established a style of peace with them. But without appealing to treaties, we are at peace with them all by the laws of nature; for, by nature's law, man is at peace with man, till some aggression is committed, which, by the same law, authorizes one to destroy another, as his enemy. For our citizens then to commit murders and depredations on the members of nations at peace with us, or to combine to do it, appeared to the executive, and to those whom they consulted, as much against the laws of the land as to murder or rob, or combine to murder or rob, its own citizens; and as much to require punishment, if done within their limits, where they have a territorial jurisdiction, or on the high seas, where they have a personal jurisdiction, that is to say, one which reaches their own citizens only; this being an appropriate part of each_nation on an element where all have a common jurisdiction. So say our laws, as we understand them ourselves. To them the appeal is made-and whether we have construed them well or ill, the constitutional judges will decide. Till that decision shall be obtained, the government of the United States must pursue what they think right, with firmness, as is their duty. On the first attempt that was made, the President was desirous of involving in the censures of the law, as few as might be. Such of the individuals only therefore, as were citizens of the United States, were singled out for prosecution. But this second attempt being, after full knowledge of what had been done on the first, and indicating a disposition to go on in opposition to the laws, they are to take their course against all persons concerned, whether citizens or aliens; the latter, while within our jurisdiction, and enjoying the protection of the laws, being bound to obedience to them, and to avoid disturbances of our peace within, or acts which would commit it without, equally as citizens are. I have the honour to be, &c. THOMAS JEFFERSON.

The Citizen Genet, Minister Plenipotentiary of the Republick of France, to Mr. Jefferson, Secretary of State of the United States. Philadelphia, June 22, 1793, 2d year of the Republick.

SIR,-Discussions are short, when matters are taken upon their true principles. Let us explain ourselves as republicans. Let us not lower ourselves to the level of ancient politics by diplomatic subtleties. Let us be as frank in our overtures-in our declarations, as our two nations are in their affections; and by this plain and sincere conduct, arrive at the object by the shortest way.

All the reasonings, sir, contained in the letter, which you did me the honour to write to me the 17th of this month, are extremely ingenious; but I do not hesitate to tell you, that they rest on a basis which I cannot admit. You oppose to my com

plaints, to my just reclamations, upon the footing of right, the private or publick opinions of the President of the United States; and this Egis not appearing to you sufficient, you bring forward aphorisms of Vattel, to justify or excuse infractions committed on positive treaties. Sir, this conduct is not like ours. In arriving among you, I have, with candour, said that the French nation, cherishing the interests of the United States more than their own, occupied themselves but on their happiness, in the midst of surrounding dangers, and instead of pressing them to fulfil, towards them, all the obligations imposed on them by our treaties, by gratitude, and by provident policy; they have just granted new favours to their commerce, to partake with them the benefits of its navigation, opening to them all the ports in the two worlds; in a word, assimilating them to her own citizens. Such amicable and disinterested proceedings should render the federal government, sir, industrious in seeking at least all the means of serving us as far as circumstances would permit them; but instead of waiting till Congress had taken into consideration the important subjects which should already have occupied them, until they have determined whether the war of liberty, whether the fate of France and her colonies were indifferent objects for America, until they had decided whether it was the interest of the United States to profit, or not, of the situation in which French magnanimity places them, they have been forward, urged on by I know not what influence, to pursue another conduct. They have multiplied difficulties and embarrassments in my way. Our treaties have been unfavourably interpreted: Arbitrary orders have directed against us the action of the tribunals; indeed, my diplomatic reception excepted, I have met with nothing but disgust and obstacles in the negotiations I have been charged with.

It is not thus that the American people wish we should be treated. I cannot even suppose, and I wish to believe, that measures of this nature were not conceived in the heart of General Washington,-of that celebrated hero of liberty. I can attribute them only to extraneous impressions, over which time and truth will triumph. I request you therefore, sir, to lay be. fore this first magistrate of your Republick the two enclosed protests, which have been just transmitted to me by the consuls of the Republick of France at New York and Philadelphia. You will see therein that these officers complain, that French prizes, the jurisdiction of which belongs exclusively to the consular tribunals, have been seized in these two ports, by orders of the President. I expect from the equity of the federal government, sir, the immediate redress of these irregularities; and I venture to hope, also, that the President would be pleased to examine again the affair of the ship Republican, of New York, and consider whether (independent of the right which we have to fit out privateers) any of the expressions used by consul Hauterive,

to reclaim the giving up of the seizure made of that vessel, proves that she has been armed for this purpose. The citizen Hauterive has clearly shown, on the contrary, that she was armed by Frenchmen, at a time when the most religious of all duties prompted them to fly from all parts of the world to the succour of their country, and to fulfil towards her those duties to which the Americans would be equally bound, if we had not the desire to leave to their wisdom and their honour the umpirage of their conduct. It is incontestable, that the treaty of commerce (art. xx11) expressly authorizes our arming in the ports of the United States, and interdicts that privilege to every enemy nation. Besides this act forms but a part of our conventional compacts, and it is in them, collectively, that we ought to seek contracts of alliance and of commerce simultaneously made, if we wish to take their sense, and interpret faithfully the intentions of the people who cemented them, and of the men of genius who dictated them. If you cannot protect our commerce, and our colonies, which will, in future, contribute much more to your prosperity than to our own, at least do not arrest the civism of our own citizens, do not expose them to a certain loss, by obliging them to go out of your ports unarmed. Do not punish the brave individuals of your nation, who arrange themselves under our banner, knowing perfectly well, that no law of the United States gives to the government the sad power of arresting their zeal by acts of rigour. The Americans are free; they are not attached to the glebe like the slaves of Russia; they may change their situation when they please, and by accepting, at this moment, the succour of their arms in the habit of trampling on tyrants, we do not commit the plagiat of which you speak. The true robbery, the true crime, would be to enchain the courage of these good citizens, of these sincere friends to the best of causes.

I am ignorant, sir, of the constitutional judges to whom the federal government appear to have it in contemplation to refer the different questions of publick right, which have arisen between us; but it appears to me, that these judges can be looked upon only as counsellors, since no particular tribunal has the right or power to interpose between two nations, whose only arbiters, when they have a sincere desire to live fraternally and amicably together, must be, in the present state of human socie ties, good faith and reason.

Accept, sir, the expression of my esteem, and my respectful sentiments.

GENET.

TRANSLATION.

CONSULATE OF NEW YORK.

Protest of Citizen Hauterive, Consul of the Republick of France, at New York, against the process and seizure of the Catharine of Halifax.

CONSIDERING that tribunals are instituted to render justice between individuals, and not to judge of the differences that may arise between governments, and still less to decide on the political relations which exist between nation and nation; That their sphere is circumscribed within the territorial limits of the state to which they belong; That there cannot be any relation of dependence between the tribunals which therein belong to two different nations;

That the consular jurisdiction is an extension, and a first degree of jurisdiction of the tribunals of commerce and of admiralty, instituted in foreign countries by the nation to which the political conventions have given the right of consulate as well as the right of recurring to the publick force, to ensure the execution of the consular discussions;

That the limits of this jurisdiction depend only on the foreign government which has established it, and that this government may extend or contract it at pleasure, provided it does not attribute to it any action against the persons, the property, the police and the local jurisdiction;

That in attributing to these tribunals dependent upon it, that which belongs to another equally dependent upon it, a government does not go beyond the limits of this power;

That recently the French government hath given to the consulates of the Republick the jurisdiction of sea-prizes, and has thus completely constituted them courts of admiralty;

That by that it only displaces one of the branches of the judiciary power; That the geographical position of a legally established tribunal neither alters the force, nor extent, nor independence of its jurisdiction;

That all intervention direct or indirect, as to the French prizes, being formally interdicted the tribunals of the country, the admiralties of the two nations, however they may locally approach each other, are not the less separated from one another by the insurmountable barrier of political right;

That thus a French prize, remaining in a neutral port in virtue of treaties, is submitted to the consular admiralty in virtue of the right which nations have of organizing at pleasure their judicatures, is as much sheltered from the action of any other local tribunal, as if it were in a French road;

For all these reasons, we, Alexander Hauterive, consul of the Republick of France, considering that the New York district court has extended its jurisdiction to a French prize, the decision of which was pending in our tribunal :

That this intervention, prescribed by the treaties, not only tends to establish a clashing of jurisdiction between two tribunals, which cannot have communication together, but also to the annihilation of the consular tribunal, which is reduced to nothing as soon as the publick force, which the treaties have given it the right of demanding to support its judgments, is employed against it;

That if this errour of the judiciary power could be authorized by the government, we must suppose that the government has the right of interpreting, modifying or destroying the political compacts which unite the two nations, by the information and decision of the tribunals of one of these two nations;

We protest against the violation done to the rights of the nation we represent; we declare formally, that whatever may be the decisions of the tribunal, which has arrogated to itself the judgment of the prize Catharine of Halifax, to the injury of the consulate jurisdiction, the parties interested, who are amenable only to our tribunal, are not bound to conform to it. We declare this judgment to be null, and of no effect whatever; 1st, By the notoriety of the incompetency of the tribunal. 2d, Because it would be given in contempt of our protest. 3d, Because it would be formed on insufficient information, the prin cipal papers to elucidate the discussion being in our hands, never to go out of them. 4th, Because the French Republick being one of the parties, it would be necessary, in order to proceed regularly, that the judges should find in the American laws, that the French nation is amenable, in its political rights, to a private tribunal, and that they may be condemned by default.

We declare, in fine, that these rights shall remain entire, saving the requisition of damages and interest to the parties interested, and the demand of reparation for that of the two nations, who, in the diplomatick judgment, (the only competent arbiter between friendly nations) will be acknowledged injured in its rights.

Further we declare, that the judgment of the fact is still pending in the consular tribunal of the Republick at New York. New York, June 21, 1793, 2d year of the French Republick. Certified to be conformable to the original.

Protest of the Consul of the Republick of France against the seizure of the ship William.

CONSIDERING that no authority on earth has either the right or the power of interposing between the French nation and her enemies; That she alone is the arbiter and judge of the offensive acts which the support of her independence obliges her to commit against the despotick governments coalesced to replunge her into a state of servitude, from which, abandoned by her friends, and assailed by so many enemies, she alone has been