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The John Gray Blount Papers 357
information you desired, was to apply to the Secretary of State,
whose business it was to be informed on such points. I therefore
addressed a letter to him, and stated the facts without mention-ing
any names44 and requested his advice & opinion on the subject
& the best mode of seeking redress. His answer I enclose you,
from it I suppose you will have to wait to have that Claim ad-justed
by Commissioners to be appointed, under a treaty, which
Messrs
. Elsworth, Davie & Murray are to make with the French
republic— now by Buonaparte's new Constitution become one of
the most despotic Governments in Europe.
We have indirectly heard that the Envoys sailed in Barry for
a port in franee & no doubt they have been in paris for some time — but no dispatches have been recd
. from them. I think they will
be well received in France & that they will be able to adjust the
differences existing between the two Countries —From Buona-parte's
letter to George the 3d
. he seems to be inclined to peace,
[2] and its probable, that the answer he recd
. from the British
Minister Lord Grenville, will induce him to make peace with
Austria & settle in an Amicable manner the dispatches with us
—
As to Austria he can easily bribe the Emperor to a peace by giving
up the Electorate of Bavaria, in lieu of Flanders, as he formerly
did part of Venice, for his Italian Dominions — and if those two
powers agree on this subject no other power in Europe can say
nay. If thus Should be the Case, England will be left alone in
the War, and France will be enabled to pay attention to her
Marine, which her immense land armies, which she has been
obliged to keep up to defend herself, against the attacks of the
combined powers, has occasioned her to neglect45—
You know that the Captains in our navy were appointed for
their fighting & not for their writing qualities—perhaps, if they
had precise instructions as to the letters they should write, they
might then be as to the engagement as mal apropos, as Trux-tun's46
— I should rather see a bungling of a well fought Battle,
than an elegant description of a Captains running away—I
would always prefer the New-England Captain, who did not un-
** Timothy Pickering was ending his term as Secretary of State, as he was discharged
from the office on May 10, 1800, by Adams for disloyalty to the President. An arch-
Federalist, he was an old Blount enemy, Masterson, William Blount, passim. Pickering un-doubtedly
suspected who Spaight's "friend in North Carolina" was, although Spaight wrote
"without mentioning any names."
45 Spaight, like the Blounts, was a Jeffersonian Republican, and although he deplored
the new French "despotic" government, he was anti-English, if not pro-French.
46 Thomas Truxton (1755-1822), the American naval hero, had on February 1-2 fought
his famous engagement with the French warship "La Vengeance" in which he was vic-torious
though the French ship escaped. He was a voluminous but apparently not a
felicitous writer. Dictionary of American Biography, XIX, 21-22; Allen, Naval War, 163-166,
175-177.
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| Title | Page 407 |
| Full Text | The John Gray Blount Papers 357 information you desired, was to apply to the Secretary of State, whose business it was to be informed on such points. I therefore addressed a letter to him, and stated the facts without mention-ing any names44 and requested his advice & opinion on the subject & the best mode of seeking redress. His answer I enclose you, from it I suppose you will have to wait to have that Claim ad-justed by Commissioners to be appointed, under a treaty, which Messrs . Elsworth, Davie & Murray are to make with the French republic— now by Buonaparte's new Constitution become one of the most despotic Governments in Europe. We have indirectly heard that the Envoys sailed in Barry for a port in franee & no doubt they have been in paris for some time — but no dispatches have been recd . from them. I think they will be well received in France & that they will be able to adjust the differences existing between the two Countries —From Buona-parte's letter to George the 3d . he seems to be inclined to peace, [2] and its probable, that the answer he recd . from the British Minister Lord Grenville, will induce him to make peace with Austria & settle in an Amicable manner the dispatches with us — As to Austria he can easily bribe the Emperor to a peace by giving up the Electorate of Bavaria, in lieu of Flanders, as he formerly did part of Venice, for his Italian Dominions — and if those two powers agree on this subject no other power in Europe can say nay. If thus Should be the Case, England will be left alone in the War, and France will be enabled to pay attention to her Marine, which her immense land armies, which she has been obliged to keep up to defend herself, against the attacks of the combined powers, has occasioned her to neglect45— You know that the Captains in our navy were appointed for their fighting & not for their writing qualities—perhaps, if they had precise instructions as to the letters they should write, they might then be as to the engagement as mal apropos, as Trux-tun's46 — I should rather see a bungling of a well fought Battle, than an elegant description of a Captains running away—I would always prefer the New-England Captain, who did not un- ** Timothy Pickering was ending his term as Secretary of State, as he was discharged from the office on May 10, 1800, by Adams for disloyalty to the President. An arch- Federalist, he was an old Blount enemy, Masterson, William Blount, passim. Pickering un-doubtedly suspected who Spaight's "friend in North Carolina" was, although Spaight wrote "without mentioning any names." 45 Spaight, like the Blounts, was a Jeffersonian Republican, and although he deplored the new French "despotic" government, he was anti-English, if not pro-French. 46 Thomas Truxton (1755-1822), the American naval hero, had on February 1-2 fought his famous engagement with the French warship "La Vengeance" in which he was vic-torious though the French ship escaped. He was a voluminous but apparently not a felicitous writer. Dictionary of American Biography, XIX, 21-22; Allen, Naval War, 163-166, 175-177. |
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