4 determined by their respective Consuls. The officers of the country, civil or military, shall not interfere therein, or take any part whatever in the matter; and the appeals from the said consular tribunals shall be carried before the tribunals of France or of the United .States.” The French Revolution began in 1789, and in 1793 it became a general European war, in which France, while treading continually upon the fiercest internal fires, bared her head to all the thunderbolts of Despotism. Washington, by the serene tranquillity and majestic justice of his character, repressed the sympathies of the United States for France and the Republican cause, and sent forth his memorable proclamation : “ Whereas,” said the President, “ it appears that a state of war exists between Austria, Prussia, Sardinia, Great Britain, and the United Netherlands, of the one part, and France, on the other, and the duty and interest of the United States require that they should, with sincerity and good faith, adopt and pursue a conduct friendly and impartial towards the belligerent Powers, I have therefore thought fit, by these presents, to declare the disposition of the United States to observe the conduct aforesaid.” No less a character than Washington could have assumed neutrality in such a crisis. Nor could even he protect it in that fierce conflict of armed opinion which raged throughout Europe, as if all its separate and widely different States had been one entire yet distracted commonwealth. The cost of supplies rose two, three, and four fold, under the demands of the belligerent nations. The United States put in motion, for once, and all at once, the three wheels of industry, Production, Manufacture, and Exchange, and wealth flowed in upon them like a spring tide. The combatants, relapsing into the morality of the Barbary Powers, seized arid confiscated neutral ships and their cargoes. American commerce was thus suddenly checked, and the revenues it yielded rapidly declined. Jefferson, then'Secretary of State, met the enemy with a declaration— “ I have it in charge from the President to assure the merchants of the United States concerned in foreign commerce or navigation, that attention wifi be paid to any injuries they may suffer on the high seas or in foreign countries, contrary to the law of nations or to existing treaties; and that, on their forwarding hither well- authenticated evidences of the same, proper proceedings will be adopted for their relief.” The American merchants, thus stimulated, prosecuted more diligently than before a trade which yielded enticing profits, while its risks seemed to have been underwritten by their country. The maritime injuries suffered by Americans at the hands of France in the course of the'war were at the time classified as follows : First. Spoliations and mal-treatment of the vessels of American citizens at sea, by French ships of war and privateers. Second. A long and distressing embargo, which detained many American vessels at Bordeaux in 1793 and 1794. Third. The dishonor of bills and other evidences of debt due to American citizens for supplies furnished, at the request of France, to herself and to her West India Islands, in a period of famine and civil war. Fourth. The seizure or forced sales of the cargoes of American vessels, ■and the appropriation of them to public uses. Fifth. The non-performance of contracts for supplies, made by the French authorities with American citizens. .Sixth. The condemnation of American vessels and cargoes under marine ordinances of France incompatible with treaties. Seventh. Captures, in violation of the provisions of the commercial treaty, of American vessels laden with provisions, bound to the ports of tire enemy.
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