University of Virginia Library

TO WILLIAM PINKNEY.

My last letter was of March 22d and went under the care of
Mr. Rose. I now forward printed copies of the correspondence
with him on the subject of his Mission, and of the antecedent
documents relating to the case of the Chesapeake.
As soon as the voluminous residue of the communications
made to Congress issues from the press, it shall also be forwarded.
You will find that they include certain documents
relating to France which were thought proper for the knowledge
of Congress at the present Crisis.

To these communications I add copies of Mr. Erskine's
letter to me on the subject of the British decrees of Novr. last,
and of my answer. And that you may have a view of the
ground which has been taken with respect to the French decree
of Novr. 1806, and to the judicial exposition in the case of
the Horizon giving it an illegal operation against the United
States, I inclose copies of two letters to Genl. Armstrong on
those subjects.

The President made to Congress a few days ago other communications
relating to the present crisis with Great Britain
and France, among which were Mr. Erskine's letter now inclosed,
and a letter from Mr. Champagny to Genl. Armstrong,
explaining the course meditated by the French Government
with respect to the commerce of the U. States. These being
excepted from the confidential character attached to the others
have been published, and will be found among the printed
inclosures. Your letter of Feby. 26, was included in the
communication to Congress but not in the exception.

The conduct of the two great contending nations towards
this Country as will now appear to it, and to the world, fully
displays their mutual efforts to draw the United States into
a war with their adversary. The efforts on both sides, are too
little disguised to be worthy the discernment of either, and
are addressed moreover, to motives which prove great ignorance
of the character of the United States, and indeed of
human nature.

From the posture in which Mr. Rose's final reply to the
compromise proposed to him, placed the question of adjustment
in the case of the Chesapeake, it remains with the British
Government to resume it if adjustment be their object.
Whether a tender of reparation will be made here, or to you,
will also lie on that side. It will certainly be most becoming
that Government under all circumstances to make the reparation
here and this course might of right be insisted on by this
Government. The President nevertheless, in the liberal spirit
which always governs him, authorizes you to accept the reparation
provided it be tendered spontaneously, be charged with
no condition, unless it be that on the receipt of the Act of
reparation here the proclamation of July 2nd shall be revoked;
and provided the reparation shall add to the disavowal of the
attack on the Chesapeake, an express engagement that the
seamen retained shall be immediately restored, and that the
guilty officer shall experience an exemplary punishment.
The reparation will be the more satisfactory, and not exceed
a just expectation if the restoration of the seamen be made
to the very ship from which they were wrested and if provision
be made for the wounded survivors, and for the families of
those who lost their lives by the attack.

I must repeat however that it is considered entirely proper
that the reparation should be offered here, rather than in
London, and it is only in the event of a decided repugnance in
the British Government to make it thro' a functionary here,
that you are to accept it there.

The answer to Mr. Erskine's letter on the British orders

will furnish the grounds to be taken in your communications.
If the Cabinet can be brought to view the orders in their true
light a revocation of the whole of them cannot fail to take
place, unless they mean to violate every maxim of justice,
or are fixed in hostile purposes against the United States.
In not regarding the orders indeed as Acts of hostility and in
trusting for redress to the motives and means, to which they
have appealed, the United States have given the most signal
proofs of their love of peace, and of their desire to avoid an
interruption of it with the British Nation.

Still, it is to be understood, that whilst the insult offered
in the attack on the American frigate remains unexpiated,
you are not to pledge or commit your Government to consider
a recall of the orders as a ground on which a removal of the
existing restrictions on the commerce of the United States
with Great Britain, may be justly expected.

The two letters to Genl. Armstrong of 22nd May 1807, and
Feby. 8th, 1808, are proofs of the sincerity and impartiality
with which the President has proceeded in relation to the
belligerent parties, and may perhaps assist you in repressing
unjust suspicions imbibed by the British Cabinet. It would
be happy for all parties, the belligerent as well as the U. States,
if truth could, in this case, be made to prevail; and if the
retaliating rivalship of the former against the latter could be
converted into an emulation, as politic as it would be magnanimous
in both, to take the lead in a fair, lawful, and conciliatory
course towards a nation which has done no wrong to
either. Should the experiment be made on either side it
would probably be followed on the other; and it could never
happen that the side first doing justice, would suffer on that
account.

In the present state of our relations to Great Britain it
would be premature to mark out the course to be pursued
with respect to further negotiations on other topics than those
above noticed. You are authorized however to continue your
interpositions in behalf of our impressed or detained seamen,

and in the event of a repeal of the British orders, and satisfactory
pledges for repairing the aggression on the Chesapeake,
to enter into informal arrangements for abolishing
impressments altogether and mutually discontinuing to receive
the seamen of each other into either military or merchant
service, conformably to the instructions on this point transmitted
by Mr. Purviance.

You will find by a passage in Mr. Rose's reply of March 17
that the British Government does not maintain the principle
that the obligation of the United States extends beyond the
discharge of deserters from their public service; and by an
order of the Navy Department here, already carried into execution,
of which a copy is inclosed, that it has lately been
decided that no foreign seamen, whether deserters or not,
shall serve on board our ships of war. The principles respectively
manifested by these documents, ought to facilitate
such an adjustment as is contended for by the United States.

It cannot yet be said how much longer the Session of Congress
will be protracted. The two provisions of most importance
remaining to be decided on are the augmentation
of the Army, and the definition of the case or cases in which
a repeal or relaxation of the Embargo, may, during a recess,
be committed to the Executive.