446 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1812. 



much favoured in it by the course 

 pursued by a squadron of our fri- 

 gates under the command of Com- 

 modore Rodj^ers ; and in the in- 

 stance in which skill and bravery 

 were more particularly tried with 

 those of the enemy, the American 

 flag had an auspicious triumph. 

 The frigate Constitution, com- 

 manded by Captain Hull, after a 

 close and short engagement, com- 

 pletely disabled and captured a Bri- 

 tish frigate ; gaining for that offi- 

 cer, and all on board, a praise 

 which cannot be too liberally be- 

 stowed, — not merely for the vic- 

 tory actually achieved, but for that 

 prompt and cool exertion of com- 

 manding talents, which, giving to 

 courage its highest character, and 

 to the force applied its full effect, 

 proved that more could have been 

 done in a contest requiring more. 



Anxious to abridge theevils from 

 which a state of war cannot be ex- 

 empt, I lost no tiiue after it was 

 declared, in conveying to the Bri- 

 tish government the terms on which 

 its progress mi^^ht be arrested, with- 

 out waiting the delays of a formal 

 and final pacification: and our 

 Charge de' Affaires at London was 

 at the same time authorised to 

 agree to an armistice founded upon 

 them. These terms required, that 

 the Orders in Council should be 

 repealed, as they affected the 

 United States, without a revival of 

 the blockades viobiting acknow- 

 ledged rules ; that there should be 

 an immediate discharge of Ameri- 

 can seamen from British ships, and 

 a stop to impressments from Ame- 

 rican ships, with an understanding 

 that an exclusion of the seamen of 

 each nation from the ships of the 

 other should be stipulated, and that 

 the armistice should be improved 

 into a definitive and comprehen- 



sive adjustment of depending con- 

 troversies. 



Although a repeal of the orders, 

 susceptible ofjexpianations meeting 

 the views of this government, had 

 taken place before this pacific ad- 

 vance was communicated to that of 

 Great Britain, the advance was 

 declined from an avowed repug- 

 nance to a suspension of tlie prac- 

 tice of impressment during the ar- 

 mistice, and without any intima- 

 tion that the arrangement proposed 

 with respect to seamen would be 

 accepted. Whether the subsequent 

 communications from this govern- 

 ment, affording an occasion for re- 

 considering the subject on the part 

 of Great Britain, will be viewed in 

 a more favourable light, or received 

 in a more accommodating spirit, 

 remains to be known. It would 

 be unwise to relax our measures, 

 in any respect, on a presumption 

 of such a result. 



The documents from the de- 

 partment of state, which relate to 

 this subject, will give a view also 

 of the propositions for an armis- 

 tice, which have been received 

 here, — one of them, from the au- 

 thorities at Halifax and in Canada, 

 the other from the British, govern- 

 ment itself, through admiral War- 

 ren ; and of the grounds upon 

 which neither of them could be 

 accepted. 



Our affairs with France retain 

 the posture which they held at my 

 last communication to you. 



Notwithstanding the authorised 

 expectation of an early as well as 

 favourable issue of the discussions 

 on foot, these have been procras- 

 tinated to the latest date. The 

 only intervening occurrence merit- 

 ing attention, is the promulgation 

 of a French decree, purporting to 

 be a definitive repeal of the Berlin 



and 



