Doc. No. 2. 5 never concede to any foreign Government the power, except in a case of the most urgent and extreme necessity, of invading its territory, either to ■arrest the persons or destroy the property of those who may have violated the municipal laws of such foreign Government, or have disregarded their obligations arising under the law of nations. The territory of the United States must be regarded as sacredly secure against all such invasions, until they shall voluntarily acknowledge their inability to acquit themselves of their duties to others. And, in announcing this sentiment, I do but affirm a principle which no nation on earth would be more ready to vindicate, at all hazards, than the people and Government of Great Britain. If, upon a full investigation of all the facts, it shall appear that the owner of the Caroline was governed by a hostile intent, or had made common cause with those who were, in the occupancy of Navy island, then, so far as he is concerned, there can be no claim to indemnity for the destruction of his boat, which this Government would feel itself bound to prosecute— .since he would have acted not only in derogation of the rights of Great Britain, but in clear violation of the laws of the United States: but that is a question which, however settled, in no manner involves the higher consideration of the violation of territorial sovereignty and jurisdiction. To recognise it as an admissible practice that each Government, in its turn, upon any sudden and unauthorized outbreak, which, on a frontier the extent of which renders it impossible for either to have an efficient force on every mile of it, and which outbreak, therefore, neither may be able to suppress in a day, may take vengeance into its own hands, and without even a remonstrance, and in the absence of any pressing or overruling necessity, may invade the territory of the other, would inevitably lead to results equally to be deplored by both. When border collisions come to receive the sanction or to be made on the authority of either Government, general war must be the inevitable result. While it is the ardent desire of the United States to cultivate the relations of peace with all nations, and to fulfil all the duties of good neighborhood towards those who possess territories adjoining their own, that very desire would lead them to deny the right of any foreign Power to invade their boundary with an armed force. The correspondence between the two Governments on this subject will, at -a future day of your session, be submitted to your consideration ; and, in the mean time, I cannot but indulge the hope that the British Government will see the propriety of renouncing, as a rule of future action, the precedent which has been set in the affair at Schlosser. I herewith submit the correspondence which has recently taken place between the American minister at the Court of St. James, Mr. Stevenson, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs of that Government, on the right claimed by that Government to visit and detain vessels sailing under the American flag, and engaged in prosecuting lawful commerce in the African seas. Our commercial interests in that region have experienced considerable increase, and have become an object of much importance, and it is the duty of this Government to protect them against all improper and vexatious interruption. However desirous the United States may be for the suppression of the slave trade, they cannot consent to interpolations into the maritime code at the mere will and pleasure of other Governments. We deny the right of any such interpolation to any one, or all the nations of the earth, without our consent. We claim to have a voice in all amendments or alterations of that code; and when we are given to understand, as in
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