for every thing I might want: I then asked for cannon, powder, and other warlike supplies, and was answered that a frigate was hourly expected, and that they would be sent to me. I afterwards left Bomba, in company with general Eaton, and we pursued our route towards Derne, arriving near it in twelve hours. Such a voyage made me extremely happy, as well as all my people, while the manner in which we were treated by the general, excited universal admiration; his dignified soul (conduct) merits applause. We were scarcely on the twelfth hour of our voyage, when we saw a schooner, which brought us two pieces of cannon, and nothing more. After an attack of two hours, in which all the troops applaud and admire the courage of general Eaton, Derne was taken (as the people of that country were much in our favour) and in which attack the general was wounded in the hand.

After the capture of the city, we received from the chiefs of the brigands, letters offering to join us. After ten days a troop of cavalry and infantry (of the enemy) advanced; they were twice broken and put to flight by us. We now asked from the schooner, which had been sent us, people and arms, while there remained a respite and peace, and were waiting an answer, respecting our demand for people and arms, in order that we might go and take Bergaza and Tripoli; in the mean time arrived a frigate which we supposed had brought us people, but she landed a Turkish ambassador from Jussuf Bashaw, who informed the general of the alliance of Jussuf Bashaw with your excellency; saying that the said Bashaw would restore my family, and that your excellency would give me in the name of the United States a pension. The same evening of the arrival of the frigate, the general informed me, that I must embark with all my people; and thus was again compelled to abandon all I possessed-the general having prevented the Turkish ambassador from landing, and thus we parted for Syracuse, where we found the whole squadron.

I daily expected my family, when finally I was told that he (the Bashaw) would not let them go; having thus,broken

his word, I demanded of the general, to be replaced in my own country, which was also denied me, saying that he had no orders to that effect from your excellency, and it is thus I find myself in this country, with the small pension of two hundred dollars per month, and on which sum I am to support myself with a number of people. Such a state of things makes me feel that the weight of misfortune has only increased; and for the first time am completely abandoned, and by a great nation; I therefore fling myself on the mercy of your excellency, who under the influence of just laws, will not fail to render me that justice which oppression and misfortune entitle me to.

With the hope of an early reply from your excellency, I remain, &c. &c. &c.

(Signed)

ACHMET BASHAW, Son of Ali Bashaw, &c. &c.

Syracuse, August 5, 1805.

His Excellency the President of the
United States of America.

MEMORIAL

OF THE MERCHANTS AND TRADERS OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA, JAN. 16, 1806.

To the President of the United States, and the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America, in Congress assembled.

Ar a moment of distress, and in a season of solicitude, resulting from a novel and peculiar affection of the commercial interests of their country, your memorialists, as composing a great proportion of that interest, in one of the principal commercial cities of the United States, submit to you the following considerations:

Under the influence of a form of government, calculated

to inspire confidence in the security of our acquisitions, and with a reliance upon the authority of the nation for protection and support in all lawful enterprise, the commerce of the country has increased in a manner almost unparalleled; and has widely extended a spirit of enterprise, which has added to the stock of private wealth, and enriched the treasury of the nation.

By the existence of war in Europe, and our neutral standing with the belligerents, our commerce was naturally and necessarily favoured and flourishing. Conducted upon fair and honourable principles, our trade wanted no privilege but the just privilege of its neutral character, and it needed no favour but that which had been yielded by the universal consent of civilized nations. But this privilege, we conceive, has been denied to us, and a jealousy of our enterprise and prosperity has excited a design of checking the commercial growth of our country, the fruit of which has been an attempt to innovate upon ancient and approved principles, and to introduce unheard of articles and provisions into the code of publick law. Of this design, of its origin and extent, your memorialists are not left in doubt, when they consider the course and nature of the spoliations which have been committed on the American commerce.

For a time, your memorialists were disposed to regard the violence committed on the vessels and merchandize of the citizens of the United States as the unauthorized acts of lawless individuals; for the fact was well known, that many French and Spanish cruisers were on the ocean, without legal commissions, who seized without authority, and robbed without even the form of a trial. They were aware that many instances of violated right were within the knowledge of the government; and anticipated the adoption of measures calculated to put a stop to the growing mischief. They, moreover, reflected, that during a war between powerful maritime states, it is the unavoidable lot of the neutral to incur loss and suffer inconvenience, even from a fair exercise of the rights of the belligerent; and to be exposed to imposition and outrage, practised

sometimes with the colour of authority, and sometimes in despite of both law and humanity. Resting, however with confidence, upon the protection which they regarded their government as bound to afford to the fair and lawful trader, they submitted to the present inconvenience, and referred themselves to that protecting principle, and to the integrity of the superiour tribunals before which the seizures of their property would be finally considered, as the sureties of a certain, though distant retribution.

It becomes your memorialists to state, that the pressure of those evils has greatly increased, and that others of even superiour magnitude, have arisen, which assume a most alarming and distressing form. What were considered as irregularities unsusceptible of prevention, have, by continuance and success, strengthened into regular and systematick plunder. What were regarded as mischiefs incident to a state of war, temporary, though not remediless, are vindicated upon the ground of right, and their practice is reiterated under the authority of government, and receives the solemn sanction of the law. They, moreover, foresee, in the prevalence of the principles, and in the continuance of the practices alluded to, nothing but the ruin of individuals, the destruction of their commerce, and the degradation of their country.

Could the judgment, or even the charity, of your memorialists sce, in the new doctrines of the British court nothing but the revival and enforcement of an ancient and established principle, which friendship had relaxed, or favour permitted to slumber, they might regret the departed good, but could impute no injustice to the hand that withdrew it. They are struck, however, with the novelty of these doctrines; their unequivocal hostility to neutral interest and rights; their inconsistency with former declarations of their ministry and decisions of their courts, and with the extraordinary time and manner of their annunciation.

In the reflection that the great code of the laws of nations presents a system of reason and right, approved by the

unimpassioned and disinterested judgment of the civilized world, neither tempering its provisions to the wants or demands of an imperious belligerent, nor yet giving aid to the crooked subtleties of unfaithful neutrality, your memorialists have conceived the rights of their nation, as a neutral, to stand upon unchangeable ground. These rights they cannot but believe, extend to a free and uninterrupted commerce, with their own goods, in their own vessels, with other neutrals, if admitted by their laws, or with the belligerents themselves, subject to the received regulations relating to blockade, and to articles contraband of war. The established restrictions on the points just mentioned, with the right of examination and search, have been reasonably considered as giving to the belligerent the most ample security against the infidelity or cupidity which would lend a covert assistance to his antagonist. The policy and interested views of a single state may call for severities against neutral commerce, which are neither commanded of right, nor sanctioned by usage; but the principles of publick law cannot vary with the purposes of the politick, nor shift with the designs of the interested. That policy, not justice-that interest, not fair and admitted precedent, have given birth to the principle, that neutrals should be restricted to the same commerce with a belligerent, which was allowed to them by that power in a time of peace, is conceived by your memorialists to be true. Incompatible with the general freedom of neutral commerce, this rule has the sanction of no common observance by civilized nations, and cannot bear that faithful test which every fair and righteous principle of the law of nations will abide. Against the soundness of the principle itself, it is also to be observed, that its advocates, instead of tracing its currency from age to age, point to the war of 1756, as the era of its discovery; and instead of stamping its validity by the concurrence of the civilized world, indicates its fallibility by a laboured detail of their own relaxation and contraction of the rule.

The effect of this novel principle upon neutral interests * VOL. 1.

53