As soon as it became known that Genet’s privateers, manned by seamen enlisted in our ports, were preying on British commerce, and that the French man-of-war L’Ambuscade had taken an English vessel, The Grange, within the capes of the Delaware, Hammond filed a memorial in regard to these incidents.  In so doing he was of course quite right, and the government responded immediately, and proceeded in good faith to make every effort to repair these breaches of neutrality, and to redress the wrongs suffered by Great Britain.  Hammond, however, instead of doing all in his power, not merely to gain his own ends, but to make it easy for our government to satisfy him, assumed at once a disagreeable tone with a strong flavor of bullying, which was not calculated to conciliate the statesmen with whom he was dealing.  It was a small matter enough, but unfortunately it was an indication of what was to come.

On November 6, 1793, a British order in council was passed, but not immediately published, directing the seizure of all vessels carrying the produce of the French islands, or loaded with provisions for the use of the French colonies.  The object of the order was to destroy all neutral trade, and it was aimed particularly at the commerce of the United States.  The moment selected for its adoption was when the troubles with Genet had culminated, when we were on the point of getting rid of that very objectionable person, and when we had proved that we meant to maintain an honest and a real neutrality.  It was as well calculated as any move could have been to drive us back into the arms of France, yet the manner of executing the order was far worse than the order itself.  Our merchantmen and traders had been quick to take advantage of the opening of the French ports, and they had gone in swarms to the French islands.  Now, without a word of warning, their vessels were seized by the cruisers of a nation with which we were supposed to be at peace.  Every petty governor of an English island sat as a judge in admiralty.  Many of them were corrupt, all were unfit for the duty, and our vessels were condemned and pillaged.  The crews were made prisoners, and in many cases thrown into loathsome and unhealthy places of confinement, while the ships were left to rot in the harbors.  The tale of the outrages and miseries thus inflicted on citizens of the United States without any warning, and by a nation considered to be at peace with us, fills an American with shame and anger even to-day.  If our people remonstrated, they were told that England meant to have no neutrals, and that six of their frigates could blockade our coast.  A course of kind treatment would have made us the friends of Great Britain, but the experiment was not even tried.  The truth was that we were weak, and this was not only a misfortune but apparently an unpardonable sin.  England could not conquer us, but she could harry our coasts, and let loose her Indians on our borders; and we had no