No. 543. Mr. Skipwith, Consul General of the United States, at Paris, to Mr. Livingston, dated : PARIS. 28th June, 1804. SIR I beg leave to observe in reply to your letter of the 25th instant, returning the papers in the case of the Rover, that at present I am apprehensive no claim for that vessel can be maintained against the Spanish Government, because,if I do not mistake the late treaty with that Power, it leaves open all cases so situated for future discussion; but between France and the United States, there does exist a convention, in which there is no exclusion of cases situated as the Rover. Under the late convention there may be a claim for this vessel: there has been already a considerable claim in the case of the Barbara, submitted by authority of this Government to their and the American Commissioners for liquidation. It is therefore relinquishing a chance almost certain, to prevent the case of the Rover coming before our Board of Commissioners, and embracing the very precarious one of future negotiations between the United States and Spain, in respect to property captured by French armed vessels, and condemned in the ports of His Catholic Majesty. I have the honor to be, respectfully, FULWAR SKIPWITH. No. 544. Mr. Skipwith, Commercial Agent of the United States, at Paris, to the Secretary of State, of the United States, dated [EXTRACT.] PARIS, 18th July, 1804. "The enclosed copies of correspondence between our Minister and myself, respecting the American vessels captured by French privateers, and condemned in the different ports of Spain, I deem of sufficient importance to communicate, though I presume the Minister himself will not fail to make you fully acquainted with the subject upon which it treats. With this correspondence you also have an authentic list of those captures, of the privateers that captured them, and likewise the names of the ports, as far as they could be obtained at the Council of Pizes, in which those privateers had been fitted out. Altogether ignorant as I have been, until the date of our Minister's letter of the 25th ultimo. of our Government intending to seek redress from that of Spain on the ground of those condemnations, and observing that the principle of indemnification was not positively provided for in our late treaty with that country, I was induced, in the instance of the vessel called the Rover, to lay an appeal before the Council of Prizes, upon which a judgment in favor of both vessel and cargo. has since been granted, and I have to add, has very lately been submitted by authority of this Government to their and the American commission for liquidation. In making this appeal, it never once occurred to me that I might be acting contrary to the wishes of the President, and especially since our Minister had never afforded me the slighest intimation to that purport; still this appeal was not entered until the Council had received a great number of others, and rendered judgments in favor of several as is proven by the list here enclosed. I have communicated the Minister's letters to me on this subject to our Board, who have already the cases of the Rover. and the Barbara before them; whether they will consider themselves at liberty to with-hold their decisions on those cases, I am not able to say." No. 545. Mr. Skipwith, Consul General of the United States, to General Armstrong, Minister Plenipotentiary of the United States, dated PARIS, January 2d, 1805. [EXTRACT.] "If my memory does not deceive me, you observed some days ago ' in the course of conversation on the subject of my letter of the 13th ultimo, making known the necessity of my being supplied with a certain amount of money to enable me to institute judicial proceedings on thirty-five cases of capture or depredation on American vessels, that you would be disposed to make such an advance for account of the United States, provided it had been ever done here or elsewhere by our Government. I cannot say that any such advance has been made by any Minister of the United States in Paris. Indeed, I recollect on a similar application some years ago to Messrs. Pinckney, Marshall, and Gerry, then Envoys Extraordinary from the United States, they declined making the advance, on the ground, that, considering the rupture and probability of a war between France and America, the following up of those prizes cause appeared to them unnecessary and inexpedient." No. 546. Mr. Delegrange, to Mr. Barnet, certified by Mr. Skipwith, dated PARIS, 9th January, 1806. [EXTRACT.] "I have it in my power at last to inform you of the producing before the Council of Prizes, of such of the American cases as required our most immediate attention. Inclosed I have the honor of sending you a detailed statement of the same, to the number of sixteen. The whole of which, the Ganges excepted, are for captures posterior to the convention of 1800, and even some have been made after that of 1803 no doubt therefore but a favorable issue may be expected for the whole of them. Among the number of those remaining with me, respecting which I have already reported to Mr. Skipwith and yourself, there are some that require and shall obtain my early attention. Besides the above sixteen cases of a nature to be laid before the Council of Prizes, there were three which have been submitted to the Department they respectively belonged; they are the following, viz: 1st. In the case of the Rover, Patten, master, I have written a memorial in the two languages, the object of which was to shew that said vessel and her cargo having been restored by the Council of Prizes on the 17th Brumaire, 10th year, and the captors having proved insolvent, said case was embraced by the convention of 1803. My memorial having been delivered to Mr. Skipwith, by whom the same was signed and presented, I am ignorant of the issue, and must sup. pose the case to be now under your valuable care and direction. 2d. The schooner Thereza, Williamson master, owned by Champayne and Deyme, of Baltimore. This vessel was captured by a national sloop of war and condemned at Guadaloupe, on the 22d Prairial, 3d year. An appeal having been entered by the captured, the Tribunal Civil of Bassaterre, by their decree of the 22d Ventose, 9th year, have reversed the condemnation and awarded a full restitution, which, as the capture was made by a national vessel, must be effected by Government. This case was, from its nature, entitled to the benefit of the Louisiana treaty, but the papers having been received at too late a period, I could see no way of redress, but by an application to the Marine Minister, and through him to the French liquidation. I accordingly drew up a memorial, which Mr. Skipwith presented on the 23d of March last, and as this important case must require your attention and inquiries at the marine, I enclose my Cronillon of said memorial for your information, with a tender of my further services in case they should be wanted. 3d. Ship Krow-Princen, owned by Robert Montgomery, Esq. Consul United States at Alicant. The condemnation in this case having been reversed by the Council of Prizes, in the year 1801, and the captors having proved insolvent, I, in Mr. Skipwith's name, as attorney to the captured, drew up a memorial to the liquidation, in order to show that the case was embraced by the convention; I am ignorant of the issue, as the case has continued under Mr. Skipwith's direction. I leave some papers remaining with me; as to my rough draught of the memorial, it must have remained with Mr. Skipwith. The sixteen cases produced to the Council of Prizes being under my immediate direction, until a decision takes place, I keep the rough draught of my memorials, of which, should the enclosed statement not be sufficient, you may have communication at any time." |