property of Ebenezer Parsons of Boston, captured by the Ruse privateer of Guernsey, Paul Bienvenu master.

"The brig King Solomon, James Hewett master, laden with butter, cheese, and iron hoops, bound from Amsterdam to Cadiz. The brig the property of Benjamin Hill of Newport, Rhode Island; the cargo Hamburgh account, captured by the lugger Flying Fish, of Jersey, John Le Rouer master.

"The brig Susannah, J. V. Spencer, master, laden with sugar, bound from Charleston, South Carolina, to Cadiz; the brig and cargo the sole property of Blacklock and Bower, and William Milligan of Charleston; captured by the Ruse privateer of Guernsey, Paul Bienvenu, master, and La Bouch privateer of Gibraltar (owned by Jews in Lisbon.)

"The brig Hind, Daniel Ropes, jr. master, laden with sugar, cocoa and fish, bound from Salem to Cadiz; the brig and cargo the sole property of Joseph White and William Orne, of Salem; captured by his Britannick majesty's frigate Anson, P. C. Durham commander.

"The brig Sea Nymph, James M'Kiver master, laden with coffee, pimento, cloves, cotton, dyewood, &c. bound from Philadelphia to St. Sebastians; the brig and cargo the property of Lewis A. Tarrascon, of Philadelphia; captured by the armed ship Bauvel, John Toole, master.

"The four first captures are made under the idea of Cadiz being a blockaded port; and as the above mentioned privateers have positive instructions from their owners to capture all vessels going to, or coming from Cadiz, and are cruising off that port, I expect this port will soon be filled with neutrals, and among them numbers of our merchantmen. I have written colonel Humphreys to warn our captains at Cadiz, and caution them against coming out of that port for the present.

"The last was captured on suspicion of being French property, as the owner's is a French name, and the supercargo on board, Mr. John Augustine Victor Borrouill, also a French name, but having proved to the captors that the property is bona fide American, from the register of the brig and your certificate of citizenship to Mr. Borrouill, they now pretend to detain her on the letter of instruction from the owner to the supercargo, which the

captors refuse showing me, saying they will try her under our own laws. These vessels are sent in here under pretence of benefit of convoy to England and Gibraltar; but I understand it is the intention of one of the captors to detain the vessel here and forward the papers on to Gibraltar which of them it is my next will inform you.

"I have written our consul in London for every judicial information he can furnish me with, and whether it is the opinion of sir John Nichols, and sir William Scott, that Cadiz ought to be considered as blockaded, the trade having been carried on unmolested for upwards of twelve months, and his majesty's ships on that station boarding and suffering vessels continually to enter and come out. I have the honour to be, &c."

To Timothy Pickering, Esq. }

Secretary of State.

THOMAS BULKLEY.

Extract of a Letter from Thomas Fitzsimmons, Esq. Chair man of the Chamber of Commerce, to the Secretary of the Navy, dated Philadelphia, February 17, 1801.

"By the publick prints you will have seen that a great number of American vessels, bound to and from the Spanish ports in Cuba and on the Main, have been captured by British cruisers. The depredations have so multiplied that without a change in their system, or some protection from our own government, the trade to those places must be entirely abandoned, though forming a very considerable branch of our trade. Premiums of insurance to the Havana have within a few days advanced from ten to thirty per cent. and such is the particular situation of those countries in relation to the British possession, that not one in ten vessels can escape; from New Providence alone, there are above forty privateers who subsist principally by the plunder of the Americans. The practice is, whenever they are met with, to send them into port; if there is found on board any goods, the produce or manufacture of any countries at war with Great Britain, they are condemned, as is bar iron, nails, tin, paints, linseed oil, and any strong linens which are contraband; if the property is found to

belong to any persons who are not native Americans, it is either condemned or held under an interlocutory decree, till proofs can be otained of the citizenship of the owner; and in every instance the detention and expenses are so great as to reduce the property, for which no pretence for condemnation can be made, so much as hardly to leave it worth pursuing; these practices are the more mortifying, as they either themselves ship the goods of which they plunder the Americans, to the countries to which they do not permit us to carry them, or suffer the people of those countries to come to them and purchase them.

"The proceedings at Jamaica are even more ruinous than at Providence: when they cannot procure a condemnation there, they invariably appeal from the sentence, and as the Americans can no otherways obtain security than by putting their property in possession of people there, the whole is swallowed up by commission, and charges.

"These enormities are become so great that the mer chants are preparing lists of the captures, and the circumstances attending them, to be laid before the government; but as any redress through that channel must be distant, they take the liberty of suggesting the propriety of granting them stated convoys for that trade. The passage to and from Havana is so short, that a few national ships might effectually guard it, except the British should disregard the protection of our flag, which we do not suppose will happen; in any event our merchants may be protected from privateers, and it is from those principally that we suffer.

"It is wished that a convoy should sail on the first Monday in every month, from Hampton Road, to which place all the vessels from ports to the eastward of that place might rendezvous. Vessels belonging to native citizens, or loaded with native commodities, need not this protection, but the abatement in the premium in all others will oblige them to take advantage of it.

"If the first was provided to sail early in March, there would be several vessels here ready to avail themselves of it; and probably others at New York and Baltimore. As a measure of this kind may involve consequences of

national importance, I do not feel myself at liberty to urge it further than that you would be pleased to lay it before the President. I can add with confidence that without some protection of this kind, the merchants of the United States must entirely suspend their trade to those countries, or be ruined in attempting to continue it, although it has been among the most valuable branches of com merce."

INAUGURAL ADDRESS,

OF THOMAS JEFFERSON, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. MARCH 4, 1801.

Friends and Fellow Citizens,

CALLED upon to undertake the duties of the first Executive office of our country, I avail myself of the presence of that portion of my fellow citizens which is here assembled, to express my grateful thanks for the favour with which they have been pleased to look towards me, to declare a sincere consciousness that the task is above my talents, and that I approach it with those anxious and awful presentiments which the greatness of the charge, and the weakness of my powers so justly inspire. A rising nation, spread over a wide and fruitful land, traversing all the seas with the rich productions of their industry, engaged in commerce with nations who feel power and forget right, advancing rapidly to destinies beyond the reach of mortal eye; when I contemplate these transcendent objects, and see the honour, the happiness, and the hopes of this beloved country committed to the issue and the auspices of this day, I shrink from the contemplation, and humble myself before the magnitude of the undertaking. Utterly indeed should I despair, did not the presence of many, whom I here see, remind me, that, in the other high authorities provided by our constitution, I shall find resources of wisdom, of virtue, and of zeal, on which to rely under all difficulties. To you, then, gentlemen, who are charged with the sovereign functions of legislation, and to those associated with you, I look with encouragement for that guidance and support which may enable us to steer with safety the vessel in which we are all embarked, amidst the conflicting elements of a troubled world.