Alexander Hamilton Urgently Sends Out His and President Washington’s Rules on Neutrality, As War Erupts in Europe; With the Original Rules Themselves Still Present

A group of 3 documents showing the Washington administration’s attempt to remain neutral as war in Europe ramped up; These documents have never before been offered for sale

A compelling connection between Washington and Hamilton on a matter of the greatest import to U.S. foreign policy: “It appearing that repeated contraventions of our neutrality have taken place in the ports of the United States, without having been discovered in time for prevention or remedy, I have it in command from the President, to address to the Collectors of the respective districts a particular instruction on the subject.”

“The President desires me to signify to you his most particular expectation that the instruction contained in this letter will be executed with the greatest vigilance, activity, care and impartiality. Omissions will tend to expose the government to injurious imputations and suspicions, and proportionably to commit the good faith and peace of the country; objects of too much importance not to engage every proper exertion of your zeal.”

Following the execution of King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette in January 1793, the French revolutionary government found itself at war with Spain, the Netherlands and Great Britain. It dispatched Edmond Charles Genêt as minister to the United States, for the purpose of enlisting American assistance to the fullest extent possible. Genêt arrived in Charleston, South Carolina on April 8, 1793 – calling himself “Citizen Genêt” to emphasize the revolutionary title. He received a warm welcome and immediately began to issue privateering commissions that authorized the bearers, regardless of their country of origin, to seize British merchant ships and their cargo for personal profit, all with the approval and protection of the French Government. President Washington saw this as a dangerous attempt to draw the new United States into a European war, and on April 22 issued his Proclamation of Neutrality, declaring the U.S. a neutral nation in the conflict and threatening legal proceedings against any American providing assistance to the warring countries. Genet then proceeded to the capital at Philadelphia and was met with acclaim and jubilation everywhere he went, as many Americans supported the French Revolution’s goals of liberty, equality, fraternity. He was officially received by Washington on the afternoon of May 18th, but Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson soon informed him that the United States considered the outfitting of French privateers in American ports to be a violation of the U.S. policy of neutrality. Genet ignored this warning, and in fact threatened to take his case directly to the American people, bypassing official government opposition. Genêt was thus willing to challenge Washington and risk being seen as a foreign meddler in American domestic affairs.

President Washington’s Rules on Neutrality

Washington felt he had to take additional action to clarify the American position, and address problems that had arisen at various times after the issuance of the Proclamation of Neutrality, including the direct threat to neutrality posed by Genet. He held a series of Cabinet meetings that began on July 29, 1793, and rules emerged from them. On that day the Cabinet approved five of six general neutrality rules proposed by Edmund Randolph and Alexander Hamilton, and on the following day it agreed in principle to a proposal by Jefferson to include mention of the treaty provisions that formed exceptions to them. On the basis of these decisions, Hamilton produced a draft consisting of eight rules that he later amended, partly in response to suggestions made by members of the Cabinet. On instructions from the President, the Cabinet met August 3 and approved a text of the rules made from Hamilton’s revised draft, to which Randolph added a final paragraph. Jefferson submitted the signed rules document to the President, who approved it that same day. All this demonstrates the expedited treatment the matter was receiving, and how Washington and Hamilton felt. The rules complete, Hamilton set about creating the circular letter to introduce them to the Collectors, and a few days later submitted it to the President.

Washington wrote on August 9, “The Secy. of the Treasury sent for my approbation the draft of a circular letter to be written to the Collectors of the customs—giving them instructions how to proceed in case of any contravention of neutrality, & enclosing certain rules adopted by the Executive, to be observed in judging of such things as may contravene the neutrality of the US. The whole being agreeably to what was agreed upon by the Heads of Departments. Returned with approbation & a desire that it may be transmitted as soon as possible.”

Letter signed, Philadelphia, dated August 4, 1793 but sent on August 9 upon receiving the President’s final approval, to the Stephen Smith, the Collector of Machias, Maine. “Sir, It appearing that repeated contraventions of our neutrality have taken place in the ports of the United States, without having been discovered in time for prevention or remedy, I have it in command from the President, to address to the Collectors of the respective districts a particular instruction on the subject.

“It is expected, that the officers of the customs in each district, will in the course of their official functions have a vigilant eye upon whatever may be passing within the ports, harbours, creeks, inlets and waters of such district, of a nature to contravene the laws of neutrality, and upon discovery of any thing of the kind will give immediate notice to the governor of the state and to the attorney of the judicial district, comprehending the district of the customs within which any such contravention may happen.

“To assist the judgment of the officers on this head, I transmit herewith a schedule of rules, concerning sundry particulars, which have been adopted by the President, as deductions from the laws of neutrality, established and received among nations.  Whatever shall be contrary to these rules will, of course, he to be notified, as abovementioned.

“There are some other points, which, pursuant to our treaties and the determinations of the executive, I ought to notice to you.

“If any vessel of either of the powers at war with France should bring or send within your district a prize made of the subjects, people or property of France, it is immediately to be notified to the governor of the state, in order that measures may be taken, pursuant to the 17th article of our treaty with France, to oblige such vessel and her prize, or such prize when sent in without the capturing vessel, to depart.

“No privateer of any of the powers at war with France, coming within a district of the United States, can, by the 22d article of our treaty with France, enjoy any other privilege than that of purchasing such victuals as shall be necessary for her going to the next port of the prince or state, from which she has her commission. If she should do anything beside this, it is immediately to be reported to the governor and the attorney of the district. You will observe by the rules transmitted, that the term privateer is understood not to extend to vessels armed for merchandize and war, commonly called with us letters of marque; nor, of course, to vessels of war in the immediate service of the government of either of the powers at war.

“No armed vessel which has been or shall be originally fitted out in any port of the United States by either of the parties at war is henceforth to have asylum in any district of the United States. If any such armed vessel shall appear within your district, she is immediately to be notified to the governor and attorney of the district; [which is also to be done in respect to any prize that such armed vessel shall bring or send in.] At foot is a list of such armed vessels of the above description as have hitherto come to the knowledge of the Executive.

“The purchasing within, and exporting from, the United States, by way of merchandize, articles commonly called contraband (being, generally, warlike instruments and military stores) is free to all the parties at war, and is not to be interfered with. If our own citizens undertake to carry them to any of those parties, they will be abandoned to the penalties which the laws of war authorise.

“You will be particularly careful to observe, and to notify as directed in other instances, the case of any citizen of the United States, who shall be found in the service of either of the parties at war.

“In case any vessel shall be found in the act of contravening any of the rules or principles which are the ground of this instruction, she is to be refused a clearance until she shall have complied with what the governor shall have decided in reference to her. Care, however, is to be taken in this, not unnecessarily or unreasonably to embarrass trade or to vex any of the parties concerned.

“In order that contraventions may be the better ascertained, it is desired that the officer who shall first go on board any vessel arriving within your district shall make an accurate survey of her then condition, as to military equipment, to be forthwith reported to you, and that prior to her clearance a like survey be made, that any transgression of the rules laid down may be ascertained.

But as the propriety of any such inspection of a vessel of war in the immediate service of the government of a foreign nation is not without question in reference to the usage of nations, no attempt is to be made to inspect any such vessel till further order on the point.

“The President desires me to signify to you his most particular expectation that the instruction contained in this letter will be executed with the greatest vigilance, activity, care and impartiality. Omissions will tend to expose the government to injurious imputations and suspicions, and proportionably to commit the good faith and peace of the country; objects of too much importance not to engage every proper exertion of your zeal.” The names of the vessels are listed:

“List referred to
Citizen Genet
Sans Culottes
Vainquer De Bastille     }     Fitted out at Charleston
Petit Democrat
Caramagnole         Philadelphia
Delaware”

The original Rules of Neutrality are still present and attached to the document. They read:

“1. The original arming and equipping of vessels in the ports of the United States by any of the belligerent parties, for military service offensive or defensive, is deemed unlawful.

“2. Equipments of merchant vessels by either of the belligerent parties in the ports of the United States, purely for the accommodation of them as such, is deemed lawful.

“3. Equipments in the ports of the United States of vessels of war in the immediate service of the Government of any of the belligerent parties, which if done to other vessels would be of a doubtful nature, as being applicable either to commerce or war, are deemed lawful; except those which shall have made prize of the subjects, people, or property of France coming with their prizes into the Ports of the United States pursuant to the seventeenth Article of our Treaty of Amity and commerce with France.

“4. Equipments in the Ports of the United States, by any of the parties at war with France, of vessels fitted for Merchandize and war, whether with or without Commissions, which are doubtful in their nature as being applicable either to commerce or war, are deemed lawful; except those which shall have made prize, &c.

“5. Equipments of any of the vessels of France, in the Ports of the United States, which are doubtful in their nature, as being applicable to commerce or war, are deemed lawful.

“6. Equipments of every kind in the Ports of the United States, of privateers of the Powers at war with France, are deemed unlawful.

“7. Equipments of vessels in the Ports of the United States, which are of a nature solely adapted to war, are deemed unlawful; except those stranded or wrecked, as mentioned in the eighteenth Article of our Treaty with France, the sixteenth of our Treaty with the United Netherlands, the ninth of our Treaty with Prussia, and except those mentioned in the nineteenth Article of our Treaty with France, the seventeenth of our Treaty with the United Netherlands, the eighteenth of our Treaty with Prussia.

“8. Vessels of either of the parties not armed, or armed previous to their coming into the ports of the United States, which shall not have infringed any of the foregoing rules, may lawfully engage or inlist therein their own Subjects or Citizens, not being inhabitants of the United States; except privateers of the Powers at War with France, and except those vessels which shall have made prize, &c.”

Also present, Letter, unsigned, bearing the free frank signature of Assistant Treasury Secretary Tench Coxe, containing more on this subject from Hamilton’s office. “Though it was not expressly said, yet I presume it will have been understood, as clearly implied in the instruction contained in my circular of the 4th instant, that the liberty to enter vessels and their cargoes, brought in as prizes, by the armed vessels of France, was not, after the receipt of that letter, to include vessels and cargoes taken and brought, or sent in, by armed vessels originally fitted out in the ports of the United States, while remaining in possession of their captors.

It will follow, that if an attempt should be made, to land goods from on board such vessels, they are to be seized, and proceeded against as directed by the 26th section of the Collection Law.  Lest the implication above-mentioned should not have been obvious to all, I have concluded to give this further explanation.”

This is an extremely rare circular letter and rules grouping, as our research finds no other example having reached the market. It has been in the same family for generations and has never been offered for sale before.