Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1844-12-28


ed and judicious Grotius assert that sovereign
may Justly take up arms to chastse nations which
: are guilty Of enormous transgressons of the law
of Nature, &c. What led him into this error was,
his attributing TO every independent man, and of
course to every sovereign, odd kind of right to
punish faults which involve an enormous violation
Of the laws Of Nature, though they do not affect
either his rights or his safety But we have shown
that men derive the right Of punishment solely
: from their right to provide for their own safety
and consequently they cannot claim it except
against those by whom they have been injured.
Could it escape Grotius, that, notwithstanding all
the precautions added by him in the following
paragraphs, his opinion opens door to allthsSa-
wages of enthusiasm and 6nancism, and furnishes
ambition with numberless pretcxts! -
No nation has right, any more than an indvi-
dual, to sally forth armed cap-apie for the purpose
of committing all sorts of violence under the plea or
pretence of avenging the wrong or correcting the
inhumanity practised by others. Commentators
on public law rdcule such enterprises as Quixotic,
applying to them indeed some of the most amusing
Gas well as nstructive) Incidents in the adventures
Of the Knight of the Rudu Countenance.
Not only does the Law of Nations most plainly
forbid the interference q any Nation on the ground
of its sympathies or sersibities, however excited,
in civil dissensons or war between any other Power
and its provinces or dependencies, but, until within
the last eighteen months, the doctrine and practice
of our own Government, in all its branches, has
been uniformly and invariably consistent with this
Law of Nations. Without stopping to search the
archives Of the Government from the commence
ment of the arising cut of the French Revolu-
ton, when President WASHINGTON, with character
istic wisdom and frmness, resisted and controlled
the disposition of his cll,wcitizens to rush into the
contest on the side of F,ance, we pass at once to
the breaking out of the war between Spain and her
Colonies, now the INDEPENDENT Republics of the
American continent. The first indication we find
Of the policy adopted for itself and recommended
to Congress by the Executive in this critical emer-
gency, is to be found in President MoNRoE's first
annual Message to Congress in December, 1917.
In that Message, after saying that it had been anti
cpated at an early stage, that this contest would
become highly interesting to the United States and
that " it was natural that our citizens should SYM
pathize in events which affected their ncighbors.
the Mossuge reerred to inculcaes the necessity of
maintaining .la.r of this Govnrnment an
impartial neutrality, giving aid to neither of the
The ground here taken, the reader will perceive,
is, distinctly, that sympathy and neighborhood
constitute no ground of interference in a civil war
raging within the confines of other Powers.
In the second annual Message of President MoN-
ROE, in recurring to the subject, he indicates his
opinion Of the duty, not of neutral nations only, but
of powers in alliance with of the parties to the
existing war. Mark the phrases italcised in the
following extract from that Message:
From the general policy and course of proceed
ings observed by the Allied Powers Tof Europe
in regard to this contest il is inferred that they
will conf,,e their i,terposfion 10 The expression,
| of their sentiments, absfaining from The appli-
cation of force. state this impression, that force
will not be applied, with the greater satisfaction
because il is more consistent Nth justice
and likewise authorizes hope that the caiauifies
| of tcdr will be confined 10 The parties only, and
will be of shorter duration"
| In his third annual Message again bringing this
subject to the notice of Congress, the President
speaking of the civil war still existing between
Spain and her Colonies, resated his opinion of the
duty and policy Of this Government in the following
terms:
| "a uirfuous people may and will confie them
seiues pithin the limits Of strict neutrality; but
| il is not in their power to behold conflict so vi
tally important TO their neighbors without the SEN
sibity and sympathy which naturally belong to
such case. IL has been the steady purpose OF
this Government to preuem that feeling leading
10 eccess," &c.
! In his next annual message, Mr.. MONROE spsaks
of the war as still existing, and with hope of al early
pacification between the parties to it. "Tepromote
that result" he says, "by friendly cou seis with
other Powers, including Spain herself, has been
the uniform policy of this Government" Itnever
occurred to him clearly to this patriot of the Revo-
luton, that convenient mode of terminating the
conflict with the Province which borders on our
territories at least, would be TO annex it. on the
plea either Of necessity humanity, both Of which
would (by the way) have been much more appca-
bic at that day than they are at the present.
In his sixth annual message, again presenting the
subject to the attention Of Congress, the Pre-
sident stated that it had been presumed that Spain
herself yielding to those magnanimous feelings Of
{ which history furnishes many examples, would
have terminated [by recognition Of the indepen-
dence of the new Republics controversy so UNI
avaling' very nearly the same language
by which the present Executive characterizes the
existing war between Texas and Mexico But, did
President MONROE therefore denounce the war as
barbarous and savage, and declare that humanity re-
quircd the United States to put end to il by inter-
posing the military and naval power Of this Govern