"Grotius and Bynkershoeck agree, and who is there that will deny, that necessity gives a right to make ourselves masters of everything, without the seizure of which a nation cannot defend herself? As in relation to want, if the enemy, on one part, is in want of stores, the want to intercept them on the other is equal. And in relation to blockades, every port of the enemy is blocked relative to a neutral vessel loaded with stores, which is seized, and, by consequence, blocked, or hindered to go there. It imports little, that whether the blockade be made across the narrows at Dover, or off the harbor at Brest, or L'Orient. If you are taken, you are blocked. Great Britain, by her insular situation, blocks naturally all the ports of Spain and France. She has a right to avail herself of this situation, as a gift of Providence.
"In fine, it is necessary to observe, that the claimants, founding themselves upon the privilege of the treaty, have not a single paper on board to prove the property of the cargo, in which respect all are defective. The sentence then, is, that, under the circumstances of this case, the claim of privilege is rejected, and that the Dutch master be enjoined to produce his sailing orders, and certificates and cockets from the Custom House of the port from whence the ship sailed, according to the stipulations of the sixth article of the treaty of 1674. The hemp and flax are condemned as contraband on board of this ship, and the owners of the iron are held to prove their property."
I have the honor to be, with the greatest respect, Sir, your most obedient and most humble servant,
JOHN ADAMS.
TO THE PRESIDENT OF CONGRESS.
Paris, April 7th, 1780.
Sir,
There are several articles of intelligence today, which are connected with the subject of my letter of yesterday. One is from the Hague, the 2d of April. "Thursday night last two couriers from Petersburgh arrived here, alighted at the hotel of the Prince Gallitzen, the Envoy Extraordinary of her Majesty the Empress of all the Russias to the States-General. One of the couriers set off immediately for London, to the Russian Minister who resides there. The Prince Gallitzen having been in conference the next day with the President of the Assembly of their High Mightinesses, relative to the said despatches, this Minister sent back, the next night after his arrival, the same courier. From that time the report runs, that the object of these despatches was to communicate to the Republic the measures taken by Russia, with some of the northern powers, for ensuring respectively the safety of the navigation and commerce of their subjects, and to invite the States-General to enter into the same arrangements."
The other is from Constantinople, the 14th of February. "The privateers continue to vex the neutral ships in the seas of the Grand Seignior, by visiting and stopping them wherever they find them, and even without any discretion, at the entry of the ports and under the guns of our fortresses. The French frigate, the Gracieuse, which lay at anchor in the road of Cyprus, having learned that an English privateer had brought into the port of this island a French prize, sent to her some boats armed to retake her, which they could not accomplish, however, without having some men killed on both sides. The English consul having carried his complaints to the government of the Island, of a violation of the laws of nations and demanded assistance, he was so well succored, that the French were obliged to abandon the prize, and all of their nation who were in the island came very near being massacred by the Turks. As the Porte has also been informed, that on the other hand the ship Smyrna, of Rotterdam, has run a risk of undergoing the same fate with the ship of Captain Kinder, of Amsterdam, and perhaps to suffer treatment still harder, and in sight of the city of Smyrna; she has not only resolved to send new orders to all the commandants, to enjoin them very seriously to observe a neutrality the most exact, by fulfilling their duty, but she has also testified her sensibility in regard to all these depredations to the Ambassadors of the Courts of France and England, by sending to them last Saturday a representation in writing, purporting, that as the Porte had not failed to observe, during the war between France and England, an exact and perfect neutrality to facilitate their commerce upon an equal footing, and to afford to their ships all possible safety in her seas, it was natural that she should, and ought to expect, that the two powers would answer her conduct with a sincere friendship. That at the news of the first differences arisen between the two kingdoms, there were conferences held with their Ambassadors, in which it was agreed upon an equal footing; that the rules of the sea should not be violated, and that they should be, on the contrary, exactly observed and respected. That in consequence of this agreement, the Porte had not neglected anything to fulfil of fortresses and castles in the empire, to protect the ships of war and merchant-men against every attack, and not to suffer that any hostilities should be commenced in the ports of the Grand Seignior, and under the cannon and in sight of his fortresses.