University of Virginia Library

3978. INSULT, Reparation for.—

Both
reason and the usage of nations required we
should give Great Britain an opportunity of
disavowing and repairing the insult of their
officers. It gives us at the same time an opportunity
of getting home our vessels, our
property and our seamen,—the only means of
carrying on the kind of war we should attempt.—
To Thomas Cooper. Washington ed. v, 121. Ford ed., ix, 102.
(W. July. 1807)