opinion be communicated to the Governor of the North-western Territory, for his future conduct.

[The following are the extracts alluded to above.]

Extracts from the Journal of the Proceedings in the Executive Department of govern ment in the Territory of the United States, north-west of the Ohio, reported to the President of the United States, by Winthrop Sargent, Secretary.

April 25, 1790.-The governor was pleased to issue the following order, viz.: All the inhabitants are forbidden to entertain any strangers, white, Indian, or negro, let them come from whatsoever place, without acquainting the officer commanding the troops, of the names of such strangers, and the place from whence they came. And every stranger arriving at Cahokia, is ordered to present himself to said officer within two hours after his arrival, on pain of imprisonment.

June 6, 1790.-The Governor at Kaskaskias, was pleased to make the following proclamation:

The practice of selling spirituous liquors to the Indians in the villages being. attended with very ill consequences, it is expressly prohibited; and all and every person transgressing this order, will be liable to be tried and fined at the pleasure of the court of quarter sessions of the peace. And as it may be necessary that spirituous liquors should be vended in small quantities to white travellers and others; to prevent all danger of imposition and extortion, no person whosoever shall sell in any of the villages or their environs, spirituous liquors to any white person, traveller, or inhabitant, in any quantity less than one quart at one time, without obtaining a license from the governor, which license shall not be granted but upon the recommendation of the Justices of the Peace in their court of quarter sessions, and on his or their giving security in the sum of two hundred dollars, to abide by all the regulations made by law respecting retailers of spirituous liquors, and the orders of the said court of quarter sessions in the premises in the meantime. And for every offence, he or they shall be liable to prosecution by indictment and fine at the pleasure of the court, and to the forfeiture of their bonds.

Nor shall any person undertake or exercise the calling or occupation of an Innholder or Tavern-keeper, without obtaining in the same manner, and under the same restrictions and penalties, a license for so doing.

PROCLAMATION.—Whereas, his Excellency, Arthur St. Clair, Esq., governor and commander-in-chief of this Territory, did by proclamation given at the Kaskaskias the 10th instant, strictly prohibit all persons, not citizens of the United States or the Territory, from hunting or killing any kind of game within the same, either for the flesh or skins, upon penalty not only of forfeiting the flesh and skins which they might acquire, but also prosecution and punishment as trespassers.

And it appearing to me to be particularly essential to the interests of this country, that an observance of the order and prohibition should be obtained, I do hereby call upon all civil and military officers, who now are, or hereafter may

be appointed, to use their best endeavors for detecting and bringing to justice every person who shall violate the same. And, whereas, it appears to me to be expedient that government should receive information of all characters, foreigners and others, coming into the Territory, I do hereby order and direct that any person arriving at this, or any of the military posts of the United States within the same, should present himself to the commanding officer of the troops in two hours next after his arrival; and the inhabitants are hereby forbidden to entertain such characters, whether whites, Indians, or negroes, without immediate information thereof to the said commanding officers.

Given under my hand and seal at the town of Post Vincennes, and county of Knox, this 28th day of June, A. D. 1790, and of the Independence of the United States, the fourteenth.

June 29, 1790.-It is to be considered as a standing order hereafter, that no person enrolled in the militia shall leave the village or stations, for a longer absence than twenty-four hours, without informing him (Mayor Hamtramck) or the commanding officer for the time being, of their intention. And all intelligence or discoveries of Indians, to be immediately reported.

XVII.-Report on certain letters from the President to Mr. Gouverneur Morris, and from Mr. Morris to the President, relative to our difficulties with England—1790.

December 15, 1790.

The Secretary of State having had under consideration the two letters of October 13th, 1789, from the President of the United States, to Mr. Gouverneur Morris; and those of Mr. Morris to the President, of January 22d, April 7th, 13th, May 1st, 29th, July 3d, August 16th, and September 18th, referred to him by the President, makes the following report thereon:

The President's letter of January 22d, authorized Mr. Morris to enter into conference with the British ministers in order to discover their sentiments on the following subjects:

1. Their retention of the western posts contrary to the treaty

of peace.

2. Indemnification for the negroes carried off against the stipulations of the same treaty.

3. A treaty for the regulation of the commerce between the two countries.

4. The exchange of a minister.

The letters of Mr. Morris before mentioned, state the communications, oral and written, which have passed between him and the ministers; and from these the Secretary of State draws the following inferences:

1. That the British court is decided not to surrender the posts in any event; and that they will urge as a pretext that though our courts of justice are now open to British subjects, they were so long shut after the peace as to have defeated irremedially the recovery of debts in many cases. They suggest, indeed, the idea of an indemnification on our part. But probably were we disposed to admit their right to indemnification, they would take care to set it so high as to insure a disagreement.

2. That as to indemnification for the negroes, their measures for concealing them were in the first instance so efficacious, as to reduce our demand for them, so far as we can support it by direct proof, to be very small indeed. Its smallness seems to have kept it out of discussion. Were other difficulties removed, they would probably make none of this article.

3. That they equivocate on every proposal of a treaty of commerce, and authorize in their communications with Mr. Morris the same conclusions which have been drawn from those they had had from time to time with Mr. Adams, and those through Mayor Beckwith; to wit, that they do not mean to submit their present advantages in commerce to the risk which might attend a discussion of them, whereon some reciprocity could not fail to be demanded. Unless, indeed, we would agree to make it a treaty of alliance as well as commerce, so as to undermine our obligations with France. This method of stripping that rival nation of its alliances, they tried successfully with Holland, endeavored at it with Spain, and have plainly and repeatedly suggested to us. For this they would probably relax some of the rigors they exercise against our commerce.

4. That as to a minister, their Secretary for foreign affairs is

disposed to exchange one, but meets with opposition in his cabinet, so as to render the issue uncertain.

From the whole of which, the Secretary of State is of opinion that Mr. Morris' letters remove any doubts which might have been entertained as to the intentions and dispositions of the British cabinet.

That it would be dishonorable to the United States, useless and even injurious, to renew the propositions for a treaty of commerce, or for the exchange of a minister; and that these subjects should now remain dormant, till they shall be brought forward earnestly by them.

That the demands of the posts, and of indemnification for the negroes, should not be again made till we are in readiness to do ourselves the justice which may be refused.

That Mr. Morris should be informed that he has fulfilled the object of his agency to the satisfaction of the President, inasmuch as he has enabled him to judge of the real views of the British cabinet, and that it is his pleasure that the matters committed to him be left in the situation in which the letter shall find them.

That a proper compensation be given to Mr. Morris for his services herein, which having been begun on the 22d of January, and ended the 18th of September, comprehend a space of near eight months; that the allowance to an agent may be properly fixed anywhere between the half and the whole of what is allowed to a Chargé d'affaires; which, according to the establishment of the United States at the time of this appointment, was at the rate of $3,000 a year; consequently, that such a sum of between one and two thousand dollars be allowed him as the President shall deem proper, on a view of the interference which this agency may have had with Mr. Morris' private pursuits in Europe.

XVIII.-Report relative to the Mediterranean trade.

December 28, 1790.

The Secretary of State, to whom was referred by the House of Representatives so much of the speech of the President of

the United States to both Houses of Congress, as relates to the trade of the United States in the Mediterranean, with instructions to report thereupon to the House, has had the same under consideration, and thereupon makes the following report:

It

The loss of the records of the custom houses in several of the States, which took place about the commencement and during the course of the late war, has deprived us of official information, as to the extent of our commerce and navigation in the Mediterranean sea. According to the best which may be obtained from other sources meriting respect, it may be concluded that about one-sixth of the wheat and flour exported from the United States, and about one-fourth in value of their dried and pickled fish, and some rice, found their best markets in the Mediterranean ports; that these articles constituted the principal part of what we sent into that sea; that that commerce loaded outwards from eighty to one hundred ships, annually, of twenty thousand tons, navigated by about twelve hundred seamen. was abandoned early in the war. And after the peace which ensued, it was obvious to our merchants, that their adventures into that sea would be exposed to the depredations of the piratical States on the coast of Barbary. Congress, too, was very early attentive to this danger, and by a commission of the 12th of May, 1784, authorized certain persons, named ministers plenipotentiary for that purpose, to conclude treaties of peace and amity with the Barbary powers. And it being afterwards found more expedient that the negotiations should be carried on at the residences of those powers, Congress, by a farther commission, bearing date the 11th of March, 1785, empowered the same ministers plenipotentiary to appoint agents to repair to the said powers at their proper residences, and there to negotiate such treaties. The whole expenses were limited to eighty thousand dollars. Agents were accordingly sent to Morocco and Algiers. Before the appointment of the one to Morocco, it was known that a cruiser of that State had taken a vessel of the United States; and that the emperor, on the friendly interposition of the court of Madrid, had liberated the crew, and made restitution