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Record of Cabinet Opinions, 22 November 1793

Record of Cabinet Opinions

[22 November 1793]

At sundry meetings of the heads of departments & Attorney General from the 1st to the 21st of Nov. 1793. at the President’s several matters were agreed upon as stated in the following letters from the Secretary of state. to wit.

Nov. 8. Circular letter to the representatives of France, Gr. Brit. Spain & the U. Netherlands, fixing provisorily the extent of our jurisdiction into the sea at a sea-league.1

10. Circular do to the district attornies, notifying the same, & committing to them the taking depositions in those cases.2 same date. Circular to the foreign representatives, notifying how depositions are to be taken in those cases.

the substance of the preceding letters were agreed to by all, & the rough draughts were submitted to them & approved.3

Nov. 14. to mister Hammond, that the U.S. are not bound to restore the Roehampton.4 this was agreed by all, the rough draught was submitted to & approved by Colo. Hamilton & mister Randolph. Genl Knox was absent on a visit to Trenton.

10. letters to mister Genet & Hammond, & the 14. to mister Hollingsworth for taking depositions in the cases of the Coningham & Pilgrim.5

15. do to Genet, Hammond & mister Rawle for depositions in the case of the William.6

14. do to Hollingsworth to ascertain whether mister Moissonier had passed sentence on the Roehampton & Pilgrim.7
these last mentd letters of the 10th 14th & 15th were as to their substance agreed on by all, the draughts were only communicated to mister Randolph and approved by him.

Nov. 13. to mister Hammond. enquiry when we shall have an answer on the inexecution of the treaty.8 the substance agreed by all. the letter was sent off without communication, none of the Gentlemen being at Germantown.

22. to mister Genet. returning the commissions of Pennevert & Chervi because not addressed to the Presiden.
same date. to do enquiring whether the Lovely lass, Prince William Henry & Jane of Dublin have been given up, and if not, requiring that they be now restored to owners.
these were agreed to by all as to their matter, and the letters themselves were submitted before they were sent to the President, the Secretary of War & the Attorney General, the Secretary of the treasury absent.9
same date. to mister Gore for authentic evidence of Dannery’s protest on the President’s revocation of Duplaine’s Exequatur.10 the substance agreed to by all. the letter sent off before communication.

Th: Jefferson

H. Knox

Edm: Randolph

Alexandr Hamilton

DS, in Thomas Jefferson’s writing, DLC:GW; D (letterpress copy), DLC: Jefferson Papers. Jefferson dated the letterpress copy and wrote the signers’ initials on it.

1For this letter, see Jefferson Papers description begins Julian P. Boyd et al., eds. The Papers of Thomas Jefferson. 41 vols. to date. Princeton, N.J., 1950–. description ends , 27:328–30.

2For this letter, see Jefferson Papers description begins Julian P. Boyd et al., eds. The Papers of Thomas Jefferson. 41 vols. to date. Princeton, N.J., 1950–. description ends , 27:338–40.

3For this letter, see Jefferson Papers description begins Julian P. Boyd et al., eds. The Papers of Thomas Jefferson. 41 vols. to date. Princeton, N.J., 1950–. description ends , 27:340–42.

4For this letter, see Jefferson Papers description begins Julian P. Boyd et al., eds. The Papers of Thomas Jefferson. 41 vols. to date. Princeton, N.J., 1950–. description ends , 27:368–73.

5For Jefferson’s letters of 10 Nov. to Genet and to Hammond about the Conyngham and the Pilgrim, and his letter of 14 Nov. to Zebulon Hollingsworth, see Jefferson Papers description begins Julian P. Boyd et al., eds. The Papers of Thomas Jefferson. 41 vols. to date. Princeton, N.J., 1950–. description ends , 27:342–43, 374. After considering the depositions gathered, the administration ruled in April 1794 that the Pilgrim had been illegally taken and was subject for compensation, but that the case of the Conyngham had not been proven (see Edmund Randolph to George Hammond, 5 April and 21 June 1794, Counter Case description begins The Counter Case of Great Britain as Laid before the Tribunal of Arbitration, Convened at Geneva under the Provisions of the Treaty between the United States of America and Her Majesty the Queen of Great Britain, Concluded at Washington, May 8, 1871. H. Exec. Doc. 324, 42d Cong., 2d sess., 1872. description ends , 580–83).

6For these letters, see Jefferson Papers description begins Julian P. Boyd et al., eds. The Papers of Thomas Jefferson. 41 vols. to date. Princeton, N.J., 1950–. description ends , 27:382–85.

7For this letter, see Jefferson Papers description begins Julian P. Boyd et al., eds. The Papers of Thomas Jefferson. 41 vols. to date. Princeton, N.J., 1950–. description ends , 27:375.

8For this letter, see Jefferson Papers description begins Julian P. Boyd et al., eds. The Papers of Thomas Jefferson. 41 vols. to date. Princeton, N.J., 1950–. description ends , 27:353.

9For these letters, which GW approved on 22 Nov. (JPP description begins Dorothy Twohig, ed. The Journal of the Proceedings of the President, 1793–1797. Charlottesville, Va., 1981. description ends , 255–57), see Jefferson Papers description begins Julian P. Boyd et al., eds. The Papers of Thomas Jefferson. 41 vols. to date. Princeton, N.J., 1950–. description ends , 27:413–15. After Genet offered an explanation of his conduct in a letter to Jefferson of 3 Dec., the exequaturs of John Pinevert (c.1746–1805) to be vice-consul at New London and Paul Arnold Cherui to be vice-consul at Alexandria were granted on 24 Dec. (see Jefferson Papers description begins Julian P. Boyd et al., eds. The Papers of Thomas Jefferson. 41 vols. to date. Princeton, N.J., 1950–. description ends , 27:479–80, 618). Cherui returned to France in late 1796. Pinevert remained vice-consul at New London at least into 1797.

10For this letter, see Jefferson Papers description begins Julian P. Boyd et al., eds. The Papers of Thomas Jefferson. 41 vols. to date. Princeton, N.J., 1950–. description ends , 27:416.

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