for bringing back their Produce to Port-au-Prince: all British or American Vessels not belonging to the Company, and all vessels belonging to France or any other Power or to any person IN ANY PART of the Island of St. Domingo and trading to or from any of its Ports, coastwise or otherwise, except those employed by the agent of this Company as above, and furnished with proper Passports, to be liable to seizure, and Toussaint to engage on his part to the utmost of his power to discourage and prevent all such trade.

The exportation of Blacks from St. Domingo to any other place, (or of any other persons without previous permission to that effect) or the carrying on any intercourse whatever between that Island and other place, except as above, to be prohibited under the severest Penalties.

any

Both Powers to guarantee this arrangement to each other, and to agree that in case of its being violated on the part of Toussaint, with respect either to G. Britain or America, the whole shall be suspended, and neither the subjects of G. B. nor America to be at liberty to carry on any trade there from thenceforth; and the present prohibition continue as to all the rest of the Island.

DEAR SIR:

T. PICKERING TO R. KING. No. 37.

DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Jany. 8, 1799.

I am directed by the President of the United States to transmit to you the inclosed narrative of Lewis Tresevant and Wm. Timmons of an outrage committed on the flag of the United States, together with extracts of a letter from George C. Morton, Consular Agent of the United States at the Havanna.* As soon as Captain Phillips arrives and makes his official report to the Navy Department, it shall be transmitted to you. In consequence of this insult, the President has directed the inclosed order* to be issued to all our naval commanders to resist every future attempt of the kind to the last extremity. A copy of this order I have sent to Mr. Liston with the letter of which also a copy is inclosed.

* As the facts are presented in the accompanying letter to Mr. Liston, and the order to the naval commanders is summed up in Mr. Pickering's letter, they are omitted here.

This act of Captain Loring excited, as you may imagine, no little sensation. It drew the attention of the House of Representatives, who passed the inclosed resolution, in pursuance of which, the narrative above mentioned and extracts of Mr. Morton's letter have been communicated to them.

To the extracts from Mr. Morton's Letter laid before the House, I have now added other parts relating to the capture of three American vessels bound to the Havanna by Capt. Loring's Squadron-the pretence that 4d. & 6d. nails and oznaburgs are contraband of war, the latter as sail cloth and the former because other than "unwrought iron." It is impossible that these articles should have been contemplated as falling within the 18 article of our Treaty with Great Britain: the interpretation that would comprehend them appears to us a perverse one yet they have been made the occasion of much injury and vexation to our Merchants and Mariners, as I formerly wrote you, when com plaining of the iniquitous proceedings of Judge Cambauld at Cape Nichola Mole. It is true that Capt. Loring released two of the vessels captured, as above mentioned, near the Havanna; but an erroneous construction of the Treaty should not furnish a pretence for so serious an injury as the detention and carrying into port of the third to gratify his resentment against a sturdy Master. If this abuse in the construction of the 18 article of the Treaty has not yet attracted the notice of the British Government, or if orders for correcting it have not been issued, the President desires that it may be a subject of representation together with the insult which is the immediate object of this letter.

With regard to the insult on our flag, it will readily occur that the right of searching and stripping public Vessels of War of their hands, if it exists at all, must be reciprocal, and it need not be asked whether a British Naval Commander would submit to it: neither will ours. But if such search for and taking away of seamen were at all admissible in practice, it should be in our favor, because American Seamen are generally aboard British Ships only by impressments, whereas the British Seamen to be found in the armed Vessels of the United States are all Volunteers; and you will recollect that the British Government have made a distinction between Volunteer and Impressed Americans, releasing the latter

when their citizenship was proved; but detaining the former altho' they had entered and taken the bounty only in consequence of a previous impressment.

After these observations, candour demands an acknowledgment of the general friendly and polite behaviour of the British Naval Officers towards ours, and of their readiness to protect our merchant vessels against the Plunderers of the World, and to afford them relief when in distress. An instance has very lately occurred in the Chesapeake. A British Vessel of War seeing an American vessel aground on a dangerous shoal, sent down cables, anchors and thirty Seamen, who got her off and thus saved a valuable ship and cargo, which in the next four and twenty hours would have been dashed to pieces and lost.

You cannot too strongly express the desire of the President to maintain a perfect harmony between the two countries and his regret at any incident tending to disturb it, and which, while it sensibly wounds the real friends to their country, furnishes a topic of popular clamour to others whose enmity to their own Government is equalled only by their hatred to Great Britain. I have the honor to be, &c.

"SIR:

66

T. PICKERING.

T. PICKERING TO ROBT. LISTON.

"DEPARTMENT OF STATE, PHILADELPHIA Dec. 31, 1798.

The principal facts stated are these. Capt. Phillips having under his convoy several American vessels bound to the Havanna saw, not far from that port, a fleet of three ships of the line and two frigates, which, as soon as he discovered them to be British, he approached and spoke the Commodore, the above named Capt. Loring. This officer told Captain Phillips that he should take from him all the seamen who had not protection as citizens of the United States. Capt. Phillips remonstrated against it, observing among other things, that the public flag of the United States was their protection, and that if he carried his declaration into effect, the Baltimore would not have men enough for her defence. His remonstrances were fruitless. Capt. Loring took from the Baltimore fifty five of her crew. Afterwards finding Capt. Phillips indisposed to comply with some other propositions

and demands, Capt. Loring thought proper to return fifty of the men, retaining five, among whom was the Baltimore's Boatswain.

It is impossible, Sir, for the American Government to imagine that this outrage can be the consequence of any orders from his Britannic Majesty, and equally impossible for the United States quietly to bear the repetition of insults and injuries of this kind. The President of the United States has therefore directed that all attempts to commit them be resisted."

DEAR SIR:

JOSEPH HALE TO R. KING.

BOSTON, Jany, 14, 1799.

Tho' not insensible of the tax you will be exposed to by this & its accompaniments travelling from Liverpool to London, I cannot forbear giving you a specimen of the Congressional Temper.

The Kentucky & Virginia resolutions, which will doubtless reach you thro' another channel, will prove that there is still sufficient scope with us for industry, talents, & patriotism.

In the New England States the alien & sedition acts make less noise than the land tax. Its novelty & immediate application to the purse-strings excite soft but general murmurs. Yankee good sense will soon silence these & the support of the tax be universal in the northern states.

We are daily increasing our naval preparations. It is said five ships of the line are to be built & the proposal in a few days to be brought forward in Congress. The ready concurrence of both houses said to be unquestionable. With the army now organizing we shall shortly assume the aspect of a well regulated government. The sedition act operates as a check upon the disorganizers, tho' they still indulge themselves too freely in their favourite

bias.

Permit me, Sir, to congratulate you on the resignation of the Judge of Admiralty. His successor is a man of business. Hav. ing been an advocate for the Crown, he will have great merit in divesting himself of that character in his judicial decisions. Doctor N.'s successor will doubtless do justice to his appointment.

JOSEPH HALE.

CHAPTER XXXI.

King to Secretary of State-New French Decree against American Commerce -St. Domingo-Affairs on the Continent and Egypt-To R. TroupSituation of Americans in Paris perilous-Sedgwick to King-Congress should have acted firmly, declared War, treated Spain as an Ally of France, and seized the Mouth of the Mississippi-Composition of the Senate not improved; of House, better-Virginia's Opposition growing worse-Surplus of Revenue-Conduct of Commissioners under sixth Article outrageous-Not a single enlisting Order for the Army issued-King to Hamilton-St. Domingo and Miranda-Pickering's Son suggested as Secretary to King-King to W. Wickham-Miranda to Secretary of State -Mission of Colonel Maitland-President's Speech able-Admiralty Decrees-Tobacco Ships Captured by the French-Secretary of State to King -Outrage of Captain Loring-Captain Phillips's Conduct pusillanimousTroup-Summary of American Affairs-King to the President-Weakness of continental Governments-Firmness of England-Pride in the increasing attention in Europe to the able and dignified Administration of the American Government.

R. KING TO SECRETARY OF STATE. No. 18.

DEAR SIR:

LONDON, Jany. 14, 1799.

The Moniteur contains a Report made by Boullay Paty in the Council of 500, on the 21st of Decemr. in the name of a Committee to whom a reference from the Tribunal of Cassation had been sent on the subject of the Law of the 29. Nivose, which authorises the capture of all vessels loaded wholly or in part with articles of the growth or fabric of the British Territories. The questions referred from the Tribunal of Cassation were whether the Law is applicable to all captures made after its publication, or only to such as were made in consequence of a knowledge of its publication, and whether the terms, articles of the growth or fabric of the