used a language susceptible of no possible doubt on this point. But, proceeding to the proposal itself, it is to be kept in mind that the conditions forming its basis, are the very conditions for the deviating from which Mr. Erskine's adjustment was disavowed. Mr. Jackson, if not on others, is on this point explicit." I now add," says he, "that the deviation consisted in not recording in the official document signed here the abrogation of the President's proclamation of the 2d July, 1807, as well as the two reserves specified in the paper of memoranda enclosed in my official letter to you of the 27th ult." Considering then the conditions in the proposal as an ultimatum, in what light are we compelled to view such an attempt to repair the outrage committed on the frigate Chesapeake, and to heal the disappointment produced by a disavowal of a previous equitable reparation. It is impossible on such an occasion not to recall the circumstances which constituted the character of the outrage, to which such an ultimatum is now applied. A national ship, proceeding on an important service, was watched by a superior naval force, enjoying at the time the hos pitality of our ports, was followed, and scarcely out of our waters when she was, after an insulting summons, attacked in a hostile manner; the ship so injured as to require expensive repairs, the expedition frustrated, a number of the crew killed and wounded, several carried into captivity, and one of them put to death under a military sentence. The three seamen, though American citizens, and therefore on every supposition detained as wrongfully, as the ship would have been detained, have notwithstanding now remained in captivity between two and three years; and it may be added, after it has long ceased to be denied that they are American citizens. Under these circumstances we are called upon to ransom the captives; 1st. By acknowledging that a precautionary proclamation, justified by events preceding the outrage, by the outrage itself, and by what immediately followed it, was unjustifiable, and that a repeal of it was properly a condition precedent to a reparation for the outrage. And this requisition is repeated too, after such an acknowledgment had been uniformly asserted by this government to be utterly inadmissible, and what is particularly remarkable, at a time when the proclamation, as is well understood, was no longer in force. The occasion obviously invited a silent assumption of the existing fact, and this would have excluded the difficulty heretofore found to be insuperable. 2d. By throwing into complete oblivion the conduct of the officer answerable for the murderous transaction, with a knowledge too on our part, that instead of being punished or even brought to trial, he has been honoured by his government with a new and more important command. 3. By admitting a right on the part of Great Britain to claim a discharge from our service of deserters generally, and particularly of her natural born subjects, without excepting such as had been naturalized in due form under the laws of the United States. It has not been explained, whether it was meant, as the universality of the term "deserters" would import, to inelude American citizens, who might have left the British service. But what possible consideration could have induced the British government to expect, that the United States could admit a principle that would deprive our naturalized citizens of the legal privileges, which they hold in common with their native fellow citizens. The British government, less than any other, ought to have made such a proposition, because it not only, like others, naturalizes aliens, but, in relation to the United States, has even refused to discharge from the British service native citizens of the United States, involuntarily detained. If an American seaman has resided in Great Britain, or has married therein, or has accepted a bounty in her naval service, his discharge therefrom, on the regular application to the British government, has been invariably refused by its board of admiralty. This I state on the authority of the official reports made to this department. It is therefore truly astonishing, that, with a knowledge of these facts, such a pretension should have been advanced at all, but above all, that it should have been made a sine qua non, to an act of plain justice already so long delayed. This is the more to be regretted as the omen does not favour the belief, we would willingly cherish, that no predetermination exists in the councils of his Britannick majesty irreconcileable to an amicable arrangement of an affair which, affecting so deeply the honour of the United States, must precede a general regulation of the mutual interests of the two countries. After the correspondence with Mr. Jackson was terminated, two notes, of which copies are herewith sent to you, were presented to me, in the name and by the hand of Mr. Oakley, the British secretary of legation. The first requested a document, having the effect of a special passport or safeguard to Mr. Jackson and his family, during their stay in the United States. As the laws of this country allow an unobstructed passage through every part of it, and with the law of nations equally in force, protect publick ministers and their families in all their privileges, such an application was regarded as somewhat singular. There was no hesitation, however, in furnishing a certificate of his publick character, and to be used in any mode he might choose. But what surprised most was, the reasons assigned for the application. The insult he alluded to was then for the first time brought to the knowledge of this government. It had, indeed, been among the ru mours of the day, that some unbecoming scene had taken place at Norfolk or Hampton, between some officers belonging to the Africaine and some of the inhabitants, and that it originated in the indiscretion of the former. No attention having been called for, and no inquiry made, the truth of the case is unknown. But it was never supposed that Mr. Jackson himself, who was on board the frigate, had been personally insulted; nor is it yet perceived in what way he considers it as having happened. It is needless to remark, that any representation on the subject would have instantly received every proper attention. Another ground on which a protection was asked for, is the supposed tendency of the language of our newspapers to excite popular violence on Mr. Jackson's person. Had he been longer and better acquainted with the habits and spirit of the American people, he would probably never have entertained an apprehension of that sort. If he meant to animadvert on the free language of the newspapers, he might justly be reminded that our laws, as those of his own country, set bounds to that freedom; that the freedom of British prints, however great with respect to publick characters of the United States, has never been a topick of complaint, and that supposing the latitude of the American press to exceed that of Great Britain, the difference is infinitely less in this respect between the two, than between the British press and that of the other nations of Europe. The second note seems to be essentially intended as a justification of the conduct of Mr. Jackson, in that part of his correspondence which had given umbrage. If he intended it as a conciliatory advance, he ought not to have preceded it by a demand of passports, nor by the spirit or the manner in which that demand was made. He ought in fact, if such was his object, to have substituted an explanation in the place of his reply to my premonitory letter. But whether he had one or other, or both of these objects. in view, it was necessary for him to have done more than is attempted in this paper. It was never objected to him, that he had stated it as a fact, that the three propositions in question had been submitted to me by Mr. Erskine, nor that he stated it, as made known to him by the instructions of Mr. Canning; that the instruction to Mr. Erskine, containing those three conditions, was the only one from which his authority was derived to conclude an arrangement on the matter to which it related. The objection was, that a knowledge of this restriction of the authority of Mr. Erskine was imputed to this government, and the repetition of the imputation even after it had been peremptorily disclaimed. This was so gross an attack on the honour and veracity of this government as to forbid all further communications from him. Care was nevertheless taken, at the same time, to leave the door open for such as might be made through any other channel, however little the probability that any satisfactory communications would be received through any channel here. To the other enclosures I add a printed copy of a paper purporting to be a circular letter from Mr. Jackson to the British consuls in the United States. The paper speaks for itself. As its contents entirely correspond with the paper last referred to, as they were unnecessary for the ostensible object of the letter, which was to make known Mr. Jackson's change of residence, and as the paper was at once put into publick circulation, it can only be regarded as a virtual address to the American people of a representation previously addressed to their government; a pro cedure which cannot fail to be seen in its true light by his sovereign. The observations, to which so much extent has been given in this letter, with those contained in the correspondence with Mr. Jackson will make you fully acquainted with the conduct and the character he has developed; with the necessity of the step taken in refusing further communications with him, and with the grounds on which the President instructs you to request that he may be immediately recalled. You are particularly instructed, at the same time, in making those communications, to do it in a manner that will leave no doubt of the undiminished desire of the United States to unite in all the means the best calculated to establish the relations of the two countries on the solid foundation of justice, of friendship, and of mutual interest. I have the honour to be, &c. R. SMITH. General Armstrong to Mr. Smith, Secretary of State. Paris, Sept. 4, 1809. SIR,-The letter of which I send you a copy, was received during my absence, and detained in Paris till my return. The note promised in it has not yet been received. Mr. Warden informs me, that the council of prizes have been ordered to suspend their proceedings with regard to our vessels. I have the honour to be, &c. The Hon. Robert Smith, JOHN ARMSTRONG. TRANSLATION. Count Champagny to General Armstrong. Vienna, August 8, 1809. SIR,-You have desired that one of the American vessels, which are in the ports of France, might be authorized to depart for the United States with your despatches. I have taken the orders of his majesty on the subject of this |