LETTER CLVII.--TO MR. GENET, June 17, X
TO MR. GENET.
Philadelphia, June 17, 1793.
Sir,
I shall now have the honor of answering your letter of the 1st instant,
and so much of that of the 14th (both of which have been laid before
the President) as relates to a vessel armed in the port of New York and
about to depart from thence, but stopped by order of the government. And
here I beg leave to premise, that the case supposed in your letter, of
a vessel arming for her own defence, and to repel unjust aggressions,
is not that in question, nor that on which I mean to answer, because
not having yet happened, as far as is known to the government, I have
no instructions on the subject. The case in question is that of a vessel
armed, equipped, and manned in a port of the United States, for the
purpose of committing hostilities on nations at peace with the United
States.
As soon as it was perceived that such enterprises would be attempted,
orders to prevent them were despatched to all the States and ports of
the Union. In consequence of these, the Governor of New York,
receiving information that a sloop heretofore called the Polly, now
the Republican, was fitting out, arming, and manning in the port of
New York, for the express and sole purpose of cruising against certain
nations with whom we are at peace, that she had taken her guns and
ammunition aboard and was on the point of departure, seized the vessel.
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