pain, a number of American seamen were impressed in
British ports. The arrests, being within British waters, were not an
infringement of American jurisdiction, and the only question then
raised was that of proving nationality. Gouverneur Morris, who
afterwards so violently advocated the British claim to impress their
own subjects in American vessels on the seas,[139] was at this time in
London on a special semi-official errand, committed to him by
President Washington. There being then no American resident minister,
he took upon himself to mention to the Foreign Secretary "the conduct
of their pressgangs, who had taken many American seamen, and had
entered American vessels with as little ceremony as those belonging to
Britain;" adding, with a caustic humor characteristic of him, "I
believe, my Lord, this is the only instance in which we are not
treated as aliens." He suggested certificates of citizenship, to be
issued by the Admiralty Courts of the United States. This was
approved by the Secretary and by Pitt; the latter, however, remarking
that the plan was "very liable to abuse, notwithstanding every
precaution."[140] Various expedients for attaching to the individual
documentary evidence of birth were from time to time tried; but the
heedless and inconsequent character and habits of the sailor of that
day, and the facility with which the papers, once issued, could be
transferred or bought, made any such resource futile. The United
States was thus driven to the position enunciated in 1792 by
Jefferson, then Secretary of State: "The simplest rule will be that
the vessel being American shall be evidence that the seamen on board
of her are such."[141] If this demand comprehended, as it apparently
did, cases of arrest in British harbors, it was clearly extravagant,
resembling the idea proceeding from the same source that the Gulf
Stream should mark the neutral line of United States waters; but for
the open sea it formulated the doctrine on which the country finally
and firmly took its stand.

[Illustration: THOMAS JEFFERSON
From the painting by Gilbert Stuart, in Bowdoin College,
Brunswick, Me.]

The history of the practice of impressment, and of the consequent
negotiations, from the time of Jefferson's first proposition down to
the mission of Monroe and Pinkney, had shown conclusively that no
other basis of settlement than that of the flag vouching for the crew
could adequately meet and remove the evil of