you have been mistaken in supposing he meant to try any experiment on your sensibility. Of this he is acquitted I find by all who had opportunities of observing his selection of characters to be the subjects of his sarcasms. This termination however restores peace of mind and happiness to us all. The young ones indeed would have got over it; but to two persons at least it would have ended but with life. This period might have been long with one; with the other short, but unceasingly bitter. A sincere affection for you personally, a reliance on you for succeeding to cares which age is unfitting me for, sympathies with a beloved survivor, and tender anxieties for those who would have had to embark in the world without guide or protection, would have filled with gloom my remaining time.

God bless you & give you a long life.

TO THE U. S. MINISTER TO SPAIN.1
(JAMES BOWDOIN.)

J. MSS.

July 26, 1806.

DEAR SIR,-I wrote you a long letter on the 10th inst. since which your favor of May 20 has come to hand. By this I perceive, & with the deepest affliction, not only that a misunderstanding has taken place between yourself & Genl. Armstrong, but that it has occasioned a misconstruction of your powers likely to defeat the object of your mission, a mission on the result of which the eyes of all our citizens are anxiously fixed, as that which can alone give them a convenient & certain boundary with the prospect of long peace. The commission sent you is in the precise words (as to it's formal parts) of that under which Messrs. Monroe & C. Pinckney acted at Madrid in the same business; &

1 Endorsed: Not sent.

the same also as that formerly given to Mr. Livingston & Monroe, & the one lately given to Monroe & W. Pinckney. It's purport is indeed joint or several; it's intention that if found together, the ministers shall act jointly, but if the death, sickness or absence of either should happen, then the other should have authority to proceed separately. Never before has this form met with any objections; & never before was it constructed to give to either the power to do a single act relative to it's object, but in conjunction with the other. In the instructions indeed a small variation in form only happened from this circumstance. They were prepared before we were certain that you would be at Paris when they should arrive, and as we had determined no more to address ourselves to Madrid, but thro' the medium of France, where Genl. Armstrong was accredited, the instructions were at first addressed to him singly. When it was afterwards determined to join you in a negotiation, the caption was made to declare that they were common to you both: and the address on the back was joint. This change in the caption & superscription completely changed the effect of every paragraph in the instrns & addressed it's contents to both of you. I cannot see how it could be inferred that these instructions were not to have operation until the authority at Paris shall be ready on the part of Spain? On the contrary they were in operation from the moment they were received, and from that moment neither had a right to take a single step, formal or informal, but with the concurrence of the other. As France had neither right nor interest in the provinces coterminous with Louisiana either on the East or West which were to be the subject of negotiation, she could not become a party to the treaty. No diploma was necessary therefore to be addressed to her formally. The friendly dispositions which dictated our requests of her good offices, would induce her to yield them on being informally satisfied that you had full powers to conclude with Spain. This she would have been by a sight of your full-powers, or of a letter or another less formal manifestation of your authority and on this she would naturally invite Spain to meet us in negotiation at Paris, where her good offices could be rendered to both. This was the course we supposed the business would take. If Genl. Armstrong has written to you "that you are to have nothing to do with the

negotiation until Spanish agents are upon the ground" it is wrong, because you had equal authority with him to take the measures properly necessary to bring them on the ground. No greater authority was given or intended for the one than the other.

I hardly suppose this explanation can reach Paris in time to remedy

I have much higher hopes that gentlemen so selected for the superiority of their characters & understanding will have had so much greatness of mind as to silence their individual passions in the presence of such great public interests, and to have exerted all the powers of their mind to bring them to the result so much desired. This disposition would, of course, be inforced by the consideration that the evil arises at such a distance from us as to admit of no remedy till too late. That private indisposns towd each other should sometimes exist in difft agents of the same govmt is what is to be found in all govmnt. With these the public have no concern, but were these indisposns to prevent them from executing dispassionately & faithfully any public duties which brought them together, would be a ground of serious blame. My estimation of you both must be obvious from my selection of you from the whole body of our country for the discharge of it's highest trusts. My confidence in you has kept me without pain & without a fear that everything would (be) done to accomplish the great object committed to you, which patriotism & talents could affect, and I will not believe yet that'

TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE.
(JAMES MADISON.)

J. MSS.

MONTICELLO, Aug. 8, 06.

DEAR SIR,-Yours of the 4th is received. I think the course which has been taken for sending Mellimeni home is the best; and I concur with you in the expediency of giving no answer to Turreau. Indeed his letter does not seem to call for one. In the present state of our affairs it will certainly be better not to appoint a consul at St. Thomas's. We must not risk great things for small. A consul merely to patronize a commerce which the

laws forbid, would be a measure in opposition to the law, & not for it's execution. I have received an impression from some cause or other that we had a convention with Spain for the mutual surrender of fugitives from justice in cases of murder and forgery: but on examining my collection of the laws here (which however is imperfect) I do not find such an one. If we have such a convention the murderer of his negro must certainly be given up. If we have not, he as certainly cannot. Of this I imagine you can satisfy yourself. If he is to be given up our constitution secures to him a previous trial by jury. He should be regularly indicted for having committed a certain crime within the territories of Spain, and the jury finding him guilty, the judgment of the court should be that he be delivered up to the Spanish authority. The case is of new creation by the convention, and should therefore take the course of analogous cases already known to the law.

The fact mentioned by Govr. Lewis, that the British have a fort on the Isthmus near Carleton or Buck Island is equally unknown & astonishing to me. Certainly we are bound to look into it immediately. The first step to be taken I think is to ascertain the fact, for which purpose I should suppose it best that Genl. Dearborn should send a discreet judicious officer to the place, with orders to do nothing more than to satisfy himself of the fact and report it to him. I think a new marshall should now be appointed for N. York, & will thank you to order a blank commission for this purpose to be forwarded to Mr. Gallatin, as was settled before we parted. I now return you the letters of P. Edwards, Cathcart, Govr. Lewis, Turreau & Govr. Claiborne ; and I inclose to you for your office Mellimenni's letter to me, Brown's with an official report, Jones's petn for a pardon, Govr. Claiborne's & Judge Hall's recommendation in Perryman's case, on which two last, pardons are to be issued; and Phelp's letter to be lodged in the patent office.

I am likely to be detained here a week more before I can set out for Bedford. My absence will be of about 10 days. If you can have my great coat put into the hands of the stage driver as he passes on Wednesday afternoon, I shall get it in time for my journey, and be very thankful to you for the accommodation. My affectionate salutations are tendered to yourself & Mrs. Madison.

TO THE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY.
(ALBERT GALLATIN.)

J. MSS.

MONTICELLO, Aug. 15, 1806.

Yours of the 7th received yesterday; and I have this day enclosed Mr. Sandford's letter to Mr. Madison for perusal and to be forwarded by him to you. The skill and spirit with which Mr. Sandford and Mr. Edwards conducted the prosecution give perfect satisfaction, nor am I dissatisfied with the result. I had no wish to see Smith imprisoned; he has been a man of integrity and honor, led astray by distress. Ogden was too small an insect to excite any feelings. Palpable cause for removal of the marshal has been furnished, for which good though less evident cause existed before, and we have shown our tenderness towards judicial proceedings in delaying his removal till these were ended. We have done our duty, and I have no fear the world will do us justice. All is well therefore.

I approve of the appointment of Thos. Fowler to command the cutter at Savannah, and wish you to direct the commission accordingly. There was a recommendation of a Mr. Newell under favorable circumstances; but that of Fowler is more weighty. Mr. R. S. has had a commission given to Eli Williams as commissioner of the Western road. I am sorry he has gone out of Baltimore for the appointment, and also out of the ranks of Republicanism. It will furnish new matter for clamor. I set out to my possessions in Bedford in a day or two, and shall be absent ten days. This may explain delays in answering your communications, should any occur. The effects of drought are beyond anything known here since 1755. There will not be 10,000 hogsheads of tobacco made in the State. If it should rain plentifully within a week, the corn in rich lands may form nubbings; all the old field corn is past recovery, and will not yield a single ear. This constitutes the bulk of our crop; there will be no fodder. The potatoes are generally dead. Emigration will be great this fall from necessity. Affectionate salutations.