Lewis Le Couteulx (coutould), a French native who became an American citizen in 1789 and settled in New York, had been arrested in Niagara on his way to Detroit in 1798. Unjustly imprisoned in Quebec as an enemy alien and natural-born subject of a nation at war with Great Britain, Le Couteulx was eventually released and received Madison’s assistance in obtaining British compensation for losses due to imprisonment (Madison, Papers, Sec. of State Ser., 2:213; 5:1-2, 11).

A memorial of 20 Mch. 1803, signed by certain inhabitants of Detroit, supporting the creation of an independent Michigan territory separate from Indiana was introduced in the Senate on 21 Oct. 1803. Detroit petitioners also submitted a similar request to Congress dated 1 Sep. 1803. The act for division of the territory, which would mandate the appointment of a governor, was not approved until early 1805 (Terr. Papers description begins Clarence E. Carter and John Porter Bloom, eds., The Territorial Papers of the United States, Washington, D.C., 1934-75, 28 vols. description ends , 7:99-106, 118-23).

For Sayre’s past applications for government patronage and claims for compensation for Revolutionary War services, see Madison, Papers, Sec. of State Ser., 1:186-7, 226, 284-7; 2:190-1. Sayre’s petition came before the Senate again on 2 Feb. 1803. He had the printed case, along with accompanying papers, issued as a 21-page pamphlet later that year (ASP description begins American State Papers: Documents, Legislative and Executive, of the Congress of the United States, Washington, D.C., 1832-61, 38 vols. description ends , Claims, 1:81-3, 123-4, 223-6; Annals description begins Annals of the Congress of the United States: The Debates and Proceedings in the Congress of the United States … Compiled from Authentic Materials, Washington, D.C., Gales & Seaton, 1834-56, 42 vols. All editions are undependable and pagination varies from one printing to another. The first two volumes of the set cited here have “Compiled … by Joseph Gales, Senior” on the title page and bear the caption “Gales & Seatons History” on verso and “of Debates in Congress” on recto pages. The remaining volumes bear the caption “History of Congress” on both recto and verso pages. Those using the first two volumes with the latter caption will need to employ the date of the debate or the indexes of debates and speakers. description ends , 12:51; Vol. 35:416-17).