Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1852-11-27
WASHINGTON, NOVEMBER II, 1852.

Hon. HUGH MAXWELL, New York city.
Your note of yesterday came to hand this morn
ing, in which you state conversation you have
had with Mr.. George Law, from which you learned
that the Crescent City will go to Cuba and enter
the port of Havana in defiance of the Spanish au-
thority and, if fred upon she will be surrendered
and that then he and others will Immediately COM
mence hostilties against the island" You say,
also, that he desires to know whether he is right
in persistng in the pursuit of his lawful business
and that if the Government shall tell him he must
not go, he will not go. If, however, the Govern
ment says nothing against his going, he will infer
he has right to go" You say, also, that " he
processes to be friendly to me and my Administra-
ton Of the sincerity of this latter profession
one can best judge by reading his letter of the 9th
published in the New York Herald of the 10th
instant.
But in regard to the chief matters of your letter.
permit me to say, that in the first place, do not
admit the right of Mr.. Law or any other citizen, to
threaten war on his own account, for the purpose
OF seeking redress for real imaginary injuries and
then to call upon the Government to say whether it
approves disapproves of such conduct and assume
its appreciation unless the act is forbidden. The
Constitution of the United States has vested in Con-
gress alone the power of declaring war, and neither
the Executive branch of the Government nor Mr..
Law has any right to usurp that power by commenc-
ing war without its authority and if he shall at
tempt 1T, it will be my duty, it is my determine
ton, to exert all the power confded to the Execu
tive Government by the Constitution and Laws tc
prevent it. am resolved, at every hazard, to main
tain our rights in this controversy as against Spain
and am equally resolved that no act of our own
citizens shall be permitted to place this Government
in the wrong.
! Mr.: Law has an undoubted right to pursue his
lawful business but when question is raised be-
tween this Government and foreign nation as to
whether the business which he pursues is lawful OF
pursued in lawful manner, the decision of that
question belongs to the two Governments, and not
to him. If the object be to assert his right to enter
the port of Havana with such persons as he may
choose to select, in defiance of the laws and Gov
eminent of Spain, he has certainly done enough to
present that question for the decision of the Gov
ernments of Spain and the United States and the
negotiation has already commenced, and our rights,
as we understand them have been asserted, and, as
| said before, will be maintained. But the act Of
this Government cannot be controlled by the inter-
ference of any individual, and it is entirely unne-
cessary that Mr.. Law should repeat these attempts
for the purpose of settling this controversy and if
he wilfully does 50, and in so doing violates the
laws of foreign nation within its own jurisdiction
and thereby loses forfeits his vessel he can ex
pect indemnity for such an act Of folly from this
Government
We regulate the terms and conditions upon which
all foreign vessels shall enter ports, and we fl
the penalties for a violation of our laws, and tn
right to do we shall never suffer to be questione
by foreigners, and we do not question theirs to d.
the same thing. He must wait the result of tn
negotiations between the two Governments. Thi
is question not to be settled between him and Gu
h. IL
but between the United States and Spain, which
alone is responsible for the conduct of the Governor
of Cuba
write in some haste, as the mail is closing but
you are at liberty to make known the contents Of
this letter to Mr. Law, and to inform him that as
good citizen presume he will not attempt any vio-
lation of our neutrality laws by attacking Cuba.
am truly yours,
WILLARD FILLMORE