The conduct of Cadore warranted Russell’s conclusion that “upon the whole this interview was not calculated to increase my confidence in the revocation of the decrees.” Although President Madison reached a different conclusion, and on the strength of this conference caused Congress to adopt the Non-Intercourse Act of March 2, Russell’s opinion could not be disputed. At the end of another week Cadore sent word that one of the American vessels, the “Grace Ann Greene,” arrived at Marseilles since November 1, had been released; and Russell wrote to Pinkney that this release might be considered conclusive evidence of the revocation.[301] A month afterward he wrote to the Secretary of State on the same subject in a different tone,[302] saying that the United States had not yet much cause to be satisfied; that no vessel arrived since November 1 had been permitted to discharge her cargo, and that tedious delays were constantly interposed. As for the property confiscated before November 1, Russell avowed himself afraid to make the reclamation ordered by the President: “I ascertained indirectly that a convention to this effect would not be entered into at this moment; and I thought it indiscreet to expose the United States, with all the right on their side, to a refusal.” No action of the United States, he feared, could redeem the unfortunate property.[303] Failure on these points was accompanied by a promise of success on others. The President had remonstrated against the Emperor’s scheme of issuing licenses through the French consuls to vessels in ports of the United States; and Russell wrote to Cadore, Jan. 12, 1811, that such consular superintendence was inadmissible, and would not be permitted.[304] January 18 Cadore returned an answer, evidently taken from the Emperor’s lips:[305]-- “I have read with much attention your note of January 12, relative to the licenses intended to favor the commerce of the Americans in France. This system had been conceived before the revocation of the Decrees of Berlin and Milan had been resolved on. Now circumstances are changed by the resolution taken by the United States to cause their flag and their independence to be respected. That which has been done before this last epoch can no longer serve as a rule under actual circumstances.” Although this letter said that the Berlin and Milan Decrees were repealed,--not on Nov. 1, 1810, but at some indeterminate time afterward, in consequence of the President’s proclamation of November 2,--yet it officially declared that whatever the date might be, on January 18, when Cadore wrote, the revocation was complete. Russell sent the letter to the President, and the President sent it nearly ten months afterward to Congress as proof that the decrees were revoked. He could not send, for he could not know, another letter written by Cadore to Serurier three weeks later, which instructed him to the contrary:[306]--