To James Madison from Jonathan Roberts, 29 September 1814
From Jonathan Roberts
Senate Chamber Sept 29th 1814
Dear Sir
It is with unfeigned reluctance that I intrude a moment on your time & that reluctance is no way diminished by the matter I have to communicate. Mr. Gemmill of the Penna. Senate informs me that Mr Charles Biddle was without solicitation appointed to sign Treasury notes in whose place Mr Clarke has now been substituted.1 My respect & esteem for these gentlemen is precisely equal. Mr Biddle it is true has the character of a federalist & he gives lustre to that character. Before the war he communicated to me his opinion of its inevitable necessity if England persisted in her injuries & aggressions & that he had one son in the navy & two more ready to enter the army ready to assert their countrys rights. They eventually did go into service where one has fallen & the other earnd a just reputation. The character of no officer in the Navy stands fairer than Capt Biddle’s.
If there were any way to heel the feelings of this truly venerable gentn by a mark of executive confidence it is due to him & his excellent sons & would gratify all who know him & none more than Your very humble sert
Jonathan Roberts
RC (DLC). Docketed by JM.
1. Charles Biddle (1745–1821), a native of Philadelphia, was a sea captain before being elected to the Pennsylvania executive council in 1783. He subsequently served as vice president of the council, prothonotary of the Philadelphia County court of common pleas, and as a Pennsylvania state senator. JM appointed him to sign Treasury notes under “An Act to authorize the issuing of Treasury Notes,” 30 June 1812. Adopted in order to raise funds for the war effort, the measure provided for the appointment of two persons to sign each note “in behalf of the United States,” each of whom would be compensated at the rate of $1.25 for every hundred notes signed. Biddle later recalled that he had signed as many as eighteen hundred in a day. An effort was made to remove him from his Pennsylvania senate seat for having accepted this federal appointment, but it was successfully opposed by his fellow state senator John Gemmill. Biddle continued to sign Treasury notes in 1813, but those issued in the two following years were signed by Samuel Clarke and others (Charles Biddle, Autobiography of Charles Biddle, Vice-President of the Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania [Philadelphia, 1883], 1, 37, 188–92, 198, 248, 329–30, 340–42, 359; 2:766–67; Arthur L. Friedberg and Ira S. Friedberg, Paper Money of the United States: A Complete Illustrated Guide with Valuations, 19th ed. [Clifton, N.J., 2010], 31–33).