Never fear the want of business. A man who qualifies himself well for his calling, never fails of employment in it. The foundation you will have laid in legal reading, will enable you to take a higher ground than most of your competitors, and even ignorant men can see who it is that is not one of themselves. Go on then with courage, and you will be sure of success; for which be assured no one wishes more ardently, nor has more sincere sentiments of friendship towards you, than, dear Sir, your affectionate friend.
TO MR. VAN BERCKEL.
Philadelphia, July 2, 1792.
Sir,—It was with extreme concern that I learned from your letter of June the 25th, that a violation of the protection due to you as the representative of your nation had been committed, by an officer of this State entering your house and serving therein a process on one of your servants. There could be no question but that this was a breach of privilege; the only one was, how it was to be punished. To ascertain this, I referred your letter to the Attorney General, whose answer I have the honor to enclose you. By this you will perceive, that from the circumstance of your servant's not being registered in the Secretary of State's office, we cannot avail ourselves of the more certain and effectual proceeding which had been provided by an act of Congress for punishing infractions of the law of nations, that act having thought proper to confine the benefit of its provisions to such domestics only, as should have been registered. We are to proceed, therefore, as if that act had never been made, and the Attorney General's letter indicates two modes of proceeding. 1. By a warrant before a single magistrate, to recover the money paid by the servant under a process declared void by law. Herein the servant must be the actor, and the government not intermeddle at all. The smallness of the sum to be re-demanded will place this cause in the class of those in which no appeal to the higher tribunal is permitted, even in the case of manifest error, so that if the magistrate should err, the government has no means of correcting the error. 2. The second mode of proceeding would be, to indict the officer in the Supreme Court of the United States; with whom it would rest to punish him at their discretion, in proportion to the injury done and the malice from which it proceeded; and it would end in punishment alone, and not in a restitution of the money. In this mode of proceeding, the government of the United States is actor, taking the management of the cause into its own hands, and giving you no other trouble than that of bearing witness to such material facts as may not be otherwise supported. You will be so good as to decide in which of these two ways you would choose the proceeding should be; if the latter, I will immediately take measures for having the offender prosecuted according to law.
I have the honor to be, with sentiments of respect, Sir, your most obedient, and most humble servant.
TO HIS EXCELLENCY THE GOVERNOR OF GEORGIA.
Philadelphia, July 3, 1792.
Sir,—I have the honor to enclose to your Excellency, the copy of a letter I have received from his Catholic Majesty's representatives here, in consequence of a complaint from the Governor of Florida, that three inhabitants of the State of Georgia, to wit, Thomas Harrison, David Rees, and William Ewin, had entered the Spanish territory and brought from thence five negro slaves, the property of John Blackwood, a Spanish subject, without his consent, in violation of the rights of that State and the peace of the two countries. I had formerly had the honor of sending you a copy of the convention entered into between the said Governor and Mr. Leagrove, on the part of the United States for the mutual restitution of fugitive slaves. I now take the liberty of requesting your Excellency to inform me what is done, or likely to be done with you for the satisfaction of the Spanish government in this instance. Nobody knows better than your Excellency the importance of restraining individuals from committing the peace and honor of the two nations, and I am persuaded that nothing will be wanting on your part to satisfy the just expectations of the government of Florida on the present occasion. I have the honor to be, with great respect, your Excellency's most obedient, and most humble servant.