security; because an attempt had been made the night before, by the owner and the English sailors, to carry her off. He obtained neither, was obliged to protest, and went to Newport to claim justice from the governour.

The governour heard the cause on the 25th of August. The English vice-consul obtained its adjournment to a distant day, and appeared desirous of gaining time. Finally the prize was restored to the captors; but in the interval she became injured, the costs of suit consumed a part of her value, and the privateersmen became discouraged.

I spare you, sir, an infinity of daily complaints, all of which equally disclose an extreme facility in a great number of the civil officers of the United States, of condescension to the first requisitions of the English agents, and who thereby second, no doubt involuntarily, the intrigues of our perfidious enemies. It would be very pleasing to me no more to be obliged to trouble you with the recital of the injustice and malevolence of which those men are the victims, who, after having braved death, are compelled to submit to all the disgusts of the most cunning chicanery, before they can enjoy the price of their blood; those men, finally, who are afraid of losing, in fulfilling the office of the lawyer, about which they know but little, that time which they might have better employed in purging your coasts of the pirates who devour your commerce.

Pardon, sir, the length of this despatch: the importance of the matter which I have treated would not admit of more brevity. If any of the expressions which it contains should wound the Executive of the United States, it will be entirely against the wish of my heart; and I must pray you not to attribute them to any design of offending it, but to a sentiment of grief which I feel in writing it. You have been long persuaded of the profound esteem I profess for him who is its head, and whom I every day learn

more to venerate.

Accept, sir, &c.

JH. FAUCHET.

VOL. II.

37

No. 41.

Joseph Fauchet, Minister Plenipotentiary of the French Republick near the United States, to Mr. Randolph, Secretary of State of the United States. Philadelphia, 10th Vindemiaire, 3d year of the French Republick, one and indivisible (Oct. 1, 1794, O.S.)

SIR, I send you the answer given by Mr. Lee, governour of Virginia, to the vice-consul of Norfolk, who claimed the execution of the 17th article of the treaty of commerce between France and the United States. I shall be obliged by your informing me what the instructions are, which this governour could have received from the President, or, at least, what is the issue of my complaints against the manifest violation of the article I have just cited. I beg leave to observe to you, that the brevity of the letter of Mr. Lee affords no satisfaction, and that if he delays any length of time in obtaining information, the justice I demand will be too tardy, and will afford the English frigates time to be supplied, and finally to brave the authority of your government.

P. S. You will remark, sir, that the letter of the viceconsul of Norfolk remained twelve days without an answer, and that when complaints are made against prizes taken by our cruisers, two hours are enough for even unjust seizures to take place.

No. 42.

Richmond, Sept. 12, 1794. SIR,-I had the honour to find here your letter of the 31st of August, and with very great pleasure will make necessary inquiries, and then pursue the conduct which the President's instructions enjoin.

I have the honour to be, &c.

HENRY LEE.

A copy conformable to that which was sent to me by the vice-consul of the Republick at Norfolk.

JH. FAUCHET.

No. 43.

Mr. Randolph, Secretary of State, to Mr. Fauchet, Minister Plenipotentiary of the French Republick. Philadelphia, Oct. 2, 1794.

SIR, I have had the honour of receiving your letter of the 1st inst. in which you are pleased to repeat the complaint contained in your letter of the 18th ult. against the English frigate Terpsichore, carrying into Norfolk, in Virginia, as a prize, the French privateer la Montagne. You remonstrate also upon the delay which the governour of Virginia has shown, in granting the relief required by the consul of the French Republick; and desire to be informed of the instructions which have been given in this affair by the Executive of the United States, or at least of the issue of your application.

It was my intention to have replied to the case of the Terpsichore, in the answer which I purpose to make to your letter of the 18th ult. But I have no hesitation in delivering it to you, as my opinion, that her coming into our ports with a prize is inadmissible by our treaty with France. It is more. It is contrary to the rules, which have been long ago prescribed by the President of the United States to the governours of the individual states, and which governour Lee in his letter of the 12th ult. to consul Oster, undertakes to execute.

From the circumstances, however, of governour Lee being possessed of standing instructions and powers, adequate to the exigency, and of Mr. Oster having laid the matter before him, it could not be presumed that he had affected an unnecessary procrastination. Nor did you specify in your letter of the 18th ultimo, the interval between Mr. Oster's application and the retardment of governour Lee's answer. Hence, as it was known to me that it would require some time for a letter to pass from Norfolk to Richmond, the seat of government, for an answer to be returned from Richmond to Norfolk, and for the usual allowance for the possibility of the governour's absence, (which now seems probable from an expression in his letter of the 12th ult. to Mr. Oster) I did not hold myself justified in expressing to him a suspicion of neglect. Without such a suspicion it would have been absolutely useless to address him,

as he could have been merely instructed to make the necessary inquiries, and to fulfil the sense of the President; both which things he ought to accomplish of course, upon being notified of the occasion.

As governour Lee, in that letter of the 12th ultimo, promises to discharge the duties which are expected from him, I cannot doubt that he, or the lieutenant governour in his absence, has before this day completed the business, according to national faith.

But that there may not be any impediment to the gratification of your wishes, I have the pleasure of enclosing to you the copy of a letter, which will be despatched by. the mail of to-morrow to the executive of Virginia.

I have the honour to be, &c.

EDM. RANDOLPH.

P. S. This letter was sent this morning. October 3.

No. 44.

The Secretary of State, to the Lieutenant Governour of Virginia. Philadelphia, October 3, 1794.

SIR,-It is with great mortification, that intelligence has been received at the department of state, from the minister of the French Republick, that the British frigate Terpsichore has carried as prize into Norfolk, or some of our ports in its neighbourhood, the French privateer la Montagne. Our treaty with France positively forbids the admission of a foreign ship of war under such circumstances. The rules which have been adopted by the President, are pointed on this particular subject; what is due to all nawhat tions, we ought faithfully to render to the British; is beyond the rights of the law of nations, we are under no obligation to perform, especially towards the British shipping, which is hourly destroying our trade; and more especially in defiance of a treaty which ought to be held

sacred.

It appears, sir, by a letter from governour Lee to the French consul at Norfolk, on the 12th of September last, that he had undertaken to make the necessary inquiries into the fact, and to do what the nature of the case demanded. The minister of the French Republick is uneasy at

the delay of the governour's answer, and is led to apprehend from thence, a more injurious delay in the effecting of the business. I have given him my ideas of the course of this affair; trusting and believing that the patriotism of the executive of Virginia will not suffer this gross insult to our treaty.

Let me entreat you, sir, to exert the attachment, which I know your whole body to possess, to national faith, and to cause to be rendered to the French Republick, that justice to which it is entitled, upon the presumption, that the facts as stated, shall be found to be accurate.

I have the honour to be, &c.

No. 45.

EDM. RANDOLPH.

Joseph Fauchet, Minister Plenipotentiary of the French Republick near the United States, to Mr. Randolph, Secretary of State of the United States. Philadelphia, the 15th Vindemiaire, 3d year of the French Republick, one and indivisible (6th October, 1794, O. S.)

SIR,-In proportion to the pain of complaining of the negligence and tardiness which are shown in many parts of the United States in the execution of the treaties which equally bind our two nations, is the pleasure of acknowledging the receipt of the despatch, in which I find expressed, with the energy of a friend, the intention of the federal government to maintain the engagements which it has contracted with the French Republick. I observe to you, however, that this intention will produce no effect, if you are obliged to notify it to the governours every time that hostile vessels with their prizes shall enter the ports from their cruise. For these vessels would then have time to take in provisions for themselves and their prizes before the order of departure (which ought to be given to them immediately for fulfilling the object of the contracting parties) can be notified to them. It does not require a long time to make the researches necessary for determining whether a vessel puts into a harbour only by force of the dangers of the sea. This is a case in which a few hours suffice for obtaining information; and it appears to me that there is already a fault on the part of the gover

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