To George Washington from Timothy Pickering, 19 October 1796
From Timothy Pickering
Department of State Octr 19. 1796.
Sir,
The news-papers which will go by this post, will present you with a letter from Mr King to Mr Johnson, the consul of the United States at London, containing the agreeable information that such a decree of the Directory as the note from Delacroix to Barthelemy imported, had not passed, nor would be issued, unless Britain set the example.1 Mr King’s letter as published is doubtless authentic: but I have no further advice from him on the subject than I have already had the honour to lay before you.2 With the highest respect I am sir your obt servt
Timothy Pickering
ALS, DNA: RG 59, Miscellaneous Letters; LB, DNA: RG 59, Domestic Letters.
1. The Gazette of the United States, & Philadelphia Daily Advertiser for 18 Oct. printed the letter from Rufus King, the U.S. minister to Great Britain, to Joshua Johnson, the U.S. consul at London, dated 10 Sept. at “11, Baker-street,” which reads: “I have just received a letter from Mr. Monroe, dated Paris, August 28, in which he informs me, that in consequence of the publication in the Gazettes, of the letter from the minister of foreign affairs to M. Barthelemi, the ambassador at Basle, he had applied for information, whether orders were issued for the seizure of neutral vessels, and had been informed, that no such order was issued; and further, that none such would be issued, in case the British government did not authorise the seizure of our vessels.
“Supposing that this information might be useful to those concerned in our commerce, I have not delayed communicating it to you, and wish you to be so obliging as to let it be known to such of our countrymen concerned in commerce, as you may meet with.” This letter appeared first in The Minerva, & Mercantile Evening Advertiser (New York) for 17 Oct., and then in Philadelphia newspapers such as Claypoole’s American Daily Advertiser for 18 October.
For the letter to King of 28 Aug. 1796 from James Monroe, the former U.S. minister to France, see , 4:84–85. For the official note from Charles Delacroix, the French minister for foreign affairs, to François, marquis de Barthélemy, the French ambassador and minister to Switzerland, pertaining to the French decree of 2 July 1796, see Pickering to GW, 11–12 Oct., and n.12; see also GW to Alexander Hamilton, 2 Nov., and n.2 to that document.
2. See Pickering to GW, 13 Oct., n.3. By late October, Pickering had received several letters from King, including one of 10 Sept., which contained similar content to King’s letter of that date to Johnson (see n.1 above; and DNA: RG 59, Diplomatic and Consular Instructions, 1791–1801; see also Pickering to GW, 20 Oct., and n.2).