1From James Madison to Robert R. Livingston, 3 April 1794 (Madison Papers)
This will be handed you by the Revd. Mr. Toulmin of the Unitarian Sect from England, whose attachment to liberty has led him to this land of it. You will find him intelligent, and modest, and in every respect deserving the attention I solicit for him. I was lately called on by a French gentleman who said he was your neighbour, and afforded me an opportunity of dropping you a few lines which I...
2From James Madison to Robert R. Livingston, 8 February 1795 (Madison Papers)
I am much obliged by your favor of the 30th. Ult. The information it gives on the subject of the Treaty is more exact on some points than any I had before received, particularly in relation to the footing on which the Posts are to be left. If Mr. Jay has really turned our exclusive right into a thoroughfare, which will in its operation be almost an exclusive right to G. Britain, it will...
3From James Madison to Robert R. Livingston, 10 August 1795 (Madison Papers)
Your favor of July 6, having been addressed to Williamsburg, instead of Orange Court House , did not come to hand till two days ago. Your gloomy picture of the Treaty does not exceed my ideas of it. After yielding terms which would have been scorned by this Country in the moment of its greatest embarrassments, & of G. Britains full enjoyment of peace & confidence, it adds to the ruinous...
4From James Madison to Robert R. Livingston, 15 January 1797 (Madison Papers)
I have lately recd. a letter from Mr. Freneau, who formerly edited the National Gazette in this City, in which he tells me that he has removed from N. Jersey to N. York, and is associating himself with Mr. Greenleaf in the publication of a Daily & Biweekly papers. Having been acquainted with Mr. Freneau from our youths, and being sensible of his private worth, his literary talents, and his...
5From James Madison to Robert R. Livingston, 11 July 1801 (Madison Papers)
I have recd. your favor of the 1st. instant. Your observations on Neutral rights & the means of promoting them are certainly very interesting, & will merit consideration. It is questionable however whether any leading arrangements by the U. States during the war, even in an eventual form adapted to a state of peace, would be free from the danger of entangling us too much in the present...
6From James Madison to Robert R. Livingston, 4 September 1801 (Madison Papers)
Information is just received that the sloop of War, the Maryland, has arrived with despatches from Mr. Murray & Mr. Dawson. By some accident the despatches, tho’ forwarded from Washington have not yet got to hand. It appears however by letters alluding to their contents, that an objection is made by the French Government to the Treaty in the form given to it by striking out the second article....
7Draft of Instructions to Robert R. Livingston, [ca. 17 September] 1801 (Madison Papers)
You will herewith receive your commission as Minister Plenipotentiary from the U. States to the French Republic. You will also be furnished with copies of the instructions given to Mr. Dawson who carried to France the modified ratification of the Convention of the 30th of Sepr. last, and of those to Messrs. Elsworth and Murray charged with negociating a ratification in the same form by the...
8From James Madison to Robert R. Livingston, 28 September 1801 (Madison Papers)
You have already been informed of the intention of the President that your departure for France should be hastened, and that you would be furnished with a passage in the Boston Frigate, which after landing you at Bourdeaux, is to proceed to the Mediterranean. When this intention was communicated, it was understood that some difficulty had arisen in obtaining from the French Government a...
9From 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 (...
10From 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...
11From James Madison to Robert R. Livingston, 27 January 1802 (Abstract) (Madison Papers)
27 January 1802, Department of State. At the request of Senator Sheafe of New Hampshire, provides this introduction for an agent who will carry claims and documents in support of them from Sheafe to Livingston. Requests Livingston’s “favorable attention to the business.” RC ( DNA : RG 76, France, French Spoliation Claims, box 5); letterbook copy ( DNA : RG 59, IM , vol. 6). 1 p. Sheafe’s agent...
12From James Madison to Robert R. Livingston, 14 March 1802 (Madison Papers)
This will be handed to you by Mr. Curwan who is charged with sundry claims by Mr. Stephan Gerard of Philada. against the French Republic. Mr. Gerard is a very respectable Merchant & Citizen of the U. States, and feels so strongly both the justice & importance of his claims, as to depute Mr. Curwan to Paris for the purpose of supporting them. He has expressed an anxiety also that they should be...
13From James Madison to Robert R. Livingston, 16 March 1802 (Madison Papers)
Your two favours of the 10, continued on the 12th Decr., and of the 31 of the same Month, have been duly received, as were the two of preceding dates written on your arrival at Nantz and L’Orient. We are anxious to know the result of your communications with the French Government on the subject of restitutions, both as to the rules by which they are to be settled, and the prospect of their...
14From James Madison to Robert R. Livingston, 26 March 1802 (Madison Papers)
My last was of the 16th. instant to which I have nothing new to add on American claims, but to repeat our anxiety to learn the result of your proceedings on that subject. I have received yours of Jany 13th. with the papers to which it refers. The copy of the Treaty between France and Spain has been republished as you will find in the National Intelligencer of this City, from a Paris Gazette....
15From James Madison to Robert R. Livingston, 9 April 1802 (Madison Papers)
Mr. Latil a Frenchman by birth, but a Citizen of the U. States for near 20 years past, being about making a visit to his native Country, is desirous of being known to you. I have reason to believe that he possesses sufficient respectability and merit to entitle him to your civilities, and I therefore readily ask the favor of them in his behalf. I do it the more so as he has generally resided...
16From James Madison to Robert R. Livingston, 1 May 1802 (Madison Papers)
My last of which a duplicate is now sent, was of the twenty sixth day of March. I have since received yours not then acknowledged including the Dispatch of Feby 26 which came to hand two days ago. The conduct of the French Government in paying so little attention to its obligations under the Treaty, in neglecting its debts to our citizens, in giving no answers to your complaints and...
17From James Madison to Robert R. Livingston, 1 May 1802 (Madison Papers)
You will receive by Mr. Dupont herewith a public letter on th⟨ose⟩ subjects most important in your hands. You will receive at the same time a private letter from the President in which he refers for fuller communications than he gives on the subject of Louisiana & the Floridas. I have thought it best however not to go as far into certain views of the subject as he has done, because they are in...
18From James Madison to Robert R. Livingston, 7 May 1802 (Madison Papers)
The inclosed extract of a letter from Mr. Lear to Le Clerc the General in Chief at St. Domingo and of another from the latter to him, will explain an outrage against two respectable American Citizens, one of them lately an Officer in our Navy, which excites no less astonishment as a wanton departure from just principles than indignation as an insult to the United States. I inclose also the...
19From James Madison to Robert R. Livingston, 6 June 1802 (Abstract) (Madison Papers)
6 June 1802, Department of State. Introduces the bearer, Captain Johnson, who goes to Paris to prosecute the claim of Mr. Dunlap, an Alexandria merchant, against France. Letterbook copy ( DNA : RG 59, IM , vol. 6). 1 p.
20From James Madison to Robert R. Livingston, 6 July 1802 (Madison Papers)
I have been lately furnished by Capt. Rodgers and Davidson, with their respective narratives of the outrageous treatment which they suffered from the French Administration at St. Domingo. These documents are now forwarded to you, and will enable you to press the subject on the French Government with the advantage to be derived from an accurate knowledge of its details. The insulting cruelties...
21From James Madison to Robert R. Livingston, 15 October 1802 (Madison Papers)
On my return from Virginia after an absence of two Months, I found here your letter of July 30th. Those of May 10. 12. 20. 28 June 8th & July 3d had been previously received. The zeal and energy with which you are urging on the French Government a fair construction and fulfilment of the Convention, and a discharge of all our just demands, render it unnecessary to repeat to you our anxiety that...
22From James Madison to Robert R. Livingston, [17] December 1802 (Madison Papers)
I am induced by the very favorable information given me of the promising merits of Mr. Cabell, the young gentleman who will hand you this, to ask the favor of your friendly attentions to him. He visits France I understand partly on account of his health, but with a laudable view also to the advantage of his mind. On the supposition that he will proceed with little delay from Bourdeaux the port...
23From James Madison to Robert R. Livingston, 18 January 1803 (Madison Papers)
My letters of Decr. 23d. and Jany. 3d. communicated the information which had been received at those dates, relating to the violation at New Orleans of our treaty with Spain; together with what had then passed between the House of Representatives and the Executive on the subject. I now enclose a subsequent resolution of that Branch of the Legislature. Such of the debates connected with it, as...
24From James Madison to Robert R. Livingston, 7 February 1803 (Madison Papers)
I have the honor to inclose copies of a communication made to me by the Senat⟨ors⟩ from Massachusetts and of an order of the House of Representatives of the United States whence it appears that the authorities of the Island of Guadaloupe have, in two instances, forced obnoxious people of colour on board of our vessels, to be transported hither. A Bill is now depending before Congress, relative...
25From James Madison to Robert R. Livingston, 23 February 1803 (Madison Papers)
Since my last which was of the 18th day of January, I have received your several letters of the 11th and 14th November, 1802. As you will receive this from the hands of Mr. Monroe, I refer to him for full information relative to our internal affairs generally, and in particular to the violation of our right of deposit at New Orleans, with the impressions and proceedings which have resulted...
26From James Madison to Robert R. Livingston and James Monroe, 2 March 1803 (Madison Papers)
You will herewith receive a Commission and letters of Credence, one of you as Minister Plenipotentiary, the other as Minister Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, to treat with the Government of the French Republic, on the Subject of the Mississipi, and the Territories Eastward thereof, and without the limits of the United States. The object in view is to procure by just and satisfactory...
27From James Madison to Robert R. Livingston, 12 April 1803 (Madison Papers)
I have the honor to enclose you an application from Col. Leven Powell of Virginia, relative to a claim he makes upon the French Government for losses sustained by him about the year 1792. by reason of the stoppage, by French authority, of the Mail in which some bills of exchange in which he had an interest were passing to England; the same bills having been afterwards depreciated and paid to...
28From James Madison to Robert R. Livingston and James Monroe, 18 April 1803 (Madison Papers)
The reasonable and friendly views with which you have been instructed by the President to enter into negociations with the French Government justify him in expecting from them an issue favorable to the tranquillity and to the useful relations between the two Countries. It is not forgotten however that these views, instead of being reciprocal, may find, on the part of France, a temper adverse...
29From James Madison to Robert R. Livingston, 5 May 1803 (Madison Papers)
Inclosed herewith is a Blank Commission for the Consulate at Antwerp, vacated by the translation of Mr. Barnett to Havre de Grace. The President wishes the Blank to be filled with the name of Daniel Strobel if that gentleman chuses to accept the appointment; and in case of his declining it, with the name of Jacob Ridgway. The latter is established at Antwerp, and so I believe is the former....
30From James Madison to Robert R. Livingston, 25 May 1803 (Madison Papers)
Your several letters of March 3. 11. 18 & 24th with their inclosures have been duly received, as has been that of March 12th to the President. According to the request in this last, I now acknowledge also, or perhaps repeat the acknowledgment of the two papers inclosed, the one in your letter of Feby 26, the other in that of Augt. 10th. 1802. The assurances given by the Chief Consul on the...