3083. FORMALITIES, Insisting upon.—
I noticed to you * * * that the commission
of consul to M. Dannery ought to
have been addressed to the President of the
United States. * * * [As] we were persuaded
* * * that the error in the address
had proceeded from no intention in the Executive
Council of France to question the functions
of the President, * * * no difficulty
was made in issuing the commission. We are
still under the same persuasion. But in your
letter of the 14th instant, you personally question
the authority of the President, and, in
consequence of that, have not addressed to
him the commission of Messrs. Pennevert and
Chervi. Making a point of this formality on
your part, it becomes necessary to make a
point of it on ours also; and I am therefore
charged to return you those commissions, and
to inform you, that bound to enforce respect
to the order of things established by our
Constitution, the President will issue no
exequatur to any consul or vice-consul, not
directed to him in the usual form, after the
party from whom it comes, has been apprised
that such should be the address.—
To E. C. Genet. Washington ed. iv, 84.
Ford ed., vi, 451.
(G.
Nov. 1793)
