feel that to ask the performance of this condition from others, is inconsistent with the honour of the United States, and to perform it themselves beyond their power; your lordship will permit me frankly to avow, that I cannot ac company the communication to my government, of the declaration and order in council of the 21st of this month, with any felicitation on the prospect which this measure presents of an accelerated return of amity and mutual confidence between the two states.

It is with real pain that I make to your lordship this avowal, and I will seek still to confide in the spirit which your lordship in your note, and in the conversation of this morning, has been pleased to say actuates the councils of his royal highness in relation to America, and still to cherish a hope that the spirit will lead, upon a review of the whole ground, to measures of a nature better calculated to attain its object, and that this object will no longer be made to depend on the conduct of a third power, or upon contingencies over which the United States have no control, but alone upon the rights of the United States, the justice of Great Britain, and the common interests of both.

I have the honour to be, &c.

JONATHAN RUSSELL.

The Rt. Hon.Viscount Castlereagh.

BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. A PROCLAMATION.

WHEREAS the Congress of the United States, by virtue of the constituted authority vested in them, have declared by their act bearing date the eighteenth day of the present month, that war exists between the united kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and the dependencies thereof, and the United States of America, and their territories; now therefore I, James Madison, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim the same to all whom it may concern: and I do specially enjoin on all persons holding offices, civil or military, under the autho

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rity of the United States, that they be vigilant and zealous, in discharging the duties respectively incident thereto : And I do moreover exhort all the good people of the United States, as they love their country; as they value the precious heritage derived from the virtue and valour of their fathers; as they feel the wrongs which have forced on them the last resort of injured nations; and as they consult the best means, under the blessing of Divine Providence, of abridging its calamities, that they exert themselves in preserving order, in promoting concord, in maintaining the authority and the efficacy of the laws, and in supporting and invigorating all the measures which may be adopted by the constituted authorities, for obtaining a speedy, a just and an honourable peace.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand, and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed to these presents.

[SEAL.]

Done at the city of Washington, the nineteenth day of June, one thousand eight hundred and twelve, and of the Independence of the United States the thirtysixth.

By the President.

JAMES MADISON.

JAMES MONROE, Sec. State.

MESSAGE

FROM THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES TO CONGRESS. JUNE 22, 1812.

I COMMUNICATE to Congress copies of a letter to the Secretary of State, from the charge d'affaires of the United States at London, and of a note to him from the British secretary for foreign affairs.

JAMES MADISON,

Mr. Russell to the Secretary of State. London, May 2,

1812.

SIR, After closing the duplicate of my letter to you, of the 26th ult. I discovered the copy of the note of lord Castlereagh to me of the 21st, had been left out by mistake. I take the liberty of now handing it to you.

I am, &c.

Hon. James Monroe, &c. &c,

JONA. RUSSELL.

[ENCLOSED IN THE ABOVE.]

THE undersigned, his majesty's principal secretary of state for foreign affairs, is commanded by his royal highness the prince regent, to transmit to Mr. Russell, charge d'affaires of the government of the United States of America, the enclosed copy of a declaration accompanying an order in council which has been this day passed by his royal highness the prince regent in council.

The undersigned is commanded by the prince regent to request that Mr. Russell, in making this communication to his government, will represent this measure as conceived in the true spirit of conciliation, and with a due regard, on the part of his royal highness, to the honour and interests of the United States; and the undersigned ventures to express his confident hope, that this decisive proof of the amicable sentiments which animate the councils of his royal highness towards America, may accelerate the return of amity and mutual confidence between Great Britain and the United States.

The undersigned avails himself of this opportunity to repeat to Mr. Russell the assurances of his high consideration. CASTLEREAGH.

Foreign Office, April 21, 1812.

MESSAGE

FROM THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES TO THE SENATE. JULY 6, 1812.

I TRANSMIT to the Senate, copies and extracts of documents in the archives of the department of state, falling within the purview of their resolution of the 4th inst. on the subject of British impressments from American vessels. The information, though voluminous, might have been enlarged, with more time for research and preparation. In some instances it might, at the same time, have been abridged, but for the difficulty of separating the matter extraneous to the immediate object of the resoJution.

JAMES MADISON.

No. 1.

Extract of a Letter from Thomas Jefferson, Esquire, Secretary of State, to Thomas Pinckney, Minister Plenipotentiary of the United States at London. Department of State, July 11, 1792.

"THE peculiar custom in England, of impressing seamen on every appearance of war, will occasionally expose our seamen to peculiar oppressions and vexations. It will be expedient that you take proper opportunities, in the mean time, of conferring with the minister on this subject, in order to form some arrangement for the protection of our seamen on those occasions. We entirely reject the mode which was the subject of a conversation between Mr. Morris and him, which was, that our seamen should always carry about them certificates of their citizenship: This is a condition never yet submitted to by any nation; one with which seamen would never have the precaution to comply the casualties of their calling would expose them to the constant destruction or loss of this paper evidence, and thus the British government would be armed with legal authority to impress the whole of our seamen. The simplest rule will be, that the vessel being American,

shall be evidence that the seamen on board her are such. If they apprehend that our vessels might thus become asylums for the fugitives of their own nation from impress gangs, the number of men to be protected by a vessel may be limited by her tonnage, and one or two officers only be permitted to enter the vessel in order to examine the number on board; but no press gang should be allowed ever to go on board an American vessel, till after it shall be found that there are more than their stipulated number on board, nor till after the master shall have refused to deliver the supernumeraries (to be named by himself) to the press officer who has come on board for that purpose; and even then the American consul shall be called in. In order to urge a settlement of this point before a new occasion may arise, it may not be amiss to draw their attention to the peculiar irritation excited on the last occasion, and the difficulty of avoiding our making immediate reprisals on their seamen here. You will be so good as to communicate to me what shall pass on this subject, and it may be made an article of convention to be entered into either there or here."

Extract of a Letter from Thomas Jefferson, Esquire, when Secretary of State, to Thomas Pinckney, Minister Plenipotentiary of the United States at London. October 12, 1792.

"I ENCLOSE you a copy of a letter from Messrs. Blow and Melhaddo, merchants of Virginia, complaining of the taking away of their sailors, on the coast of Africa, by the commander of a British armed vessel. So many instances of this kind have happened, that it is quite necessary that their government should explain themselves on the subject, and be led to disavow and punish such conduct. I leave to your discretion to endeavour to obtain this satisfaction by such friendly discussions as may be most likely to produce the desired effect, and secure to our commerce that protection against British violence which it has never experienced from any other nation. No law forbids the seamen of any country to engage, in time of peace, on board a foreign vessel; no law authorizes such seaman