RC (DNA: RG 59, DD); at foot of text: “The Secretary of State”; endorsed by TJ as received 5 May 1793 and so recorded in SJL. PrC (ScHi: Pinckney Family Papers). Tr (Lb in DNA: RG 59, DD). Tr (MHi: Timothy Pickering Papers); consists of second paragraph only. Enclosures: (1) Passport for captains of United States ships (printed form, in English and French, in DNA: RG 59, DD; Tr in Lb in same). (2) Extract of Pinckney to Gouverneur Morris, 5 Mch. 1793, defending his issuance of passports to American ships sailing from British ports on the grounds that they are required by the treaty of amity and commerce with France when either nation is at war and that it would be impractical to oblige such ships to obtain them in the United States; pointing out, with respect to Morris’s fears that the practice will be abused and will endanger ships without passports, that he has enjoined consuls to issue no passports without due examination of each ship’s register; stating that he cannot now stop providing such papers without casting doubts on the nationality of ships subsequently denied them and that this practice will not affect ships leaving French ports because of their clearances by French customhouses; and pressing Morris to find out whether the French government intends to honor the treaty and especially if it will require passports for American vessels leaving British ports. (3) Extract of Pinckney to Morris, 8 Mch. 1793, promising to communicate “to our friends in the City” Morris’s opinion that the French government will scrupulously observe all stipulations in the treaty, noting the importance for “our carrying Trade” of French compliance with the treaty provision that “free Ships shall make free Goods,” and observing that the conduct of the French will eventually convince everyone of their pure intentions but that in the interim the United States must pay for the incredulity of France’s enemies. (4) Pinckney to Lord Grenville, 31 Dec. 1792, stating that after the American ship Governor Bowdoin, Edward Dowse master, bound from China to Ostend and thence to Boston, was recently driven into Ramsgate by a storm, several seamen under contract to make the round trip from Boston deserted to H.M.S. Iphigenia, Captain Sinclair commander, who not only refuses to restore them but threatens to detain Dowse’s ship unless he pays their wages, which by their contract they forfeited by jumping ship; objecting to the detention by British naval officers of deserting sailors from American ships who claim to be British subjects because the British take advantage of the similarity of language and habits, and the failure of seamen to carry papers, to give more weight to the testimony of deserters than to their contracts, because in the absence of a convention defining citizenship precisely decisions on such a point ought not to be left to naval officers acting as judges in their own cases, because it can lead to violence, and because it is not practiced by Americans or by other countries against Americans; suggesting that deserters have no right to their wages because contracts made abroad are valid, a point Britain recognizes by a law encouraging the service of foreign seamen in its own merchant marine, and because by desertion seamen not only invalidate their contracts but greatly harm their employers; and urging that regulations be adopted to resolve this problem. (5) Phineas Bond to Pinckney, 22 Feb. 1793, stating that Grenville this morning directed him to confer with Pinckney regarding American seamen, “with a view to form some Arrangement that may be compatible with the Interest and Convenience of the navigation of Great Britain and the United States,” and suggesting that they meet early next week. (6) Pinckney to Bond, 24 Feb. 1793, congratulating him on his diplomatic appointment and inviting him to confer two days hence (Trs in same, in the hand of William A. Deas; Trs in Lb in same). (7) Consular bond of Elias Vanderhorst, 10 Oct. 1792 (see note to Vanderhorst to TJ, 10 Oct. 1792). Other enclosure not found.

On 6 May 1793 TJ sent this letter to the President, who returned it the same day (Washington, Journal description begins Dorothy Twohig, ed., The Journal of the Proceedings of the President, 1793–1797, Charlottesville, 1981 description ends , 129). In discussions with Lord Grenville on the subject of our seamen being impressed, Pinckney argued that Britain should recognize as American citizens not only natives, but individuals naturalized under our act of congress of 26 Mch. 1790, which required only two years’ residence, a span agreeing in point of time with a 1740 British law which naturalized foreign mariners who served for two years in British naval or merchant ships in time of war. Pinckney cited the same act in his enclosed representation to Grenville to argue that Britain sanctioned the legality of service by foreigners in its own ships and could thus not oppose its validity in the vessels of other nations. Nevertheless, until 1870 Britain continued to maintain that the allegiance of its citizens was inalienable and could not be voluntarily relinquished (Annals description begins Annals of the Congress of the United States: The Debates and Proceedings in the Congress of the United States … Compiled from Authentic Materials, Washington, D.C., Gales & Seaton, 1834–56, 42 vols. All editions are undependable and pagination varies from one printing to another. The first two volumes of the set cited here have “Compiled … by Joseph Gales, Senior” on the title page and bear the caption “Gales & Seatons History” on verso and “of Debates in Congress” on recto pages. The remaining volumes bear the caption “History of Congress” on both recto and verso pages. Those using the first two volumes with the latter caption will need to employ the date of the debate or the indexes of debates and speakers. description ends , ii, 2264; J. Mervyn Jones, British Nationality Law and Practice [Oxford, 1947], 64n, 75n, 80–3). The paper which had occasioned Pinckney so much uneasiness was a cipher he had inadvertently mailed to Gouverneur Morris (Pinckney to TJ, 31 Jan., 5, 10 Feb. 1793; Morris to Pinckney, 2 Mch. 1793, DLC: Pinckney Family Papers).

On this date Pinckney also wrote TJ a brief note informing him that “Mr. Marshalls return to America affords me a safe opportunity of conveying the inclosed correspondence which I mentioned in a former communication” (RC in DNA: RG 59, DD, at foot of text: “The Secretary of State,” endorsed by TJ as received 4 May 1793 and so recorded in SJL, which contains the notation “Sayer’s correspdce”; Tr in Lb in same). The enclosures are identified in note to Pinckney to TJ, 8 Sep. 1792.