James Madison Papers

To James Madison from George Barnewall, 6 September 1804 (Abstract)

§ From George Barnewall

6 September 1804, New York. “The Sufferings of innocent individuals induce me to the liberty I now take, of submitting the following statement to your consideration.

“In the Month of June last, I dispatched the ship Hopewell, Preserved Sisson Master, and the Brig Rockland Akens, Master, with suitable Cargoes, destined for Aux Cayes in the Island of Hispaniola; the former armed for defence with twelve Six pound Cannon and two twelve pounders with small arms &c and a crew of 35 in number besides passengers, the latter with 8 Six pounders small arms &c and a crew of 20 in number besides passengers. Both those vessels were regularly cleared at the Custom House of this District, and sailed on their intended voyage on the 17th of June. In the prosecution of which they were met with and captured by a privateer belonging to individuals of the Island of Guadaloupe whither they were carried and their crews put into Close confinement.

“I beg leave to refer you to the document inclosed for the particulars of the situation in which those unfortunate men are placed.”1

Tr and Tr of enclosure (DLC: Jefferson Papers); Tr and Tr of enclosure (DNA: RG 46, President’s Messages, 8A-E3). First Tr 2 pp. Enclosed in JM to Jefferson, 31 Jan. 1805; printed in ASP description begins American State Papers: Documents, Legislative and Executive, of the Congress of the United States … (38 vols.; Washington, D.C., 1832–61). description ends , Foreign Relations, 2:607. For enclosure, see n. 1.

1. The enclosure is a copy of a letter signed by Preserved Sisson, Mahlon Bennet, and James Ross Jr. to George Barnewall, 26 July 1804 (8 pp.; printed in ASP description begins American State Papers: Documents, Legislative and Executive, of the Congress of the United States … (38 vols.; Washington, D.C., 1832–61). description ends , Foreign Relations, 2:608), describing the 30 June 1804 battle between the Rockland, the Hopewell, and the French privateer Flibustier, Captain Antoine, in which the American vessels were captured and the ships and crews taken to Pointe-à-Pitre, Guadeloupe, where Captain Akens died of his wounds on 22 July. The ships were condemned at Guadeloupe for trading with the rebels at Haiti on the basis of letters carried by passengers and because owner Joseph Lapeyre, a French citizen resident at New York who was notorious for such trade, had given suspicious instructions to the supercargo (Bonnel, La France, les États-Unis et la guerre de course, 193–94, 379, 382).

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    Madison Papers
    Title
    To James Madison from George Barnewall, 6 September 1804 (Abstract)
    Author
    Barnewall, George
    Recipient
    Madison, James
    Date
    6 September 1804

    Reference

    Cite as
    “To James Madison from George Barnewall, 6 September 1804 (Abstract),” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Madison/02-08-02-0021. [Original source: The Papers of James Madison, Secretary of State Series, vol. 8, 1 September 1804 – 31 January 1805 and supplement 1776 – 23 June 1804, ed. Mary A. Hackett, J. C. A. Stagg, Mary Parke Johnson, Anne Mandeville Colony, Angela Kreider, Jeanne Kerr Cross, and Wendy Ellen Perry. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2007, pp. 23–24.]