Page:Niles' Weekly Register, v1.djvu/83

THE WEEKLY REGISTER.

Vol. I.] BALTIMORE, SATURDAY, October 5, 1811. [No. 5.

"—I wish no other herald,

" No other speaker of my living Actions,

" To keep mine honor from corruption

" But such an honest chronicler."

Shakspeare — HENRY VIII.

Printed and published by H. Niles, Water-street, near the Merchants' Coffee-House, at $5 per annum

Washington, January 26, 1808.

—Having had the honour to state to you, that I am expressly excluded by my instructions, from entering upon any negotiation for the adjustment of the differences arising from the encounter of his majesty's ship Leopard, and the frigate of the United States, the Chesapeake, as long as the proclamation of the president of the United States, of the 2d of July, 1807, [see page 49] shall be in force, I beg leave to offer you such farther explanation of the nature of that condition, as appears to me calculated to place the motives, under which it has been enjoined to me thus to bring it forward, in their true light.

In whatever spirit that instrument was issued, it is sufficiently obvious, that it has been productive of considerable prejudice to his majesty's interests, as considered to his military and other servants in the United States, to the honor of his flag, and to the privileges of his ministers accredited to the American government. From the operation of this proclamation have unavoidably resulted effects of retaliation, and self-assumed redress, which might be held to affect materially the question of he reparation due to the United States, especially

insasmuch as its execution has been persevered in after the knowledge of his majesty's early unequivocal, and unsolicited disavowal of the unauthorised act of admiral Berkjely;—his disclaimer of the pretensions exhibited by that officer to search the national ships of a friendly power for deserters, and the assurances of prompt and effectual reparation, all communicated without loss of time, to the minister of the United States in London, so as not to leave a doubt as to his majesty's just and amicable intentions. But his majesty, making every allowance for the irritation which was excited, and the misapprehensions which existed, has authosiredauthorised [sic] me to proceed in the negociation upon the sole discontinuance of measures of so inimical a tendency.

You are aware, sir, that any delay which may have arisen in the adjustment of the present differences, is not imputable to an intention of procrastination on the part of his majesty's government on the contrary, its anxiety to terminate as expeditiously as possible the discussion of a matter so interesting to both nations, has been evinced by the communications made by Mr. secretary Canning to Mr. Monroe, before that minister of the United States was even informed of the encounter, and now by the promptitude with which it has dispatched a special mission to this country, for that express purpose.

I can have no difficulty in stating anew to you, with respect to the provisions of my instructions, calculated as they arc to insure an honorable adjustment of the important point in question, and to remove the impressions which the late cause of differences may have excited in the minds of this nation that I am authorised to express my conviction that they are such as will enable me to terminate the negociation amicably and satisfactorily.

Having learnt from you, sir, that it is solely as a measure of precaution the provisions of the proclamation are now enforced, I must persuade myself, that a due consideration of his majesty's conduct in this transaction, will remove as well as any misapprehensions which may be entertained respecting his majesty's disposition towards the United States, as the grounds upon which that enforcement rests, and the more so, as it has long been a matter of notoriety, that the orders issued to the officers of his majesty's navy, in his proclamation of the 16th October, 1807, afforded ample security, that no attempt can again be made to assert a pretension, which his majesty from the first disavowed.

I may add, that if his majesty has not commanded me to enter into the discussion of the other causes of complaint, stated to arise from the conduct of his naval commanders in these, seas prior to the encounter of the Leopard and the Chesapeake, it was because it has been dimmed improper to mingle them, whatever may be their merits, with the present matter, so much more interesting and important in its nature; an opinion originally and distinctly expressed by Mr. Monroe, and assented to by Mr. Secretary Canning. But, if, upon this more recent and more weighty matter of discussion, upon which the proclamation mainly and materially rests, his majesty's amicable intentions are unequivocally evinced, it is sufficiently clear, that no hostile disposition can be supposed to exist on his part, nor can any views be attributed to his government, such as requiring to be counteracted by measures of precaution, could be deduced from transactions which preceded that encounter.

In offering these elucidations, I should observe that the view in which I have brought forward the preliminary, which I have specified, is neither as to demand concession or redress, as for a wrong committed; into such the claim to a discontinuance of hostile provisions cannot be constru; but it is simply to require a cessation of -