1From James Madison to Edward Thornton, 11 May 1801 (Madison Papers)
I have the honour to transmit herewith by direction of the President copies of certain acts of the Executive authority, bearing date in the years 1794 and 1795. These acts resulted from the circumstances which then existed, and from a just solicitude to maintain the laws and the rights of neutrality within the jurisdiction of the United States. The intervention of other circumstances rendered...
2From James Madison to Edward Thornton, 22 May 1801 (Madison Papers)
I have been duly honoured with your letter of the 16th acknowledging mine of the 11th. The disposition which it evinces towards the neutral rights of the United States, and the regulations for guarding them against infraction, justifies all the confidence which had been placed in it. On recurring to the circular letter to the Governors of the States, of which a copy was transmitted to you, I...
3From James Madison to Edward Thornton, 12 June 1801 (Madison Papers)
I have the honour to acknowlege your letter of the 8th inst. on the subject of a Spanish Ship, commissioned with letters of marque and reprisal, which has arrived with a British vessel as her prize in the port of Philadelphia. I have lost no time in laying the case before the President, who has decided, in conformity to principles uniformly entertained by this Government, that the prize should...
4From James Madison to Edward Thornton, 12 July 1801 (Madison Papers)
I have been duly honoured with your letter of the 6th instant. Mine of the 12th of June made you acquainted that orders had issued for the immediate departure of the British prize brought into the port of Philadelphia by a Spanish armed Ship; and that the circumstances of the latter would be enquired into particularly as a guide to any farther steps that might be requisite. Information has...
5From James Madison to Edward Thornton, 21 October 1801 (Madison Papers)
Letter not found. 21 October 1801. Acknowledged in Thornton to JM, 30 Oct. 1801 . Also mentioned in Thornton to Hawkesbury, 25 Nov. 1801 (PRO: Foreign Office, ser. 115, 9:149–50). Repeats the complaints of the American government on the continued detention at Quebec of Lewis Le Couteulx, demands his release, and expresses the expectation that he will receive indemnification for his losses and...
6From James Madison to Edward Thornton, 5 November 1801 (Madison Papers)
Letter not found. 5 November 1801. Acknowledged in Thornton to JM, 11 Nov. 1801 . Informs Thornton the president believes that the Windsor and the Harmony prize cases do not fall within the provisions of the Jay treaty.
7From James Madison to Edward Thornton, 3 July 1802 (Madison Papers)
Your favor of June 30th. found me preparing to fulfill the promise of which it reminds me on the subject of the ship Windsor. The delay has proceeded from other demands which fell on the attention of the attorney General, and from the necessity of some additional enquiries within the Treasury Department. It appears that before the order for the departure of this vessel could be carried into...
8From James Madison to Edward Thornton, 30 July 1802 (Abstract) (Madison Papers)
30 July 1802, Department of State. “I have the honor to enclose a copy of a letter from the District Attorney of Vermont reporting the result of the enquiries he was directed to make on the subject of a communication some time since received from you.” Letterbook copy ( DNA : RG 59, DL , vol. 14). 1 p. For David Fay’s letter, see Levi Lincoln to JM, 6 July 1802 , and nn.
9From Thomas Jefferson to Edward Thornton, 5 November 1802 (Jefferson Papers)
Th: Jefferson asks the favor of Mr. E. Thornton’s company to dinner and chess on Monday next, the 8th. Inst., at half after three. Friday Novr. 5th. 1802. The favor of an answer is requested. RC (Stanley F. Horn, Nashville, Tennessee, 1958); in Meriwether Lewis’s hand.
10From James Madison to Edward Thornton, 9 November 1802 (Madison Papers)
I have been honored with your letter of the 16th. Ulto. stating the refusal of the Collector of Norfolk in Virginia to cause a seaman who had deserted from one [of] His Britannic Majesty’s ships of War to be delivered up on application for the purpose, and requesting that orders for the delivery may be transmitted. It need not be observed to you, Sir, that a delivery in such cases is not...
11From James Madison to Edward Thornton, 3 December 1802 (Madison Papers)
On the intimation given me in your letter of the 25th. of August that the accounts received from the Officers of the United States in the port of Boston on the subject of the repairs necessary to fit the Snow Windsor for sea were impeached in a high degree by additional information you had received from the British Consul, another enquiry was made at Boston. This step was taken from an...
12From James Madison to Edward Thornton, 7 April 1803 (Madison Papers)
I have the honor to enclose duplicate letters from the Navy Department, requesting their Agents in London to pay for the supplies furnished to the ships of War President and Enterprize.——.——.——. It would have given me satisfaction to comply with your wish for an earlier arrangement of this business, but as it depended on another Department, it will readily be perceived that no time has been...
13From James Madison to Edward Thornton, 12 May 1803 (Abstract) (Madison Papers)
12 May 1803, Department of State. “The Secretary of State has the honor to acknowledge the receipt of Mr. Thornton’s letter of the 3rd. inst. and to enclose him a copy of an order given by the Navy Department to its Agents in London, requiring them to pay the account for supplies furnished by His Britannic Majesty’s agent at Malta to the American frigate Boston, and also to liquidate such...
14From James Madison to Edward Thornton, 1 June 1803 (Madison Papers)
The documents annexed explain, at the same time that they attest, a very gross violation of the laws and authority of the United States by the officer commanding the British frigate Boston in boarding by force a French merchant vessel lying within thir protection, and in otherwise ill-treating the master and crew. The frigate proceeded it seems to sea immediately after the transaction....
15From James Madison to Edward Thornton, 8 July 1803 (Madison Papers)
The experience of former years, that the occasional prevalence of the yellow fever in some of the seaports of the United States has sometimes produced abroad apprehensions not justified by the local state and degree of the malady, and with them rigorous precautions of quarantine exercised against our commerce. As it may be in your power by communications to the proper authorities of...
16From James Madison to Edward Thornton, 8 July 1803 (Abstract) (Madison Papers)
8 July 1803, Department of State . “A third vessel being found requisite to complete the conveyance of the stores due to Algiers, I am under the necessity of requesting from you another blank passport of a tenor similar to those lately issued.” Letterbook copy ( DNA : RG 59, DL , vol. 14). 1 p. Identical letters were sent to Louis-André Pichon and Carlos Martínez de Yrujo on this date. Yrujo...
17From James Madison to Edward Thornton, 22 July 1803 (Madison Papers)
I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letters of the 10th. and 12th. instant. Disposed, as the United States, are from principle and duty to observe the most impartial neutrality in the war which it appears has recommenced between Great Britain and France, they have a right to expect that the vexations and irregularities practised against their rights as neutrals, by which the...
18From James Madison to Edward Thornton, 5 August 1803 (Madison Papers)
Information has just been received that Capt. Douglas commanding the British Ship of War Boston, has undertaken to impress two Seamen, from an American Vessel shortly after she had proceeded to sea from the Port of Norfolk. The fact is regularly attested by a deposition of which a copy is inclosed, and from which it appears that one of the seamen is still detained on board the Boston; the...
19From James Madison to Edward Thornton, 27 October 1803 (Madison Papers)
The letters of which copies are enclosed, were received last evening. One of them is from the British Consul General at New York; the other a copy inclosed therein, of a letter to him from Commodore Hood, commander in chief of his Britannic Majesty’s ships of War on a West India station. The letter bears date of the 25th. of July last, and requests that the American Government and Agents of...
20From James Madison to Edward Thornton, 24 November 1803 (Madison Papers)
I have received your letter of the 19th. inst. respecting the claim of Messrs. Crooks. From the enclosed statement it will appear that of £101.17.0, currency of New York, the sum which they demand they have relinquished £31.5.7, and that other £31,16,2, were admitted to be due and payable to Major Rivardi’s order ever since August last. The balance of £38.15.3 has been struck out of the...