From James Madison to James Monroe and William Pinkney, 6 December 1806
To James Monroe and William Pinkney
Department of State 6 Decr 1806
Sir
The detention of the Leonidas enables me to inclose a copy of the bill suspending the non-importation Act of the last Session; as it was passed by the House of Representatives this day with only five dissenting voices.1
In the object the House is supposed to have been unanimous, the difference of opinion being produced by a disagreement about the time to which the suspension should be limitted. As the bill passed with unusual celerity, it is not improbable that the suspension may be further extended by the Senate, especially as a proposal to suspend till the 30th Decr. next was lost by a Majority of Sixty to forty in the House.2
Inclosed I transmit a copy of the documents referred to in the President’s message respecting the approaches of the Spaniards upon the Orleans Territory,3 and a few printed copies of the special message, recommending a suspension of the non importation law.4 I have the honor to be &ce
James Madison
Letterbook copy (DNA: RG 59, IM, vol. 6); Tr (DNA: RG 46, Executive Proceedings, Foreign Relations, 10B-B1); Tr (DNA: RG 233, President’s Messages, 10A-D1). Enclosures not found, but see nn. 1, 3, and 4.
1. JM referenced the bill to suspend the 18 April 1806 “‘act to prohibit the importation of certain goods, wares, and merchandise,’ and to remit the penalties incurred under the same”; see Journal of the U.S. House of Representatives, 9th Cong., 2d sess., 474–77.
2. On 6 December 1806, prior to suspending the act, the House initially voted sixty-seven to forty-five against extending the measure until 31 December 1807 (ibid., 474).
3. For the correspondence Thomas Jefferson mentioned in his 2 December 1806 annual message, see ASP, Foreign Relations, 2:801–4.
4. For Jefferson’s “special message,” see JM to Monroe and Pinkney, 3 Dec. 1806, and n. 3.