terferences with the Indians) a disavowal. Why then are not the agents of such unauthorized, offensive, and injurious measures made examples of? For wherein, let me ask, consists the difference to us between their being the acts of government, or the acts of unauthorized officers or agents of the government, if we are to sustain all the evils, which flow from such measures?

To this catalogue may be added the indifference, nay more than indifference, with which the government of Great Britain received the advances of this country towards a friendly intercourse with it, even after the adoption of the present Constitution, and since the operation of the government; and, also, the ungracious and obnoxious characters, (rancorous refugees, as if done with design to insult the country,) whom they have sent among us as their agents, who, retaining all their former enmity, could see nothing through a proper medium, and, becoming the earwigs of their Minister here, were always laboring under some unfavorable information and impression; and probably not communicating in a less exceptionable manner than they themselves received or conceived them.

I give you these details, (and, if you should again converse with Lord Grenville on the subject, you are at liberty, unofficially, to mention them, or any of them, according to circumstances,) as evidences of the impolitic conduct-for so it strikes me of the British government towards these United States; that it may be seen how difficult it has been for the Executive, under such an accumulation of irritating circumstances, to maintain the ground of neutrality, which had been taken; and at a time, when the remembrance of the aid we had received from France in the revolution was fresh in every mind, and while the partizans of that country were continually contrasting the affections of that people, with the unfriendly disposition of the British government. And that, too, as I have observed before, while their own sufferings, during the war with the latter, had not been forgotten.

It is well known that peace has been, (to borrow a modern.

phrase,) the order of the day with me, since the disturbances in Europe first commenced. My policy has been, and will continue to be, while I have the honor to remain in the administration, to maintain friendly terms with, but be independent of, all the nations of the earth; to share in the broils of none; to fulfil our own engagements; to supply the wants, and be carriers for them all; being thoroughly convinced, that it is our policy and interest to do so. Nothing short of self-respect, and that justice which is essential to a national character, ought to involve us in war; for sure I am, if this country is preserved in tranquillity twenty years longer, it may bid defiance, in a just cause, to any power whatever; such, in that time, will be its population, wealth, and resources.

If Lord Grenville conceives, that the United States are not well disposed towards Great Britain, his candor, I am persuaded, will seek for the causes, and his researches will fix them as I have done. If this should be the case, his policy will be opposed to the continuance or renewal of the irritating measures, which I have enumerated; for he may be assuredthough the assurance will not, it is probable, carry conviction with it from me to a member of the British administrationthat a liberal policy will be one of the most effectual means of deriving advantages to their trade and manufactures from the people of the United States. It will contribute, more than anything else, to obliterate the impressions, which have been made by their late conduct towards us.

In a government as free as ours, where the people are at liberty, and will express their sentiments-oftentimes imprudently, and, for want of information, sometimes unjustly,― allowances must be made for occasional effervescences; but, after the declaration which I have here made of my political creed, you can run no hazard in asserting, that the executive branch of this government never has suffered, nor will suffer, while I preside, any improper conduct of its officers to escape with impunity, nor give its sanctions to any disorderly proceedings of its citizens.

By a firm adherence to these principles, and to the neutral policy which has been adopted, I have brought on myself a torrent of abuse in the factious papers in this country, and from the enmity of the discontented of all descriptions. But, having no sinister objects in view, I shall not be diverted from my course by these, nor any attempts which are, or shall be, made to withdraw the confidence of my constituents from I have nothing to ask; and, discharging my duty, I have nothing to fear from invective. The acts of my administration will appear when I am no more, and the intelligent and candid part of mankind will not condemn my conduct without recurring to them.

me.

The treaty entered into with Great Britain has, as you have been informed, undergone much and severe animadversion; and though a more favorable one were to have been wished, which the policy perhaps of Great Britain might have granted, yet its demerits are not to be estimated by the opposition it has received; nor is this opposition sanctioned by the great body of the yeomanry in these States. They, whatev er their opinions of it may be, are disposed to leave the decision where the Constitution has placed it. But an occasion was wanting, and the instrument, by those who required it, was deemed well calculated for the purpose of working upon the affections of the people of this country towards those of France, whose interests and rights, under our treaty with that nation, they represented as being violated; and, with the aid of the Provision Order, and the irritating conduct of the British ships of war and agents, as mentioned before, the means were furnished, and more pains taken, than upon any former occasion, to raise a general ferment with a view to defeat the treaty.

But knowing that you have other correspondents, who have more leisure, and are equally capable of detailing these matters, I will leave you to them and the gazettes for fuller information, and a more minute account of the prevailing politics. Thanking you for the interesting intelligence and opin

ions contained in your letter of the 22d of August, I shall only add, that, with sincere esteem and regard, I am, Dear Sir, your affectionate friend,

GEORGE WASHINGTON.

TO GEORGE WASHINGTON.

My Dear Sir,

London, January 5th, 1796.

I did myself the honor of writing to you on the nineteenth of last month, of which letter I now transmit a copy. I expressed an idea in the close of it, which may perhaps require an explanatory observation. Suppose it should be admitted in general, that the neutral, who, by virtue of a special permission granted during the war, exercises a commerce with the belligerent power's dominion, from which he was excluded during the peace, should be considered as taking part so far with such power, and be liable, in consequence, to seizure and confiscation; are there not circumstances, which must generally qualify that general position? In the particular application of it to the commerce with colonies in the West Indies, are there not circumstances, which require particular exceptions, in regard to the United States. I incline in both cases to the affirmative, and I consider it as highly important, that the law of nations, on these points, should receive a clear exposition by that species of tribunal, which our late treaty with this country has established.

It is also my opinion, and ever has been, that the maxim, free ships make free goods, is in principle unfounded, will in practice be disregarded, and in its application to us cannot but prove injurious. As to the principle, I will say nothing, because the stipulations made to that effect, between contracting powers, show it to be their opinion that the law is otherwise. For these stipulations are not in the nature of a declaration, as to what the law is, but of an exception to it. As to the prac

tice, it will be sufficient to remark on the conduct, which France has pursued towards us during the present war.

But as to the application of this principle towards the United States, in any war which we may sustain against one of the commercial powers, it may be proper to view it well before we submit to it. Whenever, and in so far, as we shall have agreed to it, we cannot, as others do, shake off the shackles of our plighted faith. Our enemy, although bound up to the same principle, will, if it prove inconvenient, find pretexts to elude, or else wholly disavow it. We are then reduced to the necessity of pursuing his steps, to the violation of our faith, and of our Constitution, the greatest, in my opinion, of all possible evils; or else we must see the commerce of our enemy secured by a neutral flag, and our own exposed to capture.

Let it, however, be admitted, that our enemy will respect the principle, which his treaties, like ours, have established with a neutral power, shall we then stand on an equal footing with him? Certainly not. I know not any part of our commerce, which neutrals may not carry on, upon their own account, both in peace and in war. Our country, therefore, could suffer no suspension of her trade by being engaged in hostilities. But the case of our enemy would be widely different. The powers of Europe, from the defect of a liberal policy, and the operation of mutual jealousies, have attached themselves more or less to barbarous systems of monopoly and exclusion. Hence it happens, that, in time of war, neutral subjects cannot take up those branches of commerce, which, in the hands of those who are exposed to capture, become extremely precarious, without exposing themselves to great risk and damage, should the opposed power go to the full exercise of his rights.

And this is most particularly the case in regard to all those commodities produced by the southern part of our hemisphere. These, taken in the mass, form the most valuable commerce, which the nations of Europe possess, and, by the immutable laws of nature, they must be transported, as it were, by our