University of Virginia Library

TO WILLIAM PINKNEY.

I forward by the British Packet about to sail from New

York, the printed proceedings of Congress continued from my
last communications which bore date on the 3d January.

From these and the antecedent indications, you will deduce
the general spirit which actuates the Legislative Councils,
under the perplexities incident to the unexampled state of
things forced on the United States by the injustice of the
belligerent nations.

What particular course may result from the several propositions
now depending, cannot with certainty be pronounced;
but it may be reasonably presumed that the resolution of the
House of Representatives so nearly unanimous, not to submit
to the foreign Edicts against our neutral commerce, will
be kept in view; and consequently that if our Commercial
property be again committed to the ocean, the measure will
be accompanied with such regulations as will shew that it is
not meant as an acquiescence in those Edicts, but as an appeal
to the interest of the aggressors, in a mode less inconvenient
to our own interest.

It is equally to be presumed that if the resumed exercise
of our rights of navigation on the high seas should be followed
by the depredations threatened by an adherence of the belligerents
to their respective Edicts, the next resort on the
part of the United States will be, to an assertion of those
rights by force of Arms, against the persevering aggressor
or aggressors.

It may be inferred from the language held by the British
Minister here, that an avowal of such a determination in the
form even of an Executive opinion, would probably be regarded
by his Government as a ground on which it might revoke
its orders in Council, consistently with the retaliating
principle on which they are alleged to be founded. It must
be observed, however, 1st that no authoritative avowal could
be made but by the branch of Government charged with the
question of War; not to mention that the avowal itself might
possibly be construed into a menace, opposing a greater obstacle
to a change of policy than the Embargo was represented

to be; and 2d that it appears from the condition originally
required by the present Cabinet, and repeated by Mr. Canning
in his last letter to you of Novemr. 22, that nothing short of
an unequivocal repeal of the French decrees, and consequently
no course whatever of this Government, not actually producing
that effect, will render a repeal of the British orders
consistent with the policy which relates to that subject.

Should a policy so destitute of even a shadow of justice or
consideration, be relinquished and an expression of the opinion
of the Executive branch of our Government be deemed a
ground for revoking the British Orders, you will be free to
declare that opinion to be, that in case these orders should be
revoked, and the Decrees of France continued in force, hostilities
on the part of the United States will ensue against the
latter, taking care not to attach to the opinion of the Executive
any weight inconsistent with the Constitutional limits of his
authority.

Whilst it is thought proper to furnish you with these explanations
and observations, I am instructed at the same time,
to remind you that in the actual posture of things between the
two countries, particularly as resulting from the nature of the
answer of Mr. Canning of Sept. 23 to the reasonable, candid
and conciliatory proposition conveyed in your letter to him
of August, it evidently lies with the British Government to
resume discussions on the subject of revoking the Orders in
Council. It is hoped that in so plain a case, that obligation
will be felt. And it is only on a contrary manifestation, that
it will be eligible for you to bring the subject into conversation;
in doing which, you will not fail to let it be understood
as a new and irresistible proof of the desire of the United
States to avoid extremities between the two Nations, and to
establish that complete reconciliation, towards which an ad
justment of that particular difficulty would be so important
a step. It is proper to add, that as the pledge of an Executive
opinion in such a case, is of an unusual and very delicate
character, it will be a reasonable and indispensable preliminary

to its being stated in writing, that a satisfactory assurance
be given that it will not be without the expected effect.

You will notice that among the measures proposed to be
combined with a repeal of the Embargo laws, is a non-intercourse
with Great Britain and France, and an exclusion of all
armed vessels whatever from our waters. The effect of the
first will be to continue the Embargo, so far as it prohibits a
direct exportation to the two principal offenders; and to discontinue
the importation now permitted, of the productions
and manufactures of those Countries, thereby merging for
the time, the existing non-importation Act. An effect of the
other will be to merge, in like manner, for the time, the exclusion
of British ships of war, as a measure unfavorably distinguished
between Great Britain and other belligerents.
The latter effect may perhaps facilitate amicable arrangements
on some of the points in question with that nation.
The former will keep in force an appeal to its interest, against
a perseverance in the orders in Council; inasmuch as it subjects
the supplies from the United States to the expence and
delay of double voyages, shuts our markets against her manufactures,
and stimulates and establishes permanent substitutes
of our own.

You will notice also the Message of the President communicating
for publication, your correspondence with Mr.
Canning on the subject of conversations preceding your letter
to him of August. The message states the cause of the communication.
This foreign appeal thro' the press, to the people
against their own Government, has kindled the greatest indignation
everywhere; the more so, as the time and place selected,
leave no doubt that the object was to foster the discontents
breaking out in the State of Massachusetts. But for the
difficulty of obtaining from the printer the source from which
Mr. Canning's letter was furnished, and an unwillingness to
multiply topics of irritation, it is not improbable that the
insult would have been taken up by Congress, in some such
manner as the case of Palm, the Austrian Ambassador, in the

year 1719[4] was treated by the British Parliament. Much
animadversion also has fallen on the outrageous doctrine still
maintained by him, that Great Britain has a retaliating right
against our commerce, until the French Decrees, altho' a dead
letter, be unequivocally abandoned; as well as on the subterfuge
which he applies to the charge of stating to the House of
Commons, that no remonstrance or communication had been
received from this Government against the orders in Council
as if it had been possible for a single hearer to suppose, that he
did not mean to affirm that no such remonstrance had been
received at all, the sole question of any importance; but
merely to distinguish between the receipt of it thro' you, and
thro' Mr. Erskine, a circumstance of no importance whatever.
The resort also to newspaper paragraphs and general rumors
as to vessels to be dispatched from this Country with instructions
to you, as an explanation of his departure from a regular
course of proceeding adopted by himself, is very unworthy the
dignity and candor, not to say sincerity, belonging to his
station.

The Union is not yet arrived, and has not been heard of
since her landing Lt. Gibbon.

I shall write again by the Pacific, a dispatch vessel which
will sail from New York in a short time. Before we transmit
our communications allotted for that conveyance, it is very
desirable that we should receive yours by the Union; and also
have the result of the existing deliberations of Congress particularly
on the time for repealing the Embargo, and the
measures to be connected with the repeal. A vessel, the
Mentor, is also engaged at New York, for conveying dispatches
to France, and will sail at the same time for
L'Orient.

As Congress are to meet again as early as the 4th Monday
in May, and with a view to take measures adapted to the
then state of things, I need not urge on you the importance

of hastening to us every information which may be useful to
their deliberations.