Thomas Jefferson Papers
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From Thomas Jefferson to William Branch Giles, 18 January 1805

To William Branch Giles

Jan. 18. 05.

Th:J. to mr Giles

See the stat. 24. G. 3. (1784.) c. 47. made against smuggling-armed vessels and forfieting the vessels. the 7th. sectn. latter part provides that it shall not extend to vessels having arms or ammunition put on board for the necessary use & defence of such vessel, by license from the Lord High Admiral of G.B. or the commissioners of the admiralty.’ this shews that English1 vessels cannot arm for defence or other use, but with permission of the Lord High Admiral or board of admiralty; & at the beginning of every war they give a permission under specified regulations.

In France, no vessel armed or unarmed, in peace or war, can leave port but on a congé (or license) from the admiral, which is given on making known the vessel, crew, cargo, destination, & condition of the vessel. this of course places arming under his discretion. see 1. Valin. 258.

See the Journals of the H. of R. Mar. 19. 1798. the last clause but one in mr Adams’s message, expressing his sentiments. friendly salutations

PoC (DLC).

Giles was a member of a Senate committee appointed on 14 Jan. to consider the bill to regulate the clearance of armed merchant vessels (JS description begins Journal of the Senate of the United States, Washington, D.C., 1820-21, 5 vols. description ends , 3:433).

stat. 24. G. 3. (1784.) c. 47.: “An Act for the more effectual Prevention of Smuggling in this Kingdom” (Statutes at Large, From the Twentieth Year of the Reign of King George the Third to the Twenty-fifth Year of the Reign of King George the Third, Inclusive [London, 1786], 557-66).

Valin: French jurist René Josué Valin’s Nouveau commentaire sur l’ordonnance de la marine du mois d’Août 1681, first published in La Rochelle in 1766. The legal commentary concerned the shipping regulations initiated by Jean Baptiste Colbert (Anoush Fraser Terjanian, Commerce and Its Discontents in Eighteenth-Century French Political Thought [Cambridge, Eng., 2013], 124-5).

The last clause but one of John Adams’s message to Congress of 19 Mch. 1798, which announced the failure of the American mission to France, stated that he had reconsidered earlier instructions that restrained U.S. vessels from “sailing in an armed condition.” Adams no longer felt justified in continuing the restrictions, except “in particular cases, where there may be reasonable ground of suspicion that such vessels are intended to be employed contrary to law” (JHR description begins Journal of the House of Representatives of the United States, Washington, D.C., 1826, 9 vols. description ends , 3:228).

1Word interlined.

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