He was for the President's using
such expressions, as should neither affirm his right to make such
a declaration to foreign nations, nor yield it. Randolph and myself
opposed the right of the President to declare any thing future on the
question, Shall there or shall there not be a war? and that no such
thing was intended; that Hamilton's construction of the effect of the
proclamation would have been a determination of the question of the
guarantee, which we both denied to have intended, and I had at the
time declared the executive incompetent to. Randolph said he meant that
foreign nations should understand it as an intimation of the President's
opinion, that neutrality would be our interest. I declared my meaning to
have been, that foreign nations should understand no such thing; that,
on the contrary, I would have chosen them to be doubtful, and to come
and bid for our neutrality. I admitted the President, having received
the nation at the close of Congress in a state of peace, was bound to
preserve them in that state till Congress should meet again, and might
proclaim any thing which went no farther. The President declared he
never had an idea that he could bind Congress against declaring war, or
that any thing contained in his proclamation could look beyond the first
day of their meeting. His main view was to keep our people in peace;
he apologized for the use of the term neutrality in his answers,
and justified it, by having submitted the first of them (that to the
merchants, wherein it was used) to our consideration, and we had not
objected to the term.
Pages:
809
810
811
812
813
814
815
816
817
818
819
820
821
822
823
824
825
826
827
828
829
830
831
832
833