UNITED STATES, _January_ 17, 1798.
MONDAY, January 22.
JOSIAH TATTNALL, from the State of Georgia, attended.
FRIDAY, February 2.
JOHN SLOSS HOBART, appointed a Senator by the State of New York, in the
place of Philip Schuyler, resigned, produced his credentials, and, the
oath required by law being administered, he took his seat in the Senate.
MONDAY, February 5.
_French Outrage._
The following Message was received from the PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED
STATES; which was read:
_Gentlemen of the Senate, and Gentlemen of the House of
Representatives_:
I have received a letter from his Excellency Charles
Pinckney, Esq., Governor of the State of South Carolina,
dated the 22d October, 1797, enclosing a number of
depositions and witnesses to several captures and outrages
committed within and near the limits of the United States,
by a French privateer belonging to Cape Francois, or Monte
Christo, called the Vertitude or Fortitude, and commanded
by a person of the name of Jordan or Jourdain, and
particularly upon an English merchant ship named the
Oracabissa, which he first plundered and then burned, with
the rest of her cargo, of great value, within the territory
of the United States, in the harbor of Charleston, on the
17th of October last. Copies of which letter and
depositions, and also of several other depositions relative
to the same subject, received from the Collector of
Charleston, are herewith communicated.
Whenever the channel of diplomatical communication between
the United States and France shall be opened, I shall
demand satisfaction for the insult and reparation for the
injury.
I have transmitted these papers to Congress, not so much
for the purpose of communicating an account of so daring a
violation of the territory of the United States, as to show
the propriety and necessity of enabling the Executive
authority of Government to take measures for protecting the
citizens of the United States and such foreigners as have a
right to enjoy their peace, and the protection of their
laws, within their limits, in that as well as some other
harbors which are equally exposed.