My duty, Sir, places me under the necessity of offering these remarks to your Excellency and the Executive Council. Having no direct credentials for the Republic of Pennsylvania, I cannot demand reparations from it as a Minister, and I can only address myself to the Congress of the United States, forasmuch as the facts in question have all happened under its sanction and by its authorisation; but my desire to preserve the decency, harmony, and good understanding, which ought to prevail between two allied States, will justify me in earnestly requesting your Excellency and the Executive Council to take immediately into consideration the preceding observations, and without delay to communicate to me your opinion on this subject. An explicit and positive answer is indispensable in this delicate and critical juncture, in order that I may take the measures suitable to the dignity of the King, my master, as well as to the tranquillity and to the honor of his officers of all ranks and denominations, and at all events to enable his Majesty to provide himself for the maintenance of his dignity. Meanwhile I give orders to suspend every proceeding susceptible of new inconveniences, and every operation in the State of Pennsylvania on account of his Most Christian Majesty on the part of his officers, until the rules to which they are to conform shall be known and fixed, and till the public is convinced that the citizens do not expose their honor and their tranquillity, when they treat with the officers of the King, and when they conform to the laws of their States.
M. HOLKER TO JOSEPH REED, PRESIDENT OF PENNSYLVANIA.
I have the honor of forwarding to your Excellency Mr Dunlap's publication of this day, in which I find, with some degree of surprise, a paragraph levelled at me and my official transactions. I observe that notwithstanding the most explicit and repeated offers I made to you yesterday morning, and through you to the honorable the Supreme Executive Council of this State, of proving that I had not in any shape violated or infringed the laws of Pennsylvania, that I had acted in perfect conformity therewith; notwithstanding I solemnly declared that the flour seized was bought and destined for the sole use of his Majesty's fleet; notwithstanding the many and forcible reasons urged to your Excellency to convince you that more proper and more decent measures might have been pursued, and that the steps I had taken to supply his Majesty's fleet were not only proper, but were dictated by mere necessity; notwithstanding all these circumstances, I am still held up to the public in a suspicious light, and as if I were answerable or accountable for the private and personal transactions of Mr Rumford of Wilmington, transactions totally foreign to me and to the instructions or orders given him by me.