RC (DLC); at foot of text: “The President of the United States now at Monticello Milton mail”; endorsed by TJ as received from the Treasury Department on 11 Sep. and “Eugenia” and so recorded in SJL. Tr (same); dated 4 Sep. 1805. Enclosures: (1) Gallatin to Jedediah Huntington, New York, 23 Aug., requesting information on the circumstances regarding the recapture of the Eugenia; in order to establish that the British prize master violated U.S. revenue laws, Gallatin asks for affidavits that describe “with precision” the places where the Eugenia anchored and was recaptured, and also “every subsequent act” of the prize master, the customs inspectors, and the revenue cutter officers to the time that the ship was overtaken and arrested; Gallatin admits the recapture was “irregular” and worries this may be used by the British to justify the recent outrages committed in U.S. waters by their warships; if it could be proven that the prize master “abandoned” the Eugenia, rather than leaving it under compulsion, “it would nearly amount to a justification of every part of the transaction” (Tr in DNA: RG 59, MLR; see also Gallatin to TJ, 20 Aug.). (2) Huntington to Gallatin, New London, 29 Aug., enclosing the requested affidavits; on 7 Aug., Captain John Mansfield sought advice and Huntington referred him to “an able lawyer,” who suggested that the governor of Connecticut could detain the Eugenia since it was within the state’s jurisdiction; after being informed that the governor had ordered the vessel detained, the British prize master cut his cable and made sail; observing this from shore, Mansfield boarded a fishing smack “with 30 or 40 bystanders” and soon overtook and recaptured the Eugenia (Tr in DNA: RG 59, MLR). (3) Affidavit of George House and Nathaniel Saltonstall, master and third mate, respectively, of the revenue cutter Argus, sworn before U.S. district judge Richard Law, 28 Aug.; the Argus followed the Eugenia into New London harbor on the morning of 7 Aug.; House declined to participate in the Eugenia’s recapture, not wishing to implicate himself or the United States; the ship was retaken “about ten miles from the North shore of the sound” and about 14 miles southwest by west from the lighthouse (same). (4) Affidavit of Nathaniel Saltonstall, mate of the revenue cutter Argus, sworn before Law, 28 Aug.; Saltonstall boarded the Eugenia within one-half mile of the lighthouse and received a paper from the prize master, which he found to be instructions from the captain of the British warship Leander to proceed with the Eugenia to Halifax; “this was the first Idea entertain’d by me,” Saltonstall stated, “of this Vessel being a prize captur’d by the british” (same). (5) Affidavit of Ebenezer Goddard, New London customs inspector, sworn before Law, 29 Aug.; on the morning of 7 Aug., Goddard and another inspector, Samuel Whittemore, boarded the Eugenia, which was anchored in New London harbor; Whittemore demanded the manifests from the prize master, who stated that they had already been certified and copied by a revenue cutter officer; Goddard returned to town to report, leaving Whittemore on board the Eugenia; Goddard did not board the Eugenia again until after it had been retaken, after which Goddard never heard the British prize crew express a wish to remain on board, nor any command or intimation by Mansfield, his mate, or any other person that they should leave the ship; the Eugenia anchored approximately northeast of the entrance to New London harbor and east northeast from the lighthouse; it was retaken about 10 miles from the north shore of the sound and about 14 miles southwest from the lighthouse (same). (6) Affidavit of Samuel Whittemore, New London customs inspector, sworn before Law, 29 Aug.; Whittemore repeats much of the same information provided by Goddard’s testimony; he remained on the Eugenia until about four o’clock, when, finding the prize crew preparing to sail, he jumped into a passing boat and returned to New London; while on the Eugenia, the prize master declared that the U.S. government had no right to interfere and he refused to leave the vessel, which would be contrary to his instructions (same). (7) Affidavit of Walter Grace of New London, sworn before Law, 29 Aug.; Grace was among those on board the fishing smack that recaptured the Eugenia; the British captors offered no resistance and complied with Mansfield’s order to go on shore “with seeming chearfulness”; inspector Goddard remained on the smack for some time after Mansfield resumed command of the Eugenia (same).