The enquirer. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1804-1815, 1812-08-18


writing alsoto MIR. King. he says. :. For the
British government to make hrofessions Of
respect to the rights Of our citizens, and
willingness to release them, and yet deny
the only means Of ascertaining those rights
is an Insulting fanfGfsni." Again On the
Sd ofOct. 1897, he states, ' MIR. Liston has
assured me, that the British officers have
orders not to impress any American sea
men, and of course not to retain against
their will any already impressed but if
obey resist in obstructing every channel Of
information and proof of their citizenship,
such orders are and will continue decep-
tive"
On the goth of Sept 1900, Judge Marshall
wrote thus To Mr.. King (" The mere re-
lease OF the injured, after long course of
service and OF suffering, is no compensation
for the past, and no security for the future"
f" 1t is impossible not to believe that the de-
cisive interference of the government in this
respect, would prevent practice. the on.
finnance Of Shfch mast inevitably produce
discord besaveea tsvo nations which ought to
be the friends of each other The u. S.
therefore, require positively that their sea-
men who are not British subjects, whether
born in America OF elsewhere, shall be cx-
empt from imprcssments."
Thus we find that the subject Continued
TO acquire, in the minds of the most enlight-
ened tederalists, &, eater Importance every
year; that they began to be reused on the
question TO considerable degree of irritati-
TN in the last year of their power, in conse-
quence of their beginning to lose all hope
OF peaceab.e accommodation. TIL. whole
progress If negotiation. in truth, had in that
respect been scene, as Judge Marshall
depicts it. OF unsuccessful remembrance
and unavailing memorials" The republic
cans, nevertheless. tried friendly represen-
tatins still luther.
Here it will be proper to recur TO the 10th
page OF the Address, where it is asserted
that " Mr. King, when minister in England,
.ibtained a disavowal of the British govern
nent OF the right to impress American sea-
men, naturalized as we'll as native, on the
nigh seas But at the moment the ar
ticles were expected to be signed, an excep-
ton OF the 'narrogv seas was urged and
insisted on by Lord ST. Vincents. and being
utterly inadmissibe ON our part. the negnci,
alton was abandoned" These circumstan-
ces are stated by the pamphleteers to show
that q. B. was willing TO enter into q friendi,
arrangement.
To understand the reason why no ar
rangement took place, it is necessary to ex
plain, briefly, what the phrase narrow
seas" imports. The pretension to psculi-
n rights IN those seas is well characterised
by Mr.. Madison, in his letter to Mr.. Mon
roe of January S. 1904. a. The objection i'm
itself (says Mr.. NJ J has certainly not the.
slightest foundation. The time has been,
indeed. when England not only claimed but
exercised prctensions scarcely inferior to
full sovereignty over the seas surrounding
The British Isles, and even as far as Cape
Finisterre to the south, and Van Staten in
Norway To the north. 1t was a time howe
yer, when reason had little share in deter
mining the law and the intercourse Of natl
ons; When power alone decided questions
of right; and when the ignorance and want
of concert among other maritime Countries
facilitated such An usurpation." Further
on he says, 7" What are in fact the prero-
gatiyes claimed and exercised by C. Bri-
tain over these seass II they were really
a part of her domain, her authority would
De the same there as within her other do.
mains. Foreign vessels would be subject To
all the laws and regulations framed for them
as much as If they were within the harbors &
rivers of the Country." And in conclusion
of the subject OF the " NARROW seas" in the
same letter, Mr.. Madison says: THE truth
is, that so great proportion of cur trde, di-
rect and circnitous, passes through those
channels, and such is its peculiar exposure
in them to the wrong practised, that with
such an exception, any remedy would be
very partial. And we can never consent
to purchase partial remedy by confirming
a general evil; and by subjecting ourselves
TO our own reproaches, as well as to those of
other nations"
Mr.. Madison is not singular IN this opinion,
The very reason why Mr.. Rufus King "a
gentleman proposed by the Federal party
as Vice President of the U. Statesl would
not consent TO the arrangement with the ex-
ception OF the narrow SEAS" was, as he
has himself alledged. because the exception.
claimed was greater than the evil which
the arrangement was intended to cure.
Mr.. King seems to be OF opinion, howe
ver' (say the Addressers) &c that with moro
time than was left him for the experimen t,
the objection might have been overcome 49,
What time was left MIR. King for the expe.
riment, Continues the pamphlet), or whe-
Their any vas ever made, has not been dis-
closed 10 the public" In this, the address
sers are uncandid enough to attempt to con-
ceal a fact that must have been nowr to
them for although Mr.. King did imagine
that the objection might have been over
come.yet subsequent experiment shsws that
he was mistaken. In the same volume of
public documents, from which the pam
Phleteers have quoted so disingenuously, will
be found project OF a convention presented
to Lord Hawkcsbury, April z, 1904, (after
Mr. Kings recall which embraced recipro-
Cal stipulatiOns against impressments K for
delivering up seamen But Mr.. Monroe says,
in his lettePto the Secretary of State, of ku-
gust Z, 1904. =" found, OH the whole, that
his lordship did not wish to encourage the
t;os,k l-nN IL. 4 4