12 ENGLISH NEUTRALITY. in mutual obligations of neutrality, arising from the same general law of nations, and from legislative enactments almost entirely similar, it is fair to show, first, how we conducted ourselves toward her at a time when our present positions were reversed. America had scarcely taken upon herself the habitudes of a nation before she was called to perforin her international obligations of neutrality. The circumstances involved great embarrassment. One belligerent was our friend, benefactor, and sister republic, France; the other was our enemy and late tyrant, England. We were weak and but poorly prepared to resist the importunities of our friend, to whom we owed so large a debt of gratitude. We were also entangled by treaty stipulations with her, under which she enjoyed certain privileges in our waters to the exclusion of England; and this again, together with a strong public sympathy for her, caused President Washington and his advisers great difficulty in. securing for England an impartial observance of neutrality in the matters not touched by the treaty. Yet, notwithstanding all this, President Washington, in the inaugural speech of his second term, proceeded to declare a strict rule of neutrality, under the law of nations, which has been faithfully Observed to this day. (Speech to Congress, American State Papers. Foreign Relations, vol. 1. p. 21.) On the 22d of April, 1793, he issued his proclamation containing these words: “ I have given instructions to those officers to whom it belongs, to cause prosecutions to be instituted against all persons who shall, within the cognizance of the courts of the United States, violate the law of nations [we had no statute at that time] with respect to the powers at war, or any of them.” (Ibid., 140.) This was followed by written jnstructions from Alexander Hamilton, Secretary of the Treasury, to the collectors of the customs, requiring “ the greatest vigilance, care, activity, and impartiality,” in searching for and discovering any attempt to fit out vessels and expeditions, or send men, to the aid of either party (ibid. 140); and so strict were these requirements that Thomas Jefferson, Secretary of State, the great champion of neutrality, was compelled to denounce them as “ setting up a system of espionage destructive to the peace of society.” (Jeff. Works, vol. 9, 556; 3 ib. 556.) While Mr. Jefferson
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