To George Washington from Timothy Pickering, 12 June 1796
From Timothy Pickering
Sunday Evening [12 June 1796]
Sir,
Reflecting on the proposed application to Mr Liston respecting our seamen impressed in the West Indies, I thought a more effectual mode than a conversation, would be to address him by letter. While in the country to-day, I draughted the inclosed for that purpose.1 I also sketched a letter to Mr Adet on the subject of the piratical privateer which has captured one of our ships, and in effect blocked up the Delaware. It is formed on the reports of the case—the facts when ascertained will doubtless make alterations necessary. The sketch I will make legible to present to you in the morning,2 at as early an hour as will suit your convenience, after sun-rise. I am very respectfully, sir, your obt servant
T. Pickering
ALS, DNA: RG 59, Miscellaneous Letters; LB, DNA: RG 59, GW’s Correspondence with His Secretaries of State. The letter-book copy supplies the date.
1. Pickering’s draft has not been identified, but his letter to British minister Robert Liston, dated 25 June, enclosed a copy of the “Act for the relief and protection of American Seamen” and depositions exemplifying “the oppression practised on American citizens impressed by the Officers of his Britannic Majesty, sometimes at Sea, but more frequently in the ports of the West Indies. I am possessed of many such depositions, collected within a short period, and more are daily coming in.
“The design of the present letter is to request your interposition, to give facility and efficacy to the measures proposed by Congress to remedy the evil here refered to. …
“You will observe that one of the agents required by the act of Congress to be appointed, is to reside in Great-Britain. There, so near the sources of power great abuses, I trust, are seldom practised, But the West-Indies, so remote from the correcting hand of government, appears to have been the scene of unexampled cruelties. And altho’ certificates sanctioned by the same solemnities as the Ships’ papers may generally have been admitted as evidence of citizenship, yet sometimes they have been utterly disregarded. In other cases, where certificates have been lost, or by the improvidence of our seamen never obtained, all other reasonable proofs of citizenship have been rejected.
“With a view to seek relief for such suffering citizens, the President of the United States has appointed Silas Talbot Esquire to repair to the West Indies. … But the attempt may not succeed, unless your aid be interposed; unless your letters to his Majesty’s officers give our agents access to them; and unless your representations shall procure a proper attention to the rights of American citizens. And I am sure that your sympathy for suffering humanity, your respect for the rights of a foreign nation to which you are the accredited minister, and your desire to promote its harmony with your own, will prompt you to afford the requested interposition; and in a case of such urgency, regardless of unessential forms, persuade you to give your aid in any way which absolute impropriety does not forbid (DNA: RG 59, Notes from the Department of State to Foreign Ministers and Consuls in the United States; see also GW to the U.S. Senate, 30 May, and n.1, and Pickering to GW, 10 June).
2. Pickering wrote French minister Pierre-Auguste Adet on 13 June: “The merchants of Philadelphia are extremely alarmed by the conduct of a small Privateer called the Flying Fish, bearing, it is understood, a commission from the French Republic. It is said she has been lying in this port for some time, preparing for sea: and it seems that after inquiring and observing what valuable vessels were to sail for foreign ports, she sailed herself to the Capes of the Delaware, and not far from thence lay in wait for the vessels she had marked for her prey. Accordingly, on the 9th instant, she seized on the Ship Mount Vernon … within two hours after the pilot had left her, and within about six leagues of Cape Henlopen; took possession of all her papers, and forced the master, mate and all her crew, save two men to leave her; and under these circumstances she was sent—they know not whither! …
“Such conduct has more the appearance of an act of piracy than of the lawful procedure of an armed vessel regularly commissioned by your Republic. Other vessels were on the point of leaving the Delaware Bay; but witnessing or hearing of this outrage, have put back, and returned up the river for safety. …”
Pickering added that even should there be “any just ground to believe” the Mount Vernon “to be the property of an enemy of the French Republic,” the master and mate ought to have been allowed to remain on the ship to represent the owners at adjudication.
“I have only further to express to you, Sir, the President’s reliance that if you are possessed of any information on the subject of this letter, you will communicate the same with the candour and frankness due from the representative of a friendly and allied nation. … P.S. The public solicitude is so great on this subject, and so many vessels are in consequence detained, you will permit me to request a speedy answer” (DNA: RG 59, Domestic Letters). For Adet’s reply, dated 14 June, see Pickering to GW, 22 June, and n.1 to that letter; see also Oliver Wolcott, Jr., to GW, 20 June, and GW to Pickering, 24 and 27 June.