TO THE FRENCH MINISTER.! J. MSS. PHILADELPHIA April 30, 1793. SIR,-Your letter of the 13th instant, asking monies to answer the expenses and Salaries of the Consular Offices of France, has been duly laid before the President, and his directions thereon taken. I have, in consequence, to observe to you that before the new Government of France had time to attend to things on this side A first draft of this paper was as follows: **Substance of the Answer proposed to the Letter of the French Minister, of "Before the new government of France had time to attend to the things on this side of the Atlantic, and to provide a deposit of money for their purposes here, there was a necessity that we, as their friends and debtors, should keep their affairs from suffering, by furnishing money for urgent purposes. This obliged us to take on ourselves to judge of the purpose, because, on the soundness of that, we were to depend for our justification; hence we furnished moneys for their colonies and their agents here-justified, in our own opinion, by the importance and necessity of the case. But that necessity is now at an end. The government has established a deposit of money in the hands of their minister here. We have nothing now to do but furnish the money, for which the order is our direction. We are no longer to look into the purposes to which it is to be applied. Their minister is to be judge of these, and to pay the money to whom and for what he pleases. "If it be urged that they have appropriated all the money we are advancing to another object; that he is not authorized to divert any of it to any other purpose, and therefore needs a further sum; it may be answered, that it will not lessen the stretch of authority to add an unauthorized payment by us, to an unauthorized application by him; and that it seems fitter that he should exercise a discretion over their appropriations, standing as he does in a place of confidence, authority, and responsibility, than we who are strangers and unamenable to them. Private reasons of weight, which need not be expressed to the minister, that these applications make us, in some sort, a board of auditors for French accounts, and subject our payments to question. That it is known to us, that the present minister, not having the confidence of his government, is replaced by another, and consequently the authority of his application is lessened. That it is rather probable the whole establishment of their consuls here will be suppressed, as useless and expensive to them, and rather vexatious to us." the Atlantic, and to provide a deposit of money for their purposes here, there appeared a degree of necessity that we, as the friends and debtors of the Nation, should keep their affairs from suffering, by furnishing money for urgent purposes. This obliged us to take on ourselves to judge of the purpose, because on the soundness of that we were to depend for our justification. Hence we furnished monies for their Colonies and their Agents here, without express authority, judging from the importance and necessity of the case, that they would approve of our interference. But this kind of necessity is now at an end: the government has established a deposit of money in the hands of their minister here, and we have nothing now to do, but to furnish the money, which we are in the course of doing, without looking into the purposes to which it is to be applied. Their minister is to be the judge of these, and to pay it to whom, and for what he pleases. If it be urged that they have appropriated all the money we are furnishing to other objects, that you are not authorized to divert any of it to any other purpose, and therefore that you need a further sum; it may be answered that it will not lessen the stretch of authority to add an unauthorized payment by us to an unauthorized application by you, and that it seems fitter that their minister should exercise a discretion over their appropriations, standing, as he does, in a place of confidence, authority, and responsibility, than we who are strangers, and unamenable to them. It is a respect we owe to their authority to leave to those acting under that, the transaction of their affairs, without an intermeddling on our part which might justly appear officious. In this point of light I hope you will view our conduct, and that the Consular Officers will be sensible that in referring them to your care, under which the national authority has placed them, we do but conform ourselves to that authority. I have the honor to be with sentiments of great respect and esteem, Sir Your most obedient, and most humble Servant. TO THE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY.1 (ALEXANDER HAMILTON.) PHILADELPHIA May 1, 1793. SIR,-When you mentioned to me yesterday that M. de Ternant proposed to apply for a sum of money, & founded himself on a letter of mine which gave him reason to expect it, I thought I could not have written such a letter, because I did not recollect it, & because it was out of the plan which you know had been adopted that when we furnished one sum of money we should avoid promising another. I have now most carefully examined all my letters to M. de Ternant, as far back as Mar. 7, 1792, the date of the first on the subject of furnishing money, & can assure you there is not a word, in one of them, which can be construed into a promise, express or implied, relative to the present subject, or which can have committed the government in the smallest degree to a departure from the rules it has laid down. I am equally confident that I have never said a word which could do it. Upon the ground therefore of any such commitment by me, the proposition will not be supported. With respect to these applications in general, they were of course to pass through me: but I have considered them as depending too much on the arrangements of your department to permit myself to take & be tenacious of any particular ground, other than that whatever rule we adopt, it be plain & persevered in uniformly in all cases where the material circumstances are the same, so that we never refuse to one what has been done for another. It is, & ever has been my opinion & wish that we should gratify the diplomatic gentlemen in every way in which we can do it, without too great inconvenience or commitment of our own government. I think it our interest to do so; and am under this impression in the present case so much that I should readily concur, if it be the pleasure of the President, in reconsidering the rule adopted on a late occasion, & substituting any other consistent with our public duties, more adapted to the gratification of the diplomatic gentlemen, & uniformly to be applied where the material circumstances shall be the same; for it would reverse our 1 See Hamilton's Works of Hamilton, IV, 391. aim were we to put ourselves in the case of disobliging one by refusing what we have done to gratify another. In these sentiments, I will hand to the President any application which M. de Ternant shall think proper to communicate to me in writing. I have the honor to be with great respect, Sir, Your most obed't humble serv't. TO THE BRITISH MINISTER. (GEORGE HAMMOND.) J. MSS. PHILADELPHIA, May 3, 1793. SIR, I received yesterday the representation and requisition which you were pleased to make on the capture of the British ship Grange by the French frigate l'Embuscade within the bay of Delaware, and immediately laid it before the President. The U. S. being at peace with both parties, will certainly not see with indifference it's territory or jurisdiction violated by either, and will proceed immediately to enquire into the facts and to do what these shall shew ought to be done with exact impartiality. The recollection of evidence may require some small time, but measures are taken to keep things in the meantime in their present state. TO THE FRENCH MINISTER. J. MSS. PHILADELPHIA May 3. 1793. SIR, The Minister Plenipotentiary of his Britannic Majesty has represented to the government of the U. S. that on the 25th of April last the British ship Grange, while lying at anchor in the bay of Delaware, within the territory & jurisdiction of the U. S., was taken possession of by the Embuscade, a frigate of the French republic, has been brought to this port where she is now detained as prize & the crew as prisoners, and has made a requisition in form for a restoration of the vessel & liberation of the crew. I have the honor to furnish you with copies of the evidence given in by the British minister, and to observe that the U. S. being at peace with all parties cannot see with indifference it's territory or jurisdiction violated by either; that the government will therefore proceed to enquire into the facts, and for that purpose will receive with pleasure & consider with impartiality any evidence you will be pleased to have them furnished with on the subject: and the President hopes that you will take effectual measures for detaining here the vessel taken, her crew & cargo, to abide the decision which will be made thereon, & which is desired to be without delay. TO JAMES MADISON. J. MSS. May 5. 93. No letter from you since that of Apr. 12.—I received one from Mr. Pinckney yesterday informing me he expected to send me by the next ship a model of the Threshing mill. He had been to see one work, which with 2. horses got out 8. bushels of wheat an hour. But he was assured that the mill from which my model was taken gets out 8 quarters (i. e. 64 bushels) of oats an hour with 4. horses. I have seen Dr. Logan. Your ploughs will be done in a week & shall be attended to.--Seal & forward Monroe's letter after reading it. Adieu. Yours affectly. P. S.-I inclose a Boston paper as a proof of what I mention to Monroe of the spirit which is rising. The old tories have their names now raked up again; & I believe if the author of Plain truth' was now to be charged with that pamphlet, this put along side of his present Anglomany would decide the voice of the yeomanry of the country on his subject. |