The southern press. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1850-1852, 1852-04-15

The Senator from Lousia,lA----whose absence
| very much regret, because am commenting
on the very able speech which he delivered here
few DAYS ago, and which, doubt not, will
have ts effect upon the country in the decision
to which they will come on this question
in speaking of this proclamation, says further !:
"a war had just broken out between France
and England should say, between France and
coalesced Europe, France alone struaS ling for
her liberties and the liberties of mankind,
against the world in arms. Theanestion arose.
what part America should act in that awful con.
flict Would she redeem those pledges which
ardent and enthusiastic minds hal persuaded
themselves that she under, aud, taking the
part of France, strike by her side for tbs liber-
ties of the world! She could not join England
in a crusade against those liberties Would she,
then, participate in the struggle or would she
rather remain quiet spectator OF the gigantic
scene, and trust TO God the deslnes Of her ally /.
Necessity stern, inilexible necessity --could
alone impe her to choose the last alternative"
lie here conveys the idea that the American
people were deferred from embafking in that
war with France, only because OF their debiIita
ted condition. That, he holds was their "ne
cessity" Now, apprehend the history of that
period shows very differently. Washington is
sued the proclamation of neutrality in April
Congress met in the ensuing December; and so
far from declaring any war, with view to aid
our former ally, France, Congress passed, from
time to time, a series of laws to protect this
country in the neutrality thus established
Things went 50 far, az we know from the his.
tory of the times, tiat Congress at last author
zed reprsals 10 be made against France, on nc
count of spoliation on American commerce;
and the scene closed by formal act of the Con
gress of the United States, repeating the treaty
of l778, and with il all the guarantees which it
had made to France. | adduce this for the pur.
pose of showing, that, so far as the spirit OF the
American people is to be ascertained from the
legislation of the country, during the whole of
that trying period, Congress sustained the Presl-
dent of the United States in his neutral policy.
and passed every law which they considered
would conduce to the preservation of neutrality,
and keep the country free from all foreign obi
cation.
1t is known, Mr.. President. that Mr.. Jefferson,
who afterwards became the head of the republi-
can, as distinguished from the federal party in
the country, was member of General Washing
toms administration. His sympathies and kind
ever doubted but Mr.. Jefferson was states
proclamation, as he sustained the government
thereafter in the principles upon which it had
been issued In looking back to that day,
have taken an extract from letter written by
Mr. Jefferson, then Secretary of State, to Mr..
Morris, then minister of this country in Eng
land, dated August is, l793 in which he states:
''On the declaration of war between France
and England the United States being at peace
with both, their situation was 80 new and unex-
perienced by themselves that our citizens were
not in the instant sensible of the new duties
resulting therefrom, and Of the restraint it would
impose even on their dispositions towards the
belligernt powers. Some of them imagined
land chiefly their transient seafaring citizens)
that they were free to indulge those dispositions,
to take sides with either party, and enrich them.
selves by depredations on the commerce of the
other, and meditating enterprises of this nature,
as there was reason to believe In this state Of
public mind, and before it should take an errone.
GUS direction, difficult to be set right, and danger
GUS to themselves and their country, the Presi-
dent thought it expedient through the channel
of proclamation, to remind our felow-ctizens
that we were in n state of peace with all the
belligerent powers; that in that state it was
our duty neither to aid or injure any to exhort
and warn them against acts which might con-
travene this duty, and particularly those of posi-
tive hostility, for the punishment of which the
laws would be appealed to ; and to put them on
their guard also, as to the risks they would
run if they should attempt to carry articles Of
to any, This proclamation, ordered
on the 10Th and signed on the 22d of April,
was sent to you in my letter Of the 26th of the
same month"
In a subsequent part of the same dispatch, the
secretary says
"Mr Genet, not content with using our force,
whether we will or not, in the military line
against nations with whom we are at peace, un
dertakes also to direct the civil government; and,
for the executive and legislative
bodies, to pronounce what powers may or may
not be exercised by the one or the other Thus,
in his letter of June 9th he promises to respect the
political opinion of the President till the repre-.
sentatives shall have confirmed or rejected them,
as if the President had undertaken to decide
what belongs to the decision Of Congress In
his letter of June 14th, he says more openly
that the President ought not to have taken on
himself to decide on the subject of the letter,
but that it was of importance enough to have
consulted Congress thereon; and in that of
June 22d, he tells the President in direct terms
that Congress ought already to have been occu-
pied on certain questions which he had been too
hastv in deciding thus making himself and not
the President, the Judge of the powers ascribed
by the Constitution to the Executive, and die.
tating to him the occasion when he shall exer.
else the power of converting Congress at an
earlier dav than their own act had prescribed"
Mr.. Jefferson there shows the purpose of this
mation-that it carried with it his ap.
proval-and that it was paper declaring the
existing state of things between this country
and the rest of the. world, requiring neutrality
in the war then existing between France and
the allied powers.
I-need not recall to the memories of Senators
how severely the sympathies Of the people of
this country were tried in the state of things
that then existed. The whole, or nearly the
whole of Europe was armed against France
She was appealing to us, not only through our
national honor, but through treaty stipulations
to give her aid She sent minister over here
the celebrated Genet--who thought that he had
a right to appeal from the government to the
people, and to coerce the government through
the people, to depart from its neutral policy.
But Congress sustained the administration in
the position of neutraljtv and il was never de-