FOREIGN
RELATIONS / NEUTRALITY
...The President has appointed Rufus King to
make a commercial treaty with the Russians in London, and William
Smith, of South Carolina, to go to Constantinople to make one with
the Turks. Both appointments are confirmed by the Senate. A little
dissatisfaction was expressed by some that we should never have
treated with them till the moment when they had formed a coalition
with the English against the French You have seen that the Directory
had published an arret declaring they would treat as pirates any
neutrals they should take in the ships of their enemies. The
President communicated this to Congress as soon as he received it. A
bill was brought into Senate reciting that arret, and authorizing
retaliation. The President received information almost in the same
instant that the Directory had suspended the arret (which fact was
privately declared by the Secretary of State to two of the Senate),
and, though it was known we were passing an act founded on that
arret, yet the President has never communicated the suspension.
However, the Senate, informed indirectly of the fact, still passed
the act yesterday, an hour after we had heard of the return of our
vessel and crew before mentioned. It is acknowledged on all hands,
and declared by the insurance companies that the British
depredations during the last six months have greatly exceeded the
French, yet not a word is said about it officially. However, all
these things are working on the public mind. They are getting back
to the point where they were when the X. Y. Z. story was passed off
on them. |
Archibald
Stuart
13 Feb 1799 |
FOREIGN
RELATIONS / NEUTRALITY
We believe the practice of seizing what is
called contraband of war, is an abusive practice, not founded in
natural right. War between two nations cannot diminish the rights of
the rest of the world remaining at peace. The doctrine that the
rights of nations remaining quietly in the exercise of moral and
social duties, are to give way to the convenience of those who
prefer plundering and murdering one another, is a monstrous
doctrine; and ought to yield to the more rational law, that "the
wrong which two nations endeavor to inflict on each other, must not
infringe on the rights or conveniences of those remaining at peace."
And what is contraband, by the law of nature? Either
everything which may aid or comfort an enemy, or nothing. Either all
commerce which would accommodate him is unlawful, or none is. The
difference between articles of one or another description, is a
difference in degree only. No line between them can be drawn. Either
all intercourse must cease between neutrals and belligerents, or all
be permitted. Can the world hesitate to say which shall be the rule?
Shall two nations turning tigers, break up in one instant the
peaceable relations of the whole world? Reason and nature clearly
pronounce that the neutral is to go on in the enjoyment of all its
rights, that its commerce remains free, not subject to the
jurisdiction of another, nor consequently its vessels to search, or
to enquiries whether their contents are the property of an enemy, or
are of those which have been called contraband of war.
Although I consider the observance of these principles as of great
importance to the interests of peaceable nations, among whom I hope
the United States will ever place themselves, yet in the present
state of things they are not worth a war. Nor do I believe war the
most certain means of enforcing them. Those peaceable coercions
which are in the power of every nation, if undertaken in concert and
in time of peace, are more likely to produce the desired effect.
|
Robert
R. Livingston
9 Sep 1801 |
FOREIGN
RELATIONS / NEUTALITY
I considered your letter of November 10th,
12th, as an evidence of the interest you were so kind as to take in
the welfare of the United States, and I was even flattered by your
exhortations to avoid taking any part in the war then raging in
Europe, because they were a confirmation of the policy I had myself
pursued, and which I thought and still think should be the governing
canon of our republic. Distance, and difference of pursuits, of
interests, of connections and other circumstances, prescribe to us a
different system, having no object in common with Europe, but a
peaceful interchange of mutual comforts for mutual wants. But this
may not always depend on ourselves; and injuries may be so
accumulated by an European power, as to pass all bounds of wise
forbearance.
I learned with great pleasure your return to your native country.
It is the only one which offers elements of society analogous to the
powers of your mind, and sensible of the flattering distinction of
possessing them. It is true that the great events which made an
opening for your return, have been reversed. But not so, I hope, the
circumstances which may admit its continuance. On these events I
shall say nothing. At our distance, we hear too little truth and too
much falsehood to form correct judgments concerning them; and they
are moreover foreign to our umpirage. We wish the happiness and
prosperity of every nation; we did not believe either of these
promoted by the former pursuits of the present ruler of France, and
hope that his return, if the nation wills it to be permanent, may be
marked by those changes which the solid good of his own country, and
the peace and well-being of the world, may call for. But these
things I leave to whom they belong; the object of this letter being
only to convey to you a vindication of my own country, and to have
the honor on a new occasion of tendering you the homage of my great
consideration, and respectful attachment. |
La
Baronne de Stael-Holstein
(Madame)
3 Jul 1815 |
FOREIGN
RELATIONS / NONINTERVENTION IN DOMESTIC POLITICS
On the question you propose, whether we can, in
any form, take a bolder attitude than formerly in favor of liberty,
I can give you but commonplace ideas. They will be but the widow's
mite, and offered only because requested. The matter which now
embroils Europe, the presumption of dictating to an independent
nation the form of its government, is so arrogant, so atrocious,
that indignation, as well as moral sentiment, enlists all our
partialities and prayers in favor of one, and our equal execrations
against the other. I do not know, indeed, whether all nations do not
owe to one another a bold and open declaration of their sympathies
with the one party, and their detestation of the conduct of the
other. But farther than this we are not bound to go; and, indeed,
for the sake of the world, we ought not to increase the jealousies,
or draw on ourselves the power of this formidable confederacy [Holy
Alliance]. I have ever deemed it fundamental for the United States,
never to take active part in the quarrels of Europe. |
James
Monroe
11 Jun 1823 |
FOREIGN
RELATIONS / PREPAREDNESS FOR WAR
I feel great anxiety for the occurrences of the
ensuing four or five months. If peace can be preserved, I hope and
trust you will have a smooth administration. I know no government
which would be so embarrassing in war as ours. This would proceed
very much from the lying and licentious character of our papers; but
much, also, from the wonderful credulity of the members of Congress
in the floating lies of the day. And in this no experience seems to
correct them. I have never seen a Congress during the last eight
years, a great majority of which I would n6t implicitly have relied
on in any question, could their minds have been purged of all errors
of fact. The evil, too, increases greatly with the protraction of
the session, and I apprehend, in case of war, their session would
have a tendency to become permanent. |
James
Madison
17 Mar 1809 |
FOREIGN
RELATIONS / PROSPECTS OF WAR
My countrymen are groaning under the insults of
Great Britain. I hope some means will turn up of reconciling our
faith and honor with peace. I confess to you I have seen enough of
one war never to wish to see another. |
George
Washington
25 Apr 1794 |
FOREIGN
RELATIONS / PUBLICATION OF PEACE NEGOTIATIONS
…no ground of support for the Executive
will ever be so sure as a complete knowledge of their proceedings by
the people; and it is only in cases where the public good would be
injured, and because it would be injured, that proceedings
should be secret. In such cases it is the duty of the Executive to
sacrifice their personal interests (which would be promoted by
publicity) to the public interest. If the negotiations with England
are at an end, if not given to the public now, when are they to be
given? and what moment can be so interesting? If anything amiss
should happen from the concealment, where will the blame originate
at last? It may be said, indeed, that the President puts it in the
power of the Legislature to communicate these proceedings to their
constituents; but is it more their duty to communicate them to
their constituents, than it is the President's to communicate them
to his constituents? And if they were desirous of communicating
them, ought the President to restrain them by making the
communication confidential? I think no harm can be done by the
publication, because it is impossible England, after doing us an
injury, should declare war against us, merely because we tell our
constituents of it; and I think good may be done, because while it
puts it in the power of the Legislature to adopt peaceable measures
of doing ourselves justice, it prepares the minds of our
constituents to go cheerfully into an acquiescence under the
measures, by impressing them with a thorough and enlightened
conviction that they are founded in right The motive, too, of
proving to the people the impartiality of the Executive between the
two nations of France and England, urges strongly that while they
are to see the disagreeable things which have been going on as to
France, we should not conceal from them what has been passing with
England, and induce a belief that nothing has been doing. |
George
Washington
2 Dec 1793 |
FOREIGN
RELATIONS / RUSSIA
I avoid writing to my friends because the
fidelity of the post office is very much doubted. I will give you
briefly a statement of what we have done and are doing . . . The
President has appointed Rufus King to make a commercial treaty with
the Russians in London, and William Smith, of South Carolina, to go
to Constantinople to make one with the Turks. Both appointments are
confirmed by the Senate. A little dissatisfaction was expressed by
some that we should never have treated with them till the moment
when they had formed a coalition with the English against the French
You have seen that the Directory had published an arret declaring
they would treat. as pirates any neutrals they should take in the
ships of their enemies. The President communicated this to Congress
as soon as he received it. A bill was brought into Senate reciting
that arret, and authorizing retaliation. The President received
information almost in the same instant that the Directory had
suspended the arret (which fact was privately declared by the
Secretary of State to two of the Senate), and, though it was known
we were passing an act founded on that arret, yet the President has
never communicated the suspension. However, the Senate, informed
indirectly of the fact, still passed the act yesterday, an hour
after we had heard of the return of our vessel and crew before
mentioned. It is acknowledged on all hands, and declared by the
insurance companies that the British depredations during the last
six months have greatly exceeded the French, yet not a word is said
about it officially. However, all these things are working on the
public mind. They are getting back to the point where they were when
the X. Y. Z. story was passed off on them. A wonderful and rapid
change is taking place in Pennsylvania, Jersey; and New York.
Congress is daily piled with petitions against the alien and
sedition laws and standing armies. Several parts of this State are
so violent that we fear an insurrection. This will be brought about
by some if they can. It is the only thing we have to fear. The
appearance of an attack of force against the government would check
the present current of the middle States, and rally them around the
government; whereas, if suffered to go on, it will pass on to a
reformation of abuses. The materials now bearing on the public mind
will infallibly restore it to its republican soundness in the course
of the present summer, if the knowledge of facts can only be
disseminated among the people. Under separate cover you will receive
some pamphlets written by George Nichols on the acts of the last
session. These I would wish you to distribute, not to sound men who
have no occasion for them, but to such as have been misled, are
candid and will be open to the conviction of truth, and are of
influence among their neighbors. It is the sick who need medicine,
and not the well. Do not let my name appear in the matter. Perhaps I
shall forward you some other things to be distributed in the same
way. |
Archibald
Stuart
13 Feb 1799 |
FOREIGN
RELATIONS / RUSSIA
Great and Good Friend, Your friendly
interposition for the relief of the crew of an American frigate
stranded on the coast of Tripoli has been recently made known to me.
For this act of benevolence and proof of your disposition to
befriend our young republic, its Secretary of State conveys the
official expression of its sensibility. But I should illy satisfy my
own feelings did I not add my individual acknowledgments for a favor
directly tending to facilitate the administration of affairs of my
country with which I am personally charged.
To the barbarians whose habitual violations of the laws of nature
have produced the occasion of this friendly office, we have sent
expressions of very different feelings by the squadron which has
just left our ports destined for theirs. Should the Commodore find
that in consequence of your Imperial Majesty's interposition, they
shall already have done us voluntary justice, he will let them owe
to your favor his abstinence from every act of force. Otherwise he
will endeavor, by the means he is furnished with, to convince them
it will be their interest to injure us no more.
I see with great pleasure the rising commerce between our two
countries. We have not gone into the policy which the European
nations have so long tried and to so little effect of multiplying
commercial treaties. In national as in individual dealings, more
liberality will, perhaps, be found in voluntary regulations than in
those which are measured out by the strict letter of a treaty,
which, whenever it becomes onerous, is made by forced construction
to mean anything or nothing, engenders disputes and brings on war.
But your flag will find in our harbors hospitality, freedom and
protection and your subjects enjoy all the privileges of the most
favored nation. The favorable reception of our consul at St.
Petersburg, and the friendly sentiments conveyed through your
Minister of Foreign Affairs, is an earnest that our merchants also
will meet due favor in your ports.
I avail myself of this occasion of expressing the exalted pleasure
I have felt in observing the various acts of your administration
during the short time you have yet been on the throne of your
country, and seeing in them manifestations of the virtue and wisdom
from which they flow. What has not your country to hope from a
career which has begun from such auspicious developments! Sound
principles, pursued with a steady step, dealing out good
progressively as your people are prepared to receive and to hold it
fast, cannot fail to carry them and yourself far in the improvement
of their condition during the course of your life. |
Alexander
I
15 Jun 1804 |
FOREIGN
RELATIONS / RUSSIA
I owe an acknowledgment to your Imperial
Majesty for the great satisfaction I have received from your letter
of August the 20th, 1805, and embrace the opportunity it affords of
giving expression to the sincere respect and veneration I entertain
for your character. It will be among the latest and most soothing
comforts of my life, to have seen advanced to the government of so
extensive a portion of the earth, and at so early a period of his
life, a sovereign whose ruling passion is the advancement of the
happiness and prosperity of his people; and not of his own people
only, but who can extend his eye and his good will to a distant and
infant nation, unoffending in its course, unambitious in its views.
The events of Europe come to us so late, and so suspiciously, that
observations on them would certainly be stale, and possibly wide of
their actual state. From their general aspect, however, I collect
that your Majesty's interposition in them has been disinterested and
generous, and having in view only the general good of the great
European family. When you shall proceed to the pacification which is
to re-establish peace and commerce, the same dispositions of mind
will lead you to think of the general inter-course of nations, and
to make that provision for its future maintenance which, in times
past, it has so much needed. |
To
the Emperor of Russia
19 Apr 1806 |
FOREIGN
RELATIONS / RUSSIA
I have often wished for an occasion of saying a
word to you on the subject of the Emperor of Russia, of whose
character and value to us, I suspect you are not apprised correctly.
A more virtuous man, I believe, does not exist, nor one who is more
enthusiastically devoted to better the condition of mankind. He will
probably, one day, fall a victim to it, as a monarch of that
principle does not suit a Russian noblesse. He is not of the very
first order of understanding, but he is of a high one. He has taken
a peculiar affection to this country and its government, of which.
he has given me public as well as personal proofs. Our nation being,
like his, habitually neutral, our interests as to neutral rights,
and our. sentiments agree. And whenever conferences for peace shall
take place, we are assured of a friend in him. In fact, although in
questions of restitution he will be with England, in those of
neutral rights he will be with Bonaparte and with every other power
in the world, except England; and I do presume that England will
never have peace until she subscribes to a just code of marine law.
I have gone into this subject, because I am confident that Russia
(while her present monarch lives) is the most cordially friendly to
us of any power on earth, will go furthest to serve us, and is most
worthy of conciliation. And although the source of this information
must be a matter of confidence with you, yet it is desirable that
the sentiments should become those of the nation. I salute you with
esteem and respect. |
William
Duane
20 Jul 1807 |
FOREIGN
RELATIONS / RUSSIA
Alexander is unquestionably a man of an
excellent heart, and of very respectable strength of mind; and he is
the only sovereign who cordially loves us. Bonaparte hates our
government because it is a living libel on his. The English hate us
because they think our prosperity filched from theirs. Of
Alexander's sense of the merits (of our form of government, of its
whole-some operation on the condition of the people, and of the
interest he takes in the success of our experiment, we possess the
most unquestionable proofs; and to him we shall be indebted if the
rights of neutrals, to be settled whenever peace is made, shall be
extended beyond the present belligerents; that is to say, European
neutrals, as George and Napoleon, of mutual consent and common
hatred against us, would concur in excluding us. I thought it a
salutary measure to engage the powerful patronage of Alexander at
conferences for peace, at a time when Bonaparte was courting him;
and although circumstances have lessened its weight, yet it is
prudent for us to cherish his good dispositions, as those alone
which will be exerted in our favor when that occasion shall occur.
He, like ourselves, sees and feels the atrociousness of both the
belligerents. I salute you with great esteem and respect.
|
William
Duane
(Colonel)
13 Nov 1810 |
FOREIGN
RELATIONS / RUSSIA
I am afraid our quondam favorite Alexander has
swerved from the true faith. His becoming an accomplice of the
soi-disant Holy Alliance, the anti-national principles he has
separately avowed, and his becoming the very leader of a combination
to chain mankind down eternally to oppressions of the most barbarous
ages, are clouds on his character not easily to be cleared away. But
these are problems for younger heads than mine. You will see their
solution and tell me of it in another world. I salute you with great
friendship and respect. |
Levett
Harris
12 Dec 1821 |
FOREIGN
RELATIONS / LATIN AMERICA
Those countries are beginning to be interesting
to the whole world. They are now becoming the scenes of political
revolution, to take their stations as integral members of the great
family of nations. All are now in insurrection. In several, the
Independents are already triumphant, and they will undoubtedly be so
in all. What kind of government will they establish? How much
liberty can they bear without intoxication? Are their chiefs
sufficiently enlightened to form a well-guarded government, and
their people to watch their chiefs? Have they mind enough to place
their domesticated Indians on a footing with the whites? All these
questions you can answer better than any other. I imagine they will
copy our outlines of confederation and elective government, abolish
distinction of ranks, bow the neck to their priests, and persevere
in intolerantism. Their greatest difficulty will be in the
construction of their executive. I suspect that, regardless of the
experiment of France, and of that of the United States in 1784, they
will begin with a directory, and when the unavoidable schisms in
that kind of executive shall drive them to something else, their
great question will come on whether to substitute an executive
elective for years, for life, or an hereditary one. But unless
instruction can be spread among them more rapidly than experience
promises, despotism may come upon them before they are qualified to
save the ground they will have gained. |
Alexander
von Humboldt
14 Apr 1811 |
FOREIGN
RELATIONS / SOUTH AMERICA
I wish I could give better hopes of our
southern brethren. The achievement of their independence of Spain is
no longer a question. But it is a very serious one, what will then
become of them? Ignorance and bigotry, like other insanities, are
incapable of self-government. They will fall under military
despotism, and become the murderous tools of the ambition of their
respective Bonapartes; and whether this will be for their greater
happiness, the rule of one only has taught us to judge. No one, I
hope, can doubt my wish to see them and all mankind exercising
self-government, and capable of exercising it. But the question is
not what we wish, but what is practicable? As their sincere friend
and brother then, I do believe the best thing for them, would be for
themselves to come to an accord with Spain, under the guarantee of
France, Russia, Holland, and the United States, allowing to Spain a
nominal supremacy, with authority only to keep the peace among them,
leaving them otherwise all the powers of self-government, until
their experience in them, their emancipation from their priests, and
advancement in information, shall prepare them for complete
independence. I exclude England from this confederacy, because her
selfish principles render her incapable of honorable patronage or
disinterested co-operation. |
Marquis
de Lafayette
14 May 1817 |
FOREIGN
RELATIONS / SPAIN AND SOUTH AMERICA
The ground you have taken with Spain is sound
in every part. It is the true ground, especially, as to the South
Americans. When subjects are able to maintain themselves in the
field, they are then an independent power as to all neutral nations,
are entitled to their commerce, and to protection within their
limits. Every kindness which can be shown the South Americans, every
friendly office and aid within the limits of the law of nations, I
would extend to them, without fearing Spain or her Swiss
auxiliaries. For this is but an assertion of our own independence.
But to join in their war, as General Scott proposes, and to which
even some members of Congress seem to squint, is what we ought not
to do as yet. On the question of our interest in their independence,
were that alone a sufficient motive of action, much may be said on
both sides. When they are free, they will drive every article of our
produce from every market, by underselling it, and change the
condition of our existence, forcing us into other habits and
pursuits. We shall, indeed, have in exchange some commerce with
them, but in what I know not, for we shall have nothing to offer
which they cannot raise cheaper; and their separation from Spain
seals our everlasting peace with her On the other hand, so long as
they are dependent, Spain, from her jealousy, is our natural enemy,
and always in either open or secret hostility with us. These
countries, too, in war, will be a powerful weight in her scale, and,
in peace, totally shut to us. Interest then, on the whole, would
wish their independence, and justice makes the wish a duty. They
have a right to be free, and we a right to aid them, as a strong man
has a right to assist a weak one assailed by a robber or murderer.
|
James
Monroe
4 February 1816 |
FOREIGN
RELATIONS / SPAIN
I cannot say I am anxious about the Spanish
treaty; in giving up the province of Texas, we gave up a sugar
country sufficient for the supply of the United States. I would
rather keep that and trust to the inevitable falling of Florida into
our mouths. It is true, however, that present peace is secured by
the exchange. |
Henry
Dearborn
5 Jul 1819 |
FOREIGN
RELATIONS / SPAIN AND ENGLAND
On the question you propose, whether we can, in
any form, take a bolder attitude than formerly in favor of liberty,
I can give you but commonplace ideas. They will be but the widow's
mite, and offered only because requested. The matter which now
embroils Europe, the presumption of dictating to an independent
nation the form of its government, is so arrogant, so atrocious,
that indignation, as well as moral sentiment, enlists all our
partialities and prayers in favor of one, and our equal execrations
against the other. I do not know, indeed, whether all nations do not
owe to one another a bold and open declaration of their sympathies
with the one party, and their detestation of the conduct of the
other. But farther than this we are not bound to go; and indeed, for
the sake of the world, we ought not to increase the jealousies, or
draw on ourselves the power of this formidable confederacy. I have
ever deemed it fundamental for the United States, never to take
active part in the quarrels of Europe. Their political interests are
entirely distinct from ours. Their mutual jealousies, their balance
of power, their complicated alliances, their forms and principles of
government, are all foreign to us. They are nations of eternal war.
All their energies are expended in the destruction of the labor,
pr6perty and lives of their people.
On our part, never had a people so favorable a chance of trying the
opposite system, of peace and fraternity with mankind, and the
direction of all our means and faculties to the purposes of
improvement instead of destruction.
While no duty, therefore, calls on us to take part in the present
war of Europe, and a golden harvest offers itself in reward for
doing nothing, peace and neutrality seem to be our duty and
interest. We may gratify ourselves, indeed, with a neutrality as
partial to Spain as would be justifiable without giving cause of war
to her adversary . ... And I expect daily and confidently to hear of
a spark kindled in France, which will employ her at home, and
relieve Spain from all further apprehensions of danger.
That England is playing false with Spain cannot be doubted. Her
government is looking one way and rowing another. It is curious to
look back a little on past events. During the ascendency of
Bonaparte, the word among the herd of kings, was "sauve qui
peut." Each shifted for himself, and left his brethren to
squander and do the same as they could. After the battle of
Waterloo, and the military possession of France, they rallied and
combined in common cause, to maintain each other against any similar
and future danger. …There can be no doubt that the allies are
bound by treaty to aid England with their armies, should
insurrection take place among her people. This war is evidently that
of the general body of the aristocracy, in which England is also
acting her part. "Save but the nobles and there shall be no
war," says she, masking her measures at the same time under the
form of friendship and mediation, and hypocritically, while a party,
offering herself as a judge, to betray those whom she is not
permitted openly to oppose. A fraudulent neutrality, if neutrality
at all, is all Spain will get from her. And Spain, probably,
perceives this, and willingly winks at it rather than have her
weight thrown openly into the other scale. |
James
Monroe
11 Jun 1823 |
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