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Here is the full entry for your selection:
Gilder Lehrman Document Number:
GLC02539
Title: to Rufus King
Author: Marshall, John (1755-1835)
Year: 1800/09/20
Place: Washington, D. C.
Type of document: Autograph letter signed
Quotation: "Seamen who are not British subjects...shall be exempt from impressment"
Description: Marshall, Secretary of State, writes to King, Minister Plenipotentiary of the United States in England. Discusses violations of Jay's Treaty (concluded in 1794 between the United States and Great Britain), including impressment, debts, and seizure of goods during the Napoleonic Wars. States that "the aggressions, sometimes of one, & sometimes of another belligerent power, have forced us to contemplate, & to prepare for war, as a probably event." Declares that "The impressment of our seamen is an injury of very serious magnitude, which deeply affects the feelings & the honor of the nation."
Full Text: The United States therefore require positively, that their seamen who are not British subjects, whether born in America, shall be exempt from impressments. The case of British subjects, whether naturalized or not, is more questionable; but the right even to impress them is denied.
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