The writings of James Madison, comprising his public papers and his private correspondence, including numerous letters and documents now for the first time printed. |
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TO RUFUS KING.
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 | The writings of James Madison, |  |
TO RUFUS KING.[142]
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
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
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.[143]
With very great respect, I have &c.
TO WILSON C. NICHOLAS.[144]
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.[145]
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. Lear[146]
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.
From Mass. Hist. Collections, Seventh Series, vol. i, p. 96. (Coolidge
Collection of Jefferson Papers.)
| The writings of James Madison, | |