Notes on British Instructions and on Clement Humphreys, 13 April 1798
Notes on British Instructions and on Clement Humphreys
Apr. 13. new instructions of the British govmt to their armed ships now appear which clearly infringe their treaty with us, by authorising them to take our vessels carrying produce of the French colonies from those colonies to Europe, & to take vessels bound to a blockaded port.1 see them in Brown’s paper of Apr. 18. in due form.
The Presidt. has sent a govmt brig to France, probably to carry dispatches. he has chosen as the bearer of these one Humphreys, the son of a ship carpenter, ignorant2 under age, not speaking a word of French, most abusive of that nation3 whose only merit is the having mobbed & beaten Bache on board the frigate built here, for which he was indicted & punished by fine.
MS (DLC: TJ Papers, 102:17525); entirely in TJ’s hand; on same sheet as Notes on Senators’ Comments about House Impeachment Committee, 12 Mch. 1798; with an addition by TJ at a later sitting.
The Duke of Portland signed the instructions of 25 Jan. 1798 to the commanders of British ships of war and privateers (Philadelphia Gazette, 18 Apr. 1798). Clement Humphreys was selected to carry a letter to the envoys at Paris aboard the U.S. brig Sophia (Instructions from Timothy Pickering to Humphreys, 29 Mch. 1798, in MHi: Pickering Papers; Pickering to Hamilton, 25 Mch. 1798, in , 21:378–9). For information on Humphreys’s attack on Bache on board the frigate United States, for which he received a $50 fine, see , 328.
1. Following sentence probably added by TJ at a later sitting.
2. Word interlined.
3. Preceding eleven words interlined.