From James Madison to Nathan Sanford, 21 June 1804
To Nathan Sanford
Department of State June 21. 1804.
Sir.
The Charge des Affaires of France having made the circumstances, detailed in the enclosed extract,1 the subject of an official complaint; considering them in the light of an infraction of the rights of France, I have the honor to transmit the extract to you, and to request that you make enquiry into the truth and particular nature of the facts therein stated, and if in your opinion they constitute an offence subjecting the Captain of the Schooner Union or any other person to legal prosecution, that you commence the same accordingly.2 I am &c.
James Madison.
Letterbook copy (DNA: RG 59, DL, vol. 14).
1. JM no doubt enclosed the extract from the New-York Gazette and General Advertiser that Pichon had sent him on 16 June (see Pichon to JM, 16 June 1804, and n. 1).
2. Nathan Sanford (1777–1838) was a lawyer and leading Jeffersonian Republican who served as U.S. attorney for the district of New York from 1803 to 1815. He was elected to several terms in the New York state legislature and was a U.S. senator, 1815–21 and 1826–31.