I return to my interview with Lord Castlereagh. He remarked, that intrinsic as were the difficulties respecting impressment, his desire was sincere to see them removed; and his efforts to remove them, would be given with earnestness.-I assured him, that, under all my instructions, my efforts would be equally sincere and earnest. The conversation proceeded. We adverted to the principles maintained by our respective countries. He said, that the abuse of the practice, for he freely admitted its abuse, had been the result of the peculiar state of the world, all Europe having been at war, and America neutral. He did not believe that the desire to enforce their right to the same extent, would exist in future; or that it would be drawn into exercise at all, if means could be devised to keep their men out of our vessels. I said, that the question never could be put to rest as long as a British naval officer was allowed to muster an American crew upon an American deck, to look for British seamen. Besides the indignity of this, so felt by all America, the inevitable consequences to which it must lead of subjectingAmericans to seizure instead of Britons, would preclude forever all hope of adjustment. The best mode we could devise of keeping British officers from our vessels on such errands, was that which he had hinted at; namely, to keep British seamen away altogether. This we were desirous to do, as far as in our power. I promised to furnish him with a proposal to this effect; and he, that it should have a liberal consideration.

116. American Proposal for abolishing Impressment, Submitted by Mr Rush to Lord Castleraegh, on the 18th of April, 1818.

"Great Britain alleging a right to impress her seamen out of American vessels upon the high seas, it follows, that whenever a mode can be devised for their previous exclusion from American vessels, the motive for the practice must be at an end. It is believed that this may be effected by each nation imposing restraints upon the naturalization of the seamen of the other, and reciprocally excluding from their service all seamen not naturalized. If Great Britain be allowed to naturalize American seamen, the United States must be allowed to naturalize British seamen. Each should be at liberty to afford the same facilities, or bound to interpose the same restraints. The greater the difficulty in acquiring the right of citizenship, the easier will it be to avoid imposition, and the more complete the desired exclusion. The law of Congress of the third of March one thousand eight hundred and thirteen, of all the provisions of which, Great Britain may command the benefit, will prove how sincerely the United States desire to settle this controversy on conditions satisfactory to Great Britain. By that law it is made indispensable for every British subject who may hereafter become a citizen, to reside five years in the United States without intermission, and so many guards are interposed to prevent frauds, that it seems scarcely possible they should be eluded. No British subject can be employed in a public or private ship of the United States unless he produce to the commander in the one case, and to the collector of the port in the other, a certified copy of the act by which he became naturalized. A list of the crew in the case of a private ship, must be taken, certified, and recorded by the collector; and the consuls or commercial agents of Great Britain may object to the employment of a seaman, and have the privilege of attending the investigation relative to his citizenship. The commander of a public ship receiving a person not

duly qualified, is to forfeit a thousand dollars, and the commander or owner of a private ship, five hundred. It is also made a felony punishable by fine and imprisonment, for any person to forge or counterfeit, or to pass, or use, any forged or counterfeited certificate of citizenship, or to sell or dispose of one.

"The United States will also be willing to provide that every British subject desiring to become a citizen, shall be bound to appear in person before the proper tribunal, once a year, for the term of five years, until his right shall be completed, or adopt any other more practical and satisfactory evidence that his residence within their territory was bona fide and uninterrupted, it being their sincere desire to employ their own seamen only, and exclude British. By requiring five years uninterrupted residence as the condition of citizenship, it is confidently believed that, from considerations readily suggesting themselves, few if any British seamen would be found to take advantage of it. The nature of a seaman's life stands opposed to any other conclusion. If in some instances, a residence should be commenced with a real intention, at the time, of submitting to this condition, the presumption is strong that, at the expiration of the term, such a change of habits and prospects would be superinduced, as to lead to the abandonment forever of the sea as an occupation. If the proposal be accepted, the United States would farther agree, that none of the British seamen who might be within their territory when the stipulation to give it effect was entered into, without having already become citizens, should be admitted into either their public or private ships, until they had acquired the right, according to all the above regulations. In return for them, a clear and distinct provision to be made by Great Britain against impressment out of American vessels."

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Although in our conference of the eleventh [of June, 1818,] I had made known the willingness of the United States to exclude from their naval and merchant service all British seamen, native as well as naturalized, I did not think proper to let the proposition rest on the footing of a verbal offer, but reduced it to writing, [June 20] in terms as follow:

"The proposal submitted by the Undersigned to Lord Castlereagh, upon the subject of impressment, on the eighteenth of April, not being found acceptable, he has the honour to offer on behalf of his government, the following:

"Each nation rigidly to exclude from service on board of their ships of war and merchant vessels, all native born subjects, or citizens of the other. The checks and precautions stated in the former paper, to guard against fraudulent naturalization, to be resorted to (with the proper modifications) to prevent imposition relative to the birth place of seamen, or others adopted. Seamen already naturalized in the United States, to be excluded from the operation of the agreement, as these, by their laws, cannot be included. The number of this class is believed to be small, and in a short time would cease altogether. Although the stipulation for exclusion must be reciprocal, a provision to be inserted authorising the United States, if so disposed, to dispense with the obligations it would impose on their own seamen, whenever the latter may choose of their own accord to enter the British service; this power of dispensation to be reciprocal, if desired.

"Should the above proposal be accepted it will follow that all British seamen or subjects now in the United States, and not heretofore naturalized, will be ex

cluded from their sea service, and that all who arrive in future will be excluded. Great Britain, on her part, to come into a distinct stipulation, not to impress men out of American vessels." R. R.

I handed this paper to his lordship. The proposal had, as I knew, been rejected; but I knew the president's desire to settle this great question, and believed that I should be more truly the organ of his will, by putting the proposal in a shape in which it might go upon the archives of his majesty's government.

117. British Projet for regulating Impressment,

Submitted by the Right Honorable F. J. Robinson and H. Goulbourn, Esq. to Messrs Gallatin and Rush. Extract.

1. "The high contracting parties engage and bind themselves to adopt witheut delay, and in the manner that may best correspond with their respective laws, such measures as may be most effectual for excluding the natural born subjects and citizens of either party from serving in the public or private marine of the other: Provided always, that nothing contained in this article shall be understood to apply to such natural born subjects or citizens of either power as may have been naturalized by their respective laws, previous to the signature of the present treaty. And such measures, when adopted, shall be immediately communicated to each party respectively.

2. "For the better ascertaining the number of persons on either side that may fall within the exception contained in the preceding article, the high contracting parties engage to deliver, each to the other, within twelve months from the ratification of the present treaty, a list of all persons falling within the said exception, specifying the places of their birth, with the date of their becoming naturalized. And it is further agreed, that none other than the persons whose names shall be included in the lists, shall be deemed to fall within the said exception.

3. "The high contracting parties however reserve to themselves the power to authorize and permit by proclamation, their respective subjects or citizens, to serve in the public or private marine of the other country. And it is hereby expressly understood, that, as long as such permission shall remain in force, it shall be competent for the government of the other power, notwithstanding the engagement set forth in the first article of this treaty, to admit the performance of the said service. Provided always, That whenever the power so granting permission to the said subjects or citizens to serve in the marine of the other, shall withdraw the same, notification thereof shall forthwith be made to the other contracting party, and, on receipt of such notification, the power receiving the same shall, forthwith, notify it in the most public and official manner, and shall use its utmost endeavours to restrain the said subjects or citizens of the other party from further serving in its public or private marine, and shall enforce the exclusion of such of the said subjects or citizens of the other power as may then be in its service, as if no such permission had been promulgated.

4. "In consideration of the stipulations contained in the preceding articles, it is agreed by the high contracting parties that, during the continuance of the present treaty, neither power shall impress or forcibly withdraw, or cause to be impressed, or forcibly withdrawn, any person or persons from the vessels of the other power when met upon the high seas, on any plea or pretext whatsoever. Provided always, That nothing contained in this article shall be construed to apply to the vessels of

either power which may be within the ports, or within the maritime jurisdiction of the other, and also provided, that nothing herein contained shall be construed to impair or affect the established right of search as authorized in time of war by the law of nations.

5. "The high contracting parties have agreed to extend the duration of the present treaty to ten years, and they reserve to themselves to concert, as to its renewal, at such convenient period, previous to its expiration, as may ensure to their respective subjects and citizens, the uninterrupted benefit which they expect from its provisions: Provided always, that either power may, if it deem it expedient, upon giving six months previous notice to the other, wholly abrogate and annul the present treaty.

6. "It is agreed that nothing contained in the preceding article shall be understood to affect the rights and principles on which the high contracting parties have heretofore acted, in respect to any of the matters to which these stipulations refer, except so far as the same shall have been modified, restrained, or suspended, by the said articles. And, whenever the present treaty shall cease to be in operation, either by the expiration of the term for which it is, enacted, without any renewal of the same, or by the abrogation thereof by either of the high contracting parties, as hereinbefore provided, or, (which God forbid) by any war between them, each of the said high contracting parties shall stand, with respect to the other, as to its said rights and principles, as if no such treaty had ever been made.”

In submitting these articles, the British plenipotentiares expressed upon the protocol their conviction that under all the difficulties that surrounded the question they would be sufficient to satisfy us of the earnest disposition of Great Britain to go every practicable length in a joint effort for their removal, so as to connect the two countries in the firmest ties of harmony. It was with this solemnity that the subject was presented to our consideration.

It received from ns a deliberate and anxious attention. We brought to the task an unaffected desire to smooth down every obstacle. It was not to be supposed that a subject that had divided the two nations for five and twenty years, and been the principal cause of a war, could be definitively arranged by the first projet of a treaty drawn up by one of the parties. But we hailed the entire plan as the harbinger of adjustment, believing that we saw in its spirit and outline the sure hope of success. Taking an interval for advisement we said, that the proposals heretofore made by the United States could leave no doubt of their constant desire to settle this question, and declared our readiness to agree, with some amendments, to the plan submitted. We added our full expectation that, founded as it was in mutual confidence, it could not fail to have a happy effect towards rendering durable the relations of amity so happily subsisting between the two countries. These sentiments we, too, recorded with like solemnity on the protocol,

Several of our amendments were only verbal. We did not think that the recital in the preamble met the whole case on both sides, and offered alterations, some of which were approved. So the clause under which there might have been a claim to continue impressment in the narrow seas, we objected, and it was, in effect, withdrawn. Nor did we like the particular mode, or place, in which Britain reserved the right of search at the close of the fourth article. We suggested, in lieu of it, that the words should go to a different article, and provide that neither

party should be affected by the treaty "in any of their belligerent or neutral rights as acknowledged by the law of nations, so far as modified, restricted, or suspended by the treaty." It becomes unnecessary however to dwell on these and other points as to which the parties did not agree at first, since they might have agreed ultimately, had it not been for two that proved fatal to the plan. To the explanation of these I therefore confine myself.

The second article, with a view to ascertain the persons who were to be excepted from those intended to be excluded from the sea service of either nation, provides, that each shall furnish the other with a list of their names. This list was to specify the place of their birth, and dates of their naturalization; and none but persons whose names were upon it, were to fall within the exception. To this provision we were obliged to object, our laws not enabling us to meet all that it required. As a substitute we proposed that "no natural born subject or citizen of either power whose name should not be included in the list, should be deemed to fall within the excep→ tion,

UNLESS HE PRODUCED PROOF OF HIS HAVING BEEN DULY NATURALIZED PRIOR TO THE EXCHANGE OF RATIFICATIONS OF THE TREATY."

Reasons must be given why the United States could not comply with the British article as it stood. Anterior to 1789, aliens were naturalized according to the laws of the several states composing the Union. Under this system, the forms varied and were often very loose. The latter was especially the case when they were drawn up by justices of the peace, as sometimes happened. Since that epoch, the forms have been uniform, and are only permitted before such courts of record as are designated by the laws of the United States. But the designation includes not only courts of the United States, properly so called, but courts of the several states. Minor children also of naturalized persons, if the former be within the limits of the Union, become ipso facto, naturalized. It must be added, that, for several years no discrimination as to the birth place of aliens was recorded. If attempts were made to procure the lists required, a first objection might have been that the courts of the several states were not bound to obey, in this respect, a call from the general government. But granting that all obeyed, the lists would have exhibited nothing more than the names of British natural born subjects, naturalized during a period of nearly thirty years, They would not designate seamen, the law not having required a record of the occupation; nor would they embrace minor children, their names never having been directed to be registered. There was but one other source from which lists could have been derived, and here only partially. By a law of 1796, collectors of customs were required to keep books in which the names of seamen, citizens of the United States, were, on their own application, to be entered. Under this law, as may be inferred from its terms, the entry of names was not full; nor did the law draw a distinction between native citizens and citizens by naturalization.

From this summary it is manifest, that a compliance with the British article would have been impracticable. The unavoidable consequence of consenting to it would have been, that aliens naturalized before the treaty, and entitled by our laws to all the rights of citizens, would, by an ex post facto and therefore unconstitutional measure, have found themselves excluded from following the seas as an occupation.