Alexandria daily gazette, commercial & political. [volume] (Alexandria [Va.]) 1808-1812, 1811-11-25

fariS, Stn JUNE, 1911
SIR,
The case of the New-Orleans Packet hav-
ing apparently excited considerable interest, 1t
may not be unacceptable to you to receive a
more particular account of it than have HI
therto transmitted.
This vessel, owned by Mr.. Alexander Ru-
den of New York, left that place Oil the 25th
of July, with clearance for Lisbon, but ac-
tually destined for Gibraltar. Her cargo,
likewise the property of Mr.. Ruden, consisted
of so7 whole tierccs and 81 half tlerces of
rice, $50 bags Of Surinan cocoa, 10 hogs
heads of tobacco, 6 tieYces of hams, so bar
rels of pork, 60 barrels Of beet, 200 barrels OF
-four, SO tierces of beans and 81 frkins ofbut-
ter. On her passage to Gibraltar she was
boarded by an English frigate and an English
schooner, and after short detention allowed
to proceed. On arriving at Gibraltar the 26th
of August, Mr.. Munro, the supercargo, pro-
ceeded to sell the cargo and actually disposed
of the flour, the beans and the butter, when
about the goth of September packet arrived
there from England, bringing newspapers
containing the publication Of the letter from
the Duke of Galore of the 5th Of August
On the receipt of this intelligence Mr.. Munro
immediately suspended his sales, and after
having consulted with Mr.. Hackley the Anne
ri can consul at Cadiz, he determined to pro-
ceed with the remainder of his cargo TO Bnr-
deaux. He remained, however, at Gibraltar
until the 22d of October, that he might not
arrive in France before the lst of November,
the day on which the Berlin and Milan de-
crees were to cease to operate. He arrived
In the Garonne on the l4th of November, but
by reason of his quarantine did not reach Bor-
deaux before the Sd Of December. On the
5th of this month the director of the customs
there. seized the New-Orieans Packet and her
ego under the Milan DEGREES OF the Esd No
vember and 18th December 1907, expressly
set forth, for having come from an English
port and for having been visited by an English
vessel of war. These facts having been stated
to me by Mr.. MonTo, or by Mr.. Meyer, the
American vice consul at Bordeaux and the
principle one, that of the seizure under the
Milan DEGREES, being established BY the hro-
cess ver6ai put into my hands by MIR. Martini,
one of the consignecs of the cargo, | con-
ceived it to be my duty not to suffer the
transaction to pass uRnoticed and thereby per-
nit it to grow into violation of the engage
ments of this government. While was con-
sidering the most proper mode OF bringing the
conduct of the custom house officer at the port
under the eyes of his superiors, learnt OF
the arrival Of the Essex at L Orient. From the
time at which this frigate was reported to have
left the United States, had no doubt that she
had brought the proclamation of the Presi-
dent, announcing the revocation OF the very
DEGREES under which this precipitate seizure
had been made. could but think, therefore,
that il was important to afford to this govern
ment an opportunity of disavowing the con-
duct of its officer, SO incompatible with the
engagements on which the President had in
all probability reposed with confidence, in
season to shew that this confidence had not
been mistimed OR misplaced. To have wait
ed for the recei pt OF the proclamation IN order
to make use of it for the liberation OF theNew
Orleans Packet, appeared to me spreposter
Gus and unworthy course of proceeding, and
to be nothing better than absurdly and basely
employing the declaration OF the President
that the Berlin and Milan DEGREES had been
revoked, as The means of obtaining their revo-
cation. believed It became me to take high
er ground, and, without combining myself to
the mode best calculated to recover the pro-
perty, to pursue that which the dignity OF the
American government required.
A crisis in my opinion presented itself
which was to decide whether the French edicts
were retracted as a preliminary to the execu-
ton of our law, or whether by the non-per
Torrance of one party and the prompt per-
formance of the other, the order in which
these measures ought to stand was to be re-
versed, and the American government shut
fed into the lead where national honor and
the law required it to follow Uncertain what
would be the conduct of this government, but
clear what it ought to be, thought it polite
to present briefly the honest construction of
the terms in which the revocation of the de-
crees was communicated on the 5th of August
that the conditions might not be tortured into
pretext for continuing them. believed
this to be the more necessary, as no occasion
had hitherto occurred for offering such an In
depreciation. likewise supposed it TO be de-