1 counter of the Leopard and the Chesapeake, it was because it had been deemed improper to mingle them, whatever may be their merits, with the present matter so much anore interesting and important in its nature; an opinion, originally and distinctly expressed by Mr. Munroe, and assented to by Mr. sec. Canning. But if upon this more recent and more weighty matter of discussion upon which the proclamation mainly and materially rests, his majesty's amicable intentions are unequivocally evinced, it is sufficiently clear, that no hostile disposition can be supposed to exist on his part, nor can any views be attributed to his government, such as, requiring to be counteracted by measures of precaution, could be deducted from transactions which preceded that encounter.-In offering these elucidations, I should observe that the view in which I have brought forward the preliminary, which I have specified, is neither as to demand, concession or redress, as for a wrong committed into such, the claim of a discontinuance of hostile provisions cannot be constructed; but it is simply to require a cessaion of enactments injorious in their effects, and which, if persisted in, especially after these explanations, must evince a spirit of hostility, under which his maj. could not authorize the prosecution of the present negotiation, either consistently with his own honour, or with any well founded expectation of the renewal of duration of that good understanding between the two countries, which is equally the interest of both to foster and to ameliorate. MR. MADISON TO MR. ROSE, MARCH 5, 1808. Sir; I have had the honor to receive and Hay before the president, your letter of the 26th Jan. in which you state, that you are expressly precluded by your instructions. "from entering upon any negociation for the adjustment of the differences arising "from the encounter of his Britanuic ma"jesty's ship Leopard, and the frigate of the U. States, the Chesapeake, as long as the proclamation of the president of the "2d of July, 1807, shall be in force."This demand, sir, might justly suggest the simple answer, that before the proclamation of the president could become a subject of consideration, satisfaction should be made for the acknowledged aggression which preceded it. This is evidently agreeable to the order of time, to the order of reason, and, it may be added, to the order of usage, as maintained by G. Britain, whenever in analogous cases, she has been the complaining party. 1 But as you have subjoined to the prelimi nary demand, certain explanations, with a view doubtless to obviate such an answer, it will best accord with the candor of the presi dent, to meet them with such a review of the whole subject, as will present the solid grounds on which he regards such a demand as inadmissible.-I begin with the occurrenges from which the proclamation of July 24, resulted. These are in general terms refered to, by the instrument itself. A mone particular notice of the most important of them, will here be in place. Passing over them, the habitual but minor irregularities of his Britannic majesty's ships of war, in making the hospitalities of our ports subservient to the annoyance of our trade, both outward and inward, a practice not only contrary to the principles of public law, but expressly contrary to British ordinances enforced during maritime wars, to which she bore a neutral relation, I am constrained, unwelcome as the task is, to call your attention to the following more prominent instances:In the sunimer of 1804, the British frigate the Cambrian, with other cruizers in company, entered the harbour of New York. The commander, capt. Bradley, in violation of the port laws, relating both to health and revenue, caused a merchant vessel, just arrived, and confessedly within the limits and under the authority of the U. States, to be boarded by persons under his command, who, after resisting the officers of the port, in the legal exercise of their functions, actually impressed and carried off, a number of seamen and passengers into the service of the ships of war. On an appeal to his voluntary respect for the laws, he first failed to give up the offender to justice, and finally repelled the officer charged with the regular process for the purpose. This procedure was not only a flagrant insult to the sovereignty of the nation, but an infraction of its neutrality also, which did not permit a belligerent ship thus to augment its force within the neutral territory. To finish the scene, this commander went so far as to declare, in an offi cial letter, to the minister plenipotentiary of his Britannic majesty, and by him communicated to this government, that he considered his ship, whilst lying in the harbour of New York, as having dominion around her, within the distance of her buoys-All these circumstances were duly made known to the British government in just expectation of honorable reparation. None has ever been offered. Capt. Bradley was advanced from his frigate to the command of a ship of the› line.At a subsequent period, several British frigates under the command of capt. Whitby, of abedieander] pursuing the practice of vextraordinary was dispatched for the express co ing she inward and outward trade of dur ports, purpose of expiating the aggression anot and hovering for that purpose about the en- sovereignty of a friendly power: Last? trance of that of New York, closed a series of ly presents itself the attack by the Briand irregularities, with an attempt to arrest a tish ship of war, Leopard, on the American coasting vessel, on board of which an Ame- frigate Chesapeake, a case too familiar in all rican citizen was killed by a cannon ball its circumstances to need a recital of any part i which entered the vessel, whilst within less of them. It is sufficient to remark that the than a mile from the shore.→→The blood of conclusive evidence, which this event added?! a citizen thus murdered, in a trade from one to that which had preceded, of the uncons to another port of his own country, and trolled excesses of the British naval comp^\ within the sanctuary of its territorial jurisdic manders in insulting our sovereignty and tion, could not fail to arouse the sensibility abusing our hospitality determined the of the public, and to make a solemn appeal president to extend to all British armed ships, to the justice of the British government. the precaution heretofore applied to a few bye The case was presented moreover to name, of interdicting to them the use and that government by this, in the accent privileges of our harbours and waters. which it required; and with due confidence This was done by his proclamation of Julyss that the offender would receive the exempla. 2, 1807, referring to the series of occurrens ry punishment which the deserved. That ces, ending with the aggression on the frigate there might be no failure of legal proof of Chesapeake, as the considerations requiring a a fact sufficiently notorious of itself, unex- it. And if the apprehension from the lis 'ceptionable witnesses to establish it, were centious spirit of the British naval comman-" sent to G. Britain at the expense of the U. ders, thus developed and uncontrolled, which States Capt. Whitby was notwithstanding, led to this measure of precaution, cotkit honorably acquitted; no animadversion took need other justification than was afforded place on any other officer belonging to the by what had passed, it would be amply found squadron nor has any apology or explana- in the subsequent conduct of the ships under tion been made since the trial was over, as the command of the same captaine Doua conciliatory offering to the disappointment glas.This officer, neither admonished of this country at such a result. A case of by reflexions on the crisis produced by another character occurred in Sept. 1806. the attack on the Chesapeake, nor conThe Impetueux, a French ship of 74 guns, trolled by respect for the law of nations when aground within a few hundred yards of or the laws of the land, did not cease within the shore of North Carolina, and therefore our waters to bring to, by firing at vessels visibly within the territorial jurisdiction and pursuing their course of trade; and in the hospitable protection of the U. States, was same spirit which had displayed itself in the fired upon boarded, and burnt, from three recent outrage committed upon the Ameris. British ships of war under the command of can frigate, he not only indulged himself in capt. Douglas. Having completed this out- hostile threats, and indications of a hostiles rage on the sovereignty and neutrality of the approach to Norfolk, but actually obstructed: U. States, the British commander felt no our citizens in the ordinary communication scruple in proceeding thence, into the waters between that and neighbouring places. His near Norfolk, nor in the midst of the hospita- proceedings constituted in fact, a blockade Jities enjoyed by him, to add to what had of the port, and as real an invasion of the passed, a refusal to discharge from his ships, country, according to the extent of his force impressed citizens of the U. States, not deas if troops had been debarked, and the nied to be such, on the plea, that the go- town besieged on the land side. Was it vernment of the U. States had refused to possible for the chief magistrate of a nation, surrender to the demand of admiral Berkley, who felt for its rights and its honour, to dơ certain seamen alledged to be British desert- less than interpose some measure of precau ors; a demand which it is well understood, tion, at least against the repetition of enormi your government disclaims any right to make. ties which had been so long uncontrolled by the government whose officers had cons mitted them, and which had at last taken the exorbitant shape of hostility and of ting sult seen in the attack on the frigate Chesa It would be very superfluous to dwell on the features which mark this aggravated insult. But I must be permitted to remind you, that in so serious a light was a similar violation of neutral territory, by the destrucpeake? Candor will pronounce that less tion of certain French ships on the coast of Portugal, by a British squadron under the command of admiral Boscawen, regarded by the court of G. Britain that a minister ex could not be done and it will as readily' ada mit that the proclamation comprising that measure, could not have breathed a more temperate spirit, nor spoken in a more be coming tone. How for it has received from those, whose intrusions it prohibited, the respect due to the national authority, or been made the occasion of new indignities, needs no explanation. The president having interposed this precautionary interdict, lost no time in instructing the minister plenipotentiary of the U. States to represent to the British government the signal aggression which had been committed on their sovereignty and their flag, and to require the satisfaction due for it; indulging the expectation that his Britannic majesty would at ance perceive it to be the truest magnanimity, as well as the strictest justice, to offer that prompt and full expiation of an acknowledged wrong which would re-establish and improve, both in fact and in feeling, the state of things which it had violated. This expectation was considered as not only honourable to the sentiments of his majesty, but was, supported by known examples, in which, being the complaining party, he had required and obtained, as a preliminary to any counter, complaints whatever, a precise replacement of things, in every practical le circumstance, in their pre-existing situation. trusions committed by the British merchants. 粤 , Thus in 1704, Bermudians and other British subjects, who had according to an naal custom take possession of Turk's island for the season of making salt, having been forcibly removed with their vessels and effects by a French detachment from the island of St. Domingo, to which Turk's island was alledged to be an appurtenances the British ambassador at Paris in pursuancetish government looking; entirely to the of instructions from his government, des manded as a satisfaction for the violence com mitted, that the proceedings should be disavowed, the intention of acquiring. Turk's island disclaimed, orders given for: the immediate abandonment of it on the part of the French, every thing restored to the con-dition in which it was at the time of the ag gression, and reparation made of the damages which any British subjects should be found to have sustained according to an estimation to be settled between the governors of St. Domingo and Jamaica. A compliance with the whole of this demand was the result Again, in 1789, certain English merchants having opened a trade at Nootka. Sound on the north west coast of America, and attempted a settlement at that place, the Spaniards, who had long claimed that part of the world as their exclusive property, dispatched a frigate from Mexico, which captured the two English wessels engaged in the trade, and broke up the settlement on the poast. The Spanish government was the first to complain, in this case, of the in dispossession by force; demandedqasida sper cific condition of preserving barmony, bea tween the two courts, not only the disatawa al of the Spanish proceedings; but that the affairs of that settlement should be immen diately restored to the precise state in which they were previous to the act afiqdispelssess sion. The Spanish government made isomer difficulties; requiring partoulanijas disast vowal on the part of G. Britain, of the con>< duct of her officer, at Falklandisi:Islands, which, it was alledged, gave occasion to the steps taken by the Spanish governornand proposing an adjustment by mitteal stipula tions in the ordinary formibe reply was, that the moderation of this Britannic majesty having limited his demand to the smallest reparation he could accept for the. injury done, nothing was left for discussion but the mode of carrying the disavowal and restitution into execution; reparation losing its value if it be conditional, and to be ob tained by any stipulation: whatever from the party injured. The Spanish government yielded. The violent proceedings of its of . 1 torial limits. The president was led to the same determination, 2dly by bis desire of converting a particular incident, into an occasion for removing another and more tensive source of danger to the harmony of the two countries: and, 3dly by his per suasion that the liberality of the pr posit tions authorised with this view, would not fail to induce the ready concurience, of his Britannic majesty, and that the more extensive source of imitation and perplexity being removed, a satisfactory adjustment of the particular incident would be the less dif ficult. The president still thinks that such would have been the tendency of the mode for which he bad provided; and he cannot therefore but regret that the door, was shut against the experiment, by the peremptory refusal of Mr. Canning to admit it into discussion, even in the most informal many ner, as was suggested by Mr. Munroe.The president felt the greater regret, as the step he had taken towards a more enlarged and lasting accommodation became th thus bar to the adjustment of the particular and recent aggression which had been committed against the U. States. He found however an alleviation, in the signified purpose of his Britannic majesty, to charge with this adjustment a special mission to the U. States, which, restricted as it was, seemed to in dicate a disposition from which a liberal and conciliatory arrangement of one great ob ject at least might be confidently expected. ficers were disavowed. The fort, the port, and every thing else were agreed to be im mediately restored to the precise situation which had been disturbed; and duplicates of orders issued for the purpose to the Spanish officers, were delivered into the hands of one of the British principal secretaries of state? Here again it is to be remarked, that satisfaction having been made for the forcible dispossession, the islands lost their im portance in the eyes of the British goverament, were in a short time finally evacuated, and Port Egmont remains with every other part of them in the hands of Spain. Could stronger pledges have been given, than are here found, that an honorable and instant reparation would be made in a case, differing no otherwise from those recited, than as it furnished to the same monarch ot a great nation, an opportunity to prove, that adhering always to the same immutable principle, he was as ready to do right to others, as to require it for himself.Returning to the instructions given to the minister plenipotentiary of the United States at London, I am to observe, that the president thought it just and expedient to insert, as a necessary ingredient in the adjustment of the outrage committed on the American frigate, a security against the future practice of British baval commanders, in impressing from mer chant vessels of the U. States on the high seas, such of their crews as they might undertake to denominate British subjects.To this association of the two subjects, the president was determined, 1st. by his regarding both as resting on kindred principles, the immunity of private ships, with the known exceptions made by the law of nations, being as well established as that of public ships and there being no pretext for including in these exceptions the impressment (if it could be freed from its enormous and notorious abuses) of the subjects of a belligerent; by the officers of that belligerent: The rights of a belligerent, against the ships of a neutral nation, acerte Inerely from the relation of the neutral to the other belligerent, as in conveying to him contraband of war, or in supplying a Blockaded pork The claim of a bellige rent to search for and seize on board neutral Vessels on the high seas, persons under his allegiatice, does not therefore rest on any belligerent right under the law of nations, bet on a prerogative derived from municipal law; and involves the extravagant supposi now that one nation has a right to execute at all times and inalt cases its municipal they said regulations on board the ships of #dolier TRAPON;mpeting within its terris In this confidence, your arrival was awaited with every friendly solicitude; and our first interview having opened the way, by an acquiescence in the separation of the two cases insisted on by his Britannic ma jesty, notwithstanding the strong ground on which they had been united by the presi dent, it was not to be doubted that a tender of the satisfaction claimed by the U. States, for a distinguished and an acknowledged in salt, by one of his officers, would immes diately follow.It was not, therefore without a very painful surprize, that the error of this expectation was discovered Instead of the satisfaction due from the original aggression, it was announced that the first step towards the adjustment must proceed from the party, injured; and your letter now before me, formally repeats, that as long as the proclamation of the president which issued on the 2d July, 1807, shall bein force, it will be an insuperable obsta de toa negociation, even on the subject of the aggression which preceded it in ather words, that the proclamation must be put out of force, before an adjustment of the aggression can be taken into discussion. In explaining the grounds of this extraor dinary demand, it is alledged to be supported by the consideration that the proceeding and pretension of the offending officer has been disavowed that general assurances are given of a disposition and intention in his Britannic majesty to make satisfaction; that 2 special minister was dispatched with promptitude for the purpose of carrying into effect this disposition: and that you have a personal conviction that the particular terms, which you are not at liberty' previously to disclose, will be deemed by the U. States satisfactoryWith respect to the dis avowal, it would be unjust not to regard it as a proof of candour and amity towards the U. States, and as some presage of the voluntary reparation which it implied to be due. But the disavowal can be the less confounded with the reparation itself; since it was sufficiently required by the respect which G. Britain owed to her own honour ; it being impossible that an enlightened go. vernment, had hostility been meditated, would have commenced it in such a manner and in the midst of existing professions of peace and friendship. She owed it also to consistency with a disavowal on a former occasion, in which the pretension had been enforced by a British squadrou, against the sloop of war Baltimore, belonging to the U. States; and finally to the interest which G. Britain has, more than any other nation, in disclaiming a principle which would expose her superior number of ships of war, to so many indignities from inferior navies. by his Britannic majesty, and you well know, Sir, how fally this object was accomplished. With respect to the personal conviction which you have expressed; that the terms which you decline to disclose, would be satisfactory to the U. States, it is incumbent on me to observe, that with the highest res spect for your judgment, and the most petfect confidence in your sincerity, an insepa rable objection manifestly lies, to the ac ceptance of a personal and unexplained opi nion, in place of a disclosure which would enable this government to exercise its own judgment in a case affecting so essentially its honour and its rights. Such a course of pro ceeding would be without example; and there can be no hazard in saying, thats one will never be afforded by a government which respects itself as much as yours justly does; and therefore can never be reasonably expected from one which respects itself as much as this has a right to do.-1 forbear, Sir, to enlarge on the intrinsic incongruity of the expedient proposed.But I must be allowed to remark, as an additional admonis tion of the singular and mortifying per plexity in which a compliance might involve the president, that there are in the letter of Mr. Canning, communicating to Mr. Mune roe, the special mission to the U. States, pregnant indications that other questions and conditions may have been contemplated, which would be found utterly irreconcilea ble with the sentiments of this nation. If neither any nor all of these considerations can sustain the preliminary demand made in your communication, it remains to be seen whether such a demand rests with greater advantage on the more precise ground on which you finally seem to place it. The proclamation is considered as a hostile measure, and a discontinuance of it, as due to the discontinuance of the aggression which led to it.It has been sufficiently shewn that the proclamation, as appears on the face of it, was produced by a train of occurrences terminating in the attack on the American frigate, and not by this last alone. To a demand, therefore, that the proclamation be revoked, it would be perfectly fair to oppose a demand that redress be first given for the numerous ir regularities which preceded the aggression on the American frigate, as well as for this particular aggression, and that effectual controul be interposed against repetitions of them. And as no such redress has been given for the past, notwithstanding the lapse of time which has taken place, nor any such security for the future, notwithstand As little can the general assurances that reparation would be made, claim aʼreturn which could properly follow the actual reparation only. They cannot amount to more than a disposition, or at most a promise, "to do what the aggressor may deem a fulfilment of his obligation. They do not prove even a disposition to do what may be satisfactory to the injured party, who cannot have less than an equal right to decide on the sufficiency of the redress.In dis patching a special minister for the purpose of adjusting the differences, the U. States ought cheerfully to acknowledge all the proof it affords on the part of his Britannic majesty, of his pacific views towards them, and of his respect for their friendship. But whilst they could under any circumstances, allow to ture more than a certain participation in an honourable reparation, it is to be recollected that the avowed and primary object of the mission was to substitute for the more extended adjustment proposed by the U. States, at London, a separation of the subjects as preferreding the undiminished reasonableness of it, But |