their peace, and that he thought it necessary as an evidence of good faith to them, as well as a proper reparation to the sovereignty of the country, that the armed vessels of this description should depart from the ports of the United States.

The letter of the 27th instant, with which you have honoured me, has been laid before the President, and that part of it, which contains your observations on this subject, has been particularly attended to. The respect due to whatever comes from you, friendship for the French nation, and justice to all, have induced him to re-examine the subject, and particularly to give to your representations thereon, the consideration they deservedly claim. After fully weighing again, however, all the principles and circumstances of the case, the result appears still to be, that it is the right of every nation to prohibit acts of sovereignty from being exercised by any other within its limits, and the duty of a neutral nation to prohibit such as would injure one of the warring powers; that the granting military commissions, within the United States, by any other authority than their own, is an infringement on their sovereignty, and particularly so, when granted to their own citizens, to lead them to commit acts contrary to the duties they owe their own country; that the *departure of vessels, thus illegally equipped, from the ports of the United States, will be but an acknowledgment of respect, analogous to the breach of it, while it is necessary on their part, as an evidence of their faithful neutrality. On these considerations, sir, the President thinks that the United States owe it to themselves, and to the nations in their friendship, to expect this act of reparation on the part of vessels, marked in their very equipment with offence to the laws of the land, of which the law of nations makes an integral part.

The expressions of very friendly sentiment, which we have already had the satisfaction of receiving from you, leave no room to doubt that the conclusion of the President, being thus made known to you, these vessels will be permitted to give no further umbrage by their presence in the ports of the United States. TH: JEFFERSON.

I have the honour to be, &c.

TRANSLATION.

The Minister of the Republick of France, to the Secretary of State of the United States. Philadelphia, June 8, 1793, 2d year of the French Republick.

SIR, I HAVE seen with pain, by your letter of the 5th of this month, that the President of the United States persists in thinking that a nation at war had not the right of giving com

• This member of the sentence is defective in some part, for it is devoid of meaning. Per haps it may be rendered intelligible by a conjectural emendation, inserting the particle non, before the word departure. The Editors have exerted themselves, without success, to obtain a better explanation, or different copy.

missions of war to those of its vessels which may be in the ports of a neutral nation; this being, in his opinion, an act of sovereignty.

I confess to you, sir, that this opinion appears to me contrary to the principles of natural right; to the usages of nations; to the connections which unite us; and even to the President's proclamation.

The right of arming, sir, for the purpose of its defence, and repelling unjust aggressions, in my opinion, may be exercised by a nation at war, in a neutral state; unless by treaty, or particular laws of this state, that right be confined to a single nation, friend or ally, and expressly interdicted to others. This is exactly the case in which we are. The United States, friends of the French, their allies and guarantees of their possessions in America, have permitted them to enter armed, and remain in their ports, to bring there their prizes, to repair in them, to equip in them, whilst they have expressly refused this privilege to their enemies. The intention of the United States has been to facilitate to us the means of protecting, efficaciously, our commerce, and of defending our possessions in America, so useful to our mutual prosperity; and as long as the states, assembled in Congress, shall not have determined that this solemn engage. ment should not be performed, no one has a right to shackle our operations, and to annul their effect, by hindering those of our marines, who may be in the American ports, to take advantage of the commissions which the French government has charged me to give them, authorizing them to defend themselves, and fulfil, if they find an opportunity, all the duties of citizens against the enemies of the state. Besides, sir, at all times, like commissions, during a war, have been delivered to our vessels. The officers of the marine transmit them to them, in France, and the consuls, in foreign countries; and it is in virtue of this usage, which no power has ever thought of regarding as an act of sovereignty, that the executive council has sent here such commissions.

However, sir, always animated with the desire of maintaining the good harmony which so happily subsists between our two countries, I have instructed the consuls not to grant letters, but to the captains, who shall obligate themselves, under oath and security, to respect the territory of the United States, and the political opinions of their President, until the representatives of the sovereign shall have confirmed or rejected them. This is all that the American government can expect from our deference; every thing that passes out of the waters of the United States, not coming within their cognizance.

It results from this note, sir, that the commissions transmitted in virtue of the orders of the executive council of the Republick of France, to the French vessels in the ports of the United States, are merely an authority to arm themselves, founded upon the natural right and constant usage of France; that these com

missions have been expedited at all times, in the like circumstances; that their distribution cannot be considered but as an act of consular administration, and not of sovereignty; and that every obstruction by the government of the United States, to the arming of French vessels, must be an attempt on the rights of man, upon which repose the independence and laws of the United States; a violation of the ties which unite the people of France and of America; and even a manifest contradiction of the system of neutrality of the President: For, in fact, if our merchant vessels, or others, are not allowed to arm themselves, when the French alone are resisting the league of all the tyrants against the liberty of the people, they will be exposed to inevitable ruin in going out of the ports of the United States, which is certainly not the intention of the people of America. Their fraternal voice has resounded from every quarter around me, and their accents are not equivocal-they are pure as the hearts of those by whom they are expressed, and the more they have touched my sensibility, the more they must interest in the happiness of America the nation I represent ;-the more I wish, sir, that the federal government should observe, as far as in their power, the publick engagements contracted by both nations; and that by this generous and prudent conduct they will give at least to the world the example of a true neutrality, which does not consist in the cowardly abandonment of their friends in the moment when danger menaces them, but in adhering strictly, if they can do no better, to the obligations they have contracted with them. It is by such proceedings, that they will render themselves respectable to all powers; that they will preserve their friends, and deserve to augment their number. GENET.

TRANSLATION.

The Citizen Genet, Minister Plenipotentiary of the Republick of France, with the United States, to Mr. Jefferson, Secretary of State of the United States. Philadelphia, June 1, 1793, 2d year of the Republick of France.

SIR, I HAVE this moment been informed, that two officers in the service of the Republick of France, citizen Gideon Henfield and John Singletary, have been arrested on board the privateer of the French Republick, the Citizen Genet, and conducted to prison. The crime laid to their charge, the crime which my mind cannot conceive, and which my pen almost refuses to state, is the serving of France, and defending with her children the common and glorious cause of liberty.

Being ignorant of any positive law, or treaty, which deprives Americans of this privilege, and authorizes officers of police arbitrarily to take mariners, in the service of France, from on board their vessels, I call upon your intervention, sir, and that of the President of the United States, in order to obtain the

immediate releasement of the above mentioned officers, who have acquired by the sentiments animating them, and by the act of their engagement, anterior to every act to the contrary, the right of French citizens, if they have lost that of American citizens. I renew at the same time, sir, the requisition which I made in favour of another French officer detained for the same cause, and for the same object. GENET.

Mr. Jefferson, Secretary of State, to Mr. Genet, Minister Ple nipotentiary of France. Philadelphia, June 1, 1793.

SIR, I HAVE to acknowledge the receipt of your note of the 27th of May, on the subject of Gideon Henfield, a citizen of the United States, engaged on board an armed vessel in the service of France. It has been laid before the President, and referred to the Attorney General of the United States for his opinion on the matter of law, and I have now the honour of enclosing you a copy of that opinion. Mr. Henfield appears to be in the custody of the civil magistrate, over whose proceedings the executive has no control. The act with which he is charged will be examined by a jury of his countrymen, in the presence of judges of learning and integrity; and if it is not contrary to the laws of the land, no doubt need be entertained that his case will issue accordingly. The forms of the law involve certain necessary delays, of which, however, he will assuredly experience none but what are necessary.

I have the honour to be &c.

TH: JEFFERSON.

P. S. After writing the above, I was honoured with your note on the subject of Singletary, on which it is in my power to say nothing more than in that of Henfield.

The Attorney General of the United States has the honour of submilling to the Secretary of State the following opinion on the case of Gideon Henfield, as represented by the Minister of France.

1st. Ir may well be doubted how far the Minister of France has a right to interfere. Henfield is a citizen of the United States; and it is unusual at least, that a foreign power should interfere in a question, whether, as a citizen, a man has been guilty of a crime? Nor can an authority be derived from Henfield being under the protection of the French Republick; because being still a citizen, he is amenable to the laws, which operate on citizens, and the very act, by which he is said to have been taken under such protection, is a violation of the sovereignty of the United States. If he be innocent, he will be safe in the hands of his countrymen: if guilty, the respect due by one nation to the decrees of another demands that they be acquiesced in.

2d. But Henfield is punishable, because treaties are the supreme law of the land; and by treaties with three of the powers at war with France it is stipulated, that there shall be a peace between their subjects and the citizens of the United States.

3d. He is indictable at the common law, because his conduct comes within the description of disturbing the peace of the United States. EDM: RANDOLPH. May 30, 1793.

TRANSLATION.

The Citizen Genet, Minister of the Republick of France, to Mr. Jefferson, Secretary of State of the United States. Philadel phia, June 14, 1793, 2d year of the Republick.

SIR, YOU will see by the papers hereto annexed, that in contempt of the treaties which unite the French and Americans, that in contempt of the law of nations, civil and judiciary officers of the United States have permitted themselves to stop at Philadelphia the sale of vessels taken by an armed French galliot, and at New York, have opposed the sailing of a French vessel commissioned by the executive council of the Republick of France. I request you, sir, to inform the President of the United States of these facts, to let him know that they have used his name in committing those infractions of the laws and treaties of the United States; and engage him to develop, in the present circumstances, all the authority which the people of the United States have confided to him to enforce the execution of the laws and treaties.

Not doubting, sir, the purity of the President's sentiments, I hope to obtain immediately, from the aid of his good offices and energy, restitution, with damages and interest, of the French prizes arrested and seized at Philadelphia, by an incompetent judge, under an order which I ought to believe not genuine; and the like restitution, with damages and interest, of the vessels stopped and seized at New York.

It is through the intervention of the publick ministers, that affairs, of the nature which produce my present complaints and reclamations, ought to be treated. As the representative of a people, generous and confident in their friends, I have already given proofs of the sentiments with which they are animated, in causing to be restored, without examination, on the requisition of the federal government, the English ship Grange, taken by a vessel of the Republick. I shall in all my conduct show an equal deference; but at the same time, sir, I should expect from your government all the support, which I at present stand in need of, to defend in the bosom of the United States the interests, the rights and the dignity of the French nation, which persons, on whom time will do us justice, are labouring secretly to misrepresent.

GENET.