Presidents -- United States -- Messages; United States -- Politics and government -- Sources
In the month of September a party of armed men from Upper Canada invaded
the territory of the United States and forcibly seized upon the person of
one Grogan, and under circumstances of great harshness hurriedly carried
him beyond the limits of the United States and delivered him up to the
authorities of Upper Canada. His immediate discharge was ordered by those
authorities upon the facts of the case being brought to their knowledge--a
course of procedure which was to have been expected from a nation with whom
we are at peace, and which was not more due to the rights of the United
States than to its own regard for justice. The correspondence which passed
between the Department of State and the British envoy, Mr. Fox, and with
the governor of Vermont, as soon as the facts had been made known to this
department, are herewith communicated.
I regret that it is not in my power to make known to you an equally
satisfactory conclusion in the case of the Caroline steamer, with the
circumstances connected with the destruction of which, in December, 1837,
by an armed force fitted out in the Province of Upper Canada, you are
already made acquainted. No such atonement as was due for the public wrong
done to the United States by this invasion of her territory, so wholly
irreconcilable with her rights as an independent power, has yet been made.
In the view taken by this Government the inquiry whether the vessel was in
the employment of those who were prosecuting an unauthorized war against
that Province or was engaged by the owner in the business of transporting
passengers to and from Navy Island in hopes of private gain, which was most
probably the case, in no degree alters the real question at issue between
the two Governments. This Government can never concede to any foreign
government the power, except in a case of the most urgent and extreme
necessity, of invading its territory, either to arrest the persons or
destroy the property of those who may have violated the municipal laws of
such foreign government or have disregarded their obligations arising under
the law of nations. The territory of the United States must be regarded as
sacredly secure against all such invasions until they shall voluntarily
acknowledge their inability to acquit themselves of their duties to others.
And in announcing this sentiment I do but affirm a principle which no
nation on earth would be more ready to vindicate at all hazards than the
people and Government of Great Britain. If upon a full investigation of all
the facts it shall appear that the owner of the Caroline was governed by a
hostile intent or had made common cause with those who were in the
occupancy of Navy Island, then so far as he is concerned there can be no
claim to indemnity for the destruction of his boat which this Government
would feel itself bound to prosecute, since he would have acted not only in
derogation of the rights of Great Britain, but in clear violation of the
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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