To James Madison from Anthony Merry, 16 December 1805 (Abstract)
From Anthony Merry, 16 December 1805 (Abstract)
§ From Anthony Merry. 16 December 1805, Washington. “Having transmitted to the Commander in Chief of His Majestys Ships on the Halifax Station Copies of the Documents which accompanied your Letter to me of the 14th. October respecting the Impressment of Daniel Talmage, an American Citizen, who was supposed to have been impressed by His Majesty’s Ship Cleopatra, I have the Honor, Sir, to acquaint you that I have received an Answer from the Commander in Chief, in which he states that no such Man has ever appeared on board the Cleopatra, but that should he be on board any other Ship under his Command that was then at Sea, he would order him to be discharged.”
RC (DNA: RG 59, NFL, Great Britain, vol. 3). 2 pp.; in a clerk’s hand, signed by Merry.
1. On 17 Dec. 1805 JM replied: “I have the Honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 16th Inst in relation to Daniel Talmage, the Impressed American seaman, concerning whom I wrote to you on the 14th October last; and to inform you that I have just received Intelligence of this man’s being detained on board of His Britannic Majesty’s Ship of War, the Hawk, on the Halifax station. I have, therefore, to request that you will be pleased to communicate this Circumstance to the Commander in Chief of the Ships on that station” (DNA: RG 59, Notes to Foreign Ministers and Consuls, vol. 1; 1 p.; marked “(Office Copy)”).