[256] Niles' Register, vol. vii. p. 190.
[257] Writings of James Monroe.
[258] Captains' Letters, Dec. 11, 1814. Bainbridge's italics.
[259] It will be remembered that after the repeal of the Orders in Council, June 23, 1812, impressment remained the only sine quâ non of the United States.
[260] American State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol. iii. p. 704. Author's italics. This was the result of a Cabinet meeting held the same day. "June 27, 1814. In consequence of letters from Bayard and Gallatin of May 6-7, and other accounts from Europe of the ascendancy and views of Great Britain, and the dispositions of the great Continental Powers, the question was put to the Cabinet: 'Shall a treaty of peace, silent on the subject of impressment, be authorized?' Agreed to by Monroe, Campbell, Armstrong, and Jones. Rush absent. Our minister to be instructed, besides trying other conditions, to make a previous trial to insert or annex some declaration, or protest, against any inference, from the silence of the Treaty on the subject of impressment, that the British claim was admitted or that of the United States abandoned." (Works of Madison, vol. iii. p. 408.)
[261] Niles' Register, vol. vii. p. 190.
[262] Navy Department MSS.
[263] For Porter's and Perry's correspondence on this subject see Captains' Letters, Navy Department MSS., Oct. 14 and 25, Nov. 29, Dec. 2, 9, and 25, 1814; Jan. 9, 1815.
[264] Porter to Secretary, Feb. 8, 1815. Captains' Letters.
[265] Benton's Abridgment of Debates in Congress, vol. v. p. 359, note.