From Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, 6 September 1804
To James Madison
Monticello Sep. 6. 04.
Th:J to mr Madison.
Should we not write to the Governors of S. Carolina & Georgia to1 furnish us without delay with authentic statements of the illegalities said to have been committed in their harbours by one or more French privateers? as the proceedings of the British vessels at N. York must be laid before Congress to found measures of coercion, peaceable & of force, by giving in the facts relative to the French privateer, we2 may make our measures less pointed, & less offensive. I have been obliged to defer my visit to Bedford, and probably shall not go at all. we shall hope to see you next week. I salute you with affection.
RC (DLC: Madison Papers). PoC (DLC). Notation in SJL: “French depredns.” Enclosures (see Madison to TJ, 8 Sep.): (1) Probably Thomas Appleton to Madison, Leghorn, 26 May, reporting on Mediterranean affairs; Edward Preble arrived at Naples from Tunis on 15 May and was preparing to sail for Malta with a stop at Messina to take in gunboats, mortars, and ammunition loaned by Sicily through an arrangement brokered by Joseph Barnes; Appleton repeats the details of the misuse of U.S. passports, in particular the case of Henry Benson, about which he wrote to TJ on 25 May; Appleton urges the United States to obtain permission to trade in the Black Sea; no American consul will be recognized by the Ottomans without a treaty of commerce, which Appleton suggests may be negotiated through the mediation of a foreign power, France in particular; since Britain has instructed its minister at Constantinople to protect American citizens and property, Americans have enjoyed the same privileges as British subjects by paying only consular charges (Madison, Papers, Sec. of State Ser., 7:256-7). (2) Probably William Savage to Madison, Kingston, 5 July, requesting payment of his account with the United States and summarizing the quantity of American shipping at Kingston since 15 June 1803; Savage also encloses a copy of his 25 May dispatch to Madison providing information on American seamen impressed by the British navy and the difficulties he has faced in his attempts to secure their release (same, 255-6, 425).
For the recent activities of French privateers off the southern coast of the United States, see TJ to Robert Smith, 15 June, and TJ to Levi Lincoln, 24 June.
1. Word written over partially blotted “without.”
2. MS: “me.”