218 



indemnity and reparation. The British functionary required, on the 

 other hand, " the punishment of the transgressors for the act of violence 

 perpetrated on persons bearing his Majesty's commission while engaged 

 in the discharge of their public duties." Meantime, the President di- 

 rected Ether Shepley,* the attorney of the United States for Maine, to 

 proceed to the frontier and make inquiry into the circumstances of the 

 matters in dispute, and especially those attending the recapture of the 

 three vessels just referred to. That Captain Hoare was sometimes 

 unjustly reproached by our fishermen, was admitted by the calm and 

 considerate in 1824; and this fact, in common fairness, ought to be 

 stated in this brief record of the troubles which are connected with his 

 command of the Dotterel, and which will not soon be forgotten by those 

 who live on the eastern border of Maine. The charge preferred against 

 him that he converted the vessels which he seized into tenders for 

 assisting him in his operations " prior to their adjudication in the courts," 

 he denied in the most explicit terms. It was never proved to be true. 

 It may be said, also, that the capture of seven of his prizes was held to 

 be justifiable by the British charge d'affaires in his correspondence 

 with Mr. Adams. The accuracy of this opinion, however, we shall 

 have occasion to dispute. 



The excitement occasioned by the zeal with which Captain Hoare 

 " guarded the coasts from the intrusion of foreign fishermen and smug- 

 glers," did not suddenly cease. In 1825, his conduct, on motion of the 

 Hon. Jeremiah O'Brien, who represented the frontier district of Maine, 

 became a subject of inquiry in Congress; and the United States 

 schooner Porpoise, under the command of Lieutenant Parker, was des- 

 patched to the Bay of Fundy for the protection of our flag. 



Early in 1826, the Dotterel was again the terror of our fishermen. 

 The presence of the United States sloop-of-war Lexington, Captain 

 Shubrick, under orders to cruise upon the fishing grounds, relieved 

 their fears ; and the season passed away without any serious disturb- 

 ance. But there had been no adjustment of the difficulties which 

 occurred in 1824. The note of the British charge d'affaires to our 

 government, relative to the recapture of two of the Dotterel's prizes, 

 had not, in fact, been answered. Meantime, Mr. Adams had passed 

 from the Department of State to the Executive Mansion. Mr. Clay 

 had succeeded him ; and a new British minister had arrived in the 

 United States to treat with the new administration. To have delayed 

 a reply to that note for a year and a half, was equivalent to a refusal ; 

 and it could hardly be hoped by Mr. Vaughan, that Mr. Adams would 

 permit, as President, what he had declined as Secretary of State. Yet, 

 on the 29th of April,t that functionary called the attention of Mr. Clay 

 to the fact that his predecessor, on the fifth of October, 1824, had in- 

 formed our government " that an outrage had been committed by some 

 armed citizens of the State of Maine, in forcibly rescuing, off Eastport, 

 two American vessels, the Reindeer and Ruby, which had been cap- 

 tured by his Majesty's cruisers while fishing in the Bay of Fundy in 

 places where the United States had by treaty renounced the right so 



* Tke present chief justice of tlie supreme court of Maine, 

 t Executive Document 100, pages 54, 55. 



