From James Madison to James Monroe, 28 November 1806
To James Monroe
Washington Novr. 28. 1806.
Dear Sir
This goes by Merry to whom I have communicated the general complection of your last joint dispatch1 and the purpose of the president to recomend a suspension of the commerceal act. The circumstances of return are apparently not a little mortifying to hi[m]. In other respects he does not probably carry with him very kind feelings. What particular color these may give to things cannot be foreknown not any I hope that will check a spirit of conciliation and liberalty in his government.‘Mistres’2 Merry stays behind. This circumstance has3 led some to infer that he expects to come back under an ascendancy of the Grenvilles. This explanation may well be doubted.
He lately mentioned that dispatches from Yrujo had been intercepted and sent to the British4 government. It is very much wished by the president that you could find out their contents or rather procure a copy. It is not improbable that I shall soon have occasion to say more on the subject of this gentleman.
As I send you newspapers, I refer to them for the current articles of information. In the one of this date, you will find the Proclamn. of the P. agst. a military enterprize alledged to be on foot in the W. Country.5 It is certain that preparations & circumstances coincide in some degree with the accounts transmitted from different quarters, that such an enterprize is meditated. It is difficult at the same time to explain it, especially as to the pecuniary means required, without supposing a connection with some external resources; and equally difficult to point to any such that are probable. Another mischief is also on foot in the Westrn: Country. A severance of it from the Atlantic States is espoused by one of its presses; and is known to be a favorable object of some discontented & desperate incendiaries. It is not improbable that the two projects emanate from the same source. There is no ground to suppose however that the general sentiment will countenance either.
We are very anxious to learn the course of your negociations subsequent to the 12 of Sepr. Our last accts. from Paris are not later than Aug. 19. That date furnished nothing from which the event could be in the le[a]st inferred.
Having been nearly two months here, I can give you no particulars of your friends in Virginia. I can say only, that I recollect to have heard of no incidents of a disagreeable kind.6 Mrs. M. joins in affect. respects to Mrs. Monroe & Miss Eliza. I remain Dear Sir sincerely Yr. friend & sert
James Madison
Be so good as to have the newspapers sent more frequently when oppys. offer—and to add to them whatever polit. publications it may be useful for us to see, especially such as have any relation to America.
RC (DLC); letterpress copy of RC (DLC: Rives Collection, Madison Papers); FC (DLC). RC docketed and partially interlinearly decoded by Monroe. JM interlinearly decoded the letterpress copy. The FC is written in an unidentified hand without coding. Italicized words are those encoded by JM using a State Department code and decoded here by the editors. For a description and copy of the code, see Weber, United States Diplomatic Codes and Ciphers, 478–89.
2. FC has “Mrs.”
3. FC has “had.”
4. FC has a blank space instead of “British.”
5. JM likely enclosed a copy of the 28 November 1806 National Intelligencer, which printed Thomas Jefferson’s proclamation; see also JM’s Circular to Governors of Western States and Territories, 28 Nov. 1806, and n. 1.
6. FC ends here.