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proper national tribunal for the determination of questions of Prize; a want which gave General Washington great trouble and embarrassment, during his residence at Cambridge and for some time afterwards. As this subject is connected with the origin of the American Navy, a brief account may here be given of the commencement of naval operations by the United Colonies.

When General Washington arrived at Cambridge, no steps had been taken by the Continental Congress towards the employment of any naval force whatever. In June, 1775, two small schooners had been fitted out by Rhode Island, to protect the waters of that Colony from the depredations of the enemy; and in the same month, the Provincial Congress of Massachusetts resolved to provide six armed vessels; but none of them were ready in the month of October.1 In the early part of that month, the first movement was made by the Continental Congress towards the employment of any naval force. General Washington was then directed to fit out two armed vessels, with all possible despatch, to sail for the mouth of the St. Lawrence, in order to intercept certain ships from England bound to Quebec with powder and stores. He was to procure these vessels from the government of Massachusetts.2 The authorities of Massachusetts had then made no such

1 Letter of General Washington

to the President of Congress.

2 Resolve passed October 5,

1775. Journals of Congress, II.

197.

VOL. 1.

10

provision; but in the latter part of August, General Washington had, on the broad authority of his commission, proceeded to fit out six armed schooners, to cruise in the waters of Massachusetts Bay, so as to intercept the enemy's supplies coming into the port of Boston. One of them sailed in September, and in the course of a few weeks they were all cruising between Cape Ann and Cape Cod.1

On the 17th of September, 1775, the town of Falmouth in Massachusetts (now Portland in Maine) was burnt by the enemy. This act stimulated the Continental Congress to order the fitting out of two armed vessels on the 26th of October, and of two

1 These vessels were fitted out from the ports of Salem, Beverly, Marblehead, and Plymouth. They were officered and manned chiefly by sea-captains and sailors who happened to be at that time in the army. They sailed under instructions from General Washington, to take and seize all vessels in the ministerial service, bound into or out of Boston, having soldiers, arms and ammunition, or provisions on board, and to send them into the nearest port, under a careful prize-master, to wait his further directions. The first person commissioned in this way by the Commander-in-chief was Captain Nicholas Broughton of Marblehead, who sailed in the schooner Hannah, fitted out at Beverly; and in his instructions he was described as "a captain in the army of the United Colonies of North America," and was directed to take the

command of "a detachment of said
army, and proceed on board the
schooner Hannah, lately fitted out,
&c. at the continental expense.'
Another of these vessels, called the
Lee, was commanded by Captain
John Manly. The names of three
others of them were the Harrison,
the Washington, and the Lynch.
The name of the sixth vessel is not
known, but the names of the four
other captains were Selman, Mar-
tindale, Coit, and Adams. (Writ-
ings of Washington, III. 516.)
When Washington received direc-
tions from the President of Con-
gress to send two vessels to the
mouth of the St. Lawrence, he
wrote, on the 12th of October, that
one of these vessels was then out,
and that two of them would be de-
spatched as directed, immediately.
(Ibid., III. 124.) In the course of
a few weeks, they were all out.

others, on the 30th. It also stimulated the Massachusetts Assembly to issue letters of marque and reprisal, and to pass an act establishing a court to try and condemn all captures made from the enemy, by the privateers and armed vessels of that Colony.

In the autumn of this year, therefore, there were two classes of armed vessels cruising in the waters of Massachusetts: one consisting of those sailing under the continental authority, and the other consisting of those sailing under the authority of the Massachusetts Assembly. Captures were made by each, and some of those sailing under the continental authority were quite successful. Captain Manly, commanding the Lee, took, in the latter part of November, a valuable prize, with a large cargo of arms, ammunition, and military tools; and several other captures followed before any provision had been made for their condemnation, a business which was thus thrown entirely upon the hands of General Washington.

The court established by the Legislature of Massachusetts, at its session in the autumn of 1775, for the trial and condemnation of all captures from the enemy, was enabled to take cognizance only of captures made by vessels fitted out by the Province, or by citizens of the Province. As the cruisers fitted out at the continental expense did not come under this law, General Washington early in November called the attention of Congress to the necessity of establishing a court for the trial of prizes made by con

tinental authority.1 On the 25th of November, the Congress passed resolves ordering all trials of prizes to be held in the court of the colony into which they should be brought, with a right of appeal to Congress. But these resolves do not seem to have been, for a considerable period of time, communicated to General Washington; for, during the months of November, December, and January, he supposed it to be necessary for him to attend personally to the adjudication of prizes made by continental vessels, and it was not until the early part of February that the receipt of the resolves of Congress led to a resort to the jurisdiction of the admiralty court of Massachusetts. When, however, this was done, an irreconcilable difference was found to exist between the resolves of Congress and the law of the Colony respecting the proceedings; the trials were stopped for a long time, to enable the General Court of Massachusetts to alter their law, so as to make it conform to the resolves; and in

1 Letter to the President of Congress, November 11, 1775. Writings of Washington, III. 154.

2 Journals, I. 260.

3 On the 4th of December, he repeated his former recommendation to the President of Congress. (Writings of Washington, III. 184.) On the 26th of December, he wrote to Richard Henry Lee, in Congress, begging him to use his influence in having a court of admiralty or some power appointed to hear and determine all matters

relative to captures; saying, "You cannot conceive how I am plagued on this head, and how impossible it is for me to hear and determine upon matters of this sort, when the facts, perhaps, are only to be ascertained at ports forty, fifty, or more miles distant, without bringing the parties here [Cambridge] at great trouble and expense. At any rate, my time will not allow me to be a competent judge of this business." Ibid., III. 217.

the mean while, many of the captors, weary of the law's delay, applied, without waiting for the decisions, for leave to go away, which General Washington granted.1 As late as the 25th of April, 1776, there had been no trials of any of the prizes brought into Massachusetts Bay. At that date, General Washington wrote to the President of Congress, from New York, that some of the vessels which he had fitted out were laid up, the crews being dissatisfied because they could not obtain their prize-money; that he had appealed to the Congress on the subject; and that, if a summary way of proceeding were not resolved on, it would be impossible to have the continental vessels manned. At this time Captain Manly and his crew had not received their share of the valuable prize taken by them in the autumn previous.2

Another remarkable defect in the revolutionary government was found in the mode in which it undertook to supply the means of defraying the public expenses. It was a government entirely without revenues of any kind; for, in constituting the Congress, the colonies had not clothed their delegates with power to lay taxes, or to establish imposts. At the time when hostilities were actually commenced, the commerce of the country was almost totally annihilated; so that if the Congress had possessed power to derive a revenue from commerce, little could

1 Letter to the President of Congress, February 9, 1776. Ibid., III. 282. Letter to Joseph Reed,

February 10, 1776. Ibid., III.

284.

2 Ibid., III. 370.

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