From James Madison to John Quincy Adams, 14 January 1802 (Madison Papers)
J. Madison presents his respects to Mr. Adams and incloses a letter just recd. from Mr. Randolph in answer to the letter from Mr. Adams, lately forwarded in one from Mr. M. to Mr. R. RC and enclosure ( MHi : Adams Papers). RC docketed by Adams. For enclosure, see n. 1. Edmund Randolph to Adams, 9 Jan. 1802 (1 p.; cover marked by Randolph: “To be read by the secretary of state”; docketed by...
227From James Madison to Jedediah Huntington, 15 January 1802 (Madison Papers)
Letters which I yesterday received from the American Consul at Havana announce that the ports of the Island of Cuba were on the 25th Ult. closed against the admission of American and other foreign vessels. In an interview however, which the Consul had with the Governor, the latter unequivocally assured him, “that every possible indulgence and relief will still be extended to those vessels...
228From James Madison to Caesar A. Rodney, 15 January 1802 (Madison Papers)
I am just making a list of the papers in which the laws are to be published in each State. The Mirror of Wilmington is understood to be the proper choice for Delaware. Will you favor me with your opinion, wch. will be waited for, unless I should be obliged to anticipate it, which may perhaps be the case? I am led to suppose there can be little danger of erring by giving a preference to that...
229From James Madison to James Monroe, 19 January 1802 (Madison Papers)
I have this moment recd yours of the 14th. instant. The letter from Mr. Purviance which I herein return is a favorable specimen of his stile & sentiments. Mr. Jones will explain to you the occasion & object of my enquiries. I have as yet formed no final determination in the case, & there is a possibility tho not a probability that it may be rendered unnecessary. Mr. Dawson as you will see has...
230Circular Letter to Newspaper Publishers, 19 January 1802 (Madison Papers)
Letter not found. 19 January 1802. Acknowledged in Alexander Martin to JM, 27 Jan. 1802 , among others (see DNA: RG 59, Miscellaneous Letters Received Regarding Publishers of the Laws). Encloses a copy of the first law passed in the current session of Congress and a page of the octavo edition of laws printed in Washington; offers a contract to print the federal laws of the present session in...