To James Madison from Louis-Marie Turreau, 20 January 1807
From Louis-Marie Turreau
A Washington le 20. Janvier 1807
Monsieur,
Des rapports officiels m’annoncent l’avenement & le Chargement dans le port de Newyork de deux Bâtimens destinés, dit:on, pour la partie révoltée de St. Domingue. L’un est la goëlette Louisa & l’autre le Navire l’Empereur appartenant à la Compagnie Ogden.
Sans doute la destination de ces Bâtiments Sera masquée & Sous ce rapport, Monsieur, ils doivent fixer l’attention de vos employés aux Douanes. Mais c’est Surtout à l’égard de l’Armement que j’ai cru devoir vous prévenir de cet évènement. Les armements n’ont ordinairement lieu que pour les Voyages de l’Inde, et il est toujours aisé de S’assurer par la Nature de la Cargaison Si un Batiment Á vraiment cette destination. Vous jugerez d’ailleurs, Monsieur, que le nom d’Ogden et celui d’un de Ses Navires déjà Signalé par Ses courses à St. Domingue, doivent naturellement donner de l’inquiétude.1 Je vous prie d’Agréer Monsieur une nouvelle assurance de ma haute Considération.
Turreau
CONDENSED TRANSLATION
Official reports announce to Turreau the arrival and the loading in the port of New York of two ships bound, it is said, for the part of Hispaniola in revolt. One is the schooner Louisa & the other the ship The Emperor belonging to the Ogden Company.
Doubtless the destination of these ships will be masked & in that respect, they should draw the attention of U.S. employees in customs. But it is especially on account of the armament that Turreau thought it necessary to inform JM of this event. Armaments are generally only made for voyages to India, and it is always easy to ascertain, by the nature of the cargo, whether a ship really has that destination. Besides, JM will judge that the name of Ogden and that of one of his ships already known for its runs to Hispaniola must naturally cause concern.
RC (DNA: RG 59, NFL, France, vol. 2–3). In a clerk’s hand, signed by Turreau; docketed by Wagner.
1. In April 1806, a grand jury indicted Samuel G. Ogden for providing Francisco de Miranda with the vessel Leander and munitions to fight against the Spanish government in Venezuela. The Leander sailed to Haiti to prepare for the expedition. Ogden was acquitted in a trial during the summer of 1806 (Thomas Lloyd, The Trials of William S. Smith, and Samuel G. Ogden, for Misdemeanours, Had in the Circuit Court of the United States for the New-York District, in July, 1806 [New York, 1807; Shaw and Shoemaker 13743], vii–viii, 287; Lindsay Schakenbach,“Schemers, Dreamers, and a Revolutionary Foreign Policy: New York City in the Era of Second Independence, 1805–1815,” New York History 94 [2013]: 268, 272).