That there has been no attempt in the government to violate our
treaty with that country, to weaken our engagements therewith, or
to withhold any friendship we could render, consistent with the
neutrality we had adopted.

"That peace has been our primary object; but, so far has it been
from inducing us to acquiesce silently in the capturing of our
vessels, impressing our seamen, or in the misconduct of the naval
or other officers of the British government, that no instance can
be produced of authenticated facts having passed unnoticed, and,
where occasion required it, without strong remonstrances.

"That this government, seeing no propriety in the measure, nor
conceiving itself to be under any obligation to communicate to the
ministers of the French republic all the unpleasant details of what
had passed between it and the British minister here, or with the
minister of foreign affairs at the court of London on these
accounts, conscious of its fair dealing toward all the belligerent
powers, and wrapped up in its own integrity, little expected, under
the circumstances which have been enumerated, the upbraidings it
has met with; notwithstanding, it now is, as it always has been,
the earnest wish of the government to be on the best and most
friendly footing with the republic of France; and we have no doubt,
after giving this candid exposition of facts, that the Directory
will revoke the orders under which our trade is suffering, and will
pay the damages it has sustained thereby."

This allusion to depredations upon American commerce by French cruisers,
hinted at a state of things which the United States government could not
long endure in silence. According to a report made by the secretary of
state toward the close of the session, in which he made a full exhibit
of the wrongs inflicted by the French on American commerce, it appears
that enormous depredations had been committed in the West Indies. All
vessels having contraband articles on board, no matter whither bound,
were decreed to be good prizes; and the cargoes of neutral vessels bound
to or from British ports, or even to Dutch or French settlements in the
possession of the British, or cleared out for the West Indies generally,
were seized and confiscated. The crews of American vessels captured were
generally treated with indignity, and frequently with cr