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From George Washington to the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, 19 January 1797

To the United States Senate and House of Representatives

United States January 19th1 1797

Gentlemen of the Senate and of the House of Representatives.

At the opening of the present Session of Congress I mentioned that some circumstances of an unwelcome nature had lately occurred in relation to France; that our trade had suffered and was suffering extensive injuries in the West Indies from the Cruisers and Agents of the French Republic; and that communications had been received from its minister here which indicated danger of a further disturbance of our commerce by its authority, and that were in other respects far from agreeable: but that I reserved for a special message, a more particular communication on this interesting subject.2 This communication I now make.

The complaints of the French minister embraced most of the transactions of our Government in relation to France from an early period of the present war; which therefore it was necessary carefully to review.3 A collection has been formed of letters and papers relating to those transactions, which I now lay before you, with a letter to mr Pinckney, our minister at Paris, containing an examination of the Notes of the French minister, and such information as I thought might be useful to mr Pinckney in any further representations he might find necessary to be made to the French Government.4 The immediate object of his mission was to make to that Government such explanations of the principles and conduct of our own, as by manifesting our good faith might remove all jealousy and discontent, and maintain that harmony and good understanding with the French Republic which it has been my constant solicitude to preserve. A Government which required only a knowledge of the truth to justify its measures, could not but be anxious to have this fully and frankly displayed.

Go: Washington

LS, DNA: RG 46, entry 53; Df, in the writing of Timothy Pickering, DNA: RG 59, entry 142; LB, DLC:GW.

GW’s secretary George Washington Craik delivered this message to Congress on this date. The Senate read it and its accompanying papers “in part,” but postponed “further reading” (Senate Executive Journal description begins Journal of the Executive Proceedings of the Senate of the United States of America: From the commencement of the First, to the termination of the Nineteenth Congress. Vol. 1. Washington, D.C., 1828. description ends , 221–22; see also Journal of the House description begins The Journal of the House of Representatives: George Washington Administration 1789–1797. Edited by Martin P. Claussen. 9 vols. Wilmington, Del., 1977. description ends , 9:103–4). The following day, the Senate “resumed the reading of the papers.” After an unsuccessful motion to publish the message in the form of a pamphlet, the Senate ordered “That the Secretary of the Senate [Samuel Allyne Otis] have printed for the use of the members” 300 copies of GW’s message, “together with a copy of the letter” of 16 Jan. from Secretary of State Timothy Pickering to Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, the U.S. minister to France (Senate Executive Journal description begins Journal of the Executive Proceedings of the Senate of the United States of America: From the commencement of the First, to the termination of the Nineteenth Congress. Vol. 1. Washington, D.C., 1828. description ends , 222). For Pickering’s letter to Pinckney, enclosed with the present document, see n.4 below.

1GW wrote “19th,” but the rest of the date line is in another hand.

2Much of this paragraph was taken almost verbatim from GW’s annual message to Congress. GW delivered that message two days after the opening of the second session of the Fourth Congress (see GW to the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, 7 Dec. 1796).

3In his letter of 15 Nov. 1796 to Pickering, then-French minister Pierre-Auguste Adet had condemned the Jay Treaty, U.S. policy toward French privateers, and British policy toward neutral nations (see Hamilton to GW, 19 Nov., and n.5; see also GW to Hamilton, 2 Nov., and n.2 to that document).

4GW presented Congress with Pickering’s letter to Pinckney of 16 Jan. 1797 and related papers, which served to refute Adet’s charges. Pickering wrote Pinckney: “In my letters of the 5th and 26th of November I sent you two Notes from Mr. Adet … the former dated the 27th of October, and the other the 15th of November last; and my answer [to] the first. The latter note embracing numerous topics of complaint, and going as far back as the year 1793, required a particular examination of all the transactions of our Government from that time to the present. The other indispensable duties of the office prevented my entering on this examination as early as I had expected, and the current business has retarded the pursuit. The result of this examination I am now, by the direction of the President of the United States, to communicate to you. This history of our affairs you will find supported by documents, many of which were delivered to you at your departure, and the residue will be herewith transmitted. The remarks and reasonings on facts you will duly appreciate; and from the whole, joined with your own observations, you will be enabled … to vindicate the United States, and to demonstrate their impartiality as a neutral nation, their fidelity in the observation of treaties, and their friendship as an ally.” Pickering repudiated at length Adet’s claims that the United States violated its 1778 Treaty of Amity and Commerce with France, that it surrendered to Britain its rights as a neutral power, and that the Jay Treaty was unfavorable to French interests. To support his arguments, Pickering cited past official correspondence, works on the law of nations, decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court, and other documents. Pickering’s letter also appended correspondence and other State Department documents, such as letters from Adet’s predecessors, statements about various French privateers, and other material. He concluded the letter by expressing a hope of restored confidence and improved relations with France (DNA: RG 59, Diplomatic and Consular Instructions, 1791–1801; see also ASP description begins Walter Lowrie et al., eds. American State Papers. Documents, Legislative and Executive, of the Congress of the United States. 38 vols. Washington, D.C., Gales and Seaton, 1832–61. description ends : Foreign Relations, 1:559–668).

Following the publication of Adet’s 15 Nov. 1796 letter to Pickering, Hamilton and others drafted and published responses of their own that countered Adet’s claims (see Hamilton to GW, 19 Nov. 1796, and n.5). Pickering evidently solicited information that would serve to strengthen his rebuttal. For instance, on 12 Dec. 1796, Richard Harison, U.S. district attorney for New York, wrote Pickering a letter describing the history of his involvement in the suits brought against French privateer La Vengeance after it brought a prize into the port of New York in 1795. Harison wrote: “Mr Adet’s long and Extraordinary Note of the 15th Ultimo could not fail of exciting both Surprise and Attention. … Lest … any Thing should be wanting to a complete Vindication of the Courts and Officers of Justice, as far as I was personally concerned, and in Deference to the Request contained in your Letter of the 10th Instante, I shall briefly recapitulate the Circumstances attending the several Suits against that Privateer [La Vengeance], with the particular Reasons that influenced my Conduct as Prosecutor for the Public” (DNA). Pickering included a statement about the La Vengeance in his 16 Jan. 1797 letter to Pinckney (see ASP description begins Walter Lowrie et al., eds. American State Papers. Documents, Legislative and Executive, of the Congress of the United States. 38 vols. Washington, D.C., Gales and Seaton, 1832–61. description ends , Foreign Relations, 1:564).

Pickering’s letter to Pinckney was published in multiple newspapers, including Claypoole’s American Daily Advertiser (Philadelphia) for 23 Jan. 1797. It also later appeared in the form of a pamphlet titled A Letter From Mr. Pickering, Secretary of State, to Mr. Pinckney … in Answer to the Complaints Communicated by Mr. Adet … (Richmond, 1797). As Pickering’s letter circulated among officials, reactions soon followed. In a letter of 31 Jan. 1797, written from Albany, New York governor John Jay wrote Pickering: “Accept my Thanks for … enclosing a Copy of your interesting Letter to Mr Pinckney, which is read here with great avidity and satisfaction—it enables our Citizens to form a correct Judgment of the Conduct Claims and Complaints of France, relative to this Country; and to appreciate the wisdom, abilities and virtue with which our Governt is administered. Adet’s indiscreet note afforded a fair opportunity for these Explanations, and had he foreseen the use you have made of it, he would doubtless have been more circumspect. It is not clear to me that the overbearing and violent conduct of France towards the united States, is to be regarded as a misfortune—as to a war with that People, I neither desire nor expect it—The necessity however of these appeals to the Public is to be regretted” (MHi: Pickering Papers). Robert Troup, federal district judge for New York, wrote Rufus King, U.S. minister to Great Britain, from New York on 28 Jan. 1797: “The public mind is at present much engaged with the letter from our Secretary of State to our Minister at Paris … I think Mr. Pickering has given a satisfactory refutation to all the charges contained in Mr. Adet’s note … All the friends of peace … consider it [Adet’s 15 Nov. 1796 letter] as one of the most insulting and offensive addresses that ever was made to a government or a people” (King, Life and Correspondence of Rufus King description begins Charles R. King, ed. The Life and Correspondence of Rufus King. 6 vols. New York, 1894–1900. description ends , 2:135–37).

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