LEOPARD. 5 Hildreth's Hist. U. S., 535. See Adams' Hist. of the U. S. II. 358. "On the impressment of our seamen our remonstrances have never been In 1806 Messrs. Monroe and Pinkney, the latter having been joined with the former in the mission to London, were instructed to make the express prohibition of the practice of impressment a condition precedent not only to the conclusion of any treaty but also to the nonenforcement by the United States of the Non-importation Act against Great Britain. After a protracted negotiation the American negotiators wrote home that they had found it necessary, in order to make a treaty, to abandon the subject of impressments and accept, instead of a formal article on the subject, a note pledging the British Government to exercise the greatest care not to impress American citizens and to afford redress should injury be inflicted while impressing British seamen. Under this arrangement a treaty was signed Dec. 1, 1806, containing no clause as to impressments. President Jefferson refused to submit the treaty to the Senate. Adams' Hist. of the United States, III. 400, 408-411, 413, 431. For the instructions to Monroe and Pinkney, signed by Mr. Madison as Secretary of State, May 17, 1806, see Am. State Papers, For. Rel. III. 119. See Mr. Madison to Messrs. Monroe and Pinkney, Feb. 3, 1807, and other correspondence concerning the treaty, in the same volume; also, Jefferson's works (ed. 1854), V. 52, 63. As to the reasons of Messrs. Monroe and Pinkney for signing the treaty, For returns of British impressments, reported by Mr. Madison, Sec. of Early in 1807 a British squadron lay within the capes of the Chesapeake Bay watching for some French frigates which had taken refuge at Annapolis. One or more of the British ships lay occasion ally in Hampton Roads, or came to the navy-yard at Gosport for necessary repairs. Desertions were numerous-even the American ships of war had much difficulty from loss of men-and on March 7 a boat's crew of the British gun sloop Halifax made off and escaped to Norfolk. The commander of the Halifax, hearing that these men had enlisted on the American frigate Chesapeake, complained to the British consul and sought to recover them, but without success. One of them was named Jenkin Ratford, an Englishman. The British minister at Washington also made complaint that three deserters from the Melampus had enlisted on the Chesapeake. On inquiry it was ascertained that the three men in question, one of whom was a negro, were on board the Chesapeake, but that they were native Americans who had been impressed by the Melampus. Their nationality being admitted, the answer as to them was final; but the fact was overlooked that Ratford was on board the Chesapeake, under the name of Wilson. 16 The grievances of the British ships having been reported to Admiral Berkeley, at Halifax, he issued, June 1, 1807, without waiting for authority from England, a circular order to all the ships under his command, reciting the desertions from the British ships in the Chesapeake and the refusal of the authorities, civil and naval, to give the deserters up, and directing the commanders of the British ships, in case of meeting with the American frigate Chesapeake at sea, and without the limits of the United States, to show the captain of her this order, and to require to search his ship for the deserters from the before-mentioned [British] ships, and to proceed and search for the same; and if a similar demand should be made by the American, he is to be permitted to search for any deserters from their service, according to the customs and usage of civilized nations on terms of peace and amity with each other." This order was sent to the Chesapeake Bay by the frigate Leopard, commanded by Captain S. P. Humphreys. The Leopard arrived at Lynnhaven June 21. The frigate Chesapeake, commanded by Commodore Barron, was then lying in Hampton Roads, under orders for the Mediterranean. On the morning of June 22 she got under way. The Leopard also stood out to sea. About half-past three in the afternoon, both ships being eight or ten miles southeast by east of Cape Henry, the Leopard rounded to and hailed, saying that she had dispatches for the commodore. As British ships on distant stations not infrequently sent dispatches by the courtesy of American officers, the request implied no hostile purpose, and Commodore Barron answered the hail and heaved to. Shortly afterwards a lieutenant from the Leopard came on board. He was shown to the commodore's cabin, where he delivered to Commodore Barron a note from Captain Humphreys, enclosing a copy of Admiral Berkeley's order, and expressing the hope that the matter might be "adjusted" in such a manner that "the harmony subsisting between the two countries may remain undisturbed." The Melampus was not mentioned in Admiral Berkeley's order as one of the British ships from which men had deserted, though other ships were specified.. Commodore Barron, however, explained to the lieutenant the circumstances relating to the three men from the Melampus, and then wrote to Captain Humphreys a reply, stating that he had on board no such men as were described; that he had ordered the recruiting officers not to enter any deserters from British ships; that he was also instructed not to permit the crew of his ship to be mustered by any but their own officers; and that he was disposed to preserve harmony, and hoped this answer would prove satisfactory. The lieutenant immediately returned to the Leopard, and a few minutes later Captain Humphreys, edging nearer, hailed and cried: "Commodore Barron, you must be aware of the necessity I am under of complying with the orders of my commander in chief." The Chesapeake was not ready for action, but Commodore Barron gave orders to clear the guns and prepare for battle. Before the gunner got to his magazine he heard the first shot from the Leopard, and as he entered the magazine the Leopard fired a broadside. The crew of the Chesapeake were just beginning to clear the deck. In fifteen minutes the Leopard fired three broadsides without return. Commodore Barron, though wounded in the first broadside, kept the deck; but as his ship was badly damaged and practically helpless, after the third broadside he ordered the flag to be struck. As it touched the taffrail a gun, discharged by means of a live coal brought by a lieutenant in his fingers from the galley, sent a shot into the Leopard. Three men on the Chesapeake were killed, while eight were severely and ten slightly wounded. Officers from the Leopard came on board the Chesapeake and mustered the ship's company. They selected the three Americans who had deserted from the Melampus, and were therefore not included in Admiral Berkeley's order. After a search they dragged Ratford out of a coal-hole. These four men were taken out and the two ships went their ways, Captain Humphreys declining to receive the Chespeake as a prize. The four prisoners were carried to Halifax, where they were court-martialed. Ratford was sentenced to be hanged, and the sentence was executed. The three Americans were condemned each to receive, as deserters, five hundred lashes; but the sentence was not carried out, and they remained in prison. The outbreak of popular feeling produced by the attack on the Chesapeake "made the month of July, 1807, a moment without a parallel in American history since the battle of Lexington." Its only II. Doc. 551-vol 2-63 result, however, in international law, was the establishment of the exemption of men-of-war from the claim of impressment. July 2, President Jefferson issued a proclamation requiring all armed British vessels to depart from American waters, and, in case they failed to do so, forbidding intercourse with them. Instructions were sent to Mr. Monroe, in London, to demand that the attack on the Chesapeake should be disavowed; that the men taken from her should be restored, and the offenders punished; that a special mission should be sent to America to announce the reparation, and that the practice of impressment from merchant vessels should be abandoned. Before these instructions arrived, Canning, on receiving news of the affair, disavowed the pretension of a right to search ships of war in the national service of any state for deserters." He subsequently declined to consider, as part of the reparation, the abolition of impressment from merchant vessels; and when, in December, 1807, Mr. G. H. Rose was sent as minister to the United States to settle the case of the Chesapeake, he was instructed to require the revocation of the Presi dent's proclamation of July 2 as a condition of entering upon negotiations, Admiral Berkeley having already been disavowed and recalled. This demand was refused, and the case remained without formal adjustment. The foregoing account is condensed from Mr. Henry Adams' History of the United States, IV. 1-54, 178-199. See, also, Mahan's Sea Power in its Relations to the War of 1812, I. 155–168. For Canning's disavowal of a right of impressment from men-of-war, see For the instructions to Monroe, see Madison to Monroe, July 6, 1807, Am. For Canning's instructions to Rose, Oct. 24, 1807, taken from the MS. For a report to the House of Representatives on the case of the Chesa- For the conclusions of the court of inquiry on the conduct of Commodore As to the case of the U. S. sloop of war Baltimore, see Life of Pickering. 3. WAR OF 1812. § 319. In his message to Congress of June 1, 1812, recommending a declaration of war against England, President Madison mentioned as causes of complaint impressments, the violation of the American coasts, the practice of paper blockades, and the orders in council. See Adams' Hist. of the United States, VI. 116-118, 134, 222. As to the negotiations touching impressments, see Ingersoll's Hist. of the On impressment as a cause of the war of 1812, see speech of T. Pickering, It was stated by Mr. Monroe, Sec. of State, July 16, 1811, to Mr. Foster, British minister at Washington, that no order had been given by the Government for the recovery by force of any citizen so impressed [from American vessels] from any British ship of war." This statement was substantially repeated by Mr. Monroe in a note of Sept. 14, 1811. (Am. St. Papers, For. Rel. III. 472, 476.) The claim of right by British men-of-war to search American vessels for British seamen, and to impress them when so found, though one of the causes of the war of 1812, was not formally surrendered by the treaty of Ghent. The Government of the United States did not insist on such surrender as a sine qua non. The instructions by the Secretary of State of October 4, 1814, when the fall of Napoleon left the United States the sole power with whom Great Britain was at war, gave the commissioners authority," should you find it impracticable to make an arrangement more conformable to the instructions originally given, to agree to the status quo ante bellum as the basis of negotiation." It was added, however, after a clause guarding the fisheries," nor is anything to be done which would give a sanction fo the British claim of impressment on board our vessels." The treaty as executed contained no provision on the subject; but the claim was never afterwards asserted or exercised by Great Britain, Mr. Bancroft Davis, Treaty Notes, Treaty Vol. (1776-1887), 1327-1328. 34 et seq. "I see by several papers that a very unfair play is going on with respect to the unpublished residue of the dispatches from Ghent. It is given out that the suppression was the act of the Republicans in the Senate, and that an article prohibiting impressment was rejected by the British commissioners in a manner involving an abandonment of the American doctrine. The fact is, that the vote against publication was founded on the report of Mr. King, etc., and that the rejection of the American proposition as to impressment was followed by a protest, neutralizing at least the proceeding on that subject." (Mr. Madison, President, to Mr. Monroe, Sec. of State (unofficial), Apr. 4, 1815, Monroe Papers, Library of Congress.) "I sincerely congratulate you on the peace, and more especially on the éclat with which the war was closed. The affair of New Orleans was fraught with useful lessons to ourselves, our enemies, and our friends, and will powerfully influence our future relations with the nations of Europe. It will show them we mean to take no part in their wars, and count no odds when engaged in our own. I presume that, having spared to the pride of England her formal acknowledg |