To James Madison from Benjamin W. Crowninshield, 30 January 1815
From Benjamin W. Crowninshield
Navy Department Jany 30th 1815
Sir
I have the honour to submit for your consideration the enclosed letters, the importance of which requires some decision as to the payments & expenditures for the Lake Service.1 I am Very respectfully Sir Your Ob: Servt.
B W Crowninshield
Letterbook copy (DNA: RG 45, LSP).
1. The enclosures may have included a 15 Jan. 1815 letter to Crowninshield from Lake Ontario shipbuilding contractors Adam and Noah Brown, stating that New York navy agent John Bullus had proposed to pay the first $100,000 instalment on their contract in Treasury notes, then trading at seven percent under par. They had refused to take this loss, they wrote, and would not be able to build the ships if not paid in acceptable currency (DNA: RG 45, Misc. Letters Received; printed in Dudley, Naval War of 1812, 3:686–87). Bullus also wrote Crowninshield regarding this matter on 3 Feb. 1815, to which Crowninshield replied on 7 Feb. that a draft on a New York bank would be sent to Bullus the following day to pay the Browns (DNA: RG 45, Letters to Commandants and Navy Agents).