Norfolk Gazette And Publick Ledger

THE PUBLIC LEDGER

FRIDAY EVENING JANUARY 18

In presenting the object, which we are about to lay before our readers, we are moved by no considerations of hostility towards the very high publick character whose conduct we are about to examine, nor are we moved by any considerations of party feelings, but, impelled by a sense of our duty to the publick.

The individual whose case we shall lay before the publick is unknown to us, and is, if alive incarcerated in a French prison, into which he has been thrown, as we believe because the minister of his country would not afford him that protection, which it was his duty to have done. We shall take the liberty of giving a short narrative of the facts as they have been communicated to us, and as we believe to be true.

MR. James M'CLURE, a native citizen of the State of South Carolina, about 24 years of age, was carried into France by a French Privateer, and being about to be treated as a British subject, applied to GENERAL ARMSTRONG for his protection as a citizen of the United States.—Mr. M'Clure furnished such documents as he believed were sufficient to prove his citizenship, but which did not satisfy General Armstrong. Before we go further we take the liberty to introduce a letter from Mr. M'Clure to a friend, who is an American and was in France, had commanded a vessel, which was condemned, but is now here. This letter as it will be seen, was written after the fate of this unfortunate man had been decided by the minister of his nation, and he consigned to a French prison.

(COPY.)

L'Orient, 3d May, 1810.

My Dear Friend,

On the other side, you have the copy of a letter which General Armstrong wrote me, and in consequence, the French authorities, consider me as an Englishman, and have given orders to render myself at Tours, as a prisoner of war. The subject of the letter is singular, and will no doubt make Americans stare when it shall be made known.

I am truly

your well wisher,

JAMES M'CLURE.

To Captain—

We have thought it proper to withhold the name of the person to whom this letter was addressed, because he might be exposed to the resentment of the French authorities, if he should again have the misfortune to fall into their hands.

The letter of General Armstrong to Mr. M'Clure is in the following words:

Mr. James M'Clure AT Mr. Vail's,

American Consul, L'Orient.

I have received your letter of the 9th instant, inclosing two certificates, the one of your Father's naturalization, the other of your Birth and Baptism. These papers do not add to the evidence on the question of your Citizenship. They are not more than I have seen for several months past, and prove only, that your Father is an American citizen, and that you were born in the United States. The evidence that will reach the case, and substantiate your claim is a certificate of the act of South Carolina, naturalizing your Father, provided that act naturalizes also the Children of your Father, born before its own date. I return the two certificates and am,

Sir, your most obedient

humble servant,

(Signed)

JOHN ARMSTRONG.

Paris, 16th March, 1810.

We can anticipate the astonishment of our readers, when they peruse the letter of General Armstrong. It can hardly be imagined that General Armstrong, could be so ignorant of the laws of his country, as to have supposed any higher evidence, than was produced by Mr. M'Clure was requisite—The certificates of Mr. M'Clure were authenticated under the seal of the State of South Carolina, consequently there could be no objection as to the truth of the acts which they stated; indeed General Armstrong's letter admits the acts, but denies the inference, and in so doing we have no hesitation in saying that he either did not, or would not understand the constitution and laws of our country.

By the common law of England, the children of aliens, born in England, are, generally speaking, natural born subjects, and entitled to all the privileges of such. It certainly never was imagined, that this rule of the common law as applied to England, was borrowed to the United States, and we venture to assert, that General Armstrong is the first man that ever did think, or pretend to think, that a native of the United States was not a citizen, no matter what was, or might be, the condition of his parents, they being free white persons.

It is no part of our purpose, to attempt an elaborate argument upon this subject, From what has been exhibited, it is proved that the minister of the United States did refuse his protection to a native citizen of the United States, and permitted him to be treated as a prisoner of war contrary to his duty as a minister, The General had been so long in France, that he perhaps forgot the law of his own country, and substituted that of France, which considers the children of an alien—as aliens tho' born