To James Madison from William McKenzie, [ca. October 1815]
From William McKenzie
[ca. October 1815]
The Petition of William McKenzie of Georgetown in the State aforesaid Respectfully sheweth
That your Petitioner was convicted in July last by the Verdict of a Jury under the 69th. sect. of the Collection act, for “buying or concealing certain goods &c. knowing them to be liable to Seizure” &1 and under the said Judgment has been confined in the Common Gaol of Charleston upwards of Three months. Your Petitioner on the 4h. of Sept. last transmitted to the Honorable the Secretary of the Treasury a Petition accompanied with a statement of facts in his case, praying to be released and discharged from confinement, against which the District Attorney has Shown cause, on the ground that the Secretary could have no authority to grant the relief prayed for to all which, for your Excellency’s better information Your Petitioner respectfully solicits your reference; from the silence of the Secretary, your Petitioner is induced to conclude that the reasoning of the District Attorney and the cause shown by him have induced the Secretary to adopt his opinion.2 Your Petitioner with deferrence submits that he has suffered severely for an imprudent act the consequences of which, and the magnitude of the offence were not considered by him. The Vessel and Cargo the subjects of the suit in rem, having been condemned and forfeited to the United States and the penalty of $400. under the 50: sect. of the Col: act.3 having been also sued for and recovered Your Petitioner has thereby been deprived of almost all the little property he owned, it being now reduced to One negro and the remains of a Grocery store, value about $500. Your Petitioner takes the liberty of annexing a Certificate subscribed by the most respectable Citizens of Georgetown.4 and prays that you will take his case into consideration and grant him that relief which the Wisdom of our Government has happily confided to you. And as in duty bound Your Petitioner will ever pray &c.
William McKenzie
RC and enclosure (DNA: RG 59, Petitions for Pardon, no. 307). RC headed “The United States of America—South Carolina District.” In a clerk’s hand, signed by McKenzie. Undated; conjectural date assigned based on internal evidence, the date of the enclosure, and JM’s 28 Oct. 1815 pardon of McKenzie (DNA: RG 59, PPR). For enclosure, see n. 4.
1. McKenzie referred to “An Act to regulate the collection of duties on imports and tonnage,” 2 Mar. 1799 (, 1:627–704). The sixty-ninth section provided that anyone found guilty of knowingly purchasing or hiding smuggled or otherwise fraudulently imported goods would be subject to a penalty of twice the value of the goods (ibid., 677–78).
2. Filed with the RC is an undated memorandum signed by South Carolina district attorney Thomas Parker (1 p.), stating that McKenzie’s “anxiety, not permitting him to wait for the Decision of the Secretary of the Treasury,” he had asked Parker to give any favorable comment he could on McKenzie’s case. Parker wrote that he knew the handwriting of “several of the Subscribers to” the 22 Aug. 1815 note supporting the petition and believed the signatures to be genuine; that McKenzie had “already suffered severely” and had “offered in his petition to the Secretary of the Treasury, to assign to the United States in payment of the last Verdict against him of Two thousand nine hundred and six Dollars all the property of which he is possessed”; and that McKenzie’s imprisonment was “a daily expense to the United States.”
3. The fiftieth section of the Collection Act (see n. 1 above) imposed a $400 fine for unloading a ship without a permit, or unloading in darkness or twilight without a “special license.” Violators were also barred “from holding any office of trust or profit under the United States” for up to seven years; furthermore, not only were the illegally unloaded goods subject to seizure, but if they were worth $400 or more, the ship and all its equipment were forfeit as well (, 1:665).
4. McKenzie enclosed a note dated 22 Aug. 1815 at Georgetown, South Carolina, signed by Richard Shackelford and forty others (2 pp.): “We whose names are hereunto subscribed do Certify that William McKenzie who is confined for violating the Revenue Laws has resided in Georgetown upwards of twelve or fifteen years and during that time his conduct has been that of an honest & peaceable man and we do not know that he has ever violated the Laws but in the Case in which he is now confined.”