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Washington
6 June 1825
Sir:
Mr Key must have misunderstood my meaning, in my observation to him relatively to the employment of slaves on board of our national ships. I intended to convey to him the idea, not that there was any law or rule prohibiting their employment, but that the practice of the service, as I thought, discountenanced their employment. In this I believe I am correct: for, altho' they are sometimes employed as servants to officers to whom they belong, they are all entered on the muster & pay rolls of the ships, as free persons are, & are never, I believe, marked as slaves.
I am very respy sir, yr mo. ob. servt.
Ch. W. Goldsborough
Richd. S. Coxe esqr
Negro James Hutton
v
Wm J. Belt
on petition for freedom
Richd S. Coxe esq