To Thomas Jefferson from James Madison, 1 April 1805
From James Madison
Washington Apl. 1. 1805
Dear Sir
I find by a letter just recd. from Mr. Tomkins that he declines the appointment lately given him; so that it will be necessary for you to think of another Successor to Judge Hobart. Writing at present without having the letter by me I can not inclose it
A decree of Genl. Ferrand commanding at St. Domingo dated the 5th. of Feby. has just been forwarded from N. York, which transcends every former instance of barbarous misconduct towards neutrals. It subjects to death all persons on board vessels allied as well as neutral, bound to or from ports occupied by the blacks, or found within two leagues of any such port; and the trial in those cases is to be by military commission. The decree is to operate after the 21. of April. Turreau is on an excursion to Baltimore. On his return which will probably be in a day or two: I shall make this atrocious proceeding the subject of a conference with him, and shall urge his interposition immediately with Ferrand. It will of course be a subject of proper representation to the French Govt; but a remedy thro that circuit must not be waited for. Will it be proper for this Dept. to address directly to Ferrand a warning agst. the execution of the decree on Citizens of the U. States? The conversation with Turreau may perhaps decide this question.
With respectful attachment Yrs. truly
James Madison
RC (DLC); at foot of text: “The President”; endorsed by TJ as received from the State Department on 4 Apr. and “Tomkins declines. Ferrand’s decree” and so recorded in SJL.
letter: Daniel Tompkins wrote to Madison on 27 Mch. to turn down TJ’s nomination as U.S. district judge for New York (RC in DNA: RG 59, RD; addressed in Madison’s hand: “The President of the United States Monticello”; endorsed by TJ: “Tomkins Danl. D. declines commn. of judge”).
The decree issued by General Louis Ferrand, commander of the French forces at Santo Domingo, was part of a wider French effort to constrain Haiti’s commercial connections and ultimately to overturn the new nation’s independence. It was directed in particular at merchants based in Curaçao, St. Thomas, and the United States. Madison received a translated copy from merchant John F. Brown in New York, to whom it had been sent by the acting consul in St. Thomas, Owen Ewers. Summary accounts of the decree were current in American newspapers by early April, and a translation circulated by the middle of the month (Julia Gaffield, Haitian Connections in the Atlantic World: Recognition after Revolution [Chapel Hill, 2015], 30-50, 126, 131; , 9:189, 133-4; Baltimore American, and Commercial Daily Advertiser, 1 Apr., 12 Apr.).
conference: Madison wrote to French minister Louis Marie Turreau on 4 Apr. to protest Ferrand’s actions (, 9:210-11).