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DISTRICT OF MASSACHUSETTS, TO WIT :

DISTRICT CLERK'S OFFICE.

BE it remembered, that on the twenty-eighth day of October, A. D. 1816, and in the forty-first year of the Independence of the United States of America, Thomas B. Wait and Sons, of the said district, have deposited in this office the title of a book, the right whereof they claim as proprietors, in the words following, to wit:

"State Papers and Publick Documents of the United States, from the accession of George Washington to the Presidency, exhibiting a complete view of our Foreign Relations since that time. In ten volumes. Second edition. Published under the patronage of Congress. Including Confidential Documents, now first published."

In conformity to the act of the Congress of the United States, entitled, "An act for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of Maps, Charts, and Books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies, during the times therein mentioned:" and also to an act, entitled, " An act supplementary to an act, entitled, An act for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of Maps, Charts, and Books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies during the times therein mentioned; and extending the benefits thereof to the arts of Designing, Engraving and Etching Historical, and other Prints."

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CONTENTS.

Same to same, March, 1804, relative to expiration of the treaty of

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DOCUMENTS

ACCOMPANYING THE PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE OF OCTOBER 27, 1807.

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The Captain Commandant of Fort Johnson to the Commanding Officer of His B. M. Sloop of War Driver. May 2d, 1807.

SIR,

THE President of the United States of America, having by proclamation bearing date May 23, 1807, for ever interdicted his Britannick majesty's sloop of war Driver, from entering " any port or harbour of the United States," and the said vessel having entered this port, in contempt of the said proclamation, my duty compels me to demand, that the sloop of war Driver do depart from this harbour within twenty-four hours from the date hereof. Need I add, sir, how repugnant it would be to my feelings should any blood be spilt, which must certainly be the case if this communication be not complied with. Lieutenant Wyndham of the artillery is charged with the delivery of this, and will receive your reply.

MICHAEL KALTEISEN,

Captain Commandant.

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II.

The Commanding Officer of the British Sloop of War Driver, to the Captain Commandant of Fort Johnson. May 3, 1807.

SIR,-I have received your letter, and having some doubts as to the authority by which it was written, I thought proper to satisfy myself on that head before I should reply.

By the threat it contains you appear, like your government, to have something to learn. A British subject knows too well how to respect and obey the laws of his own country, to offer intentionally an outrage to those of others, when once they are known to be such; but I have to observe, the proclamation you mention to have been issued by the President of the United States of America, in May, 1807, I know nothing of. Of that which was issued in May, 1806, I have only to say, that so far from being either creditable or becoming to the President of a country wishing to be ranked among the civilized nations of the world, it would, in the opinion of every liberal and enlarged mind, have disgraced the sanguinary pen of Robespierre, or the most miserable and petty state of Barbary. It appearing that the supposed offence is to be remedied by a repetition of the circumstances complained of, and that on those who so far from having any thing to do with it, was not even on or near the American coast at the time; and as captain Whitby's trial may probably at this moment be pending, with the concurrence of the United States, and the proclamation resting upon his being brought to justice, it ought not to have been thought of. However as my proceeding to sea comes exactly within the limits of my intention, according to the orders I am under, I shall do so, whenever the pilot shall think it proper, which orders have for their view, the advantage of the American flag, as well as the protection of the British. But I must observe, that from the difficulty I have experienced in obtaining water for the purposes I wish, I shall be obliged to have recourse to such methods as are completely in my power, and which I should not otherwise have thought of. In the mean time it is necessary to observe, that his majesty's ship under my command,

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