7875. SHIPS, Passports.—[further continued] .
It is determined that
passports shall be given in our own ports only,
and to serve but for one voyage. It has also
been determined that they shall be given to all
vessels bonâ fide owned by American citizens
wholly, whether built here or not. Our property,
whether in the form of vessels, cargoes,
or anything else, has a right to pass the seas
untouched by any nation, by the law of nations;
and no one has a right to ask where a vessel
was built, but where she is owned.—
To Gouverneur Morris. Washington ed. iii, 581.
Ford ed., vi, 301.
(Pa.,
June. 1793)
