UNITED STATES, _February 5, 1798_.
_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 of October, 1797,
inclosing a number of depositions of 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 day 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 channels 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.