Sir,
There is an anecdote from Malaga, which ought to be mentioned to
Congress, because, it cannot fail to have serious consequences.
The Swedish frigate, the Illerim, of thirtyfour guns, commanded by
Captain Ankerloo, on the 28th of February, at half after eight o'clock
at night met an English privateer belonging to Minorca, of twentyeight
guns. The Swedish Captain, after hailing the privateer, let her
continue her course, and went on quietly his own; about half an hour
after the privateer returning, ranged herself astern of the frigate,
and unexpectedly discharged both his broadsides, loaded with langrage,
which killed three sailors, broke the thigh and the right leg of the
Captain, wounded the Lieutenant and some people of the crew. Ankerloo,
who in the evening had been obliged by a violent gale of wind to draw
in his guns and shut up his ports, not finding himself prepared for
battle, his officers took immediate measures, with the utmost
alertness, for repulsing the privateer, which did in fact at last
receive one broadside from the frigate; but, upon the whole, she
escaped in the night, by the force of sails and of oars. After this
perfidy on the part of the English, Ankerloo would have entered
Marseilles for the sake of dressing his wounds, but having met with
contrary winds and bad weather for three days, he put into Malaga,
where he went ashore to the house of the Swedish consul, where he is
since dead of his wounds.
I have the honor to be, with the greatest respect, &c.
JOHN ADAMS.
* * * * *
TO THE PRESIDENT OF CONGRESS.
Paris, April 6th, 1780.
Sir,
It may be necessary to transmit the decree of Sir James Mariott,
against the Dutch ship la Sybellina Hillegonda, in order fully to
comprehend the proceedings, which I have sent before. The decree is
this.
"The fact in this case is, a Dutch ship loaded with naval stores, for
a port in France, under the convoy of not less than five men-of-war,
and the commander of these men-of-war, not measuring his conduct by
the line of the treaty, resists, fires upon the boat of the English
Commodore, and forbids the execution of the treaty. The English
Commodore returns the fire. The Dutch Admiral fires again, and
strikes; so that the fact is to be adjusted, and it is of such a
nature as has never before happened in the history of this nation. It
falls unfortunately to my share, to decide upon these facts and their
consequences.
"It is, nevertheless, a consolation, that although the judge of this
court may decide, in the first instance, there is still a superior
tribunal, in the last resort. This court ought to judge of the case of
the treaty, since, in virtue of a special commission, under the great
seal of the kingdom, the judges of the courts of admiralty are
authorised and required to take cognizance of, and proceed judicially
in all manner of captures, seizures, prizes, and reprisals, and decide
upon them according to the course of the admiralty and the law of
nations.
"The claimant disdains to found his right in any other way than upon
the treaty. My idea is, that all the marine treaties, which subsist
between two friendly powers, form but one code of laws, one great
confederation, one indivisible union. They are, if it is lawful to
make use of these sacred words, the Bible, the Book, or the Testament
of the social contract between the nations, to be maintained
inviolably, as a system, whereof we cannot break one part without
dissolving the whole.
"The Dutch subjects have, in virtue of the treaty, particular
privileges, superior to those of every other country, but they may
overleap the bounds of these privileges, and from that time they ought
to be weighed in the balance, like other neutral nations. To be found
under a convoy is not, in itself, an infraction of the treaty, but the
conduct of this convoy is to be considered.
"The fifth article of the treaty of 1674 is reciprocal. 'If any ship,
belonging to the subjects of his Majesty of Great Britain, shall in
open sea, or elsewhere, out of the dominions of the said States, meet
any ships of war of the Lords the States, or privateers belonging to
their subjects, the said ships of the Lords the States, or of their
subjects, shall keep at a convenient distance, and only send out their
boat, with two or three men only, to go on board such ships or vessels
of the subjects of his Majesty, in order that the passport, or
sea-brief, concerning the property thereof, according to the form
hereunder annexed, may be produced to them, by the captain or master
of such ship or vessel, belonging to the subjects of his Majesty; and
the said ships, so producing the same, shall freely pass; and it shall
not be lawful to molest, search, detain, or force such ship from her
intended voyage. And the subjects of the Lords the States shall enjoy
in all things, the same liberty and immunity, they in like manner
showing their passport, or sea-brief, made out according to the form
prescribed at the foot of this treaty.'
"The sixth article is, 'If any ship or vessel, belonging to the
English or other subjects of Great Britain, shall be met making into
any port belonging to an enemy of the Lords the States, or, on the
other side, if any ship belonging to the United Provinces of the
Netherlands, or other subjects of the Lords the States, shall be met
in her way, making into any port under the obedience of the enemies of
his said Majesty, such ships shall show, not only a passport, or
sea-brief, according to the form hereunder subscribed, wherewith she
is to be furnished, but also her certificate or cocket, containing the
particulars of the goods on board, in the usual form, by the officers
of the customs of that port, from whence she came; whereby it may be
known whether she is laden with any of the goods prohibited by the
third article of this treaty.'
"Such are the terms of this treaty, which this court will not declare
to be now in force; but one of the parties may renounce it; and it
would be from that time, so far forth, a good cause of annulling it.
It could not ever have been the intention of the contracting parties,
that the merchant ships of the subjects of the States should become
the transport vessels for the service of the King of France, nor that
the men-of-war of the States should serve as a convoy to them. It is
impossible to form an idea more unworthy of the sovereignty of the
States. The idea of granting a convoy to all Dutch ships destined for
the port of an enemy is offensive, and still more aggravating, when
accompanied with resistance, or orders to resist, when they go so far
as to reject _ipso facto_ all the ordinary ways of public justice, and
to set at nought the articles, which had been established to prevent
the consequences of the intervention of neuters, as parties in a war,
by public acts; articles which stipulate a legal procedure for
discussing all the points in controversy, before the courts of
admiralty reciprocally; and in case the parties should not be
satisfied, they ought to be finally heard by their respective
sovereigns in council. Such is the tenor of the twelfth article of the
treaty of 1674.
"In the present state of the cause, this court will not say,
nevertheless, that the States have annulled the treaty; because the
orders of Admiral Byland have not appeared, and his conduct may be
disavowed by the States; but even the granting of a convoy, and above
all of a squadron, is essentially offensive, since the Dutch subjects
are already sufficiently armed by the treaty, and by the methods of
redress prescribed, which are the same with all maritime nations. The
party complaining follows the ship and the papers, which she has on
board, into the jurisdiction of the place and country where he is
carried, as the subject, who in the nature of things and proceedings,
can only of necessity be judged there, where the original proofs
exist; the judges specially constituted, for the decision of prizes,
both in the first instance and in the last resort, are, by common
consent, charged to hear and determine all national differences
between powers who are friends and allies, like the Council of
Amphyctions in ancient Greece. But seamen do not well comprehend this
language. They speak roughly, like the mouths of their cannons. If
this vessel had fired upon the boat, and any one had thereby lost his
life, I think I should not have hesitated to condemn her upon general
principles. Neither Admiral Byland, nor his instructions, are before
me. I know not how to give a sentence against him or his vessels;
nevertheless, he ought not to have fired upon the boat of Commodore
Fielding; but he was bound to send to him his boat, and to propose an
interview and an amicable conference. He might have made him a visit,
which he immediately would have returned; and all the captains of the
Dutch merchant ships might have been ordered on board the English
Commodore, to produce their passports and cockets. The effect of his
resistance is thus the cause, that, although I do not declare the
treaty null generally, nevertheless, in retaliation to these vessels
taken in time of resistance, I ought to declare the ship forfeited of
its privilege, and foreclosed of the treaty, by the act of M. Byland.
There was certainly never any vessel under convoy without
instructions, at least in her course, and without signals. If the
claimants had not withheld them, it would have appeared, whether the
Dutch Admiral ought, or ought not to have escorted these ships even
into the ports of France, which would have aggravated the offence
against the treaty. A convoy of a single ship, destined for the
States, destined for the Colonies of the States, or loaded generally
with innocent commodities, is, in itself, inoffensive; because, in
these times, there are in all the seas little pirates, furnished with
all sorts of commissions, American, French, Spanish, and English; but
a squadron of a line of battle ships, and which appears force [?] even
to the treaty, which they claim the benefit of, is a serious affair.
To engage in hostilities is not the way of protecting commerce; and
those who have solicited the States to grant such a convoy, were
rather factious Americans, or intriguing French politicians, than
solid, sensible Dutchmen, true and real friends of their country.
There is certainly among them a number of worthy people, who can never
desire to become, in fact, a Province, under the obedience of the King
of France, or his resident Minister.
"The case of the Swedish convoy is not applicable to this case. That
convoy had not made any resistance. The ships entered the Downs by the
bad weather, and were there taken without their convoy, which came to
anchor near them. This was represented, and the course of justice was
followed. The ship's papers were produced directly in this court, the
requisites were done, and the causes finally discussed according to
the style of the admiralty, _velo levato_; no time was lost, either in
contesting the justice or demanding right; and the captains of the
ships returned contented with their vessels after they had been paid
the freight, as well as the expense; and the naval stores, which they
had on board, were purchased by the government, by virtue of powers
granted to the Council of the Royal Marine, by act of Parliament, in
conformity to acts of Parliament in former wars.
"The question, whether the hemp and flax are contraband, is clear.
Both of them have been adjudged such on all former occasions, when the
quantity has been considerable, and particularly, when they are not of
the produce of the country of the party which carries them. The flax
is as necessary for sails, as the hemp for cordage; and if this court
has once ordered that flax should be sold to the Commissioners of the
navy, it was because it was of little value, and in very small
quantity. I am sorry to learn, that the Navy Board makes any
difficulty upon this subject. The iron on board was only for ballast."
I cannot go through with the whole of this decree for want of time;
but the following curious and convenient doctrine ought not to be
omitted.
"That, which in the natural or intellectual world is called quality,
is not relative. Good and evil are relative. Everything is what it is,
and acquires its denomination from comparison, degree, manner,
quality, place, time, person, fault, &c. &c. These relations
constitute the metaphysical essence of every complex idea in the human
understanding. Hence that source, without end, of disputes, the glory
of the bar, and of the schools of philosophy.
"Grotius and Bynkershoeck agree, and who is there that will deny, that
necessity gives a right to make ourselves masters of everything,
without the seizure of which a nation cannot defend herself? As in
relation to want, if the enemy, on one part, is in want of stores, the
want to intercept them on the other is equal. And in relation to
blockades, every port of the enemy is blocked relative to a neutral
vessel loaded with stores, which is seized, and, by consequence,
blocked, or hindered to go there. It imports little, that whether the
blockade be made across the narrows at Dover, or off the harbor at
Brest, or L'Orient. If you are taken, you are blocked. Great Britain,
by her insular situation, blocks naturally all the ports of Spain and
France. She has a right to avail herself of this situation, as a gift
of Providence.
"In fine, it is necessary to observe, that the claimants, founding
themselves upon the privilege of the treaty, have not a single paper
on board to prove the property of the cargo, in which respect all are
defective. The sentence then, is, that, under the circumstances of
this case, the claim of privilege is rejected, and that the Dutch
master be enjoined to produce his sailing orders, and certificates and
cockets from the Custom House of the port from whence the ship sailed,
according to the stipulations of the sixth article of the treaty of
1674. The hemp and flax are condemned as contraband on board of this
ship, and the owners of the iron are held to prove their property."
I have the honor to be, with the greatest respect, Sir, your most
obedient and most humble servant,
JOHN ADAMS.
* * * * *
TO THE PRESIDENT OF CONGRESS.
Paris, April 7th, 1780.
Sir,
There are several articles of intelligence today, which are connected
with the subject of my letter of yesterday. One is from the Hague, the
2d of April. "Thursday night last two couriers from Petersburgh
arrived here, alighted at the hotel of the Prince Gallitzen, the Envoy
Extraordinary of her Majesty the Empress of all the Russias to the
States-General. One of the couriers set off immediately for London, to
the Russian Minister who resides there. The Prince Gallitzen having
been in conference the next day with the President of the Assembly of
their High Mightinesses, relative to the said despatches, this
Minister sent back, the next night after his arrival, the same
courier. From that time the report runs, that the object of these
despatches was to communicate to the Republic the measures taken by
Russia, with some of the northern powers, for ensuring respectively
the safety of the navigation and commerce of their subjects, and to
invite the States-General to enter into the same arrangements."
The other is from Constantinople, the 14th of February. "The
privateers continue to vex the neutral ships in the seas of the Grand
Seignior, by visiting and stopping them wherever they find them, and
even without any discretion, at the entry of the ports and under the
guns of our fortresses. The French frigate, the Gracieuse, which lay
at anchor in the road of Cyprus, having learned that an English
privateer had brought into the port of this island a French prize,
sent to her some boats armed to retake her, which they could not
accomplish, however, without having some men killed on both sides. The
English consul having carried his complaints to the government of the
Island, of a violation of the laws of nations and demanded assistance,
he was so well succored, that the French were obliged to abandon the
prize, and all of their nation who were in the island came very near
being massacred by the Turks. As the Porte has also been informed,
that on the other hand the ship Smyrna, of Rotterdam, has run a risk
of undergoing the same fate with the ship of Captain Kinder, of
Amsterdam, and perhaps to suffer treatment still harder, and in sight
of the city of Smyrna; she has not only resolved to send new orders to
all the commandants, to enjoin them very seriously to observe a
neutrality the most exact, by fulfilling their duty, but she has also
testified her sensibility in regard to all these depredations to the
Ambassadors of the Courts of France and England, by sending to them
last Saturday a representation in writing, purporting, that as the
Porte had not failed to observe, during the war between France and
England, an exact and perfect neutrality to facilitate their commerce
upon an equal footing, and to afford to their ships all possible
safety in her seas, it was natural that she should, and ought to
expect, that the two powers would answer her conduct with a sincere
friendship. That at the news of the first differences arisen between
the two kingdoms, there were conferences held with their Ambassadors,
in which it was agreed upon an equal footing; that the rules of the
sea should not be violated, and that they should be, on the contrary,
exactly observed and respected. That in consequence of this agreement,
the Porte had not neglected anything to fulfil of fortresses and
castles in the empire, to protect the ships of war and merchant-men
against every attack, and not to suffer that any hostilities should be
commenced in the ports of the Grand Seignior, and under the cannon and
in sight of his fortresses.
"But in spite of all these measures, these powers had not taken care
to observe them, which was the cause that no nation could now navigate
freely and safely; that even to this time, the Porte had not received
the least answer on the subject of a regulation of neutrality, which
had been formed upon the footing of that which had been established
during former wars between Christian powers, and of which
communication had been made to the said Ambassadors, with a view to
put a stop to the intolerable irregularities which had taken place in
his seas, and to the end to prevent in consequence continual
complaints and representations. That the Porte was informed foreign
privateers held his ports blocked up, and forced the ships which
entered into them or went out, without even excepting the Turkish
vessels, to submit to their unjust visits and searches.
"That such a conduct, being contrary to the honor of the empire, the
Porte ought to determine, as soon as possible, and communicate to the
belligerent powers a good regulation, to the end, to procure by that
means repose, to his subjects, whom Providence had confided to his
care, and to this end it was necessary, that the Ambassadors of these
two powers should be advertised to request their Courts, in the first
place, to send, as soon as possible, to the captains and officers of
ships armed for war, or privateers, precise orders, and as some time
must pass before they can receive such orders, the Porte hopes that
the gentlemen, the Ambassadors, will be so good in the meantime, as to
order the captains and officers to suspend their operations, and
abstain from all acts of hostility.
"And as, in consequence of the ancient regulations, every time that
any vessels of war or armed ships come into the seas of the Grand
Seignior, the foreign Ministers were held to give notice to the Porte
of the object of their expedition or voyage, of their destination, and
of the time they were to stay, it could not but be regarded as
unreasonable, and entirely contrary to the reciprocal friendship, if
these formalities should not be observed, the Porte, considering it as
one of its principal duties, to employ all possible means to procure
the tranquillity of its merchants, to protect their possessions
against all force and injustice, as also to grant its protection to
the subjects of the belligerent powers, and those of other powers who
are equally good friends of this empire."
The Porte finishes, by giving notice to the Ambassadors, that the
Capitan Pacha was ordered to oppose himself in a friendly manner to
the enterprises of those, who should pursue the ancient proceedings,
and to protect the merchants and the ships of all nations, who carry
on commerce in the countries of this empire, whose sovereigns live in
friendship with the Porte.
A third is a letter from Petersburg, 7th of March. "The rencounter
which the Dutch convoy, on going out of the Texel the later end of
December, under the command of Admiral Byland, had with the English
squadron under Commodore Fielding, as well as the violent and hostile
manner in which they made prize of this convoy, have occasioned here
the greatest astonishment, and it is very much desired to know the
consequences of this measure, which is generally considered as very
offensive to the Republic of the United Provinces, and derogatory both
to the treaties subsisting between the two nations, to the law of
nations, and to the respect which ought to take place between two free
and independent powers."
But that which is thought more extraordinary still, is, that the Court
of London should have ordered a step so violent and insulting at a
time when, having to maintain a war so dangerous as that against
France, Spain, and the United States of America, her situation must
appear not less anxious than dangerous, which this Court itself seems
to acknowledge, by representing as she has done, that not finding
herself in a condition to oppose the dangerous designs of the House of
Bourbon, which, if you believe her, threaten the safety of all Europe,
she believed herself consequently to have cause to demand succors
here, as well as from the Republic of the United Provinces. However
this may be, it is nevertheless notorious, that the solicitations of
England have produced no effect here, which has given no small
satisfaction to those, who consider in their proper point of light the
designs and the conduct of this power, since the commencement of this
war against the liberty of commerce and the navigation of free and
independent powers, by means of which people in general seem so much
the more pleased with the present resolution taken by her Majesty the
Empress of all the Russias, relative to the said solicitation, as well
as with the system of neutrality, which she has adopted, because
without this wise measure there is no doubt but Great Britain would
have pushed much further the irregularity of her proceedings.