Alexandria daily gazette, commercial & political. [volume] (Alexandria [Va.]) 1808-1812, 1810-01-08

"a n, arrangement Of the ie,h and lGh Of
Anril is sufficiently obvious to require NO
.eIrcilation nor need draw the e"ncls =.
.;on which I consider as admitted nv an
ab,enee Of complain. on the part Of the, n-
mrr;cun government, viz. that under sue"
c;rcun,.sa aces, his majesty had an M
,il,nI,ed and inconuoveriblr right'to a''a'
,ov The act of his minister. mnst here
alIude to a supposition which you nave
a nor. than once mentioned to me-, and by
which If it had any the sig hte't fo"nda''o"'
this right might perhaps in some dsgfes;
have been affected. You have inh,rned
me tia. you understood that Mr.. Ersk'nc
h,,, ,wo sets of instructions, by which tore.
cnlate his conduct and that upon one OF
Them, which had not been communicated
either to you or to the public, WAS 20 DC
rested the justification of the terms i'nai!y
agreed upon between you and him. 1t is
nv du,y, sir, sclemnly to declare to YOU,
and through you, to the president, that the
despatch from Mr.. Canning to Mr.. Er-
skine, which you have made the basis OF IN
official correspondence with the latter MI
mister. and which was read by the former
70 the American minister in London, is the
only despatch, by which the conditions
were prescribed to Mr.. Erskine fer the con-
clusion of an arrangement with this county
on the matter to which it rrlases."
Here we find that MIR. Jackson expressly
places the disavowal on The difference IN tic
conditions contained in the instruction a;'d
the terms of thu arrangement, and aga'n
draws his conclusion that under such cir
cums:ances the king had right to disavow
the act of his ministry. WHen speaking OF
the instruction he admits that Mr. ErsHlne
had not communicated it in cT.enso, but
deems it necessary in answer to sHESes-
ton made by Mr.. Smith in their confcren'
ces, that Mr.. Er,kine had more than one
set of instructions solemnly to assure our
secretary, and through him the president,
that such was not the case. ihs decia'a-
ton is to me utterly irrccorcilable with the
notion of an insinuation that the executive
of this country knew at the time OF his ar
raneement that the British agent was acting
without authority. If Mr.. Jackson la
intended charge of this kind, he certainly
would not thus notice mere conversation
for the sole purpose of giving an Official nc
gative to it.
There is one part of the paragraph which
l have last read to you which requires a
moments attention, as it has been the sub
iect of some cavil; a,lutle 70 th-t part o!
the specification of the letter of Mr.. Can
ming IN which Mr.. Jackson says tina, secrr-
tary Saith had made i, the bass OF a cor
respondence with Mr.. Erskine. This is
sufficiently explained by reference TO the
letter from Mr.. Smith TO Mr.. Erskine Ut
the 9th of August. In that letter the tlcs-
patch is indeed made the basis OF CORES.
pondsn,e. 1t was no: SO anterior to the or
arrangement. One observation more, sir, in
relation to this letter. 1t has been urged
that in fair and critical construction OF the
terms used by Mr.. Jackson, it lot only
does not appear that Mr.. Ers&inr had no
authority to conclude the arrangement, hn,
it is Justly to be inf-rr.t that he had au.
thority. This confess is not my consuuc-
ton OF the Litter, but il is surely STANCE
for those VINO make and profess 20 believe
it, to urge at tie same time that Mr.. Jack
son in the same letter has charged the 60
vcrnmsnt with the knowledge Of matter
which he admits t. be untrue, that Mr.. Er.
skine acted without authority.
l shall now, for the present, leave the
Grst letter to Mr.. Jackson, remarkias, that
in the part of it which we have had before.
US, understand him as proceeding on the
hypothesis that our goverumen, asked from
him an explanation of the disavowal, and
thar he attempts to answer such call by re-
ferring to the despatch Of the Esd of Janua-
ry as containing the only authority Of his
predecessor, and alleging the disavowal was
occasioned by what was regarded OH the
part of his government departure from
such authority. AS to the insinua,ion at,
tribufed to Mr.. Jackson, it is not my wish
to extenuate, bu. have not been able TO
discover it. Ifi,is in the letter it is 4 mite
too small for my vision. -. ''
The next letter in course 10 that of Mr.