that our ministers might sign a treaty not providing
satisfactorily against the impressment of our seamen, we had, on the 3rd
of February, informed you, that should such an one have been forwarded,
it could not be ratified, and recommending, therefore, that you should
resume negotiations for inserting an article to that effect; that we
should hold the treaty in suspense until we could learn from you the
result of our instructions, which probably would not be till summer,
and then decide on the question of calling the Senate. We observed, too,
that a written declaration of the British commissioners, given in at
the time of signature, would of itself, unless withdrawn, prevent the
acceptance of any treaty, because its effect was to leave us bound by
the treaty, and themselves totally unbound. This is the statement we
have given out, and nothing more of the contents of the treaty has been
made known. But depend on it, my dear Sir, that it will be considered as
a hard treaty when it is known. The British commissioners appear to
have screwed every article as far as it would bear, to have taken every
thing, and yielded nothing. Take out the eleventh article, and the evil
of all the others so much overweighs the good, that we should be glad to
expunge the whole. And even the eleventh article admits only that we
may enjoy our right to the indirect colonial trade, during the present
hostilities. If peace is made this year, and war resumed the next, the
benefit of this stipulation is gone, and yet we are bound for ten years,
to pass no non-importation or non-intercourse laws, nor take any
other measures to restrain the unjust pretensions and practices of the
British. But on this you will hear from the Secretary of State. If the
treaty cannot be put into an acceptable form, then the next best thing
is to back out of the negotiation as well as we can, letting that die
away insensibly; but, in the mean time, agreeing informally, that both
parties shall act on the principles of the treaty, so as to preserve
that friendly understanding which we so sincerely desire, until the one
or the other may be disposed to yield the points which divide us. This
will leave you to follow your desire of coming home, as soon as you see
that the amendment of the treaty is desperate. The power of
continuing the negotiations will pass oyer to Mr. Pinckney, who, by
procrastinations, can let it die away, and give us time, the most
precious of all things to