UNITED STATES, _Feb. 7, 1800_.
DEPARTMENT OF STATE,
_February 6, 1800_.
The Secretary of State has prepared, as directed, and now
respectfully submits to the President of the United States,
copies of the papers which probably were contemplated by
the House of Representatives, in their resolve of the 4th
instant; although no requisition, as the resolve supposes,
has ever been received, nor any communication made to the
Judge of the District Court of South Carolina, concerning
any man by the name of Jonathan Robbins. But by the
proceedings before that Judge, as they have been published,
it appears that a seaman named Thomas Nash, the subject of
the British Minister's requisition, did assume the name of
Jonathan Robbins, and make oath "that he was a native of
the State of Connecticut, and born in Danbury, in that
State." The Secretary, therefore, besides the copy of the
requisition, and the copies of his letter to the Judge of
the District Court of South Carolina, and of the Judge's
answer, has prepared, and herewith encloses, copies of the
certificates of the selectmen and town clerk of Danbury,
and extracts of letters from Admiral Sir Hyde Parker,
satisfactorily proving that the Thomas Nash, calling
himself Jonathan Robbins, who, on the requisition of the
British Minister, was delivered by the Judge aforesaid,
with the assent of the President of the United States, was
not an American citizen, but a native Irishman, who to his
other crimes added _perjury_, in the hope, thereby, to
escape the punishment due to _piracy_ and _murder_. The
original certificates of the selectmen and townclerk of
Danbury are in the Secretary's possession; and he has
compared the extract of Admiral Parker's letter to Mr.
Liston with the original, and the extract of the Admiral's
letter to the British Consul at Charleston, with the
passage as recited in the Consul's original letter to Mr.
Liston.
All which is respectfully submitted.