ftated the admiffion of the difficulty already mentioned, proceeds to fay" It is further agreed, that whenever any fuch articles fo becoming contraband according to the laws of nations, fhall, for that reafon, be feized, the fame fhall not be confifcated, but the owners thereof fhall be fpeedily and completely indemnified."

It is too clear to admit of conteftation, that this claufe does not declare provisions to be contraband, or admit of their seizure in any other cafes than when," according to the exifting law of nations, they should become contraband;" in fuch cafe, the right to feize them is not given by this article, but it is admitted by France, and by all the world, to exift independent of treaty. In fuch cafe, they would have been feized, had this ftipulation never been entered into, and would had been confifcated alfo. The only alteration which is, by the letter of the claufe, produced in the law of nations, is, to exempt from confifcation goods which, under that law would have been fubject to it.

But it has been fufpected to have an object and an operation in practice different from its letter. It has been fufpected to cover a design to admit fubftantially certain principles with respect to blockades which in theory are denied.

Incapable of duplicity, America, with the pride of conscious integrity, repels this infinuation, and courts an investigation of the facts on which it is founded.

The government of the United States and that of Britain having conftrued the law of nations differently in this refpect, each would have acted upon its own opinion of that law; the privateers of England would have feized as contraband any goods deemed fuch in their courts of admiralty; and the government of the United States would have reclaimed fuch goods, and would have fupported the demand in fuch a manner as its own judgment dictated. This procedure is not changed. The right to make fuch reclamations has not been relinquifhed, nor has the legality of the seizure, in any other cafe than that of an attempt to enter a place actually invefted, been in any degree admitted.

It is true, that the British government renewed the order 'concerning provifions about the time of the ratification of this treaty; but it is not lefs true, that the government of the United States manifefted a firm refolution to fubmit to no fuch construction, and remonftrated fo feriously against it as to produce a revocation of the order. Nor is this all: claims for provisions seized in cafes of a mere proclamation-blockade, have been actually made, and have been actually decided in favour of the claimants. The British government has acquiefced under fuch decisions, by paying the fums awarded. Thefe fums were not limited to a reasonable profit on the price of the commodity feized, but were

regulated

regulated by its price at the port of deftination; and, confequently, the actual as well as avowed principle of fuch decifions was, that the goods feized had not become contraband, according to the exifting law of nations."

The intention of the government then, and the practice under the article, are in direct oppofition to these injurious fufpicions, the indulgence of which has produced fuch pernicious effects. It is even believed that the decifion on this fubject will be one step towards the establishment of that principle for which America has never ceafed to contend. It is also believed, and has ever been believed, that the article objected to would have a necellary tendency to increase, and did, in fact, increase-the quantity of provifions imported from America into France and her colonies. The American commerce, being entirely in the hands of individuals, is confequently conducted by them according to their own views of particular advantage: they will unqueftionably endeavour to fupply the highest market, unless re. frained from doing fo by other confiderations which render it unadvisable to attempt fuch a fupply. In their calculation, the risk of reducing the market is too important an item to be paffed over or forgotten. Every diminution of this rifk adds to the number of those who will attempt the fupply; and confequently a knowledge that the voyage, fhould it even fail by the feizure of the veffel, would yet be profitable, muft increase the number of thofe who would make it.

It is plain then, that this article admits the feizure of provifions in no fituation where they were not before feizable; and encourages their tranfportation to France and her colonies, by diminishing the rifk of fuch transportation.

It is alfo complained of, that this treaty has not, "as all treaties do, pointed out particularly the cafes of the effective blockade of a place," as alone forming an exception to the freedom of provisions.

Articles in a treaty can only be inferted by confent. The United States therefore can never be refponfible for not having infertéd an article to which the other contracting party would not alent. They may refufe to make any change in the existing fate of things prejudicial to themselves or to other powers; and they have refufed to make any fuch change: but it is not in their power to infert, as by common confent, an article, though merely declaratory of a principle which they confidered as certainly exifting, and which they mean to fupport if fuch common confent be unattainable. All that can be done in fuch a cafe is, to leave the principle unimpaired, referving entirely the right to affert it. This has been done: the principle was left unimired, and has been fince fuccessfully afferted.

The

The United States are at all times truly folicitous to diminish as much as poffible the lift of contraband. It is their interest, in common with all other nations whofe policy is peace, to enlarge, fo far as they can be enlarged, the rights of neutrals. This intereft is a fure guarantee for their uling thefe means which they think calculated to effect the object, and which a just regard to their fituation will permit. But they must be allowed to purfue the object in fuch a manner as may comport with that fituation. While they furrender no actual right, in preferving which there is a common intereft, while they violate no pre-exifting engagements (and thefe they have not furrendered or violated), they must judge exclufively for themselves how far they will or ought to go in their efforts to acquire new rights or esta blith new principles. When they furrender this privilege, they ceafe to be independent, and they will no longer deferve to be free. They will have furrendered in other hands the most facred of depofits-the right of felf-government; and instead of the approbation they will merit the contempt of the world.

Thofe parts of the treaty between the United States and Britain, which have been felected by France as injurious to her, have now been examined. The underfigned are too well convinced that they in no degree juftify the enmity they are alleged to have produced, not to rely on a candid réconfideration of them. as a fure mean of removing the impreffions they are supposed to have made.

Before this fubject is entirely clofed, one other objection will be noticed. The very formation of a commercial treaty with England feems to be reprobated, as furnishing just caufe of offence to France; and Mr. Adet has permitted himself to fay—

It was a little matter only to allow the English to avail themfelves of the advantages of our treaty: it was necessary to affure thofe to them by, the aid of a contract which might ferve at once as a reply to the claims of France, and as peremptory mo tives for refufals; the true caufe of which it was requifite inceffantly to difguife to her under fpecious pretexts. Such was the object of Mr. Jay's miffion to London; fuch was the object of a negotiation enveloped from its origin in the fhadow of myftery, and covered with the veil of diffimulation."

Paffing over this extraordinary language, the undersigned, being only defirous of producing accommodation by the exhibition of truth, will confider the opinion which is obliquely hinted, and the fact which is directly averred.

The practice of forming commercial treaties is fo univerfal among other nations having any commercial intercourse with each other, that it feems unneceffary to difcufs their utility. The right to form thofe treaties has been fo univerfally afferted and admitted, that it seems to be the infeparable attribute of fovereignty

to

to be queftioned only by thofe who queftion the right of a nation to govern itself, and to be ceded only by those who are prepared to cede their independence.

*

But the prosperity of the United States is in a peculiar degree promoted by external commerce. A people almost exclusively agricultural have not within themselves a market for the furplus produce of their labour, or a fufficient number and variety of articles of exchange to fupply the wants of the cultivators; they cannot have an internal which will compenfate for the loss of an external commerce: they muft fearch abroad for manufactures, for many other articles which contribute to the comfort and convenience of life, and they muft fearch abroad alfo for a market for that large portion of the productions of their foil which cannot be confumed at home. The policy of a nation thus circumftanced muft ever be to encourage external commerce, and to open to itself every market for the difpofition of its fuperfluities and the fupply of its wants. The commercial and manufacturing character and capacities of England must turn into that channel a confiderable portion of the commerce of any nation under the circumstances of the United States. It is a market too important and too valuable to be voluntarily closed; in confequence, a confiderable portion of their commerce has taken that direction, and a continual folicitude has been manifefted to regulate and fecure it by contract. To abolith this commerce, or to refuse to give it permanence and fecurity by fair and equal ftipulations, would be a facrifice which no nation ought to require, and which no nation ought to make. In forming her treaty of amity and commerce with the United States, France claimed no fuch prerogative. That treaty declares the intention of the parties to be, to fix, in an equitable and permanent manner, the rules which ought to be followed relative to the commerce and correfpondence which the two parties defire to establish between their respective countries, ftates, and fubjects;" and that "they have judged that the faid end could not be better obtained than by taking for the bafis of their agreement the moft perfect equality and reciprocity; and by carefully avoiding all those burdenfome preferences which are ufually fources of debate, embarraffment, and difcontent; by leaving alfo each party at liberty to make, refpecting commerce and navigation, thofe interior regulations which it shall find most convenient to itself, and by founding the advantages of commerce folely upon reciprocal utility and the juft rules of free intercourse, referving to each party the liberty of admitting at its pleasure, other nations to a participation of the fame' advantages.' The treaty itself contains no ftipulation in any degree contradictory to thofe declarations of the preamble, or which could fuggeft a fufpicion, that under thefe declarations was concealed a wish to abridge the fovereignty of the United States with respect to trea

ties, or to control their interests in regard to commerce. In forming a commercial treaty with Britain, therefore, in which no peculiar privilege is granted, the government of the United States believed itself to be tranfacting a bufinefs exclufively its own, which could give umbrage to none, and which no other nation on earth would confider itself as having a right to interfere in. There existed, confequently, no motive for concealing from France, or any other power, that the negotiation of Mr. Jay might or might not terminate in a commercial treaty. The de claration therefore was not made; nor is it ufual for nations about to enter into negotiations to proclaim to others the various objects to which thofe negotiations may poffibly be directed. Such is not, nor has it ever been, the practice of France. To fuppofe a neceffity or a duty on the part of one government thus to proclaim all its views, or to confult another with respect to its arrangement of its own affairs, is to imply a dependence to which no government ought willingly to fubmit. So far as the interefts of France might be involved in the negotiation, the inftructions given to the negotiator were promptly communicated. The minifter of this republic was informed officially, that Mr. Jay was inftructed not to weaken the engagements of the United States to France. Farther information was neither to have been required nor expected indeed, that which was given furnished reafon to fuppofe that one of the objects of the negotiation with Great Britain was a commercial treaty. Why then fuch unneceffary and unmerited farcafms against a cautious and unoffending ally? Those objects which the purfued were fuch as an independent nation might legitimately purfue, and fuch as America never had diffembled, and never deemed it necessary to diffemble her wish 、to obtain.

Why should an effort be made to imprefs France with an opinion that Mr. Jay was not authorized to negotiate a commercial treaty with Britain, when the fixed opinion of America had ever been, that France could not be and ought not to be diffatiffied with the formation of fuch a treaty? Why should the mirifter of France have been informed officially that Mr. Jay was especially inftructed not to weaken the engagement of the United States to France, if it was intended to convince that minister that his powers did not extend to fubjects in any degree connected with those engagements? To what purpose fhould the government of the United States have practifed a deception deemed by itself totally unneceffary, and which its utmost efforts could not long continue? It requires an equal degree of folly and vice to practise an useless fraud which muft inevitably and immediately be detected, and the detection of which must expofe its author to general infamy, as well as the enmity of those on whom the fraud had been practifed. Thefe confiderations ought to VOL. VII. have

K k