PEBTAINIJSTG TO UNBATIFIED TBEATY OF 1806. 99 



by such insults. The communications lately made to Mr. Monroe, 

 with respect to the conduct of British commanders, even within our 

 own waters, will strengthen the claim for such an arrangement on this 

 subject, and for such new orders from the British Government, as 

 will be a satisfactory security against future causes of complaint. 

 ******* 



I have the honor to be, &c. 



JAMES MADISON. 



Mr. Madison to Messrs. Monroe and Pinkney. 



DEPARTMENT OF STATE, May W, 1807. 



GENTLEMEN : 



My letter of March 18th acknowledged the receipt of your de- 

 spatches and of the treaty signed on the 31st December, of which Mr. 

 Purviance was the bearer, and signified that the sentiments and views 

 of the President, formed on the actual posture of our affairs with 

 Great Britain, would, without any useless delay, be communicated. 

 The subject is accordingly resumed in this despatch, with which Mr. 

 Purviance will be charged. To render his passage the more sure and 

 convenient, he takes it in the sloop of war Wasp, which will convey 

 him to a British port, on her way to the Mediterranean. She will 

 touch also at a French port, probably 1'Orient, with despatches for 

 General Armstrong and Mr. Bowdoin, and will afford a good op- 

 portunity for any communications you may have occasion to make to 

 those gentlemen. 



The President has seen, in your exertions to accomplish the great 

 objects of your instructions, ample proofs of the zeal and patriotism 

 in which he confided, and feels deep regret that your success has not 

 corresponded with the reasonableness of your propositions and the 

 ability with which they were supported. He laments more especially 

 that the British Government has not yielded to the just and cogent 

 considerations which forbid the practice of its cruisers in visiting and 

 impressing the crews of our vessels, covered by an independent flag, 

 and guarded by the laws of the high seas, which ought to be sacred 

 with all nations. 



The President continues to regard this subject in the light in which 

 it has been pressed on the justice and friendship of Great Britain. 

 He cannot reconcile it with his duty to our seafaring citizens, or with 

 the sensibility or sovereignty of the nation, to recognize, even con- 

 structively, a principle that would expose, on the high seas, their 

 liberty, their lives every thing, in a word, that is dearest to the 

 human heart, to the capricious or interested sentences which may be 

 pronounced against their allegiance by officers of a foreign Govern- 

 ment, whom neither the law of nations nor even the laws of that 

 Government will allow to decide on the ownership or character of 

 the minutest articles of property found in a like situation. 



****** 



That you may the more fully understand his impressions and pur- 

 poses, I will explain the alterations which are to be regarded as 

 essential, and proceed then to such observations on the several articles 

 as will show the other alterations which are to be attempted, and the 

 degree of importance respectively attached to them. 

 92909 S. Doc. 870, 61-3, vol 6 15 



