7001. PRIVATEERS, Merchant vessels and.—
Can it be necessary to say that a
merchant vessel is not a privateer? That
though she has arms to defend herself in time
of war, in the course of her regular commerce,
this no more makes her a privateer, than a husbandman
following his plow, in time of war,
with a knife or pistol in his pocket, is, thereby,
made a soldier? The occupation of a privateer
is attack and plunder, that of a merchant vessel
is commerce and self-preservation.—
To Gouverneur Morris. Washington ed. iv, 41.
Ford ed., vi, 385.
(Pa.,
Aug. 1793)
