To the Right Honble Lord George Sackville Germaine
one of the principal Secretaries of State to the
King of Great Britain.

Paris Feby th 7th 1777

Whereas the Snow Dickenson with her Cargoe, which was the property of the Congress of the United States of America; was by an Act of Piracy, in some of her Crew, carried into the port of Bristol in England, & there, as we are informd, was converted to the use of the Government of great Britain, & the perpetrators of so base & dishonest an Action, the Mates &c were rewarded instead of being punished for their wickedness ー & whereas another vessel with her Cargoe of Tobacco, being also the property of the United States, or of some Inhabitants of the same, was laitely carried into the port of Liverpoole, in England, by a similar act of treachery in her Crew; and a third has in the same Manner been carried into Halifax.

We, therefore, being Commissioners plenipotentiary from the Congress of the United States of America, do, in their name & by their authority, demand from the Court of Great Britain, a restitution of those vessels & their Cargoes, or the full value of them; together with the delivery of the Pirates into our hands to be sent where they may be tried & punishd as their crimes deserve.

We feel it our duty to humanity, to warn the Court of Great Britain of the consequences of protecting such offenders, & of encouraging such actions as are in violation of all moral obligation & therefore subversive of the firmest foundations of the Laws of Nations.

It is hop'd, that the Government of great Britain, will not add to the unjust principles of this war, such practises as woud disgrace the meanest State in Europe; & which must forever stain the character of the british Nation. We are sensible, that nothing can be more abhorrent from the sentiments & feelings of the Congress of the United States, than the authorizing so base a kind of war, as a retaliation of these practises will produce. We are, therefore, more earnest in pressing the Court of great Britain, to prevent, by the act of justice which is demanded, the retaliation, to which necessity, in repugnance to principles, will other wise compeL