45

The Secretary of State (Madison) to the British Chargé (Thornton)1 WASHINGTON, October 27, 1803.

SIR: The letters of which copies are inclosed, were received last evening. One of them is from the British Consul General at New York; the other a copy inclosed therein, of a letter to him from Commodore Hood, commander in chief of his Britannic Majesty's ships of War on a West India station. The letter bears date of the 25th of July last, and requests that the American Government and Agents of Neutral Nations might be made acquainted, that the Islands of Martinique and Gaudaloupe are and have been blockaded from the 17th of June preceeding, by detachments from the Squadron under his command; in order that there may be no plea for attempting to enter the ports of those Islands.

It will not escape your attention, that Commodore Hood's letter is dated no less than three months before it could have the effect of a notification, and that besides this remarkable delay, the alledged blockade is computed from a date more than one month prior to that of the letter itself. But these circumstances however important they may be, do not constitute the main objection to the proceeding of the British Commander. His letter instead of stating that a particular port or ports were blockaded, by a force actually before them, declares general two entire & considerable Islands to be in a state of blockade. It can never be admitted that the trade of a neutral Nation in articles not contraband, can be legally obstructed to any place, not actually blockaded, or that any notification or proclamation, can be of force unless accompanied with an actual blockade. The law of Nations is perhaps more clear on no other point than on that of a siege or blockade, such as will justify a Bellegirent Nation in restraining the trade of Neutrals. Every term used in defining the case, imports the presence and position of a force, rendering access to the prohibited place, inanifestly difficult and dangerous. Every Jurist of reputation, who treats with precision this branch of the law of Nations, refers to an actual and particular blockade. Not a single treaty can be found which undertakes to define a blockade, in which the definition does not exclude a general or nominal blockade, by limiting it to the case of a sufficient force so disposed as to amount to an actual and particular blockade. To a number of such treaties Great Britain is a party.

'MS., Domestic Letters, vol. xiv. pp. 215–218.

42179-34--17

66

9

Not to multiply references on the subject, I confine myself to the 4 Art. of the Convention of June 1801, between Great Britain and Russia which having been entered into for the avowed purpose" of settling an invariable determination of their principles upon the rights of neutrality ", must necessarily be considered as a solemn recognition of an existing and general principle & right, not as a stipulation of any new principle or right limited to the parties themselves. The article is in the words following, "That in order to determine what "characterizes a blockaded port, that denomination is given only to a port where there is, by the dispositions of the power which attacks "it with Ships stationary or sufficiently near, an evident danger in "entering.”—It cannot be necessary to dwell on the inconsistency of the kind of blockade declared by Commodore Hood, with the principle laid down concerning the rights of neutrality; or on the consequences of the principle on which a blockade of whole Islands by a few ships is founded, to the commerce and interests of neutral nations. If the Islands of Martinique and Gaudaloupe, the latter not less than 250 and the former nearly 150 Miles in circumference, and each containing a variety of ports, can be blockaded by detatchments from a Commodore's Squadron, it is evident that a very inconsiderable portion of the British fleet may blockade all the Maritime Countries with which she is at War. In a word such a principle compleatly sacrifices the rights of neutral commerce to the pleasure or the policy of the parties at war. But it deserves to be particularly remarked, that a power to proclaim general blockades, or any blockade not formed by the real presence of a sufficient force, to be exercised by officers at a distance from the controul of their government, and deeply interrested in enlarging the field of captures which they are to share, offers a temptation that must often aggravate the evils incident to the principle itself. You will infer Sir from these observations the serious light in which the President regards the proceeding which is the subject of them; and will perceive the grounds on which the injuries accruing from it to our commerce, will constitute just claims of indemnification from the British Government. To deminish the extent of these injuries as much as possible, and to guard the good understanding and friendly relations of every sort, which are so desirable to both Nations against the tendency of such measures, will I venture to assure myself, be sufficient motives with you to employ the interpositions with Commodore Hood, which you may judge best adapted to the nature of the case.

I am [etc.]

JAMES MADISON

1

46

The Secretary of State (Madison) to the British Minister (Merry)1 WASHINGTON, December 24, 1803.

SIR: I have received from the Collector at one of our Ports a copy of an American Ships Register, on which is endorsed as follows: "Every port in the Island of S Domingo being in a state of blockade by His Britannic Majesty's Squadron, you are hereby warned off from that Island, and if seen or found within three leagues of the land after the date of this, you will be made a prize off. Given under my hand on board His Majesty's Ship Bellerophon off Cape François 26th Oct 1803, (signed) John Loring", on the face of the document, and thro' its contents is written the same notice in substance signed by the same Commander. In case of a real blockade, and of a customary warning thereof to Neutral Vessels, it might justly be expected that more respect would be shewn to so solemn and so permanent an instrument as the Register of a Ship, than to select it for such a purpose, and particularly to deface it in such a manner. Other papers of the Ship, the clearance for example, which could not be safely destroyed with a view to surpress the intended proof might certainly be substituted with more propriety, and with sufficient effect: And there would be the greater reason in committing the notice to an occasional document, as the notice itself might be limited to the occasion: Whereas if attached to a permanent document, it might subject the neutral vessel indefinitely to interruptions, neither warrantable nor contemplated. But you will readily perceive Sir, that these remarks do not touch the primary object which demands attention. There is another and still more extraordinary instance in which a blockade is pretended and declared by a few Ships against a whole Island, of vast extent and abounding with ports and places of commerce. Persuaded that so gross a violation of the rights of neutrality will sufficiently speak for itself, and make its own appeal to the justice, the honor and the friendly dispositions of your Government, I forbear to make any comment on it, farther than to refer to that contained in my letter of the 27th October last to Mr Thornton, on a similar proceeding against our commerce with the Island of Martinique and Guadaloupe. I must request, however that in addition to the communications which you will doubtless make to your Government on this subject, you will take such other steps as will be most likely to remove without delay, a source of so much injury and irretation, not only in this last case, but in the one preceeding which is not known to have been discontinued.

'MS., Domestic Letters, vol. XIV, pp. 245–247.

I cannot dismiss this subject without calling your attention to a circumstance which is no inconsiderable aggravation of the principal wrong. The American Vessel is informed that if found, after the notice given, within three Leagues of any port of the coast, it will subject her to the consequences of violating the blockade. If it were the intention to extend the Territorial Jurisdiction of the Island 3 leagues from the shore, it might be asked on what authority this distance is prescribed? it might be asked on what pretext any Territorial jurisdiction could be assumed by those who do not occupy a single foot of the Island? If it were intended that the mere appearance of the vessel within the given distance should be taken for proof of her steering for a blockaded port, the question not only recurs as to the reality of the blockade, but it might be asked with what colour such a proof could be drawn from a circumstance which might result either from the casualties of the weather and seas or from a voyage to other Islands or places, for which such a course is known to be often most convenient, and even absolutely necessary. In making this communication to you Sir, which is done by an express charge from the President, I feel a perfect confidence that you will do justice equally to its importance and to its motives. Our two Nations have every reason to cultivate the good understanding which subsists between them, and the cordiality with which it continues to be promoted on the part of the United States has been too thoroughly manifested to be called into doubt. They have the best grounds therefore to expect and to claim in return every proof of justice and respect which is due to the example on their side, and to the interests on both sides: They look for those returns more particularly in the case of their Maritime rights, because it is in the case of these that they have hitherto had most ground of complaint; because it is in the case of these that their sensibility is at this moment awakened; and because in the same case therefore a reciprocity of justice and of respect will contribute most to consolidate the friendly and beneficial relations to which the two Nations are respectively united.

I am [etc.]

JAMES MADISON

47

The Secretary of State (Madison) to the Minister in Great Britain

(Monroe)1

WASHINGTON, January 5, 1804.

SIR: The information and observations which you have as yet received from me since your arrival in London, on the impressment

1 MS., Instructions to United States Ministers, vol. VI, pp. 161-186; printed in American State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol. III, pp. 81-89.

of our seamen, and other violations of our rights, have been in private letters only. The delay in making these injuries the subject of official communications, proceeded, first, from an expectation that the British Government would have notified formally to the United States as a neutral power, the state of War between Great Britain and France; which would have been an apt occasion, for combining with assurances of the fairness with which our neutral obligations would be fulfilled, our just claims on a correspondent respect for our neutral rights, and particularly of those which had been least respected during the last war: secondly, from the expected arrival of Mr Merry, which, if he should not be charged with such a notification, might be a favorable opportunity for commencing the explanations and discussions which must precede a thorough correction of the wrongs which we experience.

Since the arrival of Mr Merry, accordingly, no time has been lost in calling his attention to the subject; and in preparing both it and him, for the negotiation which is now to be committed to you. If appearances are to be trusted, his impressions and representations will be friendly to it. In my conversations with him, which have been free and full, he has expressed the best dispositions, has listened with candor to the appeals made as well to the considerations of justice, as of the solid interest of his nation; and altho' he suggests serious difficulties on certain points, he will, I believe, sincerely cooperate in lessening them, and in bringing about an arrangement which will be acceptable to this country. The only topic on which any thing has passed in writing between the Department of State and him, is that of the pretended blockade of St Domingo. Copies of my letter to him and of his answer, are herewith enclosed; as also of the letter written to Mr Thornton some time before, and referred to in that to M Merry, in relation to a like blockade of Martinique and Guadaloupe.

Altho' there are many important objects which may be thought to invite conventional regulations between the United States and Great Britain, it is evidently proper to leave for subsequent consideration, such as are less urgent in their nature or more difficult in their adjustment; and thereby to render the way plainer and shorter to an agreement with respect to objects which cannot be much longer delayed without danger to the good understanding of the two nations. With this view the plan of a Convention contemplated by the President, is limitted to the cases of impressments of our seamen, of blockades, or visiting and searching our vessels, of contraband of War, and of the trade of hostile colonies, with a few other cases affecting our maritime rights; embracing however, as inducements to Great Britain to do us justice therein, a provision for the surrender of