scribe the qualifications which a Minister from the United States should possess, and that, while France is asserting the existence of a disposition on her part to conciliate with sincerity the differences which have arisen, the sincerity of a like disposition on the part of the United States, of which so many demonstrative proofs have been given, should even be indirectly questioned.

It is also worthy of observation, that the decree of the Directory, alleged to be intended to restrain the depredations of French cruisers on our commerce, has not given, and cannot give any relief; it enjoins them to conform to all the laws of France, relative to cruising and prizes; while these laws are themselves the sources of the depredations of which we have so long, so justly, and so fruitlessly complained.

The law of France, enacted in January last, which subjects to capture and condemnation neutral vessels and their cargoes. if any portion of the latter are of British fabric or produce, although the entire property belong to neutrals, instead of being rescinded, has lately received a confirmation, by the failure of a proposition for its repeal. While this law, which is an unequivocal act of war on the commerce of the nations it attacks, continues in force, those nations can see in the French Government only a power regardless of their essential rights, of their independence and sovereignty and if they possess the means, they can reconcile nothing with their interest and honor but a firm resistance."

No. 290.

Secretary of State to Mr. King, Minister of the United States to Great Britain, dated Department of State, 13th December, 1798.

SIR: Mr. H. R. Pierpont, who has a cause of magnitude depending in Great Britain, has furnished me with the opinion of his council, of which a copy is enclosed. As there is no shadow of foundation for the claim set up by the French Government, of the necessity of our vessels being provided with a rôle d'équipage: as the Government of the United States never hesitated a moment in forming its opinion, that this requisition, so evidently invented for the purpose of giving a color to French depredations, can be justified by no part of our late treaties with that Power, and as it is represented that much property is depending in the courts of Great Britain. on questions of insurance, in which the necessity of that document, to give to American vessels the character of neutrals, is involved; it is the President's direction that you accordingly signify to the British Government, in the most suitable manner, the sentiments of this Government upon the subject, to the end that they may officially be notified to the judges, if such a notification be admissible, by corresponding with their constitutional forms.

I have the honor to be, &c.

TIMOTHY PICKERING.

No. 292.

Secretary of State to H. G. Otis, Esq. District Attorney, Boston, dated, December 31st, 1798.

DEAR SIR: I do not know who is Chairman of your committee, whom I saw this morning; and, therefore, enclose to you three letters from our Consul at Curracoa, dated, May 12th, 1797, June 15th, 1797, with two enclosures, and August 3d, 1797, shewing that the members of the Dutch Council there, were owners of the privateers sailing from that Island, under French Colors. Please to return me the papers.

I

am, respectfully, &c.

TIMOTHY PICKERING.

No. 293.

Extracts from the Report of the Secretary of State, on the transactions relating to the United States and France, since the last Communications to Congress on that subject, dated January 18th, 1799.

"On the 24th of May. the Minister sent his principal Secretary to inform Mr. Gerry that his Government did not wish to break the British treaty but expected such provisions as would indemnify France, and put her on a footing with that nation! Yet that treaty had been made by the French Government its chief pretence for those unjust and cruel depredations on American commerce, which have brought distress on multitudes, and ruin on many of our citizens; and occasioned a total loss of property to the United States, of probably more than twenty millions of dollars; besides subjecting our fellow citizens to insults stripes, wounds, torture, and imprisonment. And Mr. Talleyrand, in his letter of the 18th March, to the Envoys, declared that teraty to be the principal grievances of the Republic.' But now. instead of breaking that treaty, France desires to be put on the same footing. This, the United States would at any time have done, and the Envoys were now explicitly instructed to do and seven months before all the envoys, in their conversation with Mr. BelJamy. (y) the confidential and authorized agent of the French minister, told him that he might be assured that their powers were such, as authorized them to place France on equal ground with England, in any respects in which an inequality might be supposed to exist at present between them. to the disadvantage of France.'

The Secretary also mentioned the claims of the American citizens on the French Republic: he said if the latter should be unable to pay them, when adjusted, and the United States would assume and pay them. France would reimburse the amount thereof. This has the semblance of candor: but on the 4th of March, when the Envoys were in conference with Mr. Talleyrand, and they disclosed their principal instructions. General Pinckney and Mr. Gerry told him they were positively forbidden to assume the debts to our own citizens, even if we were to pay the money directly to them.'

"On the 27th of June, the Minister again writes to Mr. Gerry, and in language the most importunate, such as had never before been used, urges him not to withdraw, when the French Government, superior to all resentments, and never listening to any thing but justice, manifests itself anxious to conclude a solid and mutually satisfactory agreement.' The Minister even observes, that the first of the three points' mentioned in his preceding letter, (respecting amicable declarations about mutual recriminations.) might be postponed that the third (about the examination of reciprocal damages,) would doubtless experience no difficulty on either side, after the second should be amicably settled: That it was to the second therefore they should first attend, it being so much the more important, as it embraced the source of all the differences between the two nations."

"It is necessary to make a few observations on the decree of the Executive Directory, of the 31st July, 1798.

This decree was sent after Mr. Gerry, to Havre, and he supposes that the official impediments, which, for several days, prevented his sailing, are to be ascribed to the Minister's desire of sending the decree by him. The Minister introduces it as a part of the measures which he had announced to Mr. Gerry, on the 22d of July.'

In bis letter of that date to Mr. Gerry, the Minister says, 'By information, which the Government has just received, it indeed learns that violences have been committed upon the commerce and citizens of the United States, in the West Indies, and on their coasts. Do it the justice to believe that it needs only to know the facts, to disavow all acts contrary to the laws of the Republic, and its own decrees, A remedy is preparing for it, and orders will soon arrive in the West Indies, calculated to cause every thing to return within its just limits.' This remedy.' is the decree of the 31st July.

1st. The first article of this decree confines to the special agents of the Directory, the right of issuing commissions to cruizers; and requires to conform themselves to all the laws relative to cruizing and prizes, and especially to those of the 1st of October, 1793. ALthough the injunction to conform to all the laws of the Republic, relative to cruising was ominous. as the laws most recently promulgated, and best known, were themselves the sources of the depredations and evils of which we complained; yet, not imagining that a decree introduced with so much solemnity, of which one copy was sent to Mr. Gerry, another to the American Consul General, at Paris, and a third to Mr. Létombe, late Consul General of France-all to be communicated to the Executive of the United States, and all of which have been received-could be a mere parade of words, I was disposed to conclude, that the law of the 1st of October, 1793. to which all cruisers were especially enjoined to conform, might contain regulations that would afford some relief from French depredations. By the favor of Mr. Létombe, I obtained a copy of that law; and to my astonishment found its object, conformably to its title, was 'to determine the mode of dividing prizes, made by French vessels

on the enemies of the Republic." And the only restriction, in this lengthy law of six and forty articles, imposed on individuals, officers, and all others, composing the crews of their armed vessels, is, that they shall not sell beforehand their eventual shares of prizes.'

2d. The second article declares that all commissions granted by the Agents in the French Colonies, in America, to fit out vessels for cruizers, or for war and commerce, shall be void in thirty days after the publication of the decree in those colonies.

It has been supposed, that, by this regulation, the Agents may gather a fresh harvest of fees for new commissions; and that this would be its only effect. The Agents, however, had before taken care of this; they had been accustomed to limit the duration of privateers' commissions; and if they continued to cruise after their expiration, such privateers should have been considered as destitute of Commissions; and, consequently, if they made any captures, as pirates. But the agents knew their interest better; they did not punish the piratical captors-they did not declare their captures void, and restore the property to the neutral owners-but declaring such captors to have no title to the captured vessels and cargoes, took the whole to themselves. A remarkable instance occurred in the last year, in the case of the East India ship New Jersey, belonging to Philadelphia, to redeem which, the owners have paid to General Hedouville, special Agent of the Executive Directory in St. Domingo, upwards of two hundred thousand dollars in cash.

Whether any, and what portion of such prize money goes into the chest of the Republic, I am not informed.

3d. The third article declares that all Agents, and other Deputies, in the neutral possessions, appointed to decide there on the validity of prizes taken by the French cruizers, and who shall be suspected of having a direct or indirect interest in the cruisers, shall be immediately recalled.

It is remarkable that this article, apparently designed to correct the monstrous abuse of public officers, sitting in judgment in their own causes, should be limited to such of the French Agents and their Deputies, as were appointed to reside in neutral places. I do not know that an instance of the kind exists. For although the French privateers and their prizes find asylums in the Swedish and Danish islands, yet the papers are carried thence to Guadaloupe, and there the captured vessels receive their doom. under the superintendence of another special agent of the Executive Directory, Victor Hugues, And even the captured American vessels carried into the West India ports of Spain and Holland, do not there receive sentence: these cases are decided by the Agent or his deputies, or other French tribunals, established in the Island of St. Domingo, frequently, if not generally, in the absence of the Masters and Supercargoes.

The French agents and judges find no difficulty in this mode of

"Decret de la Convention Nationale, du 1. 8bre. 1793, l'an 2d de la Republique Francaise, que determine le mode de repartition des prises faites par les vaisseaux Francais sur les ennemis de la Republique."

proceeding; justice being administered with more facility and despatch when only one of the parties is present at the trial; especially when the agents, or other judges, are interested in the privateers; and this the present decree impliedly allows; the penalty of recall' being applicable, as above suggested, to such agents only as reside in neutral places, if any such there be.

It is also remarkable that this decree, which was to give the United States a proof of the justice of the French Government, (a Government, Mr. Talleyrand says, never listening to any thing but justice,') and of its desire of a reconciliation with the United States, should be Himited to the West Indies, when as great, if not as numerous abuses, were practised by French agents and tribunals in Europe, and even France, itself, as in her remote possessions. This too many of our citizens well know. For captures and condemnations are not the less abuses, because made under the color of municipal laws and decrees, which directly violate treaties, the law of nations, and the plainest principles of justice. At present I shall only mention, that, in a report made by Major Mountflorence, Chancellor of the American Consulate at Paris, to General Pinckney, in December, 1796, and which was laid before Congress in May, 1797, he states, That the tribunals of commerce, in every port in France, take cognizance, in the first instance, of every matter relative to captures at sea ;' and 'these tribunals, (he adds,) are chiefly composed of merchants, and most of them are, directly or indirectly, more or less interested in the fitting out of privateers, and, therefore, are often concerned in the controversies they are to determine upon.'

4. The fourth article requires the special agents of the Executive Directory at Cayenne, St. Domingo, and Guadaloupe, studiously to take care that the interests and property of vessels, belonging to neutrals and allies, be scrupulously respected.

We have too long witnessed the studious and scrupulous care of these gentlemen respecting the property of neutrals and allies, and experienced its ruinous consequences; and, as the same laws which authorized that 'care' remain in force, and with a fresh injunction of a strict conformity to them, we can expect only a continuance of the same abuses.

5. The fifth article enjoins the special agents of the Executive Directory, Consuls, and all others invested with powers for that purpose, to cause to be arrested, and punished, all who shall contravene the provisions of the present decree. Unfortunately, these special agents, consuls, and their deputies, are themselves the aggressors, and justify their proceedings under the laws of the Republic, and the decrees of the Executive Directory.

This analysis of the present decree manifests its futility; and, with some remarks on its preamble, will demonstrate it to be a bold imposture, intended to mislead the citizens of the United States into a belief that the French Government was going to put an end to the depredations of French cruisers on American commerce, while the means proposed are so gross as to be an insult on our understandings.