UNITED STATES, _February 15, 1799_.
_Gentlemen of the House of Representatives_:
In pursuance of the request in your resolve of yesterday, I lay before
you such information as I have received touching a suspension of the
arrêt of the French Republic, communicated to your House by my message
of the 28th of January last. But if the execution of that arrêt be
suspended, or even if it were repealed, it should be remembered that the
arrêt of the Executive Directory of the 2d of March, 1797, remains in
force, the third article of which subjects, explicitly and exclusively,
American seamen to be treated as pirates if found on board ships of the
enemies of France.