Immigrants and the Right to Petition - NYU Law Review

Imaged with the Permission of N.Y.U. School of Law
NEW YORK UNIVERSITY LAW REVIEW
[Vol. 78:667
The story of the petition by the Santo Domingo refugees further
contradicts the historical account offered by Chief Justice Rehnquist
in Verdugo-Urquidez. The refugees had even less connection to the
United States than Baron de Glaubeck; essentially, the refugees had
no ties whatsoever. But their lack of either citizenship status or connection
to the national community did not limit the refugees' right to
petition: Even those in Congress who opposed granting redress did
not question the refugees' petition rights.
c. The de Grasse Daughters, 1795 & 1798
Comte Francois Joseph Paul de Grasse was the fifth son of a Marquis
in Provence and an Admiral in the French Navy. 230 While preparing
to leave France in 1781 for Santo Domingo, Admiral de Grasse
was ordered to send part of his fleet to the "North American coast" to
assist French and American forces there following completion of the
fleet's service in the Caribbean. 23 ' Once in Santo Domingo, de
Grasse received word that General Rochambeau was in urgent need
of his support, and so the Admiral raced north with his entire fleet,
arriving off Virginia on August 30, 1781.232 De Grasse engaged the
British fleet in the Chesapeake Bay, preventing them from relieving
Cornwallis at Yorktown and contributing mightily to the defeat of the
British forces. 233 There is some indication that de Grasse overstayed
his orders to aid the Revolutionary Army, risking his military commission
and rank but earning the enduring gratitude of George
Washington.234
The Admiral's success did not continue, however, as he was sent
immediately back to the Caribbean, defeated by the British off Santo
Domingo in 1782, taken prisoner, and, upon his release, blamed by his
countrymen for the Navy's defeat. 2 35 De Grasse died in Paris in 1788,
tributed the remaining ten thousand dollars to city and state authorities. 1 Melville, supra
note 209, at 38.
230 Charles Lee Lewis, Admiral De Grasse and American Independence 4-5 (1945).
231 Id. at 97-98; Stephen Bonsal, When the French Were Here 81 (1945).
232 Lewis, supra note 230, at 119-26, 136-42.
233 Id. at 200-02; Bonsai, supra note 231, at 137-38, 155-79.
234 H. Journal, 3d Cong., 2d Sess. 333 (1795) (noting, in House resolution, "the extraordinary
services rendered the United States by the late Count de Grasse ... on the
urgent request of the Commander in Chief of the American forces, beyond the term limited
for his co-operation with the troops of the United States"); 4 Annals of Cong. 1236
(1795) (same).
235 Lewis, supra note 230, at 247, 252, 288-300. George Washington wrote to encourage
his friend,
Be assured, my dear Admiral, that my Confidence in Your Bravery & Ability
to Conduct so great a Fleet... is not the least abated by [your defeat]. It only
proves, what many a noble Hero has heretofore experienced, that Fortune is a