Relations with Spain-Blockades. there. I have the pleasure to state that the appli- under whatever pretext, they have always opcation succeeded as to our citizens, though it fail-posed themselves. ed as to the vessels. You will interpose directly with the Spanish Government in favor of the latter; documents respecting which shall be forwarded to you, either by the present or some other early opportunity. The blockade of General Morillo is repugnant to the law, because it extends over several hundred miles of coast, and to an indefinite distance from the shores; of course it cannot be enforced as a blockade, but remains a bare pretext for spoliation. A blockade by sea, to be acknowledged as valid by the United States, must be confined to Mr. Erving to His Excellency Don Pedro Cevallos, particular ports, each having a force stationed beFirst Minister of State, &c. MADRID, Sept. 26, 1816. SIR: I am ordered by my Government to apply to His Majesty, through your Excellency, for the restitution of sundry American vessels and cargoes which have been seized and brought into Carthagena, or other places within that command or viceroyalty, under pretext of a pretended blockade, issued by Don Pablo Morillo, in December, 1815. When that blockade was communicated to the American Government, Mr. Monroe, Secretary of State, in a note of March 20, 1816, addressed to His Majesty's Minister at Washington, formally protested against it; and it was hoped that, on proper representations being made by that Minister to General Morillo, he would retract his measure, or, if not, that his Majesty, being made acquainted with the remonstrance of the American Government, would immediately send out orders which might produce the same effect, and assure for the future due liberty to the American commerce in those seas. But it now appears that, as late as the month of June, no alteration had taken place in the measures of Morillo; no attention had been paid to the interference of Don Luis de Onis; and, finally, the Commissioner, Mr. Hughes, who was sent by the Government of the United States to Carthagena, for the purpose, amongst others, of reclaiming the property seized, was obliged to return to the United States, on that point altogether unsatisfied. Indeed, the Viceroy of Santa Fe, Don Francisco de Montalvo, gives this Commissioner to understand, by a letter of June 9th, whereof the enclosed is a translated copy, that he (the Viceroy) does not pretend to be acquainted with the law of nations; and, at the same time that he goes on executing the arbitrary and illegal decrees of General Morillo, devastating the commerce of the United States, he refers the American Government to His Majesty for redress. It is therefore that I now find it necessary to write to your Excellency upon this disagreeable subject. It is in vain, sir, to hope that the United States will ever consent to blockades upon the principles of General Morillo; they will acknowledge none to be valid which are not strictly conformable to the well-known principles of public lawprinciples most clearly defined and quite indisputable, to which the United States have always adhered in their own practice, and to the infringement of which, in any form, in any degree, or fore it, sufficient to intercept the entry of vessels; and no vessel shall be seized, even in attempting to enter a port so blockaded, till she has been previously warned away from that port. I may be excused from dilating on rules so perfectly established, so consonant to justice and to reason, in writing to a person of your Excellency's knowledge and experience. His Majesty, who does not fail, through his Minister, Mr. Onis, to assure the United States of his constant disposition to cultivate relations of friendship with them, and to that end to satisfy all their just reclamations, will certainly be sensible to the violent proceedings of which my Government now complains, and, I persuade myself, will not hesitate in ordering that the proclamation of embargo issued by General Morillo be declared null, and that all the American property which may have been taken under it be immediately restored to its owners. In this confidence, I annex hereto a list of the vessels already known to have been captured. Renewing to your Excellency, &c. GEORGE W. ERVING. Schooner Adeline, of Baltimore, at Carthagena; Friend's Hope, of Baltimore, at Carthagena; Charles Stewart, of New Orleans, at Santa Marschooner Count, of Baltimore, at Carthagena; ta; Edward Graham, at Santa Margarita ; Ghent, of Norfolk, at Puerto Cavello. N. B. It is believed that the cargoes of several of these vessels have been confiscated without even the form of trial. Relations with the Kingdom of Sicily. rillo, and the ravages on the American commerce tioned Viceroy has been pleased to open the prov- I hope, sir, that you will be pleased to bring this to the knowledge of the President, that he may see the disposition of His Majesty to favor the commerce of this Republic in everything that may be compatible with the security of his dominions, and that comports with his interests. I renew my respects, &c. LUIS DE ONIS. of State, dated which the American Government is referred for Extract of a letter from Mr. Erving to the Secretary redress to His Catholic Majesty. It was, therefore, that, by the orders of my Government, I wrote to you on the subject. With the fact which I have above stated before you, I am wholly at a loss to imagine what kind of information the tribunal of admiralty can afford which may regulate the decision of His Majesty on the subject. The tribunal cannot deny the existence of the proclamation; it cannot show that the proclamation is legal; it cannot deny that American vessels have been taken under the proclamation; it cannot contest the right of the American Government to demand the restitution of such vessels. In fine, sir, it is my duty to assure you that any demur or delay in affording the satisfaction demanded, in a case of this principal importance, cannot but be very sensibly felt by the Government of the United States. I renew, &c. GEORGE W. ERVING. Extract of a letter from Mr. Erving to the Secretary of State, dated MADRID, December 15, 1816. I had the honor, by my letter (of October 27,) to communicate to you the continuation of my correspondence with Mr. Cevallos on various subjects; and by that of October 31st, (No. 24,) to inform you that he had been dismissed from his employments, and succeeded in them by Don José Pizarro. I herewith submit to you copies of my correspondence with this new Minister. He has not replied to my note of the 25th October, respecting Morillo's blockade proclamation. Don Luis de Onis to the Secretary of State. MADRID, March 10, 1817. On this affair [proclamation of Morillo] I wrote on the 26th September, 1816, and was answered October 17th that an "informe" should be taken of the almirantazgo; I wrote again on the 25th October, and remain without any answer. DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Feb. 27, 1818. The Secretary of State, to whom has been referred the resolution of the House of Representatives of the 30th of January last, requesting such information possessed by the Executive, as may be communicated without injury to the public interest, relative to the claims of merchants of the United States for their property seized and confiscated under the authority of the King of Naples, has the honor of submitting to the President the papers in the possession of this Department concerning that subject. JOHN Q. ADAMS. SIR: His Excellency the Viceroy of the King-Extracts of a letter from Mr. Monroe, Secretary of dom of New Granada communicates to me, unState, to Mr. Pinkney, Special Minister to Naples, der date of the 2d of September last, that trandated quillity being restored throughout the whole Kingdom of Santa Fe, and all its provinces having submitted to his Majesty's Government, the commander-in-chief, Don Pablo Morillo, has thought fit to raise the blockade which he had established on those coasts, the causes having ceased which obliged him to impose it; and that, in consequence of this determination, the before-men DEPARTMENT OF STATE, May 11, 1816. Being appointed by the President, with the advice and consent of the Senate, Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to the Emperor of Russia, and in a similar trust to the King of Naples, the duties of the latter mission, which is special, will engage your attention in the first instance. The Washington, a ship-of Relations with the Kingdom of Sicily. the line, is ordered into the Chesapeake to receive on board and to convey you and your family to Naples. You will be furnished with the usual commission and letter of credence to the King, A principal object of your mission to Naples is to obtain indemnity for the losses which our citizens sustained by the illegal seizure and confiscation of their property by the Neapolitan Government. You will be furnished with such evidence in support of the claim as is in possession of this Department; and as notice has been given to the collectors in the principal cities of your appointment and its object, that it might be communicated to the parties interested, it is expected that you will receive much further light on the subject directly from them. ner or the argument to be used in the negotiation. Your mission to Naples being special, its object limited, and being likewise anticipated by the Neapolitan Government, it is expected that it may be concluded in a few interviews. It is very important that the United States should be represented at St. Petersburg by a Minister of the highest grade employed by them, without any delay which can be avoided. The President desires, therefore, that you will use every effort in your power to terminate the business with Naples as soon as it may be possible, and that you will proceed thence, immediately afterwards, to St. Petersburg. Extracts of a letter from Mr. Pinkney, Minister at NAPLES, August 29, 1816. On Saturday, the 27th, I prepared an official note to the Marquis di Circello, announcing my quality of Envoy Extraordinary to the King. for our interview) was sent immediately. His answer (appointing Wednesday, the 31st, ly, and in the highest degree respectful to the My reception on the 31st was extremely friendGovernment of the United States. The regular purpose of my visit was to show my credentials, furnish a copy, and arrange the customary audience. I did not, therefore, suppose that it presented a suitable opportunity for introducing a very detailed explanation of the objects of my mission; but, in conformity with a desire exhim as fully as was necessary to enable him to pressed by the Marquis himself, I stated them to communicate them to the King. The President does not entertain a doubt of the right of the United States to a full indemnity for these losses. They were inflicted by the then Government of the country without the slightest cause. The commerce of the United States was invited into the Neapolitan ports by special decrees, with the promise of protection and encouragement; on the faith of which many ships having entered with valuable cargoes, the whole amount was seized by the Government itself, and converted to public use. For this very extraordinary and unlawful act no plea has been urged that we have heard of, except that of necessity, which is no argument against indemnity. The injury being inflicted by a Government in full possession of the sovereignty of the country, exercising all its powers, recognised by the nation and by foreign Powers, by treaties and by other formal acts of the highest authority, it is not perceived on what ground an indemnity can be refused. No principle is better established know, for several years the Minister of this Court Although the Marquis di Circello was, as you than that the nation is responsible for the acts of in London, he does not speak a word of English, its Government, and that a change in the author- and does not understand it when it is spoken by ity does not affect the obligation. In the disor- others. Our conversation was, therefore, in dered state of that country for several years past, French. Amid a good deal of well-managed disit has been thought useless to press this claim; course on his part, which rather related to me but now that affairs appear to be better settled, it than to my mission, he made several observawould be improper longer to delay it. The Presi- tions which had a "bearing upon my principal dent indulges a strong hope that reparation will errand. He spoke of the poverty of their public now be made. In the discharge of this trust, in treasury in terms somewhat more strong than I the manner of the negotiation, and in the provis- was prepared to expect; of the unprincipled manion for the debt, should such be made, you will ner in which Monsieur Murat (as he styled him) manifest a spirit of conciliation towards the Gov-appropriated to his own use whatever of value ernment of Naples. Any reasonable accommo- he could lay his hands upon, and, in particular, dation as to the time and the mode of payment the vessels and merchandise belonging to our which may be desired will be cheerfully allowed, citizens; of the prodigality with which he dried As you will be well acquainted with the na- up all the usual resources of the country, and ture of these claims, and the right of the United dissipated, moreover, all the means which rapaStates to an indemnity, with the principles on city afforded. He drew no very precise concluwhich it is founded, and the arguments and facts sion from those and similar remarks, although I which support it, it is unnecessary for me to en- took such notice of them as their tendency preter further into the subject. The President has scribed; but, upon the whole, it was evident that full confidence that nothing will be wanting on the claim which I was charged to make in beyour part to secure success to the mission. Sat-half of our merchants was not likely to be very isfied that you will discharge its duties with equal ability and discretion, it is thought improper, by too much precision, to impose any restraint on your judgment, either as to the man readily admitted, and that I should only waste my time by talking over its merits from day to day with a Minister who could of himself decide nothing, and whose report of my statements and Relations with the Kingdom of Sicily. arguments to those who must make or greatly influence the final decision would not be the most advantageous channel by which they might be communicated. In consequence, before the interview was closed, I determined to prefer the claim as soon as possible in an official note, and in the meantime to forbear to urge it in conversation with any other view than to obtain from the Marquis di Circello such intimations as might be useful to me in the preparation of my paper. On Sunday, the 11th, I had another interview with the Marquis di Circello, to which Mr. King accompanied me, Mr. Pinkney to the Marquis di Circello. The undersigned, Envoy Extraordinary of the United States of America, has already had the honor to mention to his Excellency the Marquis di Circello, Secretary of State and Minister for Foreign Affairs of His Majesty the King of the Two Sicilies, the principal objects of his mission; and he now invites his Excellency's attention to a more detailed and formal exposition of one of those objects. The undersigned is sure that the appeal which I then adverted to the principal object of my His Sicilian Majesty, in the name and by the he is about to make to the well-known justice of mission, and intimated that I should very soon send him a note upon it. To my surprise, he erate and candid consideration; and that if it orders of his Government, will receive a delibprofessed not to understand to what I alluded as shall appear, as he trusts it will, to be recomthe principal object of my mission; but, when I mended by those principles which it is the inmentioned the spoliations by Murat, he seemed suddenly to remember that I had at least talked terest as well as the duty of all Governments to to him of them before, and immediately, with observe and maintain, the claim involved in it out giving me time to proceed, remarked that he will be admitted, effectually and promptly. would relate to me frankly all that the present of the President of the United States when he The undersigned did but obey the instructions Government had been able to discover respecting assured his Excellency the Marquis di Circello, them. He said that Murat's conduct in that affair appeared to be so bad that nothing could at their first interview, that his mission was sugbe worse, and that it amounted to a downright gested by such sentiments towards His Sicilian robbery; that it appeared that the proceeds of the Majesty as could not fail to be approved by him. sales had been ordered by Murat into the public which the President has manifested, through the Those sentiments are apparent in the desire treasury, but that a few months afterwards he took them out again, and they knew not what he undersigned, that the commercial relations behad done with them. To all this I thought it of the United States should be cherished by retween the territories of His Majesty and those sufficient to answer, that, whatever might have become of these proceeds, I hoped the King ciprocal arrangements, sought in the spirit of would cause our merchants to be indemnified for enlightened friendship, and with a sincere view the loss of them; but that I had no desire at this to such equal advantages as it is fit for nations to interview to do more than inform the Marquis di which the undersigned is commanded to make derive from one another. The representations Circello that I believed it would be as well to upon the subject of the present note will be seen present the whole of that subject to him without delay in a note, to which I flattered myself I by His Majesty in the same light. They show should have such a reply, in writing, as would be the firm reliance of the President upon the dissatisfactory to my Government. Without either position of the Court of Naples impartially to discuss and ascertain, and faithfully to discharge admitting or denying the responsibility of his its obligations towards foreign States and their Government, he said that such a course would be citizens; a reliance which the undersigned paracceptable to him, and proper in itself, and that takes with his Government, and under the influhis answer should not be unnecessarily post-ence of which he proceeds to state the nature poned. His manner, while this topic was under and grounds of the reclamation in question. notice, was kind, and even good humored; although he could not, perhaps did not wish to disguise that it was by no means a pleasant one. On the 28th instant (yesterday morning) I sent in my note upon Murat's confiscations. The necessity of making some previous inquiries here, upon matters connected with them, had a little retarded the completion of the note, and, after it was ready, I concluded that I should lose nothing by withholding it for a few days, especially as the Marquis di Circello was incapable of attending to business, and had so informed me. What will be the answer to the note, it is impossible to conjecture with anything like certainty. It may be such as to make it necessary for me to reply to it; but the President may be assured that my further stay in Naples shall be as short as I can make it. It cannot but be known to his excellency the Marquis di Circello, that, on the first of July, 1809, the Minister for Foreign Affairs of the then Government of Naples addressed to Frederick Degan, Esquire, then Consul of the United States, an official letter, containing an invitation to all ́American vessels, having on board the usual certificates of origin, and other regular papers, to come direct to Naples with their cargoes, and that the same Minister caused that invitation to be published in every possible mode, in order that it might come to the knowledge of those whom it concerned. It will not be questioned that the promise of security necessarily implied in this measure had every title, in the actual circumstances of Europe, to the confidence of distant and peaceful merchants. The merchants of America, as was to have been expected, did con Relations with the Kingdom of Sicily. fide. Upon the credit, and under the protection of that promise, they sent to Naples many valuable vessels and cargoes, navigated and documented with scrupulous regularity, and in no respect obnoxious to molestation; but scarcely had they reached the destination to which they had been allured, when they were seized, without distinction, as prizes, or as otherwise forfeited to the Neapolitan Government, upon pretexts the most frivolous and idle. These arbitrary seizures were followed, with a rapacious haste, by summary decrees, confiscating, in the name and for the use of the same Government, the whole of the property which had thus been brought within its grasp; and these decrees, which wanted even the decent affectation of justice, were immediately carried into execution, against all the remonstrances of those whom they oppressed, to enrich the treasury of the State. The undersigned persuades himself that it is not in a note addressed to the Marquis di Circello that it is necessary to enlarge upon the singularly atrocious character of this procedure, for which no apology can be devised, and for which none that is intelligible has hitherto been attempted. It was, indeed, an undisguised abuse of power, of which nothing could well enhance the deformity but the studied deception that preceded and prepared it; a deception which, by a sort of treason against society, converted a proffer of hospitality into a snare, and that salutary confidence, without which nations and men must cease to have intercourse, into an engine of plunder. The right of the innocent victims of this unequalled act of fraud and rapine to demand retribution cannot be doubted. The only question is, from whom are they entitled to demand it? Those who at that moment ruled in Naples, and were in fact, and in the view of the world, the Government of Naples, have passed away before retribution could be obtained, although not before it was required; and, if the right to retribution regards only the persons of those rulers as private and ordinary wrongdoers, the American merchant, whom they deluded and despoiled in the garb and with the instruments and for the purposes of sovereignty, must despair forever of redress. The general principle, that a civil society may contract obligations through its actual Government, whatever that may be, and that it is not absolved from them by reason simply of a change of government, or of rulers, is universally received as incontrovertible. It is admitted, not merely by writers on public law, as a speculative truth, but by States and statesmen, as a practical rule; and, accordingly, history is full of examples to prove that the undisturbed possessor of sovereign power in any society, whether a rightful possessor or not with reference to other claimants of that power, may not only be the lawful object of allegiance, but by many of his acts, in his quality of sovereign de facto, may bind the society, and those who come after him as rulers, although their title be adversary to, or even better than his own. The Marquis di Circello does not need to be informed that the earlier annals of England, in particular, abound in instructions upon this head. With regard to just and beneficial contracts entered into by such a sovereign with the merchants of foreign nations, or (which is the same thing) with regard to the detention and confiscation of their property for public uses, and by his authority, in direct violation of a pledge of safety, upon the faith of which that property arrived within the reach of confiscation, this continuing reponsibility stands upon the plainest foundations of natural equity. It will not be pretended that a merchant is called upon to investigate, as he prosecutes his traffic, the title of every sovereign with whose ports, and under the guaranty of whose plighted word, he trades. He is rarely competent. There are few in any station who are competent to an investigation so full of delicacy, so perplexed with facts and principles of a peculiar character, far removed from the common concerns of life. His predicament would be to the last degree calamitous, if, in an honest search after commercial profit, he might not take Governments as he finds them, and, consequently, rely at all times upon visible, exclusive, acknowledged possession of supreme authority. If he sees all the usual indications of established rule, all the distinguishing concomitants of real, undisputed power, it canThe undersigned presumes that such is not the not be that he is, at his peril, to discuss mysterious view which the present Government will feel theories above his capacity, or foreign to his puritself justified in taking of this interesting sub-suits; and, moreover, to connect the results of those ject. He trusts that it will, on the contrary, perceive that the claim which the injured merchant was authorized to prefer against the Government of this country before the recent change, and which, but for that change, must sooner or later have been successful, is now a valid claim against the Government of the same country, notwithstanding that change; at least the undersigned is not at present aware of any considerations which, applied to the facts that characterize this case, can lead to a different conclusion; and certainly it would be matter for sincere regret that any consideration should be thought sufficient to make the return of His Sicilian Majesty's power fatal to the rights of friendly strangers, to whom no fault can be ascribed. speculations with events of which his knowledge is either imperfect or erroneous. If he sees the obedience of the people, and the acquiescence of neighboring princes, it is impossible that it can be his duty to examine, before he ships his merchandise, whether it be fit that these should acquiesce or those obey. If, in short, he finds nothing to interfere with or qualify the dominion which the head of the society exercises over it and the domain which it occupies, it is the dictate of reason, sanctioned by all experience, that he is bound to look no further. It can be of no importance to him that, notwithstanding all these appearances announcing lawful rule, the mere right to fill the Throne is claimed by or even resides in another than the |