To James Madison from William Lee, 8 March 1806 (Abstract)
From William Lee, 8 March 1806 (Abstract)
§ From William Lee. 8 March 1806, Bordeaux. “I have thought it my duty to transmit to you, the enclosed extracts,1 of the arrangements made with my partner, and Creditors, to shew to the Administration that I have surmounted all the difficulties, & distresses, which th[e] stoppage of my mercantile house occasioned. The closing of this painful affair, and the present embarrassments of some of my Countrymen, who from interested motives have been particularly active against me, will I trust put an end to all those intrigues, which I have had to combat with.
“Permit me Sir, to return you my thanks for the kind support you have afforded me.”
RC and enclosures (DNA: RG 59, CD, Bordeaux, vol. 2). RC 1 p.; docketed by Wagner. For enclosures, see n. 1.
1. The enclosures (7 pp.; docketed by Wagner) are (1) a translated extract of a 7 Jan. 1806 agreement between Frederick Perrot and William Lee in which Perrot agreed to assume the obligation to pay all the remaining privileged creditors of the bankrupt firm of Perrot and Lee as well as the stipulated forty percent to the common creditors, making up any difference between what he could collect from their debtors and what was due to their creditors out of his own funds, never to make any further demands on Lee, and to shelter him from all demands from their creditors; and (2) a printed translation of the 20 Aug. 1804 agreement between Perrot and Lee and their creditors, sanctioned on 13 May 1805 by the tribunal of commerce, listing the terms under which Perrot and Lee agreed to pay their creditors within a period of two years together with a list of privileged and common creditors as well as their “reputed good,” “not certain,” and “considered lost” debtors.