de la marine' of France. The court of prizes of France decreed restoration of said cargo, or of its proceeds, to its owner. "We award that the French Government shall pay a sum equal to one-half of said proceeds deposited with the 'caisse des invalides de la marine' of France, amounting to three thousand and four hundred and fourteen francs and 783 centimes to the claimant, as owner of one half of the cargo of the Anahuac, with interest at the rate of 5 per cent per annum from April 1st, A. D. 1864; and when said award shall have been paid by the Government of the French Republic to the Government of the United States of America, the French Government shall be subrogated to the rights of the claimant to the said one-half of the sum of six thousand eight hundred and twenty-nine francs and 57 centimes, deposited as aforesaid, with accruing interest. "The rest of the claim is disallowed." Commissioner Aldis added the following: "While I assent to the above allowance, I must respectfully express the opinion that the further sum of $4,888 ought to be allowed for the Mexican dollars, which I think were taken by the French military authorities." William C. Tripler v. The French Republic, No. 4, and Thomas Masson v. The French Republic, No. 15, Boutwell's Report, 195: Commission under the convention between the United States and France of January 15, 1880. CHAPTER LXVII. NEUTRALITY. 1. CASES UNDER ARTICLE VII. OF THE JAY TREATY. Provisions of the Article VII. of the treaty between the United States and Great Britain of November 19, 1794, commonly called the Jay Treaty, recites that "whereas certain merchants and others, His Majesty's subjects, complain that in the course of the war" then pending between Great Britain and France, "they have sustained loss and damage by reason of the capture of their vessels and merchandise, taken within the limits and jurisdiction of the [United] States and brought into the ports of the same, or taken by vessels originally armed in ports of the said States: It is agreed that in all such cases where restitution shall not have been made agreeably to the tenor of the letter from Mr. Jefferson to Mr. Hammond, dated at Philadelphia, September 5, 1793, a copy of which is annexed to this treaty, the complaints of the parties shall be and hereby are referred to the commissioners to be appointed by virtue of this article, who are hereby authorized and required to proceed in the like manner relative to these as to the other cases committed to them, and the United States undertakes to pay to the complainants or claimants in specie, without deduction, the amount of such sums as shall be awarded to them respectively by the said commissioners, and at the times and places which in such awards shall be specified, and on condition of such releases or assignments to be given by the claimants as in the said awards. may be directed; and it is further agreed that not only the now-existing cases, but also all such as shall exist at the time of exchanging the ratifications of this treaty shall be considered as being within the provisions, intent, and meaning of this article." The origin of these stipulations has been traced in the history of the commission under the article in question. The cases 1 Supra, I. Chapter X. that came before the commission will now be examined, with a view to ascertain the principles on which they were determined. In this relation it is necessary to refer to certain preliminary facts. Case of the When M. Genet, the French minister, arrived at Charleston in April 1793 he sent the frigate Embuscade, in which he had come to the United States, on to Philadelphia, intending himself to make the journey by land. On the way to l'hiladelphia the Embuscade fell in with and captured the British ship Grange, in the Delaware Bay. On the advice of the Attorney-General of the United States that the Delaware Bay was within the jurisdiction and protection of the government, a request was made to Genet to cause the Grange and her cargo to be restored. With this request he complied.' Fitting out of Pri vateers. This act was an exception to his general course of conduct. Having brought with him a large number of blank commissions, he busily employed himself after his arrival in the United States in the fitting out and arming of vessels as privateers. Among the earliest of this class were Le Citoyen Genet, Le Sans Culottes, and Le Vainqueur de la Bastille, from Charleston; L'Anti-George, which was soon lost, from Savannah; Le Carmagnole and Le Petit Democrat, from the Delaware River; Le Républicain, which was soon captured; and Le Roland, from Boston. These vessels took numerous prizes, which Genet refused to cause to be restored, though some of them were seized within the waters of the United States. lamation of neutrality. At this time the United States had neither Washington's proc- statutes nor precedents on the subject of neutrality, nor had the duties of neutrals ever been clearly defined. The first step in the development of the government's neutral policy was the issuance by Washington, April 22, 1793, of the following proclamation: "BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. "A PROCLAMATION. "Whereas it appears that a state of war exists between Austria, Prussia, Sardinia, Great Britain, and the United Netherlands, of the one part, and France on the other, and the duty and interest of the United States Am. State Papers, For. Rel. I. 148, 150. require that they should with sincerity and good faith adopt and pursue a conduct friendly and impartial toward the belligerent powers: "I have, therefore, thought fit by these presents to declare the disposition of the United States to observe the conduct aforesaid towards those powers respectively; and to exhort and warn the citizens of the United States carefully to avoid all acts and proceedings whatsoever which may in any manner tend to contravene such disposition: "And I do hereby also make known that whosoever of the citizens of the United States shall render himself liable to punishment or forfeiture under the law of nations, by committing, aiding, or abetting hostilities against any of the said powers, or by carrying to any of them those articles which are deemed contraband by the modern usage of nations, will not receive the protection of the United States against such punishment or forfeiture; and, further, that I have given instructions to those officers to whom it belongs, to cause prosecutions to be instituted against all persons who shall, within the cognizance of the courts of the United States, violate the law of nations, with respect to the powers at war, or any of them. "In testimony whereof I have caused the seal of the United States of America to be affixed to these presents, and signed the same day with my hand. "Done at the city of Philadelphia, the 22d day of April 1793 and of the Independence of the United States of America the 17th. "By the President: "TH. JEFFERSON."! "GO. WASHINGTON. The foregoing proclamation was communicated by Mr. Jef ferson, as Secretary of State, to the ministers of the belligerent powers with the following letter or note: "PHILADELPHIA, April 23, 1793. "SIR: As far as the public gazettes are to be credited, we may presume that war has taken place among several of the nations of Europe, in which France, England, Holland, and Prussia are particularly engaged. Disposed ourselves to pursue steadily the ways of peace, and to remain in friendship with all nations, the President of the United States has thought it expedient, by the proclamation, of which I enclose you a copy, to notify this disposition to our citizens, in order to intimate to them the line of conduct for which they are to prepare; and this he has done without waiting for a formal notification from the belligerent powers. He hopes that those powers, and your nation in particular, will consider this early precaution as a proof, the more candid as it has been unasked, of the sincere and impartial intentions of our country, and that what is meant merely as a general intimation to our citizens shall not be construed to their prejudice in any courts of admiralty, as if it were conclusive evidence of their knowledge of the existence of war, and of the powers engaged in it. Of this we could not give them conclusive information because we have it 1 See Am. State Papers, For. Rel. I. 140; United States v. Henfield, Wharton's State Trials, 49. not ourselves; and till it is given to us in form, and so communicated to them, we must consider all their acts as lawful which would have been lawful in a state of peace. "I have, etc., TH. JEFFERSON." May 8, 1793, Mr. Hammond, the British minComplaints of Violaister, informed Mr. Jefferson that two British tions of Neutrality. brigantines, the Four Brothers and the Morning Star, had been brought by the French frigate Embuscade into Charleston, where they had been condemned as prize by the French consul, who was assuming to exercise the powers of a court of admiralty. He also called attention to the fact that a considerable quantity of arms and military accoutrements, purchased by an agent of the French Government, was about to be exported from New York. On the 15th of May Mr. Jefferson replied that the judicial act performed by the French consul at Charleston was not warranted by the usages of nations nor by treaty, and cousequently was a mere nullity, and that it involved a disrespect to the United States to which the government could not be inattentive. As to the shipping of arms and munitions of war, he said that the citizens of the United States were "free to make, vend, and export arms," subject to the penalty of confiscation if such arms should be seized by any of the belligerents on the high seas. The Embuscade was neither fitted out nor Decision of the United armed in the United States, and her captures, States District unless made within the jurisdiction of the Court at Philadelphia. United States, did not in themselves involve the government in any responsibility. Numerous captures were, however, made by the privateers that were fitted out and armed in the United States. On the 5th of June 1793 Mr. Jefferson informed Mr. Genet of the decision of the President that the fitting out of such privateers involved a violation of the rights and duties of the United States as a neutral, and asked that they be required to depart from the ports of the United States. Prior to this time Le Citoyen Genet had seized the ship William, of Glasgow, and the brigantine Active, of Bermuda; and at least four vessels had been taken by Le Sans Culottes, among which was the brigantine Fanny, of London. Both the William and the Fanny were brought into the port of Philadelphia, and the interposition of the courts was invoked |