3319. FUGITIVES, Mariners.—
When the consular convention with France was
under consideration, this subject was attended
to; but we could agree to go no further than
is done in the ninth article of that instrument,
when we agree mutually to deliver
up “captains, officers, mariners, sailors, and
all other persons being part of the crews of
vessels”, &c. Unless, therefore, the persons
before named [205]
be part of the crew of some
vessel of the French nation, no person in
this country is authorized to deliver them up;
but, on the contrary, they are under the
protection of the laws.—
To E. C. Genet.
Ford ed., vi, 426.
(Pa.,
Sep. 1793)
