C.

UNITED STATES FRIGATE MACEDONIAN,

Pensacola Bay, June 25, 1839.

Commodore Shubrick, commander in-chief of the naval forces of the United States in the West Indies and Gulf of Mexico, begs leave to address Vice Admiral Baudin, commanding the naval forces of France in the Gulf of Mexico, on a subject which he assures the vice admiral he is only induced to by a frank and sincere desire to cultivate with the vice admiral those relations of friendship which have ever existed between the nations which they respectively serve.

Admiral Baudin must be aware that Commodore Shubrick was not received, when he visited the Néreide yesterday morning, with the ceremonies which naval etiquette has assigned to an officer exercising the command. with which the President of the United States has been pleased to intrust the commodore.

It would be a subject of great regret to the commodore, if he could suppose that any want of courtesy, any neglect of etiquette, on his part, had caused this unpleasant circumstance; but, conscious that he has paid every respect to the flag of France, and every personal attention to the vice-admiral, he requests that the vice admiral will put it in his power, when he states the fact to his Government, to lay before it also the views that have governed the vice-admiral.

Commodore Shubrick repeats his hope that Vice-Admiral Baudin will see in this communication nothing but a frank desire to cultivate the most cordial relations. In so viewing it, he will only do justice to the commodore's feelings.

Vice-Admiral BAUDIN,

Commanding the naval forces of France

in the Gulf of Mexico, frigate Néreide.

D.

H. F. M. FRIGATE NEREIDE,

Bay of Pensacola, June 25, 1839.

At the moment the Vice Admiral Charles Bandin was going to pay a visit to Commodore Shubrick, he received the note with which he honored him, from on board the Macedonian, of this day's date; therefore, the ViceAdmiral Charles Baudin could read the note only on his return on board the Néreide. If he had had any knowledge of it when he had the honor to see the commodore, he should have been anxious to give him, personally, part of the explanations he is going to consign here.

Before entering on any discussion with respect to the grievance complained of in the note under his eye, the vice admiral thinks he ought to remind him of what had passed between himself and the commodore since their first meeting in the Gulf of Mexico, in the month of April last.

It was on the 22d April the United States frigate Macedonian, with Commodore Shubrick's broad pennant flying, appeared in sight of Vera Cruz. The French frigate Néreide, carrying the admiral's flag on the mizenmast,

was then at anchor under the Isle Verte; the remainder of the squadron was at Sacrificios, where the Macedonian came to anchor in the afternoon. So soon as the Macedonian had cast anchor, an officer of His Majesty's frigate La Gloire went on board the commodore's ship to present to him the admiral's compliments and offer of services.

Six whole days passed by, during which period the admiral's frigate and that of the commodore remained at anchor only two miles distant from each other. During all this interval the weather continued favorable to an intercourse, yet the Macedonian set sail on the 28th of April, towards noon, without the commodore's returning to the admiral the least thanks, direct or indirect, for the offer of services he made to him on the arrival of the Macedonian.

It was, on the part of Commodore Shubrick, a want of regard and understanding, somewhat without example, between officers belonging to nations actually at peace with each other. Therefore, when the admiral, on his departure from Vera Cruz, went to take leave of the United States consul, Mr. Burrough, with whom he was on very friendly terms, he could not help expressing to him his astonishment at the commodore's extraordinary conduct.

Mr. Burrough explained then to the admiral Commodore Shubrick's system, in the following language:

"I possess," says the commodore, "the highest grade to which an officer in the United States service can attain; the admiral, on the contrary, does not hold the highest grade in the French navy. I cannot, therefore, cousider him as standing on higher ground with respect to myself, and owe him no condescension."

The admiral has not to discuss here the solidity of such reasoning; he cites it only to show under what impression he must have been when, on his arrival at Pensacola, he met, at that station, Commodore Shubrick. The admiral's duty was to guard against any proceeding which might have been considered an acquiescence or only a concession made to the commodore's strange principles.

However, the admiral is pleased to acknowledge that, on this occasion, the commodore's conduct towards him has been as regular and polite as it had been irregular and impolite at their former meeting at Vera Cruz. soon as the Néreide had anchored before Pensacola, two officers came, in succession, on the part of the commodore, to present his compliments and offer of services to the admiral. One of the informed the admiral that the commodore intended paying him a visit that very day, and to salute his flag with 17 guns. The admiral answered that he had a number of sick on board, for whom the physicians entertained some apprehension on account of the concussion produced by the fire of the guns, consequently, he desired to put off firing the salute until the sick should all have been removed on shore; that this work should be performed the next day, early in the morning; that, at 8 o'clock, the Néreide would salute the United States flag with a national salute of 21 guns; that the admiral would then be at the service of the commodore for the exchange of the customary salutations.

The day before yesterday, (the 23d,) at 8 o'clock, A. M., the dmiral's frigate hoisted the United States flag on the mainmast, and saluted it with twenty-one guns.

The trigate Macedonian having, by mistake, returned that salute, which. according to the agreements, was addressed to the land, the admiral ordered

immediately a second salute of the same number of guns, which was returned from the battery of the arsenal.

Yesterday, towards 11 o'clock, A. M., Commodore Shubrick, accompanied by the captain of the Macedonian and several other officers, came to pay a visit to the Vice Admiral Charles Baudin. The commodore was received on board the Néreide with all the honors to which the regulations entitle a French rear admiral. The Vice Admiral Charles Baudin, with his captain and principal officers, advanced to receive the commodore at the gangway of the quarter deck; the guard commanded by an officer was under arms; the drum was beating when the commodore stepped on the quarterdeck, and the musical band played the national air-Hail Columbia.

The admiral invited the commodore and the officers of his suite to his state room; and when, after half an hour's very friendly conversation, the commodore took leave, he was accompanied back by the admiral, with the same ceremony as he had been received on his arrival on board. The admiral, therefore, does not see that the commodore has cause to complain, as he does in his note of this day's date, that he had not been received on board the Néreide with the ceremonies to which the naval etiquette entitles officers of his rank.

One thing more might have been added to the honors paid to the commodore, to wit: the salute on the yards, and the salute with the guns.

But the commodore is, no doubt, aware that it is the established principle amongst all the maritime Powers, in the cases where foreign officers meet, that in point of personal salute or salutes, directed to the distinguishing mark of command, the officer of the highest grade never salutes first; he waits until he has been saluted. When the contrary is the case, it is from a derogation to the rules, and from pure courtesy. But what had passed before Vera Cruz, when, through the strangest forgetfulness of the covenants, the compliments and offer of services presented by the admiral to Commodore Shubrick had remained without an acknowledgment, the admiral would not feel invited to an excess of politeness towards the commodore. The admiral, being acquainted with the commodore's system, had to avoid, with care, any act which might have been construed as a recognition of that system, and as establishing a precedent in its favor. In short, that system seems to belong only to Commodore Shubrick. In the course of his service, the admiral has had several times occasion to witness meetings between commodores of the United States navy and French rear-admirals. He has never seen the American commanders hesitate making the first salute to a grade of distinction superior to their own; he has even seen an American commodore salute first a commander of a French station carrying a broad pennant on the mainmast, and who, as Captain of a man of war, was older in service than the commodore. This, however, could only be considered as an act of courtesy, which did not affect the principles uniformly adopted with respect to the precedence in the order of salutes.

The admiral considers these principles as established on sound reason; and he believes he has sufficiently explained the motives which would not permit him to derogate from them in favor of Commodore Shubrick, as much as in favor of any other foreign officer. In the whole course of his career, the admiral has been (with the exception of one instance) on very friendly and agreeable terms with officers of the American navy, whom he has had the honor to fall in with; and he felt very much disposed to be on

similar terms with Commodore Shubrick, whose conduct before Vera Cruz he has never considered as an intentional want of politeness, but merely as the effect of a false system.

The admiral wishes no better than to see the commodore making the actual discussion the object of communication to the Government of the United States; in that case, he would, on his part, report to the Government of France. In the mean time, until the decision be known, he hopes that a simple difference of opinion on a point of service will not destroy the feelings of cordiality which ought to exist between officers commanding the forces of two friendly nations. In this hope, he begs the commodore. to accept the assurance of his highest consideration.

Com. W. B. SHUBRICK,

Commanding the naval forces of the

CHARLES BAUDIN.

United States at Pensacola.

E.

UNITED STATES FRIGATE MACEDONIAN,

Pensacola Bay, June 27, 1839.

Commodore Shubrick has the honor to acknowledge the receipt of the communication of Vice-Admiral Charles Baudin, of the 25th instant, and loses no time in replying to it, in the same spirit of frankness which dictated his (the commodore's) communication of the same date.

The commodore would remind the admiral that the only mark of respect paid to him, or to the flag of the United States, on his arrival at Vera Cruz, (to the circumstances of which the admiral has been pleased to allude,) was a message by a lieutenant from a ship, (not the admiral's ship,) conveying the customary words of welcome and offers of service; which, the commodore, hoping for and expecting a visit from the admiral, did not deem it important to acknowledge, otherwise than by the message which he returned through the same channel.

Two days before the commodore left Vera Cruz, he sent a lieutenant to the same ship, with an offer of services in conveying the despatches of the admiral to the United States, which he considers a full equivalent for the attention of the admiral to him.

On the arrival of the admiral at Pensacola, within the waters of the United States, the commodore lost no time in offering to the flag of France the honors due to the flag of a nation in full amity with the United States; and as soon as circumstances would admit, he paid a personal visit to the admiral, expecting to be received with the honors and ceremonies due from one commander-in chief to another; thinking, as he still thinks, that the command with which the President of the United States has intrusted him places him on a footing of perfect equality with an admiral of any navy. In this expectation the commodore was disappointed; but he is bound to believe, from the communication of the admiral, that this disappointment was caused, not by a disposition on the part of the admiral to treat him personally with disrespect, but by the fact of the admiral and himself being governed by different "systems" of naval etiquette; and having shown his adherence to his system, by receiving the admiral, when he did the com

modore the honor to visit him on board the Macedonian, as the commodore was received on board the Néreide, he is willing to leave the further discussion of the subject to their respective Governments.

The commodore will merely remark, in reference to that part of the viceadmiral's note in which he speaks of the meetings between American commodores and French rear-admirals, that no commander-in-chief under whom the commodore has had the honor to serve (and they have been some of the most distinguished in the American navy) has so far forgotten what was due to the rank of his nation as to acknowledge the superiority of any other commander-in-chief.

In conclusion, the commodore assures the vice-admiral that no simple difference of opinion on a point of service can have any effect on the feeling which he entertains personally towards the vice admiral, and that it will give him great pleasure to render any service in his power to the French squadron in the waters of the United States.

The commodore requests the admiral to accept the assurance of his profound respect.

WM. BRANFORD SHUBRICK.

Vice Admiral CHARLES BAUDIN,
Commanding the naval forces of France in the

Gulf of Mexico, his French Majesty's frigate Né: eide,

Bay of Pensacola.

F.

NEREIDE, Pensacola, June 28, 1839. The Vice Admiral Charles Baudin regrets exceedingly to be in a situa tion which does not permit him to accept Commodore Shubrick's invitation for next Saturday: he begs the commodore to accept the assurance of his regret.

G.

H. M. FRIGATE NEREIDE, Bay of Pensacola, June 27, 1839.

The Vice-Admiral Charles Baudin has seen with satisfaction, from the note which Commodore Shubrick did him the honor to address to him of this day's date, that the correspondence established between them since the day before yesterday has, on either side, no other character than that of a frank and open exposition of facts and principles relating to a point of naval quette, on which the commodore and admiral differ in their opinion. It is in this spirit of friendly and kind discussion that the admiral has the honor to answer the commodore's note.

He regrets, he must say, that he has by no means found satisfactory the Explanations the commodore gave on the subject of the nature of the disdain with which the admiral's proceeding was treated, when an officer presented himself, in his name, on board the Macedonian, on her arrival at Sacrificios, to present to the commodore the admiral's compliments, with tis offer of services.