7426. RETALIATION, France and.—
A
recent fact, proving the anxiety of France for
a reconciliation with us is the following. You
know that one of the armed vessels which we
took from her was refitted by us, sent to cruise
on them, recaptured, and carried into Guadaloupe
under the name of the Retaliation. On
the arrival there of Desfourneaux, the new commissioner,
he sent Victor Hughes home in
irons; called up our captain; told him that he
found he had a regular commission as an
officer of the United States; that his vessel
was then lying in harbor; that he should enquire
into no fact preceding his own arrival
(by this he avoided noticing that the vessel
was really French property) and that therefore,
himself and crew were free to depart with their
vessel; that as to the differences between
France and the United States, commissioners
were coming to settle them, and in the meantime,
no injury should be done on their part.
The captain insisted on being a prisoner; the
other disclaimed; and so he arrived here
[Philadelphia] the day before yesterday.
Within an hour after this was known to the
Senate, they passed a retaliation bill. This
was the more remarkable, as the bill was
founded expressly on the Arret of Oct. 29,
which had been communicated by the President
as soon as received, and he remarked, “that
it could not be too soon communicated to the
two Houses and the public”. Yet he almost
in the same instant received, through the same
channel, Mr. King, information that the Arret
was suspended, and though he knew we were
making it the foundation of a retaliation bill,
he has never yet communicated it. But the
Senate knew the fact informally from the Sec
retary of State, and knowing it, passed the bill.—
To Edmund Pendleton. Washington ed. iv, 288.
Ford ed., vii, 357.
(Pa.,
Feb. 14, 1799)
