George Washington Papers
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From George Washington to Timothy Pickering, 19 October 1796

To Timothy Pickering

Mount Vernon 19th Oct: 1796

Sir

The letter from Mr King to you, is herewith returned.1

In your dispatches to him, he ought to be instructed to remonstrate in strong terms against those arbitrary & oppressive Acts of the B: Ships of War & Privateers, of which we have so often complained to little effect; and to press for redress.

The moment for doing these is favorable: self respect and justice to our Citizens (especially our Seamen) require, and demand it of the British Government.2

And if that order, of the Directory of France should prove Authentic, or even upon the strong presumption that it is so, Mr Pinckney ought to be particularly charged.3

I am glad to learn by Colo. Humphreys’s dispatches, that our Concerns with Algiers were in so good a train; and hope the account of the releaseme⟨nt⟩ of the Captured Vessel by the Tunissians will be confirmed.4

Go: Washington

LS (retained copy), DNA: RG 59, Miscellaneous Letters.

GW again wrote Pickering from Mount Vernon on this date: “As the meeting of Congress is fast approaching, and I shall want to collect all the materials for the Speech at the opening of it by, or soon after my arrival, that there may be time to consider and to digest them. Let me request your attention to this matter” (ALS, MHi: Pickering Papers). GW marked the letter “Private.” For GW’s earlier requests to his cabinet secretaries for suggested content for his eighth annual message to Congress, see GW to the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, 7 Dec., source note.

1GW returned a letter from Rufus King, the U.S. minister to Great Britain, to Pickering of 10 August. Pickering had enclosed that letter with his to GW of 13 Oct. (see n.3 to that document).

2Pickering obeyed GW’s directive when he next wrote King on 26 Oct.: “I think it is mentioned in your instructions that the British naval officers often impress Swedes, Danes and other foreigners, from the vessels of the United States: they have even sometimes impressed Frenchmen. … The President is extremely anxious to have this business of impresses placed on a reasonable footing.” In another letter to King, dated 14 Nov., Pickering stated the necessity of “more effectual orders” to “naval officers of Great Britain to abstain from injuries and insults to the rights, the flag and the Citizens of the United States” (both in DNA: RG 59, Diplomatic and Consular Instructions, 1791–1801).

3An official note written by French foreign minister Charles Delacroix had announced the French Directory’s 2 July 1796 decree ordering the capture of neutral vessels bound to British ports (see Pickering to GW, 11–12 Oct., and n.12; see also Pickering to GW, this date, and n.1 to that document).

On 5 Nov., Pickering wrote Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, the newly appointed U.S. minister to France, about the decree. Though Pickering issued no direct orders to Pinckney on the matter, he declared: “it is hoped that your arrival at Paris will correct misapprehensions, and dispel all doubts of the rectitude, fidelity, and friendship of the United States towards her [France]” (DNA: RG 59, Diplomatic and Consular Instructions, 1791–1801). For more on the Directory’s decree, see GW to Alexander Hamilton, 2 Nov., and n.2 to that document.

4For David Humphreys’s dispatches to Pickering of 5 and 10 Aug., and for the capture of the Eliza by a Tunisian privateer, see Pickering to GW, 13 Oct., and n.7; see also Pickering to GW, 5 Oct., and n.4.

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