official paper, a diftinct difavowal of the offenfive views which the appointment of a mere charge d'affaires and other circumftances appeared originally to indicate. We are now told, in writing, thar the delay in appointing a minifter plenipotentiary was occafioned, in the first instance, not by fuch confiderations as have been fuppofed, but " by an earneft defire of rendering the appointment fatisfactory to the United States, and conducive to the effectual establishment of harmony between the two governments;" that more recently "the state of his majesty's government rendered it impoffible to make the intended appointment; " and that lord Wellefley was therefore" concerned to find, by my letter of the 14th of January, that the government of the United States should be induced to fuppofe that any indifpofition could exist, on the part of his majesty's government, to place the British miffion in America on the footing moft acceptable to the United States, as foon as might be practicable, confiftently with the convenience of affairs in this country." The two papers are evidently calculated to prevent me from acting upon my last request of an audience of leave; and they certainly put it into my power, if they do not make it my duty, to forbear to act upon it. I have it under confideration, (looking to the inftructions contained in your letter of the 15th of November) what courfe I ought to purfue. It is at any rate my intention to return to América in the Effex, as I fhall doubtless have the prefident's permiffion in due feafon to do, in confequence of my letter to you of the 24th of November. I have the honor to be, with great refpect and confideration, Sir, your moft obedient humble fervant, WM. PINKNEY. Lord Wellesley to Mr. Pinkney. No. 1. Foreign Office, February 15, 1811. In the various unofficial communications which I have had the honor to make to you, refpecting the appointment of a minifter plenipotentiary from the king to the United States, I have endeavored to explain to you, in the most diftinct manner, the cir cumftances which have delayed that appointment; and I have expreffed my intention to recommend that it fhould be carried into effect as foon as the fituation of his majesty's government might permit. The delay was occafioned, in the firft inftance (as I stated to you repeatedly) by an earnest defire of rendering the appointment fatisfactory to the United States, and conducive to the effectual eftablishment of harmony between the two governments. Since that period of time the ftate of his majefty's government rendered it impoffible to make the intended appointment. I was therefore concerned to find, by your letter of the 14 th of January, that the government of the United States fhould be in duced to fuppofe that any indifpofition could exift, on the part of his majefty's government, to place the Britifh miffion in America on the footing n:oft acceptable to the United States, as foon as might be practicable, confiftently with the convenience of affairs in this country. In pursuance of the intention fo often declared to you, his royal highness the prince regent has been pleafed, in the name and on behalf of his maj fty, to appoint Mr. Fofter, (lately charged with his majefty's affairs in Sweden) to be his majefty's envoy extraordinary and minifter plenipotentiary to the United States; and that appointment will be notified in the next gazette. You will, of course, exercise your judgment, under thefe circumftances, refpecting the propriety of requiring an audience of leave, on the grounds which you have flated. I have the honor to be, &c. (Signed) WELLESLEY. No. 2. SIR, Foreign Office, February 15, 1811. Having fubmitted to his royal highnofs the prince regent your de fire to have an audience of leave, with a view to return to America, I am commanded by his royal highness to inform you that he will be prepared to receive you, at Carlton houfe, on Tuesday the 19th inftant. Lord Wellesley to Mr. Pinkney. At the fame time, I am commanded to inform you, that his royal highness, in the name and on the behalf of his majefty, has been pleafed to appoint Auguftus Fofter, efquire, (lately charged with his majefty's affairs in Sweden) to be his maj fty's envoy extraordinary and minifter plenipotentiary to the United States. I have the honor to be, &c. (Signed) WELLESLEY. Mr. Pinkney to Mr. Smith, fecretary of state. SIR, London, February 18, 1811. The refult of my reflections on lord Wellefley's two communications of the 15th inftant, will be found in my letter to him of yefterday's date, of which I now tranfmit a copy. It appeared to me that the appointment of a minifter plenipotentiary to the United States was nothing, or rather worse than nothing, if the orders in council were to remain in force, the blockade of May, 1800, to be unrepealed; the affair of the Chefapeake to continue at large, and other urgent questions between us to remain unfettled. The "pofture of our relations," as you have expreffed it in your letter of the 15th of November, would not be "fatisfactorily changed" merely by fuch an appointment; and of course my functions could not be refumed upon the fole foundation of it. I have put it to lord Wellesley to fay explicitly, whether full and fatisfactory arrangement is intended, before I anfwer his official letter concerning my audience of leaves If he is prepared to do at once what we require, or to inftru&t the new minifter to do at Wafhington what does not demand immediate interference here, I thall think it my duty to forbear to take my leave on the 26th. If he declines a frank reply, or refufs our demands, I fhail pref for my audience and put an end to my miffion. I have the honor to be, &c. (Signed) WM. PINKNEY. Mr. Pinkney to Lord Wellesley. MY LORD, Great Cumberland Place, Februay 17, 1811. Before I reply to your official communication of the 15th inftant, you will perhaps allow me, in acknowledging the receipt of the unofficial paper which accompanied it, to trouble you with a few words. From the appointment which you have done me the honor to announce to me, of a minifter plenipotentiary to the United States, as well as from the language of your private letter, I conclude that it is the intention of the British government to feek immediately thofe adj ftments with America, without which, the appointment can produce no ben ficial effe&t. I prefume, that, for the restoration of harmony between the two countries, the orders in council will be revoked without delay; that the blockade of May 1806 will be annulled; that the cafe of the Chesapeake will be arranged in the manner heretofore intended; and, in general, that all fuch juft and reasonable acts will be done as are neceffary to make us fri.nes. My motives will not, I am fure, be misinterpreted, if, anxious to be enabled fo to regulate my conduct in the execution of my inftructions as that he beft refults may be accomplished, I take the liberty to requeft fuch explanations on the fe heads as your lordship may think fit to give me. I ought to add, that, as the levee of his royal highness the prince regent has been postponed until Tuesday the 26th inftant, I have fuppofed that my audience of leave is poftponed to the fame day and that I have, on that ground, undertaken to delay my reply to your official communication until I receive an answer to this letter. I have the honor to be, &c. (Signed) WM. PINKNEY SIR, Mr. Pinkney to Mr. Smith. London, 24th February, 1811. I received last night Lord Wellfley's anfwer (of which a copy is enclosed) to my ktter of the 17th inftant. He marked it private, and fpeaks of my letter to him as being private alfo. My letter, however, was not fo marked or intended; and his anfwer, however marked, is effentially an official communication of great importance. His letter amounts to an explicit declaration that the orders in council are to be perfisted in; and it furnithes no evidence of a difpofition to give us any thing but vague and general profeffions on any fubject. I did not, therefore, hefitate to fend him a reply, declaring my intention to take leave on Thursday the 28th, in purfuance of my requeft of the 13th, and declining to attend the prince's levee on Tuesday the 26th. Of this reply a copy is now tranfmitted. To mistake the views of this government is now impoffible. They are fnch as I always believed them to be, and will, I hope, be refifted with spirit and firmness. In fhaping my courfe on this occafion, I have endeavored to conform to the orders of the prefident, fignified to me in your letter of the 15th of November. With thofe orders, as I underftand them, my own wifhes certainly concurred; but I trust that I have not fuffered inclination to influence my interpretation of them. According to your letter, my functions, were to be confidered as fufpended on the receipt of it, if the British government had not then appointed a minifter plenipotentiary to the United States. Such an appointment had not at that time been made, and con. fequently the fufpenfion took place. Upon a careful confideration of your letter, it appeared to me to look to a REVIVAL of my functions, in the event of "a fatisfactory change in the pofture of our relations" with this country. I could not indeed find in it any precife provifion to that effect; but there was apparently room for fuch a construction; and I have already informed you, that, however anxious to clofe my miffion and retire from the public fervice, I was difpofed to act, for a few weeks, upon that implication, in cafe fuch a change occurred in our relations as I deemed a fatisfactory one. It could not be imagined that the appointment of Mr. Fofter produced that change; and, fuppofing it to be left, in fome degree at least, to my difcretion to determine in what it should confift, I had no difficulty in deciding that the immediate repeal of the orders in council and the blockade of May 1806, a diftinct pledge on the affair of the Chesapeake, and a manifeftation of a difpofition to accommodate with us, upon principles of juftice, on all other concerns, were indifpenfable ingredients. It followed, that, upon receiving lord Wellesley's letter of yefterday's date, I had no choice but to prefs for my audience of leave. It may perhaps be thought, that I ought not to have refused to appear at Carlton Houfe on the 26th, for the purpose of being prefented, with the other foreign minifters, to the regent. I have not, myfelf, any doubt at all upon that point. My appearance at the levee for fuch a purpose, would import, that I confider my capacity as the minifter of the United States to be entire, and would, moreover, encourage the delufion which now prevails Concerning the views of the Britifh government towards America. I have the honor to be, &c. &c. &c. (Signed) WM. PINKNEY. [Documents to be continued.] CONGRESSIONAL REPORTER. No 13.] TWELFTH CONGRESS.... FIRST SESSION. [Debates in Congress---Continued.] [1811-12. In the House of Representatives. On the second Resolution reported by the Committee on Foreign Relations. MR. STANFORD said, as the resolution before the House contemplated an additional army, and from the avowal of its friends, involved in it the question of peace or war, he felt the desire to assign the reasons of his vote upon so important a subject. He was the more disposed to do so, as he should probably find himself in a very small minority upon the question. He was not flattered, he said, with using arguments which would convince others; but for himself he felt their force strong enough to fix his mind against the measure. If he were to vote, he said, for the proposed army, he should vote inconsistently with all his former opinions and principles upon the subject, and he could never think of acting a part inconsistent with himself, and that more especially when all his experience had gone to confirm his first impressions, his honest prejudices, against standing armies. Such establishments had always proved the bane of free governments, and he could not see how we were to get along with them, and remain, as he believed we were, the freest and happiest people on earth. But, sir, we are told, war is to be declared in certain events, and that the army proposed is to invade and take the Canadas. We are then to pass out of the limits of the United States and wage a war of the foreign offensive kind! If such was the contemplated use of this army when raised, he was still the more opposed to the measure.He was against the war itself, and the policy of it, and could by no means yield his vote to bring it about. That there was sufficient cause of war, he was ready to acknowledge, and he was not disposed in any the least degree, to palliate the offences of Great Britain, or that of any of the other belligerents, committed on the persons and property of our citizens. All of them had deserved war at our hands, but we had at no time since the commencement of our present government seen it our interest or policy to give into it, in the open and declared form, nor that of any other form, except that of a quasi character, which happened under Mr. Adams' administration. The question never had been, whether we had or had not cause of warbut whether the true interest of the United States did not, under all circumstances, call aloud upon us to cherish peace-and to avoid war and its evils as the last of the alternatives before us-and this, said Mr. Stanford, he would be able to show was the republican doctrine as well in the old minority times, as since that minority grew into a majority. No. 13. |