Friday, December 15.
Mr. Jackson's Circular.
The following Message was received from the President of the United States:
To the House of Representatives of the United States:
According to the request of the House of Representatives, expressed in their resolution of the 11th instant, I now lay before them a printed "copy of a paper purporting to be a circular letter from Mr. Jackson to the British Consuls in the United States," as received in a gazette at the Department of State; and also a printed paper, received in a letter from our Minister in London, purporting to be a copy of a despatch from Mr. Canning to Mr. Erskine, of the 23d of January last.
JAMES MADISON.
December 12, 1809.
[The first paper enclosed was the "Independent American" of November 21, containing a copy of the "Circular." The second was a piece cut out of a London newspaper.]
The circular is as follows:
Washington, November 13, 1809.
(Circular.)
Sir: I have to inform you, with much regret, that the facts which it has been my duty to state in my official correspondence with Mr. Smith, have been deemed by the President of the United States to afford a sufficient motive for breaking off an important negotiation, and for putting an end to all communication whatever with me as the Minister charged with that negotiation, so interesting to both nations, and on one most material point of which an answer has not even been returned to an official and written overture. One of the facts alluded to has been admitted by the Secretary of State himself, in his letter to me of the 19th October, viz: that the three conditions forming the substance of Mr. Erskine's original instructions were submitted to him by that gentleman; the other, viz: that that instruction is the only one in which the conditions were prescribed to Mr. Erskine for the conclusion of an arrangement on the matter to which it related, is known to me by the instructions which I have myself received. In stating these facts, and in adhering to them, as my duty imperiously enjoined me to do, in order to repel the frequent charges of ill faith which have been made against His Majesty's Government, I could not imagine that offence would be taken at it by the American Government, as most certainly none could be intended on my part; and this view of the subject has been made known to Mr. Smith. But, as I am informed by him, that no farther communication will be received from me, I conceive that I have no alternative left, which is consistent with the King's dignity, but to withdraw altogether from this city, and to wait elsewhere the arrival of His Majesty's commands upon the unlooked-for turn which has thus been given to his affairs in this country. I mean in the interval to make New York the place of my residence, where you will henceforward please to direct your communications to me, as I shall be accompanied by every member of His Majesty's mission.
I am, &c.
F. J. JACKSON.
On motion of Mr. Quincy, these papers were ordered to be printed—for the motion 59, against it 40.