TH. JEFFERSON.
JANUARY 17, 1809.
_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
I communicate to Congress certain letters which passed between the
British secretary of state, Mr. Canning, and Mr. Pinkney, our minister
plenipotentiary at London. When the documents concerning the relations
between the United States and Great Britain were laid before Congress at
the commencement of the session, the answer of Mr. Pinkney to the letter
of Mr. Canning had not been received, and a communication of the latter
alone would have accorded neither with propriety nor with the wishes of
Mr. Pinkney. When that answer afterwards arrived it was considered that,
as what had passed by conversation had been superseded by the written
and formal correspondence on the subject, the variance in the two
statements of what had verbally passed was not of sufficient importance
to be made the matter of a distinct and special communication. The
letter of Mr. Canning, however, having lately appeared in print,
unaccompanied by that of Mr. Pinkney in reply, and having a tendency
to make impressions not warranted by the statements of Mr. Pinkney,
it has become proper that the whole should be brought into public view.
TH. JEFFERSON.
JANUARY 24, 1809.
_To the Senate of the United States_:
According to the resolution of the Senate of the 17th instant, I
now transmit them the information therein requested, respecting the
execution of the act of Congress of February 21, 1806, appropriating
$2,000,000 for defraying any extraordinary expenses attending the
intercourse between the United States and foreign nations.
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