264 Journal and Correspondence

C. C.

the Letter we received from the Marine Committee and Copy

of Resolutions inclosed by the President; we were not fur-
nished with the Resolution of Congress for the Discharge of
the Men; if any such passed it was omitted to be sent by the
President and Marine Committee. M^r Lewis has very much
mistaken the Council. They and I were sensible of the
Indignity offered by Cap^t Nicholson in his first Letter inclosed
to Congress; after the Proceedings of Congress, we received
Cap^t Nicholson's Letter of the 5^th of May, which we inclosed
to the Marine Committee. M^r Lewis was in Town and was
several Times in the Council Room; that Letter, he must
know was not satisfactory; he was desirous, indeed, that it
should be accepted as such, and represented Nicholson as not
being so blameable as he seemed to be. M^r Lewis may
recollect that he told the Governor, Nicholson had told the
Marine Committee that it was impossible for him to man the
Frigate without impressing Men, and that instead of discour-
aging it, they seemed rather to approve, and this agrees with
Nicholson's first Letter where he says " I do not pretend to
plead the Orders of Congress for what I have done but will
say if I had not Reason to think Congress would not disap-
prove of it I should not have done it." After all the Conver-
sation that passed between M^r Lewis and the Governor &
Council, our Letter to Nicholson of the 8^th of May, was shewn
to M^r Lewis, he waited some Time for it and carried it himself
intending, we have no Doubt, to influence Cap^t Nicholson as far
as he could, to comply with the moderate Terms we required.
We have not since received any Letter from Cap^t Nicholson,
except his of the 12^th Ins^t which we inclosed to the Marine
Committee. How was it possible for M^r Lewis to imagine
the Council were satisfied with Cap^t Nicholson's Letter of the
5^th after reading ours of the 8^th nor have the Council or I had
any Intercourse with M^r Lewis or Cap^t Nicholson, since Nich-
olson's Letter of the 12^th which you may see, by our Letter to
the Marine Committee, we do not esteem a very genteel one.
The Discharge of the Men is the Point we set out on and will
not be diverted from it. Nicholson may perhaps have dis-
charged them, but we do not know that he has he has never
told us that he had or would; two Men we know were dis-
charged, but as they and their Securities represented, on the
Terms of giving Security in 40 Dollars each to return again
in a short Time or find a Man each, and this two or three
Days after the Service of the Order. We have waved the
Point of Satisfaction to us, in our Letter to the Committee, not
that we thought Nicholson had complied, but we are unwilling
to be the Occasion of dismissing an Officer, from whom many
have great Expectations. We are Sir &^ca
William Paca Esq^r