To James Madison from Benjamin Joy, 2 September 1814
From Benjamin Joy
Boston 2nd Septr 1814.
Sire
I take the Liberty of addressing you to give you the following extract of a Letter which I have just received from my brother G Joy dated London 1st July 1814 not knowing but some importance may be attached to it. With the highest respect I am your most Obdt Servant
B: Joy
“The Commissioners from this Government to meet those of the US at Ghent are expected to depart about the 8th Inst. They are the same that Williams mentioned to his brother by (I think) the may packet, as he was just closing his letters when I gave him their names; vizt Lord Gambier Doctor Adams & Mr Goulburn. They are unacquainted with each other; at least Dr A is with either of the other two, as he told me on saturday last; and at that time he had received no Instructions nor any intimation of what was expected from him; yet he is the man on whom they cheifly depend; and a very sharp and intelligent little Gentleman he is. Both he and Mr Goulburn have promised to study my Pamphlets with attention. A will find himself noticed in one of the Notes on Anticipation1 but he is too much of a Gentleman to see any thing amiss in that. I shall see him again to morrow but that will be too late for this Conveyance.”
I can assure you that our Government have this evening agreed to take some, what we may call, very efficient measures and as soon as a majority of the Council shall be here, & they are especially sent for, I have reason to believe that the legislature will be called together2—perhaps this should be considered as confidential as respects me.
RC (DLC: Rives Collection, Madison Papers). Docketed by JM.
1. For George Joy’s “Anticipation of Marginal Notes on the Declaration of Government of the Ninth of January, 1813, in the American National Intelligencer,” see 6:299 n. 1. The essay mentioned that William Adams had taken issue with Sir William Scott’s opinion in the case of the Snipe (Pamphleteer 1 [1813]: 537). For the Snipe case, see 5:338 n. 3.
2. On 7 Sept. 1814, Massachusetts governor Caleb Strong issued a proclamation “with the advice of the Council,” calling the state legislature to meet on 5 Oct. 1814 owing to recent “events of a public and alarming nature” (Boston Gazette, 8 Sept. 1814).