It being provided by the Seventeenth Article of the Treaty of Amity and Commerce, now subsisting between the United States of America and the French Republic, “That no shelter or refuge shall be given in the ports of either of said nations to such as shall have made prize of the subjects, people or property of either of the parties; but if such shall come in, being forced by stress of weather, or the dangers of the sea, all proper measures shall be vigorously used, that they go out and retire from thence as soon as possible."1 And the Secretary of State for the Government of the said United States, having by his letter of the 10th of October last, informed me that “M.  Fauchet, the Minister of the French Republic, near the United States, apprehends from circumstances which have been experienced that unless prompt and decisive measures are adopted in the several ports in regard to vessels hostile to the French Nation, and bringing in French prizes, the branch before recited, of the Treaty, will become null:”  And the said Secretary having requested that measures may be taken to preserve that branch of the Treaty inviolate, by Vessels hostile to the French Nation receiving comfort in the out-ports of the Commonwealth: 

I have therefore, in compliance, with the request of the Government of the United States, thought fit to issue this Proclamation, requiring all Officers, Civil and Military, within this Commonwealth, to take all legal and proper measures, and to use and practice all diligence, for the effectual support of the above recited Article in the said Treaty.

And I do hereby enjoin it upon them to prevent any breach thereof, if such should be attempted in any, and especially those ports distant from the Capital, and immediately to give information of the same, with their proceedings thereon, to the Governor and Commander in Chief of the Commonwealth, that such further measures may be taken, if any shall be necessary, as may be suited to the faith of Nations, and the solemnity of National Treaties—­And I have reason to expect that the good people of the Commonwealth will cheerfully afford their aid in support of the Laws of the land.

Given at Boston, in the said Commonwealth, the third day of November, in the Year of our Lord, One Thousand Seven Hundred and Ninety-four, and in the Nineteenth Year of the Independence of the United States of America.

Samuel Adams.

Attest,

John Avery, jun.  Sec’y.

1 The quotation is not exact, although substantially correct.

1795

TO THE LEGISLATURE OF MASSACHUSETTS.

January 16, 1795.

[Independent Chronicle, January 19, 1795; the copies sent to the two houses are in the Massachusetts Archives.]

I am happy, fellow citizens, to meet you in General Court assembled, on the day to which, according to your request, you have stood adjourned.  By the Constitution, the Governor, with the advice of Council, during the session of the General Court, hath full authority to adjourn them to such times as the two branches may judge most convenient.