ship to you, by a firm belief that our interests are intimately connected, and by the strongest repugnance to see you under subordination to either France or England, either politically or commercially? Anderson, our consul going to Havana is to be instructed accordingly; so is Hughes who is going to Mexico in quest of Pike's men' & Burling is to be sent to the city of Mexico under pretext of searching for Pike's men also, but in truth to communicate these sentiments to proper characters. Claiborne is to be intrusted with them also, to communicate accding to the occasions he may find.

Nov. 9, 08.-Conversn. with Mr. Erskine. He was much alarmed at the conversn out of doors looking like a decln of war with Gr. Br.

He spoke (declaring that if he was an American he would so view the thing) as the most rational for us to let our commerce go out & take its chance & that we should defend it against all equally, indeed he seemed to think it best we should declare against all. He said this would be viewed as so equal that no rancorous war would be waged by either & peace would be easy at any time. I told him that there were but 3 alternatives, 1. war, 2. embargo, 3. submission, and that no American would look a moment at the last, he agreed it.

I told him I thot it possible France mt. repeal her decrees as to us, yet I did not understand from Mr. Pinckney's communicns that Engld. would even then revoke her decree; he declared in the most explicit terms she would. I then explain'd that the French repeal mt. only go to the high sea. He observed that he did not know that that cd. produce a repeal from Engld. because the exclusion of her merchandise wd. remain.

I observed to him that I thot Engld. operated on much by misrepresentns & from the errors of strangers who associated with but one party. He cleared himself of that by saying he mixed much with both, & cd. not be supposed to have any interest but in coming at the truth & communicating it.

I noted to him the tone in the conversn of Mr. Canning in the

'The exploring expedition, sent out by the government under the command of Capt. Zebulon Pike.

Month of June when Mr. P. inferred the orders wd. be revoked & the Month of July when he was totally off. I intimated to him my suspicions that the Halifx endpedn was intended to support a hoped insurrection in Boston.' He protested at once decidedly agt. the error of that suspicion, that his govmt. could not be so uninformed as to think of countenancing the taking adverse possn. of a place they could not hold many days: & that assuredly they had not a single hostile view towards this Country, & that the people of England were equally averse to a rupture with us. He spoke of the situation of Spain & that Bonaparte would soon be ousted there. Lamented the state of the world & I joined him in that & said, that if either Bonaparte or his king were to die we should have peace. He said the Pr. of Wales was as much an Anti-Bonapartian as anybody. That he was persuaded there could be no safety in a peace with him which would let their navy go down & Bonaparte's get up. I observed that went to a principle of eternal war. He sd. no; that that danger would be lessened by Bonap's. death, or by such a spirit of insurrection in the North as had appeared in Spain.

I told him I was going out of the admn. & therefore might say to him things which I would not do were I to remain in. I wished to correct an error which I at first thot his Govrnt above being led into from newspapers, but I apprehended they had adopted it, this was the supposed partiality of the admn & particularly myself in favr. of France & agt. England. I observed that when I came into the admn there was nothing I so much desired as to be on a footing of intimate frdshp with England, that I knew as long as she was our friend no enemy could hurt that I would have sacrificed much to have effected it & therefore wished Mr. King to have continued there as a favorable instrument. That if there had been an equal disposn on their part I thot it might have been effected; for altho' the question of impressmts was difficult on their side & insuperable with us, yet had that been the sole question, we might have shoved along, in the hope of some compromise, that indeed there was a ground of accomodn which his ministry had on two occns yielded to for a short time, but

1 See note of Dec. 1, 1808, post.

retracted, that during the admn of Mr. Addington and the short one of Mr. Fox. I had hoped such a frdshp practicable, but that during all other admns I had seen a spirit so adverse to us that I now despaired of any charge. That he might judge from the communicns now before Congress whether there had been any partiality to France to whom he wd. see we had never made the proposition to revoke the embargo immedly which we did to England and again that we had remonstrated strongly to them on the style of Mr. Champagny's letter, but had not to England on that of Canning equally offensive. That the letter of Canning now reading to Congress was written in the high ropes & would be stinging to every American breast.

He admitted Mr. Canning wrote strongly, & spoke strongly, always taking the highest ground. I told him it was an unhappy talent, that nothing enabled a man to get along in business so well as a smooth temper & smooth style. I observed that if we wished war with England as the Federalists charged us, & I feared his Govmt. might believe, nothing would have been so easy when the Chesapeake was attacked, & when even the feds. themselves would have concurred, but on the contrary that our endeavors had been to cool down our countrymen & carry it before their Govrmt. He said it would have been very unjust to have made an individual act the ground of war, which his govrnt might & did disavow. I agreed to that, but added that the same class of men had committed & were in the habit of committing so many atrocious insults on us, that it was impossible not to feel them deeply. That I did not charge his Govrmt with approving all this, because I believed that they could not controul them, that the officers were allied to the highest families in the kingdom were supported by such an aristocracy as that no Minister dare move against one, unless he had acted as a coward & then the nation would support the Minister in shooting him. He said I was much mistaken in supposing the govrmt could not controul the officers of the navy; that there was such a multitude of applicants to enter the navy as placed the whole very much under the power of the govmt & besides that they had such a number of officers beyond what they could employ as made it easy for a minister to leave any one unemployed.

VOL. 1.-22

I told him in the course of the conversn that this country would never return to an intercourse with Engld while those orders of council were in force, in some part of it also I told him that Mr. Madison (who it was now pretty well seen wd. be my successor, to which he assented) had entertained the same cordial wishes as myself to be on a friendly footing with England.

I committed all this to writing the moment Mr. Erskine left me. I have always expressed the substance & very often the very words & phrases expressed. They were however much more dilated than is here exprest on paper.

1808. Dec. 1.-Present the 4 Secretaries. The expedition prepared at Halifx, consisting of 4000 men, is believed to be kept in readiness, in case war is declared by us, or obviously imminent, it is to go off instantly. Abandoning Upper Canada, to us, and take possession of N. Orleans, we therefore determine unanimously that all the new recruits from Pensylva inclusively Southwardly and Westwardly shall be sent off immediately (being about 2000. men) those in the Atlantic states by sea, the Western down the Ohio & Misipi & provns to be sent down the Misipi with the men, if the State of the river permits them to go, besides these there are 1000. of the old troops which can be rapidly brought to N. Orleans; that we may count on 1000. good Militia of Orleans, & 1000 of Misipi to be instantly commanded, making a force of 5000, men. That 30 gunboats shall be immediately sent into Lak Pontchartrain, and we are to ask 3525 seamen for the next season, to 15. for 17 gun boats, & the residue to fill the II. small vessels we have from the John Adams, now a corvette, down. These 11. small vessels to be sent immediately to the Eastern ports to enforce the embargo. We are to undertake to make the Canal at N. Orleans, cost it what it will.

1809, Feb. 1.-Present all. On the execution of the act for employing an addnal Naval force. Agreed. 1. To raise men to man the 30. gunboats to proceed to N. Orleans. 2. As many as will man 30 more to be sent to different ports to support the embargo. 3. To man the small vessels below the size of a frigate. 4. To man the Constn. By the time these are raised we shall

know whether the embargo, war, or what else is to be the state of things. The Chesapeake is to proceed instantly to Boston.

Feb. 25.-Prest. Sect. State, Treas'y, Navy, Atty Genl. What orders shall be given as to English & Spanish ships attempting to pass N. Orleans for Baton rouge? Ans. English ships have been hitherto prohibited, that being the highest port of entry. Spanish ships have been permitted to go up, except when having slaves on board.

Let things continue so till Congress rises, when their proceedings will decide what should be done.

Agreed that orders shall be given to the military to remove squatters from the lands of the Chickasaws, Cherokees & Choctaws, except Doublehead's reserve & Wafford's settlement.