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taking them in a privateer under the Venezuelan flag to join with McGregor, and commit hostilities against a Spanish possession? I furnish you with the affidavits of two persons stating the fact, and you will excuse me in saying that I cannot think the laws of the United States render it incumbent upon me to present myself before a judge of the circuit court, and enter into bonds to appear and prosecute the offenders. On the contrary, sir, the thirty-fifth section of the judiciary act imposes upon the attorney of the United States for each district the duty of prosecuting all delinquents for crimes and offenses cognizable under the authority of the United States. I conceive, therefore, that as soon as the attorney of the United States receives information of the infraction of the laws, it becomes his duty to take such measures as may be necessary to bring the offenders to justice; he is the person who must take the witnesses before a judge or magistrate; he must become the informer; he must prosecute, that is, he must take, or cause to be taken, the steps which are necessary to arrest the offenders and bring them to punishment. I am the more confirmed in this belief, because the thirtythird section of the judiciary act directs that offenders may be imprisoned by a judge or magistrate, at the expense of the United States, and leaves it discretionary for the witnesses to appear and testify. That act does not require that the informer should enter into bonds to appear and prosecute. The offense of which I have complained is of a most serious nature. The United States should not afford means to one nation at peace with them to annoy and invade another nation also at peace with them. And it becomes the duty of all the officers of the United States, as they value the reputation and the interest of their country, to discharge, with alacrity and zeal, those duties assigned to them, which can preserve the neutrality of their country, and prevent its becoming the center of reunion for the enemies of Spain, and to prevent their own citizens joining in measures of hostility and aggression. It is a matter of notoriety that the insurgent governments of South America all have their agents in this country, that swarms of privateers are fitted out, armed, and equipped for war in the United States; and all the injuries and desolation committed by them upon the Spanish commerce emanate from the facilities which they find in the United States to prepare for themselves these outrages. And, sir, Congress having passed laws rendering these acts illegal, I cannot admit that individuals must undertake the task of informing against and prosecuting the offenders. These offenses are against the dignity of the country, they affect the community at large; I cannot, therefore, bring myself to believe that it is the province of individuals to bind themselves to prosecute offenders, any more than I can think that it is the duty of an individual who gives information that a murder has been committed to enter into bonds to prosecute the murderer. No, sir; the laws must have confided this odious but necessary task to its public officers; they must see that offenders are brought to punishment; and, sir, I do further consider that this duty has by law been devolved upon you. Regretting, therefore, that this expedition has been permitted to proceed unmolested, notwithstanding the information which I communicated to you, you will excuse me if, on all future occasions of a similar nature, I should renew my application to you to prevent a new aggression.

I beg, &c.,
(Signed)

THOMAS STOUGHTON.

No. 26.

Don Luis de Onis to Mr. J. Q. Adams.

[Translation.]

PHILADELPHIA, November 2, 1817. SIR: I have just received a statement, dated the 14th of July, addressed to me by the directors of the Royal Philippine Company at

Madrid, informing me of the unfortunate fate of two ships belong[122] ing *to the said company, the one named Nuestra Señora del

Buen Suceso, alias La Esperanza, and the other, El Triton, captured, the first on the 8th of June last, the day on which she sailed from Cadiz to Calcutta and Manila, by the pretended insurgent privateers, La Independencia del Sud, commanded by James Chaytor, of eighteen guns, and one traversing 42-pounder; and the Mangore, under the orders of same Chaytor, of fourteen guns, and one traversing 36-pounder; and the ship Triton, from Calcutta and the coast of Coromandel, which was

captured off the Cape de Verd Islands after a gallant defense of two and a half hours, in which she lost twenty killed, and sprung her foremast, by a privateer (of the same description as the two above mentioned) called the Regent, alias Trepacamara, commanded by one Manson, who, when seventeen days out from Baltimore, fell in with the Triton, and conducted her as a prize to Buenos Ayres, where she arrived on the 2d of April last, according to the advices received by the underwriters at Lloyds, from their agent at Buenos Ayres.

The directors of the Royal Philippine Company, in giving me an account of these distressing events, inform me that they have understood, by the advices which I have given to the principal secretary of state of the King, my master, that Captain James Chaytor, of the piratical vessel La Independencia del Sud, kept depending a demand made at the instance of the Spanish consul at Norfolk, relative to the safe-keeping of certain Spanish property deposited in the custom-house of that port, by the above-named pirate, and one called the Atrevida; whence it is incontestably proved that the armament of La Independencia del Sud is made in the ports of these States, and that the captain, officers, and the greater part of her crew are likewise subjects of the same States. From presumptive causes and circumstances they suppose that the other privateer may be the Regent, alias Trepacamara, Captain Manson, which vessel sailed from Baltimore seventeen days previous to his capturing the Triton.

I have repeatedly found myself under the painful necessity of representing to the President, through the medium of your predecessors, that Article XIV of the treaty between His Catholic Majesty and the United States establishes the most positive right of reclamation on the Government and those citizens who have taken or do take part in the numerous armaments of privateers, which have taken place in the ports of this republic, under cover of the pretended commissions so profusely circulated by the insurgents of the revolted provinces of the King, my master, to attack openly and in a barefaced manner the subjects and commerce of Spain; and that the same article declares those to be pirates who engage in these horrid cruises, and consequently obliges the contracting parties to punish them as such, as a just atonement for their offenses. On the 2d and 15th of January, and on the 29th of March last, I officially addressed your immediate predecessor, and remonstrated against the robberies and outrages committed by various privateers, and, among others, by those called Independencia del Sud and Mangore, the captains of which, James Chaytor and Barnes, are citizens of these States. In the note transmitted to the Secretary on the 4th of March, (14th March,) I found myself under the necessity, in consideration of the excesses committed against the subjects of the King, my master, and of those which, through the impunity and toleration of some of the authorities of this country, were about to be repeated by vessels bought, armed, manned, and equipped in the ports of this republic, in violation of the laws of nations, of the express stipulations of an existing treaty, and of the rights of humanity; and in discharge of my duty I was laid under the necessity, I say, of representing and remonstrating, in the name of my sovereign, on the subject of the injuries and losses which had already resulted, and might further result, to his subjects, and at the same time of protesting against the authors of the same. The capture of the ship Esperanza has been one of the fatal consequences of allowing the privateer Independencia del Sud to proceed freely to sea from Norfolk, after His Catholic Majesty's consul, Don Antonio Argote Vallalobos, had made proof of the illegal conduct and atrocious acts of her captain, James

Chaytor; and that the ship Triton proceeds likewise from the toleration granted in this country of arming and equipping against the trade of Spain; under which supposition I cannot refrain from stating to you, in order that you may be pleased to communicate the same to the President, that the aforesaid Royal Company of the Philippines have an incontestable right to claim of this republic full compensation for the value of the said ships and cargoes, by reason of the armament of the privateers which captured them having been made in its ports.

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I have the honor to inclose, for the suitable purposes, a note of the articles shipped on board the Esperanza at Calcutta and Manila, for the account of the Royal Philippine Company, and of the return cargo of the Triton from Bengal and the coast of Coromandel to Cadiz, which sums united amount, according to the invoice, to that of $701,980, to which is to be added an interest of 15 per cent. on the disbursement of the amount of the cargo of the Triton, for the period of one and a half years, and 6 per cent. in Europe on the cargo of the Esperanza.

I hope you will take into consideration the contents of this note, and be pleased to call the attention of the President to the interesting subject treated of in it, that His Catholic Majesty may adopt such measures as his wisdom may dictate to him, for the purpose of collecting, as far as it may be possible, any parts of the two prizes above named for the benefit of their owners; and at the same time giving orders to the competent authorities in the ports of this republic to discover such effects as may arrive making part of the same.

I therefore hope this from your established zeal and the well-known rectitude of the President, deferring to my return to the seat of government the verbal communication of a plan which I have meditated, from a desire to settle amicably an affair of such importance.

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WASHINGTON, May 7, 1818. SIR: I have received official advice, through different channels, that the expedition of French adventurers which left Philadelphia towards the end of last year, with the apparent intention of going to Tombigbee, but in reality to Galveston, is now receiving, at the former place, a considerable number of recruits, and large supplies of military stores from the ports of New Orleans, Charleston, Savannah, and others within this republic, from whence they proceed in small parties to Galveston, and thus elude the vigilance of the Government.

From the period at which, namely, on the 6th of September last, I denounced to you the preparations for this expedition, referring for its unquestionable certainty to the plan communicated to this Government 'by the minister of France, which offered the most indubitable proof that Joseph Bonaparte was at the head of it, with the rash project of being crowned King of Mexico, I have relied on your assurances to the same ambassador, and which were forthwith communicated by him to me, that the most effectual measures had been taken by the Government to

prevent its execution. But, perceiving that this expedition daily takes a greater consistence, and that the recruiting and supplies clandestinely sent from this republic are not put a stop to, I can no longer refrain from again calling your attention, and through you that of the President, to the enormous abuse of the hospitality offered by this republic, on the part of Joseph Bonaparte and his adherents, with a view to disturb the tranquillity of Europe, and especially that of the possessions of the King, my master.

I would have considered myself dispensed from the necessity of again pressing this subject on your attention, if it had appeared possible for me to restrain these armaments by the employment of judicial means; but, unfortunately, the act of Congress of the 12th of April last, for preserving neutrality with foreign nations, and others already in force, although highly judicious, are easily eluded; and although these practices are publicly notorious throughout the whole Union, His Majesty's consuls advise me that, through a deficiency of evidence, they cannot be restrained by a regular application of the law.

Convinced, however, as I am, that nothing is more remote from the intention of the President than to tolerate hostile expeditions within the territories of the republic, directed against the powers with which it is in a state of profound peace, I cannot for a moment doubt that His Excellency will take into his most serious consideration what is due to the demand which I now make, in the name of my sovereign, that Joseph Bonaparte, the Generals Lallemand, and other Frenchmen now residing in this country, be compelled to keep themselves within the bounds prescribed by the hospitality and generosity with which they have been received, and prevented from continuing to organize expeditions for the purpose of invading the territory of His Catholic Majesty, and disturbing the peace enjoyed by his subjects.

I therefore hope that you will be pleased, sir, to inform me of the measures which may be taken on this subject, in order that, in communicating them to my sovereign, His Majesty may see in them a confirmation of the amicable sentiments of this republic toward his monarchy.

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I renew, &c.,
(Signed)

LUIS DE ONIS.

No. 28.

Don Luis de Onis to Mr. J. Q. Adams.

[Translation.]

BRISTOL, June 9, 1818.

SIR: At my passage through Baltimore, on my way to Philadelphia, it was represented to me by His Catholic Majesty's consul for the State of Maryland, that there were in that port four pirates, or privateers, if you please so to call them, namely, the Independencia del Sud, Captain Grinnold; the Puerredon, alias Mangore, Captain Barnes; the Republicano, Captain Chase; and the schooner Alerta, Captain Chaytor. These pirates, denominated privateers, or vessels of war, of the pretended government of Buenos Ayres, have entered the port of Baltimore for the purpose of dividing the spoil resulting from their depredations on Spanish commerce, and of refitting and arming to renew these excesses on the high seas. It is a matter of universal notoriety at Baltimore that three of the above-named vessels were fitted out there, and

the fourth is a schooner captured by them from Spanish subjects; it is no less so that their commanders, and the greater part of the crews, are American citizens, and that there is scarcely a single individual belonging to Buenos Ayres to be found among them.

Whoever has read the so-called constitution and the provisional laws existing at Buenos Ayres, (for there is nothing there but what is provisional,) must know that no vessel of the rebels can sail under their flag unless the captain and one-half of the crew be natives of that country, and that no foreigner can be naturalized there until after five years' residence. I submit to your judgment, sir, whether, on such grounds, the vessels in question can be admitted to be Buenos Ayres privateers, or whether the American captains and crews that man them, commissioned or not by that rebel government, can be considered as citizens of that country; and whether, agreeably to the laws of nations, and the existing treaty between His Majesty and this republic, they can be viewed in other light than as pirates; and if it be possible for you to conceal from your discernment that the captains and crews of these vessels have violated the laws of this Union in perpetrating these atrocities, to the dis

honor of the American name; I repeat, that I submit it to your [124] consideration, to determine whether *the prizes made by vessels,

under these circumstances, ought not to be restored to their lawful owners, or that these persons ought to be indemnified by the United States, seeing that they have tolerated such armaments in violation of their laws, of the laws of nations, and of the existing treaty between Spain and this republic.

I am aware, sir, that you will tell me that the courts are open to the recognizance of claims of this nature, and ready to apply the law to such cases as occur and are supported by suitable testimony; but I am under the necessity of declaring to you that it is in vain to seek such testimony, however clear it may be to everybody. I have demonstrated, in the most pointed manner, to His Majesty's consul the propriety of directing his attention to points of so much importance; but he has proved to me that a great portion of the commercial people of Baltimore being interested in the cases which produce my present reclamations, no one is willing to come forward and offer testimony against what is termed the general interest; and thus the wise measures of Government are eluded, justice is paralyzed, and the suits procrastinated and deferred from court to court, with a view to deprive His Majesty's subjects of that justice which they have an undoubted right to seek in the tribunals on all their claims.

Presuming that all I have stated is well known to you and to the President, I cannot but persuade myself that it is highly disapproved of, and I am entirely willing to believe that if these abuses are not remedied, it is owing to a want of due attention to the execution of the orders of the Government; but my duty compels me to call the attention of the President to this important point, and to represent to him, through the medium of your Department, that (as far as I am able to ascertain) the vessels in question, in addition to their object in coming hither for the purpose of conveying to the parties interested at Baltimore the proceeds of their spoliations on the Spanish commerce, and among others, that of the Philippine Company's ship Triton, to the amount of $1,500,000, captured by the pirate Independencia del Sud, and carried to Buenos Ayres to be sold there, have a project in fitting out anew, and of attacking some possessions of the King, my master, on this continent, to which they may more easily send their prizes; that these same privateers have brought in two Spanish prizes, which are at this moment in

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