University of Virginia Library

TO WILLIAM PINKNEY.[33]

Dear Sir,—Your letter of August 13 [14] was duly
received. Its observations on the letter and conduct
of Lord Wellesley are an interesting comment on
both. The light in which the letter was seen by
many in this Country was doubtless such as gave
to its features an exaggerated deformity. But it
was the natural effect of its contrast to the general
expectation founded on the tenor of your private
letter to Mr. Smith, and on the circumstances, which,

in the case of Jackson, seemed to preclude the least
delay in repairing the insults committed by him.
It is true, also, that the letter, when viewed in its
most favorable light, is an unworthy attempt to
spare a false pride on one side at the expence of just
feelings on the other, and is in every respect infinitely
below the elevation of character assumed by the
British Government, and even to that ascribed to
Lord Wellesley. It betrays the consciousness of a
debt, with a wish to discharge it in false coin. Had
the letter been of earlier date, and accompanied by
the prompt appointment of a successor to Jackson,
its aspect would have been much softened. But
every thing was rendered as offensive as possible by
evasions and delays, which admit no explanation
without supposing a double game, by which they
were to cheat us into a reliance on fair promises,
whilst they were playing into the hands of partizans
here, who were turning the delays into a triumph
over their own Government. This consideration
had its weight in the decision last communicated,
with respect to your continuance at London, or
return to the United States.

The personal sensibilities which your letter expresses
are far greater than I can have merited by
manifestations of esteem and confidence which it
would have been unjust to withhold. As a proof
of your partiality, they ought not, on that account,
to excite less of a return. As little ought your readiness
to retire from your station, from the honorable
motives which govern you, to be viewed in any other

light than as a proof of the value which attaches itself
to your qualifications and services. It is not to be
denied that a good deal of dissatisfaction has issued
through the press against some of your intercourse
with the British Government. But this could have
the less influence on the Executive mind, as the
dissatisfaction, where not the mere indulgence of
habitual censure, is evidently the result of an honest
misconstruction of some things, and an ignorance of
others, neither of which can be lasting. I have little
doubt that if your sentiments and conduct could be
seen through media not before the public, a very
different note would have been heard; and as little,
that the exhibitions likely to grow out of the questions
and discussions in which you are at present
engaged will more than restore the ground taken
from you.

The sole question on which your return depends,
therefore, is whether the conduct of the Government
where you are may not render your longer stay incompatible
with the honor of the United States.
The last letter of the Secretary of State has so placed
the subject for your determination, in which the
fullest confidence is felt. Waiving other depending
subjects, not of recent date, a review of the course
pursued in relation to Jackson and a successor excites
a mixture of indignation and contempt, which
ought not to be more lightly expressed than by your
immediately substituting a Secretary of Legation for
the grade you hold; unless the step be absolutely
forbidden by the weighty consideration which has

been stated to you, and which coincides with the
sound policy to which you allude, of putting an adversary
compleatly in the wrong. The prevailing
opinion here is, that this has been already abundantly
done.

Besides the public irritation produced by the
persevering insolence of Jackson in his long stay,
and his conduct during it, there has been a constant
heart-burning on the subject of the Chesapeake, and
a deep and settled indignation on the score of impressments,
which can never be extinguished without
a liberal atonement for the former, and a systematic
amendment of the latter.

You have been already informed that the Proclamation
would issue giving effect to the late act of
Congress, on the ground of the Duke de Cadore's
letter to Genl Armstrong, which states an actual repeal of the French Decrees. The letter of W. to
you is a promise only, and that in a very questionable
shape; the more so, as G. Britain is known to
have founded her retaliating pretensions on the
unprecedented mode of warfare against her; evidently
meaning the exclusion of her trade from the Continent.
Even the blockade of May, 1806, rests on
the same foundation. These considerations, with
the obnoxious exercise of her sham blockades in the
moment of our call for their repeal, backed by the
example of France, discourage the hope that she
contemplates a reconciliation with us. I sincerely
wish your next communications may furnish evidence
of a more favorable disposition.

It will not escape your notice, and is not undeserving
that of the British Government, that the nonintercourse,
as now to be revived, will have the
effect of giving a monopoly of our exportations to
G. Britain to our own vessels, in exclusion of hers;
whereas, in its old form, G. Britain obtained a substantial
monopoly for hers through the entrepots of
N. Scotia, E. Florida, &c. She cannot, therefore, deprive
our vessels, which may now carry our exports
directly to G. Britain, of this monopoly, without
refusing the exports altogether, or forcing them into
difficult and expensive channels, with the prospect
of a counteracting interposition of Congress, should
the latter experiment be resorted to. Nothing
would be necessary to defeat this experiment but
to prohibit, as was heretofore contemplated, the
export of our productions to the neighboring ports
belonging to Great Britain or her friends.

The course adopted here towards West Florida
will be made known by the Secretary of State. The
occupancy of the Territory as far as the Perdido was
called for by the crisis there, and is understood to
be within the authority of the Executive. East
Florida, also, is of great importance to the United
States, and it is not probable that Congress will let
it pass into any new hands. It is to be hoped G.
Britain will not entangle herself with us by seizing
it, either with or without the privity of her allies in
Cadiz. The position of Cuba gives the United States
so deep an interest in the destiny, even, of that
Island, that although they might be an inactive,

they could not be a satisfied spectator at its falling
under any European Government, which might
make a fulcrum of that position against the commerce
and security of the United States. With respect
to Spanish America generally, you will find that G.
Britain is engaged in the most eager, and, if without
the concurrence of the Spanish authority at Cadiz,
the most reproachful grasp of political influence and
commercial preference. In turning a provident attention
to the new world, as she loses ground in the
old, her wisdom is to be commended, if regulated by
justice and good faith; nor is her pursuit of commercial
preferences, if not seconded by insidious
and slanderous means against our competitions, as
are said to be employed, to be tested by any other
standard than her own interest. A sound judgment
of this does not seem to have been consulted in the
specimen given in the Treaty at Caraccas, by which
a preference in trade over all other nations is extorted
from the temporary fears and necessities of
the Revolutionary Spaniards. The policy of the
French Government at the epoch of our Independence,
in renouncing every stipulation against the
equal privileges of all other nations in our trade,
was dictated by a much better knowledge of human
nature, and of the stable interest of France.

The elections for the next Congress are nearly
over. The result is another warning against a reliance
on the strength of a British Party, if the British
Government be still under a delusion on that subject.
Should France effectually adhere to the ground

of a just and conciliatory policy, and G. Britain
bring the United States to issue on her paper blockades;
so strong is this ground in right of opinion
here, and even in the commitment of all the great
leaders of her party here, that G. Britain will scarce
have an advocate left.