LS, one page, 8 x 9.75, January 16, 1809. Letter to Connecticut representative Epaphroditus Champion. In full: “I have the honor to inform you, in answer to your Enquiries, that a statement of the case of the Brig Matilda was sent by this Department some time ago to the Minister Plenipotentiary of the United States at London, with a request to him to have it laid before the Government of Sweden, thro’ its Representative in London, and that this was accordingly done. From information lately received, it appears that the Government of Sweden had determined to suspend its decision on the Case ‘till it should be made acquainted with all the Circumstances of it, in an official Report that was expected from the Island of St. Bartholomew on the subject. When the result is known, it will be communicated to the persons interested in Connecticut.” In very good condition, with intersecting folds, one through a single letter of signature, scattered toning and wrinkling, and some trivial paper loss to blank integral second page.
Madison writes to Epaphroditus Champion, a Federalist congressman from Connecticut. Champion had inquired about a constituent’s interest in the Brig Matilda, an American vessel seized by Swedish authorities on the island of St. Bartholomew in 1799 during the Quasi-War with France. Angry at America's refusal to pay its war debt and its conciliatory treaties with England, France began seizing American merchant vessels, and an undeclared war ensued between 1798 and 1800. Ten years after the seizure, the matter of the Brig Matilda remained unresolved. In January 1809, Madison was the president elect but was still serving as Jefferson’s secretary of state, and it was in this capacity that he addressed this matter. During his tenure as secretary, Madison struggled to maintain American neutrality on the waves as wars raged in Europe. A fine letter written just prior to Madison’s inauguration. Pre-certified John Reznikoff/PSA/DNA and RR Auction COA.
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