"To assist the judgment of the officers on this head, I transmit herewith a schedule of rules concerning sundry particulars which have been adopted by the President, as deductions from the laws of neutrality established and received among nations. Whatever shall be contrary to these rules will, of course, be to be notified as above mentioned.

"There are some points which, pursuant to our treaties, and the determination of the Executive, I ought to notice to you.

"If any vessel of the powers at war with France should bring or send within your district a prize made of the subjects, people, or property of France, it is immediately to be notified to the governor of the State, in order that measures may be taken, pursuant to the 17th article of the treaty with France, to oblige such vessel and her prize, or such prize when sent in without the capturing vessel, to depart.

"No privateer of any of the powers at war with France, coming within a district of the United States, can, by the 22d article of our treaty with France, enjoy any other privilege than that of purchasing such victuals as shall be necessary for her going to the next port of the prince or state from which she has her commission. If she should do anything besides this, it is immediately to be reported to the governor and the attorney of the district. You will observe by the rules transmitted, that the term privateer is understood not to extend to vessels armed, for merchandise and war, commonly called with us letters of marque, nor, of course, to vessels of war in the immediate service of the government of either of the powers at war.

แ "No armed vessel which has been or shall be originally fitted out in any port of the United States, by either of the parties at war, is henceforth to have asylum in any district of the United States. If any such armed vessel shall appear within your district she is immediately to be notified to the governor and to the attorney of the district, which is also to be done in respect to any prize that such armed vessel shall bring or send in. At foot is a list of such armed vessels of the above description as have hitherto come to the knowledge of the Executive.

"The purchasing within and exporting from the United States, by way of merchandise, articles commonly called contraband, being generally warlike instruments and military stores, is free to all the parties at war, and is not to be interfered with. If our own citizens undertake to carry them to any of the parties, they will be abandoned to the penalties which the laws of war authorize.

"You will be particularly careful to observe, and to notify as directed in other instances, the case of any citizen of the United States who shall be found in the service of either of the parties at war.

"In case any vessel shall be found in the act of contravening any of the rules or principles which are the ground of this instruction, she is to be refused a clearance until she shall have complied with what the governor shall have decided in reference to her. Care, however, is to be taken in this, not unnecessarily or unreasonably to embarrass trade or to vex any of the parties concerned.

"In order that contraventions may be the better ascertained, it is desired that the officer who shall first go on board any vessel arriving within your district shall make an accurate survey of her then condition as to military equipment, to be forthwith reported to you; and that prior to her clearance a like survey be made, that any transgression of the rules laid down may be ascertained.

"But, as the propriety of any such inspection of a vessel of war in the immediate survey of the government of a foreign nation is not without question in reference to the usage of nations, no attempt is to be made to inspect any such vessel till further orders on the point.

"The President desires me to signify to you his most particular expectation that the instructions contained in this letter will be executed with the greatest vigilance, care, activity, and impartiality. Omissions will tend to expose the government to serious imputations and suspicions, and proportionably to commit the good faith and peace of the country, objects of too much importance not to engage every proper exertion of your zeal.

“With consideration, I am, sir, &c.,

"ALEXANDER HAMILTON.”

"1. The original arming and equipping of vessels in the ports of the United States by any of the belligerent parties for military service, offensive or defensive, is deemed unlawful.

"2. Equipments of merchant vessels by either of the belligerent parties in the ports of the United States, purely for the accommodation of them as such, is deemed lawful. "3. Equipments in the ports of the United States of vessels of war in the immediate service of the government of any of the belligerent parties, which, if done to other vessels, would be of a doubtful nature, as being applicable either to commerce or war, are deemed lawful; except those which shall have made prize of the subjects, people, or property of France, coming with their prizes into the ports of the United States, pursuant to the 17th article of our treaty of amity and commerce with France.

"4. Equipments in the ports of the United States, by any of the parties at war with France, of vessels fitted for merchandise and war, whether with or without commissions, which are doubtful in their nature, as being applicable either to commerce or war, are deemed lawful, except those which shall have made prize, &c.

"5. Equipments of any of the vessels of France, in the ports of the United States, which are doubtful in their nature as being applicable to commerce or war, are deemed lawful.

"6. Equipments of every kind, in the ports of the United States, of privateers of the powers at war with France, are deemed unlawful.

"7. Equipments of vessels in the ports of the United States, which are of a nature solely adapted to war, are deemed unlawful; except those stranded or wrecked, as mentioned in the 18th article of our treaty with France, the 16th of our treaty with the United Netherlands, the 18th of our treaty with Prussia.

"8. Vessels of either of the parties not armed, or armed previous to their coming into the ports of the United States, which shall not have infringed any of the foregoing rules, may lawfully engage or enlist their own subjects or citizens, not being inhabitants of the United States, except privateers of the powers at war with France, and except those vessels which have made prizes, &c."

American State

be Papers, vol. i, page

On the 7th of August Mr. Jefferson wrote to M. Genet, stating that the President had decided that compensation or restitution should made in the case of vessels brought into United States ports as prizes 167. by privateers fitted out in such ports since the 5th of June, and consequently called on him to restore these prizes, as otherwise the government of France would be considered liable for the repayment of the compensation paid to the persons aggrieved. Mr. Jefferson adds, "that besides taking efficacious measures to prevent the future fitting out of privateers in the ports of the United States, they will not give asylum therein to any which shall have been at any time so fitted out, and will cause restitution of all such prizes as shall be hereafter brought within their ports by any of the said privateers.” Mr. Hammond was also informed of this decision of the President:

Mr. Jefferson to Mr. Hammond.

"PHILADELPHIA, August 7, 1793.

"SIR: A constant expectation of carrying into full effect the declaration of the President against permitting the armament of vesselt MS. inclosure in within the ports of the United States to cruise on nations with which Mr. Hammond's dispatch to Lord Grenthey are at peace, has hitherto prevented me giving you a final answer ville, Aug. 10, 1793.. on the subject of such vessels and their prizes. Measures to this effecs

are still taking, and particularly for excluding from all further asylum in our ports the vessels so armed, and for the restoration of the prizes the Lively Lass, the Prince William Henry, and the Jane of Dublin, taken by them; and I am authorized in the mean time to assure you that should the measures for restoration fail in their effect, the President considers it as incumbent upon the United States to make compensation for the vessels.

"I have, &c.,

"T. JEFFERSON.”

The affair of the Little Democrat, in which the government was thus Mr. Jefferson to "insulted and set at defiance by M. Genet," determined them on asking ted States minisMr. Morris, Unifor his recall; and the United States minister at Paris was accordingly ter at Paris, Auinstructed, on the 16th of August, to represent to the French govern- gust 16, 1793. ment that if M. Genet persevered in his proceedings the United States American State: Papers, vol. i,page government would "be forced even to suspend his functions before a successor could arrive to continue them."

167.

M. Genet to Mr..

M. Genet seems to have tried to test the neutrality of the United States government on every point. He maintained the right of the French government not only to issue commissions and to equip vessels, but also openly to man their privateers in American ports. Two seamen, named Henfield and Singletary, were arrested on board the Citizen Genet at Philadelphia for having enlisted in the French service. M. Genet remonstrated in his usual bombastic style, demanding their immediate release. This was refused, and Henfield brought to trial. The jury, however, Jefferson; June 1, acquitted him on the plea of his having been ignorant of having com- 1793. mitted an offense in taking service in a French privateer. M. Genet also engaged in an intrigue for the seizure of New Orleans by some malcontents in Kentucky. In short, he managed, during the few months Papers, vol.i, page he remained the representative of France, to damage the interests of his country in every conceivable way; while the temperate remonstrances of the English minister afforded a contrast to these exaggerated pretensions, and served to confirm the President in his policy of pages 517 and 518. neutrality and to influence the cabinet in favor of England.

American State

151.

Tucker, vol. i,

MS. inclosure in Certain prizes having been brought in by vessels fitted out after the Mr. Hammond's 5th of June, as well as those brought in by vessels fitted out before that dispatch to Lord date, of which restitution had already been refused, Mr. Hammond Grenville, of the 17th of September, wrote, on the 30th of August, to Mr. Jefferson requesting to be informed of the precise intentions of the government respecting the restoration of prizes.

1793.

Mr. Hammond says: "I understand that all captures made subsequently to the 5th of June, and antecedently to the 7th of August, by any vessel fitted out, armed, and equipped in the ports of the United States, are either to be restored to the captors, or a compensation for their full value is to be paid to their owners by the government of the United States, and that all prizes made by vessels of this description subsequently to the 7th of August are to be seized and immediately restored by the government of the United States; or if the restitution cannot be effected, a compensation for their full value is to be paid in the same manner as in the former case.

Mr. Jefferson replied, on the 5th of September:

"PHILADELPHIA, September 5, 1793.

"SIR: I am honored with yours of August 30. Mine of the 7th of that month assured you that measures were taken for excluding from all further asylum in our ports vessels armed in them to cruise on nations with which we are at peace, and for the restoration of the prizes the Lovely Lass, Prince William Henry, and the Jane of Dublin, and that should the measures for restitution fail in their effect, the President considered it as incumbent on the United States to make compensation for the vessels.

"We are bound by our treaties with three of the belligerent nations, by all the means in our power, to protect and defend their vessels and effects in our ports or waters, or on the seas near our shores, and to recover and restore the same to the right owners when taken from them. If all the means in our power are used, and fail in their effect, we are not bound by our treaties with those nations to make compensation.

Though we have no similar treaty with Great Britain, it was the opinion of the President that we should use toward that nation the same rule which, under this article, was to govern us with the other nations, and even to extend it to captures made on the high seas and brought into our ports, if done by vessels which had been armed within them.

"Having, for particular reasons, forbore to use all the means in our power for the restitution of the three vessels mentioned in my letter of August 7, the President thought it incumbent on the United States to make compensation for them; and though nothing was said in that letter of other vessels taken under like circumstances and brought in after the 5th of June, and before the date of that letter, yet, when the same forbearance had taken place, it was and is his opinion that compensation would be equally due.

"As to prizes made under the same circumstances and brought in after the date of that letter, the President determined that all the means in our power should be used for their restitution. If these fail, as we should not be bound by our treaties to make compensation to the other powers in the analogous case, he did not mean to give an opinion that it ought to be done to Great Britain. But still, if any cases shall arise subsequent to that date, the circumstances of which shall place them on similar ground with those before it, the President would think compensation equally incumbent on the United States.

"Instructions are given to the governors of the different States to use all the means in their power for restoring prizes of this last description found within their ports. Though they will, of course, take measures to be informed of them, and the general government has given them the aid of the custom-house officers for this purpose, yet you will be sensible of the importance of multiplying the channels of their information as far as shall depend on yourself or any person under your direction, in order that the governors may use the means in their power for making restitution. Without knowledge of the capture, they cannot restore it. It will always be best to give the notice to them directly; but any information which you shall be pleased to send to me also, at any time, shall be forwarded to them as quickly as distance will permit.

"Hence you will perceive, sir, that the President contemplates restitution or compensation in the cases before the 7th of August; and after that date, restitution, if it can be effected by any means in our power; and that it will be important that you should substantiate the fact that such prizes are in our ports or waters.

"Your list of the privateers illicitly armed in our ports is, I believe, correct. "With respect to losses by detention, waste, spoliation, sustained by vessels taken as before mentioned, between the dates of the 5th June and the 7th August, it is proposed as a provisional measure that the collector of the customs of the district, and the British consul, or any other person you please, shall appoint persons to establish the value of the vessel and cargo at the time of her capture and of her arrival in the port into which she is brought, according to their value in that port.

"If this shall be agreeable to you, and you will be pleased to signify it to me, with the names of the prizes understood to be of this description, instructions will be given accordingly to the collectors of the customs where the respective vessels are.

"I have, &c.,

"TH. JEFFERSON."

This letter was appended to the treaty of the 19th of November, 1794. The particular reasons referred to were the unwillingness of the Hertslett's State United States government to oppose the sailing of the French privateers Paper, vol. i, p. by force.

801.

The result of the publication of the rules of the 4th August was that Mr. Jefferson to the system of privateering was, generally speaking, suppressed, though Mr. Morris; Aucases seem to have occurred until the arrival of M. Genet's successor in gust 16, 1793. February, 1794, who disavowed his acts, and recalled the commissions Papers, vol. i, p. he had granted to privateers.

American State

167.

It must be remembered that the United States did not possess any navy at this time, the construction of a naval force not being carried out until 1794; so that even if the the government wished to stop a privateer, they could only do so by employing the militia to board her, unless she happened to be lying under the guns of a fort.

In October, M. Duplaine, the French vice-consul at Boston, having rescued by force a suspected vessel which had been seized by the marshal, the United States government withdrew his exequatur.

Congress met on the 3d December, and in his address the President spoke of the measures adopted for the preservation of neutrality, and the necessity for legislation on the subject, in the following terms:

"As soon as the war in Europe had embraced those powers with whom the United States have the most extensive relations, there was reason

21.

American State

to apprehend that our intercourse with them might be interrupted, and Papers, vol. i, p. our disposition for peace drawn into question by the suspicions too often entertained by belligerent nations."

*

*

*

*

* * *

"In this posture of affairs, both new and delicate, I resolved to adopt general rules which should conform to the treaties and assert the privileges of the United States." "Although I have not thought myself at liberty to forbid the sale of prizes permitted by our treaty of commerce with France to be brought into our ports, I have not refused to cause them to be restored when they were taken within the protection of our territory or by vessels commissioned or equipped in warlike form within the limits of the United States. It rests with the wisdom of Congress to correct, improve, or enforce this plan of procedure, and it will probably be found expedient to extend the legal code and the jurisdiction of the courts of the United States to many cases which, though dependent on principles already recognized, demand some further provisions.

*

*

*

*

"Where individuals shall, within the United States, array themselves in hostility against any of the powers at war, or enter upon military expeditions or enterprises within the jurisdiction of the United States, or usurp and exercise judicial authority within the United States, or where the penalties on violations of the law of nations may have been indistinctly marked or are inadequate, these offenses cannot receive too early and close an attention, and require prompt and decisive remedies." "In like manner, as several of the courts have doubted, under particular circumstances, their power to liberate the vessels of a nation at peace, and even of a citizen of the United States, although seized under a false color of being hostile property, and have denied their power to liberate certain captures within the protection of our territory, it would seem proper to regulate their jurisdiction in these points." Soon after the opening of the session Jefferson retired from the cabinet into private life, and did not take any active part in politics for the next three years. Washington was thus left free to carry out his policy and to establish relations with England on a more friendly footing. The early part of the session was occupied with discussions on the imposition of a protective duty on trade with nations not having commercial treaties with the United States. This measure was aimed at British trade, and was a consequence of the ill feeling that had been occasioned by the British orders in council of June and November, 1793, authorizing the seizure of United States merchant ships laden with corn for France, or found attempting to break the blockade.

Tucker, vol i, page 526.

The next measure introduced was for the construction of a navy, and was intended as a provision against the contingency of a war with England, although nominally adopted as a defense for American commerce against the Algerine pirates.

On the 27th of March, Mr. Dayton, of New Jersey, offered a resolution for sequestering all debts due to British subjects, as a fund to indemnify citizens of the United States for the unlawful depredations of British cruisers.

Before any vote was taken, Mr. Clarke, of New Jersey, proposed that all intercourse with Great Britain should be prohibited until satisfaction was obtained.

431.

While these subjects were pending, the President, on the 4th of April, American State communicated to Congress a dispatch from Mr. Pinckney, the United Papers, vol. i, page States minister in London, forwarding a copy of an order in council of the 8th of January, modifying the instructions to cruisers contained in the previous orders. Tucker, vol. i,

page 544.

This caused the popular feeling to incline in favor of England, and the republican or anti-federal party abandoned their scheme of commercial retaliation, and assented to a proposition made by the federalists that a special mission should be sent to England to settle the various questions in dispute. Mr. Jay, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, a descendant of one of ington, par De the families which took refuge in England at the time of the revocation of the edict of Nantes, a federalist, and friend of the English cause, was selected for the post of envoy.

Vie de Wash

Witt.

*

He was nominated on the 16th of April, but did not arrive in London until the 15th of June.

The inadequacy of the existing law to deal with even the grossest breach of the neutrality proclamation had been shown a short time previously by the grand jury of Philadelphia having refused to find a true bill against the French vice-consul, Duplaine, (the vice-consul whose exequatur had been withdrawn in October, 1793,) for the forcible rescue of the Greyhound.

It was apparent that no time must be lost in amending the law on this subject, and in accordance with the recommendation in the President's message a bill was now introduced for the purpose.

page 546.

Tucker, vol. i, The bill was vigorously oposed by the republicans, and "would have been defeated in the Senate, if repeated motions made with that view had not been lost by the vote of the Vice-President.

"The republican party had a majority in the Senate of one member, but the seat of Mr. Galatin, from Pennsylvania, one of that majority, having been contested and set aside on the ground that he had not been a citizen so long as the Constitution required, the two parties were exactly balanced."

This act, which forms the basis of the United States neutrality laws, United States contains ten clauses, and is entitled "An act in addition to the act for Statutes at Large; the punishment of certain crimes against the United States." (The third Congress, sess. 1, ch. 50, act thus referred to is the act of April 30, 1790, providing for the punJune 5, 1794. Brit-ishment of high treason and other offenses against the state or indiish State Papers, viduals.) As this act is substantially the same as the act of 1818, and (Hertslett's,) vol. as in referring to that act attention will be called to the points in iv, page 339. which they differ, it will be sufficient to give here a short abstract of

the different articles:

SECTION 1. Any citizen of the United States, within the jurisdiction of the same, accepting or exercising a commission to serve a foreign prince or state by sea or land, liable to a fine of $2,000 or imprisonment for not more than three years.

SEC. 2. Any person within the jurisdiction of the United States entering himself or enlisting others, or hiring or retaining another person to enlist for the service of the army or navy of any foreign prince or state, liable to a fine of $1,000 or three years' imprisonment. This not to apply to foreigners transiently within the United States. Any person so enlisted giving information within thirty days to be indemnified from punishment.

SEC. 3. Any person within any of the ports, harbors, bays, rivers, or other waters of the United States, fitting out and arming, or attempting to fit out and arm, or procuring to be fitted out and armed, or attempting to, &c., or knowingly concerned in the furnishing, &c., of any ship or vessel, with intent that such ship or vessel shall be employed in the service of any foreign state, to cruise or commit hostilities against the subjects, citizens, or property of another state with which the United States shall be at peace, or commissioning any such vessel, to be liable to a fine of $5,000 or three years' imprisonment, and the vessel, tackle, &c., to be forfeited, one-half to the informer and the other half to the United States.

SEC. 4. Any person augmenting or procuring to be augmented the force of any ship of war in the service of a state at war with a state with which the United States are at peace, by adding to the number or size of the guns of such vessel, or by the addition thereto of any equipment solely applicable to war, to be liable to a fine of $1,000 or imprisonment for one year.

SEC. 5. Any person within the jurisdiction of the United States setting on foot or preparing any military enterprise against any state with which the United States are at peace, to be liable to a fine of $3,000 or one year's imprisonment.

* See the correspondence respecting Mr. Jay's mission, American State Papers, vol. i, pages 470 to 525. (There is an interesting report on the law of prize, furnished to Mr. Jay by Sir Walter Scott and Dr. Nicholl, which deserves attention, page 494.)