in the Federal councils with respect to them. A little time will display his errand.

General Greene has referred to Congress a case which admonishes them of the necessity of a code for captures and recaptures on land as well as on water. A detachment of the Continental forces having retaken a number of horses which had been taken by the enemy from the citizens of South Carolina, the Executive authority of the State demanded a restitution, on the general principle that the original owners were entitled to all recaptured property. This demand was laid before a Council of Officers, which decided against its validity. The General has submitted the case to Congress for their final judgment. It appears, from a review of the proceedings of Congress, that a very defective provision only has been made for captures, and no provision at all for recaptures, on land. The opinion of the Council of War is conformable to the practice of the army in like cases, and to the rules observed by other nations. The demand of restitution in favor of the original proprietors is warranted by the principles of equity, and the spirit of the ordinance relating to captures on water. All that Congress can do in the case will be, to remit to the original owners the prize which has been adjudged to the United States. But some general provision for future cases will be necessary, in which it will be not easy to define the species of property of which restitution may be claimed. To extend the rule to every species of property would open a door to innumerable disputes and abuses. I observed, on this occasion, what had escaped me before, that if

Congress should establish a court for captures on land, such cases can come before it on appeal.

Letters from Franklin and Jay, dated late in September, show that a commission has been issued to Oswald, to treat with Commissioners of the Thirteen United States, by which some 275* obstacles were surmounted; and that Spain meditates an immoderate defalcation of our Western territory. All this intelligence, however, has come to us in obscure fragments. I commit it to you as to a member of Congress on whom secrecy is enjoined, and in this cypher as certainly unknown to all but official persons.

The enclosed Gazette will inform you of the good fortune of Captain Barry, of the Alliance frigate. It appears, from various letters from Europe, that the Jamaica fleet has suffered severely from privateers and the storm.

The Court at Trenton will finish their business this week, it is said. The Pennsylvanians allege that the cause is going hollow in their favor.

I have no letter from you by this post, which I impute to your visit to Williamsburg."

100

DEAR SIR,

TO EDMUND RANDOLPH.

Philadelphia, December 24, 1782.

Since my last, the Danae, a French frigate, has arrived from France, with money for the French army, and public despatches. A snow-storm drove her on shore in this Bay, where she was in danger

The key to this cypher has not been discovered.

The

of following the fate of one of the last frigates from France. The accident, as it turned out, only cost her all her masts. The despatches for Congress are from Mr. Franklin, Mr. Jay, and the Marquis de la Fayette, and come down to the fourteenth of October. They advise that the first commission issued to Mr. Oswald empowered him to treat with certain colonies, &c., which, being objected to, another issued, explicitly empowering him to treat with commissioners from the thirteen United States. latter, of which a copy was enclosed, and which will be transmitted to the Executives, is grounded on the Act of Parliament, but is to continue in force no longer than July, 1783. It is, no doubt, on the whole, a source of very soothing expectations; but if we view, on the one side, the instability and insidiousness of the British Cabinet, and, on the other, the complication of interests and pretensions among the Allies, prudence calls upon us to temper our expectations with much distrust.

Mr. Adams concluded his Treaty of Amity and Commerce on the seventh of October, and had in hand one and a half million of florins out of the five millions, for which subscriptions had been opened. As this, however, was the sum subscribed in June last, it is no certain evidence of any other progress than that of the payments.

There are accounts, but neither official nor certain, that Madras had been taken by the combined arms of France and Hyder Ally. Three-fifths of Constantinople had been reduced to ashes by incendiaries, inspired with the desperate purpose by the public distresses, and a blind revenge against the Vizier,

who was regarded as the cause of them. The havoc suffered by the French and Spaniards in the attempt to storm Gibraltar, before its relief, appears to have been dreadful indeed. The loss on the English side, which amounted to about five hundred, is a proof that the effort was a bloody one.

Mr. Livingston has been prevailed on to hold his office for this winter. The election of a successor was within a moment of being made, when the practicability of retaining his services was discovered. The gentlemen in nomination were General Schuyler and Mr. Clymer. Mr. Read had been nominated, but withdrawn.

The deputation for Rhode Island is still here. A report that Maryland is receding, with respect to the object of their mission-and information, conveyed in a letter from Mr. Pendleton to me, that Virginia, on hearing of the unanimous refusal of Rhode Island, had repealed her accession, by disarming them of their most pointed argument-had produced great hesitation. They wait at present only for intelligence with respect to Maryland and Virginia, which was expected by yesterday's post. But the post is not even yet come. The inferences which Rhode Island will probably draw from Oswald's commission are another source of apprehension. If justice and honor, however, preside in her councils, she will feel as much the obligation of providing for the discharge of past engagements as for those which may be necessary in future. Our debts, at this moment, liquidated and unliquidated, cannot, I conceive, be less than forty millions of dollars. The interest, therefore, alone, is a very serious object; and I am

persuaded that, unless it be raised by some plan which will operate at the same time, and in due proportion, throughout the Union, neither its amount nor punctuality can be confided in. Besides the other obvious causes, a jealousy is already perceived among some States that others will eventually elude their share of the burden. The interest on the sum borrowed by Mr. Adams is now running, and soon will, if a part hath not already, become due; nor is there any fund in contemplation for its payment but that of the impost.

The French army are embarking for the West Indies. Count Rochambeau says, that, in case the war should be renewed against us, they will instantly return. Great efforts will, I fancy, be made on that theatre, unless arrested by peace. I need not give other intimations of secrecy on these points than the nature of them, and the use of the cypher.

TO EDMUND RANDOLPH.

Philadelphia, December 30, 1782.

DEAR SIR,

Your favor of the thirteenth instant arrived a few minutes after I sealed my last. That of the twentieth came duly to hand yesterday. The sensations excited in Mr. Jones and myself by the repeal of the law in favor of the impost were such as you anticipated. Previously to the receipt of your information, a letter from Mr. Pendleton to me had suspended the progress of the Deputies to Rhode Island.