IS THE ALABAMA A BRITISH PIRATE? 13 declared in Cabinet Council (9 Jeff. W. 154), “ It is inconsistent for a nation which has been patiently bearing for ten years the grossest insults and injuries from their late enemies, to rise at a feather against their friends and benefactors; and at a moment, too, when circumstances have kindled the most ardent affections of the two people towards each other;” he still wrote to the French representative, M. Ternant, demanding the cessation of the fitting out of certain privateers in Charleston (3 Jeff. 561); and to his successor, Citizen Genet (whom we afterwards sent home for endeavoring to make use of our harbors for such illegal purposes), “ The fitting out of armed vessels against nations with whom wre are at peace” is “instrumental to the annoyance of those nations, and thereby tends to compromit their peace,” and “it is the duty of a neutral nation to prohibit such acts as would injure one of the warring parties.” (Ibid. 571.) One of the first cases demanding action by the government was that of the Little Sarah. Upon the suggestion by Mr. Hammond, the British representative, that she was being fitted as a French privateer, she was seized, and being found to contain a suspicious armament, was prevented from sailing. About the same time the British ship Grange was taken in American waters by the French war vessel L’Embuscade. The act was considered a breach of our sovereignty, and the prize seized and restored to her British owners. Numerous prizes were, on proof that the capturing vessels had been fitted out in the United States, restored to their owners. The government did not wait for action by the British representative, but held its own officers to the duty of vigilance. The governors of the States were frequently called upon to arrest vessels about departing (Hamilton’s W., vol. 2, 463). In one case we find this language used: “ The case in question is that of a vessel armed, equipped and manned in a port of the United States, for the purpose of committing hostilities on a nation at peace with us. “As soon as it was perceived that such enterprises would be attempted, order? to prevent them were despatched to all the States and ports of the Union. In Consequence of these the governor of New York, receiving information that a sloop heretofore called the Folly, now the Republican, was fitting, arming and manning, to cruise against a nation with whom we were at peace, seized the vessel.” The President being apprized, ordered her and the persons
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