Jacob Crowninshield to Thomas Jefferson, 11 September 1805
From Jacob Crowninshield
Salem 11th Septr 1805
Dear Sir
I beg leave to present you with my sincere thanks for your highly obliging communication of the 26th August. From the well known & established character of Mr. Kittredge I have no doubt he will give entire satisfaction in, and faithfully perform all the duties of the office to which you have seen fit to appoint him. his commission I believe has not yet reached here but I presume it may be expected every moment.
I am sorry to inform you the British are condemning our vessels in England upon a new plea. it is a common thing for our merchts to reship (after landing) their cargoes bot in the Colonies on the same vessel to Europe &c as may be convenient. vessels thus circumstanced are now captured bound to France & Holland altho’ there is no question as to the property being neutral. they pretend it is the original voyage, & that the landing & reshipping is a mere cover. we are all very uneasy on this subject, as it strikes deeply at our export trade in foreign articles, & will ultimately injure the whole commerce of the Country. Letters as late as July 26th from American merchts of respectabillity in London, declare that several vessels have been condemned on this ground. as the merchts can not afford to run these risks (for few insurance offices will take them) it is probable many will unload their ships and wait till the squall passes over. I am happy to see Comr Rogers’ letter confirms the information I sent you relative to the Tripoline peace. I again ask permission to tender assurances of my profound attachment and regard in subscribing myself your
most faithful & obliged servt.
Jacob Crowninshield
RC (DLC); at foot of text: “Honble Th Jefferson Monticello”; endorsed by TJ as received 21 Sep. and so recorded in SJL.
A new plea: a recent adjudication in the British admiralty court had condemned cargo of the American ship Essex, countermanding a prior ruling that had spared most re-exports from seizure. Under the 1800 Polly decision, if the goods were landed in the United States and any duty paid, it was considered a broken voyage, the goods were neutralized, and the cargo could be legally carried between the Caribbean and Europe. With the Essex decision, issued 22 May, landing and payment of a small duty were no longer deemed sufficient to neutralize the cargo, and the burden of proof of neutrality was shifted from the captor to the ship owner. The decision was upheld by the admiralty court in subsequent rulings, including a 23 July ruling on the Massachusetts-based Enoch. The new precedent triggered a sharp increase in British captures of American vessels in European waters, with the seizure of at least 60 ships by August 1806 (, 10:139-42; Salem Gazette, 17 Sep.; Bradford Perkins, Prologue to War: England and the United States, 1805-1812 [Berkeley, Calif., 1961], 79-82; Bradford Perkins, The First Rapprochement: England and the United States, 1795-1805 [Philadelphia, 1955; repr. Berkeley, 1967], 87-9; Harry Ammon, James Monroe: The Quest for National Identity [New York, 1971], 248; James Monroe to TJ, 6 Oct.).
Comr Rogers’ letter: an 8 June circular letter from John Rodgers was printed in the Boston New-England Palladium on 10 Sep. as a letter from Rodgers to John Gavino ( 6:98-9; New-England Palladium, 10 Sep.). The information I sent you: see two letters from Crowninshield to TJ, 28 Aug.