Enclosure: Robert Brooke to Timothy Pickering, 16 January 1796
Enclosure
Robert Brooke to Timothy Pickering
Richmond January 16th 1796.
Sir,
I do myself the honor of enclosing to you, a letter from the Vice Consul of the French Republic (resident at Norfolk) complaining of improper purchases making in this State, by the British Consul and his agents; and calling on the Executive of Virginia for their interference to prevent the injury which those operations threaten to the interest of the French Nation.1
If the Subjects of the enclosed memorial have experienced or are deemed to merit the contemplation of the Fœderal Executive, it would be extremely pleasing to that of Virginia, to be immediately informed of the result of such consideration, that they may be enabled to determine whether any and what Agency may, under it, be requisite and necessary on their part; or if governmental interference is proper, whether it ought not to Spring from the officers of the General revenue, whose action can only be called forth by Fœderal authority.
Whilst sir, we are ever anxious to do justice to our allies and maintain the national faith, we are equally so to avoid, (in attempting the attainment of those ends) every act which may tend to commit the public peace; and therefore wish to be governed by those rules, with respect to the Acts of foreign nations, which can alone be established by the proper departments of the General Government. And I should be particularly pleased to be informed whether the one stated by Mr Jefferson, in his letter of the 15th of May 1793, to M. Ternant, minister plenipotentiary of France, respecting the purchase of Arms by a French Agent for his nation, is deemed to embrace the cases now stated by Mr Oster;2 or whether the 24th article of our treaty with France, referred to by him, with the three or four subsequent articles are considered as taking the present subjects of complaint out of that rule.3 I have the honor to be with the highest respect & esteem your obedt Servant
Rt Brooke
LS, DNA: RG 59, Miscellaneous Letters.
1. In Martin Oster’s letter to Brooke of 18 Nivose (7 Jan.), he complained that British agents were purchasing provisions, horses, and ships in North Carolina and Virginia to be used for the conquest of French colonies in South America (DNA: RG 59, Miscellaneous Letters).
2. Thomas Jefferson stated in his letter to Jean-Baptiste Ternant that “our citizens have been always free to make, vend and export arms” and that “To suppress their callings … because a War exists in foreign and distant countries, in which we have no concern, would scarcely be expected. … The law of nations . . . . is satisfied with the external penalty … of confiscation of such portion of these arms as shall fall into the hands of any of the belligerent powers, on their way to the ports of their enemies. To this penalty our Citizens are warned that they will be abandoned; and that the purchases of arms here, may work no inequality between the parties at war, the liberty to make them will be enjoyed equally by both” ( 26:42–44).
3. Article XXIV of the 1778 Treaty of Amity and Commerce with France listed the contraband goods that would be excepted from the “Liberty of Navigation and Commerce” otherwise allowed. Horses and armaments were considered contraband, while clothing, food, and ships explicitly were not ( 21–23).
Pickering replied on 29 Jan. that he had written to the French minister “showing the right of any of the powers at war to purchase and export from the United States Horses and all other contraband goods as well as provisions.” He had cited Jefferson’s letter. Article XXIV of the treaty “imposes no obligation on either of the contracting parties to prevent their exportation.” Both parties “understood … that they would be at liberty to carry contraband goods to the enemies of the other, but under penalty of capture and confiscation, if taken on the high seas. … This case is regulated by the 23d article of the treaty.” While U.S. citizens might have “feelings” about the belligerents, the government “cannot interpose its authority … to prevent a commerce with one of the belligerent powers which has been and still is freely indulged to another” (DNA: RG 59, Domestic Letters).