membering alfo that timely disbursements to prepare for danger, frequently pre vent much greater disbursements to repel it; avoiding likewife the accumulation of debt, not only by thunning occafions of expence, but by vigorous exertions in time of peace to difcharge the debts which unavoidable Wars may have oc cafioned, not ungenerously throwing upon pofterity the burthen which we ourfelves ought to bear. The execution of these maxims belongs to your Reprefentatives, but it is neceffary that public opinion thould co-operate. To facilitate to them the performance of their duty, it is effential that you should practically bear in mind, that towards the payment of debts there must be a revenue; that to have revenue, there must be taxes; that no taxes can be devifed, which are not more or less inconvenient and unpleafant; that the intrinfic embarraff ment infeparable from the feleétion of the proper objects (which is always a choice of difficulties) ought to be a de. cifive motive for a candid construction of the conduct of the Government in making it, and for à fpirit of acquiefcence in the meafures for obtaining revenue, which the public exigencies may at any time dictate Obferve good faith and justice towards all nations, cultivate peace and harmony with all; religion and morality enjoin this conduct; and can it be that good policy does not equally enjoin it? It will be worthy of a free, enlightened, and, at no great distant period, a great Na tion, to give to mankind the magnanimous and too novel example of a people always guided by an exalted justice and benevolence. Who can doubt, that in the course of time and things the fruits of fuch a plan would richly repay any temporary advantages, which might be loft by a steady adherence to it? "Can it be, "that Providence has not conRected the permanent felicity of a nation with its virtue ? The experiment, at leaft, is recommended by every fentiment which ennobles human nature. Alas it is rendered impoffible by its vices. In the execution of fuch a plan, nothing is more effential' than that per'manent, inveterate antipathies against particular Nations, and paffionate attachments for others, hould be excluded; and that in place of them juft and ami, cable feelings towards ali fhould be cultivated. The Nation which indulges towards another an habitual hatred, or of * an habitual fondness, is in fome degrée a lave. It is a flave to its animofity or to its affection, either of which is fuff cient to lead in aftray from its duty and its intereft. Antipathy in ore nation against another difpoles each more resdily to offer infult and injury, to lay hold of flight causes of umbrage, and to be haughty and intractable when acci dental or trifling occations of dispute occur. Hence, frequent collisions, obitinate, envenomed and bloody contests. The nation, prompted by ill-will and refentment, fometimes impels to war the Government, contrary to the best calculations of policy. The Government fometimes participates in the national propcefity, and adopts, through pallion, what realon would reject; at other times it makes the animofity of the nation fubfervient to projects of hoftility instigated by pride, ambition, and other finiter and pernicious motives. The peace often, fometimes, perhaps, the liberty of nations has been the victim. So likewife, a paflionate attachment of one nation for another produces a va riety of evils. Sympathy for the favou rite nation, facilitating the infusion of an imaginary common intereft, in cafés where no real common interéßt exifts, and infufing into one, the enmities of the other, betrays the former into a participation in the quarrels and wars of the latter, without adequate inducement or juftification. It leads alfo to conceffions to the favourite nation, of privileges denied to others, which is apt doubly to injure the Nation making the conceffions; by unneceffarily parting with what ought to have been retained; and by exciting jealoufy, ill will, and a dif pofition to retaliate, in the parties from whom equal privileges are withheld; and it gives to ambitious, corrupted, or deluded citizens (who devote rhemfelves to the favourite nation) facility to betray or facritice the interests of their own country, without odium, fome times even with popularity; gilding with the appearances of a virtuous fenfe of obligation, a commendable deférence for public opinion, or a laudable zeal for public good, the bafe or foolish compli ances of ambition, corruption, or infatuation. As the avenues to foreign influence in innumerable ways; fuch attachments are particularly alarming to the truly enlightened and independent patriot. How many opportunities do they afford to tamper with domeftic factions, to prac tife tife the arts of feduction, to mislead publie opinion, to influence or awe the Public Councils? Such an attachment of fmall or weak, towards a great or pow erful nation, dooms the former to be the fatellite of the latter.. Against the infidious wiles of foreign influence ( conjure you to believe me, fellow citizens) the jealoufy of a free people ought to be confiantly awake; ince hiftury and experience prove, that forcign influence is one of the impit Lancful foes of a Republican Government. Bot that jealouty, to be ufeful, must be impartial; elfe it becomes the inftrument of the very influence to be avoided, in. fead of a defence against it. Exceffive partiality for one foreign nation, and exceffive diflike of apother, caufe thofe whom they actuate to fee danger only on one fide, and ferve reveil and even fecond the arts of influence on the other.Real patriots, who may refitt the intrigues of the favourite, are liable to become fufpected and odious; while its tools and dupes ufurp the applaufe: and confidence of the people, to furrender their interefts. The great rule of conduct for us, in regard to foreign nations, is in extending our commercial relations, to have with them, as little political connection as pof frble So far as we have already formed engagements, let them be fulfilled with perfect good faith.Here let us ftrop. Europe has a fet of primary interefis, which to us have none, or a very remete relation. Hence he must be engaged in frequent controverfies, the caules of which are effentially foreign to our concerns. Hence, therefore, it must be unwife in us to implicate ourselves by artifcial ties in the ordinary viciffitudes of her polities, or the ordinary combinations and collifions of her friendships of enmities. Our detached and distant fituation invites and enables us to pursue a different courfe. If we remain one people, under an efficient Government, the period is not far off when we may defy material injury from external annoyance; when we nay take fuch an attitude as will canfe the neutrality we may at any time refolve upon to be fcrupuloudy refpected; when Belligerent Nations, under the impullibility of making acquifitions upon us Willot lightly hazard the giving us provddation; when we may choose peace or war, as our intereft, guided by juttuce," thai@edukad, xh Why forego the advantages of fo pe. culiar a fituation? Why quit our own to stand upon foreigs ground? Why, by interweaving our deftiny with that of any part of Europe, entangle our peace aud profperity in the toils of European ambition, rivalship, intereft, humour, or Caprice? Tis our true policy to fleer clear of permanent alliances with any portion of the foreign world; fo far, I mean, as we are now at liberty to do it; for it me not be underfood as capable of patronifing infidelity to exifting engagements. I hold the maxim no lefs applicable to public than to private affairs, that honefty is always the best policy. I repeat it, therefore, let thofe engage. ments be obferved in their genuine fenfe, But in my opinion it is unneceffary, and would be unwife to extend them. Taking care always to keep ourselves, by fuitable establishments, in a refpectable defenfive pofture, we may fafely truft to temporary alliances for extraordinary emergencies. Harmony, liberal intercourfe with all nations, are recommended by policy, humanity, and intereft. But even our commercial policy should hold an equal and impartial hand; neither feeking nor granting exclufive favours or preferences, confulting the natural course of things; diffufing and diverfifying by gentle means the freams of commerce, but forcing nothing eftablishing, with Powers fo ditpofed, in order to give trade a ftable courfe, to define the rights of our merchants, and to enable the Govern ment to fupport them, conventional rules of intereouife, the best that prefent ci cumftances and mutual opinion wil ̧ permit, but temporary, and liable to be from time to time abandoned or varied, as experience and circumstances thall dictate, conftantly keeping in view, that it is folly in one nation to look for dif interefted favours from another; that it must pay with a proportion of its inde pepdence for whatever it may accept under that character; that by fuch agceptance it may place itself in the condi tion of having given cquivalents for no minal favours, and yet of being reproach-" ed with ingratitude for not giving more... There can be no greater error than to expect, or calculate upon real favours " from nation to wration." Tis an illufion which experience muft cure, which just pride ought to difcard. 1 oiling to you, my countrymmen." The inducements of intereft for ab¬ ferving that conduct will best be refer red to your own reflections and experie ence. With me, a predominant motive has been to endeavour to gain time to our country to fettle and mature its yer recent inftitutions, and to progrefs, without interruption, to that degree of ftrength and confiftency, which is neceffary to give it, humanly speaking the command of its own fortunes. thefe counfels of an old and affectionate friend, I dare not nope they will make the strong and lafting impreflion I could with, that they will controul the usual current of the pallions, or prevent our nation from running the course which has hitherto marked the destiny of nations: But if I may even fatter myself, that they may be productive of fome partial benefit, fome occafional good; that they may now and then recur to moderate the fury of party fpirit, to Though in reviewing the incidents of warn against the mifchiefs of foreign Admmiftration I am unconscious of inintrigue, to guard against the impoftors tentional, error, I am nevertheless too of pretended patriotifm; this hope will fenfible of my defects, not to think it be a full recompence for the follcitude probable that I may have committed for your welfare by which they have many errors. Whatever they may be, been diftated. I fervently befeech the Almighty to avert or mitigate the evils to which they may tend. I fhall alfo carry with me the hope that my country will never cease to, view them with indulgence; and that after forty-five years of my life dedicat ed to its letvice, with an upright zeal, the faults of incompetent abilities will be configned to oblivion, as myself-mutt foon be to the mansions of rest. How far, in the discharge of my official duties, I have been guided by the principles which have been delineated, the public records, and other evidences of my con ut mutt witnefs to you and to the world. To myfelf, the aurance of my own confcience is, that I have at leaft believed myself to be guided by The ai In relation to the Will fubfifling war in Europe, my Proclamation of 22d of April 1793 is the index to my Plan. Sanctioned by your approved voice, and by that of your Representatives in both Houles of Congrefs, the fpirit of that mteafure has continually governed me; aninfluenced by any attempts to deter or divert me from it. After deliberate examination, with the aid of the beft lights I could obtain, I was well latisfied that our country, under all the circumstances of the cafe, had a right to take, and was bound in duty and intereft to take a neutral pofition. Having taken it, I determined, as far as thould depend upon me, to maintain it, with moderation, perfevetance, and firmness. The confiderations which refpect the right to hold this conduct, it is not neceffary on this occafion to detail. I will only obferve, that, according to my underftanding of the matter, that right fo far from being denied by any of the Belligerent lowers, has been virtually admitted by all. The duty of holding a neutral conduft may be inferred, without any thing more, from the obligation which justice and humanity impofe on every nation in cafes in which it is free to act, to main, rain inviolate the relations of peace and amity towards other nations. Relying on its kindness in this as in, other things, and actuated by that fervent love towards it, which is fo naturai to a man who views in it the native foil of himself and his progenitors forfeveral generations, I anticipate with pleasing expectation that retreat, in which I promife myself to realize, without alloy, the fweet enjoyment of partaking, in the midft of my fellow-citizens, the benign influence of good laws un-« der a free government, the ever favou rite object of my heart, and the happy reward, as I trust, of our mutual cares, labours and dangers. G. WASHINGTON. No. II. J which began to be manifefted at the moft critical moment of the firft campaigns in the manner with which Admiral Hood treated my iquadron at Toulon, where he was employed folely in ruining all that he could not carry away himself; and afterwards, in the expedition which he undertook against the island of Cor fica-an expedition which he undertook without the knowledge, and which he concealed with the greatest care from Don Juan de Langara, while they were together at Toulon. The fame bad faith the English Minifter has fuffered clearly to appear by his filence upon the fubject of all his negociations with other Powers, particularly in the treaty concluded on the 19th of November 1794, with the United States of America, without any regard to my rights, which were well known to him. I remarked it gain in his repugnance to the adoption of my plans and ideas,, which might accelerate the termination of the war, and in the vague reply which Lord Grenville gave to my Ambafador the Marquis del Campo, when he demanded fuccours of him to continue it. He compleatly confirmed me in the certainty of his bad faith, by the injuftice with which he appropriated the rich cargo of the Spanith hip le Sant Jago, or l'Achille, at first taken by the French, and after. wards retaken by the English fquadron, and which ought to have been reftored to me according to the Convention made between my Secretary of State and Lord St. Helen's, Ambailador from his Britannic Majefty afterwards by the de tention of all the ammunition which arrived in the Dutch hips for the fupply of my fquadrons, by affecting always different difficulties to put off the reftitution of them.-Finally, I could no longer entertain a doubt of the bad faith of England, when I learnt the frequent landing from her fhips upon the coats of Chili and Peru, in order to carry on a contraband trade, and to reconnoitre the fore, under the pretence of fishing for whales, a privilege which the pretended to have auted her by the Convention of Nootka. Such were the proceedings of the British minister to cement the ties of friendship and reci procal confidence which he had engaged To maintain, according to our Convention of the 25th of May 1793. 3. "Since I have made Peace with the French Republic, not only have I had Atronger motives for fuppofing an inten tion on the part of England to attack my poffeffions in America, but I have alle received direct infults, which per fuade me that the English Minifter wishes to oblige me to adopt a part cons trary to the interefts of humapity, torn by the bloody war which ravages Eu rope, for the termination of which I had not ceafed to offer my good offices, and to teftify my conftant folicitude. In fact, England has developed her intentions, has clearly evinced her project of getting poffeffion of my territo ries, by fending to the Antilles a con fiderable force, and particularly deftined against St. Domingo, as the proclamations of her General in that island clearly demonftrate. She also made known het intentions by the establishments which her commercial companies have formed upon the banks of the Missouri, in South America, with the defign of penetrating through thofe countries to the South Sea; finally, by the conqueft which the has made of the colony of Dematary, belonging to the Dutch, and whofe ada vantageous pofition puts her in a condis. tion to get poffeflion of pots till mote important. "But there can no longer remain any doubt of the hoftile nature of thele projects, when I confider the frequent infults to my flag, the acts of violence committed in the Mediterranean by her frigates, which have carried away foldiers coming from Genoa to Barcelona, on board Spanish fhips, to complete my armies; the piracies and rexations which the Corfican and Anglo-Corfican cer fairs, protected by the English Govern ment of that ifland, exercise against the Spanish trade in the Mediterranean, and even upon the coafts of Catalonia, and the detention of different Spanish ships laden with Spanish property, and carried to England, under the most frivolous pretences, and efpecially the rich cargo of the Spanish ship the Minerva, on which an embargo was laid in the moft infulting manner to my flag, and the removal of which could not be obtained, though it was demonflrated be fore the competent tribunals, that this rich cargo was Spanish property. "The attack committed upon my Ambaffador, Don Simon de las Calas, by a tribunal of London, which decreed his arreft, founded upon the demand of a very small fum, which was claimed by the undertaker of an embarkation. Finally, the Spanish territory has been violated in an intolerable manner upon the STATE the coats of Galicia and Alicant, by the English fhips the Cameleon and the Kangaroo. Moreover, Captain George Vaughan, Commodore of the Alarm, bc. haved in a manner equally infolent and fcandalous in the land of Trinity, where he landed with drums beating and flags flying, to attack the French, and to avenge the injuries which he pre tended to have received, disturbing, by the violation of the rights of my love. reignty, the tranquillity of the inhabi. tants of the island. PAPER S. 377 contrary, fire, has taken Fablishments and Colonies of the highet, importance, and of a value almoft incalculable. But, on the other hand, France has made, on the Continent of Europe, con quefts, to which his Majefty can be the lefs indifferent, as the most important intereft of his people, and the most facred engagements of his Crown, are effenti, ally implicated therein. The magnanimity of the King, his inviolable good faith, and his defire to restore repose to fo many nations, lead him, in this fituation of affairs, to con fider the means of procuring terms of Peace just and equitable for all the Belligerent Powers, and calculated to enfure in future the general tranquillity. It is on this footing then, that he pro-. poles to negociate, by offering to compenfate France, by proportionable re "By all thefe infults, equally deep and unparalleled, that nation has proved to the universe, that the recognizes no other laws than the aggrandizement of her commerce and by their defpotifin, which has exhausted my patience and fnoderation, he has forced me, as well to fupport the honour of my crown, as to protect my people against her attitutions, for thofe arrangements to tacks, to declare war against the King of England, his kingdom and vaffals, and to give orders and take the neceffary measures for the defence of my domains and my fubjects, and to repulfe the enemy." Signed by the King and the Secretary seof the Council of War. Done at the Palace of St. Laurenzo, $213, Q&. 5, 1796., ན On Saturday the 8th of October, War was proclaimed at Madrid in the ufual form. -Delivered to the Minifler of the French HIS Britannic Majefty defiring, as he Has already declared, to contribute, as far as depends on himself, to the reeftablishment of public tranquility, and to enfure, by the means of juft, honourable, and folid conditions of peace, the fature repofe of Europe; his Majefty is of opinion, that the beft means of atraining, with all poffible expedition, that falutary end, will be to agree, at the beginning of the negociation, on the "general principle which thall ferve as a bafis for the definitive arrangements. The first objects of the negociation for peace, generally relate to the reftitu'tions and ceffions which the refpective parties have mutually to demand, in conTeqirence of the events of the war. Great Britain, after the uninterrupted Tuccéfs of her naval war, finds herfelf in fituation to have no reftituition to de'mand of France, from which, on the VOL. XXX. Nov. 1796. which he will be called upon to confent, in order to fatisfy the just demands of the King's Allies, and to preferve the political balance of Europe. Having made this first overture, his Majefty will, in the fequel, explain himself in a more extensive manner, on the application of this principle to the different objects which may be difcuffed between the refpective parties. It is this application which will conftitute the fubject of thofe difcuffions into which his Majefty has authorised his Minister to enter as foon as the princi ple to be adopted as the general bafis cf the negociation is known. But his Majesty cannot difpenfe with declaring, that if this generous and equitable offer fhall not be accepted, or if, unfortunately, the difcuffions which may enfue may fail in the defired effect, neither this general própofition, nor those more detailed which may refult from it, fhall be regarded, in any cafe, as points agreed upon or accorded by his Majesty. (Signed) MALMESBURY," Minifter Pienipotentiary from his, Britannic Majefty Paris, Oct. 24, 1796. |