Our last to your Excellency of this present month detailed every particular which, occurred to us necessary to be laid before the Legislature.(1) Nothing very material has since taken place.
The Inhabitants of these middle States are embarking with Spirit in the East India trade. Three or four Vessels have either lately sailed, or soon will sail to that part of the World. Our trade there, will be free from an inconvenience to which European connexions expose us, that is, an interference in our Governments. To favor this Commerce, Congress yesterday appointed Major Shaw Consul of the United States to reside at Canton.(2)
We are informed by Mr Carmichael, that the Emperor of Morocco has lately treated some of our Captive Citizens with more lenity than formerly.(3) We fear that this change, has taken place more from motives of policy than those of justice or humanity. To purchase his friendship will be expensive, & perhaps more so, from a few Acts of mercy previous to the commencement of pacific negotiations.
We beg the favor of your Excellency to send us by the first opportunity a certified Copy of the Law of our State under which the Sloop Chester was condemned.(4) The Minister of the United Netherlands has made repeated remonstrances on this condemnation; a Copy of the
Law is necessary for the information of Congress before an Official answer can be given to his Note on this Subject. We are in possession of the proceedings of the Court of Admiralty but this is incomplete for the purpose desired without a Copy of the Law under which the proceedings of the Court were held.
We have the honor to be, with great respect your most Obedt. and very humble servants, (Signed) Charles Pinckney
David Ramsay
John Kean
1 Apparently the delegates' comprehensive letter of December 27, 1785.
2 John Jay's January 20 recommendation to appoint a consul to reside at Canton, China, and other Asian ports had been read the 23rd. On January 26 Charles Pinckney moved that a consul to Canton be appointed, though without "any Salary, fees, or emoluments of Office," and he nominated for the position Massachusetts merchant Samuel Shaw (1754-1794), who was elected the following day. See JCC, 30:25n.2, 28-29; and PCC, item 80, 2:125-26, item 190, fol. 5.
3 William Carmichael's July 25 letter with enclosures regarding the Moroccan release of Capt. James Erwin and the crew of the brigantine Betsey and their arrival in Cadiz had been submitted to Congress on January 23. See JCC, 30:25n.2; PCC, item 80, 2:129-30, item 88, fols. 400-421, item 185, 3:148; and Diplomatic Correspondence, 1783-89, 3:299-302. See also Pierse Long to John Langdon, October 14, 1785, note 6.
4 On January 24 Pinckney had been appointed to a committee instructed to examine "the [November 24, 1785] report of the Secy for foreign Affairs. . .relative to the capture of the Sloop Chester." The Dutch-owned vessel, which had been seized in June 1777 during a voyage from British Honduras to Rotterdam by the South Carolina privateers Fair American and Experiment and condemned the following year by the state's court of admiralty, had become the subject of protracted arbitration between Congress and the South Carolina government and Dutch minister Pieter van Berckel and the owners of the sloop represented by Anthony Ameloo and Adrianus Dubbeldemuts. The case had first come before Congress in December 1779 when the committee for foreign affairs directed the first of numerous petitions requesting relief to the standing committee on appeals which took no action. When van Berckel brought diplomatic pressure in November 1783 his request was referred to a committee which reported four times before Congress decided on June 2, 1784, that it could not take up the matter since no appeal from the decree of the South Carolina admiralty court had been "lodged with the secretary of Congress within 40 days." Congress advised the Dutch minister to seek a copy of the proceedings of the state court to determine "whether any and what illegal proceedings were made use of to procure the condemnation." The report was then referred to the Committee of the States which deferred action until the next meeting of Congress. On March 18, 1785, Congress assigned the case to secretary for foreign affairs John Jay who reported November 24 that the South Carolina court should not have proceeded to judgment without allowing the principals to appear and argued that the captors may have violated Article 4 of their bonds which should be put in suit.
When Pinckney's committee reported July 24, 1786, Congress finally empowered the court of appeals in cases of capture to reverse or affirm the South Carolina decree. Alexander Hamilton represented the Dutch owners before the court at its November meeting and the case was heard in April 1787. The court ruled on May 3 that there was insufficient cause to hear the appeal since there was evidence that the Chester, originally of British registry, had been sold to the Dutch appellants to avoid capture and that the