To James Madison from James Leander Cathcart, 26 July 1806 (Abstract)
From James Leander Cathcart, 26 July 1806 (Abstract)
§ From James Leander Cathcart. 26 July 1806, Boston. “On the 24th. inst. I had the honor to receive your dispatches for the Tunisian Ambassador & on the 25th. the Brig Franklin arrived here; elate with the hope of terminating this disagreeable business & of returning to my family, judge my regret at being under the necessity of forwarding the enclosed:1 I have made use of every persuasive argument in my power to induce the Ambassador to embark quietly but to no purpose, and not conceiving myself authorized to make use of force I have deem’d it expedient to remain here until I receive your instructions: Mohamet Chaoux and the Turks that are in his company have not arrived; neither have I heard from Carlo since I dispatch’d him to Newyork on the 17th. inst.”
RC and enclosure (DNA: RG 59, CD, Tunis, vol. 3). RC 1 p.; docketed by Wagner. For enclosure, see n. 1.
1. Cathcart enclosed a 26 July 1806 letter from Soliman Melimeni to Thomas Jefferson (1 p.; in Cathcart’s hand, signed in Arabic; filed following Cathcart to JM, 10 Aug. 1806), which stated that Melimeni recognized the Franklin as a vessel that his master, the “Bashaw of Tunis,” had acquired in 1803 and thereafter ordered “sold to Christians” at Trieste, and that Melimeni would likely be killed if he returned to Tunis in it. He therefore requested that Jefferson either allow him to stay in the United States until he received answers to the letters he planned to send by the Franklin, have Cathcart charter another small ship to take Melimeni to Tunis, or allow him to charter a vessel himself.