To Thomas Jefferson from Albert Gallatin, 15 March 1804
From Albert Gallatin
15 March 1804
Dear Sir
Conversing with Mr Madison on the subject of Mobile, and of our regulations respecting the Mississippi, he seemed to apprehend some difficulty in justifying our conduct or rather instructions to impartial men. If upon a full consideration of the subject that difficulty shall be obvious, it would follow that we have not taken solid ground. That question you must decide; and I write only to express a wish that you will1 examine it as if it had not yet been decided. For, should you, upon the whole, think it best not to persevere in some one of the rules we had adopted, and especially in that which forbids Spanish vessels ascending the Mississippi to Baton rouge, I will undertake to relieve the Executive from any apparent fluctuation, by writing to Trist, that the President upon full2 consideration of the instructions, which I had given to the Collector, has directed me to alter so much thereof &c—
Respectfully Your obedt. Servt.
Albert Gallatin
RC (DLC); at foot of text: “The President of the United States”; endorsed by TJ as received from the Treasury Department on 15 Mch. and “Spanish vessels in Misipi” and so recorded in SJL.
subject of mobile: for the act authorizing the president to create a collection district for the region around Mobile Bay, see Gallatin to TJ, 14 Feb. 1804, and , 2:251-4. In a heated letter to the secretary of state written on 7 Mch., Carlos Martínez de Irujo angrily condemned the authorization as an unjust attempt by the United States to usurp Spanish sovereignty over West Florida. Irujo demanded the revocation of the offending section of the act, “or at least that part of it which so manifestly violates the rights of His Catholic Majesty” (, 6:548, 549n, 557-63; Madison to TJ, 24 Apr.).
rules we had adopted: see Gallatin to TJ, 25 Feb.
Writing to Hore Browse trist on 19 Mch., Gallatin informed the collector that under the president’s direction, he was rescinding the rule that prohibited Spanish vessels bound for Baton Rouge or other Spanish ports from proceeding beyond New Orleans. Gallatin instructed Trist to consider Baton Rouge and other settlements yet possessed by Spain as foreign ports “whether on the Mississippi, the Iberville, the lakes, or the sea-coast.” Vessels with manifests for one of the Spanish ports could proceed without paying duties, but Gallatin proposed that an inspector be placed on board each ship until it reached its destination. To prevent smuggling, the Treasury secretary also directed Trist to place inspectors at the Iberville River and Fort Adams and, if necessary, to station a “barge or boat near the Iberville to watch and examine boats coming down the river” (RC in DNA: RG 36, LR, New Orleans).
1. Word written over “may.”
2. Word written over “due.”