SIR, (5.)-The Secretary of State to Mr. Correa de Serra. Department of State, Washington, 20th July, 1820. I HAVE had the honour of receiving your Notes of the 4th and 8th ultimo. The Exequaturs for Mr. Pereira, as Consul-General of Portugal, and of Mr. Hutton, as Consul at New Orleans, and the other Ports of The United States in the Gulf of Mexico, have been made, and transmitted to you. The Acts of Congress to which you refer, in the first of these Notes, may be justly considered as affording the most decisive proofs of the determination, both of the Legislature and the Executive, to discharge, with the utmost fidelity, all their duties towards friendly Nations, and particularly towards that whose Representative you are. In remarking that the section of the Statute for the further punishment of Piracy, which brings the landing and committing acts of robbery on a Foreign shore, within the definition and penalties of that crime, was obviously suggested by a case of that description, which had occurred in a Portuguese Island. I take satisfaction in the assurance that your Government will perceive in that provision, a proof of the earnestness with which The United States cherish the most friendly dispositions towards your Country. It will give me pleasure to receive any further Communication, verbal or written, from you, which may contribute towards the same effect; and I am authorized to assure you, that, upon the information contained in your Note of the 8th instant, such measures have been, and will continue to be taken, under the direction of the President, as are within the competency of the Executive, and may serve to maintain inviolate the Laws of The United States, applicable to the case. I avail myself, &c. The Chev. Joseph Correa de Serra. JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. (6.)—Mr. Correa de Serra to the Secretary of State.—(Translation.) SIR, Washington, 26th August, 1820. In consequence of the wish you expressed in our last interview, I have the honour of transmitting to you the Names of the Officers of the Navy of The United States, who, in October, 1818, embarked and served on board the armed Schooner General Artigas, Captain Ford, under the so called Artigan Flag, and cruized for many months on the Coast of Brazil, capturing several Portuguese Ships, amongst others, the Sociedade Feliz, which was brought to Baltimore. -Their names are, Lieutenants Peleg and Dunham, of Rhode Island; Midshipmen Augustus Swartout, of New York; Benjamin S. Grimke, of South Carolina. The griefs against the particular Judges, who, I believe, have disgraced the Commission they have from The United States, shall be laid before you, as soon as I am returned to Philadelphia, and looked into my Papers. I am perfectly sure that a candid and friendly examination of this unpleasant business cannot fail of bringing a mutual accord, such as both our Governments wish; and therefore, according to what I asked in my Notes from Philadelphia, and your offer in that of the 20th of last month, which I have received on my arrival here, I beg of you to fix the day and time most convenient to you, in which I may have the honour of meeting you, in order to put an end, as I hope, to all these causes of discontentment and discord, the work of unprincipled Men, and so utterly opposite to the harmony and good understanding, which is equally the intention and the interests of our two Governments to maintain and cultivate. Accept the renewed assurances, &c. The Hon. J. Q. Adams. JOSEPH CORREA DE SERRA. SIR, (7.)-The Secretary of State to Mr. Correa de Serra. Department of State, Washington, 30th Sept. 1820. THE proposal contained in your Note of the 16th of July last, has been considered by the President of The United States, with all the deliberation due to the friendly relations subsisting between The United States and Portugal, and with the disposition to manifest the undeviating principle of justice by which this Government is animated in its intercourse with all Foreign Governments, and particularly with yours. I am directed by him to inform you, that the appointment of Commissioners, to confer and agree with the Ministers of His Most Faithful Majesty upon the subject to which your Letter relates, would not be consistent either with the Constitution of The United States, nor with any practice usual among civilized Nations. same. The Judicial Power of The United States is, by their Constitution, vested in their Supreme Court, and in Tribunals subordinate to the The Judges of these Tribunals are amenable to the Country by Impeachment; and if any Portuguese Subject has suffered wrong by the act of any Citizen of The United States, within their jurisdiction, it is before those Tribunals that the remedy is to be sought and obtained. For any acts of Citizens of The United States, committed out of their jurisdiction, and beyond their controul, the Government of The United States is not responsible. To the War in South America, to which Portugal has, for several years, been a Party, the duty and the policy of The United States have been to observe a perfect and impartial Neutrality. The Government of The United States has neither countenanced nor permitted any violation of that Neutrality by their Citizens. They have, by various and successive Acts of Legislation, manifested their constant earnestness to fulfil their duties towards all the Parties to that War; they have repressed every intended violation of them, which has been brought before their Courts, and substantiated by testimony conformable to principles recognized by all Tribunals of similar jurisdiction. But I am instructed to request that you would furnish me with all the Documents upon which the complaints in your Notes of the 16th of July, and 26th of August, are founded, as well relating to the Vessels mentioned in the former, as to the Naval Officers in the Service of The United States, and to the Judges, whom, in the latter, you accuse of having, in your belief, disgraced the Commissions which they bear. And I am further commanded to assure you, that if those Documents shall be found to contain evidence, upon which any Officer, Civil or Military, of The United States, or any of their Citizens, can be called to answer for his conduct, as injurious to any Subject of Portugal, every measure shall be taken, to which the Executive is competent, to secure full justice and satisfaction to your Sovereign and his Nation. pray you to accept, &c. I The Chev. Joseph Correa de Serra. JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. (8.)-Mr. Correa de Serra to the Secretary of State.-(Translation,) New York, 9th November, 1820. SIR, I HAVE received, in due time, your Official Letter of the 30th September last, and though I found that there was much to reply on my side, I resolved, after mature consideration, to refer it to His Majesty's Ministers of State, who, no doubt, will give a convenient answer. Being now on the point of leaving this Country, I thought it proper to inform you of this step, both out of regard to this Government, taking in this manner a respectful notice of your Communication, and in order that, out of my silence, no belief may arise of any tacit acquiescence in the reasons that you exposed in it. Accept, &c. The Hon. J. Q. Adams. JOSEPH CORREA DE SERRA. (9.)-The Chev. Amado Grehon to the Secretary of State.-(Translation.) SIR, Philadelphia, 4th December, 1820. It falls to my duty to present to the Government of The United States, the inclosed Abstract of a new Case of Piracy, which I have lately received from my Court; and to request of you to subjoin it (that it may appear) to the List of others which has been presented to this Government by the Chevalier Correa, Minister Plenipotentiary of His Most Faithful Majesty. I embrace this occasion, &c. The Hon. J. Q. Adams. JOSEPH AMADO GREHON. (Inclosure.)-Abstract from the Proces Verbal, &c.-(Translation.) Philadelphia, 4th December, 1820. On the 5th of March, 1820, to the North of Cape St. Augustine, Latitude 7 1-2 degrees South, the Brigantine Packet of His Most Faithful Majesty, named The Infant D. Sebastiano, was attacked and (10.)-The Chev. Amado Grehon to the Secretary of State.-(Translation.) I HAVE the honour of again transmitting to you an authentic Copy I expect the honour of your answer to this Note, and, also, to the former which I addressed to you, on the 4th instant, that I may be enabled to give an account to my Court. I am, &c. The Hon. J. Q. Adams. JOSEPH AMADO GREHON. (Inclosure.)-TABLE of the general Values claimed on 12 joint Claims, from No. 52 to 63, (which are all that, from the 14th of December, 1819, to the present time, have been legalized by the respective Claimants,) with a Classification of the Ships which have been taken and robbed by Pirates, and extracted from the particular Tables of each Ship.-(Translation.) Names of Ships. Names of Port of Depar- Value of Value of Value of Agio of ture & Desti- to Lisbon -4,000r000 ditto Lord Welling-Alex. Jos. Rodriguez- Ditto Monte Alegre Joaq.Jos.Gon- From Bahia to Lisbon - Ditto ditto John Borges Lisbon to MaPamplona ranham -Th.deVa.Nova Bombay Mares to 21,977r777 6,026r530 47,583r723 887r333 1,337r351 80,772r119 2,959:405 Office of the General Accountant of the Royal Junta of Commerce, Agriculture, Manufactures, and Navigation, 27th July, 1820. The Accountant-General, FRANCISCO MORATO ROMA. (11.)-The Chev. Amado Grehon to the Secretary of State.-(Translation.) SIR, Washington, 1st April, 1822. I AM about to repeat, in writing, all that I had the honour to communicate to you in the interview of Saturday last, as well in compliance with your request, as on account of its being in conformity with the Orders of my Government, of which Verissimo Antonio Ferreira da Costa, attached to the Legation, was the bearer; and by which I am empowered to notify and shew to the Government of The United States, and to the Nation, what follows: That the Portuguese Government has resolved to recognize The United States as its first Ally, by a Treaty which it is desirous of concluding forthwith, for the purpose of giving every possible impulse to reciprocal commerce, and to the industry of the two Nations, and to guard the National Independence, which constitutes the most sacred of all rights, against the direct or indirect attacks of Powers unfriendly to the Constitution freely chosen by the People: but, as a fundamental principle of the said Treaty, there should be a preliminary condition that the Government of The United States accede to the proposition made by the Chevalier Correa de Serra, Ex-minister Plenipotentiary of Portugal, in his Note of the 16th July, 1820, of having recourse to Commissaries chosen by both Governments, for the purpose of arranging the Indemnities justly due to Portuguese Citizens, for the damages which they have sustained by reason of Piracies, supported by the capital and the means of Citizens of The United States: an essential condition, which, in this way, repairing the past, secures also the future. That the Portuguese States, in the four Quarters of the World, can offer to The United States the most important advantages of Commerce; the more so, because the relations which the Portuguese Government is disposed to establish with that of The United States, are founded in a perfect union against the common Enemies of their industry and of their independence. But, if all efforts on the part of the Portuguese Government should be fruitless, towards obtaining from that of The United States a just and reasonable Indemnity, which England does not hesitate to make in analogous cases of unjust Captures, the Portuguese Government is fully determined to resort to the right of reprisals, and to adopt proper measures to indemnify itself for the losses which have been occasioned to their commerce by the acts complained of, as it has been manifestly made to appear, in the face of the World, that unworthy Citizens of The United States have been Parties in this perfidious practice; and it is very certain that the Portuguese Government has it in its power to exercise reprisals against The United States, by granting to their rival Powers advantages in commerce, in cases in which it is disposed to give The United States the preference, if, |