Relations with Great Britain. against any concert with the blockaded for sur-States, inasmuch as it will be difficult to enforce reptitious entries, which might be attempted by the prohibition, whether we regard the embarcanearer adventurers; and since in the case of blockades, by a force actually present, a preliminary notice may be required without impairing their efficacy, as might be the case with blockades, such as the preceding article guards against. The only difference between the articles as standing in the different columns, consists in the preamble to that which is to be admitted, if the proposition of the other should not succeed. The article is preferable without the recital of any reason particular to the United States, because as a naked stipulation, it strengthens instead of weakening a general principle friendly to neutral and pacific nations. tion of such persons in British ports, or their landing on the American shores; and inasmuch as the inefficacy of regulations for such purposes, though made with due sincerity and care, may become a source of secret jealousy and dissatisfaction, if not of controversy and reproach. The article is copied from that in the arrangement (of which you have a copy) discussed and brought near to a conclusion between Mr. King and the British Ministry, and you are authorized to accede to it, on the supposition that it may again be insisted on. It is to be recollected, however, that the article was then understood to be the only price given for relinquishing the impressment of American seamen. The other offers, now substituted, will justify you in pressing the omission of the original one. ON ARTICLE XII. The law of nations does not exact of neutral Powers the prohibition specified in this article. On the other hand, it does not restrain them from prohibiting a trade which appears on the face of the official papers proceeding from the custom-house to be intended to violate the law of nations, and from which legiti mate considerations of prudence may also dissuade a Government. All that can be reasonably expected by belligerent from neutral Powers, is, that their regulations on this subject be impartial, and that their stipulations relative to it, when made in time of war, at least, should not preclude an impartiality. ON ARTICLES VIII, IX, and X. These are articles which are known to have been long wished and contemplated on the part of Great Britain, and together with the justice and in many views the expediency to Great Britain herself of the articles desired on our part, may induce her to accede to the whole. The articles are in substance the same with a project offered to the American Administration in the year 1800, by Mr. Liston, who appears to have borrowed it from corresponding stipulations in the convention between the United States and France in the year The project was at that time dropped, owing, perhaps, in part to the change in the head of the Department of State, between whom and Mr. Liston it had been discussed, and principally to the difficulty of combining with it proper stipulations against British impressments on the high seas. Without It is not certain what degree of value Great Britsuch an equivalent, the project had little to re-ain may put on this article, connected as it essencommend it to the United States. Considered by tially is with the article which limits the list of conitself, it was, too, the less admissible, as one of its traband. It will at least mitigate her objection to articles, under some obscurity of expression, was such a limitation. With the range given to conthought to favor the British pretension to impress traband by her construction of the law of nations, British seamen from American vessels on the even as acquiesced in by the United States, a high seas. stipulation of this sort would be utterly inadmissible. A copy of this document is enclosed, as it may be not without use in showing the ideas of the British Government at that time, so far at least as its Minister here was an organ of them. The terms in which these articles are to be proposed, differ but slightly from those in which they may be admitted. In the former the delivery of deserters is confined to soldiers and seamen, without requiring a delivery of officers, whose desertion will not be from the service of their country, but on account of offences for which it might sometimes be more agreeable to the United States to be unbound to give them up for trial and punishment. At the same time this consideration ought not to be a bar to an arrangement which, in its general character, will be so important to the interests of the United States. ON ARTICLE XI. This is a stipulation which is not to be yielded but in the event of its being made an indispensable condition. It cannot be essential for the object of it, whilst the British Government is left free to take the precautions allowable within its own jurisdiction for preventing the clandestine departure of its seamen or its soldiers in neutral vessels. And it is very ineligible to the United The last article, in making this city the place for exchanging the ratifications, consults expedition in putting the treaty into operation, since the British ratification can be forwarded at the same time with the instrument itself. And it is otherwise reasonable, that as the negotiation and formation of the treaty will have taken place at the seat of the British Government, the concluding formality shall be at that of the Government of the United States. This In addition to these articles, which, with the observations thereon, I am charged by the President to communicate to you as his instructions, he leaves you at liberty to insert any others which may do no more than place British armed vessels with their prizes on an equality, within our ports and jurisdiction, with those of France. would only stipulate what would probably be done by gratuitous regulations there, and as it would no doubt be acceptable to Great Britain, it may not only aid in reconciling her to the principal objects desired by the United States, but may induce her to concur in the further insertion of articles corresponding with those in the convention of 1800 Relations with Great Britain. with France, which regulate more precisely and more effectually the treatment of vessels of the neutral party on the high seas. The occasion will be proper, also, for calling the attention of the British Government to the reasonableness of permitting American Consuls to reside in every part of her dominions where and so long as she permits our citizens to trade. It is not denied that she has a natural right to refuse such a residence, and that she is free, by her treaty with us, to refuse it in other than her European dominions. But the exception authorized with respect to the residence of Consuls elsewhere having reference to the refusal of our trade elsewhere, the refusal of the one ought manifestly to cease with the refusal of the other. When our vessels and citizens are allowed to trade to ports in the West Indies, there is the same reason for a contemporary admission of Consuls to take care of it, as there is for their admission in ports where the trade is permanently allowed. There is the just expectation of your success on this point, as some official patronage is due to the rights of our citizens in the prize courts established in the West India Islands. Should the British Government be unwilling to enter into a stipulated provision, you may perhaps obtain an order to the Governors for that purpose. Or if Consuls be objected to altogether, it is desirable that agents may be admitted, if nowhere else, at least in the islands where the Vice Admiralty Courts are established. It has been intimated that the articles, as standing in the different columns, are to be considered, the one as the offer to be made, the other as the ultimatum to be required. This is, however, not to be taken too strictly; it being impossible to foresee the turns and the combinations which may present themselves in the course of the negotiation. The essential objects for the United States are the suppression of impressments, and the definition of blockades. Next to these in importance are the reduction of the list of contraband, and the enlargement of our neutral trade with hostile colonies. Whilst you keep in view, therefore, those objects, the two last as highly important, and the two first as absolutely indispensable, your discretion, in which the President places great confidence, must guide you in all that relates to the inferior ones. With sentiments of great respect and esteem I remain, sir, your most obedient servant, JAMES MADISON. Mr. Madison to Mr. Monroe. DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Feb. 14, 1804. SIR: You will herewith receive the ratification, by the President and Senate, of the convention with the British Government, signed on the 12th of May, 1803, with an exception of the fifth article. Should the British Government accede to this change in the instrument, you will proceed to an exchange of ratifications, and transmit the one received without delay, in order that the proper steps may be taken for carrying the con vention into effect. As the same considerations, which led to the arrangements settled by it, urge a prompt execution of them, it may be expected that the steps depending on that Government will be hastened. As far as your exhortations may be requisite, you will of course apply them. The objection to the fifth article appears to have arisen from the posteriority of the signature and ratification of this convention to those of the last convention with France, ceding Louisiana to the United States, and from a presumption that the line to be run in pursuance of the fifth article might thence be found, or alleged, to abridge the northern extent of that acquisition. It may reasonably be expected that the British Government will make no difficulty in concurring in this alteration; because, First. It would be unreasonable that any advantage against the United States should be constructively authorized by the posteriority of the dates in question; the instructions given to enter into convention, and the understanding of the parties at the time of signing it, having no reference whatever to any territorial rights of the United States acquired by the previous convention with France, but referring merely to the territorial rights as understood at the date of the instructions for, and signature of, the British convention. The copy of a letter from Mr. King, hereto annexed, is precise and conclusive on this subject. Secondly. If the article be expunged, the north boundary of Louisiana will, as is reasonable, remain the same in the hands of the United States as it was in the hands of France, and may be adjusted and established according to the principles and authorities which would in that case have been applicable. Thirdly. There is reason to believe that the boundary between Louisiana and the British territories north of it were actually fixed by Commissioners appointed under the Treaty of Utrecht, and that this boundary was to run from the Lake of the Woods westwardly in latitude 49; in which case the fifth article would be nugatory, as the line, from the Lake of the Woods to the nearest source of the Mississippi, would run through territory which on both sides of the line would belong to the United States. Annexed is a paper stating the authority on which the decision of the Commissioners under the Treaty of Utrecht rests, and the reasoning opposed to the construction making the 49th degree of latitude the northern boundary of Louisiana, with marginal notes in support of that construction. This paper will put you more readily into possession of the subject, as it may enter into your discussions with the British Government. But you will perceive the necessity of recurring to the proceedings of the Commissioners, as the source of authentic information. These are not within our reach here, and it must consequently be left to your own researches and judgment to determine the proper use to be made of them. Fourthly. Laying aside, however, all the objections to the fifth article, the proper extension Relations with Great Britain. of a dividing line in that quarter will be equally open for friendly negotiation after, as, without agreeing to the other parts of the convention, and considering the remoteness of the time at which such a line will become actually necessary, the postponement of it is of little or no consequence. The truth is, that the British Government seemed at one time to favor this delay, and the instructions given by the United States readily acquiesced in it. The annexed extracts from Mr. King's and Mr. Gore's letters will, with that from the De-India and foreign countries, other than America, partment of State, explain this observation. The fourth article of the convention provides that the Commissioners shall be respectively paid in such manner as shall be agreed between the two parties, such agreement to be settled at the time of the exchange of ratifications. It has been supposed that the compensation allowed to the Commissioners under the Treaty of Amity, Commerce, and Navigation, who settled the St. Croix boundary, would be satisfactory to the British Government; and upon this idea the estimate, of which a copy is enclosed, was framed as the basis of an appropriation to be asked from Congress. The President authorizes you, therefore, to agree to the sum mentioned therein, viz: four thousand four hundred and forty-four dollars and forty-four cents, to be paid by each Government to the Commissioner appointed by itself, the same sum being allowed the third Commissioner, to be paid to him in equal portions by the two Governments. Should, however, the British Government insist upon a variation of the compensation from the sum abovementioned, you may consent to it, provided it does not exceed six thousand six hundred and sixty-six dollars and sixty-six cents, each party contributing equally to the payment, and each Commissioner receiving the same sum as his colleagues. I have the honor to be, &c. JAMES MADISON. Extract of a letter from Mr. Madison, Secretary of longer a breach of stipulation, it is not less a violation of equality than it is of sound policy. With respect to the British West Indies, it is not known that the United States are on a worse footing than other nations, whatever want of reciprocity there may be to the liberal regulations of the United States. With respect to the East India trade, it is understood that the Treaty of 1794, by denying to American vessels both the coasting branch of it, and a direct intercourse between the United States were in both instances placed on a worse footing than other nations, and even on a worse footing than they themselves enjoyed prior to the treaty. The expiration of the treaty, and the friendly and favorable equality allowed by the United States to Great Britain in every branch of their trade, ought certainly to restore what the treaty suspended. These observations are made not with a view to any negotiation whatever, leading at the pres ent moment to a treaty on those or any other commercial points, or to discussions which might be misconstrued into a wish to take unreasonable advantage of a critical moment, but to enable you to present the ideas of your Government with more precision, to vindicate our commercial policy against misconceptions, and to avail yourself the better of fit occasions for obtaining from the British Government such relaxations as may be due to our example, and be calculated to cherish amity and useful intercourse between the two nations. In my letter of I stated the reasonableness of admitting American Consuls in the dependencies of Great Britain, whenever and wherever the American commerce should be admitted. The principle urged in this case is applicable to the East as well as to the West Indies. During the last war an American agent was, informally at least, allowed to reside at Calcutta, and take care of the trade of his countrymen. Mr. Jacob Lewis, London on his way thither, but peace having inwho was appointed to succeed him, proceeded to tervened; his application for an exequatur was refused. It is of real importance to our trade with that country, that such a functionary should be permitted to reside in it; the more so, if it be true that the rule forbidding foreign factors to do so be enforced there. Be so good as to sound the British Government on this subject, and communicate its sentiments for the information of the President. No. 21. DEPARTMENT OF STATE, March 5, 1804. The Treaty of 1794, so far as it relates to commerce, having expired on the first day of October last (that being the date of the preliminary articles,) the commercial intercourse between the two countries is left to the regulations which the parties separately may think fit to establish. It may be expected, however, that the friendship and mutual interest between them will produce a continuance on both sides of such regulations as are just and equal, and an accommodation to those principles of such as, on either side, are otherwise than just and equal. On the side of the United States, their commercial regulations place Great Britain, in every respect, on the footing of the most favored nation. Great Britain cannot say as much with respect to hers. One instance at least is explained in a letter from this I rejoice to hear that our Government has obDepartment to Mr. King, of which a copy is en-tained complete and quiet possession of Louisiana. closed, from which you will see that, although Independent of the vast importance of the acquisithe act of Parliament to which it refers be notion, which surely cannot be held in too high Mr. Monroe to Mr. Madison. LONDON, March 18, 1804. SIR: I have lately received from Mr. Baring your letters of the 5th and 16th of January; that of October 24th, with the documents mentioned in it, had reached me at an earlier period. I shall pay all the attention to the instructions contained in your letter of the 5th of January, which is due to their great importance. As soon as I am sufficiently possessed of the subject, I shall ask a conference with Lord Hawkesbury, to propose to his Government a convention between the two nations, for the adjustment of the points and on the principles of the project you have sent me. I hope to be able to commence the business in a week or ten days, and flatter myself that the negotiations will be productive of real advantage to the United States. Should it not succeed in all its objects, the attempt must nevertheless be considered as a very satisfactory proof of a strong desire in our Government to preserve, on just ground, the friendship of this country, and is like Ty, by the explanations to which it may lead alone, to have that tendency. I am, however, far from thinking it improbable that a suitable convention may be formed, especially on some of the points that are deemed interesting. The indisposition of the King still continues, though it has so much abated as to permit occasionally his attention to certain inferior objects of business. His life is no longer considered in danger. His disorder, a species of mental derangement, with which he was formerly attacked, has been less violent on this occasion; and, having proceeded in a great measure, as is believed, from other infirmities, will probably cease when they are removed, which is said to be nearly the case at present. In this interim, the Administration must be considered as having lost much of its strength. The sickness of the King and his probable decline, have put in motion all the interests that are connected with the monarchy. Those who had little hope of employment in his lifetime seem to have left the ministry, or rather to have become active against them. The old opposition has acquired greater energy, and become more formidable. Mr. Fox attacks it on all occasions, in a manner the most direct and unqualified; and the support which Mr. Pitt sometimes gives it is yielded in a mode to do it more injury than service. It is obvious that he does not mean to connect his fortune with theirs; and I think I have observed, on some occasions, such a degree of attention and spirit of accommodation from him to Mr. Fox as to justify a presumption that he is not averse to a coalition with him, in case the terms are made acceptable. No change has taken place in our concerns since my last; and, as I am now authorized to negotiate a treaty, I shall not call the attention of the Government to them, otherwise than in the latter mode. It is probable that the omission to answer my communications and redress our injuries, with which it is justly charge able, may furnish a motive for acceding to a more permanent arrangement. There is no change in the state of the war. The menace of invasion is continued with the same effect here. Of the object and parties to the late conspiracy at Paris, you will get more correct information from that quarter than I can give you. I am, sir, with great respect and esteem, your very obedient servant, JAMES MONROE. No. 22. Mr. Monroe to Mr. Madison. LONDON, April 15, 1804. SIR: Soon after my last, I requested an interview with Lord Hawkesbury, which took place on the 2d instant, in which I informed him that I had received your instructions to propose to his Government the regulation, by convention, of certain points, which I was persuaded both countries would find their advantage in placing on explicit and equitable ground. I stated to his lordship the concerns which it was desirous thus to regulate, in which I complied strictly with your views; and assured him that the object of the President was to fix the friendship of the two nations on the most solid basis, by removing every cause which had a tendency, in their intercourse and other relations, especially in time of war, to disturb it. In the conversation, I entered into detail on every point, in which I was met by his lordship with apparent candor, the sincerity of which I had no reason to doubt, which manifested a disposition equally strong in favor of the professed and, indeed, real object of the proposed negotiation. He requested me, in the conclusion, to furnish him a project, which he promised to submit to his Cabinet, and to communicate to me the result of its deliberations on it as soon as he could. I have since sent him a project, but too recently to admit my obtaining an answer to it. I am inclined to think, from what passed in the conference, that some advantage may be fairly expected from the negotiation. His lordship did not bind himself to anything, it is true; he even went so far as to express a wish that the principles of our treaty of 1794 might be adopted in the present convention where they applied, and an expectation that, if the accommodation which had been given, in certain cases, to the Northern Powers, should be stipulated in our favor, we should accord fully what they had yielded in return. Although I was very desirous to do justice to the moderate and friendly views of our Government on the occasion, yet I did not fail to give him to understand that I could not accede to his idea in either case. I shall endeavor to bring the business to a conclusion, and apprize you of the result as soon as possible; when I shall also communicate fully, and in detail, an account of what passes between us in the course of the transaction. Not many of our vessels have been interrupted in their commerce with France or Holland; not one, that I recollect, has been condemned. Some Relations with Great Britain. of them have been brought in, under various pretexts, which have generally been discharged, without a long detention. I send you a copy of my correspondence with Lord Hawkesbury on the subject of the Brutus, Captain Haley, in which you will find that ample recompense is promised for the injury complained of. I have the pleasure to enclose you a copy of a communication from Mr. Dethonig, Chargé des Affaires of the King of Sweden at Constantinople, in which he promises his good offices to obtain, by intermediation with the Porte, the liberation of our citizens lately taken prisoners in the Philadelphia frigate, by the Bey of Tripoli. Having known Mr. Dethonig formerly in France, he voluntarily offered his good offices on this occasion, on hearing of the disaster. I have also the pleasure to transmit you a copy of a letter from Mr. Harris, our Consul at Petersburg, with one from the Minister of the Emperor, which contains a very strong testimonial of his friendship for the United States. The assurances which he gives of the good offices of His Majesty with the Ottoman Porte, to obtain of the Bey of Tripoli the discharge of the men and restitution of the frigate, induced me to make my acknowledgment to his Ambassador here of the sensibility which I felt to an act which was so humane und honorable to the author. I was led to this by the consideration that, as Mr. Harris was only vested with the character of a Consul, such an expression from a person in my place might produce an immediate good effect. I flattered myself that the knowledge of the friendly disposition of the Emperor towards us might be even serviceable here. The King still continues indisposed, though in what degree is uncertain. In other respects, the state of affairs has not varied since my last, I am, with great respect and esteem, your very obedient servant, JAMES MONROE. Project of a Convention presented to Lord Hawkesbury, April 7, 1804.. ARTICLE 1. No person shall, upon the high seas, and without the jurisdiction of the other party, be demanded or taken out of any ship or vessel belonging to citizens or subjects of one of the other parties, by the public or private armed ships belonging to or in the service of the other, unless such person be at the time in the military service of an enemy of such other party. ART. 2. No person, being a subject or citizen of one of the parties, and resorting to or residing in the dominions of the other, shall, in any case, be compelled to serve on board any vessel, whether public or private, belonging to such other party; and all citizens and subjects whatever of the respective parties, at the time compulsively serving on board the vessels of the other, shall be forthwith liberated, and enabled, by adequate recompense, to return to their own country. A certified list of the crew, or protection from either Government, in such form as they shall respectively prescribe, showing that the person claiming under it is a citizen or subject of either Power, shall be deemed satisfactory evidence of the same; and in all cases where these documents may have been lost, destroyed, or by casualty not obtained, and any person claims to be a citizen or subject of either Power, such other evidence of said claim shall be received and admitted as would be satisfactory in a court of judicature. ART. 3. If the ships of either of the parties shall be met sailing either along the coasts or on the high seas by any ship of war or the public or private armed ship of the other party, such ships of war or other armed vessels shall, for avoiding all disorder in visiting and examining the same, remain out of cannon shot, unless the state of the sea or place of meeting render a nearer approach necessary; and shall in no case compel or require such vessel to send her boat, or her papers, or any person from on board, to the belligerent vessel; but the belligerent vessel may send her own boat to the other, and may enter her, to the number of two or three men only, who may in an orderly manner examine the same; and it is agreed that effectual provision shall be made for preventing violations of any part of this article. ART. 4. In order to determine what characterizes a blockaded port, that denomination is given only to a port where there is, by the dispositions of the Power which attacks it with ships stationary or sufficiently near, an evident danger in entering. ART. 5. It is agreed that no vessel sailing from the ports of either party shall, although cleared and bound to a blockaded port, be considered as violating in any manner the blockade, unless, in her approach towards such port, she shall have been previously warned against entering the same. ART. 6. It is agreed that no refuge or protection shall be afforded by either party to the mariners, sailors, or other persons, not found to be its own citizens or subjects, who shall desert from a vessel of the other party, of the crew whereof the deserter made a part; but, on the contrary, all such deserters shall be delivered up, on demand, to the commanders of the vessels from which they shall have deserted, or to the commanding officers of the ships of war of the respective nations, or to such other persons as may be duly authorized to make requisition in that behalf, provided that proof be made within two years from the time of desertion, by an exhibition of the ship's papers, or authenticated copies thereof, and, by satisfactory evidence of the identity of the person, that the deserters so demanded were actually part of the crew of the vessels in question. And, for the more effectual execution of this article, adequate provision shall be made for causing to be arrested on the application of the respective Consuls or Vice-Consuls, to the competent authorities, all deserters duly proved to be such, in order that they may be sent back to the commanders of the vessels to which they belonged, or removed out of the country, at the request and ex |
