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*UNITED STATES AND PORTUGAL.

CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES AND PORTUGAL RELATIVE TO CLAIMS OF PORTUGUESE SUBJECTS AGAINST THE UNITED STATES, 1816-'51.

No. 1.

The Chevalier de Serra to Mr. Monroe.

Correspondence.

WASHINGTON, December 20, 1816. SIR: A faithful copy has been taken, at my request, of a paper delivered to the Hon. St. George Tucker, district judge of the United States and United States for the district of Virginia, on the demand Portugal. thereof by him of Thomas Nelson, collector of the port of New York. This paper purports to be instructions given by Thomas Taylor, of Baltimore, under the authority of the persons who have assumed the powers of government in Buenos Ayres, to the ship Romp, Captain Fisk, to act as a privateer against the subjects of Spain. That respectable monarchy being in direct intercourse with the United States, and having near them their own proper representative, no occasion would exist for my official interference (notwithstanding the old and recent ties that unite the two royal families) if Mr. Taylor had not directed Captain Fisk, in the same instructions, to act in the like manner against the subjects of my sovereign, in case His Majesty be at war with the above self-styled government of Buenos Ayres.

Mr. Taylor, of Baltimore, is an American citizen; the ship Romp was an American ship, no doubt only fictitiously alienated, since the captain continued the same, and the bulk of the crew remained composed of American citizens. The privateer, it is true, did not attack any Portuguese vessel, but he was directed to. do so conditionally by order and under the signature of an American citizen, who dares in his instructions to assign seven ports of the United States for the privateer to bring in his prizes, and named in each of them the agents who will take care of them.

It is certainly my duty not to wait silently and tamely for the perpetration of such an act; inasmuch as exertions of the same or similar nature continue to be made in the same place, by the same set of individuals, as it appears by the following facts, which are the result of my special inquiries, and I have the honor to present for your consideration.

The 18th of last month, (November,) the frigate Clifton, Captain Davey, armed with 32 guns of various calibers, and a crew of 200 men, sailed from Baltimore to Buenos Ayres. This ship laid anchor below that port, where it has remained about a fortnight or more, waiting for the American ship Independence of the South, armed with 16 guns, and for the ships Romp, Tuckahoe, Montezuma, and Spanker, and two others newly constructed, which were fitting with great activity and which had not yet got names. All were to sail together to cruise in the eastern and western seas of South America, under the insurgent colors of

Buenos Ayres. No doubt can be entertained of their instructions being the same as those of Captain Fisk, and that they will act hostilely against Portuguese ships. Besides private information on which I can rely, the mere fact of assuming such colors is in the present state of things equal to a direct proof.

There is good foundation to believe that nearly the same was the case of the ship Swift, Captain Huffington, which sailed from Baltimore the 3d of last August, with the ostensible designation for the Havana, armed with 14 guns, and a crew of 140 men, and the ship Maria, Captain Hafford, which left the same port the 25th of the same month, armed, and with a large crew. Both are understood to have displayed at sea Buenos Ayres colors, and most likely with the same instructions as Captain Fisk.

These armaments, sir, are carried on in the port of Baltimore, in a barefaced way, only such a very thin veil put on them, which has been deemed by some sufficient to screen the culprits from the effect of the actual insufficient laws. It is not only from information I speak, but twice I have lately been in Baltimore, and have personally ascertained the progress and nature of this business.

Such facts need no epithets to be qualified, and I have judged superfluous the use of them; they show at first sight their immoral and criminal nature, and their opposition to the laws of nations. I know

too perfectly the honorable feelings, both of this government and [148] of this nation, to harbor the *least suspicion that they view these

acts in any other light. The fault is entirely in the insufficiency of the existing laws and the many evasions they afford to guilty persons, particularly if assisted by chicanery. Perhaps the past American legislators provided so imperfectly for such occurrences, because they believed them impossible.

But since they come to happen, nothing but the enactment of new laws sufficient for the emergency can justify this nation in the eyes of the civilized world. If the citizens of the United States are not prevented by the laws of their country from becoming in masses acting parties in wars which are not their own, will not that give of course to this nation a piratical, odious character and complexion, unworthy of her in the eyes of foreign nations? Her peace and tranquillity would also be endangered, because any government so injured has a natural right to resent and repay, to the utmost of Ler power, injuries sustained, so much against the usages of the civilized world. Must, then, the honor and peace of the American people-of 9,000,000 of individuals, the immense majority of whom, to my perfect knowledge, bear an honest, honorable, pacific character-be put in jeopardy by the culpable covetousness of a few men in a sea-port or other place, who, to acquire fortunes, do not scruple to become pirates? privateering being in fact no better, when practiced in any other but each man's own country's wars. I apply, therefore, to this Government, in the present instance, not to raise altercations or to require satisfaction which the Constitution of the United States has not perhaps enabled them to give; because I know that the supreme Executive of this nation, all-powerful when supported by law, is constitutionally inactive when unsupported by it. What I solicit of him is the proposition to Congress of such provisions by law as will prevent such attempts for the future. I am persuaded that my magnanimous sovereign will receive a more dignified satisfaction, and worthier of his high character, by the enactment of such laws by the United States, which, insuring the respect due to his flag for the future, would show their regard for His Majesty, that in the punishment of