Though they will of course take
measures to be informed of them, and the General Government has given
them the aid of the Custom House officers for this purpose, yet you
will be sensible of the importance of multiplying the channels of their
information, as far as shall depend on yourself or any person under
your direction, in order that the government may use the means in their
power, for making restitution. Without knowledge of the capture, they
cannot restore it. It will always be best to give the notice to them
directly: but any information which you shall be pleased to send to me
also, at any time, shall be forwarded to them as quickly as the
distance will permit. Hence you will perceive, Sir, that the President
contemplates restitution or compensation, in the cases before the
seventh of August, and, after that date, restitution, if it can be
effected by any means in our power: and that it will be important that
you should substantiate the fact that such prizes are in our ports or
waters.
Your list of the privateers illicitly armed in our ports, is, I believe,
correct.
With respect to losses by detention, waste, spoliation, sustained by
vessels taken as before mentioned between the dates of June the 5th
and August the 7th, it is proposed, as a provisional measure, that the
collector of the customs of the district, and the British Consul, or any
other person you please, shall appoint persons to establish the value of
the vessel and cargo, at the times of her capture and of her arrival
in the port into which she is brought, according to their value in that
port.
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