From James Madison to William Cooke, 16 May 1805
To William Cooke
Department of State, May 16th. 1805.
Sir.
I have successively received the letter you addressed to me on the 24th. Novr.1 accompanied with the documents it referred to, and also your other2 letter of the 28th. March last.
With respect to the decision in the case of Don Cordova and the two Frenchmen, you did right in instituting an appeal, which if it should produce a reversal of the sentence of the Auditor <o>f War, will prepare the way for a claim to restitution <f>or the damages you may have sustained. The translations of the documents have been filed in this Office, and the originals shall be forwarded to the Minister of the United States at Madrid. No fund exists which would admit of being applied to pay for the translations.
I can only add with respect to the proceedings of Don Viguri, in the other case in which you are concerned, that after your exhausting all judicial recourses in Cuba without success, it must in like manner be carried by appeal to Madrid. I am with respect Sir, your Hble: Servt:
James Madison
RC (DNA: RG 76, Preliminary Inventory 177, Spain, Treaty of 1819 [Art. XI] [Spoliation], entry 316, Disallowed Claims, 1821–24, vol. 47); letterbook copy (DNA: RG 59, DL, vol. 14); Tr (DNA: RG 76, Preliminary Inventory 177, Spain, Treaty of 1819 [Art. XI] [Spoliation], entry 316, Disallowed Claims, 1821–24, envelope 62B). RC in a clerk’s hand, signed by JM; damaged by removal of seal. Letterbook copy and Tr addressed to Cooke at Darien, Georgia.
1. No letter of this date has been found. JM may have referred to Cooke’s letter of 20 Nov. 1804 ( 8:308–9).
2. This word inserted interlinearly in the RC by JM.