known to be privateers waiting only for a wind to sail. These things had produced such a temper both in Portugal and in Brazil against the people and government of the United States that he was unwilling to tell me the proposal which had been formally made in the king's council concerning them. That five or six years ago the people of the United States were the nation of the earth for whom the Portuguese felt the most cordial regard and friendship. They were now those whom they most hated, and if the government had considered the peace of the two countries as at an end, they would have been supported in the declaration by the hearty concurrence of the people. That if no other consequence should follow from this disposition, commercial restrictions would be certain. That if the feelings of resentment should remain unallayed, and should even not disclose themselves in overt acts at present, they would rankle and occasions always present themselves in a course of time when they may produce effect. The desire of the king was to be upon good terms with the United States, but the property of his subjects was robbed upon the high seas by pirates sallying from the ports of the United States, without the trouble to assume a disguise. This practice was continued year after year, in the midst of professions of friendship from the American government. It was impossible that he should put up with it. I told him that you would take the proposal into the most serious consideration, but probably would come to no final determination until after returning to this city and consulting the members of the administration, after which I should answer his note. He said he should be obliged to embark in the course of next month for Rio de Janeiro, but should present Mr. Amado as chargé d'affaires, and the answer might be transmitted through him.

The enclosures herewith are a letter and a recommendation

to mercy in behalf of W. Cornell, from one or two of the jurymen by whom he was tried, and a second letter from Mr. Byers to General Parker concerning the new discovered island in the South Seas.

I am, etc.

DEAR SIR:

TO THE PRESIDENT

[JAMES MONROE]

WASHINGTON, 8 September, 1820.

I now enclose a dispatch from Mr. Gallatin, No. 151 of 11 July, with a note which he had already addressed to Baron Pasquier concerning the extra duties on both sides in the navigation between the United States and France.1 It appears from his letter that he was doubtful whether they would enter into a negotiation with him at all, but that as soon as the Legislative Assemblies should rise, the king would lay a duty of 100 francs a ton upon American vessels which shall have entered the French ports after the first of July. There will be very few, if any, of them, for such a measure was apprehended by our merchants after the act of Congress passed, and scarcely any vessel went. Their numbers had been declining every year, I might say almost every month, and another year of the French system unresisted would have excluded them almost as effectually as the hundred francs tonnage duty. If after laying this new tonnage duty they decline negotiating, there will be neither French nor American vessels in the trade, which will all be carried by

1

1 Adams, Memoirs, September 5, 1820. Gallatin's letter is in Adams, Writings of Gallatin, II. 150.

the English. I regret the publication of parts of Mr. Gallatin's letters, as they may affect his personal consideration there. But they were necessary to justify the act of Congress and the nation. It is proper to observe to you that, excepting with regard to the question of special privilege in Louisiana, I have neither sent nor drawn up the special instructions concerning the negotiation which Mr. Gallatin expects. Indeed they could not be prepared without particular directions from you, nor probably without a general consultation of the members of the administration by you. The general principles which we proposed were reciprocity of equal duties, as in our convention with Great Britain. But there were

I. The above mentioned Louisiana privilege question. 2. The restoration of deserting mariners.

3. The consular convention.

4. The claims of our citizens for indemnities.

5. The question about the brokers at Havre.

6. Questions about the admission of our cotton and tobacco upon favorable terms in France.

On all of which it has been impossible for me to send detailed instructions, until the principles on which they were to be predicated should be settled by you. Concluding that this could not be done in the dispersion of the summer months I have not attempted to draft those special instructions for the formation of a treaty, and I have trusted they would be in time, after we should know that the French government would negotiate. I now mention these particulars, that you

1 The French government, wrote Gallatin, were already irritated, and will be more so with those sentences in my correspondence in which I suggest that they will do nothing unless compelled by our acts. I fear that the expressions in question will wound the pride of government, and I wish they had been omitted in the publication."

...

may revolve them in your mind and determine what course with regard to them you will think best to take in the draft of special instructions for negotiation.

If they lay the hundred franc tonnage duty, which it seems the king does not venture to propose to the chambers, and cannot do of his own authority while they are in session, after having gratified their spleen, I suppose they will begin to think of coming to terms, and if so, it will be important that Mr. Gallatin should be instructed upon all the points above noted, and perhaps some others.

With perfect respect, etc.

SIR:

TO THE CHEVALIER CORREA DE SERRA 1

Department of State,

WASHINGTON, 30 September, 1820.

The proposal contained in your note of the 16th of July last has been considered by the President of the United

1 "On further consideration of the temper manifested by Mr. Correa in your last conference with him [Memoirs, August 29, 1820], I am led to presume that when he wrote you the letter from Philadelphia, proposing the institution of a board to liquidate the claims of Portugal against the United States, he was altogether ignorant of the correspondence between Mr. Jefferson and Mr. Hammond in the commencement of the French revolution, and that the change in his tone was produced by the information given him on that subject, and the opinion expressed on his proposition by his friend in the country. I have no doubt that had he had the advantage of that communication before he wrote his letter, he would not have written it. If this presumption is well founded, it is very natural that he should be willing to withdraw himself from the discussion and leave it to his successor. The demand by him will, I fear, lay the foundation for Spain to make a similar one, and in case it be not granted, to refuse to pay us the five millions which she has already admitted to be due. If he has not sailed, I think it would be advisable for you to reject the proposition as utterly inadmissible on principle, and particularly unreasonable in his case from the amendment of the law respecting our neutrality

States with all the deliberation due to the friendly relations subsisting between the United States and Portugal, and with the disposition to manifest the undeviating principle of justice by which this government is animated in its intercourse with all foreign governments, and particularly with yours. I am directed by him to inform you that the appointment of commissioners to confer and agree with the ministers of his Most Faithful Majesty upon the subject to which your letter relates, would not be consistent either with the constitution of the United States, nor with any practice usual among civilized nations.

The judicial power of the United States is by their constitution vested in their Supreme Court, and in tribunals subordinate to the same. The judges of these tribunals are amenable to the country by impeachment, and if any Portuguese subject has suffered wrong by the act of any citizen of the United States, within their jurisdiction, it is before those tribunals that the remedy is to be sought and obtained. For any acts of citizens of the United States committed out of their jurisdiction and beyond their control, the government of the United States is not responsible.

To the war in South America, to which Portugal has for several years been a party, the duty and the policy of the United States have been to observe a perfect and impartial neutrality. The government of the United States has neither countenanced nor permitted any violation of that neutrality by their citizens. They have by various and successive acts obtained by him, and his knowledge of our efforts to prevent its abuse, as declared by himself." Monroe to Adams, September 25, 1820. Ms. It was with reluctance that Adams carried out these suggestions of the President, believing that "we have something to answer for to Portugal in this case on the score of justice, and that we shall answer for it, soon or late, by our own sufferings. I reluct at the idea of supporting our cause upon the weakness or maladdresse of the adversary's counsel." Adams, Memoirs, September 26, 1820.