You are desired to persevere till you obtain a regulation to guard our
vessels from having their hands impressed, and to inhibit the British
navy-officers from taking them under the pretext of their being British
subjects. There appears but one practicable rule, that the vessel
being American, shall be conclusive evidence that the hands are so to
a certain number, proportioned to her tonnage. Not more than one or two
officers should be permitted to visit a vessel. Mr. Albion Coxe has just
arrived.
I have the honor to be, with great and sincere esteem, Dear Sir, your
most obedient and most humble servant,
Th: Jefferson,
LETTER CXLVII.--TO MR. HAMMOND, May 15, 1793
TO MR. HAMMOND.
Philadelphia, May 15, 1793.
Sir,
Your several memorials of the 8th instant have been laid before the
President, as had been that of the 2nd, as soon as received. They have
been considered with all the attention and the impartiality, which
a firm determination to do what is equal and right between all the
belligerent powers could inspire.
In one of these, you communicate, on the information of the British
Consul at Charleston, that the Consul of France at the same place
had condemned, as legal prize, a British vessel, captured by a French
frigate, and you justly add, that this judicial act is not warranted
by the usage of nations, nor by the stipulations existing between the
United States and France.
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