5874. NEUTRALITY, Public vessels.—[further continued] .
Armed vessels remaining
within our jurisdiction in defiance of the authority of the laws, must be viewed either as
rebels, or public enemies. The latter character'
it is most expedient to ascribe to them; the
laws of intercourse with persons of that description
are fixed and known. If we relinquish
them we shall have a new code to settle with
those individual offenders, with whom self-respect
forbids any intercourse but merely for
purposes of humanity.—
To Governor W. H. Cabell. Washington ed. v, 170.
(M.
1807)
