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Subject Area: Political Theory
Topic: The American Revolution and Constitution

M. DE SARTINE TO THE COMMISSIONERS. ( Translation. ) - John Adams, The Works of John Adams, vol. 7 (Letters and State Papers 1777-1782) [1852]

Edition used:

The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States: with a Life of the Author, Notes and Illustrations, by his Grandson Charles Francis Adams (Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 1856). 10 volumes. Vol. 7.

Part of: The Works of John Adams, 10 vols.

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M. DE SARTINE TO THE COMMISSIONERS.

(Translation.)

Gentlemen,

I have received the letter which you did me the honor to write to me on the subject of the French ship Isabella, which the American privateer, General Mifflin, recaptured from a Guernsey privateer.

In the General Thesis you may see the provisions of the ordinance of the marine of 1681, which adjudges to captors, the recaptured vessels, when they have been during twenty-four hours in the enemy’s hands, and which grants only a third for the charges of rescue, when they are retaken before the twenty-four hours. The American privateers shall enjoy in France, without difficulty, the benefit of this law, if it has been adopted by the United States in such a manner, as that the French privateers may be assured of experiencing the same treatment, with respect to the recaptures they may conduct into the ports of North America.

The English laws, on the contrary, grant a privateer only one eighth of the value of the vessels retaken within the first twenty-four hours, a fifth within the second day, a third within the third and fourth, and afterwards one half, which leaves at least, in every case, the other half to the losing proprietors. It is possible that the United States, as these laws are less advantageous to the privateers, and more favorable to the original proprietors of recaptured vessels, would give the preference to those of France.

In these circumstances, the rules of reciprocity observed between the two powers require that arrangements be made to adopt the law of one of the two nations, which shall be observed by the respective privateers; and, in the mean time, I am persuaded you think with me that the American privateer, General Mifflin, ought not to exact in France more than the same advantage which, in a similar case, a French privateer would enjoy in North America.

This discussion, moreover, will not perhaps apply in the particular affair in question. I am just informed that the French proprietor claims his vessel as retaken from pirates, offering to pay a third of its value to the American privateer which delivered it. This is agreeable to the tenth article, under the title of Prizes, of the ordinance of 1681, which appears justly applicable to this particular case. If it should be found that the Guernsey privateer falls under the description of those pirates, whose depredations have obliged his Majesty to order general reprisals, and that she has not been furnished with new letters of marque, which the Court of London did not grant before the month of August, to cruise against French vessels, as appears from the declaration of the captain of the Isabella, this question will be necessarily submitted to the decision of the tribunals; and I could do no otherwise than see that the most prompt justice be rendered to the American privateer. I request, in any case, that you will be pleased to give me your opinion on the principal question, assuming the laws of the two nations to be different, with respect to reprisals or rescues.

I have the honor to be, &c.

De Sartine.