From James Madison to William C. C. Claiborne, 12 January 1807
To William C. C. Claiborne
Department of State, January 12th. 1807.
Sir.
You will have observed in the Gazette that a Mr. Thomas Power, said to be now residing near New Orleans, was engaged by the Marquis of Carondelet, to carry certain propositions to Kentucky, of a tendency to alienate its inhabitants from the Union.1 As it may be important to establish by proof the part taken by Spain in that affair, it is thought necessary that you should endeavor, by means, which are advisable & promise success to obtain from him, details & authentic proofs, particularly original documents, and for this purpose to incur a reasonable expense if necessary. It may not be useless at the same time to ascertain if possible whether Power is an Agent in the passing events and whether he may not be made instrumental to a disclosure of something important. I am &c.
James Madison.
Letterbook copy (DNA: RG 59, DL, vol. 15).
1. JM probably referred to the 15 December 1806 Lexington Kentucky Gazette and General Advertiser, which included a deposition by Harry Innes, a federal judge implicated in a plot to deliver the western United States to Spain. Innes stated that in 1797, Power had brought correspondence from Francisco Luis Héctor, Baron de Carondelet, the Spanish governor of West Florida from 1791 to 1797, to Kentucky judge Benjamin Sebastian. Sebastian showed it to Innes, and the two agreed “that it was a dangerous project, and ought not to be countenanced” because Kentucky residents had secured access to the Mississippi River through Pinckney’s Treaty (1795).