Econlib

The Library

Other Sites

 Front Page arrow Titles (by Subject) arrow TO RUFUS KING. 1 d. of s. mss. instr. - The Writings, vol. 6 (1790-1802)

Return to Title Page for The Writings, vol. 6 (1790-1802)

Search this Title:

Also in the Library:

Subject Area: Political Theory
Topic: The American Revolution and Constitution

TO RUFUS KING. 1 d. of s. mss. instr. - James Madison, The Writings, vol. 6 (1790-1802) [1906]

Edition used:

The Writings of James Madison, comprising his Public Papers and his Private Correspondence, including his numerous letters and documents now for the first time printed, ed. Gaillard Hunt (New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1900). Vol. 6.

Part of: The Writings of James Madison, 9 vols.

About Liberty Fund:

Liberty Fund, Inc. is a private, educational foundation established to encourage the study of the ideal of a society of free and responsible individuals.


TO RUFUS KING.1d. of s. mss. instr.

Department of StateWashington15th June 1801.

Sir:

Your communications by Mr. Sitgreaves on the subject of the proposed conversion of the claims against the United States, under the 6th Article of the Treaty of 1796 into a definite sum, have been duly received and taken into consideration by the President. Although there may be good ground to contest the real justice of the amount of debt which will be assumed by such a stipulation, yet considering all the actual circumstances, which are now to be taken into view; allowing particularly due weight to the advantage of substituting an amicable and final adjustment of the controversy, in place of the apparent improbability of obtaining any proper amendment of the 6th article, and of all the demands embarrassments and uncertainties incident to its present form, before a tribunal composed as is the board of commissioners under it, the President has determined on the expediency of your pursuing into effect the negociation in which you are engaged. It is his express instruction, however, that no encouragement be given to pretensions on the British side, by carrying into the negociation a sum higher than that of six hundred thousand pounds, as mentioned in your No. 6, of the 7th of March last, and that no sum beyond that be finally admitted into the commutation.

It is taken for granted that in case the claims against the United States be liquidated into a net sum, there will be no difficulty in so arranging it as to be applicable to the payment of the indemnification, awarded from time to time, under the seventh article of the Treaty, in favor of our citizens, whose claims according to an estimate of Mr. Samuel Cabot of May 9th 1798, amount to £1,250,000. Such an arrangement must be the less objectionable, as a discharge of the debt by instalments would no doubt be the alternative mode, and it will have the advantage of putting aside all possible inducements to delay the award of indemnifications, with a view to avoid the immediate advances of money necessary to satisfy them.

The President considers it as a matter of course also, that an adjustment of the controversies under the 6th article will be followed by an instant renewal of the proceedings under the seventh article, and by every reasonable exertion for hastening them to a just conclusion.

A number of your letters hitherto received remain to be acknowledged. But the subject of the dispatches by Mr. Sitgreaves has appeared to claim an answer, distinct, and without delay. I cannot but briefly add, however, that we have the mortification to find that notwithstanding all the forbearances and endeavors of the United States, for the establishment of just and friendly relations with Great Britain, accounts continue to arrive from different quarters, of accumulating trespasses on our commerce and neutral rights. This is particularly the case not only with respect to the Bahama Islands, but to Jamaica. Mr. Savage under date of 11th April last, states that “since the 15th January, thirty vessels which appear to be American property have been detained and brought into this port, and from the best information I have been able to obtain from several Masters, their value has been computed by me at the enormous sum of seven hundred and sixteen thousand dollars, some few have been acquitted after being decreed to pay both Relators and Defendants costs, which upon the smallest calculation is never less than fifteen hundred dollars and in some instances three times that sum.”

It will be an agreeable circumstance if the result of your correspondence with the British Ministry shall be found to mitigate these outrages, it being the sincere desire of the United States, and of the government to see every obstacle removed to that entire confidence and harmony and good will between the two countries, which can be firmly established on no other foundations than those of reciprocal justice and respect.1

With very great respect, I have &c.

[1 ]Minister to England Madison assumed office as Secretary of State May 2, 1801.

[1 ]

TO WILSON C. NICHOLAS.2

Washington, July 10, 1801.

My Dear Sir,—

I cannot at so late a day acknowledge your two favors of [blank] without an explanation, which I am sure your goodness will accept as an apology. Having brought with me to this place a very feeble state of health, and finding the mass of business in the department, at all times considerable, swelled to an unusual size by sundry temporary causes, it became absolutely necessary to devote the whole of my time & pen to my public duties, and consequently to suspend my private correspondences altogether, notwithstanding the arrears daily accumulating. To this resolution I have thus far adhered. I must now endeavor to make some atonement for the delay, and your case is among the first that is suggested both by obligation & inclination.

That one of your letters which is confidential has been imparted to no person whatever. The P. O. Genl. continues in the hands of Col. H., who, though not perhaps sufficiently in the views of the administration, is much respected personally, & is warmly espoused politically also by some of the purest and most weighty of our friends.3 It will be difficult to make a satisfactory arrangement for this debt that will not involve transaltions, &c., which will prevent a real vacancy. Besides this, I am inclined to believe that the P. would be afraid to draw on Virga agst competitions which wd. abound from other States. The individual spoken of by you would, as you must be well assured, be perfectly desired as an associate in the public business, on every consideration, unless it be on that of robbing another important station of his services.

Little has occurred which you have not found in the newspapers. The task of removing and appointing officers continues to embarrass the Ex. and agitate particular parts of the Union. The degree, the mode, & the times of performing it are often rendered the more perplexing by the discord of information & counsel received from different persons whose principles & views are the same. In Connecticut the fever & murmur of discontent at the exercise of this power is the greatest. The removal of Goodrich & appt. of a respectable repuln. have produced a remonstrance to the President in the strongest terms that decorum would tolerate. The spirit in that State is so perverse that it must be rectified by a peculiar mixture of energy and delicacy. The Secyship of the Navy is still unfilled, Langdon havg. lately sent his final refusal. The P. has just offered it to Mr. Robt. Smith, who we hope will be prevailed on to take it.

Our news from abroad have not yet decided the fate of Egypt or furnished any sufficient data for calculating it. It is believed the Emperor Alexander will endeavor to keep at peace both with France & G. B., & at the same time not abandon the principle of the Coalition. This can only be done by mutually winking at mutual violations of their respective claims.

It is believed, or rather directly asserted by a consul just returned from St. Domingo, that Toussaint will proclaim in form the independence of that island within 2 or 3 weeks. This event presents many important aspects to the U. S., as well as to other nations, which will not escape your eye. Lear1 had not arrived there when the above person came away. We are impatient for the information which may be expected from him.

You have probably heard the rumour of a cession of Louisiana to France by a late & latent treaty with Spain. The fact is not authenticated, but is extremely probable. If otherwise not probable, it is rendered so by the apparent policy of counteracting the Anglicism suspected in the Atlantic States & the alarm excited by Blount’s affair of some combined project to throw that country into the hands of G. B. The subject engages our attention, and the proceedings deemed most suited to the complexity of the case, and the contrariety of interests & views involved in it, will be pursued. It may be inferred, I think, that if France becomes possessed of this object, her policy will take a shape fitted to the interests and conciliatory to the minds of the Western people. This and the preceding paragraph need not be of promiscuous use. I hope to leave this place within two weeks, or thereabouts, being admonished to hasten it by a late slight attack of bile to which my constn. is peculiarly prone.

[1 ]

TO WILSON C. NICHOLAS.2

Washington, July 10, 1801.

My Dear Sir,—

I cannot at so late a day acknowledge your two favors of [blank] without an explanation, which I am sure your goodness will accept as an apology. Having brought with me to this place a very feeble state of health, and finding the mass of business in the department, at all times considerable, swelled to an unusual size by sundry temporary causes, it became absolutely necessary to devote the whole of my time & pen to my public duties, and consequently to suspend my private correspondences altogether, notwithstanding the arrears daily accumulating. To this resolution I have thus far adhered. I must now endeavor to make some atonement for the delay, and your case is among the first that is suggested both by obligation & inclination.

That one of your letters which is confidential has been imparted to no person whatever. The P. O. Genl. continues in the hands of Col. H., who, though not perhaps sufficiently in the views of the administration, is much respected personally, & is warmly espoused politically also by some of the purest and most weighty of our friends.3 It will be difficult to make a satisfactory arrangement for this debt that will not involve transaltions, &c., which will prevent a real vacancy. Besides this, I am inclined to believe that the P. would be afraid to draw on Virga agst competitions which wd. abound from other States. The individual spoken of by you would, as you must be well assured, be perfectly desired as an associate in the public business, on every consideration, unless it be on that of robbing another important station of his services.

Little has occurred which you have not found in the newspapers. The task of removing and appointing officers continues to embarrass the Ex. and agitate particular parts of the Union. The degree, the mode, & the times of performing it are often rendered the more perplexing by the discord of information & counsel received from different persons whose principles & views are the same. In Connecticut the fever & murmur of discontent at the exercise of this power is the greatest. The removal of Goodrich & appt. of a respectable repuln. have produced a remonstrance to the President in the strongest terms that decorum would tolerate. The spirit in that State is so perverse that it must be rectified by a peculiar mixture of energy and delicacy. The Secyship of the Navy is still unfilled, Langdon havg. lately sent his final refusal. The P. has just offered it to Mr. Robt. Smith, who we hope will be prevailed on to take it.

Our news from abroad have not yet decided the fate of Egypt or furnished any sufficient data for calculating it. It is believed the Emperor Alexander will endeavor to keep at peace both with France & G. B., & at the same time not abandon the principle of the Coalition. This can only be done by mutually winking at mutual violations of their respective claims.

It is believed, or rather directly asserted by a consul just returned from St. Domingo, that Toussaint will proclaim in form the independence of that island within 2 or 3 weeks. This event presents many important aspects to the U. S., as well as to other nations, which will not escape your eye. Lear1 had not arrived there when the above person came away. We are impatient for the information which may be expected from him.

You have probably heard the rumour of a cession of Louisiana to France by a late & latent treaty with Spain. The fact is not authenticated, but is extremely probable. If otherwise not probable, it is rendered so by the apparent policy of counteracting the Anglicism suspected in the Atlantic States & the alarm excited by Blount’s affair of some combined project to throw that country into the hands of G. B. The subject engages our attention, and the proceedings deemed most suited to the complexity of the case, and the contrariety of interests & views involved in it, will be pursued. It may be inferred, I think, that if France becomes possessed of this object, her policy will take a shape fitted to the interests and conciliatory to the minds of the Western people. This and the preceding paragraph need not be of promiscuous use. I hope to leave this place within two weeks, or thereabouts, being admonished to hasten it by a late slight attack of bile to which my constn. is peculiarly prone.

[2 ]From Mass. Hist. Collections, Seventh Series, vol. i, p. 96. (Coolidge Collection of Jefferson Papers.)

[3 ]Joseph Habersham was Postmaster General until the latter part of 1801, when he was succeeded by Gideon Granger of Connecticut.

[1 ]Tobias Lear was on his way to Santo Domingo at the time, having been appointed General Commercial Agent May 11, 1801.