peace and neutrality were still obligatory," also a paragraph of 4. lines that a minister from France was hourly expected when the proclamation issued. There was one here at the time, the other did not arrive in 6. weeks. To have waited that time should have given full course to the evil. I went through Franklin with enchantment; & what peculiarly pleased me was that there was not a sentence from which it could be conjectured whether it came from N. S, E. or west. At last a whole page of Virginia flashed on me. It was in the section on the state of parties, and was an apology for the continuance of slavery among us. However this circumstance may be justly palliated, it had nothing to do with the state of parties, with the bank, encumbered a good cause with a questionable argument; many readers who would have gone heart & hand with the author so far would have flown off in a tangent from that paragraph. I stuck it out. Justify this if you please to those concerned, and if it cannot be done, say so, & it may still be re-established. I mentioned to you in my last that a Fr. Consul at Boston had rescued a vessel out of the hands of a Marshal by military force. Genet has at New York forbidden a marshal to arrest a vessel, and given orders to the French squadron to protect her by force. Was there ever an instance before of a diplomatic man overawing & obstructing the course of the law in a country by an armed force? The yellow fever increases. The week before last about 3. a day died. This last week about 11. a day have died; consequently, from known data about 33. a day are taken, and there are about 330. patients under it. They are much scattered through the town, and it is the opinion of the physicians that there is no possibility of stopping it. They agree that it is a nondescript disease, and no two agree in any one part of their process of cure. The Presidt goes off the day after tomorrow, as he had always intended. Knox then takes flight. Hamilton is ill of the fever, as is said. He had two physicians out at his house the night before last. His family think him in danger, & he puts himself so by his excessive alarm. He had been miserable several days before from a firm persuasion he should catch it. A man as timid as he is on the water, as timid on horseback, as timid in sickness, would be a phænomenon if his courage of which he has the reputation in military occasions were genuine. His friends, who have not seen him, suspect it is only an autumnal fever he has. I would really go away, because I think there is rational danger, but that I had before announced that I should not go till the beginning of October, & I do not like to exhibit the appearance of panic. Besides that I think there might serious ills proceed from there being not a single member of the administration in place. Poor Hutcheson dined with me on Friday was sennight, was taken that night on his return home, & died the day before yesterday. It is difficult to say whether the republican interest has suffered more by his death or Genet's extravagance. I sometimes cannot help seriously believing the latter to be a Dumourier, endeavouring to draw us into the war against France as Dumourier, while a minister, drew on her the war of the empire.-The Indians have refused to meet our commissioners unless they would make the Ohio a boundary by preliminary condn. Consequently they are on their return & we may suppose Wayne in movement. Since my last which was of the 1st your's of the 22d Aug. & 2d. Sep. are received. Adieu. TO THE FRENCH MINISTER. J. MSS. PHILADELPHIA, September 9, 1793. SIR,-In my letter of June 25th, on the subject of the ship William, and generally of vessels suggested to be taken within the limits of the protection of the United States, by the armed vessels of your nation, I undertook to assure you, it would be more agreeable to the President, that such vessels should be detained, under the orders of yourself, or the consuls of France, than by a military guard, until the Government of the United States should be able to inquire into and decide on the fact. In two separate letters, of the 29th of the same month, I had the honor to inform you of the claims, lodged with the Executive, for the same ship William and the brig Fanny; to enclose you the evidence on which they were founded, and to desire that, if you found it just, you would order the vessels to be delivered to the owners; or if overweighed, in your judgment, by any contradictory evidence which you might have or acquire, you would do me the favor to communicate that evidence, and that the consuls of France might retain the vessels in their custody, in the meantime, until the Executive of the United States should consider and decide finally on the subject. When that mode of proceeding was consented to for your satis faction, it was by no means imagined it would have occasioned such delays of justice to the individuals interested. The President is still without information, either that the vessels are restored, or that you have any evidence to offer as to the place of capture. I am, therefore, sir, to repeat the request of early information on the subject, in order, that, if any injury has been done those interested, it may be no longer aggravated by delay. The intention of the letter of June 25th having been to permit such vessels to remain in the custody of the consuls, instead of that of a military guard, (which in the case of the ship William, appeared to have been disagreeable to you) the indulgence was of course, to be understood as going only to cases where the Executive might take or keep possession with a military guard, and not to interfere with the authority of the courts of justice, in any case wherein they should undertake to act. My letter of June 29th, accordingly, in the same case of the ship William, informed you, that no power in this country could take a vessel out of the custody of the courts, and that it was only because they decided not to take cognizance of that case, that it resulted to the Executive to interfere in it. Consequently, this alone put it in their power to leave the vessel in the hands of the consul. The courts of justice exercise the sovereignty of this country, in judiciary matters, are supreme in these, and liable neither to control nor opposition from any other branch of the government. We learn, however, from the enclosed paper, that the consul of New York, in the first instance, and yourself in a subsequent one, forbade an officer of justice to serve the process with which he was charged from his court, on the British brig William Tell, taken by a French armed vessel, within a mile of our shores, as has been deposed on oath and brought into New York, and that you had even given orders to the French squadron there to protect the vessel against any person who should attempt to take her from their custody. If this opposition were founded, as is there suggested, on the indulgence of the letters before cited, it was extending that to a case not within their purview; and even had it been precisely the case to which they were to be applied, is it possible to imagine you might assert it, within the body of the country, by force of arms. I forbear to make the observations which such a measure must suggest, and cannot but believe, that a moment's reflection will evince to you the depth of the error committed in this opposition to an officer of justice, and in the means proposed to be resorted to in support of it. I am therefore charged to declare to you expressly, that the President expects and requires, that the officer of justice be not obstructed, in freely and peaceably serving the process of his court; and that, in the mean time, the vessel and her cargo be not suffered to depart, till the judiciary, if it will undertake it, or himself, if not, shall decide whether the seizure has been within the limits of our protection. TO THE BRITISH MINISTER.1 (GEORGE HAMMOND.) J. MSS. PHILADELPHIA September 9, 1793. SIR, I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your two memorials, of the fourth and sixth instant, which have been duly laid before the President of the United States. You cannot be uninformed of the circumstances which have occasioned the French squadron, now in New York, to seek asylum in the ports of the United States. Driven from those where they were on duty, by the superiority of the adverse party, in the civil war which has so unhappily afflicted the colonies of France, filled with the wretched fugitives, from the same scenes of distress and desolation, without water or provisions for the shortest voyage, their vessels scarcely in a condition to keep the sea at all, they were forced to seek the nearest ports in which they could be received, and supplied with necessaries. That they have ever been out again to cruise, is a fact we have never heard, and which we believe to be impossible, from the information received of their wants, and other impediments to active service. This case has been noted specially, to show that no inconvenience 1 A letter of the same tenor, but omitting the last paragraph, was sent to the Dutch Minister. |