James Madison, fourth President, as Secretary of State

1 page (10 x 7 7/8 in.; 252 x 199 mm), Washington, "Department of State," 25 June 1801, to Israel Whelen at Philadelphia.

Lacking a strong navy to protect its mercantile shipping, the United States submitted for a time to paying tribute to Barbary pirates in order to keep its commercial vessels safe. Madison here discusses with Israel Whelen the loading of the George Washington with stores, including timbers and masts, for a voyage to Algiers.

"Your respective letters of the 19th and 22nd June have come to hand.

"Mr. Marbury will be requested to quicken his shipment. The Duck, which could not be procured at New York, is to be supplied from Boston: and on the 12th of this month the Navy Agent there wrote, that he was only waiting for an opportunity to ship it to you. A few of the masts may be shipped to fill up the loading, as they are an article on which there is less loss than many others which are sent to Algiers. The timber procured by former orders from this Department, and lying at Philadelphia or elsewhere you will consider as under your management. Mr. Humphries can inform you where and what it is."

The George Washington was the first U. S. vessel to enter the Mediterranean while on a similar mission the previous year. In Whelan's letter of 19 June, referenced here by Madison, he had suggested substituting "very excellent" masts for white pine planking that Algerines disliked.

Mr. [William] Marbury, naval agent for the port of Georgetown, would be fired from that position by Thomas Jefferson’s secretary of war a month later, likely adding to the resentment that caused him to file suit over his unfulfilled justice of the peace appointment, leading to the landmark 1803 Supreme Court case Marbury v. Madison.