ones can be devised. If there be such I have full confidence, that they will enter into your views on the subject. One only occurs to me; & I mention it because no other does, not because I regard it as free from objections which may be deemed conclusive. The notes in the Treasury might be presented to the Banks respectively with a demand of the specie due on the face of them. On refusal suits might be immediately instituted not with a view to proceed to execution, but to establish a claim to interest from the date of the demand. The notes thus bearing interest being kept in hand, Treasury notes bearing interest might be issued in payments from the Treasury; & so far injustice to the several classes of creditors might be lessened, whilst a check would be given to the unjust career of the Banks.

Such a proceeding ought to be supported by the Stockholders, the Army, the Navy, & all the disinterested & well-informed part of the community. The clamor agst it would be from the Banks & those having interested connections with them, supported by the honest part of the community misled by their fallacies; and the probability is but too great that the clamor would be overwhelming. I do not take into view the expedient of requiring a payment of the Impost, in specie, in part at least, because it could not be extended to the other taxes, & would in that respect as well as otherwise, be a measure too delicate for the Ex: Auth"; nor would its effect be in time for any very early purpose.

I have been led by the tenor of your letters to put on paper these observations. The report you arẻ preparing will doubtless enlighten my view of the whole subject.

DEAR SIR

TO JAMES MONROE.1

Montpellier Aug. 28, 1816

Among the inclosures is a very exty letter from Mr De Neuville. 2 It was brought by his pri

From the original in the New York Public Library (Lenox).

De Neuville's letter was dated "Near Brunswick, N. Jersey," July 21. He said he was familiar with the liberty of the press in America and that the government often had not the power to check its license; but when officers attached to the federal government permitted themselves to forget that his Majesty Louis XVIII. was King of France and Navarre; when a public functionary outraged impudently the brother of Louis XVI. at a public fête, his duty required him to call attention to it. Mr. J. S. Skinner at the 4th of July celebration in Baltimore had given this volunteer toast: "The generals of France in exile; the glory of their native land-not to be dishonored by the proscriptions of an imbecile tyrant." Skinner was postmaster at Baltimore. Therefore he demanded reparation officially, and said a dismissal would be meted out to a French official if he perpetrated such an outrage in France.-D. of S. MSS. Notes.

On August 15 Monroe answered that the government had no responsibility "for any effusion of sentiment which may be displayed at a public feast, in regard to foreign powers, in which the character of the officer, especially of inferior grade, is lost in that of the citizen." The high consideration for His Most Christian Majesty which this government entertained was well known. This note proving unsatisfactory de Neuville wrote again, and on September 10 Monroe said: "The President has seen with regret the demand which you have thought proper to make. The manner of it, too, has excited not less surprise, for in dictating the reparation claimed, which you say must be immediate, all deliberation on the subject, all freedom of action in this Government, are evidently intended to be precluded." He concluded by saying the correspondence had been sent to the American

vate Secretary from whom I thought it better for several reasons to receive it, than to let him proceed with it to your House. As its contents were neither known nor guessed, it was possible that they might call for an attention which my knowledge of them might hasten and it was desirable for you that you should not be [obliterated] with the Bearer if not necessary. It was a further calculation that an immediate answer if not convenient might thus be avoided. The young Secretary left me with a mere intimation to him, that his dispatch would be answered by the Secy of State. Mr De Neuville could not have given a greater proof of want of judgment than in putting the amity of the two countries on such an issue, or of a personal wish to flatter the ultra royal Bourbons who may ere long accede to the throne. The proper answer to him will be facilitated by his undertaking to dictate the precise reparation in the case. Common delicacy would have demanded an adequate one in general terms, leaving the particular mode to the Govt and the arrogance of the manner in which he has disregarded it, forfeits the respect that might be otherwise due to his complaint. It will be well if possible by a conciliatory language towards his sovereign to counteract the efforts of his minister to work up a trivial incident into a provoking enormity, and to awaken his attention to our just sensibility to the indecorous

plenipotentiary at Paris to make proper representations to the French government.-D. of S. MSS. Instructions.

& unauthorized step of the latter. It would seem as if De N. hoped to hide the degradation of the Bourbons in Europe, under a blustering deportment in a distant country. Whatever may be the answer to his letter, it will be proper to hasten communications & instructions to M Gallatin on the whole subject.

Dashkoff's letter also among the inclosures, revives the question how far anything beyond the despatches by M: Coles is called for by the posture of Kozloff's affair. Perhaps it may not be amiss for you to write a letter to the Russian Secy. of For. Affs referring to that of Dasch and relying, with expressions of respect & friendship here for the Emperor, on the communications by M: Coles, as of a satisfactory import. It is however to be recollected that the instructions to Dash were given prior to the last discussions transmitted by Mr. Harris.

Kosloff, Russian consul at Philadelphia, was arrested and thrown into prison on the charge of having committed rape upon a girl twelve years of age, a servant in his family. The Chief-Justice of Pennsylvania, in hearing the application for a writ of habeas corpus, expressed the opinion that the evidence produced was not sufficient to convict; but he was, nevertheless, indicted. The jurisdiction of the local court was denied, and the case sent to the federal court. There, however, he could not be tried because rape was an offence at common law, of which description of offences the courts of the United States do not take cognizance," and no statute covering the crime had ever been passed. Monroe to Levett Harris, Chargé d'Affaires at St. Petersburg, July 31, 1816.-D. of S. MSS. Instructions. Monroe wrote to Count de Nesselrode, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs of Russia, under date of September 12, 1816, making a full explanation of the matter. It had been misrepresented in St. Petersburg and the American Chargé had been forbidden to attend the court.

66

TO JAMES MONROE.1

[MONTPELLIER ] Sep! 6, 1816.

DEAR SIR On perusing your letters to Mr. De Neuville, and M Gallatin,2 some ideas occurred which induced me to put them on paper for your consideration. Those relating to the first letter are interlined with a pencil. Those relating to the 2a are partly so & partly penned on a separate sheet. In the communication to M: G. I thought it might be not amiss to suggest the several topics which he may find it expedient to develope orally or in writing. Reject or use any or the whole as you judge best.

As De Neuvilles communication to his govt may first arrive and forestall impressions at Paris, the interlineation in pa. 2a of the letter to him, is intended to suggest an important and very pertinent fact which may not be known there, & which he will not disclose, and to controul the effect of his magnifying comments on the subject. Whether this last part of the interlineation merits adoption is the more questionable of the two.

The little delay occasioned by this retrograde of the

1 From the original in the New York Public Library (Lenox). 2 The instruction is dated September 10. It followed the same ground as the note to de Neuville and said: "The case admitted of no compromise; a discussion on it, therefore, seemed to be useless even from the commencement, and after the last letter from the French Minister it would have been evidently highly improper, since it must have turned, on points which no government, entertaining a proper respect for itself, can ever bring into discussion with a Foreign Minister." -D. of S. MSS. Instructions. De Neuville was not recalled, but served till 1822.