1. Pickering’s letter to Thomas Pinckney of this date authorized him to negotiate with Great Britain about trade with the British West Indies and with Nova Scotia and Newfoundland. The proposed instructions, also of this date, informed Pinckney that the chief objections to Article XII of the Jay Treaty concerned the prohibition against American vessels carrying molasses, sugar, coffee, cocoa, or cotton to any non-American ports and the restriction to seventy tons on American vessels trading with the West Indies. Pinckney was told that the prohibition was “wholly inadmissable” and that he was to obtain a relaxation of the restriction so as to allow vessels of up to 100 tons in the Indies trade. If those ends could not be achieved, then “further negociations must be abandoned.” The United States would agree not to re-export the five articles, if brought from the West Indies, but Pinckney was “never” to grant “a right to search or stop our vessels under pretence that they have on board any of the prohibited enumerated articles.” Other desirable objects were specified, but Pinckney was not to have too much “anxiety” to come to terms because France and Holland were likely to find it necessary to grant more favorable terms for trade with their islands, and even Britain soon might grant more open trade (MHi: Pickering Papers).

The following Tuesday was 8 March.