To James Madison from William Jarvis, 12 June 1806 (Abstract)
From William Jarvis, 12 June 1806 (Abstract)
§ From William Jams. 12 June 1806, Lisbon. “The foregoing is a Copy of my last respects by the Schooner Saturn, Captn Turner.1 A day or two after I spoke to the Deputy Consul General relative to the boarding our Vessels. He assured me he would use his utmost endeavours to prevent similar aggressions & would write to Mr Gambier on the subject.
“Five or six days since arrived here the British King’s Brig of War the Richmond, bringing in as prise a Portugueze Merchantman from Spain. This Government conceiving there was no just cause of capture detained both. The Merchantman was then given up & the Brig of War was released.
“Private letters from Porto state, that a Vessel which arrived there from Bahia in the Brazils brings advice that the French Squadron six line of battle ships & four frigates, on board of which was Mr Jerome Bonaparte arrived there in March. An embargo was immediately laid untill they had got what refreshments they wanted and they sailed the 4th April; destination unknown. As several letters from Houses of Credit contain the same information it is not doubted.
“Inclosed I have the pleasure to hand you Copy of an Official letter from His Excellency Mr de Araujo; notifying the death of the Princess of Brazils.2 I waited on His Excellency to condole with him on the occasion & assured him that my Government took such a deep interest in every thing which concerned the Welfare & happiness of His Royal Highness the Prince Regent, that they would much regret the loss of a Princess so nearly allied to him. His Excellency returned me thanks for the treatise on Neutral rights which I sent him, observing it was a subject of great interest to all Neutral powers. Inclosed also goes a copy of my letter which accompanied that production, and which I hope Sir will not be disapproved of.”3
RC, two copies, and enclosures (DNA: RG 59, CD, Lisbon, vol. 3). First RC 3 pp.; docketed by Wagner. Second RC in a clerk’s hand, signed by Jarvis; marked “(Dup).”; docketed by Wagner as received 8 Sept. For enclosures, see nn. 2–3.
1. Jarvis to JM, 26 May 1806, 11:618–19. The Saturn arrived in Boston on 14 July 1806, after a thirty-six-day voyage from Lisbon (Boston Repertory, 15 July 1806).
3. Jarvis’s 6 June 1806 letter to Antonio de Araújo de Azevedo (4 pp.; docketed by Wagner), covering a copy of JM’s Examination of the British Doctrine, Which Subjects to Capture a Neutral Trade, Not Open in Time of Peace (1806), stated that the essay was “written with great ability, & a profound knowledge of the Subject,” and that it proved by citing legal authorities, international treaties, and the “inva⟨r⟩iable usage of Maritime Europe” that the British position was “contrary to every principle of Na⟨tion⟩al Right.” He added that the pamphlet War in Disguise, a defense of the British position written under the auspices of William Pitt the Younger, provided “negative evidence” supporting the Examination’s argument by quoting no legal scholars, because its author knew “that the fair sense of all the impartial Authorities were against him.” For the Examination, see 11:36–157 and nn.; for War in Disguise, see ibid., 10:470, 471 n. 4.