I salute you with great consideration and respect.

TH:  JEFFERSON.

[From American State Papers, Finance, Vol.  II, p. 449.]

James Madison, President of the United States of America, to Albert Gallatin, Secretary of the Treasury: 

By virtue of the act entitled “An act authorizing a loan of money for a sum not exceeding the amount of the principal of the public debt reimbursable during the year 1810,” passed on the 1st day of May, 1810, I do hereby authorize and empower you, by yourself or any other person or persons, to borrow on behalf of the United States, of the Bank of the United States, any sum not exceeding in the whole $3,750,000, and to make or cause to be made for that purpose such contract as shall be necessary and for the interest of the said States, pursuant to the act aforesaid; and for so doing this shall be your warrant.

Given under my hand, at Washington, this 28th day of May, A.D. 1810.

JAMES MADISON.

[From Annals of Congress, Thirteenth Congress, Vol.  II, 2544-2545.]

NAVY DEPARTMENT, July 29, 1813.

Commanding Officers of Stations or Vessels of United States Navy: 

The palpable and criminal intercourse held with the enemy’s forces blockading and invading the waters and shores of the United States is, in a military view, an offense of so deep a dye as to call for the vigilant interposition of all the naval officers of the United States.

This intercourse is not only carried on by foreigners, under the specious garb of friendly flags, who convey provisions, water, and succors of all kinds (ostensibly destined for friendly ports, in the face, too, of a declared and rigorous blockade) direct to the fleets and stations of the enemy, with constant intelligence of our naval and military force and preparation and the means of continuing and conducting the invasion, to the greatest possible annoyance of the country, but the same traffic, intercourse, and intelligence is carried on with great subtility and treachery by profligate citizens, who, in vessels ostensibly navigating our own waters from port to port, under cover of night or other circumstances favoring their turpitude, find means to convey succors or intelligence to the enemy and elude the penalty of the law.  This lawless traffic and intercourse is also carried on to a great extent in craft whose capacity exempts them from the regulations of the revenue laws and from the vigilance which vessels of greater capacity attract.

I am therefore commanded by the President of the United States to enjoin and direct all naval commanding officers to exercise the strictest vigilance and to stop and detain all vessels or craft whatsoever proceeding or apparently intending to proceed toward the enemy’s vessels within the waters or hovering about the harbors of the United States, or toward any station occupied by the enemy within the jurisdiction of the United States, from which vessels or craft the enemy might derive succors or intelligence.