The enquirer. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1804-1815, 1815-05-03


Peace. The reader will PLAINLY perceive the came
PLAYED off by CocLroie md Cock5in7i in this sffsir
We trust, aud hope Congress will not suffer this affair
TO pass without Investigation.
SahetO Island. [Geo.l
March Is, 1913.
We left Darien on Sunday the 5th
instant, and arrived at Durginess at o'clock
on Monday As we observed British troops
were embarkiUg, and we believed many
slaves and much private property would be
sent off with them, we determined 20 call upon
Ad. Cockbura Immediately, 8, to present the
letters from General Pinckney and Yourself.
with our letter OF authority. On reading
General Pinckney's letter, and discovering
that instead of copy of the treaty of peace
from the secretary OF states office, the Ma
tional Intellgencer was enclosed Admiral
Cockburn expressed much surprise, and il
appeared from his manner, that his temper
was not little rufiied by the incident He
totally denied the authority of treaty SO
communicated to him. After reminding him
that the Intelligencer was the state paper of
the United States, that in England the publ
cation of treaty in the Gazette would be
considered the proper PRONUNCIATION of 1t, and
the impossibiity that there would be, of fur
nishing to every detached squadron that foa-
ted upon the sea, any more authentic copy
forded CHEESE were the ideas brought forward
and this the language excepting abridged, y
Admiral Cockburn still denied our position
but then proposed to us, that we should make
a transcript of the treaty, that we should Ger
tify it to be true copy, and should present
it to him as such, on the part Of General
Pinckuey and yourself. As forms were no
object, we assented to this at once-this diff
Guilty having been gotten over, we thought it
tel,
matter of our mission, and reque sted TO know
of admiral Cockburn what public property
taken at Point Petre or at ST Marys remain
ed upon Cumberland Island, in the ships near
Dunginess, or in the ships then LAYING in the
Sound, of which there were many some of
these ships taken at St. Mary's, and then
loaded with property taken at the same place.
AS We had no instructions as to the extent of
the restitution we should demand, and were
left TO our own judgment on the occasion, we
determined to adopt the same rule in regard
to private property and to slaves, that we
had adopted in regard to public property
We, therefore, demanded all the slaves and
private property of every description taken
or received at Cumberland Island at st. Ma
ry'. or ST Simon's, and which was then on
Cumberland Island, or laying in the waters
contiguous tn the same, on board his ships, or
which had been there at the ratification of the
treaty of peace by the President of the United
States and, i'll making this dietnanti, we were
happy to ind that very great proportion of
the public and private property and almost
all the slaves taken or received since the Bri-
fish forces had been operating i'll Georgia,
came within the limits we had prescribed to
our demand. To our enquiry as to public
property, and our demand as to private, Ad-
miral Cockburn at once replied, he had no
public property, that the guns he had remov-
ed, the munitions of war he had destroyed
but if they were there, not having been taken
at Cumberland Island, which place alone re-
manned i'll his possession at the ratification OF
the treaty, they did not come within the OPP
Grafton of the first article of it that with re-
gard to the private property, he meant to a
dept the same rule; that the property and
slaves taken at Cumberland, aud remaining
thegR at the ratification, would be restored,
but What were taken or received from other
places, although on Cumberland, or in the
ships in the river or sound, would not. 1t viii
be understood, that we do not here repeat the
words but the substance of what admiral
Cockburn said, who appeared during the
whole of this conversation, a little warm: ha-
wing discovered the construction admiral
Cockburn had been pleased to put upon the
treaty, and his manner forbidding hope of a
change of opinion, Mr.. Spalding thought it
proper to draw his attention to the ships then
laying within hundred yards of the wharf of
punginess, on board of which it was known
some slaves were, by observing to him, that
the river was taken possession Of at the time
that Cumberland was occupied by the British
forces that it was equally in his possession
with the soil adjacent on the ratification of
the treaty, and would only be restored to the
United States, at the moment he withdrew
his forces from Dunginess ; that consequent
ly under his own rule, the property & slaves
on board those ships, originally taken at Cum
berland, it was expected would partake of
the quality of the property and slaves origi-
nally found on Cumberland, and remaining
there. To this. admiral Cockburn replied,
that wherever the British flag was, there is
British territory and by way of calculating
mis- position, demanded of Mr.. Spaldng, whe1
Their if he, admiral Cockburn, committed a
murder on board one of those ships in time
Of peace, he believed him amenable to the
laws of the United States " No sir" said
he, i am amenable to my own govern
ment and to my own sovereign ;" to this it
was replied, he was amenable to his own
government and to his own sovereign as an
officer but he was amsnable to the laws of
the United States as a man and it was in
turn asked, whether ne believed if "A murder
was committed on board an American ship i'm
the river Of Thames, the laws of England
would not operate on the murderer" No