ecution (which they termed Executive persecution)
was hailed with rejoicing throughout the pro-French
partisan press, it alarmed President Washington, and
in view of the ruling by the Court on the law, legislation by Congress seemed imperative for the protection of the Nation's neutrality. Accordingly, he
wrote to his Cabinet, August 3, 1793, asking their
advice as to the advisability of convening Congress
at an earlier date than its regular session. Objection
being raised, however, to this course, Washington issued detailed instructions to collectors of customs,
through Secretary of the Treasury Hamilton, prescribing rigid enforcement of neutrality for the future.
It was just at this crucial period, that the President's
policy received a third blow, by the decision in the District Court of the United States in Maryland, in the
case of Glass v. Sloop Betsy, holding that the Federal
Admiralty Court had no jurisdiction over French
prizes. Again the joy of the pro-French partisans was
unbounded. "The Judge in a very learned and elaborate opinion," said a Baltimore dispatch, “unfolded
his reasons against the jurisdiction of the Court in a
manner that, we hope, will leave our allies to the full
enjoyment of their acquisitions, without further molestation, under the treaty of amity and commerce."[1]
The Government at once took an appeal to the Supreme Court, and there was thus presented to that
- ↑ Independent Chronicle, Sept. 2, 1793. See also New York Daily Advertiser, Aug. 28, 1798.
Loudun's Register, Aug. 7, 1793; New York Daily Advertiser, Aug. 1, 5, 1793. Judge Wilson's charge was published in full in the Independent Chronicle, Aug. 15, 1798; The Diary or Loudun's Register, July 26, 1798, and many other papers. In spite of the result in the Henfield Case, the Federal Courts continued to indict persons for violations of neutrality, the indictments being based on common law and the law of nations. See account of three American citizens taken from the French privateer Roland in Boston and held for trial in the Circuit Court on charge of "aiding and assisting in manning and fitting out vessels and piratically and feloniously capturing the vessels of nations with whom the United States are at peace." Connecticut Journal, Sept. 4, 1798.
