British. September 25. Discontinuance of the last blockade in part. 1807. March 12. Interdiction of the trade from port to port of France. June 26. Blockade of the Ems, &c. October 16. Proclamation recalling seamen. November 11. Three orders in council. Nov. 25. Six orders in council. 1808. Jan. 8. Blockade of Carthagena, &c. March 28. Act of parliament. April 11. Orders encouraging our citizens to violate the embargo. April 14. Act of parliament to prohibit the exportation of cotton wool, &c. Act of parliament making valid certain orders in council. May 4. Blockade of Copenhagen and the island of Zealand. June 23. Act of parliament regulating trade between the United States and Great Britain. October 14. Admiral Cochran's blockade of the French Leeward Islands. French. 1806. Nov. 21. Berlin decree. 1807. Dec. 17. Milan decree. 1808. April 17. Bayonne decree. To these may be added the British order in council of the 26th of April, 1809, prohibiting altogether all trade with France and Holland, and the ports of Italy comprehended under the denomination of the kingdom of Italy; the blockade of the ports of Spain from Gijon to the French territory of the 20th February, 1810, which was partially relaxed on the 14th of May, 1810; the blockade of Venice, instituted on the 27th of July, 1806, and which was declared to be still in force on the 26th of March, 1810; the blockade of the canal of Corfu of the 18th of Aug. 1810, which, in effect, was an attempt to blockade the whole Adriatic sea; together with certain other regulations, principally touching the trade on the Baltic. To the French edicts may be added the decree of Rambouillet of the 23d of March, 1810. The seizures and condemnations under the authority of the government of Naples, were principally in consequence of a special decree of the sovereign of that state. In making up the lists, reference has been had to the dates of the orders in council of Nov. 1807, and the French edicts of Berlin and Milan, chiefly because their promulgation formed a new epoch in the history of commercial spoliations. Under this division these lists will exhibit the following results. BRITISH. VESSELS. Captures, &c. prior to the orders in council of Nov. 206 307 45 Captures, &c. prior to the Berlin and Milan decrees 47. Total 558 The number of captures by the Neapolitans amounts to The statement relative to Danish captures will best explain itself. With respect to the question proposed by the resolution in obedience to which this report is made, "How far the decrees, orders, or regulations, under which the captures have been made, are abandoned or persevered in by the nation making such captures," it may be remarked, that the Berlin and Milan decrees were revoked, as far as they affected the neutral commerce of the United States, accord ing to an official declaration of the French government made at Paris on the 5th of August, 1810, to the American minister then resident there; and that this revocation in the same latitude, has been since corroborated by acts and declarations of the French government communicated to the minister of the United States who now resides at Paris. The decrees of Bayonne and of Rambouillet, as well as that of the sovereign of Naples, being special, ceased with the accomplishment of the particular object of their promulgation. On the part of Great Britain, it is officially known to the Secretary of State, that up to the period of declaring war against that power by Congress, the orders in council were rigidly enforced against American neutral trade; captures and condemnations were incessantly occurring; and with respect to any edict of a date anterior to those orders in council, it is impossible distinctly to specify whether it has been abandoned or not; for so late as the 26th March, 1810, the British secretary of state for foreign affairs officially refused to allow the American minister in London to infer that the blockade of May, 1806, had become extinct by the operation of the orders in council. On the contrary, he expressly stated that that blockade was comprehended under the more extensive restrictions of a subsequent order: Hence it may be inferred, that the orders in council of Nov. 1807, and of April, 1809, which were a more general extension of unlawful principles previously acted upon in a limited degree, although they comprehended yet did not extinguish, particular blockades or orders antecedently proclaimed; thus leaving it uncertain whether, in the event of the revocation of the orders in council themselves, any or what obnoxious edicts would or would not be insisted on or relinquished. In relation to Spain, the department of State is not in possession of information sufficient to authorize a report of captures, &c. during the present war, by that power. All which is respectfully submitted. JAMES MONROE. Department of State, July 6, 1812. MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, TO THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, JULY 1, 1812.† In compliance with the resolution of the house of representatives of the 26th of June, I transmit the information contained in the documents herewith enclosed. JAMES MADISON. From the Secretary of State to Gen. Geo. Matthews, and Col. John McKee, dated Department of State, Jan. 26, 1811. THE President of the United States having appointed you jointly and severally commissioners for carrying into effect certain provisions of an act of Congress, (a copy of which is enclosed) relative to the portion of the Floridas situated to the east of the river Perdido, you will repair to that quarter with all possible expedition, concealing from general observation the trust committed to you, with that discretion which the delicacy and importance of the undertaking require. Should you find governour Folk, or the local authority existing there, inclined to surrender in an amicable manner the possession of the remaining portion or portions of West Florida now held by him in the name of the Spanish monarchy, you are to accept, in behalf of the United States, the abdication of his, or of the other existing authority, and the jurisdiction of the country over which it extends. And should a stipulation be insisted on for the re-delivery of the country, at a future period, you may engage for such re-delivery to the lawful sovereign. The debts clearly due from the Spanish government to the people of the territory surrendered may, if insisted on, be assumed within reasonable limits, and under +[This Message was confidential; and the injunction of se crecy not removed till July 6.] * VOL. V. 39 specified descriptions, to be settled hereafter as a claim against Spain in an adjustment of our affairs with her. You may also guarantee, in the name of the United States, the confirmation of all such titles to land as are clearly sanctioned by Spanish laws: and Spanish civil functionaries, where no special reasons may require changes, are to be permitted to remain in office with the assurance of a continuation of the prevailing laws, with such alterations only as may be necessarily required in the new situation of the country. If it should be required, and be found necessary, you may agree to advance as above a reasonable sum for the transportation of the Spanish troops. These directions are adapted to one of the contingencies specified in the act of Congress, namely, the amicable surrender of the possession of the territory by the local ruling authority. But should the arrangement, contemplated by the statute, not be made, and should there be room to entertain a suspicion of an existing design in any foreign power to occupy the country in question, you are to keep yourselves on the alert, and on the first undoubted manifestation of the approach of a force for that purpose, you will exercise with promptness and vigour the powers with which you are invested by the President to preoccupy by force the territory, to the entire exclusion of any armament that may be advancing to take the possession of it. In this event, you will exercise a sound discretion in applying the powers given with respect to debts, titles to land, civil officers, and the continuation of the Spanish laws; taking care to commit the government on no point further than may be necessary. And should any Spanish military force remain within the country, after the occupancy by the troops of the United States, you may, in such case, aid in their removal from the same. The universal toleration which the laws of the United States assure to every religious persuasion, will not escape you as an argument for quieting the minds of uninformed individuals, who may entertain fears on that head. The conduct you are to pursue in regard to East Flori |