Page:Niles' Weekly Register, v1.djvu/99

THE WEEKLY REGISTER.

Vol. I.] BALTIMORE, SATURDAY, October 12, 1811. [No. 6.

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Sir— Being deeply impressed with the sense of his majesty's anxiety, that full effect should be given to those views of justice and moderation, by which his conduct has been regulated through the whole of the unfortunate transaction whence the present differences have arisen; and of the disappointment with which he would learn the frustration of his just and equitable purposes; I have felt it incumbent upon me, on the receipt ot the letter which you did me the honor to address to me on the 5th instant, to apply anew to this matter the most ample and serious consideration. It is with the most painful sensations of regret, that I find myself on the result of it, under the necessity of declining to enter into the terms of negotiation, which by direction of the president of the United States, you therein offer. I do not feel myself competent, in the present instance, to depart from those instructions, which I stated in my letter of the 26th of January last, and which preclude me from acceding to the condition thus proposed.

I should add, that I am absolutely prohibited from entering upon matters unconnected with the specific object I am authorised to discuss, much less can I thus give any pledge concerning them. The condition suggested, moreover, leads to the direct inference that the proclamation of the president of the United Staters of the 2d of July, 1807, is maintained either as an equivalent for reparation for the time being, or as a compulsion to make it.

It is with the more profound regret, that I feel myself under the necessity of declaring, that I am unable to act upon the terms thus proposed; as it becomes my duty to inform you, in conformity to my instructions, that on the rejection of the demand stated in my former letter on the part of his majesty, my mission is terminated. And as his majesty's government in providing me with those instructions, did not conceive that after the declaration of his sentiments respecting the affair of the Chesapeak was made known to this government, the state of any transactions pending or unterminated between the two nations could justify the perseverance in the enforcement of the president's proclamation, I can exercise no discretion on this point.

As on a former accasion I detailed, though minutely, the motives for that demand, on the part of his majesty which I, with so much concern, learn to be deemed inadmissable by the government of the United States: I should here abstain from any exposition of them which visibly can have no further effect upon the negotiation, if I did not deem it essential that they should not be left under nay misapprehension which I might be able to remove; I shall therefore take a short review of the transaction which has given rise to these discussions, in order the more correctly to determine the soundness of the principles upon which the demand is made.

Certain deserters from his majesty's navy, many of them his natural born subjects, having entered into the service of the United States, were repeatedly and fruitlessly demanded by the British officers, of the recruiting officers of the United States; but were retained in their new service. As it was a matter of notoriety, that several of these deserters were on board the frigate of the United States the Chesapeake, they were demanded of that frigate on the high seas, by his majesty's ship Leopard; and all knowledge of their presence on board being- denied, she was attacked, and four of them, one avowedly a native-Englishman, were taken out of her. Without being deterred by the consideration of how far circumstances hostile in their nature, had provoked, though they undoubtedly by no means justified this act of the British officer, his majesty's government directed that a positive disavowal of the right of search asserted in this case; and of the act of the British officer, as being authorised, and a promise of reparation, should be conveyed to the American minister in London, before he had made any representation by order of the United States.

This disavowal made on the second of August last, was transmitted by him to his government before the 6th of that month; but before Mr. Monroe had received his orders to demand reparation, his majesty learnt with what surprize it is needless to dwell upon, that the president of the United States had interdicted by proclamation bearing date the 2d of July. 1807, the entry of all their ports to the whole of his navy; this surprize was certainly increased, when in the letter delivered by that minister to require address for the wrong, although it went into details unconnected with it; not only no concern was expressed on the part of the United States, at having felt themselves compelled to enact measures of so much injury and indignity towards a friendly power, but no mention was made of the causes of such measures being resorted to, or even of the fact of their having been adopted. In addition to the embarrassment arising from these circumstances, and the insufficiency of the explanations subsequently given to Mr. Canning, the introduction of a subject foreign to that of the complaint, became the main impediment to the success of this discussion which took place in London. When I had the honour to open the negociation with you, sir, as I had learnt that the proclamation was still in force, it became my duty conformably to my instructions, to require its recall, as a preliminary to further discussion: had it not been in force, I was not ordered to have taken it into consideration in the adjustment of re-