No. 8.

Mr. J. S. Smith to the Marquis Wellesley. Bentinck Street, July 3, 1311.

MY LORD, I have the honour to acknowledge the reception of the documents transmitted to me yesterday by your lordship, and in reply to the request that I should furnish an explanation of the transaction to which they refer, have to state that to this moment no information has been received by me from my government on this subject; but from the known justice of the United States, and their uniform desire to preserve harmony with Great Britain, his majesty's government can be assured that they will never be unwilling to repair any injury they are conscious of having committed.

I have the honour to be, &c.

The Most Noble the Marquis Wellesley.

J. S. SMITH.

Mr. Monroe to Mr. Foster. Department of State, Sept. 14, 1811.

SIR, I have had the honour to receive your letter of the 4th inst. respecting the encounter between the United States' frigate the President and his Britannick majesty's ship Little Belt, which I have laid before the President of the United States.

In the first interview which took place between us, after your arrival at Washington, I stated explicitly that no instruction had been given to take any seaman from on board a British ship of war, nor any order whatever of a hostile nature. I made the same declaration afterwards, at your request, in a more formal manner; and it is with the same frankness that I now again repeat it.

Such a declaration was deemed proper in order to obviate misapprehensions, which might obstruct any conciliatory and satisfactory propositions with which you might be charged. It was in conformity also with the candour and friendly policy which have been shown by this government, in all its transactions with Great Britain.

If the answer to your former letter was limited to this disavowal, of hostile intentions on the part of this govern

ment, it need scarcely be remarked that no further view of the subject could then, nor as yet can, be entered into, on the demand of the British government, without forgetting an essential preliminary to such a demand.

It might be added, that with the circumstances of the transaction, as officially before this government, the true ground on which it claimed attention, was that of a violent aggression by a British on an American ship, in a situation and manner authorizing the strongest appeal to the British government for redress. If an instant representation and demand to that effect were not made, it was a proof only that this government permitted the event of the encounter to temper the feelings and retard the complaint, prompted by the origin and character of it.

It is not seen without surprise, that the case of the Chesapeake is cited as an example, supporting a demand of reparation, in the present case. No other remark will be made, than that the fifth year is now elapsing without reparation in that case, although so palpably and even confessedly due to the rights of the United States, and the honour of their flag.

In the instruction to captain Bingham thus frankly communicated, the President sees a token of amity and conciliation, which, if pursued in the extent corresponding with that in which these sentiments are entertained by the United States, must hasten a termination of every controversy which has so long subsisted between the two

countries.

I have the honour to be, &c.

Augustus J. Foster, Esq. &c.

JAMES MONROE.

Mr. Monroe to Mr. Fortes. Department of State, Oct. 11,

1811.

SIR, I have the honour to transmit to you a copy of the proceedings of a court of inquiry, held by order of the President, on the conduct of commodore Rodgers, in the late encounter between a frigate of the United States, the President, and his Britannick majesty's ship the Little Belt.

The result of this inquiry, which was conducted in pub lick, in a manner the most fair and impartial, and establish

ed by the concurrent testimony of all the officers of the American ship, and of others whom it was proper to summon, cannot, it is presumed, leave a doubt in the mind of any one that captain Bingham made the attack, and without a justifiable cause.

That commodore Rodgers pursued a vessel which had at first pursued him, and hailed her as soon as he approached within a suitable distance, are circumstances which can be of no avail to captain Bingham. The United States have a right to know the national character of the armed ships which hover on their coast, and whether they visit it with friendly or illicit views. It is a right inseparable from the sovereignty of every independent state, and intimately connected with their tranquillity and peace. All nations exercise it, and none with more rigour, or at a greater distance from the coast, than Great Britain herself, nor any on more justifiable grounds than the United States. In addition to the considerations which have recommended this precaution to other powers, it is rendered of the more importance to the United States, by the practice of armed vessels from the West Indies, in visiting our coast for unauthorized and even piratical purposes. Instances have also occurred, in which the commanders of British ships of war, after impressing seamen from American vessels, have concealed their names, and the names of their ships, whereby an application to their government for the reparation due for such outrages, with the requisite certainty, is rendered impracticable. For these reasons, the conduct of commodore Rodgers in approaching the Little Belt to make the necessary inquiries, and exchange a friendly salute, was strictly correct.

The President, therefore, can regard the act of captain Bingham no otherwise than as a hostile aggression on the flag of the United States, and he is persuaded that his Britannick majesty, viewing it in the same light, will bestow on it the attention which it merits.

I have the honour to be, &c.

JAMES MONROE.

Augustus J. Foster, Esq. &c. &c. &c.

Mr. Foster to Mr. Monroe.

1811.

Washington, October 24,

SIR,-I have had the honour to receive your letter of the 11th instant, enclosing a copy of the proceedings of a court of inquiry held by order of the President of the United States on the conduct of commodore Rodgers, in the late encounter between a frigate of the United States, the President, and his majesty's ship the Little Belt, fixing on captain Bingham the charge of having commenced the engagement, and claiming in consequence the attention of his majesty's government towards it, as to an act of hostility on the part of the British officer.

I may be permitted to remind you, sir, that after I had ascertained from you, that no hostile intentions on the part of the government of the United States were connected with the proceedings of captain Rodgers, all I asked in the first instance was, that the President of the United States would be pleased to order an inquiry into his conduct, which had tended so seriously to interrupt the harmony subsisting between our two countries, and which, having hitherto received no palliation whatever from any evidence in contradiction to captain Bingham's statement, as officially transmitted to his majesty's government, must have continued to appear to them to be utterly incapable of receiving any.

The document you have now done me the honour to communicate to me, with the copy annexed of captain Rodgers' letter (for the first time officially before me,) is, however, so far satisfactory, as it shows that captain Rodgers has endeavoured to exculpate himself, exhibiting the ground on which he rests his defence, and I shall without delay transmit it to be laid before his royal highness the prince regent. It certainly proves a most unaccountable difference to exist between the statement of the commander and officers of the Little Belt, and those of the President, as to the firing of the first gun; but I must remark, that from the concurrent testimony of several of the officers of the United States' ship, as to the orders given by captain Rodgers on nearing the Little Belt, there appears to have been an impression on his mind, that an encounter was to ensue; and, as the Little Belt was evidently endeavouring to avoid him, such an idea, it would seem, could only have

arisen from the opinion he entertained of his own proceedings as being likely to bring it on.

I take this occasion to acknowledge the receipt of your letter dated Sept. 14th, in answer to mine of the 2d, a copy of which I immediately forwarded to my government.

I have the honour to be, &c.

Hon. James Monroe, &c. &c. &c.

AUG. J. FOSTER.

CORRESPONDENCE RELATIVE TO THE FLORIDAS.

Mr. Foster to Mr. Monroe. Washington, July 2, 1811. SIR,-The attention of his majesty's government has of late been called to the measures pursued by the United States, for the military occupation of West Florida. The language held by the President, at the opening of the late session of Congress, the hostile demonstrations made by the American forces under captain Gaines, the actual summoning of the fort of Mobile, and the bill submitted to the approbation of the American legislature, for the interior administration of the province, are so many direct and positive proofs that the government of America is prepared to subject the province of West Florida to the authority of the United States.

The Spanish minister in London addressed a note, in the month of March last, to his majesty's secretary of state for foreign affairs, expressing in sufficient detail the feelings of the government of Spain, respecting this unprovoked aggression on the integrity of that monarchy.

Mr. Morier in his note to Mr. Smith of December 15, 1810, has already reminded the American government of the intimate alliance subsisting between his majesty and Spain, and he has desired such explanations on the subject, as might convince his majesty of the pacifick disposition of the United States towards Spain. Mr. Smith in his reply has stated, it was evident that no hostile or unfriendly purpose was entertained by America towards Spain; and that the American minister at his majesty's court, had been enabled to make whatever explanations might comport with