1. On 4 Mar. 1812 the Senate had approved a motion proposed by Samuel Smith of Maryland requesting that the president forward such information as he possessed “relative to captures made by the belligerents, since the 1st day of May 1811, of vessels of the United States, bound to or from the Baltic, or within that Sea; particularizing the nation of the captors, the cause assigned for detention, the names of the vessels, masters and owners, and the port to which the vessels, so detained, belonged” (DNA: RG 59, ML; printed in Annals of Congress description begins Debates and Proceedings in the Congress of the United States … (42 vols.; Washington, 1834–56). description ends , 12th Cong., 1st sess., 162).

2. 2. With the exception of paper B—George Erving’s correspondence with Monroe beginning 28 July 1811 and including two folding tables listing American vessels arriving in the Baltic since 14 July 1811 (printed in ASP description begins American State Papers: Documents, Legislative and Executive, of the Congress of the United States … (38 vols.; Washington, 1832–61). description ends , Foreign Relations, 3:557–64)—the enclosed documents are not clearly labeled. In the printed version of the message (see Message from the President of the United States, Transmitting a Report … relative to Captures of Vessels Bound to or from the Baltic … [Washington, 1812; Shaw and Shoemaker description begins R. R. Shaw and R. H. Shoemaker, comps., American Bibliography: A Preliminary Checklist for 1801–1819 (22 vols.; New York, 1958–66). description ends 27230]), paper A is a list of forty-five captured vessels that was forwarded to the State Department by Erving on 12 Feb. 1812 (printed in ASP description begins American State Papers: Documents, Legislative and Executive, of the Congress of the United States … (38 vols.; Washington, 1832–61). description ends , Foreign Relations, 3:565). Paper C consists of reports on the cases of the vessels Julian, Catharine, and Hercules forwarded to the State Department by David Bailie Warden (printed ibid., 3:566–67).