We have adopted this modification in our treaties with France, the
United Netherlands, and Russia; and therefore, as to them, our vessels
cover the goods of their enemies, and we lose our goods when in the
vessels of their enemies. Accordingly, you will be pleased to recollect,
that in the late case of Holland and Mackie, citizens of the United
States, who had laden a cargo of flour on board a British vessel, which
was taken by the French frigate L'Ambuscade and brought into this port,
when I reclaimed the cargo, it was only on the ground that they were
ignorant of the declaration of war when it was shipped. You observed,
however, that the 14th article of our treaty had provided that ignorance
should not be pleaded beyond two months after the declaration of war,
which term had elapsed in this case by some days, and finding that to
be the truth, though their real ignorance of the declaration was equally
true, I declined the reclamation, as it never was in my view to
reclaim the cargo, nor apparently in yours to offer to restore it, by
questioning the rule established in our treaty, that enemy bottoms make
enemy goods. With England, Spain, Portugal, and Austria, we have no
treaties: therefore, we have nothing to oppose to their acting according
to the general law of nations, that enemy goods are lawful prize, though
found in the bottom of a friend.
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