TO MR. GALLATIN.
October 21, 1808.
The case of the Martinique Petitioners.
I think it wrong to detain foreigners caught here by the embargo; but in permitting them to take our vessels to return in, we do what is a matter of favor, not of right. Of course we can restrict them to a tonnage proportioned to their numbers. In the transport service I believe the allowance is two tons to every person. We may allow a little more room; but there ought to be an end to this, and I think it high time to put an end to it. What would you think of advertising that after a certain day, no American vessel will be permitted to go out for the purpose of carrying persons. Perhaps this should be communicated by the Secretary of State to the foreign ministers.
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Fronda states that a proprietor of Amelia Island, in Florida, shipped his crop for a foreign port on board an American vessel. The vessel was taken by the Argus, carried into Savannah, and condemned for a breach of the embargo laws; the cargo pronounced clear. Probably the vessel had left our harbors without a clearance, though that is not stated, nor the cause of her condemnation specified. Permission is asked to send away the cargo. If the Spanish proprietor had no agency in drawing the vessel away contrary to the embargo laws, his employment of her was innocent, and he ought to be permitted to send his cargo out; because for us to take his property and bring it in by force, and against his will, and then to detain it under pretext of an embargo, would be equivalent to piracy or war. A vessel driven involuntarily into a port by weather, or an enemy, with prohibited goods, is always allowed to depart, and even to sell as much of the goods as will make the vessel sea-worthy, if disabled. I do not know, however, that in the present case we are bound to do any more than let one of our vessels be engaged to replace the cargo in Amelia Island, and certainly we ought not to let it go to any distant port; but if the proprietor enticed or engaged the vessel to break the embargo law, he was particeps criminis, and must submit to the loss which he has brought on himself. I send you Fronda's note, which should be returned to Mr. Madison, with information of the order you shall give for inquiring into the facts, and permission or refusal as they shall turn out. Affectionate salutations.