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Department of State, Washington, January 29, 1836. As to the second point, the acting Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Mexican republic need not be informed that the character of a vessel, armed or unarmed, is not ascertained by the flag at her mast-head. Her papers, if a merchant vessel, or the commissions of her officers, if a vessel of war, can alone testify her true character; and if, without proper and patent authority, an armed vessel attempts by force to capture a merchant vessel sailing under regular authority, with papers showing her character as belonging to a nation at peace with all the world, the assailant may be resisted, captured, and condemned as a pirate. The flag gives no protection to the ship of war, if its actions are piratical; and if those who command her have no commission under the seal 0f ther Governments, those Governments cannot rightfully interfere to protect them from the consequences of their negligence or criminality. The assertion of the acting Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Mexican republic, that the schooner Correo de Mexico was a vessel of war, and that her captain and all her crew belonged to the national marine of the Mexican republic, was no doubt intended to supply the want of the commissions of the officers of the schooner. That assertion is received with all the respect due to the source from which it emanated; and if the Correo de Mexico had been brought into a port of the United States by one of the national ships of war, might have justified the President's immediate interference for her restoration, and for the delivery of her captain and crew to be tried and punished, if found guilty, by the tribunals of Mexico. But the vessel has been brought in without the agency of any officer of this Government, charged under our laws with offences punishable under them; and the President thought, and still thinks, he should not interfere until the facts and principles of the case arc folly and freely examined before the courts now charged with the investigation of it. This course is the more necessary, as under one of the provisions of the laws of the United States, Captain Thompson, who is said to be a citizen of the United States, could not be protected from
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