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THE DISPUTE 
 
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 THE CLASSICAL JOURNAL, No. IX. for March, ««» ^on, 
 tainins Classical, Biblical, and Oriental Litebatcrb. Pr. «., 
 
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 A CHART OF TEN NUMERALS IN TWO HUNDRED 
 TONGUES, with a DESCRIPTIVE ESSAY ', extracted from Nos. 
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 a L^TTEB to the Author on v.e nse of it, from John Hill, Esq. oI 
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 PATRICK, Vicar of Sculcoates, Hnll. Price 3». sewn. 
 
 ^a.,),^^, ^^Ui,.wU^i,j 
 
PREFACE, 
 
 The following letters, being the conse- 
 quence of a previous -onversation, may 
 require some elucidation to the stranger, 
 which was not necessary to the party, to 
 whom they wece immediately addressed. 
 
 The positive opinion of the writer on the 
 impartial conduct of the American govern- 
 ment, 80 contrary to that generally received ; 
 and the particular information that he 
 seemed to have collected on the subject, 
 led to the desire on one hand, and the 
 
vi 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 promise on the other, to place the evidence 
 on which that opinion was founded, in an 
 epistohiry form, to be transmitted a short 
 distance into the country. 
 
 The conversation, however, was not con- 
 fined to the mere question of partiality or 
 impartiality. — It embraced generally the 
 subjects of the documents and information 
 lately received from America : and the 
 following sheets will be found to refer to 
 the various interpretations of the proclama- 
 tion of blockade of the l6th of May, 1806, 
 and the subsequent measures ; as well of 
 the belligerent nations in respect to their 
 edicts and orders in counci], as of the 
 American government adopted thereon. 
 
 They treat also of the condemnation of 
 the Fox, and other American ships sub- 
 
 MKVI 
 
 i 
 
PHEFACE. 
 
 vii 
 
 sequent to the revocation by France of her 
 edicts of Berlin and Milan ; of the arts by 
 which the public mind has been perverted, 
 in respect to the main subjects of dispute 
 between Great Britain and the United 
 States ; and of the hollowness and insince** 
 rity of the pretensions of a desire for the 
 prosperity of the latter. The subject of the 
 impressment of American seamen, and other 
 fibuses complained of by the American 
 government are referred to ; the refusal to 
 ratify the treaty of 1806, reported to be 
 now offered again, is noticed; and tho 
 erroneous pretences, relative to that refu- 
 sal, exposed. The fallacy of the presump- 
 tion of any advantage from a change of 
 administration in America is pointed out; 
 and particularly the fatal consequences, in 
 respect to the friends of England, as well 
 
mm 
 
 vui 
 
 fR£FACiS7 
 
 in Europe as in America^ of the omissioiir 
 to rescind the orders in council, as soon a^^ 
 the French edicts of Berlin and Milan had 
 been revoked. Some of the effects of the 
 orders in council are briefly enumerated, 
 and contrasted ivith certain predictions 
 relating to thcnu 
 
 It will be seen too that the writer has not 
 found it necessary to accommodate his 
 opinions to any party. — Cramped and con- 
 fused must a man always be, who has to 
 defend a particular sect * per fas et nefas' ; 
 or who suffers his opinions> on the abstract 
 merits of the case, to be warped by parti- 
 cular attachment or objection to any indi- 
 vidual. 
 
 ^m~-' .-«»«.■- 
 
 ■PI^BiWil 
 
fh 
 
 Xttttxs 
 
 rUOM A COSMOPOLITE 
 
 TO A 
 
 CLERGYMAN. 
 
 LETTER I. 
 
 I REC y dear Sir, that I have so 
 
 little Ic. iiscuss the subject that we 
 
 were confeii.. ^ upon last evening; neither, 
 had I more time, could I promise myself 
 that advantage from it that your partiality 
 seems to anticipate. Undoubtedly the 
 making converts is very amusing ; and if it 
 tend to maintain peace between two nations, 
 who on every principle ought to be friends, 
 nothing can be more desirable. But the 
 prejudices that have gone forth upon this 
 subject are almost universal, and as invete- 
 rate as they are ill-founded: happy may the 
 man esteem himself that can contribute to 
 the removal of them, but bold and adven- 
 turous must he be that can promise himself 
 
^m^^mmm.^ i a - 
 
 that happiness. I shall seek, iiowcver, to 
 rcrapitulate the items on which we have 
 conversed, for your own entertainment; and 
 if,forwantof time toconipress them,I sliould 
 he led into detail, you will rem'?mber that 
 you have provoked the discus.^ion. 
 
 In the documents from America now 
 before the public, the first object of consi- 
 deration in poiiit of date, perhaps too in 
 point of importance, is the proclamation of 
 His Majesty, issued in the administration 
 of Mr. Fox; to wit, the 16th of May, 1806. 
 For though I can by no means admit that 
 the infringement of neutral rights by one 
 nation justifies the same by another, and 
 cannot but concur with the American 
 Committee in the close analogy between 
 this and the justification of one robber by 
 the rapacity of another, yet as so much has 
 been said respecting the priority of aggres- 
 sion, which each belligerent has charged 
 upon, the other, it cannot fail to be inter- 
 esting to ascertain, as far as possible, who 
 was the first invader. As to date, there is 
 
■ 
 
 no question, iind we liave only to uujulre 
 wlu^thcr this proc'laiuatioa was couronnabJe 
 or contrary to the law of nations. 
 
 The question, as to principle or usage, is 
 much narrowed by the admission, inij)licd 
 in the haters of uie American Secrttajy 
 (whatever may formerly have been the 
 practice of confining blockades to ports 
 and fortresses otljcrwise besieged, and tiie 
 like) that the niodern rule is, tliat a block- 
 ade is legal, wherever a sufficient for 
 
 r/»o 
 
 IS 
 
 employed to make it manifestly dangerous 
 for a vessel to enter or depart from the 
 port. But the difficulty in this case is not 
 confined to the doctrine,— it embraces also 
 the fact; in both are the parties litigant at 
 varianc9 as well as parties at home.— It 
 cannot be denied that there is some oHsrcur- 
 ity in the Proclamation itself. — '« The kin^y 
 has thought fit to direct that the necessary 
 measures should he taken for bbckadino* 
 &'^'"— "And the said coasts, etc. are and 
 must be considered as blockaded."— Does 
 this mean are blockaded, and must be con- 
 
4 
 
 sidei ed blockaded, or does it mean are con- 
 sidered blockaded, and must be considered 
 bkKkaded? Taken abstractedly, I should 
 not doubt it to mean the former, but then 
 comes " save and except the coasts, rivers, 
 and ports from Ostend to the lliver Seine, 
 already in a state of strict and rigorous 
 llockader—V^^h^t then, were the others not 
 so? not already so? xvere the necessary 
 measures yet to be taken? were they after- 
 wards taken, and when were they taken?— 
 Mr. Foster now says (and 1 dare say he 
 has been so instructed by Marciuis Welles- 
 ley, whose perspicacity might have disco- 
 vered the indefensible ground that his col- 
 leagues had taken)-Mr. Foster now says, 
 « thatit was a just and legal blockade, iiccovd' 
 ing to the established law of nations, 
 be'I^ause it was intended to be maintained, 
 and was aduallij maintained by an adequate 
 force, appointed to guard the whole coast, 
 described in the notification, and conse- 
 quently to enforce the blockade."—" Mr. 
 Fox had satisfied himself, by a communi- 
 cation with his Majesty's Board of Admi- 
 
 i 
 
 iMt:j^^/i^am^- 
 
 m-mmtmrnmrnm 
 
 UinflfTMnrki 
 
 irwiMfi«ai3 
 
5 
 
 M 
 
 rally, that the Admiralty possessed the 
 ineans, and zmtld employ them, of watching 
 the v/holc coast from Brest to the Elbe, 
 and of effectually enforcing the blockade." 
 Tlic American Secretary, however, denies 
 the lesalitv of the blockade, and even the 
 fact, at least, by very strong implication.— 
 " That such a naval force was actualhj 
 applied, and continued in the requisite 
 strictness, &c. will not, I presume, be pre- 
 tended,"— " The United States have not, 
 nor can they approve the blockade of an 
 extensive coast." Here the fact is denied 
 of an adequate force having been properly 
 applied, and the right of blockading a 
 v/hole coast, even with such force, is dis- 
 puted. How the former is to be proved, I 
 know not. If the question were, whether 
 such force were ordered, it would be i sub- 
 ject of less difficulty; it might be inferred, 
 indeed, from the correctness of Mr. Fox ; 
 whether it was maintained in the requisite 
 strictness, may possibly be proved; but I 
 doubt the fact. Ships, to effect this, must 
 have proceeded to all the necessary stations. 
 
 ^ 
 
and maintained them in such manner as to 
 make the entry to the different ports mani- 
 festly dangerous. Any ship quitting her 
 position, from the force or the fear of a 
 superior enemy, \vould raise the blockade ; 
 and when we consider the difficulty of 
 maintaining such a blockade in the requi- 
 site strictness ; and that in tlie subsequent 
 order of the 7th of January, the same admi- 
 nistration rested their justification without 
 an actual blockade, on the ground that the 
 Cabotage, or coasting4rade, was not the 
 accustomed trade of the neutral, and conti- 
 nually denied their invasion of neutral 
 rights, or retaliating upon their friends the 
 injuries of their enemies ; we are, I think, 
 intitled to specific proof, befc-e we are 
 satisfied, that the blockade has been so 
 maintained. The notion of the Cabotage 
 not being the accustomed trade of the 
 United States, may not have struck them 
 at first; but when it did, I see no reason 
 why they should not have substituted that 
 doctrine as readily as in the order of the 
 7th of January; and as to the question of 
 
the legality of blockading a whole coast, 1 
 believe it has never yet been settled, and 
 cannot fail to be at least a subject of some 
 difficulty. If on the one hand the belliger- 
 ent have the abstract right to distress his 
 enemy into reasonable terms of peace, I 
 am not aware of any limit to that right, in 
 the shape of blockade, as between him and 
 his enemy; but,, on the other hand, if the 
 .neutral compounds the case, by submitting 
 to the inconvenience of being shut out of 
 his accustomed port, it is always in, the 
 presumption that he will find a market in 
 the ports adjacent: a condition, upon which 
 every extension is an encroachment; but 
 this compromise is very different from being 
 shut out of his trade entirely. I don't 
 mean to settle the point; it strikes me, 
 indeed, that the argument in favor of the 
 neutral is the strongest; but if this be not 
 admitted, it will surely be allowed to be 
 doubtful. 
 
 I mean not to dispute the averment of 
 aie late administration, that, had they 
 
8 
 
 remained in office, every necessary expla- 
 nation would have been given, and every 
 modification agreed on, to satisfy the neu- 
 tral of the compatibility of their measures 
 with the law of nations; but as the best 
 that can be said on the fact as it stands is, 
 that it is doubtful; so — intention out of 
 the question — the priority of aggression 
 must be held at least doubtful. 
 
 But however doubtful the legality of the 
 
 be in fact, 
 
 desirable 
 
 measure ma 
 know the construction of it by the present or 
 Canning Administration. I am greatly mis- 
 taking if we shall not find them, in their zeal 
 to condemn their predecessors, admitting an 
 invasion of the law of nations on their part, 
 which they cannot be allowed to retract in 
 disputing the case abroad. And however 
 variable we may find the government under 
 one administration, and the government 
 under another, ^ve nmst remember that it 
 is the government — the nation — the Prince, 
 to whom alone the foreigner can look for 
 the redress of his wrongs, or the adjustment 
 of any differences that may subsist between 
 
the two countries. If we find the existinf^ 
 administration charging a fault upon their 
 predecessors to the prejudice of the neutral, 
 we find them admitting a fault for which 
 they must atone. If we find them rearing 
 a superstructure upon no better foundation, 
 we find them building their house upon a 
 sand, (knowing it to be such), to be over- 
 thrown in the jarring of the political ele- 
 ments ;--and great will be the fall thereof. 
 It matters not, in this view of the case, 
 whether the blockade of the l6th May, 
 1806, be legal or illegal;— whether it were 
 maintained by an adequate force or not;— 
 whether a whole coast may be legally 
 blockaded or not; — what was the original 
 intention of tie late administration; or how 
 far they were disposed to modify a measure, 
 hastily adopted, in a case of perfect ano- 
 maly.— If the present administration have 
 pronounced it illegal, all dispute on that 
 fact, between the two governments, is at an 
 end. — It must be considered a wrong; and 
 they are as much bound to redress it as if 
 they were the inunediate perpetrators. 
 
10 
 
 What avails it then that tlie late admini- 
 stration have maintained the ground re- 
 sumed by Mr. Foster; if their successors 
 in the present or Canning administra- 
 tion have all along denied it — the late 
 administration was the government — the 
 present administration is the government 
 —the government acknowledges that the 
 government has committed a fault, which 
 the government must therefore redress. 
 — And how then stands the question 
 of retaliation ; for it must be remembered 
 that this proclamation preceded by six 
 months the Berlin decree, and was more 
 than twelve months prior to the perpetra- 
 tion of any act under it infringing the 
 rights of the United States. 
 
 In a future letter I shall consider the 
 evidences of the construction by the present 
 or Canning administration, that result in 
 this conclusion: in the mean time I take no 
 notice of this Proclamation, of May, 1806, 
 being made, by the enemy, in any shape the 
 foundation of the decree of Berlin, the 
 
 >-7-J$t^. ...i,>*ai»,.f?W«'t 
 
 mmmmmm 
 
II 
 
 i 
 
 extravagant terms of which, (especially in 
 Jus averment that tlic whole Navy coidd not 
 carry its provisions into effect) ridiculous 
 in themselves, are not the less false in fact, 
 because he has endeavoured to clothe 
 under a mask of irascibility the deep design 
 
 to destroy the conunerce of the World ; 
 
 the subject we are discussing, let it be 
 remembered, is between England and 
 America ; every notion of a combination in 
 this case having heretofore existed between 
 France and the latter, it will be seen in the 
 sequel, is totally unfounded. 
 
12 
 
 LETTER XL 
 
 Theue is no rose without a thorn, and it 
 is one of the misfortunes of a free govern- 
 iDcnt, that party feuds are not confined in 
 their operation to the correction of abuses. 
 Aware that opposition is a scion of the tree 
 of hberty, I grudge not his happiness to the 
 subject of a country where it does not exist. 
 —Benefit is undoubtedly derived from 
 it ;-— so is mischief: if opposition keep 
 ministers aUve to their duty, or drive them 
 from their seats ;— on tlie other hand it 
 encourages the en'^'^y first to encroach, and 
 then to persevere beyond all reasonable 
 prospect of success. Rulers run riot and 
 the people pay: and, after all, he that 
 flatters hunself,and obligingly offers, to aid 
 
13 
 
 in the doiiiestio quarrels of a nation, gene- 
 rally finds his services dispensed with, and 
 both parties turning upon him; but it is 
 often after they have grievously wounded 
 each other, and thus all are losers and many 
 
 are destroyed. If we perceive this in 
 
 respect to France and Enghuid, we ought 
 not to shut our eyes to it in respect to 
 England and America. If I thouuht 
 however that the agitation of any diversity 
 of opinions at home would have a tendency 
 to extend in any direction the confla- 
 gration, too widely spread already; I for 
 one should certainly be silent on the 
 subject. — If therefore I bring into view the 
 concussions of -inflicting parties at home, 
 it is not without the desire of preventing, if 
 possible, a more important conflict abroad. 
 In the case before us this question of con- 
 'tending parties presents itself to me, at 
 least, m a dress entirely new (for I have 
 promised in my last to consider the evidenc- 
 es of the construction by the pre- 
 sent or Canning administration, of an 
 importaut measure of their predecessors,) 
 
 i\ 
 
14 
 
 and I cannot but fed, that if niv lucubra- 
 tions were to meet the eves of tlie contend- 
 ing parties, I should oH'cnd both witliout 
 the most distant desire of olT«nding either: 
 — such is man. 'J 'here is indeed ii 
 medium (seldom used in political disqui- 
 sitions,) through which they might possibly 
 be seen with different eflcct : and that is 
 precisely the medium recommended by 
 Lord Erskine in a luminous speech on this 
 very subject. " 1 am convinced" (says his 
 Lordship) " that it is not too late to retrace 
 the false steps that have been taken; and 
 if it can be shown by any proceeding direct- 
 ed to such object, that the late ministers 
 have also violated the law of Nations, do 
 not let the one breach of them be justified 
 by the other: speaking for all my colleagues 
 who surround me, as well as for myself, I 
 say, if that case can be established, we must 
 retrace our steps together. Let us concur, 
 
 do I 
 
 -serving 
 
 my Lords, in serving — 
 say I let us concur in saving our country." 
 (Cobbett's Debates Vol. 10. Page 93 L) 
 Adverting to the text, 1 find it more favor- 
 
15 
 
 ■'»>Ic than I had supposed, for here is a conci- 
 liatorj profFor of concurrcce by the o„c 
 party, .., .echessing nny ronsequcnce of 
 their own i.uulvertcncc. as well as the errors 
 
 of the other But however .Icsirable it 
 
 may be to be availed of the spirit here 
 displayed, aiul obtain the ac.juiescence of 
 the late adiuinistration in tlie illegality of 
 their own act, from a deficiency in the 
 application of means to carry their design 
 into execution, or any other cause; we 
 have seen above that this is not necessary, 
 provided we show that their successors have 
 treated it in this light. The evidences of this 
 tact are now to l)e examined. And here it 
 IS a subject of serious regret, ^l.at on refer, 
 ring to the printed debates, I find no report 
 of the particular words of a noble and Jearn 
 ed Lonl. the tenor of which 1 pe. :.ctly well 
 remember to have been repeated at the 
 time; the substan.^e of which I cannot well 
 have mistaken, and which, I believe, I could 
 pronounce verbatim, though not certain- 
 I.V with the emphatic energy and triimnph 
 which were apparent in the manner of the 
 
■M 
 
 16 
 
 noblr! ami learned Lord; who expressed 
 
 his surprise tluit noble Lords (nieanins; the 
 
 opposition) should impeach the legaHty of 
 
 the hue orders in council, who had 
 
 tliemselvcs issued a prochiniation for a 
 
 blockade of such enormous extent, that 
 
 really he could not remendjcr (or he couhl 
 
 liardly rcmeniber) how far it did extend. 
 
 But though that part of the speech of ths 
 
 noble and learned Lord that referred to lljc 
 
 blockade of May 1806 has in/ sorr.e accident 
 
 been omitted to be printed, it cannot fail to 
 
 be remembered : it was surely too important 
 
 both in the matter and in the manner of it 
 
 to escape the notice of any noble liord, or 
 
 ^^ private individual, that happened to hear it. 
 
 yyii>a,g-~ And i.iough it is not given in the printed 
 on^^^^r^ report, the answer to it was not omitted. The 
 following words of Lord Grenville apply 
 directly to the subject, and there is nothing 
 in the speech of the Lord Chancellor as 
 printed to which they can apply : to wit, 
 " the noble and learned Lord had dwelt 
 much upon the blockade of the French 
 ports from the Elbe to Brest, that had 
 
 y 
 
 *s<*»"inwiipyi*'K*fci^ 
 
 .^a:^ 3a^„ -^^J^M .M. 
 
17 
 
 teen proclaimed in the decree issued by the 
 late ministers; but all the conclusions which 
 he attempted to produce from it fell to the 
 ground, when the single fact was stated, 
 that this was not a fictitious, but a real 
 blockade, perfectly conformable to the 
 understood and acknowledged laws of war; 
 and that the publication of the proclama- 
 tion was accom^.nied with directions to tht 
 Admiraltij to carry it into effect. The late mi- 
 nisters in this case, therefore, instead of vio- 
 lating the law of nations on any plea of ne- 
 cessity or convenience, or temporary expedi- 
 ency, had done nothing more than apply 
 tlie principles of this law to the circumstanc- 
 es, under which they were called to act. 
 The noble and learned lord farther contend- 
 ed, that in the preamble of this decree of 
 blockade, the principle of retaliation was 
 set forth: he reminded, however, the noble 
 and learned lord, that this principle was 
 not acted on ; they had merely asserted, 
 that they would have been justified in 
 recurring to it; always understood, that it 
 should be exercised within the law of 
 
 B 
 
18 
 
 n 
 
 nations, and instead of recurring to it, they 
 adopted a measure of quite a different 
 nature. He intreatcd, however, their lord- 
 ships to get out of the eternal circle of 
 Justifying one act by comparing it with 
 another ; to abstain from the petty warfare 
 of crimination and re-crimination, and to 
 canvass the measure, now before them, oa 
 its own individual merits/' (Cobbett vol. 
 10. page 478.) Here is enough to demon- 
 strate beyond all doubt, that the noble 
 and learned lord, in the speech referred to, 
 had attempted the justification of his own 
 administration, not only by the conduct of 
 his predecessors, but by this very act, 
 which on comparing dates is found to pre- 
 cede that invasion of neutral rights by the 
 enemy, which tlie acts of his own admini- 
 stration aliect to retahate ;— that he con- 
 sidered it illegal either in its extent, or its 
 want of force to cairy it into eflect ; other- 
 wise, it could have no resemblance to the 
 present orders, and as it is found to be 
 without the pretence of retaliation, which, 
 ilender as it is, in respect to neutrals, is the 
 
 I 
 
 
 "^«e^ ■'-Me, 
 
 pas|» ; - . mm m ry m'iijf. . 
 
 *, .«* 
 
 tit- 
 
n 
 
 [m 
 
 I 
 
 19 
 
 only prop to these last; his lordship may 
 be fairly said to have pronounced on 
 the Illegality of the former.-That the 
 bull was afterwards found to have brok- 
 en mto his own field, does not alter 
 the case. 
 
 It is not very difficult to perceive, why, 
 in the subsequent debates, the proclama- 
 tion was not specifically referred to : its 
 precedence of the act, against which the 
 present administration were aflfecting to 
 retaliate, made a rigid inquiry into the 
 legality of its execution an inconvenient 
 subject of public discussion on their 
 part. And if the;, did not choose to 
 disturb ,t, it was not hkely to be called 
 from the vasty deep by their predecessors ; 
 who, if they had no difficulty in showing 
 that the requisite force was called for, and 
 even ordered, would, I am persuaded, have 
 tound some in proving that it had been 
 applied ;-but who, if they wished to re- 
 treat from the eternal circle of crimination 
 and re-crimination, had the merit at least 
 
 at 
 
 
20 
 
 (rare merit tor high minds) to offer on this 
 momentous occasion to retrace their steps 
 with their noble friejich. After this— indis- 
 cretion (shall I call it ?) of the noble and 
 learned lord, whose avocations I really wish 
 divided, as beyond the possible compass of 
 any individual, however laborious and 
 skilful; after this vigorous sortie of the 
 cat from the bag, we hear no more, of 
 the blockade of May, 1806.— The order 
 of January, 1807, which took place after 
 the Berlin decree, was now made the 
 solitary mark of crimination above stairs, 
 as it had been, and continued to be, below. 
 This was theresor^of the pettifoggery of 
 special pleading. This was lugged in by 
 the head and shoulders, to the letter of a 
 right honorable secretary to Mr. Pinkney, 
 (which we shall notice presently)' most 
 mal-a-propos for any possible object that 
 a letter to that gentleman ought to 
 contemplate; and only to cast the odium 
 
 * Appendix No. i. 
 
 M-' ' ■ -^Af^j^m^. 
 
U9sffmm' 
 
 n 
 
 of the measure on the preceding ad- 
 ministration. 
 
 Let us now consider how far the authors 
 of the latter orders have improved their 
 defence, by thus shifting their ground; 
 and if we should find that this order 
 of January, 1807> differs from the pre- 
 ceding by an " extension in operation, 
 but not in principle;" surely it will 
 require no powers of logic, still less of 
 magic, to show that the orders of Novem- 
 ber, 1807, have no more foundation, in 
 principle, on the order of January, 1807, 
 than on that of May, 180G. And here it 
 nmst be kept in mind, that it is not in 
 our own construction, but in the stronger 
 case of the construction of tlie present or 
 Canning administration, that we are to seek 
 the similarity. — I say the present or Canning 
 administration, because I know not how far 
 Marquis VVellesley may have adopted the 
 notions of his colleagues on this occasion ;— I 
 incline to the opinion indeed, that whatever 
 may be the sins of omission, with which 
 
22 
 
 we maj find him chargeable, his lordship 
 has too much sagacity to have committed 
 himself to the extent of his neighbours. 
 " An extension in operation, but not in 
 principle,"— to what principle does Mr. 
 Canning here refer?— not to the principle 
 of a real and rigorous blockade, to be sure; 
 this is kept quite out of sight; we hear 
 nothing of it, except in the instance of 
 Lord GrenvilJe's reply to the Lord Chan- 
 cellor above-mentioned, through the whole 
 debates. He affects to consider the in- 
 terdiction of the cabotage, or coasting 
 trade, in the order of January, 1807, as 
 justified on the ground of retaliation 
 only; in the face of the solemn averment 
 of the administration, that issued the act, 
 that it was confined to the operation of 
 the principle of the war of 1756; and 
 thus reasoning on false premises, he 
 calls that an extension in operation, but 
 not in principle, which is in fact an inva- 
 sion of all principle. Lord Grenville tells 
 you above, that in the assertion of the 
 right of recurring to the principle of 
 
 «*'.'. Mk-^tmmim: 
 
 mm 
 
 »-;-.,A.,,.,tt;.*fc.,*,i* 
 
23 
 
 retaliation, by his administration, it was 
 always understood, that it would be exer- 
 cised within the law of nations ; but there is 
 no excuse interposed by any construction of 
 the rule of the war of 1756, or any other 
 rule of the retaliation on the neutral, 
 of the act of the enemy, by depriving him 
 of his direct and accustomed trade between 
 his own ports and .those of the enemy. Un- 
 like as the cases are here, it is evidently 
 under this aspect, that Mr. Canning con- 
 siders the orders alike in principle, and 
 differing only in extent. Now let us 
 see what Lord Hawkesbury says on the 
 subject. 
 
 " The learned Lord (Erskine) had said, 
 that the order of the 7th of Januaiy, 1807, 
 was only a trifling enlargement of the prin- 
 ciple of the war of 1756. But the princi- 
 ple of that war was founded on this, 
 that neutrals should not be allowed, during 
 the war, to possess a trade which they had 
 not enjoyed during peace. Neither France 
 nor Spain allowed neutrals to carry on 
 
24 
 
 their coasting trade during peace, and the 
 principle of the war of 1756 was, that 
 they should not carry it on in time of war. 
 —This a belhgerent had a right, on the 
 broad principle, to resist and refuse. But 
 though neutrals were not allowed to trade 
 between Brest and Bourdeaux, in time of 
 peace, they were not prohibited from 
 trading between Ferrol and Brest, and 
 between the ports of France and Spain. 
 This trade therefore, allowed during peace, 
 they had a right to possess during war, 
 and on the general principle, no belliger- 
 ent had a right, consistently with the law of 
 nations, to take it from them. This, how- 
 ever, the order of the seventh of January 
 did take from them, and unless 'hat order 
 could be defended, on the principles of 
 the law of nations, it was not to be justi- 
 fied at all." (Cobbctt's Debates, vol. 10. 
 page 484.) 
 
 r.-? 
 
 M 
 
 Here then, however erroneous the pre- 
 tence may be, it is most clear, that the 
 
 --*ifei-'«»*9*iit. 
 
'>tmmmmmmm-'''mi,^tmmmm:m'&>- 
 
 25 
 
 affected similarity in principle between 
 the two measures, consists in the interrup- 
 tion of the neutral trade, with a view to 
 retaliate on the enemy. Mere is nothing 
 of blockade which the Lord Chancellor 
 indeed had treated before as a nullity ;— not 
 even the name ;— nothing of Cabotage or 
 accustomed trade, but a general interdict 
 of the whole trade with France and her alhes, 
 and this allowed and declared to be an 
 extension, in operation only, not in princi- 
 ple, of a practice antecedent to the act 
 which called for retaliation. For it will be 
 seen, and it is worthy of particular obser\-- 
 ation, that though the noble secretary 
 refers to the trading between France and 
 Spain, as allowed to neutrals notwithstand-^^f ^^^^:^^ 
 ing the rule of 1756, and^its interrupfei';';;;^""^^ 
 by the order of January, I8O7, X/ a^/; .'^ 
 breach of the law, but for the abstoct ^- 
 principle of retaliation; the same objec- 
 tion lies not less against the interruption 
 of the trade between France and Holland, 
 equally interdicted by the proclamation of 
 Afay, 1806. 
 
 -i^c^ 
 
26 
 
 « My next will take up the judgment 
 of the Court of Admiralty on the Fox 
 and other ships, condemned under the 
 orders in council, since the revocation of the 
 decrees of Berlin and Milan. 
 
 ^';::««ii,;i^k^i<i^' 
 
 MMMMBi 
 
 B^Su^t^SS^^^^^^^ 
 
27 
 
 LETiER nr. 
 
 Befoue I enter on this subject, it will 
 be proper to remind you of the profound 
 respect I have always professed for the 
 character of the learned Judge, whose 
 decision we are now to canvass. For my- 
 self, I consider the predatory system cor- 
 rupt in its v y essence. Deleterious at 
 the fountain, it spreads poison in every 
 stream through which it flows; its prin- 
 ciples, as they are called, are only so many 
 mitigations of lawless plunder ; it is incon- 
 sistent with honorable warfare, if there be 
 such a thing; and one of the meanest in- 
 centives to war of anv character • it 
 
28 
 
 oughi to exist no where, hut least of all, 
 should any property of any sul)ject not 
 directly hostile, be obnoxious to it. li' 
 then I have in argument uniformly de- 
 fended Sir VvjJham Scott, where I have 
 heard him spoken of as being skilled to 
 make the worse appear the better reason, 
 and the like; it has been, because I con- 
 sidered him laboring to fmd the true case, 
 according' In the rules Inj which he was 
 hound; dealing conscientiously within 
 those rules ; and deciding according to the 
 best abilities of a very able, but, of course, 
 an imperfect man. 
 
 I-!:' 
 
 In the case before us it ap[)ears to my 
 .view, that there has been a deficiency on the 
 side of the claimant; — J judge by the deci- 
 sion itself, i'oY 1 have seen none of the plead- 
 ings. "Tlie court has not heard it at all main- 
 tained in argument, that as re/aliafon/ 
 orders, they (the orders in council,) are not 
 conformable to such principles:'* (the prin- 
 ciples of the unwritten ]aw) — now inde- 
 pendently of the retraction of the French 
 
 mww i iiiipMJi i 
 
 
:' all, 
 
 not 
 
 . If 
 
 29 
 
 decrees, which, however uiigi'acious in the 
 ma.ncr of it, was clearly such as made it 
 incumbent on the Preside!'*- to enforce the 
 non-importation law against England, 
 urless she would do the same with her 
 orders in three months; I do say that the 
 orders in council are deprived of their 
 retaliatory character the moment it is 
 made to ap|)rar that the aggression, as far as 
 respects the rights of neutrals, (which each 
 belligerent charges against the other,) was on 
 the side of England. 'Nay, this is not 
 even necessary. I do say that before a 
 property of the value of 832,500 dollars in 
 merchants' ships and innocent goods, 
 within the pale of the law of God, and of 
 the country of the proprietors, should have 
 been sacrificed to an institution of political 
 expediency, it ought to have been proved 
 that all the technical requisites to such 
 perversion existed. — It ought to have 
 been clearly before the court, that this pro- 
 clamation blockade of the sixteenth of 
 May, 1806, was not only capable of being 
 
 Cit^T/~»fr»/3ri • I r* fofirldrl tr\ T\a <-»»-« •^A\«»/-»y^\.rl . ^-.^ 
 
30 
 
 dercd to be enforced; but actually was 
 enforced, in the requisite strictness, from 
 the time it issued to the time at least when 
 the enemy invaded the rights of neutrals, 
 by issuing the Berlin decree. AVithout 
 this, even supposing the Berlin decree had 
 never been revoked, the fact did not exist 
 upon which this property was condennied ; 
 and this, for the reason set forth in my 
 former letter, I am confident could not 
 be proved. The more I look into it, 
 indeed, the more I think it impossible. 
 I do not find a pretence, that would 
 r.mount to a proof of it in any form. It 
 is fairly inferred from what is shown above, 
 that the present or Canning admini: tratiou 
 ridicule the idea of its having been en- 
 forced at all. Mr. Foster makes use of 
 the strongest expression: "it was intended 
 to be maintained, and was actually main- 
 tained by an adequate force appointed to 
 ouard the Avliole coast." — " Mr. Fox had 
 satisfied himself that the admiralty had 
 the means and woidd employ them :" never 
 a word oidid employ them, and when Islv. 
 
 r 
 
 .^.:,ki;^miit*i 
 
31 
 
 Monroe replies, "that he presumes it 
 will not be i)retcndecl that sueh a force 
 was actually applied and continued in the 
 requisite strictness;" there is no rejoinder. 
 Lord Grenville says, the proclamation was 
 accompanied with directions to the Admi- 
 ralty to carry it into effect;— not that the 
 Admiralty did carry it into effect.— Lord 
 Erskijie says, if both administrations have 
 done wrong, we must retrace our steps 
 togcth(M\ Mr. Pinkney says to Marquis 
 Welleslcy, that whole coasts and countries 
 can never be move than declared in a 
 state or blockade— Does the Marquis say 
 they can? No—" Ills Royal Highness can- 
 not consent to blend the question which 
 has arisen upon the orders in council, with 
 any discussion of the general principles of 
 blockade.'' " This declaration does not pre- 
 clude any amicable discussion upon the 
 subject of any particular blockade, of 
 which the circumstances may appear to 
 the government of the United States, to 
 be cxcepticnable or require explanation/' 
 
 .,;i 
 
<ft6: 
 
 I wish Mr. Pinkney liad remained here a 
 little longer, or tliat he had been attended 
 to a great deal sooner; no one can look 
 iit this correspondence, without perceiving 
 that he was shamefully neglected; and 
 needed not the aid of sickness, to wear 
 his patience ([uite away. 
 
 But to return to the question of evidence; 
 wliatis to be concluded from this that I have 
 brouo-ht before you, and which I really can 
 find nothing to controvert? May it not be 
 fairly concluded, that this blockade was 
 never carried into effect, and so maintained 
 for the requisite period? Is there at all events 
 any evidence that it was so? That the 
 subject was not placed before the learned 
 Judge in this view, 1 must presume from 
 the tenor of his judgment; il" it had 
 been, and if the evidence had presented 
 itself to him as it does to me, with so 
 many persons interested to make out the 
 fact, and none ef them effecting it, he 
 would surely have found a case in wdiich 
 the rule " De non apparentibus et non ex- 
 
 m^^ 
 
 
33 
 
 istentibus eadem est ratio," would j^et more 
 satisfactorily apply, than in that to which 
 he has applied it. " For it is quite im- 
 possible that such a ' blockade' can have 
 taken place ^ without being attended with a 
 clear demonstration of evidence, that 
 such was the fact/' I presume it will not 
 be pretended, that the right of retaliation 
 is, in any event, with the party first inva- 
 ding the law : — if I smite you on the right 
 cheek and you return the blow, that is 
 retaliation; but if I strike you a second, 
 time, that is not retaliation ; the aggressor is 
 still the aggressor, and in striking the last 
 blow, as in striking the first, remains the ag- 
 gressor. — If this be true with respect to the 
 belligerent, how much more forcibly does 
 the doctrine apply to the neutral, who is 
 called on by the aggressor to repel an injury 
 done to him by the retaliator.^ And in a 
 doubtful case, as to which is the aggressor 
 of two, who mutually accuse each other, — 
 the neutral nation has the right to resent 
 the encroachments of both or either as 
 may best suit her convenience. 
 
^4 
 
 "While on this subject, i will just observe 
 on the analogy, which the learned Jiulge 
 has drawn with great ingenuity and accu- 
 racy, between the legislative power of the 
 King in council in respect to the courts of 
 prize, and that of parliament in respect to 
 the common law. — I do not mean to object 
 to the analogy, Mdiich is neat and instructive, 
 like all the elucidations from the same 
 quarter:— -you know, I am always recom- 
 mending to our junior friends, to attend 
 to the judgments of Sir William Scott, as 
 models of judicial eloquence, and the best 
 possible lectures on maritime and ecclesias- 
 tical law. — But a comparison of this sort 
 leads a man naturally to reflect on the 
 jealousy, usually entertained between the 
 powers exercised by the one where he is 
 not, and the other where he is, directly 
 represented. I'here is no government, 
 however despotic, in which the subject 
 does not repose the gu ;' dianship of his 
 rights and property, tacitly, expressly, or 
 by implication. In England the King and 
 council are, the subject^s King, and his 
 
Oft 
 
 council ; but he will not allow even them 
 to dispose of his person or his property : 
 he is bound by no law, to which he is not 
 constitutionally a party ; subjected to no 
 edicts, to which he has not previously sub- 
 scribed by 'his representatives in the three 
 estates of the empire. And when you 
 consider the jealousy with which these 
 rights are guarded, what think you must 
 be the feelings of a neutral, who, against 
 every principle of that justice that we 
 cherish for ourselves, against every rule of 
 administration that we guard as the apple of 
 our eye, is dragged before a court, to which 
 he has in no shape submitted his cause ; 
 and to which if he were left to his choice 
 he never would submit it;— a court not 
 constituted by his King in council, still 
 less by his representatives in parliament ; 
 — arbitrators in whose appointment he has 
 no share, and with whom he has no com- 
 jnon interest or connection, though his 
 adversary has ; — to have his property 
 wrested from him without any pretence of 
 immorality or hostility on his part, on 
 
 '^m. • 
 
56 
 
 (yl 
 
 some frivolous construction of the laws ot' 
 wai\ while he is at iteace; or some dispute 
 of two enraged bclhgerents, as to who fu'st 
 invaded his rights, or was last induced to 
 retreat from such invasion. — Or to ' - it, 
 restored, diminished of half it: %-' le 
 by costs, charges, damages, demunages, 
 and the like :— for, however cruel and 
 abominable it must appear, the ship that 
 is brought in^ for the experiment of making 
 her a prii^c, and found innocent, is never 
 restored to the situation, in which the 
 cruizer found her. If she ^j not com- 
 pelled to pay the cruizer's costs, it is not 
 one time in a hundred that she is allowed 
 her own: if a man get off for costs and 
 expenses, short of the amount of his whole 
 freight, he is fortunate in comparison with 
 his neighbours.^! do not say that this is not 
 :f»9tted by usage/; but it is a bad usage, 
 and ought to be abolished. 
 
 I-/ 
 
 It does appear to me, that if I take a 
 neutral ship for the chance of making her 
 a prize, and fmd her not so ; it is I that 
 
 
 
 ^^ 't ^- ^ 
 
i,^mp:,fpmim*9^- 
 
 .w&mmA-^ ^*aiii_. 
 
 37 
 
 should be at the expense of the experiment: 
 —she should be placed in all respects, 
 where she would have been, if I had not 
 interrupted her course. — This is no more 
 reasonable, than that I should pay for a 
 lottery-ticket though a blank, because it 
 is bought v>'ith a view to my benefit ; and 
 if those neutral causes were tried as they 
 ought to be by competent judges of other 
 nations than those concerned: — (foreign 
 diplomatists, for instance, at the court of 
 the country where they are carried in ; or 
 where, from a nation having no friends, 
 there are none such at her court, by good 
 and sufficient men equally chosen from the 
 two countries of the parties in litigation, 
 with a discretion to abandon forms and 
 customs for substantial justice,) — I have 
 no doubt it would be so decided, till 
 cruizers became cautious of bringing in 
 such prizes. 
 
 I shall fmish this letter with a quo- 
 tation from a judgment of Sir William 
 Scott, lately published and given in the 
 
38 
 
 reports of Dr. Edwards, inime^l lately 
 preceding this of tlie Fox, in the case of 
 the American ship Adams, and a quantity 
 of Tobacco, permitted by the governor of 
 Trinidad, with the concurrence of tlie col- 
 icctor and comptroller, to be landed and 
 sold, and aftei'wards seized by an officer of 
 the navy : subjoining a note in the precise 
 words in which I wrote it immediately on 
 reading the judgment 
 
 " Another ground which has been re- 
 sorted to, has been an address rather to 
 the misericordia of the court, on account 
 of the probable ignorance of a foreign 
 captain, coming in, not acquainted with 
 the law, and misled by the governor, the 
 extent of whose authority he could not 
 accurately define. To this it is an obvious 
 answer, that whoever trades with a country, 
 be he a foreigner or not, is bound to I.now 
 the laws of that country with which he 
 trades, as far as they concern his own acts, 
 be the nature of tliose laws and the extent 
 of them what they may. If he trades 
 
 •i..,V. ,«C4..«fc.-. 
 
pik-*^*.- 
 
 39 
 
 under tlic advice even of a skilful prac- 
 titioner of the law, and that advice proves 
 erroneous, I fear that it is an indispensable 
 principle of the law, that it will not pro- 
 tect him from forfeiture. If he trades under 
 an authority that is insufficient, it will not 
 protect him, because he is as much bound 
 lo know the extent of that authority, rela- 
 tively to himself in that act of trading, as 
 he is to know any other circumstance that 
 is retiuired to constitute the legail* of the 
 act." 
 
 Note.— J cannot subscribe to this. '-'It is 
 enough for a tnan to know the laws of 
 his own country. The foreigner that 
 knows the laws of England, knows 
 more than any man in it. — Jfe have 
 lately heard a judge iipoii the bench 
 say, that it was enough to gef 
 all the statutes into ones hec u, 
 without filling it with proclamations; 
 yet these last are as requisite for 
 the stranf>'€r as the former : and 
 
/ 
 
 40 
 
 they are both as much oil ]f his reach 
 crr^fi*^;^(is the laws of Nero or Domitian, (I 
 forget which) were beyoyid that of his 
 subjects. — Before a stranger should 
 Ca^ ^<^. ^^ subjected to the political institutions 
 ^f « country, or any other than that 
 moral law which is alike in all times 
 ond places, it should be ascertained 
 tinder competent evidence, that he knew 
 the particular regulations a:j;ainst which 
 he had offended ; and it is truly incon- 
 ceivable, that a man should incur a 
 penalty for coiforming with the advice 
 of the chief. Magistrate of the port, 
 -not only of the port, but of the 
 colony, beyond which he could not go 
 for council. If the government do not 
 appoint competent officers, the govern- 
 ment should bear the loss. The present 
 zcm properly a contest between two 
 officers of the crown : tht stranger con^ 
 formed to the authority of the superior, 
 without even knowing that there teas 
 any objection on the part of the other. 
 If such sanction will not exempt a man 
 
 M kkiit tl m . 
 
41 
 
 from penalty y what in God's name will? 
 — Is he to knozv the laws of a foreign 
 countri/, better than the chief magis- 
 trate and governor of a colony of that 
 country ? Is the ignorance of the law 
 to excuse the magistrate, and condemn 
 the stranger? — that this decision is 
 according to law, must be inferred from 
 the respectability of the judge; but 
 that law is one thing, and justice ano- 
 ther, no evidence can be more palpable, 
 —tirely if this be law, and the case 
 irremediable in the ordinary tribunals ; 
 some ?ilterior measures are necessary be- 
 tween the two governments in common 
 justice. The ship and tobacco here con- 
 demned, were with the rest of the cargo 
 restored in the first instance by the vice* 
 admiralty court of the island of Trini- 
 dad. They too zs^ere " ignorant as the 
 capt^jn. 
 
 I promised to finish this letter here ; but 
 while transcribing, and comparing certain 
 features of both these cases, I could not but 
 
42 
 
 remark on the necessity which the Uuv 
 iniposcs on a neutral (;aptain, to under- 
 stand as much of the laws of the country 
 to which lie trades, as applies to his case ; 
 and the exemption uf a judge IVom the ne- 
 cessity of knowing the text of the law of 
 such neutral country, which he invokes to 
 strengthen his decision. " I think,'' says the 
 learned judge in the case of tlie Fox, " I 
 think I might invoke the authority of the , 
 governmenl; of the United States, for deny- 
 inof to this IVench declaration tlie effect of 
 an absolute repeal, when I observe that the 
 period which they have allowed to the 
 British government for revoking our orders 
 in council, c.. ^^^ends to the second of Febru- 
 ary, an allowance which could hardly have 
 been made, if the revocation on the part of 
 France had really taken place at the time 
 to which that declaration purports to refer." 
 (Edwards's Admiralty Reports, vol. I. page 
 SliQ') Now it does so happen that the law 
 that authorises, and, as it will appear in 
 the sequel, enjoins on the President the 
 duty of enforcing the law of noa-im porta- 
 
 1M£.n^ J^<W<»r...;^ 
 

 43 
 
 tioii against Great Britain,, prescribes the 
 terms under which it is to be enforced ; 
 and stipulates, anionn; other tliinos, the 
 precise time here allowed for government 
 to revoke the orders in council, and thereby 
 prevent the enforcement of the act of 
 non-importation : — the time to which tlui 
 Frencii declaration purports to refer, is the 
 first of November, and the President's pro- 
 clamation orders the non-importation act 
 to be put in force, on the second of Fel^ru- 
 ary, (just three months after) provided the 
 orders in council be not previously repealed. 
 Moreover the non-importation law was 
 publish.?d in most of the London newspa- 
 pers. It is in that form only that I have it. 
 I mean not to insist by any means on the 
 necessity of the learned Judire knowino- all 
 these things ; but rather on the absurdity of 
 subjecting such subjects to tlie fetters of an 
 axiom,' which cannot be applied to them 
 without a manifest invasion of right. — I have 
 no doubt the learned Judge, if his restric- 
 
 • Ignorantia Juris non cxcusat. 
 
44 
 
 li( ns ^^Tre taken off, would administer jus- 
 tice as readily as law. In the case of 
 the .Adams, it is clear, I think, thiit he 
 would gladly have found the law ditVerent 
 from what he did fuid it. — " 1 fear that it 
 is an indispensable principle of the law, &c." 
 
 Before I dismiss this subject, I will just 
 remark on the incongruity of three different 
 officers of the government, in respect to 
 the case of the Fox and her companions, 
 to wit. Sir William Scott, Mr. Foster, and 
 Marquis Wellesley. Sir William clearly 
 condemns those ships, because he considers 
 the French edicts, not sincerely revoked. 
 Mr. Foster assures Mr. Monroe, that but for 
 the unfriendly attitude of the United States 
 towards Great Britain, there is no doubt 
 they would have been released.— Now this 
 unfriendly attitude, (the maintenance of 
 the non-importation) enter* no further 
 into the abstract question, \ hether \h^. 
 French edicts were revoked or not, than 
 as it shows the opinion of the governniCnt 
 of the United States that they were re- 
 
45 
 
 voked. AVliat evidence it produced then, 
 ought to go pro tanto in ivor of the ac- 
 (luittal, not in favor of this ground of con- 
 denniation ; it tv)uld not enter at all into 
 the contemplation of the Judo-o, unless he 
 chose to see it in this view. ]Uit a^-ain, 
 the Judge says, toiidcm verbis, " on the 
 grounds of the j)resent evidence, I therefore 
 see no reason to hold the claimants dis- 
 charged ; but I do not proceed to an 
 ultimate decision on their interests, till 
 I sec the effect of that additi-.nal evidence, 
 which is promised to he produced upon 
 the fact of the Trench retraction of their 
 decrees, said to have been very recently 
 received frcm Parii, by the American 
 Charge D'Affaires in this country/' (Ed- 
 wards's Admiralty Reports, vol. i. puge323.) 
 r>ut Mr. Foster tells ]\Ir. Monroe, " the 
 delay which took place in their condemna- 
 tion, was not in consequence of any doubt 
 existing in h' Majesty's government, as to 
 whether the French decrees v/<jre revoked, 
 as you seem to imagine, but in consequence 
 of its bemg thought that the American 
 
 , 1 
 
46 
 
 1} 
 
 government, on its appearing that they 
 were deceived by France, would have 
 ceased their injurious measures against the 
 British commerce." — I am aware that Prize 
 is the creature of the crown ; and in this 
 view of the case, the King might have 
 ordered restitution before condenniation ; 
 but as this was never done with respect 
 to the ships takeny before America had 
 taken this attitudtV what prospect was 
 there of its being done on the abandon- 
 ment of it ? — I see no such idea in any 
 thing that fell from the judge on the occa- 
 sion, and I find Marquis AVelleslc}' accom- 
 panying the expression, to the American 
 Charge D'Affaires, of a wish tl)at they 
 could be released, witli a regret that otlier 
 interests (meaning no doubt those of the 
 captors) interfered with that wish. 
 
 
 This judgment upon the Fox is rich in sub- 
 jects of observation. — There is much said on 
 the question,(and a very important one it isj) 
 whether the court may decide against an 
 order of the govenmient, which it ^iwh 
 
 -.if j!^&*-^ Jfl^ il ■„ ■ iU^- > • 
 
47 
 
 contrary to the law of nations ; but it is 
 left undecided by the lca:ncd Judge; 
 which, on account of his peculiar celebrity, 
 is matter of supreme regret. I hope the 
 question will be some day settled under 
 his authority. In the present case he says : 
 " this court will not let itself loose into 
 speculations as to what would be its duty, 
 under such an emergency, because it can- 
 not, without extreme indecency, presume 
 that any such emergency will happen/' 
 (Edwards's Admiraltij Reports. Vol. i. page 
 314.) But, unless I am greatly mistaking, 
 Sir James Mackintosh has found that such 
 an emergency has happened, and acquit- 
 ted a ship in the face of such orders in 
 Bengal a few years since: — the ship was 
 clearly comprised within the order, and 
 though under circumstances, which, if 
 known to go\ ernnient, would, as it appeared 
 to me at the time, in all probability, have 
 made such ships an exception to the 
 order, yet this, if I remember riglit, was 
 not insisted upon, but the Judge declared 
 without hesitation, that he was bound to 
 
48 
 
 ' administer the law of nations without 
 
 > 
 
 , regard to any decrees that came in con- 
 
 travention of it. But this is wanderir,^ 
 front the point. — We have seen in what 
 view the American government have the 
 right to consider this proclamation of the 
 
 i/i^y^ttigbteenth of May, 1806: how they 
 did consider, and how they acted on 
 it, as well as on the subsequent decrees 
 of the French government, it will be 
 the occupation of my first leisure to 
 examine. 
 
49 
 
 LETTER IV. 
 
 It can only be owing to that fatal igno- 
 ranee and obstinacy, by which the enemies 
 of France have been made a stepping-stone 
 to her power, that the gross perversion of 
 plain and palpable truth has been emitted 
 with so much success, and has passed so freely 
 among all ranks of men. Plain and demon- 
 strable as it is that the i\merican Govern- 
 ment has maintained, with uncommon vigil* 
 ance and attention, in a storm of conflicting 
 interests, to which it has been greatly expos- 
 ed, a degree of impartiality that will astonish 
 posterity; the man of this day who ven- 
 
 tlirPS ^O act;«^rf if ic o4-««^J ^*. __ ^1_ 1 i 
 
 
■ .^^irf*ftJ' 
 
 i^ 
 
 50 
 
 had taken leave of liis senses. Whether 
 England with a free, or France with a fet- 
 tered press, has best succeeded in chaining 
 the public mind, is matter of nice calcuhr- 
 tion; but that public and private men, in 
 each country, have almost universally ac- 
 cused the neutral of favoring the other, is 
 as true as the fact is false. The difference 
 in the evidence too, on each side, is pre- 
 cisely that which ought, if evidence were 
 consulted instead of passion, to induce the 
 contrary conclusion. Authentic documents, 
 instructions to ministers, their correspond- 
 ence at the different courts, even a fair 
 construction of the debates in a free coun- 
 try, where parties run high, actions con- 
 forming to professions, and the latter un- 
 contradicted by a single fact: all these are 
 prostrated before groundless suspicions, 
 hypothetical conjectures, the reports of 
 speculators, and the miserable efforts of 
 disappointed statesmen. 
 
 In considering the conduct of the United 
 States, in respect to this proclamation of the 
 
 i.l 
 
Jm'::gm^'- :*%^.. 
 
 r 51 
 
 16th of May, and the following reciprocal de- 
 crees of France and England, it is desirable, 
 if possible, to sift out the mind of the party. 
 We need not " let ourselves loose into spe- 
 culations,'' whether it is better to be without 
 passions, or to control them; we shall, 
 I fear, fmd unwarrantable hostility in the 
 breast, where the virtue of Socrates is want- 
 ing to keep it in check; and where politic- 
 al efforts to conceal it will display very 
 different dispositions, from a pious resolu- 
 tion to suppress it. The task is certainly 
 not easy, and while -we are deprecating 
 suspicion against evidence, we should be 
 careful to have adequate evidence to justify 
 our suspicions. We may give credit to a 
 man, on any subject, where his conduct has 
 squared with his professions; but we can- 
 not acquit the man, whose whole conduct 
 is a disavowal of his professions. 
 
 When Mr. Fox cries from the borders of 
 the grave: abolish the slave trade; emanci- 
 pate the Catholics; and maintain with 
 America the strictest friendship; we know 
 
 
52 
 
 what it means; we find the tenor of hi» 
 life ill unison with his words, and look in 
 vain through the page of his history for a dis- 
 cordant note. But when we find a modem 
 minister, accompanying his assurances that 
 he consideis the prosperity of America as 
 the prosperity of England, with a pious in- 
 sinuation that he would not destroy Ame- 
 rica, at the moment he is defending inva- 
 sions of her rights originating with his 
 party; and when we look in vain, for any 
 act of his life, in which the interests of that 
 country have been at all regarded; our 
 charity is necessarily put to the stretch, ta 
 give credit to such professions. We per- 
 ceive, in the very style, a contradiction of 
 the assertion; we cannot wonder that it 
 should excite a sneer: we do not fancy the 
 frog swoln to an ox, but the minister to a 
 mammoth, with uplifted foot, on the Alleg- 
 hariy mountains, forbearing to strike indeed ; 
 but whether out of compassion to seven mil- 
 hons of people, that would be sunk between 
 the Pacific and Atlantic ocean, or because 
 it would bruise his heel, is still a mystery. 
 
 . ^H^ti£<fcii»dL 1 ._ Atii^^f «- 
 
■%»«««#^«liM-,'*-^^ 
 
 53 
 
 Ho^, different from the disposition here 
 .ndicated. was that of the American go. 
 vernment on the promulgation of this 
 proclamation of the I6th of May. I806 
 Ihe American minister here, in trans- 
 m.ttmg ,t to his government on tlie day it 
 was received, gives it a more favorable in- 
 terpretation than on further investigation 
 .t would bear. The exception, setting 
 orth that such blockade shall not extend 
 to prevent neutral ships and vessels, laden 
 
 Majesty s enemies, and not being contra- 
 band of war. from approaching the said 
 
 coasts &c." he cons.ders as an admission 
 of such vessels under circumstances, in 
 jvluch they had been previously interrupted. 
 He admits that he " h.s been too short a 
 time m possession of the paper, to trace it 
 •'1 all Us consequences:" but entertains no 
 doubt that it may be viewed in a very fa- 
 vorable light. He considers it a good 
 omen m reference to a question in long con- 
 
 testation, nn thp o.,U:.._.. -r -1 . ,^ 
 
 -, •> u.e .,aD|t.(.i, ur the trade with 
 «!nemics' colonics yet to be settled by treaty • 
 and three days after, h« finds himself 
 
54 
 
 ■ 
 
 Strengthened in his opinion. To say that 
 Mr. Monroe was not warranted in this 
 opinion, is opposing less than nothing to 
 the argument. Tis the animus we are 
 seeking: the friendly and favorable eye 
 with which ambiguous measures are view- 
 ed; and the more erroneous the construct- 
 ion taking this direction, the stronger is 
 the evidence of cordiality; and his reluct- 
 ance at being undeceived by the candor of 
 Mr. Fox, when in a conversation three 
 weeks after, " he did not seem willing to 
 give his sanction to the inference, that he 
 (Mr. Monroe) had drawn," places beyond 
 all doubt in my mind, the evidence of a 
 strong bias in favor of a good understand- 
 ing between the two countries. That the 
 same disposition existed at the same time 
 with the government in America might be 
 inferred from the silence of Mr. Madison on 
 the subject at the time, who, notwithstand- 
 ing the microscopic examination with which 
 he inspects these things, knowing that a 
 treaty was on foot between Mr. Fox and 
 Mr. Monroe, in which IVIr. Pinkney was 
 on his way to assist, trusted, no doubt. 
 
 
Hi . »,»'" ■ '■;*%rts«.ff«»*.m> 
 
 55 
 
 with Mr. Monroe, "that the business 
 would, ere long, be placed on a much more 
 solid footing." But we are not left to the 
 silence of Mr. Madison for a proof of this 
 disposition ; the evidences of it are innu- 
 nierable, and really so clear, that I cannot 
 but think him fully justified in saying to Mr. 
 Monroe as he does, "it is impossible for 
 the British government to doubt the sin- 
 cerity of these sentiments." * 
 
 • As this letter treats muchof tlie impressment of Ameri- 
 can seamen, it may not be amiss to extend tl,e quotation. 
 It has always been a grievous subject, nor is it easy to 
 imagine a more cruel situation than that of the American 
 sailor imprisoned on board a foreign ship of war, to be 
 killed or wounded, in fighting the battles, not of his 
 country, but of his immediale oppressor. «' Hie truth is '* 
 says Mr. Madison, '^ and it may be so stated by you, thlt 
 this practice of impressments, aggravated by so many 
 provoking incidents, has been so long continued, and so 
 often iij vain remonstrated against, that, without more 
 encouragement, than yet appears, to expect speedy redress ' 
 from the British Government, the United States are in a 
 manner driven to the necessity of seeking for some remedy 
 dependent on themselves alone. But it is no less true that 
 they are warmly disposed to cherish all the friendly rela- 
 tions subsisting with Great Britain; that they wish to see 
 that necessity banished by just and prudent arrangements 
 
56 
 
 At the time that in hopes of an adjust- 
 ment of all differences by treaty, he takes no 
 
 .1 
 
 between the two governments ; and that with this view, 
 you were instructed to open the negotiations which are 
 now depending. It is impossible for the British govern- 
 ment to doubt the sincerity of these sentiments. The for- 
 bearance of the United States year after year, and war 
 after war, to avail themselves of those obvious means, 
 which without violating their national obligations of any 
 sort, would appeal in the strongest manner to the interest 
 of Great Britain, is of itself a sufticient demonstration of 
 the amicable spirit which has directed their public coun- 
 cils. This spirit is sufficiently manifested also, by the 
 propositions, which have been lately made through you, 
 and by the patience and cordiality with which you have 
 conducted the negotiation. I might add, as a further 
 proof to the same ctFect, that notwithstanding the refusal 
 of which we have official information, from Glasgow, and 
 Liverpool particularly, to restore American seamen de- 
 serting their ships in British ports, the laws of many of 
 the states have been left, without interruption, lo restore 
 British deserters. One of die states, Virginia, has even at 
 the last session of its legislature, passed an act for the 
 express purpose of restoring such deserters, which deserves 
 the ir ^re attention, as it was done in the midst of irrita- 
 tions, resulting from the multiplied irregularities commit- 
 ted by British ships iu the American seas.'* 
 
 Mr, Madison to Mr. Monroe, 
 March 6th, 1805. 
 
57 
 
 notice of this proclamation blockade; wc 
 find him transmitting first, the copy of a 
 special message from the President to 
 Congress, recommending on the mere ap. 
 pearance of a spirit of conciliation on 
 the part of the British Commissioners, and 
 before a single article had been agreed on, 
 a suspension of a partial non-importation 
 law, that had been previously passed after 
 numerous provocations: three days after, a 
 bill conforming therewith, passed in the 
 House of Representatives, with only five 
 dissenting voices, and they disagreeing only 
 on tlie time to which the suspension sliould 
 be limited; and within a fortnight, the law 
 itself passed by a unanimous vote of the 
 senate. In short, the avidity with which 
 every symptom of a return to Justice on the 
 part of this government has been seized on 
 by that of the United States, however 
 unfortunate in the issue, speaks strongly 
 against those shocking fiibrications, by 
 which this people has been so long deceived. 
 The adjustment with Mr. Erskine was an 
 affair of eight and forty hours; the negotia- 
 
58 
 
 tion v^as opened on the 17tli of April, and 
 finished on tlie 19th; and though it does 
 not appear warranted in his instructions, 
 which a man of any feeling would blush to 
 exhibit, this detaches nothing fioni the 
 evidence of eagerness on the part of the 
 government (^f the United States, to adjust 
 the matters in difference. 'J'here is, more- 
 over, a palpable incongruity in the tenor of 
 those instructions, and the measures adopt- 
 ed here while they were in operation : but 
 that is a subject that we will pass over. 
 
 On a future 'ca:*in, I shall have some- 
 thing to say on raiother branch of the busi- 
 ness, and in answering you." question why 
 are our ships shut out of the American 
 waters, and the French not; will state 
 brie% the mutual encroachments of the 
 two belhgerents, and the reception they 
 have met with from the American govern- 
 ment. 
 
■■-■9 ; ^W^*l^-ij, 
 
 
 59 
 
 LETTER V* 
 
 It is true that the affair of ttie L*. ofoard 
 and Chesapeake is settled, and though, if 
 constitutes a part of the subject of the 
 documents before us, it might on this ac- 
 count, and for the economy of time, he 
 passed over without notice. It bears how- 
 ever so prominent a part in the series of 
 progressive outrage, that the government 
 of the United States has/ eooaye d ; that it '^'^^ 
 cannot be omitted in a view of the mutual '^'* 
 encroachments of the two belligerents, and 
 the reception they have met from the Ame- 
 
 riran o-nvprnrnpnt. — jArrnrrlinor tn tVip no- 
 
 tion that I have of the case too, it would 
 
 ■yy*^ 
 
 
i 
 
 60 
 
 be doing great injustice to the sensibility 
 of two of the first cliaracters in tlie king- 
 dom, to pass it over in silence. AVe all 
 know the doctrine and practice of treatino- 
 the acts of the King as the acts of liis mi- 
 nisters: and if this be no more th;ni just- 
 ice to His l\Iajcsty on the one hand, so on 
 the other, is he intitJed to all the venera- 
 tion and esteem attached to the transaction, 
 which can fairly be traced to his own bo- 
 som. And when the secret history of the 
 cabinet comes to be wiitten, (if that should 
 e- _r happen) I am confident it will appear, 
 that J lis Majesty's regret at this atrocious 
 invasion of principle through blood and 
 slauglitcr Avas extreme: and if the feelings 
 of con.miseration for the sutl'erers left lit- 
 tle room in the Royal breast, for the o])era. 
 tion of the indignation due to the otfender; 
 it is only the more to be regretted that the 
 true case, with all its sympathies, was not 
 before the American government. As it 
 was, I am no advocate for any expression of 
 dissatisfliction on the part of that govern- 
 liient, in accepting the proflered atonement: 
 
 ^^^mia:^uii^m..:£. ■:. Ji:-^. 
 
 ,;.^ 
 
aiiiif^^Hili(^pt»#¥«iii(,.»,,.^^ 
 
 61 
 
 but I am not less convinced from the gene- 
 ral style and manner of the correspondence 
 on their part, that a dcvelopement of the 
 true case (by sepai'atiiig this subject as the 
 immediate measure of the Khig, from others 
 treated with tiie sarcastic sophistry of which 
 you have so delicate an example in the 
 letter from Mr. Canning to Mv. Pinkney 
 of the 23rd of September. ]808) would have 
 prevented any expression that could at all 
 annoy his IMajo^sty's feelings, or (hose otany 
 one of his reasonable subjects.-— Au reste, 
 though certainly not new, and recommend- 
 ed, if I remember right, by that arch poll- 
 cician Macchiavelli; it does seem an odd 
 kind of punislnudut to remove an offendino- 
 oflicer with a slight interval of thne, from one 
 high and important command to another. 
 
 I 
 
 In contemplating this subi-ct, one can- 
 not fad to reuiark the evidence of filial 
 piety on the part of the Prince Regent, 
 wlio seiiied the earliest moment of hil 
 power to promote the desire of his royal 
 father on this occasion: it adds conviction 
 to the opinion I had always entertained, 
 
 r^^ : 
 
62 
 
 that his Majesty's personal feelings were 
 interested in this subject. — The Prince 
 knew it, no doubt. — His Royal Highness 
 took care to accompHsh the object too: 
 why it was not done before may be worth 
 a little inquiry. — However the royal will 
 may have been manifested, the operation 
 was left, no doubt, to his Majesty's serv- 
 ants : young Mr. Rose was sent on a 
 special mission to America: the written 
 instructions given him were never, I 
 believe, made public; the verbal intima- 
 tions are never likely to be. When he ar- 
 rived in America, however, he found that 
 he could not treat at all on the subject, 
 nor even develope the nature of the repara- 
 tion that he was instructed to offer, until 
 the proclamation of the President (reciting 
 this among a number of previous and un- 
 atoned outrages, and interdicting the Ame- 
 rican waters to British ships of war, until 
 reparation should be made) should be re- 
 voked. To this proposition for reversing 
 the order of things, Mr. Madison replies 
 in a letter well worth your attention, under 
 date ^^^ ^i*rnh i«nQ r.;f;««. .^ ^.,.^1 — « 
 
^mm^^- -'m^^m^ 
 
 r 
 
 t.« 
 
 63 
 
 of instances, in which this government had 
 demanded reparation for injuries received, 
 or conceived; and one- among others in 
 which she represents, that reparation loses 
 Its value, if it be conditional or obtained by 
 any stipulation whatever from the party 
 mjurcv!/ He finishes, however, by propos- 
 ing on the disclosure of the terms of repa- 
 ration that Mr. Rose believes wi!, be satis- 
 foctory, and its appearing that they are so, 
 to revoke the proclamation, and receive the 
 reparation by instruments bearing equal 
 date. But to this the instructions of his Ma- 
 jesty^s government would not allow young 
 Mr. Rose to accede. It is quite inconceivable 
 tliat his M;ijesty should have had any ob- 
 jection to this p.oposition if fairly developed 
 to him, ind, accordingly, the American go- 
 vernment were in continual expectation after 
 the return of young Mr. Rose to his father, 
 that fresh orders would be sent to America 
 to close the business on this ground. It was 
 delayed however from time to time; under 
 what excuse to his Majesty, or whether any, 
 does not appear. 
 
I 
 
 64 
 
 I am not in the habit of seekiug in 
 the deep recesses of wily politics for the 
 causes of things; but it has been sug- 
 gested, and particularly by a very candid 
 and ingenuous friend, >vho has better 
 sources of information than I can boast, 
 that this mission of young Mr. Rose was 
 intended to prove abortive. And to this 
 suspicion, supposing it no more, a retro- 
 spect to the correspondence does certainly 
 give countenance. — Mr. ]\Ionroc, then in 
 England, and Just closing his mission to re- 
 turn to America, sought in vain from Mr. 
 Canning the terms to be offered, or an out- 
 line of them: and there can be no doubt 
 from the dispositions uniformly displayed 
 by Mr. Monroe, and particularly reiterated 
 at the time, that any requisition that mili- 
 tated in a question of mere punctilio, 
 against a sincere desire to give the requisite 
 
 satisfaction, wouldhavebeenobviated by hini 
 at the threshold.— But no:— Mr. Monroe 
 must not know the terms :— young Mr. Rose 
 must not let them be known in America : 
 he must demand of that country what this 
 
 m. 
 
mi-''""i»e^^^}-m 
 
 65 
 
 imd refused in a like case, not as a condition 
 on which the repamtion was to be made, 
 but as a precedent condition to the terms 
 even being made known. And when amodi- 
 fication is offered, so concihatory that hehim- 
 self regrets apparently, and I doubt not sin- 
 cerely, the necessity he is under of declining 
 it, he adds that his commission is at an endt 
 — " It is with the moreprofound regretthati 
 feel myself under the necessity of declaring, 
 that I am unable to act upon the terms thus 
 proposed, as it becomes my duty to inform 
 you, in conformity to my instructions, that 
 on the rejection of the demand stated in 
 my former letter, on the part of his Majesty, 
 my mission is terminated." 
 
 Whether the project of abortion were 
 limited to an entire confidence of its occur- 
 ring here; whether in other words it was 
 confidently presumed, that the previous 
 withdrawing of the proclamation, issued sub- 
 sequently to the aggression, would be refused 
 (as might well be expected) by the Ameri- 
 
 E 
 
66 
 
 Bi 
 
 I 
 
 can government, or that the abortive ter- 
 mination of the negotiation would be 
 secured b}^ orders to witldiold these instruc- 
 tions, till it was imposbihle to proceed un- 
 der them; or whether the inethcieney of the 
 reparation itself were further depended 
 on, must probably remain a mystery; 
 but it will be noticed that the terms of re- 
 paration (though young Mr. Rose was in- 
 structed to say they were such as he bt> 
 lieved would be satisfactory,) were deficient 
 as it has since appeared, in that part of the 
 satisfaction demanded by the American 
 government, on which they most insisted ; 
 to wit, the adequate puftishment of the 
 offender, to prevent future aggression. — 
 Here was another chance for miscarriage, 
 if, contrary to all probability, the negotia- 
 tion had failed to dissolve where it did : 
 so that, to paraphrase the ironical words of 
 Mr. Canning in the letter above-mentioned, 
 ** though most assuredly not intended to that 
 end, (for Mr. Canning could have no p i\ in- 
 terest in the subversion of his Majesty's 
 wisheS; and Ministers are too enlightened 
 
67 
 
 to act from any impulse against the inte- 
 rests of their country,) yet by some unfor- 
 tunate concurrence of circumstances, 2^7^/^- 
 out mvj hostile intention, their instruc- 
 tions to young ]\Ir. Rose did come in aid 
 of such subversion, at a time when no- 
 thing else could have prevented the success 
 of his mission/'— But the apex of tl>e chmax 
 remains.— -In this pious letter, that incurred 
 the epithet of disgusting and impertinent 
 abroad, and sarcastic and sophistical at home, 
 we find the Right Honorable Secretary 
 commanded to observe, that nothino- is said 
 in Mr. Pinkney's letter, of any intention to 
 repeal this proclamation: and he affects to 
 consider the continuance of interdict, after 
 the attempt made by his IMajesty to remove 
 the cause, as an inauspicious omen for the 
 commencement of a system of mutual con- 
 ciliation. — This, you will observe, was after 
 having proposed and insisted on making 
 this a subject of separate negotiation : after 
 having obtained the reluctant consent of 
 the American government to treat it as 
 suca ; — '■ alter the IMinister had returned 
 
68 
 
 with a proposal from America, so just and 
 conciliatory as, but for his want of power, 
 which he profoundly regretted, he would 
 readily have acceded to; and when the 
 American government was expecting, and 
 had been for some time expecting, to re- 
 ceive that acquiescence, in the unconnected 
 mode that Mr. Canwing himself had 
 
 
 Now, Sir, I vvill ask you, considering the 
 manifestation of his Majesty's desire to 
 have this matter adjusted, whether you can 
 conceive it possible that he could so have 
 instructed his minister, if under the impres- 
 sion of that clear representation of the true 
 fact, of which it is perfectly susceptible. — 
 I know not in what form these subjects are 
 brought before his Majesty, but it will not 
 much extend this letter, if 1 transcribe the 
 paragraph in Mr. Madison^s letter to young 
 Mr. Rose, in which the proposition is ad- 
 vanced. — " With a right to draw this con- 
 clusion, the president might have instructed 
 me to close this communication, with the 
 
 . »?. _ ^V ? ** ^ ■ "»».. ! 
 
69 
 
 reply stated in the beginning of it ; and 
 perhaps in taking this course, he would 
 only have consulted a sensibility, to which 
 most governments would, in such a case, 
 have yielded. But adhering to the mode-' 
 ration by which he has been invariably 
 guided, and anxious to rescue the two na- 
 tions from the circumstances, under which 
 an abortive issue to your mission necessa- 
 rily places them, he has authorised me, in 
 the event of your disclosing the terms of 
 reparation which you believe will be satis- 
 factory, and on its appearing that they are 
 so, to consider this evidence of the justice 
 of his Britannic Majesty, as a pledge for an 
 effectual interposition with respect to all 
 the abuses, against a recurrence of which 
 the proclamation was meant to provide ; 
 and to proceed to concert with you a revo- 
 cation of that act, bearing the same date 
 with the act of reparation to which the 
 United States are intitled." (Mr. Madison 
 to Mr. Rose, Junior, 5th March, 1808.) 
 
 I caniiot consent to believe, that with this 
 before his eyes, his Majesty would have 
 

 70 
 
 r:ufliorisc(I the letter of tlie Right IlonorabJe 
 Secretary so often referred to, and I am the 
 more confirmed in my opinion, by the 
 measures taken since (as 1 havi; reason to 
 believe) the proposition was completely be- 
 fore liim. And I cannot but deplore these 
 appearances of a want of candor and open 
 dealing with a country, whither it was trans- 
 j)lanted in the less adulterated days of our 
 fathers; and a government with whicii, 
 I am persuaded, no other than the undis- 
 guised and free discussion of the matters 
 in difference will succeed so well. To 
 practise on America those politics, that are 
 fjt only for France, is like the attack upon 
 Copenhagen ;— like showing your skill and 
 vigor in destroying your friend, because you 
 cannot approach your enemy;— like quit- 
 ting the active and manly sports of the 
 field, to shoot sparrows and domestic ani- 
 mals at your door. — It is assuming a dress, 
 moreover, that does not befit an English- 
 man; it sits awkwardly on him; and God 
 forbid it should ever do otherwise. Whenever 
 the garb of solid truth, — of stern old 
 
 rfi 
 
 »\: m m m> m ,, . 
 
■mmf .fc.-V' 
 
 English honesty, is thrown aside for the 
 motley jacket of a harlequin trickster, the 
 nation is loser, gain what she will. 
 
 You will think this letter quite episodical, 
 especially when I tell you, that on a subject 
 leading to the contemplation of those syni- 
 pathies and sensibilities, which constitute the 
 most amiable features in the mind, such as 
 the particular intervention of the King and 
 the Prince in the affair of the Chesapeake ; a 
 thought has occurred to me on the Catholic 
 Question.-. You know that with a most cor- 
 dial desire for the complete emancipation 
 of so important a body of his Majesty's 
 subjects, 1 have always respected the scru- 
 pies of the King.— Considering, and not 
 doubting, what Mr. Lancaster has lately 
 said on this subject, at some public meet- 
 ing ; I am so flir from thinking the present 
 an improper time for effecting this import- 
 ant object, that I cannot imagme a better.— 
 The King (says Mr. Lancaster, and he had 
 it from his own lips) was anxious^ very 
 anxious, for the emancipation of the Cathtv- 
 
 f" 
 
72 
 
 jics, and prevented Iroii) agreeing to the 
 measure only by iiis coronation outli. — But 
 the emancipation of the Catholics ^t this 
 time would be no more the act and deed 
 of the King, than if his Majesty was ah'eady 
 in his gra\ c. It' then the act were now 
 performed, and his Majesty should recover, 
 he w^ould find an ol)ject accomplished, that 
 was dear to his heart, under circumstances 
 that completely removed his only objection ; 
 if he should not recover, it is still no act or 
 deed of his. 
 
 By referring you to the letter of Mr, 
 Madison to Mr. Rose, junior, of the 5th 
 of March, 1808, I have given you a 
 direction for examining some of the minor 
 aggressions, from insult to murder, which 
 terminated in the exclusion, from the ports 
 of the United States, of the individual ships 
 concerned in them. This shocking aftair 
 of the Leopard and Chesapeake is also 
 treated of in the same letter, and led to the 
 exclusion, for the time it should remain 
 unatoned, of all the ships of war of the 
 
73 
 
 nation Of this last, 1 shall have occasion 
 to speak again when we come to the exclu- 
 sion of the French shipsof war. In the mean 
 time, if jou will follow my rule of judging, 
 we shall probably come to the same con- 
 clusion ; and that is, to place yourself alter- 
 nately in the situation of the ditferent par- 
 ties ;— suppose yourself alternately a sub- 
 ject of the one country, and a citizen of the 
 other, or if you cannot divest yourself of 
 your bias, fancy the perpetrator to change 
 sides. — You begin by supposing an Ameri- 
 can frigate in Portsmouth harbor or the 
 river Tliames, violating the health and reve- 
 nue laws ; her officers carrying off seamen 
 and passenp-ers from English ships ; — such 
 officers a^reened by the Captain irom 
 justice, and the constables or deputy 
 sheriffs, charged with a regular process 
 against them, repelled. And then you 
 are to fancy this same American captain 
 to measure out his dominion by the 
 length of his cables. — His Majesty com- 
 plains of this to the American governnient, 
 and they advance their captain from a fri- 
 
. 74 
 
 gate to a ship of the line. By this soVt of 
 process, you will come to a pretty correct 
 idea of the American feelings on this sub- 
 ject ; for you may be assured, there are no 
 two people on earth whose feelings are 
 more alike than those of Americans and 
 Englishmen. I leave you to peruse the 
 letter referred to ; and will, in my next, 
 proceed to investigate what belongs more 
 properly to the subject; to wit, ihe proceed- 
 ings of the two belligerents, to injure 
 America by their orders and decrees. Sec. 
 and the reception they have mutually met 
 with. 
 
'%##fe(S*''|||f>'--H. 
 
 LETTER Vr. 
 
 Iris herein course to notice the Berlin 
 decree, as well on account of its evident 
 reference to the proclamation of May, 
 1806, as one of the objects against which 
 it was meant to retaliate, as from the order 
 of its date. 
 
 i 
 
 As soon as this decree, (issued at Berlin, 
 the 21st of Nowniber, 1806,) reached 
 General Armstrong, the American minister 
 at Paris, he lost no time in applying to the 
 minister of Marine and Colonies, (one of 
 those charged with its execution) without 
 Availing the return of the minister of foreign 
 afiairs,(thcn absent with Buonaparte,) for an 
 
 #«>*'**«^ 
 
I 
 
 l-l 
 
 76 
 
 explanation; which be obtained totheeftect, 
 that the said decree was not intended to 
 affect the commerce of the United States, 
 nor to invade the provisions of their treaty 
 with France. — -The minister refers, liowever, 
 for more positive information, to the Prince 
 of Benevento. — This last was long absent, 
 and I do not find that General Armstrong 
 had any intercourse with him, during his 
 subsequent continuance in office. A letter 
 addressed to him was answered by Chaiii- 
 pagny.— I thought at the time, that the 
 best policy of the General was, to rest 
 contented with the interpretation of tlie 
 minister of the Marine, as long as the prac- 
 tice conformed wit^ tint interpretation; 
 and this appears to have been the case, 
 without any ca? se of alarm on his part, 
 until the i>4th bepttniber, J 807; when, 
 hearing of a new coiisti action highly injur- 
 ious to the commerce of the United SuteSj 
 he addresses Champagny, the new minister 
 of foreign affairs, for an explanation of his 
 master's views.— General Armstrong hail 
 previously (to wit, on the 7th of July) ex- 
 
 « - # 
 

 • 77 
 
 pressed to Mr. Monroe, his contentment, 
 if not satisfaction, at the conduct of the 
 council of prizes under this decree.— " De- 
 cisions equally favorable and prompt /' 
 
 " interest and d-unages given to the claim- 
 ants, &c," — Tho answer of Champagny, of 
 the 7th of October, to his letter of the 14th 
 of September, is certainly equivocal, if not 
 unintelligible ; but as it speaks of the faci- 
 lity of reconciling these new measures with 
 the observance of treaties, General Arm- 
 strong does not appear to have made any 
 further complaint until the 12th of Novem- 
 ber, wlien on the occasion of a first con- 
 demuatiou, of which he had lately received 
 thr decree, he complains loudly to the 
 French government of conflicting injunc- 
 tioTvs, perversions, and misinterpretations; 
 refuses to join the proprietors in asking the 
 restoration of the property (which had been 
 recommended by the court) as a favor; 
 but demands as a right, th^t his Majesty 
 may be moved to :}H ihe judg-aent aside. 
 
 
 t 
 
 Looking back to M, , eftect of the ori^mal 
 decree, on .ne other side the Ai'antic, 
 
 
78 
 
 we do not find full faith in the explana- 
 tions of the minister of the Marine; 
 ** they were seen with much pleasure," says 
 Mr. Madison, (22nd of May, 180?)** and 
 it only remains to learn that they have 
 been confirmed by the express authority of 
 the Emperor." Should it be meant other- 
 wise, he treats it by anticipation in so 
 many words;, as " a gross infraction of the 
 rights, and outrage on the sentiments, of 
 neutral nations." And when he hears of this 
 condemnation, he adds, (8th of February, 
 1808) " a construction of the decree is 
 avowed and executed, which violates as 
 well the positive stipulations of the Con- 
 vention of September 30th, 1800, as the 
 incontestable principles of public law; and 
 the president charg: you to superadd to 
 whatever representations 3'ou may have 
 previously made, a formal remonstrance 
 in such terms as may be best calculated 
 either to obtain a recal of tlie illegal mea- 
 sure, so far as it relates to the United States, 
 or to have the efl'ect of leaving in full 
 
 
,-*^m^-^m^.mS:-' * 
 
 79 
 
 force, all the rights accruing to them from 
 a failure to do so/' Nor is this by any 
 means the strongest instance of reproba- 
 tion. — The \vhoie correspondence is charged 
 with remonstrances from the American 
 government and its minister ; interspersed, 
 to be sure, Avith tiiose efforts to obtain re- 
 dress and promote conciliation, which were 
 dictated by the evident policy of the 
 United States, under the peculiar circum- 
 stance of equal invasion of her rights from 
 the opposite belligerent, and the difficulty 
 of resenting the conduct of the one invader 
 without serving the cause of the other.— 
 Without inundating you with quotations, 
 let me hand you the following, assuring you 
 that, as far as I am able to judge, you will 
 search the whole correspondence, and the 
 history of all the measures of the American 
 government, without finding the least con- 
 tradiction of the evidence of resistance to 
 French encroachments contained in them ; 
 or of that of the falsehood of the pretensions 
 of partiality in^the American government 
 towards France, resulting from them: 
 
80 
 
 Besides the quotation already given from 
 the letter of Mr. Madison to General Arm- 
 strong, of the 22nd of May, 1807, wc find 
 as follows: " Should it, contrary to expect- 
 ation, turn out that the French decree 
 was meant and is to operate according to 
 the latitude of its terms, you will of course 
 have made the proper representations, 
 grounded as well on the principles of pu- 
 blic law, as on the express stipulations of the 
 convention of 1800/— On the 12th of 
 November of the same year (the event 
 for which these instructions provide 
 having occurred,) we find General Arm- 
 strong, in a very spirited letter to the 
 French minister Champagny, thus pur- 
 suing them. " If, in support of this conclu- 
 sion, I have drawn no arguments from the 
 treatj' of 1800, nor from the law of nations, 
 your Excellency will not be at a loss to 
 assign this omission to its true cause. It 
 would surely have been a useless formality 
 to appeal to authorities, not only practi- 
 cally, but even professedly, extinct. In the 
 
 
 ^ .jn 
 
■ ~ ****' ^^^^^1^^' wbpt*''^ 
 
 81 
 
 letter of the minister of justice, of the 18th 
 of September, we are told by his Majesty 
 himself, that since he had not judged pro- 
 per to make any exception in the letter 
 of his decree, there was no room to make 
 any in its execution;" and then repeat- 
 ing sonje "ords of Talleyrand's note, of 
 the 20th of November, 1806*, in which lie 
 assumes the right to retaliate on England, 
 the oblivion of all just and humane 
 sentiments. The General adds, " Words 
 cannot go further to show the extinguished 
 authority, in the one case, of the treaty sub- 
 sisting between the United States and 
 his Imperial Majesty, and, in the other, 
 of the law of nations ; (o appeal to them, 
 therefore, would be liieralli/ appealing to 
 the dead:' Again we fnid Mr. Madison, 
 on the 2nd of May, 1808, addressing 
 General Armstrong as follows : *' The letter 
 of the 15th of January, from Mr. Cham- 
 pagny to you, has, as you will see by the 
 papers herewith sent, produced ail the 
 sensations here, which the spirit and style 
 of it were calculated to excite in minds 
 
82 
 
 • alive to the interests and Iionor of the 
 nation. 'Jo present to the Unitc^cl States 
 the alternative of bending to the views of 
 Franee against her enemy, or ofineuning 
 a confiseation of all tlie property of their 
 citizens earned into the Freneh pri^^e-eourts, 
 imphed that tliey were snseeptibk? of im- 
 pressions by whieii no independent and ho- 
 norable nation am be guided ; and to pre- 
 judge and pronounce for them tlie effect 
 which the conduct of another nation (juoht 
 to have on their councils and course of pro- 
 , ceeding, had the air at least of an assumed 
 authority, not less irritating to the public 
 feelings. In these lights, the president 
 makes it your duUj to present to the J^'rench 
 government the contents of Mr. Cham- 
 pagny's lettei', taking care, as your discre- 
 tion will doubtless suggest, that whilst you 
 vuike that government seimbie of the offen- 
 sive tone employed, you leave the way 
 open for friendly and respectful explana- 
 tions, if there be a disposition to offer them, 
 and for a decision here on any reply, which 
 may be of a different character. 
 
 Fn 
 
 ,w$m>-'mim^?^ik. 
 
83 
 
 Let us now see how General Armstrong 
 executes this commission. 
 
 " Pans, Jtdy 4l/i, 1808. 
 
 Sir, 
 
 It has been made tlie duty of the 
 undersigned to bring to the view of the 
 French government, an official note ad- 
 dressed to him on the 15th of January last, 
 by his Majesty \s minister of exterior rela- 
 tions : and which, in the opinion of the 
 president, is calculated to derogate from 
 the rights of the United States, as an ind.> 
 pendent nation. The note is in the following 
 words, viz: (see M. Champagny^s letter 
 of the 15th of January, 1808.) 
 
 On this note, the undersigned would re- 
 mark : — 
 
 First, that the United States have a rioht 
 to elect their own policy with regard to 
 England, as they have with regard to 
 France; and that it is only while thev 
 
84 
 
 contijiuc to exercise this riglit, without 
 sii/rcniig nny degree of restraint from 
 either power, that they can niai.itain the 
 independent rehition in wliicli they stand 
 to both : whence it folIo\. s, that to have 
 pronounced, in the peremptory tone of the 
 preceding note, tlic etfects which tiio inea- 
 sures of the British government ought to 
 have produced on their councils, and con- 
 duct, was a language less adapted to 
 acconiphsh its own object, than to offend 
 against the respect due from one indepcnd- 
 ent nation to another : and. 
 
 Second, that the alternative to be found 
 in the last paragraph, and which leaves the 
 United States to chuse between an acqui- 
 escence in the views of France, against 
 Great Britain, and a confiscation of all 
 American property, sequestered by order 
 of his imperial Majesty, is equally offensive 
 to both governments: to France, as it 
 would impute to her a proposition founded 
 in wrong to individuals ; and to the United 
 States, as it would imply, on their part, a 
 
 r 
 
85 
 
 siibjugatioti to pecuniary interests, totally 
 inconsistent with their principles, and 
 highly dishonorable to their character. 
 
 His Excellency will be persuaded that 
 the president, in directing tlie undersigned 
 to make this representation, had no object 
 in view, bt^ond that of seeking an expla- 
 nation, which cannot but tend to promote 
 the harmony of the two powers. 
 
 The minister plenipotentiary of 
 
 the United States, 
 (Signed) JOHN ARMSTRONG. 
 His Excellency the minister 
 of foreign relations/* 
 
 In this I presume you do not perceive 
 a tame acquiescence in the insolence of the 
 French government; but you can show 
 me nothing in the language to England 
 that is not tame-^very tame, in comparison 
 with it ; neither can the correspondence 
 on the side of France, be at all inspected 
 without convincing any impartial man, l^at 
 
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86 
 
 there is not the least symptom of ronni- 
 vance, good undeistaiidiiig, or even good- 
 ^n\\ m either government towards the other : 
 neither will a more accommodating disposi- 
 tion appear, on inspecting the debates on 
 the subject— The following extracts are 
 from the speeches of men very high in the 
 government party, decidedly hostile to the 
 encroachments of this country, indeed; and 
 to whom the unfounded cries of the disaf- 
 fected, have affixed the mad-dog appella- 
 tion of French partisans. 
 
 Extract from the speech of Mr. Giles, 
 in the Senate of the United States, 24th 
 of November, 1808.— 
 
 I 
 
 " In my judgment, Sir, the United Slates 
 have nothing to do with the character of 
 the quarrel of the belligerents ; but I differ 
 entirely with the gentlemen on this point. 
 1 believe the character of the quarrel is 
 precisely the same on both sides— they are 
 both fighting for lawless domination ; and 
 I believe that Great Britain has full as 
 
 1 £ 
 
87. 
 
 much chance of coiuiiiovino- France, as 
 ['laiice has of conquering Great Biitaln. 
 The only difference between them consists 
 in the ditference in the objects of their law- 
 less domination. France claims dominion 
 on the land, Great Britain on the water; 
 the}' are both ecjually hostile to us." 
 
 "The difference to us consists only in the 
 different degrees of force they can bring to 
 bear upon us — in this respect, Great Bri- 
 tain does us most injury. We are, thank 
 God, remote from the influence of French 
 power—but the power of Great Br' in 
 extends to our shores. France, when she 
 can, seizes and burns our vessels— Great 
 Britain, having more power on the ocean, 
 seizes and confiscates them. The only 
 limit of their hostility is the limit of their 
 power. Both are equally the objects of 
 our just resistance and punishment if we 
 possessed the power," 
 
 " I rejoice that I have heard no amlogist 
 for France on this floor^ nor any wnere else. 
 
88 
 
 '« 
 
 I fee), Sir, a condescension in introducin<», 
 ibi the purpose of denying, the icMe and 
 ridiculous tale of rrench influence, which 
 has so disrespectfully and disgracefully to 
 our country, been circulated by newspapers. 
 Sir, this idle and ridiculous tale of French 
 influence, I have strong reasons to believe, 
 was originally suggested by British influ-' 
 ence. The tale was probably invented by 
 tne British cabinet about the same time of 
 the invention of the tale respecting the 
 secret aiticle in the treaty of Tilsit, that 
 the Danes had agreed to give up their fleet 
 to the French Emperor to facilitate his inva- 
 sion of Great Britain. This tale. I believe. 
 Lord Hutchinson has since pronounced,' 
 in the British parliament, to be a falsehood. 
 About the same period, this same energetic 
 British cabinet probably determined upon 
 the destruction of American commerce, 
 although the orders for tiiat purpose were 
 not actually issued for several months after- 
 wards. Some tale was thought necessary 
 for the justification of the act, and the sug- 
 gestion of French influence operating upon 
 
r^*v/^wmi-,;il^*ffe^i^ 
 
 89 
 
 our CDuncils Avas probably the one sucr- 
 gested/ 
 
 » 
 
 "I have heard it said, and believe it to be 
 true, that the governor of Nova Scotia 
 made the suggestion, in a letter addressed 
 to certain British partisans in Boston. It 
 is hardly to be presumed, that he would 
 have taken upon himself the responsibility 
 of such a suggestion without the authority 
 of the cabinet. I am inclined to think 
 that this fact could be proved in a court of 
 justice. Perhaps there may be gentlemen 
 here from Boston, who could give us more 
 particular information on this subject. 
 I feel, Sir, a condescension in touching 
 on this subject. I wish to see all extra- 
 neous influence utterly banished from the 
 country, and the only operating influence 
 — American influence.'' 
 
 *' I have, now, Sir, gone through this un- 
 pleasant, and, I fear, unprofitable discus- 
 sion, respecting the character of measures 
 heretofore adopted by the government; 
 
( . 
 
 90 
 
 the only hope I have from it is, that it may 
 put us into a better temper for deliberating 
 on the measures now proper to be adopted. 
 Let me then, Mr. President, call the atten- 
 tion of tlie senate, to the actual situation 
 of the United Slates at this time." 
 
 I 
 
 " The United States are now left alone, to 
 protect neutral principles against the belli- 
 gerent encroachments of a warring world. — 
 In all former wars, the belligerent encroach- 
 ments have been proportioned to the influ- 
 ence of the powers at war, compared to the 
 influence of those ! xiiaining at peace; but 
 I believe history presents no example of 
 the warring powers at any former time put- 
 ting at defiance all neutral rights, all public 
 law. It remained for the present times to 
 witness this unexampled aggression ; and 
 it remained for the United States alone to 
 bear the shock. This state of things im- 
 poses on them a great, a sacred obligation: 
 The obligation of protecting neutral prin- 
 ciples.— Principles ^vhich lessen the induce- 
 ments to war, and mitigate its rigor.— 
 
«w '^«S»?.._^, 
 
 91 
 
 Prlnciplrs highly Intorestiag to mankiiul ; 
 not only to the present, but to future gene- 
 rations, and in a peculiar manner, to the 
 people of the United States. This arises 
 from their remote situation from the great 
 contending nations of Europe. — Hitherto, 
 Sir, the talents displayed in defining, and 
 the magnanimity in protecting, these prin- 
 ciples, have obtained for the United States, 
 the respect and sympathy of an astonished 
 world.— And shall we. Sir, at the moment 
 of an extraordinary pressure, basely aban- 
 don them without striking a blow ? Forbid 
 it interest! Forbid it honor! Forbid it, 
 American gallantry ! But, Sir, some gen- 
 tlemen seem not sufficiently impressed with 
 the hostile character of the belligerent 
 aggressions.— ^F/7A respect to those of France, 
 there is but one opinion. They amount to 
 hostility itself r- But, Sir, to my astonish- 
 ment, the acts of Great Britain seem not 
 to have made the same strong impression 
 on the minds of some gentlemen. Let me 
 then inquire. Sir, into the real character of 
 acts, which can by some gentlemen be 
 
i 
 
 92 
 
 palliated or excused? They are acts 
 a Tiounting to colonisation and taxation— 
 to the exercise of the national sovereignty 
 of the United States. Great Britain has 
 even gone so far, as to exercise an act of 
 sovereignty over the people of the United 
 States, which they would not entrust to 
 Congress, but retained to themselves in 
 their highest sovereign capacity." 
 
 And on the 2nd of December, he chal- 
 lenges the opposition to show an instance 
 of it— « again, Sir,let me ask the gentleman, 
 if he has heard any apology for the hostile 
 conduct of France, either in this house or 
 any where else? Has not every person 
 declared, that that conduct was hostility 
 itself?'' " Mr. President,^' he adds, « whether 
 the gentleman intended to make insinua- 
 tions, or inferences, or surmises, or suspi- 
 cions, or assertions, if he pleases, of French 
 influence, as operating either upon the 
 executive, or upon this body, I here in my 
 place do pronounce the whole to be utterly 
 unfounded." 
 
93 
 
 rrom General Smith's speech in the 
 senate, 28 November, 1808, " the owners 
 of these ships ouglit to bless the wisdom 
 and firmness of those, who laid the embargo, 
 and thus saved this immense tonnage from 
 British depredation and condenmation. un- 
 der their orders of council, and from Trench 
 burning and destruction, under the wfernal 
 decree of Milan/' The epithet here used 
 against the French, is no where to be found 
 against the English, nor any thing like it, in 
 this very long speech on the subject.— 
 Finally, in the whole intercourse of France, 
 with the United States on the offers mutually 
 proposed to France and England by the 
 American government, up to the time of 
 her revocation of the Berlin and Milan 
 decrees ; her conduct has evinced a most 
 unbecoming dissatisfaction, and even at 
 that time she kept merely within the line 
 that made it the duty of the president to 
 issue his proclamation. She conditioned that 
 revocation with the precise alternative, that 
 the law authorised the president to pledge, , 
 and besides this demand of a rlnfv ^vhi^h 
 
^■1 
 
 ■mn 
 
 94 
 
 she knew he was bound to perforin, they at 
 tlie same time instituted municipal arrange- 
 ments essentially affecting tJic trade of the 
 United States with 'the interior of France, 
 in a form, which without any pretence of 
 retaliation was legal indeed, but most 
 unfriendly. 
 
 It is a subject of serious regret, that the 
 ruler of France should be aided so much in 
 his politics by the authorities intended to 
 enlighten the government of England.- — 
 -Mr. Oddy and Sir Francis D'lvernoy by 
 exposing and boasting of the channels of 
 trade which he could not obstruct, have 
 awakened Buonaparte to the measure of 
 planting Douaniers where he perhaps wouid 
 not have thought of it; and the advice of 
 Mr. Fox, that every blow struck at Ameri- 
 ca recoiled upon England, though practi- 
 cally despised here, has been found true 
 enough with him to be acted upon as a 
 fundamental maxim. His decrees relative 
 to tobacco and cotton, for example, more 
 than the heavy duties he imposes on other 
 
95 
 
 articles, are a direct deprivation of a j,,],,, 
 cipal means heretofore used, ot remitting 
 through the continent for British manufac- 
 tures, and that mode of deprivation too to 
 which no legal or physical means can be 
 opposed.— This is no affair with which we- 
 can pretend a right to interfere ; but the 
 United States may, if they please, oppose 
 to it similar restrictions ; and tiles'^ '"-sr^He 
 of all the fine notions of part • 'he 
 piesident has already propose e 
 
 committee of foreign affairs too, u. h 
 they state the revocation of the Berlin and 
 Mihm decrees, reproved in one breath, the 
 mad ambition of a single chief, and the 
 avarice of a corrupted court. Our News- 
 papers have monopolised this last as an 
 object of partial resentment without any 
 commendation of the former. And what 
 think you of the communication of Mr. 
 Monroe, on the requisition of the senate, 
 for information on the existing state of 
 trade with France at the moment when 
 preparations are making for an eventual 
 war with her enemy ? Not finding the inform- 
 
■WBX 
 
 96 
 
 ation required, and waiting its arrival 
 from Fiance, he says, **it niuy be |>roper to 
 observe, tliat it ia generally understood, us 
 well from the letters of Mr. Russell, eommu* 
 uicated to Congress at the commencement 
 of the present session, as from other 
 sources, that the trade of the United State* 
 to France is subjected to very severe restric- 
 tions ; but the precise extent and nature of 
 them is not distinctly known to this 
 department." — This is as late as the Ifithof 
 Jan. of the present year.— Strung symptoms 
 of partiality and French influence ! !— 
 
 
 While on the subject of recent advices, it 
 may not be amiss to notice the report or 
 the surmise (for it is nothing more) of the 
 resumption between Mr. Monroe and Mr. 
 Foster, of the treaty projected in the jx^ar 
 1806, and which is already seized on to 
 indulge and keep alive the antipacific 
 dispositions, which so much effort has been 
 used to promote.— -Before we triumph in 
 the notion of making them take back a 
 treaty that they have rejected, we had 
 
ta>< I 
 
 97 
 
 better ascerUiin tlnit it was a treaty. — 
 Whether the project were guod ur bad does 
 not enter into this question. The primary 
 
 ol)jectoftliegoveni!nt'iit()filiel'nitedStates 
 in oppointing commissioners for making this 
 trea\Y,— the sine qua non was omitted in it 
 altogether ;-~no subject has more excited 
 the sensibility of the American people, 
 than the impressment of their seamen.— 
 Mr. Madison had communicatc^d, both to 
 Mr. Merry and Mr. Monroe, early in the 
 year 1805, that every preceding adminis- 
 tration had maintained the doctrine for 
 which he was contending on that point, and 
 that no administration would dare to 
 surrender it ; the American commissioners 
 had communicated their instructions to the 
 British; the treaty in other respects progress- 
 ing favorably was interrupted on this 
 ground alone; a substitute was proposed 
 by the British commissioners, which of 
 necessity reduced the negotiation to a 
 proposal, for the acceptance or rejection of 
 the American governraent; as such it 
 
 
 V 
 
 commissioners ; as such, transmitted to the 
 
 o 
 
 .; ..•'1 
 
98 
 
 {r<ry>y^ 
 
 ^e--i- 
 
 -president; as siich,coinnuinicate(i by him 
 ,., A<^^ to the senate; as such rejected, if you 
 p-^ AV'ill, for it was returned unratified to the 
 ^ttryx. conimissioners with orders to make the same 
 ^ ^^^«^'/pnmary object, which had before been 
 ' ]/ ^ -^ ' ^"^^'^^^^ upon, the subject of special stipu- 
 j ^ij^"' instead of leaving it depending on 
 ^/ yv^n informal note which accompanied the 
 y^ i\;£iity, but which left the subject open to 
 
 ■t-->-^' 
 
 t. 
 
 c- 
 
 future discussion. 
 
 -*-t^ •-■ 
 
 l.,^ fc *y 
 
 / 
 
 /C/'y\ Convinced as I am, that this important 
 ^ ' * subject n ight, with a little time and atten- 
 tion, be reconciled to the two-fold object, of 
 obtaining the greatest possible number of 
 the British seamen, that from time to time 
 find their way into the American service, 
 (i.e. their merchant service; for their ships 
 of war are actually interdicted- from 
 receiving any foreigners on board) and 
 securing the American seamen from British 
 impressment ; I cannot \ ell doubt that with 
 the dispositions by which the administra- 
 tion of that day were actuated, a plan 
 would have been struck out, by which Ab 
 
iii^^ji«HSii^sillR'*i'm»*i5gl«MK,'^ 
 
 .A 
 
 99 
 
 im pn rtt i nf r . il :y£ct would have been accom- 
 plished, tlie pubhc preiiulices would have 
 been removed, deeply as they had been 
 planted, and as the two governments were 
 content with reciprocal benefits, and free 
 from the hostile feeling which is only 
 content to rise by each other's fall, the 
 measure that would embrace these objects 
 would have been executed with little or no 
 abuse,— that this was not the case, does 
 appear to me to have resulted from the 
 change of administration. The instruc- 
 tions of the president upon this occasion 
 were calculated to produce any thing but 
 irritation ; and the modifications required, 
 were even in a fair train of adjustment, 
 when the government, from circumstances 
 totally unconnected with this object, passed 
 into other hands. — 1 once thought I never 
 should live to see the time when the popular 
 voice could be so moulded by liie poiop of 
 words, so diverted by the art of the states- 
 man, so long and so powerfully litld in 
 fetters, as I am constrained to ucknondedo-e 
 it does appear to nje to be at this time; 
 

 100 
 
 and I trust it is not from clinging unreason- 
 ably to a notion of the importance of public 
 opinion to the character of free-men, that 
 I still hope that, with somewhat more deli- 
 beration than appears quite necessary, that 
 important engine may be brought to bear 
 on the national interests and to correct their 
 wanderings. On the receipt of the informa- 
 tion that the British commissioners would 
 not agree to a positive and satisfactory 
 stipulation on the subject of impressments, 
 but were willing (postponing this object for 
 the discussion of any plan that could be de- 
 vised to secure the interests of both states, in 
 this particular,) to proceed to the completion 
 of the other articles; Mr. Madison advises 
 the commissioners (Feb, 3rd, 1807) " that 
 the president thinks it more eligible, under 
 all circumstances, that if no satisfactory or 
 formal stipulation on the subject of impress- 
 ment be attainable, the negotiation should 
 be made to terminate without any formal 
 compact whatever; but with a mutual 
 understanding, founded on friendly and 
 i;Kovo1 rlicniiasi^p^ «Tid ex nlanations, that in 
 
""WTTr 
 
 . p^-'-m^mmme^''^ 
 
 101 
 
 practice each party should entirely conform 
 to what may be thus informally settled; 
 and authorises them, in case an arramje- 
 ment of this kind shall be satisfactory in 
 its substance, to give assurances that as 
 long as it shall be duly respected in practice 
 by the other party, more particularly on 
 the subjects of neutral trade and impress- 
 ments, it will be earnestly, and probably 
 successfully, recommended to congress by 
 the president, not to permit the non-impor- 
 tation act to go into operation." 
 
 This letter and the treaty, without the 
 requisite article, crossed each other on the 
 ocean. — ^The treaty arrived on the 15th of 
 March, io07; ^ copy of it had been 
 received by Mr. Erskine on the 3rd, the 
 day that congress adjourned, and by him 
 communicated to the executive of the 
 United States, with copy of a note from 
 the British to the American commissioners, 
 setting forth certain contin^yencies, in the 
 event of which his Majesty would not con- 
 ceive himself bound to ratify the treaty on 
 its return. 
 
:•! 
 
 I 
 
 ■ ( 
 
 102 
 
 Here then we see that the treaty passed 
 the Atlantic as an experiment, in the two- 
 fold doubt whether it would be ratified by 
 the President on that side or by the King 
 on this.— On the 18th of March, Mr. 
 Madison advises the American commis- 
 sioners of the receipt of the treaty as 
 above ; and refers them to his letter of the 
 3rd of February, signifying the president's 
 desire that the negotiation may proceed, 
 as therein stated, and his subsequent in- 
 structions are to the same effect. With 
 what face then can it be pretended that 
 the president had deviated in any shape 
 from what he was in any shape bound to 
 perform?— 1 do not much wonder, indeed, 
 that such ideas should be propagated. — To 
 read the note of Mr. Canning to Messrs. 
 Monroe and Pinkney, of the 22nd of Oc- 
 tober, 1807, without looking to the docu- 
 ments in which the factsof the case appear, 
 one would supi)ose that the American 
 government, instead of proposing to renew 
 the negotiation, or break it of( altogether 
 under the friendly aad infornial under- 
 
 
 
*«i^.p^Kaiir^'m^i«WK.m^«"*^ 
 
 103 
 
 standing above mentioned, had proposed 
 to retain the articles with which it was 
 satisfied, and reject and alter, or rather 
 insert others, which were objectionable or 
 deficient.-— The Right Honorable Secretary 
 protests in a high style against this prac- 
 tice, in a manner to make the reader 
 believe, that a thing so unreasonable had 
 been assumed as a right on the part of the 
 American government. — " If the American 
 government has a right to exercise such a 
 revision, an equal right cannot be denied 
 to others.'' — AVho ever said it could ? — 
 A number of self-evident maxims are 
 asserted in this letter, in a way to mislead 
 the reader into a belief, that the American 
 government had committed a breach of 
 them, or was seeking a deviation from 
 them ; and, taken in combination with the 
 unfriendly spirit that is to be seen in so 
 many instances flowing from the same pen, 
 it requires no small stretch of charity to 
 believe they were written with any other 
 view. — " No engagements were entered 
 into on the part of his Majesty, as connected 
 
104 
 
 n 
 
 with the treaty, except such as appear 
 upon the face of it/' — This is at best ecjui- 
 vocal ; it might have been hoped, possibly 
 expected, that the president would ratify 
 the treaty under the engagement, that was 
 certainly given, to reconsider the question of 
 impressments, and attend to any plan, that 
 might be proposed in future on that sub- 
 ject ; but it is quite inconceivable that the 
 British commissioners, after the discussion 
 the subject had undergone, should have 
 counted upon it with that degree of cer- 
 tainty, if certainty it can be called, which 
 attends those stipulations of ministers, 
 submitted for ratification, which leave 
 no such subject unadjusted. 
 
 
 M 
 
 " It is known to the British commis- 
 sioners," (say Messrs. Monroe and Pinkney 
 to Mr. Madison, November 11th, 1806) 
 " that in proceeding under existing circum- 
 stances, we shall do it on our own respon- 
 sibility." And how this first and most 
 material of all the objects contemplatetl by 
 the American eovernment, could be consi- 
 
('f'- '"-*: -..^...^-''Wwr 
 
 105 
 
 dered otherwise, even in the form in which 
 it was placed, than as connected with the 
 treaty > is to me quite incomprehensible. 
 Moreover the reservation expressly made 
 by his Majesty upon contingencies of a 
 doubtful nature, hypothetical in fact, and 
 liable, as we have since seen, to a variety 
 of constructions and misconstructions, laid 
 the subject as nmch open to future dis- 
 cussion, and made its issue more dubious, 
 than the engagement to reconsider the 
 question of impressments. The question 
 of the right of ratifying orrefusing a treaty 
 by the head of the government, is not now 
 to be settled. — That it ought to be sparingly 
 exercised, and never without good and 
 sufficient reasons, is not to be disputed. 
 But, when Mr. Canning protests against 
 the practice as unusual even in the manner 
 he refers to, he is most unhappy. — ^The last 
 preceding treaty with the United States, 
 was altered by General Washington, by the 
 entire expunging of a very important arti- 
 cle, and the alteration agreed to, and the 
 Rip^ht Honorable Gentleman was Ion 
 
106 
 
 enougli in administration to meet an 
 instance, the first subsequent instance, of 
 a treaty with the United States, in which 
 his own minister had failed to contbnn to 
 the instructions of his government, and 
 he made no hesitation to dissolve it. In 
 this case too, the instructions were not 
 communicated : there was nothing to leave 
 the American government to doubt of the 
 execution of the treaty. In analogy with 
 the ordinary policy of the Right Honorable 
 Gentleman, the instructions prohibited in 
 substance what they allowed in words. — 
 A young negotiator was not ordered, but 
 permitted to exhibit them with a view to 
 promote, what such exhibition could not 
 fail to destroy. The disingenuousness of 
 the Right Honorable Secretary on this 
 occasion, combined with it a portion of 
 cruelty. — ^lo the plainest and most impu- 
 dent insinuations of doubt in the positive 
 assurances of the chief officers of the Ame- 
 rican government, he adds a charge of 
 partiality in the indirect, but not less 
 intelligible, form of a " symptom of impar- 
 
 s 
 
^i' L::yi^ff'Wm'- '^A*^#illB|^prW**'. 
 
 
 107 
 
 tiality; the first that has been publicly 
 manilested by the American government ;" 
 and by leaving it on the face of the letter 
 to the option of the minister to communi* 
 cateitiw extetjso to the American govern- 
 ment, he left him no choice but to be 
 party in the rudeness, and thus trip at 
 the threshold a conciHatory negotiation, 
 or to withhold his instructions and act 
 upon the presumed inten/ions of the King, /t" 
 which the minister had apparently, if not 
 evidently, perverted. — If it were not 
 intended that this negotiation too, should 
 prove abortive, no one will pretend that 
 it was carefully guarded from miscarriage. 
 — But this pretence of partiality brings me 
 back to the subject, which I promised to 
 treat of iu this letter— to wit, the mutual 
 encroacliments of the belligerents, and the 
 reception they met with tVom the United 
 States. 
 
 We have seen the causes of the exclusion 
 first, of the particular aggressors, and after- 
 wards, on account of the attack on the 
 
108 
 
 Chesapeake, of the generahty of the Bfn 
 tish ships of war. — The construction of the 
 Berhn decree, in tlie condemnation of the 
 ship Horizon, and the British orders in 
 council, having arrived in America about 
 the same time, called forth the measure of 
 a general embargo. Whether any of these 
 events were officially announced at the 
 time, can be of no consequence ; since it 
 is clear that the information before the 
 ^ ^j^ American government left no doubt of the 
 ^>^^cts ; and the measure affejfted was of a 
 "^ nature to be immediately revoked, if wiser 
 councils on either side had been adopted. 
 In addition to the captures under the new 
 and unfavorable construction of the Berlin 
 decree, and under the Milan decree, issued in 
 , pretence of retaliation of the then new orders 
 
 /^ ^^"^^-^in council, the Frenchjiad made no scruple 
 of burning a number of merchant ships at 
 sea, to prevent their cot ^ being disco- 
 vered ; and^efused, or (wi* the Ameri- 
 can government considered the same thing) 
 had not consented to pay for them. And 
 this led to the measure of extending to the 
 
 / 
 
 ^rvt.>^ 
 
 I /i- 
 
 A^- 
 
 / 
 
 ■> •- ^ XC 
 
 <f 
 
 
 y^/r f*-^. y~>-a > *-T,^- 
 

 
 '.'Jl 
 
 109 
 
 French ships of war the siiine interdiction 
 iVom the American waters, that had before 
 been applied to tlie British, \\. conse- 
 qiience of the breach of the law of nations, 
 in the affair of the Chesapeake. But for 
 the flicility with which the public are led 
 astray on these subjects, and with which 
 even men of your standing in life, are 
 drawn into the stream of popular error; 
 it would not be worth while to extend 
 this letter, (already much too long) by a 
 comment on the perversion on the part of 
 Mr. Canning, of the evidence to be drawn 
 from this measure. There is no class of 
 people, that one would not wish enlight- 
 ened on subjects of such serious national 
 interest; but the greatest regret lies in the 
 necessity of the man of business adopting 
 the pretensions of a minister, from his 
 inability to investigate the sources of in- 
 formation.— Intelligent and influential 
 characters are thus diverted from the true 
 case, by those pursuits of industry, which 
 cannot be too much commended :— -a cir- 
 cumstance which adds to the criminality 
 
i i 
 
 of their deceivers. It is not much less 
 deplorable, that protessional i)ursuits 
 should so far divert the more industrious 
 part of those, whose talents and education 
 would cniihle tliein to form a more accurate 
 judgment on the nicer points in contest, or 
 to discover the subtilties by which the 
 truth is evaded. The exclusion of the 
 British sHps of war, in consequence of the 
 attack on Ihc Chesapeake, (provoking as 
 that cause is allowed on all hands to be) is 
 not only treated by Mr. Canning as an act 
 of partiality — *' The partiality of that 
 regulation alone gave it liostility," but the 
 subse(iuent extension of that interdiction 
 to the Frenrli ,lii|i s of war, is stated by him 
 as the first symptom of impartiality, that 
 had been publicly manifested by the Ame- 
 rici:;i government.— The French had attacked 
 no Chesapeake, nruidercd no citi7ens, nor 
 stolen a man ; why then should they be 
 included in the measure of resentment 
 for that act? — If, standing between two 
 bullies, I receive a blow from one, I may 
 surely return it on him, »vithout "beins: 
 
 or 
 
 . :«B«!s/!-«s«(a#«? 
 
:h less 
 ►ursuits 
 strious 
 icatiou 
 ;curatc 
 test, or 
 ch the 
 of the 
 
 of the 
 ing as 
 
 be) is 
 m act 
 ' that 
 ut the 
 lictiou 
 >y him 
 ', that 
 
 acked 
 
 s, nor 
 ey be 
 tment 
 I two 
 [may 
 being 
 
 111 
 
 ' rharged with partiality to the other. But 
 the French ships of war afterwards burned, 
 as above said, the American ships at sc.i,' 
 and then for this act, they also were inter- 
 dicted the Ameri(!an waters. To state one 
 of tliese as a partial, and the other as an 
 impartial regulation, is stating both wrong. 
 —Taken collectively, indeed, they may be 
 considered as positive evidence of that 
 impartiality, for which negative evidence 
 would have been sufficient.— A "first symp- 
 tom of impartiality '' supposes a previous 
 act of partiality, which I do maintain, 
 notwithstanding the extent to which that 
 opinion has been artfully disseminated, 
 cannot be truly demonstrated, because it 
 does not exist. In the minor cases as well 
 as in this, the resentment has been appro- 
 priate to the aggression, till both the belli- 
 gerents had proceeded so far as to invite 
 a general exclusion, and when this measure 
 was adopted, it M^as accompanied with 
 authority to the executive of the United 
 States, to renew the intercourse with both, 
 or eitiier, of the belligerent nations, that 
 
ft 
 
 112 
 
 should so far revoke or modify her edicts, 
 that they should cease to violate the neu- 
 tral rights of the United States; but we 
 are not left to any thing like hypothesis or 
 inference, to show that it is in the face of a 
 positive and notorious fact, that Mr. 
 Canning has made the assertion, that this 
 was the first act of impartiality manifested 
 by the American government. The Presi- 
 dent had been previously vested with a 
 similar authority, to raise the embargo, in 
 whole or in part, according to the conduct 
 of the respective belligerents. The offers 
 that he made to each, by virtue of this 
 authority, will, I presume, not be denied 
 to be in the nature of positive evidence; 
 whether impartial or not, will be best de- 
 monstrated by a comparison of them. In 
 his message to the senate, he says, " The 
 instructions to our ministers, with respect 
 to the different belligerents, were necessa- 
 rily modified with a reference to their 
 different circumstances, and to the condi- 
 tion annexed by law to the executive 
 power of suspension, requiring a degree of 
 
. 
 
 113 
 
 security to our commerce, which would not 
 result from a repeal of the decrees of France. 
 Instead of a pledge, therefore, of a sus- 
 pension of the embargo, as to her, in case 
 of such a repeal, it was presumed, that a 
 sufficient inducement might be found in 
 other considerations, and particularly in 
 the change produced by a comphance with 
 our just demands by one belligerent, and a 
 refusal by the other, in the relations be- 
 tween the other and the United States. 
 To Great Britain, whose power on the ocean 
 is so ascendant, it was deemed not inconsist^ 
 ent with that condition, to state explicithj, 
 that on her rescinding her orders in relation 
 to the United States, their trade would be 
 opened zmth her, and re?7iain shut to hen 
 enemy, in case of his failure to rescind his 
 decrees also. From France, no answer 
 has been received, nor any indication th.t 
 the requisite change in her decrees is con- 
 templated. I'he favorable reception of the 
 proposition to Great J3ritain was the less 
 to be doubted, as her orders of council had 
 
 H 
 
 ;.«*^'*«in* 
 
I . 
 
 114 
 
 not only beei referred for their vindication 
 to an acquiescence on the part of the 
 United States no longer to be pretended, 
 but as the arrangement proposed, whilst it 
 resisted the illegal decrees of I'rance, in- 
 volved moreover, substantially, the precise 
 advantages professedly aimed at by the 
 British orders. The arrangement has, 
 nevertheless, been rejected/' 
 
 4 
 
 1 presume, the partiality pretended by Mr. 
 Canning is not that which favors Great Bri- 
 tain, neither is there any such in fact, 
 although there is sufficient appearance of it 
 here to be made a pretext for litigation in 
 the hands of a caviller ; but the reason for 
 offering to Great Britain, without delay, 
 that freedom of intercourse, or emancipa- 
 tion from the effects of the embargo, which 
 was proposed to France, subject to the con- 
 tingency of the previous consent of Eng- 
 land, is assigned on the face of the message; 
 to wit, the ascendency of the power of the 
 former upon the ocean. 
 
 '; "•J»I#i»««^: 
 
115 
 
 Let us now revert to the instructions 
 from Mr. Madison, to the American minis- 
 ters in France and England, here referred 
 to, and this will be best done by placing 
 them beside each other. 
 
 To Mr. PiNKNEY, 
 
 April SOf 1803. 
 
 ** The conditions on which 
 the authority is to be exercised, 
 appeal equally to the justice 
 and policy of the two great 
 belligerent powers, which are 
 now emulating each other in 
 a violation of both. The 
 President counts on your en- 
 deavors to give to this appeal, 
 all the effect possible with 
 the British government. Ge- 
 neral Armstrong will be 
 doing the same with that of 
 France. The relation, in 
 which a revocation of its un- 
 just decrees by either will 
 place the United States to 
 the other, is obvious, and 
 ought to be a motive to 
 the ;.:easure, proportioned to 
 the desiie which has been 
 manifestod hv pui h i,\ rvr^_ 
 
 To General Armstrong, 
 May% 1808. 
 
 " The conditions on which 
 the suspending authority is to 
 be exercised, will engage 
 your particular attention. 
 They appeal equally to the 
 justice, and the policy of the 
 two great belligerent powers, 
 now emulating each other in 
 violations of both. The Pre- 
 sident counts on your best 
 endeavors to give to this ap- 
 peal all the effect possible 
 with the French government. 
 Mr. Pinkney will be doing 
 the same with that of Great 
 Britain. The relation in 
 which a recal of its retaliating 
 decrees, by either power, 
 will place the United States 
 to the other, is obvious, and 
 ought to be a motive to the 
 measure, proportioned to the 
 
116 
 
 I . 
 
 diice collision between the 
 United States and its adver- 
 sary, and wliich must be 
 equally felt by each, to avoid 
 one with itself. 
 
 " Should the French go- 
 vernment revoke so much of 
 its decrees as violate our neu- 
 tral rights, or give explana- 
 tions and assurances having 
 the like etfect, and intitling 
 it therefore to a removal of 
 the embargo, as it applies to 
 France, it will be impossible 
 to view a perseverance of 
 Great Britain in her retali- 
 ating orders, in any other 
 light than that of war, with- 
 out even the pretext now 
 assumed bv her." 
 
 i i 
 
 desire \\ hich has been mani- 
 fested by each, to produce 
 collisions between the United 
 States and its adversary, and 
 which must be equally felt 
 by each, to avoid one with 
 itself. 
 
 " Should wiser councils, 
 or increasing distresses, in- 
 duce Great Britain to revoke 
 her impolitic orders against 
 neutral conmierce, and there- 
 by prej)are the way for a 
 removal of the embargo, as 
 it applies to her, France 
 could not persist in the ille- 
 gal part of her decrees, if 
 she does not mean to force a 
 contest vvidi the United States. 
 On the olher hand, should 
 she set the example of levo- 
 cation, Great Britain would 
 be obliged, either by follow- 
 ing it, to rcstoie to France 
 the full benefit of neutral 
 trade, which she needs ; or 
 by persevering in her obnox- 
 ious orders, after the pretext 
 for them had ceased, to render 
 collisions with the United 
 States inevitable." 
 
 ,«*ft^ w^SBP "* 
 
117 
 
 I believe you will not perceive any ma- 
 terial difference in these two propositions ; 
 they are essentially, and in respect to most 
 of the material words verbatim, the same, 
 and evince, as powerfully as could be reason- 
 ably dcsired,that positive evidence of impar- 
 tiality on the part of the government of the 
 United States, that disprove, the pretension 
 of Mr. Canning ; it required the scrutiny as 
 well as the disingenuousness of an associate 
 secretary to discover a verbal difference.— 
 The difference between the persisting of 
 France indicating an intention on her part 
 to force a contest; and the perseverance of 
 Great Britain being to be viewed in no other 
 light than war, was sufficient (with a mind 
 predisposed) to show an outrageous par- 
 tiality on the part of the American govern- 
 ment towards France. The term * collision' 
 had been used in both cases, and in both 
 ahke, but to anticipate only a contest with 
 France, and a war with England, was a 
 danmable heresy. AVith those who had 
 been long in possession of the doeumenls, 
 and had preoccupied the public mind with 
 
 It. 
 . 1 ' 
 
i i 
 
 118 
 
 the notion of their shewing this partiality, 
 this little fire was capable of kindling a 
 great matter — it caused much strife in 
 debate; 
 
 " Long time the battle hung in equal scale ;" 
 
 • 
 
 till another passage from the same docu- 
 ments, too cold and wet from the press to 
 be at his fingers* ends, caught the eye 
 of the orator : " if France does not wish 
 to throw the United States into the 
 WAR against her, (says Mr. Madison to 
 General Armstrong, July 22d,) for which 
 it is impossible to find a rational or plausi- 
 ble inducement, she ought not to hesitate 
 a moment in revoking, at least, so much of 
 her decrees as violate the rights of the sea, 
 and furnish to her adversary the pretext for 
 his retaliating measures." — If the word had 
 been foiind again on the other side, the 
 partiality towards France would, no doubt, 
 liave been proved logically and mathemati- 
 cally, at the rate of two for one. In what 
 edition of the reports you will find this, I 
 
 . i^t^'i^tmr.i. 
 
 .'^■'«»l**il»». 
 
119 
 
 know not, but of this I am well persuaded, 
 the hearer that was not moved at the em- 
 phasis of Lord Grcnville in pronouncing 
 " here is the word," would sleep over one 
 of jour sermons. 
 
 To establish still further the doctrine 
 of partiality, it was more than insinuated 
 in this debate, that with other adminis- 
 trations in America, better terms might 
 have been expected. This does not ap- 
 pear in all the reports where the answer 
 to it does. Divide and govern, is a good 
 rule against your enemy, or those you are 
 endeavoring to make such ; it often fails 
 however when put to the test. In explana- 
 tion, the noble secretary asserted, that he 
 had only stated, that if the same disposi- 
 tions to friendship prevailed in America 
 now, as when Washington and Adams were 
 in office, the same difficulties would not be 
 felt— Unhappily there is no Washington 
 now in the world, but Mr. Adams was 
 living and well when the last accounts left 
 America; and here follows an extract of a 
 
120 . 
 
 letter from him, of tlie 26th of December, 
 1808, published in the National Intelli- 
 gencer at tlie seat of governmeiit. After 
 recommending the arming of merchantmen 
 to defend themselves against all unlawful 
 aggressors; and take, burn, or destroy, all 
 vessels, or make prize of them, as enemies, 
 that shall attack them ; and in the mean 
 time to build a great number of frigates*, 
 not to be assembled, but scattered and 
 separated as much as possible, for which, 
 " no nation under the sun has better mate- 
 rials, architects, or mariners ;"— to scour 
 the seas and make impression on die ene- 
 my's commerce, in Avhich great things may 
 be done ; he finishes with die following 
 paragraph : 
 
 \ii 
 
 " My heart is with the Spanish patriots, 
 and I should be glad to assist them as far 
 as our commerce can supply them. I con- 
 clude with acknowledging that we have 
 received greater injuries from England than 
 from France^ ahominabk as both have been. 
 
 
 ^u/ 
 
 A 
 
 
 
 *S»^'*B 
 
t > 
 
 121 
 
 niiatever the government determines, I shall 
 support as far as trnj small voice extends:* 
 
 lie adds in a Postscript: 
 
 " N. B. The tribute, and British licen- 
 ces, must be prohibited under adequate 
 pcnaJties/' 
 
 Neither the date nor the tenor of this 
 letter, vil] ever, I presume, be called in 
 evidence of the accuracy of the noble secre- 
 tary's information. Some cabinets, indeed, 
 would have had it l>efore them at the time, 
 but this I do not believe was the case here; 
 for by how much error is less blamable 
 than deceit, by so much is it more chari- 
 table to charge his Lordship's opinion to 
 the former than to the latter ; but charity 
 itself, sin-covering cloak as it is, cannot, 
 I think, acquit such an opinion of both. 
 
 But these detours will be endless at this 
 rate; I shall, therefore, leave you to apply 
 any epithet you please, to the lanouno-e 
 
'122 
 
 <^ and conduct of the French governnieut 
 ., subsequent to that we have been consider- 
 
 ^ r<H^/w ing: you cannot find any too t»d-inniy 
 estimation ; only let it be allowed that the 
 United States, in the exercise of the " right 
 to elect their own policy with regard to 
 France, as they have with regard to Eng- 
 land/' have taken care as well " to make 
 that government sensible of the oflfensive 
 tone employed," as " to leave the way 
 open for friendly and respectful explana- 
 tions/' 
 
 , That Mr. Pinkney went the full length 
 of his tether in laboring to execute the con- 
 ciliatory instructions of the President, no 
 man who reads the correspondence can 
 doubt for a moment : the relative situation 
 in r hich the two countries should stand to 
 each other, namely, the most friendly, was 
 the continual theme of his public discussions, 
 and the wish he always expressed at those 
 moments of hilarity and social enjoyment, 
 when public men are called on by a *toast 
 
 to exnrPSS thpir Rpnfiinpnt'^ OP r»nWir» nnn« 
 
 1**!»9R. l«l^<<«««f^SS^>SB»v., 
 
to 
 
 123 
 
 cerns, — that Iiis hoart was engaged in it isJ 
 not more evident froin. the suavity of his 
 manner, while hope icmained, than from 
 the acrimony he betrayed when forbearance 
 was no longer a virtue; his construction of 
 tlic evidences arising from the letters of 
 Marquis Wellesley, of the 2d, and particu- 
 lariy of the 26th of Marcli, 1810, can only 
 be ascribed to that bias of hope which per- 
 verts the judgment of the mind intent on 
 a desired object, and which is powerful in 
 proportion to the strength of the desire. 
 
 It is thus evident, that the labors of the 
 government of the United States to assert 
 and maintain their neutral rights, and to 
 restore their commerce with the belligerent 
 nations to its fair innnunities, invaded by 
 both, were ably seconded by their ministers 
 abroad. That the impartiality, guarded by 
 the utmost caution in their instructions, was 
 maintained by them in the execution of 
 them ; and clearly that the eftbrts of Mr. 
 Pirkney, to adjust, in the most conciliatory 
 manner, the differences subsisting between 
 
124 
 
 America and tliis country, were co-extensive 
 with the views oF the President, congenial 
 with his own |)ohtical opinion, and an 
 object very near his heart. 
 
 As these observations apply generally to 
 the subject, which I have treated rather 
 diffusely, it will not be amiss to recapi- 
 tulate, en abrege, the propositions of the 
 American government already referred 
 to ; subjoining what has not been speci- 
 ally noticed — 1st, On the embargo laid 
 on the22d of Decenjber, 1807 ; " at which 
 time (as the committee of congress say) it 
 was well understood in this country, that the 
 British Orders of Council of November 
 preceding had issued, although they were 
 not officially conmumicated to our govern- 
 ment." The proposition, as we have seen, 
 was like a merchant's circular letter.— Being 
 most reasonable as proposed to both, it 
 succeeded of course with neither belligerent- 
 
 ■ t 
 
 Next came the Act of Non-intercourse 
 of the 1st of March, 1809 ; this Act, con- 
 
125 
 
 teinplatincr, as I suppose, the fetters iu 
 ^vhicl, other countries were held, and the 
 tbrce imposed upon them to eonforni to 
 the orders of the great Leviathan : regard- 
 less of the decrees involuntarily issued un- 
 der an uncontrolabie constraint, confined 
 the non-intercoui^e to the principal aggres- 
 sors; the trade of tiie United Statetwas 
 iiereby thrown open to every other country 
 but France and England ;' the ships, as 
 well of war as of connnerce, of tliese two 
 nations were interdicted the American 
 waters, and the latter subjected, if they 
 should enter after nearly three months' no- 
 tice, to wit, the. 20th of May, to confisca- 
 tion. In tiiis act, however, the President 
 was provided with authority, in case either 
 France or Great Britain should so revoke 
 or modify her edicts, as that they should 
 cease to violate the neutral commerce of 
 
 Nothing could be more considerate than tl.is distinc- 
 tion.— It was censured of course by both allies in this 
 crusade against the lawful rights of peaceful neutrals ; 
 by which first, and which last. T .Inu'f ..M,.emK«. ^ ..u 
 serrw/n ^ecws imitates the other. . 
 
1 
 
 the Unile(' States ; to renew their ti'ade 
 with the nation so doing. This authority 
 was exercised in its plenitude, and most 
 promptly, on the adjustment made with Mr. 
 Erskine on the 19th of A pril following. — 
 That adjustment, as we have seen, was not 
 ratified; and the President was thereby 
 reduced to the necessity of revoking his 
 proclamation, and leaving the business 
 (under certain modifications equally at- 
 tended to on this side to prevent any for- 
 feitures thereby) where that adjustment had 
 found it. 
 
 This measure having failed to produce 
 the desired effect ; the next was in the Act 
 of the 1st of May, 1810. By this Act the 
 restrictions on the ships of war of both the 
 belligerents were expressly continued ; and 
 the embargo and non-intercourse laws 
 having expired by the limitation assigned 
 them in the latter ; the trade of the United 
 States was open to them both ; and the 
 authority vested in the President condensed 
 and simplified. Upon the evocation by 
 
127 
 
 either belligerent of his hostile edicts, the 
 restrictions imposed upon the ships of war 
 or armed ships, were to cease, and be dis- 
 contmued, in relation to the nation so re- 
 vokmg : continuing of course in respect to 
 the other ; against whom those sections of 
 the Act of non-intercourse, which interdict 
 the waters of the United States to the mer- 
 chantmen of either belligerent, and the 
 importation of goods from them, were to 
 be revived, and have full force and effect, 
 provided she should not within three 
 months thereafter, revoke or modify her 
 edicts in like manner. Nothing could be • 
 more simple, and the proposition, like every 
 other, was made equally to each belli<.e, 
 rent. It was acceded to by the one, and 
 refused by the other, after not only three, 
 but nearly six months' time to deliberate.—' 
 The consequence is, that the ships of war 
 and merchantmen of England, are shut 
 out of the American waters, and the im- 
 portation of her goods prohibited, as those 
 of France might have been in the other 
 
 til 
 
 I 
 
 f^^^^K.: 
 
128 
 
 case, and I have no doubt would have 
 been, or better consequences would have 
 arisen ; since, for reasons that I shall present 
 to you in my next, I am confident that 
 the French crovernment would not have fol- 
 lowed the example of England unless con- 
 strained thereto by clamour; the very yield- 
 ing to which, ander these circumstances, 
 would have been the signal of defeat. 
 
 i1< 
 
-w 
 
 129 
 
 LETTER VII. 
 
 How happens it, say you, that six months' 
 deliberation were given to government 
 instead of three, and if this were an advan- 
 tage, that Mr. Foster should see in it a 
 cause of dissatisfaction. — ^Ask me any 
 thing rather than to account for the per« 
 verseness of an administration, who seem 
 determined that every thing shall go coun- 
 ter to the interests they are espousing; and 
 wiU not suffer even the benefits that fortune 
 is throwing in their way to pass uncensured. 
 The French revocation was prripQctivc i 
 
 r^l 
 
130 
 
 On the 5th of August, they assigned the 
 1st of November for its taking effeet, and 
 tliis gave the President the opportunity of 
 extending the time of probation to the 
 2nd of February. — I see nothing in the 
 law to prevent liis having named three 
 months from the date of the revocation, as 
 well as from the date of its operation ; 
 yet liad he done so, what wx)uld not have 
 been said ? — The measure he adopted not 
 only gave to this government three months 
 longer to determine, but three months 
 longer of a most profitable trade ; and to 
 the maimfacturers, three months' longer 
 respite from starvation ; and by a liberal 
 construction of the law itself, not only the 
 goods arriving, but the goods shipped, 
 before the 2nd of February, were admitted 
 to entry. — ^But " John came neither eating 
 nor drinking, and ye say he hath a Devil/' 
 
 But if ye are not contented with this, 
 the Avay is still open. Mr. Canning, in his 
 cunning : effort to bar the door already- 
 bolted, whereby the circulation of the pro- 
 
t^m 
 
 131 
 
 iluce and manufacturesj the life-blood of 
 the country, is stopped ; would have had 
 the American government stipulate, that 
 on opening the trade with this country, 
 it should be closed for ever against France : 
 a proposition, which unless equally made 
 to the other belligerent, mutatis mutandis^ 
 .wou' 1 v^e made of the American govern- 
 ment * , fact, the partial being that he 
 represents it. — The laws of neutrality 
 require that equal measures shall be observed 
 towards each belhgerent. — The neutral 
 that favors either, can be trusted by 
 neither. But the conduct of the Ame- 
 rican government was more dignified. 
 They did not throw out a bone to be 
 snatched up by one dog of war, while 
 the other was starving ; their propositions, 
 as you have seen, were in every case made 
 equally to each* As each accuses the other 
 of being the first invader of neutral rights ; 
 each had the offer of retracing his steps : 
 as each denied being the first in iniquity, it 
 was left to each to be the first in returning 
 to justice : always understood that the door 
 
132 
 
 should be left open to both: and as each 
 had promised to recede pari passu with his 
 opponent, care was taken that the retreat 
 of the om should not obstruct that of 
 the other. And as the honor of adopting 
 Mr. Cannings proposition was declined; 
 the door, as it happened, was not only left 
 open to England an ample time for deli- 
 berating on the probable consequences; 
 but is offered to be re-opened novr that 
 they are ascertained to be most deplorable, 
 as may be seen by reference to the letters 
 of Mr. Monroe to Mr. Foster, of the 23rd 
 and ji^ of July. It remains to oppose 
 to this unaccountable objection of Mr. 
 Foster, in addition to the reply of Mr. 
 Monroe, an argument in the nature of ex 
 ore tiio,— not only had Mr. Erskine done 
 the same thing in his adjustment with Mr. 
 Madison, but it was expressly authorised 
 in the instructions of Mr. Canning—" cither 
 by the immediate repeal of the embargo, 
 &c. or by an engagement to repeal them 
 on a particular day" And there is cer- 
 tainly an excuse to be found in these 
 
133 
 
 instructions, for the incredulity of some, 
 as to the demand of Mr. Foster, that 
 America should require of France the 
 revocation of her decrees in respect to other 
 nations ; for both the instructions and the 
 agreement limit the revocation of the Bri- 
 tish decrees to their operation, " as far as 
 respects the United States" 
 
 Now to what I promised in my last. — 
 I never was one of those, who supposed 
 that France would rise in rebellion for a 
 cup of coffee; nor could I much admire 
 the consistency of those who, n. ^ne breath, 
 declaimed against the evils which all ranks 
 of people there endured under a military 
 despotism - i and in the next, promised them- 
 selves an effectual resistance to the govern- 
 ment, for the deprivation of a mere luxury, 
 ^.vhile they abounded in corn, wine, and 
 oil. On the other hand, the trade that we 
 aided them to destroy, was most evidently 
 advantageous to England ; as the exchange 
 
 every rcciUiKiant 
 
 IJl \J\Jk L&V. biVii 
 
 of I 
 
 ner 
 
134 
 
 Hi 
 
 industry for effective remittance must ever 
 be.— The balance constituted in our favor 
 by the circuitous trade between America, 
 France, and England, was clearly demon- 
 strated by Mr. Baring at the time. In 
 stating fifteen shillings in the pound of the 
 pro-^ice remitted from America to the 
 continent, as reverting to England in pay- 
 ment for British manufactures, he was 
 within the mark.— Indeed, all his estimates 
 were on a temperate scale. And if the 
 destruction of Nineveh had so verified the 
 prophesy of Jonas, as the state of the trade 
 and exchanges have accomplished the fore- 
 bodings of Mr. Baring, he would not have 
 suffered his diabolical petulance, nor have 
 needed the protection of the miraculous 
 gourd.—lNIost egregious was the mistake 
 too, that the revenues of the French govern- 
 ' ment would be impaired by the emission 
 of the orders in council.— In a despotic 
 government, where every thing is at 
 the beck of the ruler, not to consume a 
 foreign luxury, is better than to pay a 
 tax upon it; for in the former case, the 
 
135 
 
 price of the article, in addition to the 
 a->ount of the tax, is at the service of 
 the state; and then, as Mr. G rattan says, 
 in forsaking the hiw of God for the law of 
 your enemy, by retaliating his injustice 
 upon your friend, you barbarise and mar* 
 tialise that enemy, fe*' diminishing those / / v 
 comforts for which he pays you a tribute, 
 and starve your manufacturers. But, 
 although the measure was adopted under 
 all those prospects, it did so happen, that 
 from circumstances no more contemplated 
 by ministers, than the insurrection iu Spain, 
 fortune threw in their way an opportunity 
 to benefit by their own blunder.—- Encou- 
 raged by the success derived from their 
 alliance, Bonaparte was not content with 
 suspending the tribute to England, but 
 proposed measures for making all Europe 
 tributary to I'rance. That her manufac- 
 tures might be the more in demand, he would 
 shut out those of England from every other 
 part of Europe. — To encourage his manu- 
 factory of beet root sugar, the sweets of the ^ (^ 
 cane must be .Jiut^mt even from the Bal*^ ^ya^ ^ 
 
 *fc. * 
 
 r 
 
136 
 
 tic. — I am not sure that the American 
 tobacco will be allowed to pass through 
 France and Holland, to be smoked by the 
 confederation of the Rhine without paying 
 incense to him. — All this, with a war in 
 Spain, caused some uneasiness to appear 
 in the North. He was obliged to call a 
 council of merchants, and a council of 
 manufacturers to Paris, to sanction his doc- 
 trine. Even these he found somewhat 
 refractory ; the mighty conqueror was in 
 danger of retreating before the omnipo- 
 tence of public opinion, when he had 
 recourse to his old and faithful ally, and 
 even copied her manner. — As Mr. Can* 
 ning, when he found he must make a show 
 of attempting an adjustment of the dihv r- 
 ences with America, was graciously pleased 
 to V cover a return to impartiality on 
 the part of the United States, so the Due 
 de Cadore pulled out of his pigeon hole, 
 where it had lajn perdu some two months, 
 the act of the first of May, 1810; and 
 regretting that it had not been officiallif 
 communicated to him b ibre, found in it 
 
137 
 
 the very convenient evidence, that the 
 American government had come to their 
 senses; "Maintenant leCongr^^s revientsur 
 ses pas;'—" The Berlin rnd Milan decrees 
 are revoked/* whether as respects America, ' 
 or all the world, does not appear :— this is 
 left open to futm'e interpretation according 
 to /&ppoaranccD : — and then " vous voyez/^^r 
 bien, Monsieur, que ee nest pas ma "^ ^ ' -^ 
 faute. — Ces diables D* Anglois/' — Cy/i".' > l c^h 
 
 I know very well, my dear Sir, how 
 easy it is to pretend to what would have 
 been the consequence if certain measures 
 had been adopted.— I have no desire to 
 control your opinion ;■— I only desire you 
 to look at the facts as they stood at tlie 
 time, which ministers certainly ought to 
 have known as well as you or I. Not only 
 the commercial part of the community, 
 in a degree of increasing distress; but 
 landholders without rents ; their produce 
 locked up in port and threatened to be 
 sealed hermetically on their hands ; the 
 abundant produce of the tomd Zone shut 
 
138 
 
 out from their immense magp^iiies ; llieir 
 sea port trade to be exchanged for the 
 retailing, on the banks of the canals and 
 rivers, a pound of beet root sugar forced at 
 Nova '^'embla, and the Lord knows where. — 
 I speak not of the inhabitants of France, 
 but of those at a sufficient distance to hope 
 for some portion of independence.— This on 
 the one hand ; and on the other a vacilla- 
 tion between hope and doubt, whether a 
 general » grievance, notwithstanding past 
 events, might not lead to general resist- 
 ance. To omit such an opportunity of 
 laying the ruler of France on his back, was 
 enough to sicken, and did indeed destroy, 
 the hopes of the north, and expunge their 
 confidence in any beneficial measures being 
 adopted by such an administration. Had 
 Bonaparte nad them in such a cleft stick, 
 (was their general cry) he would never 
 » have let them off so; and then as Mr. 
 !M(mroe says to Mr. Foster, what harm 
 could it have done? to take him at his 
 word and main^ in your own. It does 
 appear to me that one of two things must 
 
139 
 
 y 
 
 hu\ r; resulv.xl ; lie must have been plunged 
 into ail tlie ditlicultic^s that lie, no doubt, 
 anticipated, or ho must have proceeded to 
 open the trf (3, most sorely against I'ls 
 will • for ofai die notions 1 hat ever entered 
 into the head of man, it docs appear to 
 nie the most inconceivable, that any man 
 of common sense should imagine that he is 
 desirous of a free trade. How he would 
 have got over it, if ministers had adopted 
 the measure to which they were so cToarljg^ 
 invited by the political circumstances of 
 the case,^4ml-the faith of government, it is f y^/ 
 not easy to imagine. For myself I must^- 
 acknowlcdge 1 am inclined to believe, from /--- 
 the general character of the man, that he c/^ 
 would have devised means to maintain the 
 position of non-intercourse, oh which he 
 so much depended for carrying his schemes 
 of military despotism,~of " martialising 
 and barbarising" his Myrmidons, into eifect ; 
 b it the opinions of many on the contm^.c, 
 
 infmitely better able to form them than I 
 coidd be, were the contrary.— At some 
 period, no doubt, this contest must have 
 
 (y\ 
 
 /^/l ci 
 
140 
 
 
 f C 
 
 an end ; and I suppose it will be like most 
 others, when the people of both nations 
 compel their rulers to make peace. But 
 it is beyond all doubt in my mind, that 
 the hopes of those opposed to the system 
 of the continent, have been blighted, if not 
 finally destroyed, by the blind omission of 
 m'nisters to seize the opportunity thus 
 presented them : — blunders, they have, 
 no doubt they will, commit in abundance ; 
 but it is tc much to expect, that such an 
 opportunity will again grow out of them. 
 And what has been the consequence of this 
 over-sioht on the other side the Atlantic?— 
 I have observed before, that parties run 
 high in America, and it is a deplorable 
 inDfean ^e of human weakness, not to say 
 depravity, that men are there to be found 
 that fouo'ht for the liberties of their coun- 
 trv, and would have died in the last ditch, 
 to resist taxation without representation ;— 
 honest men too, in respect to pecuniary 
 coasiderations, who never fmgered }3ritish 
 gold, when there was such a thing, though 
 charf?ed with it bv their eauallv intemper- 
 
 • C? •■ V M V 
 
wm 
 
 141 
 
 ate opponents ; who to the great astonislv- 
 nient and regret of the friends of their own 
 party, the American federahsts here, were 
 Wind to the operation of the orders in coun- 
 X'il, even demanding a toll upon the ocean. 
 
 That there is an English party in Anie- 
 rica, i. e. a party strongly desirous of 
 maintaining the best relations with England, 
 I have no doubt. It is extremely natural, 
 as well from the ties of a common parentage, 
 as even from the nature of their revolu- 
 tionary contest with this country ; which, 
 be it remembered, however it terminated 
 HI a separation, originated, on their part, 
 in asserting the rights of Englishmen :— U 
 was not because they would not be English- 
 men, but because they would be such,— 
 not bastards but sons, that they drew the 
 sword that achieved their independence. 
 That there may be emissaries from Ffance 
 is also most probable ; but that the present 
 French government has no partizans there 
 among the native Americans I think may 
 be inferred from the challenge of Mr. Giles, 
 which I gave you in a former letter, and 
 
1 
 
 
 
 ■ 142 
 
 which, I believe, was never answered. The 
 great and predominant party however is 
 American, and into this they will all merge 
 on any great occasion, however flattered 
 ministers may be under that common error' 
 that leads men, and particularly statesmen, 
 to magnify every thing that favors their 
 propensities. 
 
 When we heard of the very great acces- 
 siou of strength to the government party in 
 America, instead of the clear and obvious 
 cause, we listened to the nonsense in some 
 American paper, or some individual letter 
 from America, which was transplanted into 
 most of the papers here, setting forth that 
 the federalists were voting with the govern- 
 ment to urge them more rapidly to destruc 
 tion, . We even denied that Mr. Foster had 
 made the unreasonable requisition that was 
 asserted in the President's message; and 
 one pious writer, in the Times, insinuated 
 on the occasion, that the Americans had a 
 way of misrepresenting things. No doubt 
 it was inconceivable that this government, 
 
143 
 
 who had defended at all points, and everi 
 found the opposition agreeing to defend, 
 the rule of 1756, should make the unrea- 
 sonable requisition that America should 
 enforce against France a practice not only 
 contrary to the principles of this rule, and 
 to the doctrine of the navigation act, but 
 to such municipal regulations as every 
 nation has the undeniable right to make 
 for itself. — ^That America at peace, and at 
 I three thousand miles' distance, should con- 
 
 strain France, apparently a match for all 
 Europe, to adopt measures the contrary of 
 those on which England not only asserts 
 her rights, but maintains her power, and 
 even her existence. Some encouragement 
 may have been given to government by the 
 clamor? of party in America; but it is 
 natural that the leaders of that very party 
 should be found among the most indignant, 
 when requisitions, so contrary to all right 
 and reason, are made by those whose advo- 
 cates they have been, and of whose former 
 pretensions, they now find, the govern- 
 ment party had a more correct notion than 
 
 
144 
 
 fi 
 
 themselves. So the former partizans of 
 England in Denmark are now among the 
 most cordial of her enemies ; and if you 
 ask the federal Americans now in England 
 of what troops the new army will be chiefly 
 composed, ihey will tell you, with scarcely 
 an exception, that the federalists will be 
 the first in the field. Notwithstanding the 
 affected incredibility of such a requisition, 
 a recurrence to the documents does clearly 
 demonstrate, that it was made in a form to 
 amount completely to the description given 
 of it in the President's message ; and after 
 all that has been said of confining neutrals 
 to their accustomed trat^e, America was 
 required to assert against France the right 
 of carrying the productions and manufac- 
 tures of Great Britain, when owned by 
 neutrals into markets shut against them by 
 her enemy.— Pray, what part of her accm- 
 tomed trade is this ?— we have seen above, 
 the opinion entertained on the Continent 
 of the conduct of ministers on the revo- 
 cation of the Berlin and Milan decrees; 
 
ptKm 
 
 145 
 
 I will now give you an opinion, which I 
 will venture to say is prevalent'among the 
 most respectable and the most numerous 
 of the Englisli party in America, of whom 
 we have been treating. 
 
 Extract from a Letter dated Boston, 18th 
 
 of Jan. 1812. 
 
 " I had hoped that the wisdom of the 
 executive government of the two countries 
 would, ere this, have set things on a better 
 footing. Your minister has acted most 
 unadvisedly : there are persons here inimi- 
 cal to Great Britain, who, for many reasons, 
 chiefly that of party, have taken such 
 advantage of that conduct as to gain a com- 
 plete ascendancy : whereas had the English 
 taken advantage of the infamous conduct 
 of France, they would have had the whole 
 country their friends ; who now are obliged 
 to admit the misconduct of England. A 
 party here have endeavored to justify the 
 English measures ; this I think wrong, for 
 it lias given the adversaries a liandlc to 
 
 K 
 
146 
 
 work with against them. I cannot believe 
 in war; but no one knows what will be the 
 consequence, if the orders in council are 
 persevered in — this zolwle country will then 
 be heartily in opposition to Great Britain." 
 
 I need not have asserted the political 
 party of the writer of this letter^ it appears 
 on the face of it ; — in the St ah of the 18th 
 of Febmary, you will find another of the 
 19th of January, from a person of the same 
 politics, and as I am credibly informed, of 
 a respectable public character (though 
 perhaps not so respectful to his own govern- 
 ment as the writer of the above) who says 
 in another letter, " though John ]^)uU is a 
 good soldier, and a good sailor, and a good 
 fellow if you please; yet you must allow 
 that he is a wcvy bad politician.*" On these 
 
 ii 
 
 * Here follows the extract referred to as given in the 
 Star. 
 
 " Boston, January If). 
 
 " You will perceive by the papers by the Sally Aime, 
 that our government professes the intention to assume a 
 very warlike attitude, and that the sentinicjit of indis;na^ 
 
 :• ■3:^!^-V^^sltmi<^m »»*» 
 
■n 
 
 tf 
 
 147 
 
 letters it is not sutficient to observe how 
 desperate a case must bo, when its defence 
 cannot be attempted without making it 
 worse. Besides the serious fact asserted in 
 them, which I do assure you may be very 
 
 the 
 
 tion throughout the country, at tlie contmuance of the orders 
 in council, is loud and nnivemil from both parties. The 
 motives which induce your govcrjunent to continue thenj, 
 are quite incomprehcnsihle to the best friends of Great 
 Britain in this country ; and the effect will be, to make 
 every man ocHous who dares to express a wish for your 
 success and prosperity— a sentiment still common to our 
 lest men, but wliich an adherence to this svstem will 
 unpair and destroy. It is too true that tlie repeal of the 
 Berhn and Milan decrees are merely nominal, and that 
 our administration liave become willingly dupes to the 
 insidious policy of Napoleon. Rut why t,hould your 
 cabinet mind that, why should they not embrace any pre- 
 tence for restoring harmony between our countries, espe- 
 cially as it rail, of eoitsequence, he followed by hostility 
 on the part of France. Na poll: on will renew his out- 
 rages tiic moment we are friends, and the natural ties 
 which couiU'ct Great l^ritain and iVmerica would be 
 drawn closer. On the contrary, the scrupulous adherence 
 of your cabinet to an empty punctilio, will too probably 
 unite the nholv connfry in opposition to your nation, and 
 .sever for generations, perhaps for ever, interests which 
 have the most natural ties of alHnity, and men who ought 
 to feel and love- like brelhren."; 
 
148 
 
 F 
 
 fully relied on, they necessarily lead to very 
 serious reflection. If any government can 
 r Xv / be *^ enough, after so many warnings, 
 not to know that opposite interests of mere 
 party will coalesce when the country is in 
 ^ danoer : if the instances «*-Amcrica in the 
 
 late war, of France in the extreme case of 
 Quibemn, if the general rule, in short, will 
 not sufficiently demonstrate the consolida- 
 tion of a people by external pressure ; here 
 we are warned of it in the ver> instance in 
 which we are going to encounter it, and 
 timely, if we are wise, to escape it. 
 
 Of all governments in the world, that of 
 Enoland is the least excusable for not 
 knowing how to distinguish the threats 
 from the real designs of party. The policy 
 of America in respect to her external rela- 
 tions is so obvious, that in its outline there 
 is little doubt, that the opposite party would 
 have adopted the same as the present 
 government has adopted. The differenco 
 in the execution would not, probably, have 
 been such as would have been more accept- 
 
*» 
 
 /; ' 
 
 149 
 
 able to this government. J^ forbearance /«- '^^ 
 would hardly have been observed under an 
 administration like that of Mr. Adams. A 
 more liberal expenditure for the defence of 
 the coimtry would most probably have been 
 incurred, and the navy in better condition 
 for the annoyance of our trade. The em- 
 bargo might have been enforced with more 
 vigor, property exposed on the ocean r.^-t..'7 
 ecpially recalled to the protection of the\/.*i/ 
 ports ; and if this did not bring ministers T A 
 sooner to reason, the crisis now hnpending \ /; 
 might have been produced something \ 
 earlier. But we greatly deceive ourselves, ""' 
 if we suppose that the clamors of opposition 
 there, any more than here, are for the pur- 
 pose of bringing men into power, that would 
 yield a particle of the essential rights of 
 their country. True it is, that as foreign 
 influence of any kind is detestable in the 
 eyes of the nation at large, it is made the 
 mad-dog appellation with which each party, 
 and each, I verily believe, most wrongfully, 
 bespatters the other. And as the union 
 is in the estimation of all parties the rock 
 
150 
 
 of their political s»ilvation, a menace to 
 dissolve it, is the common biig-!)car, with 
 whicii the one attempts to intimidate the 
 other into the adoption of his views. The 
 threat has been nrged so ol'ten, and sor.iC- 
 tinies so ridicHdouslv, that 1 wonder men 
 of sense in that country shoidd name it, 
 and that men even without sense, in this 
 country, should beheve it. More than 
 twenty years ago, it was liekl up to intimi- 
 (hite the southern nKMubers of congress into 
 the rechiction of the meditated tax of three 
 pence per gallon on molasses, and lu'ged 
 wdth great solemnity by an eastern member. 
 " The house will not suppose we are actu- 
 ated by local interests, in opposing a mea- 
 sure hiif xmth mcli dangevous consequences 
 to the eaistcuce of the union ; they will 
 admit we have reason for persisting in our 
 opposition to a high duty, and may be 
 inclined to join us in reducing it, cither to 
 five per cent, or at most to one cent, per 
 gallon ; if the apprehensions zee have e^ipress" 
 ed shall ever he realised^ let it rest on 
 the advocates of the present measure ; we 
 
 ./ 
 
•^msr" 
 
 ^Ktsmm^ 
 
 151 
 
 liave (lone our duty, and it only remains 
 for us to sul)nut to that ruin, in which the 
 whole may be involved/' i\fter a months 
 debate, tht; house finally agreed to abate a 
 haU'-penny per gallon, and the union was 
 maintained : that it will dissolve some day 
 or otluu*, is not to be doubted ; 
 
 
 ** the great globe itself, 
 
 '^ 
 
 " Yea^ all that it inlmra shall dissplve. ^i 1 1" <^ 
 
 "B ut U ' hcn? Tu the lutlrr i\'C can givrM/dr- // 
 
 C3 /■A I 
 
 / 
 
 ./ 
 
 ixw^wQX^ und every toujiLtuiu \M\ tllU iuimti ** ^ /i ^ 
 ^,icf Kr. ,.r..Yw.. 1 I II ■ ...p — Jt is not /^/^ /- 
 
 unlikely to happen, when the character of / y • 
 Washington shall fade ; and when hiy / 
 legacy on resigning the Presidency, printed 
 
 ra cC<^ 
 
 \\\ gold and silver, and studded with pre- . 
 
 cious stones — dispersed moreover in nume- ^^ ^'^^ 
 rous books and various forms, in every 
 
 lamily — 
 
 "Mominientiim aTe pcrennius" 
 
 shall no lonii;er be found. And if it could 
 be bnnight about before, it would only be 
 so much the worse for England/ utuWi; ^ny 
 4. h i uu- like u sviijo udminiytration* ' " 
 
 % 
 
152 
 
 W 
 
 I . 
 
 They injure both countries, and n.jst 
 unpardonably, who encounige the expecta- 
 tion of divisions in America. Tis the weak 
 side of a weak ministry to suffer such de- 
 ception, and indeed it may be said to be 
 the weak side of most ministeis, so that, 
 notwithstanding events far within the me- 
 mory of man, we are in damper of seeimr 
 the ill consequences of this, as well as of 
 the other prognostics so analogous to those 
 that were grievously mistaken at the period 
 of the American war. The urgency of the 
 desire of the colonists at that time to main- 
 tain the relatioiis, in which they then stood, 
 and defeat the machinations of the common 
 enemy, was not more palpable than it is 
 now to an unprejudiced eye. The parallel 
 between the measures of that day, and 
 those lately pursued, is too clear to need 
 illustration. It was after the most humble 
 and conciliatory, but unsuccessful efforts, 
 to restore and maintain a oood understand- 
 ing, that the republican Dr. Franklin then 
 treated with crowned heads, as now Joel 
 Barlow with privileged orders. It was 
 
1 
 
 53 
 
 tlien after a repugnance to France in com- 
 li.on with England ; — it is now 'aHer a re- 
 pugnance to France lor n» rongs clone lier- 
 sc^lf. And here I cannot but remark, that 
 if France have the honor to be first in 
 revoking her decrees, jet from her ungra- 
 cious maimer and sombre accompaniments 
 she has l(*ft to England the opportunity of 
 outstripping her, by a frank abolition of her 
 pretended letal.atory system, without any 
 fresh municipal imposts, innuendoes, or bieji 
 cnt endues. 
 
 If I should begin to declaim on the 
 infatuation that ically appears to me to 
 have influenced this business from beo-in- 
 nirg to end, I know not where I should 
 stop. A rude chaotic mass in themselves, 
 1 cannot find that the orders in council 
 appeared in the same light to any two 
 members of the cabinet, nor to any one at 
 different times, save, perhap?, Mr. Can- 
 ning, who, like tho regular man that is 
 regularly drunk every diiy, was .'onsistentlj 
 wrong irom the begixming. He commenced 
 
154 
 
 with a doctrine that, in its operation, 
 allows to neutrals no rights whatever*; and 
 he repeats so often his pretence of a right 
 to retaliate against what ]3onaparle admits 
 would be contrary to the eternal principles 
 of justice, but for the previous aggression 
 of England, that he seems almost to per- 
 suade himself that he is right; and he ])er- 
 suades nie of one tiling, and that is, that 
 as matter of mere taste (justice and right 
 out of the question) his defence is more 
 palatable than the cold, calculating, policy 
 of old Mr. Rose. — And this brings me to 
 the point of honor. 
 
 It seems " this is not a (piestion of 
 merely connnercial interest," to use the 
 words of Mr. Foster, " but one of feeling 
 and national honor." When Mr. Windham 
 exclaimed *' perish commerce, preserve the 
 constitution ;" the idternative, for such no 
 doubt he meant i^ to be considered, not- 
 withstanding the obbquy it experienced in 
 his life-time, was someihing worth the 
 sacrifice, supposing the constitution capa- 
 
M 
 
 155 
 
 hie of being restored. A wise man will 
 prefer health to wealth, where both eannot 
 be retained. But what is this thing called 
 honor, for whieh the lawful interests of the 
 nation are to 1: sacrificed? 
 
 " It aids and strengthens virtue where it meets her." 
 
 Then is it a good ally : 
 
 '* It imitates lier actions where she is not." 
 
 
 Then is it a hypocrite. 
 
 " It ought not to be sported with,'' con- 
 tinues Addison, having himself made 
 serious sport of it in the preceding line. " It 
 is a substitute in mon diies,"' says Montes- 
 quieu, " for virtue in a republic" — a mere 
 substitute. — -The virtuous indignation that 
 is excited by abominable practices is alto- 
 gether another thing, and can only be exer- 
 cised against the perpetrator. So also is 
 that species of honor that may be resolved 
 into conscience : the feelings of the King, 
 for example, in respect to the affair of the 
 Chesapeake, and of the Prince, displayed 
 
t 
 I 
 
 156 
 
 in his promptitude to accomplish his Ma- 
 jesty's wishes. But the counterfeit that is 
 mistaken for this quality,— the false pride 
 that usurps the seat of honor, and is enlisted 
 by the artful policy of the enemy, to com- 
 bat the lawful interests of tlie nation, is not 
 the fire that cherishes, but the flame that 
 devours both interest and principle — here 
 Greek meets Greek —here is a house di- 
 vided against itself, and the parties destroy- 
 ing each other, while their equal adversary 
 has the honor of carrying his point. It 
 were better to unite honor and interest, 
 than, by dividing, to leaA^e him the power 
 of destroying both. Mr. Fox said, we 
 might run a commercial race witii rnince : 
 with his councils perhaps we might, but in 
 his absence Bonaparte is certainly foiling 
 us at our own weapons. I cannot at aU 
 understand the honor tljat is attached to 
 the licence trade ; it does appear to me 
 that the principle asserted by Mr. Foster, 
 is as much at variance wdth the practice 
 admitted by Mr. Rose, as the apology 
 of Mr. Canning for the orders in council. 
 
(X^ 
 
 \ 
 
 157 
 
 Is it credible that the ruler of France ad- 
 mits in this form anv trade to the countries 
 under his control that docs not suit his 
 policy ? and can any thing be more repul- 
 sive to the true notions of honor, than this 
 invasion of the only principle, on which are 
 founded all the belhoerei't Dretensions, ^,^ 
 right or wrong, to interrupt the trade ofaj^/^i.^^^^^' 
 enemy? Is it presumable that any neu^ ''-^^^^^' 
 tral will ever admit his exclusion from an 
 enemy's port, which you are yourself sup- 
 plying, to conform with the doctrine of a 
 belHgerent right to distress an enemy into 
 reasonable terms of peace ? It does appear 
 to me that a monopoly so odious, should 
 never be suffered to come into the discus- 
 sion of a (jucstion of *' feeling and of 
 national honor/* It is fit only to be placed 
 bv the side of that shan)eless extension 
 of the law of necessity and self-pre- 
 servation, that would rob one traveller 
 because he has been plundered by your 
 enemy, and another for fciir he should be ; 
 and by which, a Uiition having bread and 
 
 I 
 
158 
 
 milk and meat, assumes the right of break- 
 in o" through the stone walls of honest m- 
 dustry, to exchange sugar and coffee for 
 wine and brandy. 
 
 • 
 
 It is painful to review these subjects, 
 which only convince us the more we 
 examine them, that the obstinate in error 
 are more zealous in defenc^i of their oppo- 
 sition, even than those whose opinions rest 
 upon undeniable facts. But the most de- 
 plorable part of the story is, the facility 
 with which the public opinion is managed 
 in these days, which does appear to me to 
 be greater than in times past. I mean not 
 the man of no stake in the country, but 
 the solid and valuable class before-men- 
 tioned. That time will correct these opi- 
 nions cannot be doubted, nor is it a subject 
 of absolute despair, that they may be 
 corrected timely to intcipose with effect to 
 prevent the most serious of evils ; but to 
 effect this, a change in th(^ public senti- 
 ment must be more rapid and general than 
 
 'i 4' 
 
 ' ■^^><*?*ff^' 
 
159 
 
 there is any prospect ot: Even in the 
 hnportant question of the impressment of 
 seamen, 1 fnul there are those who consider 
 the great cause of comphiint to be on the 
 side of this couiitrj ; and when such letters 
 as that of Mr. Canning to Messrs. Monroe 
 and Pinkney, of the 22d of October, 1807, 
 arepubhslicd without any tiling to explain 
 or contradict them, the reader would of 
 necessity conceive that the contest related 
 only to the impressment of British seamen 
 from American merchant vessels, w^heix^as 
 the impressment of British seamen entered 
 but for a feather into the contest on the 
 American side; the objection was to a 
 British officer going on board an American 
 vessel at sea, and taking out whomsoever 
 iie (judge, jury, and party,) should think 
 fit to call a British seaman, by which 
 means many thousand Americans were 
 forced on board the British fleet. I do 
 wish the true state of all the subjects in 
 ditfereiicc between the two countries was 
 fully known to the public : for myselfl. I 
 
 «a*^ -^S*'^ 
 
J 
 
 160 
 
 am under a complete conviction, founded 
 on the best evidence and tlie best docu- 
 ments, that I have been able to collect, with 
 no small share of pains, that if the facts were 
 known and thoroiiglily understood, the 
 wonder would be, that there should be any 
 difference at all. It is clearly in my mind 
 an artful and systematical, and I wish I 
 could not say intentional, perversion of 
 facts, that has so cruelly misled the public. 
 I am aware you will say that this is 
 a bold opinion to oppose to that so gene- 
 rally assumed ; and God knows how ad- 
 verse it is to my principles to oppose a 
 general opinion so long matured. But you 
 have asked for my own opinion, and you 
 have it without disguise. 'J'here is moreover 
 a consideration that does not leave me 
 in so small a minority. Notwithstanding the 
 cries of hear! hear! from ministers, thai 
 amount to a triumphant contradiction ; their 
 opponents oi tlic first rcspecUibility main- 
 tain the most r.iaterial of the pretensions 
 here asserted ; and in a manner that I am 
 
 
 .*^.S,**4^. 
 
161 
 
 aston'slied, does not more generally influ- 
 ence the voice of the public ; and in respect 
 to the general voice, which is what we are 
 here considering, it is surely not unfair to 
 take the other side of the Atlantic into the 
 estimate ; for there, as here, the people have 
 a rjo-ht to think, /^belligerents are very 
 apt to expect of neutrals to steep their" 
 sentiments in a hostile spirit. But this 
 is not neutrality. There has been ample 
 motive for hostility on the part of the 
 United States towards both belligerents ; 
 each requires it towards the other only, 
 while the friendship of the neutral is main- 
 tained towards itself; and this, while each 
 continued her hostile edicts, would be neither 
 neutrality nor impartiality. The United 
 States have embraced the only modeof main- 
 taining the one or the other. They have^ . 
 changed their equal proffers into all the^' 
 jmidii^of which they appeared susceptible,^ 
 and shamefully as we accuse them of par- 
 tiality, I am convinced, the wonder on a . 
 future dj ', will be at the correct equipoise 
 thev have maintained, and tlie scrupulous 
 
 
 
 If 
 
 ^^ y\\. 
 
 % 
 
162 
 
 impartiality with which their neutral obli- 
 gations have been fulfilled.— I believe 
 entirely with Mr. Madison, when he says, 
 " If there be candor in the world, the 
 truth of these assertions will not be 
 questioned. Posterity at least will do 
 justice to them." 
 
 i 
 
 ,1 
 
 
 /«S«^»ww*iP»l "WHs^ 
 
163 
 
 ve 
 
 he 
 be 
 do 
 
 IXn ER \!ll. 
 
 I believe all question of the right of the 
 President, to issue his proclamation, enforc- 
 ing the law of non-importation against this 
 country, is nearly banished ; but I have 
 observed a remarkable omission in the 
 quotation of the words of the law which 
 imposed this duty on him. — In the letter 
 from Mr. Monroe to Mr. Foster, of the 23rd 
 of July, 1811, he says, "In the act of 
 May 1st, 1810, it is provided * that if 
 either Great Britain or France should 
 cease to violate tlu neutral commerce of 
 the United States/ Sec:' Whereas the 
 
164 
 
 words are, " thut in case either Great Rii- 
 tain or France sliall, l^cforo the :}rd day of 
 March next, .so revoke or modifii her edicls^ 
 as that thejf shall cease to violate the neu- 
 tral connnerce of the United States, <lv:c." — ► 
 The revocation of the existino; edicts ou 
 either side, made it the duty of the Presi- 
 dent to issue his proelanuition:— it became 
 ipso facto obligatory ui)on him, and he was 
 left without anv discretion in the case. 
 
 Cl 
 
 Here we may close the question of par- 
 tiality or impartialit^j/ ^either shall wc 
 find Ministers more hai)py in their hypo- 
 thetical conjectures, than in their cpiestions 
 of fact. They have believed against all 
 rule, that the advocates for the object of 
 the French revolution, have been advocates 
 for the result of it. Can you show mz in 
 all history two governments less alike? 
 
 I have now only to a])ologise for certain 
 peculiarities, that I am aware you will 
 have found in these letters; and, I believe, 
 there will appear in them, less singularity, 
 
165 
 
 ifjou will romoniber ttiat the writer is of 
 no party. If this should appear to be 
 contradicted by any preferences in them, 
 you know, at least, that it is without any 
 connexion with either. 
 
 Considering conciliation with America 
 an object of the first magnitude, I certainly 
 shoMJd prefer to see those men in power, 
 through whom suelii conciliation would be 
 most likely effected. Believinir for exam- 
 pie, that a public prejudice, most artfully 
 established, was the^ sole preventive of the 
 adjustment of the question of impressments 
 in the treaty negotiated by Lords Holland 
 and Auckland, with Messrs. Monroe and 
 Pinkney ; that efforts were made to remove 
 that prejudice, which would have effected 
 it in a short time, and that all the other 
 points in difference were in a train of satis- 
 factory adjustment, when that administra- 
 tion went out of office ; I certainly do 
 wish, that they were again employed on 
 the same business, than w^hicli T can con- 
 ceive none more important. I have observed 
 

 166 
 
 before on the analogy between existing 
 cirenmstanccs, and the commencement of 
 the American war. —I am as averse from 
 thinking of war, as the writer of the aoove 
 letter from Boston ; but to set up the evi- 
 dence of mere incUnation against that of 
 events passing under our eye, till destruc- 
 tion come upon us likc^ a whirlwind, is not 
 the anticipation that |)rudence would dic- 
 tate. — We ought to remember, not only 
 what was offered us by Am< ri^ja, but the 
 result of our refusal: the reluctance towards 
 an unnatural alliance w ith France, was theu 
 overcome by th(^ love of liberty, as it may 
 be now by the desire of maintaining by land 
 and sea, the rights of an independent nation. 
 
 It is most true, that many subjects of 
 complaint against Franceare to be removed, 
 before any thing like an alliance can take 
 place; but is it just, is it prudent,is it pohtic, 
 to force a combination of such repulsive 
 ingredients; But it is, perhaps, more 
 probable, that a separate and unconnected 
 war will be maintained ; such as that 
 
 . \X f -*!* 
 
M^:.^' 
 
 .T'w-^ 
 
 167 
 
 against France, in tlie presidency of Mr; 
 Adams, \7hon he " concluded" tliat the 
 United States had " received greater 
 injuries from ' Trance' than from 'EnghuKr.'* 
 And wlien General Washington consented 
 to coi »e forth from his second retirement 
 from pubhc life, to take the connnand of 
 the army, not, as insinuat' d, because it was 
 against France in j>artiv:ular, but because, 
 as 3'^ou will rememlcT him to have 
 writen to Mr. Adams at the time, " they 
 iiad drunk the cup of conciliation to 
 the dn^gs." Such a war, in respect to 
 i^ngland, might be somewliat preferable; 
 but 1 an) not sure that it would be less a 
 cause of exultaticm to France; who would 
 in that case, have the gratification of seeing 
 the two countries weakening ca^h other, 
 without herself restoring her plunder and 
 atoning for her misconduct, which alone 
 could produce a connexion. 
 
 AVlien in the late war America had 
 entered into engagements with France, 
 we offered her about ten times as much 
 as she demanded before, and sent com- 
 
168 
 
 missioners to treat with her on that 
 ground ; but slie would not debase her 
 origin by a breach of treaty- Such was 
 not the doctrine of the school in which she 
 w^as brought up. It is not likely that she 
 v/ill let every body know what she is doing, 
 but it would be prudent to consider what 
 she can do. Oi^ this, 1 believe, people ia 
 general, are not disposed to entertain an 
 ade(piate idea. ]t embraces a wide field, 
 . and I should not be greally surprised if the 
 first effects of a v>'ar with America, were 
 felt in a quarter uiiere they are very little 
 expected. I'hen you shall hear^ notwith- 
 standing the plain and palpable evidence 
 above, that secret plots and machinations 
 have been all alono; hatchins; ; and notwith- 
 standing the continual broils that have inter- 
 vened between America and Trance, you 
 shall be sent back to the treaty of Tilsit 
 or some other e(}ually lemote, to show 
 a combination between them, which if 
 it might not now be prevented, could 
 have been a very short time past. I 
 should like an administration that would 
 
 ^^.-^.^- 
 
» I 
 
 if 
 
 169 
 
 neither fabricate such trash themselves, nor 
 believe it when made by others. I hke a 
 coahtion, but a coalition of discordant 
 materialsis not within the power even of Sir 
 Pluniphry Davy. — Such may mix, but 
 they cannot unite. — In the imperfect state of 
 man, 1 think something ought to be yielded 
 or left to time, in order to secure great 
 points; but it is impossible not to pay 
 attention to the objections of Lord Grey, 
 even if they were not supported by the 
 Lord Chancellor, where the parties disagree 
 in all the material points of the day but 
 one, and are not perfectly of accord in that. 
 Neither is it entirely credible, that with 
 a fact so notoriously known, and especially 
 with such an opinion in the cabinet itself, 
 as that avowed by the noble a»^d learned 
 ^iOrd, that the invitation could have' been 
 made by ministers with any other vinv 
 than to its rejection. 
 
 While on the subject of administrations, 
 in which I have no other predilection than 
 tliat which appears to be dictated by the 
 
I 
 
 170 
 
 * 
 
 public exigency, it is proper, that I should 
 remind you. of the efforts I have made from 
 time to time, to reconcile the conduct of 
 Mr, Canning with any thing like a reason- 
 able principle ; and the difficulty. haj^ been, 
 in supposinj^ a man of Iiis talents liable to 
 be led astray by evidently false representa- 
 tions, when the truth was so palpably 
 before him. In his comnmnication to Mr. 
 Monroe of the affair of the Chesapeake, 
 however, his sensibility seems to be very 
 properly excited, and it would be a satis- 
 faction to knovs^, that he was any otherwise 
 
 a party to that letter, than as the mere 
 
 ^n^y^^o^ ^ w«*©r. Excepting this and the occasional 
 ^^"^'^^ssertion of Mr. Pinkney, in his letters to 
 his government, that the language of Mr. 
 Canning was conciliatory, I see nothing 
 to remove the opinion of unfounded suspi* 
 cioD and decided liostility to the Unit .d 
 States, which appears in the general tenor 
 of his correspondence ; and I am sorry for 
 it. There is a class of politicians, who for 
 want of objects, on which they may exhibit 
 the violence of their zeal, make oiants of 
 
 /^ 
 
 
 
f f 
 
 
 /M. ■* t 
 
 r 
 
 . ^-A 
 
 171 
 
 Wl 
 
 indmills/; but these are,4n general, eitHer 
 
 ^^ t t f. iY c: 
 
 
 
 /•^ 
 
 weak or insane ; defects which, I beheve, 
 have never yet been charged upon him. 
 Neither is the Right Honorable Gentleman 
 less anomalous in his mode of prophecy, 
 than in his reasoning upon things past. 
 In the very singular letter /the 23rd of ^ 
 September, 1808, to which I have before 
 referred you, he considers the object of the 
 orders in council, so sure to be accom- 
 plished, that he treats of it with exultation 
 iis already effected with the exception of 
 some small links of the confederacy, which 
 must not be suffered to remain r.ndissolved. 
 He treats of the system of the continent, of 
 Tvhich extent and continuitv were the vital 
 principles, as already broken up into Irag- 
 ments, utterly haimleps and contemptible. 
 Deplorable indeed is the contrast, which 
 the small uiidissolvcd links of the confe- 
 deracy present, at the end of the half of 
 seven jcars tVom. the date of this prophetic 
 strain, uttered triiimphautly at the very 
 uncertain prospect, iiowever desirable,of the 
 emancipanon of Spain. In what quarter 
 
 / 
 
 (f. 
 
 r 
 
I 
 
 : 172 
 
 of the world are we to look for the good 
 effects of this visionary dissolution ? Tiie 
 manufacUires of the continent, of those 
 articles fonnerlv imported from Enoland. 
 are at least triple ; and those of the United 
 States, no party in the system of the conti- " 
 nent, but induced by the same conduct on 
 our part, that has effected this object, to 
 manufacture for themselves ; procn-essin^'* 
 in a way not only to distress the manufac- 
 turing interest of the present day, but to 
 remove the ' ^w.s of a successful rivalry 
 hereafter. '.. '.c West India planters, always 
 anxious for an extensive connexion Avith 
 the United States, complaining of their ina- 
 bility to support the portion refjuired from 
 them of the comn:ion burthen, and even 
 debating the question of maintaining the 
 force required for their immediate defence? 
 tlieir creditors and merchants here, who so 
 lately urged, witli vehemence, the measures 
 that have brought on the crisis, strucro-lino. 
 through losses, and indeed, encountering 
 immense bankruptcies. Tlie poorer manu"^ 
 facti.r-rs not literally starving,— (these 
 thiij^s arc often too highly colored)— but 
 
173 
 
 living upon those whoso means of subsist- 
 ence for themselves are daily diminishino'; 
 and who, I cannot but hope, under all the 
 infatuation of the times, will be heard and 
 attended to in their firm and temperate 
 adch-esses to the source of legal redress, at 
 least as regards their intercourse witli 
 America. — 'J'hese are the fragments, i/r/c/7?/ 
 harmless and conlemptihk, to which the 
 system of the continent has led. Fraoments 
 of bodies that would have remained whole 
 and entire, but for the aid of a British 
 administration in breaking them to pieces. 
 
 It is most true, tliat T luive always con^ 
 sidered the resoui-ces of this country as 
 abundant, beyond what many of their most 
 strenuous advocates have pretended. The 
 error of tlie contrary opinion has appeared 
 to jue, in the writers' not considerino- the 
 progress of wealth as outstripping that of 
 the del)t. 'llie maiii source of tliis advnn. 
 tage has always appeared to be in the 
 conunerce of these ishtuds. AVhoevcv 
 considers the cost of the raw material, 
 
174 
 
 compared with the value of the manufac- 
 tured article ; and that all the intermediate 
 sum, whatever the home labor and expense 
 may be, is a balance of gain to the nation, 
 will not be surprised that the nation should 
 be gainer, even in cases where the mer- 
 chant is ruined. The subject is very 
 simple. If having 100/. a year, I spend 
 but 80/. I shall always increase in wealth ; 
 and if my income increase to 120/. per 
 annum, I may spend 100/. a year and be 
 equally prosperous. My saving of 20/. 
 a year, placed annually with its income at 
 lawful interest for a century, would amoimt 
 to no less a sum than 52,200/. But turn 
 the scale, and having 80/. a year, let me 
 spend 100/. how and soon must I be involved 
 past all recovery ! 
 
 I take this period to be now arrived in 
 Respect to the income and expenditure of 
 this country ; and if the compound ratio 
 pf depreciation should not progress in the 
 same proportion as the increase, it must 
 be because the work of dilapidation is not 
 
I^^^^^KJ^B^'^ 
 
 per 
 
 so rapid as that of the aggregation of wealth. 
 But on this subject 1 will not enter : — it 
 opens a tremendous gulph, into which I 
 am under no pledge to descend. I shall 
 therefore cjuit the subject, not withont the 
 hope that the true state of the question 
 between this country and the United States, 
 will be some day seen by the nation throngh 
 the mists with which it is enveloped by . 
 party ; and that the ^.ioH, combining with / f^^^T^ 
 the sovereign in a'jnst perception of the 
 true point of honor and conscience, will 
 not sutler the common enemy to exult in 
 a conflict, which, next to that of false honor 
 and lawful interest at home, is the object 
 of his most ardent wishes. 
 
 ' 
 

rl 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 NO. I. 
 
 Copy of Mr. Secretary Canning's Note to 
 Mr. Pinkney, dated Foreign Office, 23d 
 September 1808. 
 
 Foreign Office, 2Sd Sept. 1808. 
 
 The undersigned, His Majesty's Prin- 
 cipal Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, 
 had the honor to receive the official letter 
 addressed to him by Mr. Pinkney, Minis- 
 ter Plenipotentiary of the United States, 
 respecting the Orders in Council, issued by 
 His Majesty on the 7th of January and 
 11th of November 1807. 
 
 M 
 
178 
 
 lie has laid that letter before tlie King, 
 and he is commanded to assure Mr. l*ink- 
 ney tliat the answer to the })r()])osal which 
 Mr. Pinkney wds instructed to bring for- 
 ward, has been deferred only in the hope 
 that the renewed a[)plication, which was 
 understood to have been recently made by 
 the government of the United States to that 
 of France might, in the new state of things, 
 which has arisen in Europe, have met with 
 such a reception in France, as would liave 
 rendered the compliance of His Majesty 
 with that proposal consistent as much with 
 His Majesty's own dignity, and Avith the 
 interests of his people, as it would have 
 been with His Majesty's disposition towards 
 the United States. 
 
 Unhappily there is now no longer any 
 reason to believe that such a Hope is likely 
 to be realised. And the undcrsis>;ned is 
 therefore commanded to comnuinicate to 
 Mn Pinkney the decision, which, under 
 the circumstances as they stand. His Ma- 
 jesty feels himself compelled, however un- 
 wilhngly, to adopt. 
 
 
 ■ , i-m ^^•mfK:mtis-- m'Jmm., ^i>i^mjmm'i'^^ 
 
tuivo 
 
 
 179 
 
 The mitigated mt;«..iirc of retaliation an- 
 nounced by Mis Majesty in the Order of 
 Council of the 7tli of January, and the 
 further extension of that measure (an ex- 
 tension in operation but not in principle) by 
 the Orders in Council of November, were 
 founded (as has been already repeatedly 
 avowed by His Majesty) on the " unquest- 
 ionable right of His Majesty to retort upon 
 the enemy the evils of his own injustice," 
 and upon the consideration that, "if third 
 parties incidentally suffered by these retali- 
 atory measures, they were to seek their 
 redress from the power by whose original 
 aggression that retaliation was occasioned." 
 
 His Majesty sees nothing in the embargo 
 laid on by the President of the United States 
 in America, which varies this original and 
 simple state of the question. 
 
 If considered as a measure of impartial 
 hostility against both belligerents, the em- 
 bargo appears to His Majesty to have been 
 manifestly unjust, as, accordimr to everv 
 
I 
 
IMAGE EVALUATION 
 TEST TARGET (MT-3) 
 
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 WEBSTER, N.Y. H580 
 
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 180 
 
 principle of justice, that redress ouglit to 
 have been first sought from the parti/ originate 
 i?ig the zi:rong; and Ills Majesty cannot con- 
 sent to buy off that hostUity which America 
 ought not to have extended lo him, at the 
 expense of a concession made not to Ame* 
 rica, but to Erance. 
 
 If, as it has more generally been repre- 
 sented by the government of the United 
 States, the embargo is only to be considered 
 as an innocent municipal regulation, whicli 
 affects none but the United States them- 
 selves, and with which no foreign state has 
 any concern; viewed in this light, His 
 Majesty does not conceive that he has the 
 right or the pretension to make any com- 
 plaint of it; and he has made none. But 
 in this light there appears, not only no re- 
 ciprocity, but no assignable relation be- 
 tween the repeal by the United States of a 
 measure of voluntary self-restriction, and 
 the surrender by His Majesty of his right 
 of retaliation against his enemies. 
 
MW 
 
 181 
 
 The government of the United Slates is 
 not now to be infornicd, that the Berhn 
 Decree of November 21st, 1806, was the 
 p7'actical coinmencement of an attempt, not 
 merely to check or impair the prosperity of 
 Great Britain, but utterly to annihilate her 
 political existence, through the ruin of her 
 commercial prosperity ; that in this attempt, 
 almost all the powers of the European con- 
 tinent have been compelled more or less to 
 co-operate; and that the American embargo, 
 though most assuredly not intended to that 
 endf (for America can have no real interest 
 in f subversion of the British power ^ and 
 the .ulers are too enlightened to act from any 
 impidse against the real interests of their 
 country,) hut by some unfortunate concur- 
 rence of circumstances^ without any hostile 
 iritention, the American embargo did come in 
 aid of " the blockade of the European conti' 
 ncnt,*' precisely at the very moment when, if 
 that blockade could have succeeded at 
 ALL, this interposition of the American go- 
 vernment would most effectually have contri- 
 buted to its success. 
 
182 
 
 In this universal combifiation, His jMajes- 
 ty has opposed a temperate, but a deter- 
 mined retaliation upon tlie enemy; trusting 
 that a firm resistanee would defeat this 
 projeet, but knowing that the smallest con- 
 cession would inf'ailiblj encourage a perse- 
 verance in it. 
 
 The struggle has been viewed by other 
 powers not without an apprehension that 
 it might be fatal to tliis country. The Bri^ 
 tish government has not disguised from it- 
 self, that the trial of such an experiment 
 miglit be arduous and long, thouoli it has 
 never doubled of the final issue. But if that 
 issue, such as the British government confi- 
 dentialhf anticipated, has providentially ar- 
 rived much sooner than could even have been 
 hoped; if the blockade of the continent, as 
 it has been triumphantly styled by the ene- 
 my, is raised, even before it had been well 
 established; and if that system, of which 
 extent and continuity were the vital princi- 
 pies, is broken up into fragments utterly 
 harmless and contemptible ; it is neverthc- 
 
?r 
 
 183 
 
 less important in the highest degree to the 
 reputation of this country, (a reputation 
 which constitutes great part of her power) 
 that this disappointment of the hopes of her 
 cne?nies slioulcl not have been purciiased by 
 any concession; that not a doubt should 
 remain to distant times of her determina- 
 tion and of her abihty to have continued 
 her resistance; and that no step which 
 could even mistakenly be construed into 
 concession, should be taken on her part, 
 while the smallest link of the confederacy 
 remains undissolved, or while it can be a 
 question whether the plan devised for her 
 destruction has or has not either completely 
 failed, or been unequivocally abandoned. 
 
 These considerations compel His Ma- 
 jesty to adhere to the principles on which 
 the Orders in Council of the 7th of January 
 and the 11th of November are founded, so 
 long as France adheres to that system by 
 which His Majesty's retaliatory measures 
 were occasioned and justified. 
 
184 
 
 It is not improbable indeed, that some 
 alterations may be made in the Orders in 
 Council as they are at present framed ; 
 alterations calculated not to abate their 
 spirit or impair, their principle, but to adapt 
 them more exactly to the different state of 
 things, which has fortunately grown up in 
 Europe, and to combine all practicable 
 relief to neutrals, with a more severe press- 
 ure upon the enemy. 
 
 But of alterations to be made with this 
 view only, it would be uncandid to take 
 any advantage in the present discussion ; 
 however, it might be hoped, that in their, 
 practical effect, they might prove, beneficial 
 to America, provided the operations of the 
 embargo were not to prevent her from reap- 
 ing that benefit. 
 
 It remain: for the undersigned to take 
 notice of the last paragraph of Mr. Pink- 
 ney's letter. There cannot exist, on the 
 part of Mr. Pinkney, a stronger wish than 
 
185 
 
 there does on that of the undersigned and 
 of the British gova-nineut, for tlie adjust- 
 n.cnt of all the. differences subsiding be- 
 tweea the two countries. 
 
 His Majesty has no other disposition 
 than to cultivate the most friendly inter- 
 course with the United States. The un- 
 dersigned is persuaded that Mr. Pinkney 
 would be one of the last to imagine what 
 is often idly asserted, that the depression 
 of any other country is necessary or ser- 
 viceable to the prosperity of this. The 
 prosperity of America is essentially the pros- 
 perittj of Great Britain ; and the strength 
 and power of Great Britain are not for her- 
 self only, but for the worid. When those 
 adjustments shall take place to which, 
 though unfortunately not practicable at 
 this moment, nor under the conditions 
 prescribed by Mr. Pinkney, the undersigned 
 nevertheless confidently looks forward; it 
 will perhaps be no insecure pledge for the 
 continuance of the good understanding 
 between the two countries, that they will 
 
186 
 
 Lave learnt rlnly to appreciate cacli otheill 
 friendship ; and that it will iKit hereafter 
 be imputed to Great Britain either on the 
 one hand, that she envies American in- 
 dustry, as prejudicial to British Commerce; 
 or, on the other hand, that slie is compelled 
 to court an intercourse with America as 
 absolutely necessary to her own existence. 
 
 His Majesty would not hesitate to con- 
 tribute in any manner in his power to re- 
 store to the commerce of the ^Tnited States 
 its wonted activity; and if it were possible 
 to make any sacrifice for the repeal of the 
 embargo, without appearing to deprecate 
 it as a measure of hostility, he would gladly 
 have facilitated its removal, as a measure of 
 inconvenient restriction upon the American 
 people. 
 
 li 
 
 The undersigned is commanded in con*, 
 elusion to observe, tliat nothing is said in 
 Mr. Pinkney's letter of any intention to 
 repeal the proclamation, by which the 
 Mps of w.m of Great Britain are inter- 
 
187 
 
 dieted from all tliose rigl.ts of Iiospitali- 
 ty in the ports of tlie United States, 
 winch are hedy allowed to the */»>, of 
 Hh Majesty's enemies. The continuance 
 of an interdiction wliich, under such cir- 
 cumstances, amounts so nearly to direct 
 liostility, after tlic willingness professed, 
 and tlic attempt made by His Majesty to 
 remove the cause upon whicli that measure 
 had been originalFy founded, would afford 
 but an inauspicious omen for the com- 
 mencement of a system of mutual concili- 
 ation; and the omission of any notice of 
 that measure, in the proposal which Mr. 
 Pn.kney has been instructed to bring for- 
 ward, would have been of itself a material 
 defect m the overture of the President. 
 
 But the undersigned is commanded no 
 further to dwell upon this subject than fos 
 the purpose of assuring Mr. Pinkney that, 
 on this and every other point in discussioa 
 between, the two governments. His Ma- 
 jesty eai-uestly desires the restoration of a 
 perfect good understanding ; and that His 
 Majesty would decline no measure for the 
 
 _-V*^ ■'mmKk 
 
188 
 
 attainment of that object which sliould be 
 compatible with his own honor and just 
 rio^hts, and with the interests of his people. 
 
 The undersigned requests Mr. Pinkney 
 to accept the assurances of his high con- 
 sideration. 
 
 (Siglied) George Cannino, 
 
 NO. II. 
 
 The King has caused to be signified by 
 His Majesty's Principal Secretary of State 
 for o^creign Affairs, to the Ministers of 
 friendly and neutral powers residing at 
 this court, that the king, taking into con- 
 sideration the new and extraordinary means 
 resorted to by the enemy for the purpose 
 of distressing the commerce of his subjected, 
 has thought fit to direct that the necessary 
 measures should be taken for the blockade 
 of the coast, rivers, and ports, from the 
 river Elbe to the port of Brest, both in= 
 elusive; and that the said coasts, rivers, 
 
■•■iip 
 
 lid be 
 1 just 
 cople. 
 
 ikney 
 I con- 
 
 ed by 
 State 
 3rs of 
 ng at 
 ) con- 
 neans 
 irpose 
 ^jectcj, 
 essary 
 ckade 
 11 the 
 th in« 
 rivers, 
 
 189 
 
 and ports, are and must be considered as 
 blockaded but tliat His Majesty is pkas- 
 ed to declare, that such blockade shall not 
 extend to prevent neutral ships and vessels, 
 laden with goods not being the property 
 of his Majesty's enemies, and not being con- 
 traband of war, from approaching the 
 said coasts, and entering into and saihng 
 " ". the said rivers and ports (save and 
 t tlie coast, rivers, and ports, from 
 to the river Seine, already in a strict 
 anu porous blockade, and which are to be 
 considered as so continued), provided the 
 said ships and vessels so approaching and 
 entering (except as aforesaid) shall not have 
 been laden at amj port belonging to or in 
 the possession of any of His Majesty's ene- 
 mies, and that the said ships and vessels 
 so sailing from the said rivers and porta 
 (exrept as aforesaid) shall not be destined 
 to any port belonging to or in the posses- 
 sion of any of His Majesty's enemies, nor 
 have previously broken the blockade. 
 
 ..tlUI-mamk 
 
190 
 
 NO. TTT. 
 
 Wheheas the Fre7ich government has 
 issued certain orders, which, ii^ viohition 
 of the usages of war, purport to pr(>hil)it 
 the commerce of ill neutral nations with 
 His Majesty's domii\^ons, and also to pre- 
 vent such nations from trading with any 
 other country, in any articles, the growth, 
 produce, or manufacture of His Majesty's* 
 dominions. 
 
 And whereas the said government has also 
 taken upon itself to declare all His Ma- 
 jesty's dominions to be in a state of block- 
 ade, at a time when tlie fleets of France 
 and her allies are themselves confined 
 within their own ports by the superior 
 valor and discipline of the British navy : 
 
 And whereas such attempts on the part 
 of the cnen^y would give to His Majesty 
 an unquestionable right of retaliation, and 
 would warrant His Majesty in enforcing 
 the same prohibition of all commerce with 
 France, which that power vainly hopes to 
 eflect against the commerce of His Majes- 
 
 
t has 
 lation 
 :)hil)it 
 with 
 I pre- 
 1 any 
 owth, 
 jcsty'? 
 
 as also 
 3 Ma- 
 block- 
 Francc 
 infilled 
 iperior 
 vdvy : 
 
 le part 
 lajesty 
 n, and 
 forcing 
 ze with 
 opes to 
 Majes- 
 
 191 
 
 ty's subjects ; u prohibition which the su- 
 periority of Uh Mcijcsty's navat forces 
 iiii-lit enable him to h:upport, bt/ actually 
 investing the ports and coasts oj the 
 cnewij xdth numroKs aquadsons and crumrs, 
 so as to make the entrance or approach thcrc^ 
 to manifry-tly danscrous : 
 
 And ivhcreas \m Majesty, though un- 
 wilhng to follow the example of IJis cne- 
 inies, by proceeding to an extremity so 
 distressing to all nations, not engaged in 
 the war, and carrying on their ucai'stomed 
 trade, yet feels himself bound by a due 
 regard to tlie just defence of the rights and 
 interests of his people, not to sutler such 
 measures to be taken by the enemy, with- 
 out taking some steps on his part lo re- 
 strain this violence, and to retort upon them 
 the evils of their own irynstice : 
 
 His r^Iajesty is therefore pleased, by and 
 with the advico of His Privy Coundl, to 
 order, and it is hereby ordered, that no 
 vessel shall be permitted to trade from one 
 
■j " nil ■Iiniiit1lliip-|' II I 
 
 m 
 
 192 
 
 mrt to another, both which ports shall be- 
 long to or be in the possession of France, 
 or her allies, or shall be so far under their 
 control as that British vessels may not 
 freely trade thereat : And the commanders 
 of his Majesty's ships of war and privateers 
 shall be, and are hereby instructed to warn 
 every neutral vessel coming from any such 
 port, and destined to another such port, to 
 discontinue her voyage, and not to proceed 
 to any such port ; and any vessel after 
 being so warned, or any vessel coming 
 from any such port, after a reasonable time 
 s^all have been afforded for receiving in- 
 formation of this His Majesty's order, 
 which shall be found proceeding to another 
 such port, shall be captured and brought 
 in, and, together with her cargo, shall be 
 condemned as lawful prize. And His 
 Majesty's Principal Secretaries of State, 
 the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty, 
 and the Judges of the High Court of Ad- 
 miralty and Courts of Vice-Admiralty, are 
 to take the necessary measures herein, as 
 to them shall respectively appertain. 
 
 (Signed) W. FAWKENER. 
 
193 
 
 KO. IV. 
 
 Extract of Mr. Pinkney's letter to Lord 
 
 AVellcslev. 
 
 »/ 
 
 Jan. 14. 1811. 
 Jt is by no means clear tliat it may not 
 fairly be contentk^d, on principle and early 
 usage, that a maritime blockade is incom- 
 plete with regard to states at peace, unless 
 the place which it would affect is invested 
 by land as well as by sea. The United 
 States, however, have called for the recoo-- 
 iiition of no such rule. They appear to 
 have contented themselves with uroingW^ 
 substance, thatports, nota^'tually blockaded 
 hy a present, adequate, stationary force, 
 employed by the power which attacks 
 them, shall not be considered as shut to 
 neutral trade in articles not contraband of 
 war; that, though it is usual for a belhge- 
 rent to give notice to neutral nations when 
 he intends to institute a blockade, it is 
 possible that he may not act upon his inten- 
 tion at all, or that he may execute it insuf- 
 ficiently, or that he may discontinue his 
 
194 
 
 ^i 
 
 blockade, of which it is not custonuiry to 
 give any notice ; that, consequently, the 
 presence of the blockading force, is the 
 natural criterion by which the neutral is 
 enabled to ascertain the existence of the 
 blockade at any given period, in Uke 
 manner, as the actual investment of a 
 besieged place is the evidence by which we 
 decide whether the siege, which may be 
 commenced, raised, connnenced, and raised 
 again, is continued m* not; that of course, 
 a'niere notification to a neutral Minister 
 shall not be relied upon, as aftecting, with 
 knowledge of tlie actual existence of the 
 blockade, cither his government or its 
 citizens; that a vessel, cleared or bound to 
 a blockaded port, shall not be considered as 
 violating, in any manner, the blockade, 
 unless on her approach towards such port, 
 she shall have been previously warned not 
 to enter it ; that this view of the law, in 
 itself perfectly correct, is peculiarly import- 
 ant to nations situated at a great distance 
 from the belligerent parties, and, therefore, 
 incapable of obUining other than tardy 
 
 
■ I ihttuffifcir- ' j^^ 
 
 195 
 
 iafonnation of the actual state of their 
 ports ; that whole coasts and countries shall 
 not be declared (for they can never be more 
 than declared) to be in a state of blockade, 
 converted into the means of extiniruishlng 
 the trade of neutral nations ; and, lastly, 
 that every blockade shall be impartial in 
 its operation, or, in other words, shall not 
 open and shut for the convenience of the 
 party that institutes it, and at the same 
 time repel the commerce of the rest of the 
 world, so as to become the odious instru- 
 ment of an unjust monopoly, instead of a 
 measure of honorable war. 
 
 ; I 
 
 .•1 
 
 ■ : 
 
 i 
 
196 
 
 NO. V. 
 
 Xopif,) 
 
 DEPARTMENT OF STATE, 
 
 March 3. 1800. 
 
 Sir, 
 
 I have liad the lienor to receive and lay before 
 the president, your letter of the *20tli January, in which 
 you state that you are " expressly precluded, by your in- 
 structions, from entering upon any negotiation for the 
 adjustment of the dift'ereuces arising from the encounter of 
 his Britannic Majesty's shij> the Leopard, and the frigate 
 of the United States the Chesapeake, as long as the pro- 
 clamation of the president of the 2d of July, 1807> shall 
 be in force." 
 
 11 
 
 This demand, sir^ might justly suggest the simple an- 
 swer, that before the proclamation of the president could 
 become a subject of consideration, satisfaction should be 
 made for the acknowledged aggression which preceded it. 
 Thfs is evidently agreeable to the order of time, to the 
 order of reason, and, it. may be added, to the order of 
 usage as maintained by Great Britaiti, whenever, in analo- 
 gous cases, she has been the complaining party. 
 
197 
 
 But as you have subjoined to the preliminary demant!, 
 certain exphmalions, with a view, doubtless, to obvirite such 
 an answer, it will best accord with the candor oi the pre- 
 sident, to meet them with such a review of the whole sub- 
 ject as will present tl:e solid grounds on which he regards 
 b'ucli a demand as inadmissible. 
 
 I bei;ln with the occurrences from which the procla- 
 mation of July Cd resulted. These are in general teiinat 
 referred to by the instrument itself. A more particular 
 notice of the most importaut of them will here be in 
 place. 
 
 r 
 
 Passingover, then, the habitual, but minor, irregularities 
 of his Britannic Majesty's ships of war, in making the 
 hospitalities ©four ports subservient to the annoyance of 
 our trade, both outward and inward, a practice not only 
 contrary to the principles of public law, but expressly 
 contrary to British ordinances, enforced during maritime 
 wars to whicJi she bore a neutral relation, I am con- 
 strained, unwelcome as tlie task is, to call your attention 
 to the following more prominent instances. 
 
 in the summer of the year 1804, the British frigate the 
 Cambrian, with other cruisers in company, entered the 
 harbor of New York. Tlie commander, Capt. Bradley, 
 in violation of the port-laws relating both to healtli and 
 revenue, caused a merchant vessel just arrived, and con- 
 fessedly within the limits and under the authority of the 
 United States, to be boarded by persons under his com** 
 
198 
 
 tnand, who, after resisting the offict-rs of the port in the 
 legal exercise of their functions, actually impressed and 
 carried oft* a number of seamen and passengers into the 
 service of the ships of war. On an appeal to his volun- 
 tary respect for the laws, he first failed to give up the 
 offender to justice, and finally repelled the ofticer charged 
 with the regular process for the purpose. 
 
 This procedure was not only a flagrant insult to the 
 sovereignty of the nation, hut an infraction of its neutrality 
 also, which did not permit a belligerent ship thus to aug- 
 ment its force within the neutral territory. 
 
 To finish the scene, this commander went so far as to 
 declare, hi an official letter to the minister plenipotentiary 
 of his Britannic Majesty, and by him communicated to 
 this government, that he considered his ship, whilst lying 
 in the harbor of New York, as having dominion around 
 her, within the distance of her buoys. 
 
 All these circumstances were duly made known to the 
 British government, in just expectation of honorable 
 reparation. Non<; has ever been offered. Capt. Bradley 
 was advanced from his frigate to the command of a ship 
 of the line. 
 
 At a subsequent j)€riod, several British frigates under 
 the command of Capt. Whitby, of the Leander, pursuing 
 the practice of vexing the inward and outward trade of 
 our ports^ and hovering for that purpose about the entrance 
 
199 
 
 a ship 
 
 
 s under 
 
 
 ursuing 
 
 
 trade of 
 
 
 ntrance 
 
 
 1 
 
 [ 
 
 f 
 
 
 vt' that of New York, closed a series of irregularities, 
 \vitli ail attempt to arrest a toasting vessel, on board of 
 wliieli an American citizen was killed by a eannon-ball 
 which eiiteted the vessel whilst within less than a nule 
 from tiie sh.orc. 
 
 Hie blood of a citizen thus murdered, in a trade from 
 one to another port of his own country, and widiin the 
 sanctuary of its territorial jurisdiction, could not fail to 
 arouse the sensibility of the public, and to make a solemn 
 appeal to the justice of the British government. The 
 case was presented moreover to that government by this, 
 in the accent which it required ; and with due confidence 
 that the offender would receive the exemplary punish- 
 ment which he deserved. That there might be no failure 
 of legal proof of a fact sufficiently notorious of itself, un- 
 exceptionable witnesses to establish it were sent to Great 
 Britain at the expense of the United States. 
 
 Captain Whitby was, notwithstanding, honorably acquit- 
 ted ; no animadversion took place on any other officer 
 belonging to the squadron ; nor has any apology or ex- 
 planation been made since the trial was over, as a concili- 
 atory offering to the disappointment of this country at 
 such a result. 
 
 A case of another character occurred in the month of 
 September, 1806. The Impetueux, a French ship of 74 
 guns, w hen aground withm a few hundred yards of the 
 shore of North Carolina, and therefore visibly within the 
 
 .-,-«ie**- 
 
200 
 
 territorial jurisdiction and hospitable protection of thft 
 United Slates, was fired upon, boarded, and burnt, from 
 tliree British ships of war, under the command of Captain 
 Douglass. Havini; completed this outrage on the sove- 
 reignty and neutrality of th^ United States, the British 
 commander feh no scruple in proceeding thence into the 
 waters near Norfolk, nur in the midst of the hospitalities 
 enjoyed by him, to add to what had passed a refusal to 
 discharge from his ships, impressed citizens of the United 
 States not denied to be such, on the plea that the govern- 
 ment of the United States had refused to surrender to tho 
 demand of Admiral Berkeley, certain seamen allcjied to 
 be British deserters ; a denuujd which it is well under- 
 stood your government disclahus any right to make. 
 
 It would be very superfluous to dwell on the features 
 which mark this aggravated insult. Ihit I nnist be per- 
 mitted to remind you, that in so serious a light Mas a 
 similar violation ojf neutral territory, by the destruction of 
 certain French ships on the coast of Portugal, by a Bri- 
 tish squadron under the command of Admiral Boscawcn, 
 regarded by the court of Great Britain, that a minister 
 extraordinary was dispatched for the express purpose of 
 expiating tlie aggression on the sovereignty of a friendly 
 power. 
 
 Lastly presents itself, the anack by the British ship of 
 war Leopard, on the Ameiican frigate Chesapeake; a 
 c^sc too familiar in all its circumstances to need a recital 
 of any part of them. It is sufficient to remark that the 
 
201 
 
 conclusive evidcuce. which this event added to thiit uhi.:h 
 had preceded, of the uncontrolled excesu's «f the 13i itish 
 naval counnauders, in insidtinn: our .sovereignty, and abus. 
 ing our hospitality, determined the president to extend to 
 all British armed ships, the preeantion, heretofore applied 
 to a TcMv by name, of interdicting to them the u«c and 
 privileges of our harbors and waters. 
 
 Tliis was done by his proclamation of July 2, 1807. 
 referring to the series of occurrences, ending with the 
 aggression on tlie frigate Chesapeake, as the considerations 
 requiring it. And if ti,e apprehension from the licentious 
 spiiil of the Britisli .laval tonmianders, thus developed 
 and uncontrolled, which led to this measure ofprecaution, 
 could need other jnstilicatiou than was afforded by what 
 had passed, it would be amply found in the subsequent 
 conduct of the ships under the command of the same 
 Cajituiii Douglass. 
 
 This officer, neither admonished by reflections on the 
 crisis produced oy Uie attack on the Chesape;rke, nor 
 controlled by respect for the law pf nations, or the laws 
 of the land, did not cease within our waters to bring to, 
 by tiring at, vessels pursuing their regular course of tride [ 
 and in the same spirit which had displayed iiself in the 
 recent outrage committed on the American frigate, he not 
 only indulged himself in hostile threats, and indications of 
 a hostile approach to Norfolk, but actually obstructed our 
 citizens in the ordinary communication between that and 
 iifighboring places. His proceedings constituted, in fact. 
 
 
 I 
 
202 
 
 u blockade of the port, and as rral an invasion of tliu 
 country, accoitling to llie extent of his force, as if troop;* 
 had been debarked, and the town besieged on the land 
 side. 
 
 I 1 
 
 m 
 
 Was it possible for the chief magistrate of a nation, who 
 felt for its rights and its honor, to do less than interpose 
 some measure of precaution, at least, against the repetition 
 of enormities which had been so long uncontrolled by 
 the government whose otficeis had committed them, and 
 which had at hist taken the exorbitant shape of hostility 
 and of insult seen in the attack on the frigate Chesapeake f 
 Candor will pronounce that less could not be done; and 
 it will as readily admit lli:tt llie proclamation, comprising 
 that measure, could not have breathed a more temperate 
 spirit, nor spoken in a more becoming tone. How far it 
 has received from those whose intrusion.'* it prohibited, 
 the respect due to the national authority, or been made 
 the occasion of new indignities, needs no explanation. 
 
 The president having interposed this precautionary 
 interdict, lost no time in instructing the minister plenipo- 
 tentiary of the United States to represent to the British 
 government the signal aggression which had been com- 
 mitted on their sovereignty and their flag, and to require 
 the satisfaction due for it ; indulging the expectation, 
 that his Britannic Majesty would at once perceive it to 
 be the truest magnanimity, as well as the strictest justice, 
 to offer that prompt and full expiation of an acknowledged 
 wrong, w hich would re-establish and improve, both in fact 
 and in feeling, the state of things which it had violated. 
 
203 
 
 'l^is exportation was considered as not only honorable 
 to the senlinuMits cf Ms Ajajosty, hut was supported by 
 known examples, in m hich, being the con..plaining party 
 ho had recjuin^d and obtained, as a preliminary to any 
 cuunler ro.nphiints whatever, a precise rephuement of 
 thnigs, in every practicable circnmstance, in their pre- 
 existing situation. 
 
 llitis ill the year 17()4, Bermudians and other British 
 subjects, wlio had, according to annual custom, taken 
 possession of Turk^s island for the season of making salt, 
 having been forcibly removed with their vessels and rffect* 
 by a French <Ietachment froii. the island of St. Domingo, 
 to wiiich Turk's island was alleged to be an appurtenance,' 
 the British ambassador at Paris, in pursuance of instruc- 
 tions from his government, den.anded, as a satisfaction 
 for the violence committed, that the proceedings should 
 be disavowed, the intention of acquiring Turk's island 
 dis<Iaimed, orders gi.en for the iiumediate abandonment 
 of It on the part of the French, wery thing restored to 
 the condition in which it was at the time of the aggi essio.., 
 and reparation made of the damages which any British 
 subjects should be found to have su-ained, according to 
 an estimation to be settled between the governors of^St. 
 Doniingo and Jamaica. A compliance with the whole 
 of this demand was the result. 
 
 ^gam: Jn the year 178(;, certain English merchants 
 havmg opened a trade at Nootka Sound, on the Nor.h- 
 West coast of America, and attempted a *,ttlement at 
 
204 
 
 that place, the Spaniards, who had lonj^ rhiinird Mi.tt part 
 of the world as their t-xrlusive proptrtv, dispaK h»d a 
 frigate from Mexico, which captured two I'lnglish vessels 
 "Mgaged in the trade, and broke up the setthnuM.t on tlie 
 coast. The Spanish government m as the first to eoni- 
 phiin, in this case, of the intrusions committed hy ihr 
 British merchants. The Biititih Government, however, 
 demaiided that the vessels taken by the Spanish frigai« 
 .should be restored, and adequate satisfaction granteil, 
 previous to ain/ other discussion. 
 
 This demand prevailed; the S|)anis!i govornment 
 ngrceing to make full restoration of the captured vessels, 
 and to indemnify the parlies interested in them for the 
 iosses sustained. They r< stored also the buii(iiM«.s au<I 
 tracts of land of which the British subjects had been 
 dispossessed, llie British, however, soon gave a proof 
 of »hc little value they set on the possession, by a volun- 
 tary dereliction, under which it has since remained. 
 
 The case vhich will be noted last, though of a date 
 prior to the case of Nootka Sound, is that of ralkland's 
 Islands. 'i hese islands lie al.out one hundnnl lea«nus 
 eastward of the straits of Magellan. The title to 
 them had been a sufyect of controversy aminig several 
 of the maritime nations of Kurope. From the position 
 of the islands and other circumstances, the pretensions of 
 Spain bore an advantageous comparison with those of her 
 competitors. In the year 1/70, .the British took posses- 
 won of Port Egmout in one of the islands, the Spa- 
 
205 
 
 '"-•'I ill ine lime m Docup^u ,„, , r . 
 .. 1 wovsession ol autv. icr nnrt. 
 
 r-rnM, .,.,.„.,,,,., ,„, ,...,^.^ ^,,.,,_^^ B.i,i!h ,..;,:: 
 
 " O.oa Bn,a„, of ,l.o con.luc. of he,- officer at I L. 
 '-'-f-K-l„d,,iu.,.alle,ed,saveocca,,io,.to e 
 
 T1.0 rc.,>lv ,vas, ,!,at u.e modonuion of l.i, Rritannlc 
 -o„.o..o„MaocopMW.,,ei.,j.,.,,,,^ 
 
 and u .t.„„„. ,„c„ ,,e,,„i„„. „,^,, 
 
 --;/./. W./W, a,.d to .0 obtained C'C 
 
 The SpauiA s,.vc,nmont yielded. TI.e violent pro- 
 --.».'' "^ "*'--re d.avo«ed. Tl,e o t I 
 pou,a.,eve.,U,l,,,eH..ea,..atobe.„J2;';; 
 
206 
 
 restored to the precise situation whicli had hcen disturbed ; 
 and duphcates of orders, issued for the purpose to the 
 Spanish otiicers, were delivered into the hands of one of 
 the Britisli principal secretaries of state. Here again, it is 
 to be remarked, that satisfaction having been made for the 
 forcible dispossession, the islands lost their importance 
 in the eyes of the British government, were in a short 
 time evacuated, and port Egmont remains with every other 
 part of them in the hands of Spain. 
 
 Could stronger i)ledges have been given than are here 
 found, that an honorable and instant reparation would be 
 made in a case, differing no otherwise from those recited, 
 than as. it furnished to the same monarch of a great 
 nation, an opportunity to prove, that adhering always to 
 the same i.amutable princi|)le, he was as ready to do right 
 to others, as to require it for liimself ? 
 
 Returning to the instructions given to the minister 
 plenipotentiary of the United Stales at London, I am to 
 observe that the president thought it just and expedient 
 to insert as a necessary ingredient in the adjustment of 
 the outrage committed on the American frigate, a security 
 against tlie future practice of the ]5rilisli naval commanders, 
 in impressing from merchant vessels of the United States 
 on the high seas, such of their crews as they might under- 
 take to denominate British subjects. 
 
 I 
 
 To this association of the two subjects, the president 
 was determined, 1st, by his regarding both as resting on 
 
207 
 
 kindred priiuiples; the immunity of private ships, witlt 
 the known exceptions mi'de by the laws of nations, being 
 as well established as tliat of public ships ; and there 
 being no pretext for including in these exceptions the im- 
 pressment (if it could be freed from its enormous and 
 notorious abuses) of the subjects of a belligerent by the 
 officers of that belligerent. The rights of a belligerent 
 against the ships of a neutral nation accrue merely from 
 the relation of the neutral to the other belligerent, as in 
 conveying to him contraband of war, or in supplying a 
 blockaded port. 
 
 The claim of a belligerent to search for, and seize on 
 board neutral vessels on the high seas, persons under his 
 allegiance, does not therefore rest on any belligerent right 
 under the law of nations, but on a prerogative derived 
 from nnniicipal law ; and involves the extravagant suppo- 
 sition, that one nation has a right to execute, at all times 
 and in all cases, its municipal laws and regulations, on 
 board the ships of another nation not being within its 
 territorial limits. 
 
 The president was led to the same determination, Sdly, 
 by his lesire of converting a particular incident into an 
 occasion for removing another and more extensive source 
 of danger to the harmony of the two countries : and 3dly, 
 by his ptrsuasion, that the liberality of the propositions 
 authorisdl with this view, would not fail to induce the 
 ready concurrence of his liritaimic Majesty ; and that 
 the more extensive source of irritation and perplexity 
 
208 
 
 being removed, a si\tisfactor}' aujustmcnt of the particular 
 incident would be the less ditlicuit. I'he president still 
 thinks that such would have been the tendency of the 
 mode for which he had providfl; and he cannot, therefore, 
 but regret that the door was shut against the experiment, 
 bv the perenjptory refusal of Mr. Canning to admit it 
 into discussion, even in the most informal manner, af% 
 was suggested bv Mr. Monroe. . 
 
 llic president felt the greater regret, as the step he 
 had taken towards n more enlarged and lasting accom- 
 modation, became thus a bar to the adjustment of ihe- 
 particular and recent aggression which had been com- 
 mitted against the United States. He found, however, 
 an alleviation in the signifie 1 purpose of his Britannic 
 Majesty, to charge with this adjustment a special mission 
 to the United States, which, restricted as it was, seemed 
 to indicate a disposition from which a liberal and concilia- 
 tory arrangement, of one g^eat object at least, might ha 
 contideiitly expected. 
 
 m 
 
 In this confulence, your arrival was awaited with every 
 friendly solicitude ; and our fust hiterview having opened 
 the way by an acquiescence in the separation of the twt) 
 cases hisisted on by his liritannic Majesty, notwithstand- 
 ing the strong grounds on Mhich they had been united by 
 the president, it was not to be doubted, that a tender of 
 the saiisfiiction claimed by the United States, for a dlslin- 
 guislied and an acknowledgid iiisult by one of his ofticer-i, 
 would immedialelv follow. 
 
209 
 
 • 
 
 It was not, therefore, without a viery pahiful surprise 
 that the error of tlii& expectation was discovered. Instead 
 of the satisfaction due from the original aggressor, it 
 was announced that the first step towards the adjust- 
 ment must proceed from the party injured ; and your let- 
 ter now before me, formally repeats, that as long as 
 the proclamation of the president, which issued on the 
 2d July, 1807, shall be in force, it will be an insuper- 
 able obstacle to a negotiation, even on the subject ot 
 the aggression whicli preceded it; in other words, that 
 the proclamation must be put out of force, before an 
 adjustment of the aggression can be taken into di?ri«?5- 
 sion. 
 
 In explaining the grounds of this extraordinary demand, 
 it is alleged to be supported by the cousideration, that the 
 proceeding and pretension of the offending officer has 
 been disavowed : that general assurances are given of a 
 disposition and intention in his Britannic Majesty to mak« 
 satisfaction; that a special muiister was dispatched with j 
 promptitude, for the purpose of carrying into effect this 
 disposition : and that you have a personal conviction that 
 the pavtiyular terms, which you are not at liberty previ- 
 ously to disclose, will be deemed by the United States 
 satisfactory. 
 
 With respect to the disavowal, it would be imjust not 
 to regard it as a proof of candor and amity towards the 
 Lnited States, and as Dome presage of the voluntary repa- 
 ration which it implied to be due^ But the disavowal 
 
 O 
 
 ''S^4pPPMp ,■ 
 
210 
 
 tan be the less confounded with the roparatioii itsrif; 
 since it was snfficiently lequireu by the rtspcct \\h\v\\ 
 Great llihain owed to her own honor; it lK'in<i- impossi- 
 ble that an enlightened government, had hostility been 
 meditated, would have conmienced it iu Miieh a manner, 
 and in the midst of ccisting professions of peace and 
 friendship. She owed it also to consistency with the disa- 
 vowal on a former occasion, iu which the pretension had 
 been enforced hy a British squadron against the sloop of 
 war, Baltimore, belonging to the United States; and 
 finally to the interest which Great Britain has, more than 
 any other nation, in disclaiming a princi[)le which would 
 expose her superior number of sliips of war to so many 
 indignities from inferior navies. 
 
 As little can the general assurances that reparation 
 would be made, claim a return which could properly 
 follow the actual rcparati(m only. They cannot amount 
 to more than a disposition, or at most, a promise to do 
 what the aggressor may deem a fulfilment of his obli- 
 '*>ation. They do not prove even a disi)osition to do 
 what may be satisfactory to the injured i>arty, who cannot 
 "have less than an equal right to decide on the sufhci- 
 encv of the redress. 
 
 f 
 
 In dispatching a special minister for the purpose of 
 adjusting the difference, the United States ought cheer- 
 fully to acknowledge all the proof it affords on the 
 'part of his Britannic Majesty of his pacific views towards 
 them, and of his respect for their friendship. But whilst 
 
iSMHH 
 
 and 
 
 211 
 
 they could not, under any circumstances, allow to tliC5 
 measure, more than a certain jvarticipation in an hono- 
 rable rei>arati(»n, it m to he recollected th-' 'he avowed 
 and primary' oJycct of the mission, was to substitute 
 for the more extended adjustment proposed by the United 
 States', at Loudon, a separation of tlic sulyects as pre- 
 ferred by his Britannic Majesty, and you well know, sir, 
 how fully this object was accomplished. 
 
 With respect to the personal conviction which you have 
 expressed, that the terms which you decline to disclose 
 woidd be satisfactory to the United States, it is incunjhent 
 on me to observe that with the highest respect for your 
 judgment, and the most j>erfect confidence in your sin- 
 cerity, an insuperable objection manifestly lies, to the 
 acceptance of a personal and unexplained opinion, in 
 place of a disclosure which would enable this govern- 
 ment to exercise its own judguient in a case aft'ectiug so 
 essentially its honor and its rights. Such a course of 
 proceeding would be without example ; and there can 
 be no liazard in saying that one will never be afforded by 
 a government which respects itself as much as yours justly 
 does ; and therefore, can never be reasonably expected 
 from one ^^ hich respects itself as much as this has a riglit 
 to do. 
 
 I forbear, sir, to enlarge on the intrinsic incongruity of 
 the expedient proposed. But 1 must be allowed to 
 remark, as an additional admonition of the singular and 
 mortifying perplexity in which a c^ompliance niight involve 
 
 I 
 
212 
 
 the presidenti that there are in the letter of Mr. Canning, 
 communicating to Mr. Monroe the special mission to the 
 United States, pregnant indications that other questions 
 and conditions may have been contemphited which would 
 be tound utterly irreconcileable with the sentiments of this 
 nation. 
 
 If neither any, nor all of these consideration;!, can sus- 
 tain the preliniiiiary demand made in your comnnuiication, 
 it remains to be seen whether such a demand rests w ith 
 greater advantage on the more precise ground on which 
 you finally seem to place it. 
 
 Tlie proclamation is considered as a hostile measure, 
 and a discontintiance of it, as due to the discontinuance 
 of the aggression which led to it. 
 
 It has been sufficiently shown that the proclamationi 
 as appears on the face of it, was produced by a train of 
 occurrences termhiating iii tlie attack on the American 
 frigate, and not by this last alone. To a demand there- 
 fore that the proclamation be revoked, it would be per- 
 fectly fair to oppose a demand that redress be first given 
 for the numerous irregularities which preceded the 
 aggression on the American frigate, as well as for this 
 particular aggression, and that effectual control be inter- 
 posed against repetitions of them. And as no such 
 redress has been given for the past, notwithstanding the 
 lapse of time which has taken place, nor any such security 
 for the future, notwitlistanding the undiminished reason- 
 
213 
 
 * 
 
 ablencss of it, it follows, that a continuance of the pro? 
 clamation would be consistent with an entire discontmu- 
 ance of one only of the occurrences from which it pro- 
 ceeded. 
 
 But it is not necessary to avail the argument of this 
 view of the case, although of itself entirely conclusive. 
 Had the proclamation been founded on the single aggres- 
 sion committed on the Chesapeake, and were it admitted 
 that the discontinuance of that aggression merely, gave a 
 claim to the discontinuance of the proclamation, the claim 
 would be defeated by the incontestible fact, that that 
 aggression has not been discontinued. It has never ceased 
 to exist ; and is in existence at this moment. Need I 
 remind you, sir, that the seizure and asportation of the 
 seamen belonging to the crew of the Chesapeake, entered 
 into the very essence of that aggression, that with an 
 exception of the victim to a trial forbidden by the most 
 solemn considerations, and greatly aggravating the guilt 
 of its author, the seamen in question are still retained, and 
 consequently that the aggression, if in no other respect, is 
 by that act alone continued and in force ? 
 
 If the views which have been taken of the subject have 
 thejustness which they claim, they will have shown that 
 on no ground whatever, can an annulment of ihe procla- 
 mation of July 2d, be reasonably required, as a prelimi- 
 nary to the negotiation with which you are charged. On 
 the contrary, it clearly results, from a recurrence to the 
 causes and object of the proclamation, that, as was at iirst 
 
 I 
 
 '^^^^iifii - ■ --fW^^^W^ 
 
214 
 
 intiiTiatrd, the strongest sanctions of GicM l^ritaiii lierst'lf, 
 wouli! support the «lentar J, that pK.vioiis to a thsciis.siou 
 of the proclamation, due satisf.ictjoii slumld be made to 
 the United States ; that this satisfattion ou|>;ht to extend 
 to all the wrongs which preceded and i)r<)duced that act; 
 and that even iimilhig thenieiitsof the question to the 
 single relation of the proclanialioii to the wioiii; commit- 
 ted in the attack on the American frigate, and iletiding 
 the question on the principle that a discowliimance of the 
 latter, required of right athHcoutinuance of the former, 
 nothhig appears that dors not lea\e sucli a preliminary 
 destitute of every foundation which could be assumed 
 for it. 
 
 With a right to draw this conclusion, the president niigiit 
 have instructed me to close this comnumication, with the 
 reply stated in the beginning of it ; and perhaps in taking 
 this course, he would only have consulted a sensibility, 
 to which most governments would, in such a case, have 
 yielded. But adhering to the moderation by which he 
 has been invariably guided, and jmxious to rescue the 
 two nations from the circumstances^ under which an abor- 
 tive issue to your mission necessarily j)laces them, he has 
 authorised me, in the event of your disclosing the terms of 
 reparation which you believe will be satisfactory, and on 
 its appearing that they are so, to consider this evidence 
 «f the justice of his Britannic Majesty as a pledge for an 
 effectual interposition withVespect to all the abuses, against 
 a recurrence of which the proclamation warj meant to 
 /provide, and to proceed to concert with you, a revocation 
 
215 
 
 of tlut act, l)cai in.!jj the same date with the act of repara- 
 tion trt which the Huilod States ar(j entitled. 
 
 I aiu not iiuiiware, sir, that according to the view 
 
 vhich >oii appear to have takt.'u of your instrnciions, such 
 
 a course of procccdijig has not been contemplated by them. 
 
 It is possible, nevertheless, that a re-examination, in the 
 
 spirit in wliieh I am well persuaded it will be made, may 
 
 discover them to be not intlexible to a proposition, in so 
 
 high a degree, liberal and conciliatory. In every event 
 
 the president will have manifested his willingness to meet 
 
 your government on a ground of act'onnnodation, uhich 
 
 spares to its feelings, however misapplied he may deem 
 
 them, every concession not essentially due to those which 
 
 must be cipially respected; and conseijuently will have 
 
 demonstrated that the very ineligible posture given to so 
 
 important a subject in the relations of the two countries 
 
 by the unsuccessful termination of your mission, can be 
 
 referred lo no other source, than the rigorous restrictions 
 
 under which it was to be executed. 
 
 I HK (* ''o apology, sir, for the long interval between 
 the date of your letter and that under which I write. It 
 is rendered unnecessary by your knowledge of the circum- 
 itanccs to which the delay is to be ascribed. 
 
 With high consideration and respect, 
 I have die honor to be, sir, 
 Your most obedient servant, 
 (SiiTucd) James Madison. 
 
 Georn'c //. Rose, Esquiref 
 'fl'tA Ihitiinnic Mojvsiy'H minister ^ s^-g. 
 
21ti 
 
 NO. VI. 
 
 Extract of the Petition from the Aniericaa 
 Congress to tlic King. 
 
 Sept. 4. 1775. 
 
 The union between our mother country 
 and these coloni^^j, and the energy of mild 
 and just government, produced benefits so 
 remarkably important, and afforded such 
 assurance of their permanency and increase, 
 that the vvondei' and envy of other nations 
 were excited, while they beheld Great 
 Britain rising to a power the most extra- 
 ordinary the world had ever known. Her 
 rivals observing that there was no proba- 
 bility of this happy connection being broken 
 by civil dissensions, and apprehending its 
 future effects, if left any longer undisturbed, 
 resolved to prevent her receiving so conti- 
 nual and formidable an accession of wealth 
 and strength, by checking the growth of 
 these settlements, from which they were to 
 be derived. 
 
 
 In the prosecution of this attempt, events 
 so unfavorable to the design took place, 
 
217 
 
 that every friend to the interest of Great 
 Britain and these colonies, entertained 
 pleasi.ig and reasonable expectations of 
 seeing an additional force and extension 
 immediately given to the operations of the 
 union hitherto experienced, by an enlarge- 
 ment of the d.nunions of the crown, and 
 the removal of ancient and warlike enemies 
 to a greater distance. 
 
 At the conclusion, therefore, of the late 
 war, the most glorious and advantageous 
 that ever had been carried on by British 
 arms, your loyal colonies, having contri- 
 buted to its success by such repeated and 
 strenuous exertions, as frequently procured 
 them the distinguished approbation of your 
 Afajesty, of the late King, and of Parlia- 
 nicnt, doubted not but that they should be 
 permitted, with the rest of the empire, to 
 share in the blessings of peace, and the 
 emoluments of victory and conquest. 
 
 While these recent and honorable acknow- 
 'cdgn.ents of their merits remained oa 
 
jrPHP 
 
 susm- 
 1 
 
 218 
 
 record in the journals and acts 
 august legislature, the Parliament 
 faced by the imputation, or even thi 
 cion, of any offence, they were alarmed by 
 a new system of statutes and regulations, 
 adopted for the administration of the colo- 
 nies, that filled their minds with the most 
 painful fears and jealousies ; and to their 
 inexpressible astonishment, perceived the 
 dangers of a foreign quarrel quickly suc- 
 ceeded by domestic dangers in their judg- 
 ment of a more dreadful kind. 
 
 fini0. 
 
 llontion: 
 
 Printed by A. J. J'alpy, 
 
 Tooke's Court, Chancery Lane. 
 
 1812. 
 
'ALTERATIONS AND Annr^ 
 
 PAGE. 
 
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 73, 
 
 98, 
 
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