ns on this subject with the British government. Lay before
them in friendly and temperate terms all the demonstrations of the
injury done us by this act, and endeavor to obtain a revocation of it,
and full indemnification, to any citizens of these States who may have
suffered by it in the mean time. Accompany your representations by every
assurance of our earnest desire to live on terms of the best friendship
and harmony with them, and to found our expectations of justice on their
part, on a strict observance of it on ours.

It is with concern, however, I am obliged to observe, that so marked has
been the inattention of the British court to every application which
has been made to them on any subject, by this government (not a single
answer I believe having ever been given to one of them, except in
the act of exchanging a minister), that it may become unavoidable, in
certain cases, where an answer of some sort is necessary, to consider
their silence as an answer. Perhaps this is their intention. Still,
however, desirous of furnishing no color of offence, we do not wish you
to name to them any term for giving an answer. Urge one as much as you
can without commitment, and on the first day of December be so good as
to give us information of the state in which this matter is, that it may
be received during the session of Congress.

The second article of the same instruction allows the armed vessels
of Great Britain to seize for condemnation all vessels, on their first
attempt to enter a blockaded port, except those of Denmark and Sweden,
which are to be prevented only, but not seized, on their first attempt.
Of the nations inhabiting the shores of the Atlantic ocean, and
practising its navigation, Denmark, Sweden, and the United States alone
are neutral. To declare then all neutral vessels (for as to the vessels
of the belligerent powers no order was necessary) to be legal prize,
which shall attempt to enter a blockaded port, except those of Denmark
and Sweden, is exactly to declare that the vessels of the United States
shall be lawful prize, and those of Denmark and Sweden shall not. It
is of little consequence that the article has avoided naming the United
States, since it has used a description applicable to them, and to them
alone, while it exempts the others from its operation by name. You will
be pleased to ask an explanation of this distinction: and you will be
able to say, in discussing its justice, that in every ci