That the Governor was not mistaken in the previous indications of her
object, appears by the subsequent avowal of the citizen Hauterive,
Consul of France at that port, who, in a letter to the Governor,
reclaims her as '_Un vaisseau arme, en guerre, et pret a mettre a la
voile_;' and describes her object in these expressions; '_Cet usage
etrange de la force publique contre les citoyens d'une nation amie qui
se reunissent ici pour aller defendre leur freres_,' &c. and again; '_Je
requiers, monsieur, l'autorite dont vous etes revetu, pour faire rendre
a des Francois, a des allies, &c. la liberte de voler au secours de leur
patrie_.' This transaction being reported to the President, orders were
immediately sent to deliver over the vessel, and the persons concerned
in the enterprise, to the tribunals of the country; that if the act
was of those forbidden by the law, it might be punished; if it was not
forbidden, it might be so declared, and all persons apprized of what
they might or might not do.
This we have reason to believe is the true state of the case, and it
is a repetition of that which was the subject of my letter of the
5th instant, which animadverted, not merely on the single fact of
the granting commissions of war by one nation within the territory of
another, but on the aggregate of the facts: for it states the opinion of
the President to be, 'that the arming and equipping vessels in the ports
of the United States, to cruise against nations with whom they are at
peace, was incompatible with the sovereignty of the United States; that
it made them instrumental to the annoyance of those nations, and thereby
tended to commit their peace.
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