TO JAMES MONROE.

WASHINGTON, March 30, 1808. DEAR SIR,-I received last evening your favour of the 26th, and now enclose the promised list of the communications to Congress, which gives as much information as can be done in that form. Where extracts were made, they generally extended, I believe, to nearly the whole of the letters, it being intended that the residue should be reduced as much as motives of prudence and delicacy would permit. On examining the papers inclosed, the project concerning impressments does not appear. Will you be so good as to correct the omission? A copy of the original project accompanying your letter of Nov. 11th went to Congress in its proper place. Of course, the renewal of it at the latter period does not appear, as the communications now stated. Being unable to distinguish which of the papers you wished to be returned, I send the whole, with a request that after taking them out, the rest may come back to the office. The inclosed paper contains the correspondence with Mr. Rose, produced by his Mission.

TO JAMES MONROE.

WASHINGTON, April 18th, 1808. came duly to hand,

DEAR SIR,-Your favour of accompanied by the papers now returned, and by a note on the correspondence communicated to Congress. It appears that in most instances the parts allotted for publication coincide with your wishes. In the excepted instances, an attempt will be made to have the confidential parts conformed also to these, by being included in the publication ordered by the House of Representatives, and by being made a supplement to that ordered by the Senate, which is already out of the Press. With respect to the two letters of August 4th and September 13, 1806, which were not communicated to Congress, the object could not be effected without a new communication to Congress, to which

the President would be disinclined. They were omitted in the original communication as not within the general subject of it, as were ny letters relating to such cases. And it would be somewhat awkward to take up a distinct subject now, even if the whole correspondence relating to it were embraced.

Will you accept a copy, herewith sent, of the documents, as complete as they have yet come from the press?

TO WILLIAM PINKNEY.

WASHINGTON, Nov 9, 1808.

DEAR SIR, I find, by the receipt of your last private letter by Mr. Attwater, that there has been no miscarriage of any preceding one.

The conduct of the British Cabinet in rejecting the fair offer made to it, and even sneering at the course pursued by the United States, prove at once a very determined enmity to them, and a confidence that events were taking place here which would relieve it from the necessity of procuring a renewal of commercial intercourse, by any relaxations on its part. Without this last supposition, it is difficult to believe that, with the prospects at home and abroad in Europe, so great a folly would have been committed. As neither the public nor Congress have yet had time to disclose the feelings which result from the posture now given to our relations with G. Britain, I cannot speak positively on that subject. I shall be much disappointed, however, if a spirit of independence and indignation does not strongly reinforce the past measures with others, which will give a severity to the contest, of privations, at least, for which the British Government would seem to be very little prepared, in any sense of the word. It was, perhaps, unfortunate that all the intelligence from this country, previous to the close of your correspondence with Mr. Canning, was from a quarter and during a period most likely to produce miscalculations of the general and settled dispositions. You will see in the newspapers sufficient evidence of the narrow limits to which discontent

was confined, and it may reasonably be expected that the counter current will be greatly strengthened by the communications now going forth to the public.

Among the documents communicated confidentially to Congress, I hope you will excuse us for including (with the exception of some small passages) your private letter of Sept 21. The excellent views which it appeared to take of our affairs with G. Britain were thought to justify the liberty. They coincided, indeed, so entirely with the sentiments of the Executive, and were so well calculated to enlighten the Legislative Body, that it was confidently presumed the good effects would outweigh the objections in the case. A like liberty was taken with a private letter to Gen' Armstrong.

The President's Message mentions that no answer was given by the French Government, &c. It may not be inexpedient to intimate, in order to appreciate this omission, that the note of Gen' Armstrong, in consequence of the arrival of the St Michael, bears date August 6, whilst he was absent from Paris; that the Court did not return thither till about the middle of that month; that no succeeding note on that subject was sent in, the experiment being declined under an idea that it would be injurious; and that the last letter from Gen' Armstrong to the Department of State, acknowledging the despatches by the Hope, bears date the 30th of August, at certain mineral Springs between two and three hundred miles from Paris, to which Gen' Armstrong had not returned when the Messenger left it. These circumstances will shew that the French Government may easily, if reflection or events should induce, still take up the relations with the United States in a favorable view. Gen' Turreau fosters such an expectation, and talks of the probability of soon receiving favorable answers to his representations, whether with sincerity or from policy is best known to himself.

TO WILLIAM PINKNEY.

WASHINGTON, Dec 5, 1908.

DEAR SIR,-I have little to add to the printed information accompanying my official letter of this date. Congress seemed to be sufficiently determined, as you will perceive, to resist the unjust and insulting Edicts of the Belligerents, and differ only as to the mode best suited to the crisis. The disposition to prefer war to the course hitherto pursued is rather gaining than losing ground, and is even promoted by the efforts of those most opposed to war with Great Britain, who concur in deciding against submission, and at the same time contend that withdrawing from the Ocean is submission. It is very questionable, however, whether a preference of war, to be commenced within the present session, is so general in Congress, or so much looked for by the nation, as to recommend the measure. Whether, in case the measure should be

, any such substi

tute providing for war during the recess, as I have communicated in one of my last letters, will be acceptable, is more than I can undertake to say; nothing of the sort having been even brought into conversation.

that he is him

I find by conversation with Mr. self favorably impressed by the documents laid before Congress as to the fairness of our conduct towards the two belligerents, and that he is willing I should believe that the impression will be the same on his Government. As it may be conceived by him, however, to be politic to lull our feelings and suspicions, I am the less sure that he calculates on any change in the Councils of his Government likely to do justice to those of this Government.

As to the state of the public mind here, you will sufficiently collect it from the printed information now forwarded. I cannot believe that there is so much depravity or stupidity in the Eastern States as to countenance the reports that they will separate from their brethren, rather than submit longer to the suspension of their commerce. That such a project may lurk within a junto ready to sacrifice the rights, interests, and honor,

of their Country, to their ambitious or vindictive views, is not to be doubted; but that the body of an intelligent people, devoted to commerce and navigation, with few productions of their own, and objects of unceasing jealousy to G. Britain on account of their commerce and navigation, should be induced to abandon the Southern States, for which they are the Merchants and carriers, in order to enter into an alliance with G. Britain, seems to be impossible. What sort of a Commercial Treaty could be made between such parties? In truth, the obstacles to one between the United States and that Nation arise almost wholly from the patronage by the former of the maritime rights and interests of the Eastern States, as a portion of the Confederacy. A Treaty between such parties, if made at all, must be political, not commercial, and having in view modifications of Government and aggrandizement of individuals, not the public good.

TO JOEL BARLOW.

WASHINGTON, February 7, 1809.

and

DEAR SIR,-I have received your favor of valuing, as I do, the friendly and favorable expressions it contains, I cannot but be truly gratified by them.

I perceive that I did not impress Mr. Fulton as distinctly as I meant to do with the circumstance that, previous to the receipt of his letter, I had, as far as might lie with me, not only fixed, in my thoughts, on a person for the approaching vacancy in the department of State, but had taken a step towards an understanding with him on the subject, which closed it against reconsideration.

This being the case, delicacy will, in every view, be best consulted by not entering into the particular considerations which led to that selection. But I owe it to my high respect for your talents, and my confidence in your principles, and the purity of your patriotic zeal, to say that no abatement in the continuance of either of those sentiments is implied by the course which I