1. The enclosure (3 pp.; attested to by Harry Toulmin) is the 28 Jan. 1806 petition of New Orleans resident William Harvey, owner of the Cato, to the U.S. House of Representatives, stating that he had cleared out from Fort Stoddert for New Orleans with a cargo of cotton; believing that the government had never declared that U.S. citizens should “go out of their way” to pay Spanish duties, that no U.S. diplomat had made public notification of such obligation, and that the United States would never countenance such demands on their vessels passing from one U.S. port to another, he had not passed from the east to the west fork of the Mobile River to the town of Mobile. He added that on the Cato’s arrival at New Orleans, doubting the prudence of passing by the town, he had directed the Cato to stop there on its return trip to Fort Stoddert to pay duties not only on the cargo it then carried but also on the previous cargo, owned by William and John Pierce; that when the ship stopped at Mobile, it and the cargo had been seized; that he had, to no avail, petitioned the Spanish officers in West Florida for redress; that he had lost $1,400; and that since the loss had been sustained within the collection district established by an act of Congress, he asked compensation from the U.S. government that was denied by the Spanish government. For an earlier mention of the Cato, see PJM-SS description begins Robert J. Brugger et al., eds., The Papers of James Madison: Secretary of State Series (11 vols. to date; Charlottesville, Va., 1986–). description ends 10:426. For the 1804 Mobile Act, see ibid., 7:273 n. 1, 284 n. 9, 643. Also filed with the petition is a copy of a 1 Feb. 1806 letter from Harry Toulmin to William Lattimore (3 pp.) transmitting the petition; describing the fears of the local population of a war with Spain; suggesting that a thousand men be sent from Kentucky and Tennessee to make “a bold stroke” to “secure the Floridas,” although it would be difficult to find enough food for them in the region; reporting that troops from Havana were to be divided between Pensacola and Mobile and that the troops previously at those locations were to be sent to Baton Rouge; and noting that beacons had been established on the coast between Mobile and Pensacola to give notice of British privateers.