This British pretension aroused and startled the administration of Washington, and the pen of Mr. Jefferson, his Secretary of State, was enlisted against it. In a letter to Thomas Pinckney, Minister at London, dated June 11, 1792, he announced the American doctrine. “The simplest rule will be, that the vessel being American shall be evidence that the seamen on board her are such.”[44] In another letter to the same minister, dated October 12, 1792, he calls attention to a case of special outrage. “I enclose you a copy of a letter from Messrs. Blow and Melhaddo, merchants of Virginia, _complaining of the taking away of their sailors_ on the coast of Africa by the commander of a British armed vessel. So many instances of this kind have happened, that it is quite necessary that their Government should explain themselves on the subject, and be led to disavow and punish such conduct.”[45] At a later day, also under the administration of Washington, Mr. Pickering, at that time Secretary of State, in a letter to Rufus King, Minister at London, dated June 8, 1796, after repeating the rule proposed by Mr. Jefferson, says:-- “But it will be an important point gained, _if, on the high seas, our flag can protect those, of whatever nation, who shall sail under it_. And for this humanity, as well as interest, powerfully pleads.”[46] The same pretension was put forth under the administration of John Adams, and was again encountered. Mr. Marshall, afterwards the venerated Chief Justice of the United States, and at the time Secretary of State, in his instructions to Rufus King, at London, dated September 20, 1800, says:-- “The impressment of our seamen is an injury of very serious magnitude, which deeply affects the feelings and the honor of the nation.… Alien seamen, not British subjects, engaged in our merchant service, ought to be equally exempt with citizens.… Britain has no pretext of right to their persons or to their service. _To tear them, then, from our possession is at the same time an insult and an injury._ It is an act of violence for which there exists no palliative.”[47]