I observe further, that it is not warranted by
any law of the land. It is consequently a mere nullity; as such it can
be respected in no court, can make no part in the title to the vessel,
nor give to the purchaser any other security than what he would have
had without it. In short, it is so absolutely nothing, as to give no
foundation of just concern to any person interested in the fate of the
vessel; and in this point of view, Sir, I am in hopes you will see it.
The proceeding, indeed, if the British Consul has been rightly informed
(and we have no other information of it), has been an act of
disrespect towards the United States, to which its government cannot
be inattentive: a just sense of our own rights and duties, and the
obviousness of the principle, are a security that no inconveniences will
be permitted to arise from repetitions of it.
The purchase of arms and military accoutrements by an agent of the
French government, in this country, with an intent to expert them to
France, is the subject of another of the memorials. Of this fact we are
equally uninformed as of the former. Our citizens have been always
free to make, vend, and export arms. It is the constant occupation and
livelihood of some of them. To suppress their callings, the only means
perhaps of their subsistence, because a war exists in foreign and
distant countries, in which we have no concern, would scarcely be
expected.
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