To James Madison from Joel Barlow, 26 July 1806
From Joel Barlow
Newyork 26 July 1806.
Dear Sir
Mr. Lee, supposing me at Washington, has addressed to me the enclosed papers, to lay before you. They will explain the demand of two French Merchants of Bordeaux for a certain sum said to have been deposited for them under the control of our government, and the documents in your office may decide whether their claim is well founded or not.
I would thank you for an answer at your convenience, that I may communicate the result to Mr. Lee for the information of the parties.
Mrs. Barlow’s ill health has bro’t me to the northward of Philadelphia, to which place I hope to return, after the summer heats, in pursuance of the object that brought me there.1 With great respect Dear Sir your obt. Sert.
Joel Barlow
RC (DNA: RG 59, ML). Enclosures not found.
1. Barlow and his wife, Ruth Baldwin Barlow, moved to Philadelphia from Washington, D.C., in order to see that Barlow’s epic poem, the Columbiad, was published in an appropriately handsome edition. It appeared in November 1807 (Woodress, A Yankee’s Odyssey, 240, 245–47).