604. ASYLUM, Public vessels and.—
Article 12 [of the French treaty], giving
asylum in the ports of either to the armed
vessels of the other, with the prizes taken
from the enemies of that other, must be
qualified as it is in the 19th article of the
Prussian treaty; as the stipulation in the
latter part of the article, “that no shelter or
refuge shall be given in the ports of the one,
to such as shall have made prize on the subjects
of the other of the parties,” would forbid
us in case of a war between France and
Spain, to give shelter in our ports to prizes
made by the latter on the former, while the
first part of the article would oblige us to
shelter those made by the former on the latter—a very dangerous covenant, and which
ought never to be repeated in any other instance.—
Mississippi River Instructions. Washington ed. vii, 588.
Ford ed., v, 478.
(March. 1792)
