Daily National Intelligencer

CASE OF WILLIAM WHITE,
An American citizen, imprisoned at Buenos Ayres.
To the House of Representatives of the United States.

In conformity with the Resolution of the House of Representatives, of the 24th of February last, I now transmit a Report of the Secretary of State, with extracts and copies of several letters, touching the causes of the imprisonment of William White, an American citizen, at Buenos Ayres.

JAMES MONROE.
Washington, 14th Dec. 1819.

Department of State,
Washington, 14th December, 1819.

The Secretary of State, to whom has been referred a resolution of the House of Representatives of the 24th of February last, requesting the President to cause to be laid before that House, at the next session of Congress, any information which might be in his power, touching the causes of the imprisonment of William White, an American citizen, at Buenos Ayres, has the honor herewith to submit to the President extracts from a communication of Mr. John Graham, together with copies of several letters to and from Mr. W. G. D. Worthington, which contain all the information in possession of this Department upon that subject.

Respectfully submitted.
JOHN QUINCY ADAMS.

Extract from a communication of Mr. Graham, one of the Commissioners to South America, to the Department of State.

"3d. That of Mr. Wm. White. This requires some detail. This gentleman made himself known to Judge Bland, at Montevideo, as an American citizen, and was by him introduced to me. He took an early occasion to state how much he had been injured by the government of Buenos Ayres; that, to his exertions they were indebted for the fleet which gave them Montevideo; that they had refused to pay him the money due him; had thrown him into prison, and ultimately banished him. We, Judge Bland and I, explained to him that this was not a case on which we could act. He came on board the Frigate, remained there all night, in consequence of the wind, and, before he went off, gave me a large parcel of papers in relation to his case. I did not wish to take them, as I did not think it probable that I could make any use of them, for the reason above stated, and because I saw, on opening them, that Mr. Worthington had made an unsuccessful attempt to obtain permission for him to visit Buenos Ayres, to settle his affairs there; the object he seemed then to have in view. He requested me, however, to take them and read them, that they would be interesting as matter of history; and if I found I could do any thing for him, he would be obliged to me. Upon this consideration I took them. I looked over them, and, so far as I understood them, did not find that they presented a case for us to act on."

"Under these circumstances, Mr. White obtained permission from captain Sinclair to come up to Buenos Ayres in the ship's tender, & very unexpectedly presented himself at our lodgings, to ask our aid. We told him that he had embarrassed us exceedingly by coming up in the tender, a vessel which, from respect to us, had been exempted from search, and that an implied pledge, at least, had been given that no violation of the law should be permitted, and that he had now, without consulting us presented himself at our house; that, under such circumstances, we could not interfere in his behalf, or offer him any advice how he should proceed—the alleged object for which he called on us. The only doubt was, whether it was not our duty to state to the government what had taken place. To this, he said, he would have no objection, particularly as his arrival was no longer a secret, and as any consequence would be less injurious to him than going back to Montevideo, without obtaining for his family some relief. We, accordingly, the next day informed the Director of what had taken place. He was evidently very seriously affected when he heard that Mr. White had come up—before he knew what was the object of our communication, remarked that he could not be permitted to land. After a little while he recovered himself, and said that, so far as he was individually concerned, he would have no objection, as White owed him money. He then put it upon the ground of popular indignation; observed that White was exceedingly obnoxious. On my remarking that, as a citizen of the United States, I hoped that justice would be done him as a fellow citizen, he said, that he did not know what he was—he sometimes claimed to be an English subject, and had certainly aided and assisted the British in getting into Buenos Ayres; that he was a notorious smuggler and violator of the laws, &c. White was afterwards arrested, and we left him in prison. There was some reason to think that he preferred being there, at least for the present, to going back to his family without accomplishing his object. He is understood to be a restless intriguer, and had, probably, political objects in view, as connected with his money affairs."

Copy of a letter from the Commissioners to William White, Esq.
Buenos Ayres, May -, 1818.

Sir: Soon after we received the letter which you addressed to us, we sent you a message that we had been told by the Director that you would not be permitted to land, but that you might appoint an attorney to manage any business you had here. We have now to add, that a subsequent communication with the Secretary of State leads us to believe that this determination will not be departed from.

Under these circumstances, we deem it proper to return to you the papers which you sent us for perusal.

Wm. White, Esq.

Copy of a letter from Mr. Worthington to Mr. Adams, dated Baltimore, Dec. 4, 1819.

Sir: On the receipt of your letter of the 30th June last, enclosing a copy of the resolution of the House of Representatives of the U. States, of the 24th February, calling for information on the imprisonment at Buenos Ayres of Mr. White, an American citizen; as I answered you on the 3d July, I immediately wrote to the Rio de la Plata, for full and precise information on the case. I have yet received no answer; and as my letter may have miscarried, or an answer may arrive too late for the ensuing session of Congress, I feel it my duty to afford you all the knowledge I have on the subject, loose and unsatisfactory as it may be. In my letter of the 9th July, 1818, from Santiago de Chili, amongst nineteen packages of different papers forwarded to your department, I sent a duplicate of Wm. P. White's case, marked No. 4,' which package, I presume, was composed of, 1st. a copy of White's letter from Monte Video, of the 29th November, 1817, to me. 2d. My answer to him of the 10th Dec. 1817. 3d. My memorial for him, to His Excellency Mr. Pueyrredon, the Supreme Director of the United Provinces of the Rio de la Plata, of the 13th January, 1818; and, 4th. The answer to me from Mr. Secretary Tagle, of the 23d January, 1818.

From the press of business then before me, I omitted to make a note on the case, as was customary with me. Now, all that I know in addition to what those papers furnish, is simply this: Mr. Tagle's answer was not handed till the very day, nay, a few hours, before I stepped into the coach to cross the Pampas, for Chili, as will be seen by comparing dates with the second part of my diary &c. So, if it had even been expedient and necessary, I had no chance to contest it. I never heard any thing more of Mr. White, (having sent him a copy of Tagle's letter,) till my return in March last to Buenos Ayres, when his son brought me a letter from his father, wishing me to meet him in a boat out in the roads of Buenos Ayres. I requested his son to tell him, I would do no such thing—I had taken leave of the Government, and was just about embarking to the United States: that I had appointed Mr. Strong, consul, and should refer his letter to him, who would no doubt attend to any thing right and proper in his case. I did so, and have sent Mr. Strong a copy of the resolution under consideration, but have not yet heard from him.

White has been in prison at least two or three times at Buenos Ayres, also at Monte Video; and I was told, was put in prison while our commissioners in the Congress, were at Buenos Ayres. So that I know not on what particular imprisonment the resolution wants information.

I was told that he and a certain man named Larea, were once hunted down in Buenos Ayres, by the popular indignation, for being the contrivers or authors of various odious proceedings, speculations, taxations, &c. There is some account given of him in the first volume of Brackenridge's Voyage to South America, page 239.

He is a native of Pittsfield, Massachusetts; said to possess splendid abilities; but, in South America, for these ten or twelve years past, has always been in difficulties, with some short intervals of precarious affluence and shew. My own opinion of him was, that he had so commingled and identified himself with the fiscal and speculative concerns of Buenos Ayres and Monte Video, and certain men there, both natives and foreigners, both in power and out of power, that it was hard to unravel whether he "was a man more sinned against than sinning."

In speaking on his case to the supreme director, Mr. Pueyrredon, he said White was a man without principles. I replied: It is said he is a man of great talents. Pueyrredon answered: That he was a man of showy, but not of solid abilities; that he had been much overrated. I have heard it said, he had claims against some men of weight and influence in Buenos Ayres, and, to get rid of being called to account, or being compelled to pay him, they procured his imprisonments and banishment.

Others say, that his having procured a high duty to be laid on yerba, and then monopolized it, having previously purchased up large quantities, was the cause, under the popular fury, of his being disgraced, imprisoned, banished, &c. A proceeding of this kind on yerba would have the same effect on the people of South America, as a similar proceeding on whiskey in some parts of our country. So you may judge of his imprudence.

When he addressed his complaint to me, I nevertheless determined, noxious as he appeared to be to almost every body, if, on investigating it I found him entitled to redress as an American citizen, to enforce his claim. But I discovered, from the best information that I could procure, by his agencies in the affairs of Buenos Ayres, Montevideo, and countries with which the United States had always been neutral, that he had, in a manner, stepped beyond the line of neutrality in his negociations and speculations, in the struggles of those powers; and if he had not absolutely forfeited, he had at most only a very equivocal claim on the protection and interference of the government of the United States, in his patriot and anti-patriot dilemmas.

Wishing to preserve the influence which I had with the government of Buenos Ayres, for the benefit of our citizens, bona fide and unquestionably entitled to my services, I thought it best not rashly to jeopardize my fair standing by attempting to force Mr. White out of embarrassments of which he assumed to be chief author himself and into similar or worse difficulties his own imprudence would again shortly plunge him. He never was imprisoned when I was in Buenos Ayres. The Commissioners can tell, I suppose, why he was when they were there. I did all for him that I could and ought to have done, both in the manner and the matter. I am sorry that it is not in my power to be as precise in this respect as I could wish. I enclose Mr. White's original letter to me, also Mr. Secretary Tagle's original letter, a translation of which I forwarded, is herein as first mentioned.

Any further information on this, or any other South American subject, will be cheerfully furnished by me.

With the most distinguished consideration, &c.
W. G. D. WORTHINGTON.

Mr. White to Mr. Worthington.
MONTEVIDEO, NOV 29, 1817.

Sir: The accompanying copies of proceedings against me by a political faction, which preceded the government of the ex-director Alvear, in April, 1815, I beg to lay before you; and I do this in the hope that you will not find the investigation of the subjects to which they refer foreign to the commission with which you are charged by the government of our country.

It is unnecessary I should detail reflections on the subject of this process, in order to demonstrate that in it are stamped the features of a despotism rendered more odious as it strikes at the root of individual rights, while it is pretended to be an effort towards the establishment of rational liberty; but I flatter myself with the hope that the present administration will adopt a more liberal policy, and that I shall, under your protection, be restored to the enjoyment of that, and also of the laws of a country, to promote whose independence I have made efforts that were crowned with the most extraordinary success.

This agency, and in which I made so considerable disbursements, was always considered as that of a private character, and myself as a subject of an independent government, having uniformly resisted the idea of seeking the advancement of my fortune and happiness by attaching myself to the interest of any other government, in however small a degree opposed to those of our common country. In a word, I have neither solicited nor received the honors of Argentine citizenship. There are many foreigners and some countrymen now in Buenos Ayres, who were witnesses to the degree of eclat with which I acquitted myself in this agency: and every thing which envy and malice can suggest, with regard to my accounts, must be considered as calumny, until these accounts be dispassionately examined.

From them must result a large balance in my favor; independent of which, I was deprived of property of great value under authority of the government of Buenos Ayres, and without a shadow of process, as far as regards two vessels and stores, which may be estimated at more than 40,000 dollars. I hope for a restitution not less summary; and in whatever case, that you will not consider as incompatible with your public duty, the requiring the recognizance of my rights to the protection of my person and property, conformably to law, during such periods as shall be necessary for me to regulate my accounts with the government and private persons in Buenos Ayres; and that you will honor me with a communication on this subject of my address.

With considerations of profound respect, I have the honor to be, sir, your obedient servant,
WILLIAM P. WHITE.

W. G. D. Worthington, Esq.
Agent, &c. from the government of the U. States of America at Buenos Ayres.

Mr. Worthington to the Supreme Director, Pueyrredon.

To his Excellency Juan Martin de Pueyrredon,
Supreme Director of the United Provinces of the Rio de la Plata:

Sir: Permit me to lay before your excellency the request of William P. White, who claims to be a citizen of the United States. He alleges that his presence and personal attendance are actually necessary to enable him to settle certain commercial transactions which he heretofore had in this city; and that in consequence of a decree, under the government of the Ex Director, Don Ignacio Alvares, he was sent out of the country, and not permitted to return since. He requests that the decree against him may be repealed, and that he may be permitted (as are all other citizens of the United States) to come and reside in the city of Buenos Ayres, in safety, sufficiently long to close those old commercial concerns, &c.

He confidently expects this from the justice of your administration, as may be seen by a copy of his letter to me, of the 29th of November last and, viewing Mr. White simply as any other citizen of the United States, I bring before you this application, under the full persuasion that the most proper order will be taken in the premises.

I have the honor to be, with the most distinguished consideration, &c.
W. G. D. WORTHINGTON.
Buenos Ayres, Jan. 13, 1818.

[TRANSLATION.]
Mr. Tagle to Mr. Worthington.

To Senor Don W. G. D. Worthington, Special Agent of the United States; from the Secretary of State, in the Department of Government.

My distinguished Friend and Sir: I have submitted to the consideration of His Excellency the Supreme Director, your recommendation for the return of William P. White to this capital, from Montevideo; and, on his view of the subject, His Excellency has charged me to manifest to you, that he is extremely sorry that he cannot accede to it, because the political circumstances of this country oppose the return of the said White to it. He was proscribed from these provinces for reasons of the greatest weight; and which, if he should return, would expose him to inconveniences which it might not be in the power of the government to obviate. These considerations deprive His Excellency of the satisfaction which he would have in complying with your wish on this occasion. I avail myself [of it] to protest to you, the consideration with which I am,

de V. S. S. 2S. M. B.
GREGORIO TAGLE.
Buenos Ayres, January 23d, 1818.