And whereas, it is contrary to the moral principles of Neutrality and
Peace, that any Neutral Nation should furnish to the Belligerent Powers,
or any of them, the means of carrying on War against each other, We,
therefore, the Powers composing this Association, Declare, that we
will each one for itself, prohibit in our Dominions the exportation or
transportation of military stores, comprehending gunpowder, cannon, and
cannon-balls, fire arms of all kinds, and all kinds of iron and steel
weapons used in War. Excluding therefrom all kinds of Utensils and
Instruments used in civil or domestic life, and every other article that
cannot, in its immediate state, be employed in War.
Having thus declared the moral Motives of the foregoing Article, We
declare also the civil and political Intention thereof, to wit,
That as Belligerent Nations have no right to visit or search any Ship or
Vessel belonging to a Nation at Peace, and under the protection of
the Laws and Government thereof, and as all such visit or search is an
insult to the Nation to which such Ship or Vessel belongs and to
the Government of the same, We, therefore, the Powers composing this
Association, will take the right of prohibition on ourselves to whom it
properly belongs, and by whom only it can be legally exercised, and
not permit foreign Nations, in a state of War, to usurp the right of
legislating by Proclamation for any of the Citizens or Subjects of the
Powers composing this Association.
It is, therefore, in order to take away all pretence of search or visit,
which by being offensive might become a new cause of War, that we will
provide Laws and publish them by Proclamation, each in his own Dominion,
to prohibit the supplying, or carrying to, the Belligerent Powers,
or either of them, the military stores or articles before mentioned,
annexing thereto a penalty to be levied or inflicted upon any persons
within our several Dominions transgressing the same. And we invite all
Persons, as well of the Belligerent Nations as of our own, or of
any other, to give information of any knowledge they may have of
any transgressions against the said Law, that the offenders may be
prosecuted.
By this conduct we restore the word Contraband (_contra_ and _ban_) to
its true and original signification, which means against Law, edict, or
Proclamation; and none but the Government of a Nation can have, or can
exercise, the right of making Laws, edicts, or Proclamations, for the
conduct of its Citizens or Subjects.
Now We, the undersigned Powers, declare the aforesaid Articles to be a
Law of Nations at all times, or until a Congress of Nations shall meet
to form some Law more effectual.
And we do recommend that immediately on the breaking out of War between
any two or more Nations, that Deputies be appointed by all Neutral
Nations, whether members of this Association or not, to meet in Congress
in some central place to take cognizance of any violations of the Rights
of Neutral Nations.
Signed, &c.
For the purpose of giving operation to the aforesaid plan of an _unarmed
Association_, the following Paragraph was subjoined:
It may be judged proper for the order of Business, that the Association
of Nations have a President for a term of years, and the Presidency to
pass by rotation, to each of the parties composing the Association.
In that case, and for the sake of regularity, the first President to
be the Executive power of the most northerly Nation composing the
Association, and his deputy or Minister at the Congress to be President
of the Congress,--and the next most northerly to be Vice-president, who
shall succeed to the Presidency, and so on. The line determining the
Geographical situation of each, to be the latitude of the Capital of
each Nation.
If this method be adopted it will be proper that the first President
be nominally constituted in order to give rotation to the rest. In that
case the following Article might be added to the foregoing, viz't. The
Constitution of the Association nominates the Emperor Paul to be _first
President_ of the Association of Nations for the protection of Neutral
Commerce, and securing the freedom of the Seas.
The foregoing plan, as I have before mentioned, was presented to the
Ministers of all the Neutral Nations then in Paris, in the summer of
1800. Six Copies were given to the Russian General Springporten; and a
Russian Gentleman who was going to Petersburgh took two expressly for
the purpose of putting them into the hands of Paul I sent the original
manuscript, in my own handwriting, to Mr. Jefferson, and also wrote him
four Letters, dated the 1st, 4th, 6th, 16th of October, 1800, giving
him an account of what was then going on in Europe respecting Neutral
Commerce.
The Case was, that in order to compel the English Government to
acknowledge the rights of Neutral Commerce, and that free Ships make
free Goods, the _Emperor Paul_, in the month of September following the
publication of the plan, shut all the Ports of Russia against England.
Sweden and Denmark did the same by their Ports, and Denmark shut up
Hamburgh. Prussia shut up the Elbe and the Weser. The ports of Spain,
Portugal, and Naples were shut up, and, in general, all the ports of
Italy, except Venice, which the Emperor of Germany held; and had it not
been for the untimely death of Paul, a _Law of Nations_, founded on the
authority of Nations, for establishing the rights of Neutral Commerce
and the freedom of the Seas, would have been proclaimed, and the
Government of England must have consented to that Law, or the Nation
must have lost its Commerce; and the consequence to America would have
been, that such a Law would, in a great measure if not entirely, have
released her from the injuries of Jay's Treaty.
Of all these matters I informed Mr. Jefferson. This was before he was
President, and the Letter he wrote me after he was President was in
answer to those I had written to him and the manuscript Copy of the plan
I had sent here. Here follows the Letter:
Washington, March 18, 1801. Dear Sir:
Your letters of Oct. 1st, 4th, 6th, 16th, came duly to hand, and the
papers which they covered were, according to your permission, published
in the Newspapers, and in a Pamphlet, and under your own name. These
papers contain precisely our principles, and I hope they will be
generally recognized here. _Determined as we are to avoid, if possible,
wasting the energies of our People in war and destruction, we shall
avoid implicating ourselves with the Powers of Europe, even in support
of principles which we mean to pursue. They have so many other Interests
different from ours that we must avoid being entangled in them. We
believe we can enforce those principles as to ourselves by Peaceable
means, now that we are likely to have our Public Councils detached from
foreign views. The return of our citizens from the phrenzy into which
they had been wrought, partly by ill conduct in France, partly by
artifices practiced upon them, is almost extinct, and will, I believe,
become quite so_, But these details, too minute and long for a Letter,
will be better developed by Mr. Dawson, the Bearer of this, a Member of
the late Congress, to whom I refer you for them. He goes in the Maryland
Sloop of War, which will wait a few days at Havre to receive his Letters
to be written on his arrival at Paris. You expressed a wish to get a
passage to this Country in a Public Vessel. Mr. Dawson is charged with
orders to the Captain of the Maryland to receive and accommodate you
back if you can be ready to depart at such a short warning. Rob't R.
Livingston is appointed Minister Plenipotentiary to the Republic of
France, but will not leave this, till we receive the ratification of
the Convention by Mr. Dawson. I am in hopes you will find us returned
generally to sentiments worthy of former times. In these it will be
your glory to have steadily laboured and with as much effect as any man
living. That you may long live to continue your useful Labours and to
reap the reward in the thankfulness of Nations is my sincere prayer.
Accept assurances of my high esteem and affectionate attachment.
Thomas Jefferson.
This, Citizens of the United States, is the Letter about which the
leaders and tools of the Federal faction, without knowing its contents
or the occasion of writing it, have wasted so many malignant falsehoods.
It is a Letter which, on account of its wise economy and peaceable
principles, and its forbearance to reproach, will be read by every good
Man and every good Citizen with pleasure; and the faction, mortified at
its appearance, will have to regret they forced it into publication. The
least atonement they can now offer is to make the Letter as public as
they have made their own infamy, and learn to lie no more.
The same injustice they shewed to Mr. Jefferson they shewed to me. I
had employed myself in Europe, and at my own expense, in forming and
promoting a plan that would, in its operation, have benefited the
Commerce of America; and the faction here invented and circulated an
account in the papers they employ, that I had given a plan to the French
for burning all the towns on the Coast from Savannah to Baltimore. Were
I to prosecute them for this (and I do not promise that I will not, for
the Liberty of the Press is not the liberty of lying,) there is not a
federal judge, not even one of Midnight appointment, but must, from the
nature of the case, be obliged to condemn them. The faction, however,
cannot complain they have been restrained in any thing. They have had
their full swing of lying uncontradicted; they have availed themselves,
unopposed, of all the arts Hypocrisy could devise; and the event has
been, what in all such cases it ever will and ought to be, _the ruin of
themselves_.
The Characters of the late and of the present Administrations are now
sufficiently marked, and the adherents of each keep up the distinction.
The former Administration rendered itself notorious by outrage,
coxcombical parade, false alarms, a continued increase of taxes, and an
unceasing clamor for War; and as every vice has a virtue opposed to
it, the present Administration moves on the direct contrary line.
The question, therefore, at elections is not properly a question upon
Persons, but upon principles. Those who are for Peace, moderate taxes,
and mild Government, will vote for the Administration that conducts
itself by those principles, in whatever hands that Administration may
be.
There are in the United States, and particularly in the middle States,
several religious Sects, whose leading moral principle is PEACE. It is,
therefore, impossible that such Persons, consistently with the dictates
of that principle, can vote for an Administration that is clamorous
for War. When moral principles, rather than Persons, are candidates for
Power, to vote is to perform a moral duty, and not to vote is to neglect
a duty.
That persons who are hunting after places, offices, and contracts,
should be advocates for War, taxes, and extravagance, is not to be
wondered at; but that so large a portion of the People who had nothing
to depend upon but their Industry, and no other public prospect but that
of paying taxes, and bearing the burden, should be advocates for the
same measures, is a thoughtlessness not easily accounted for. But reason
is recovering her empire, and the fog of delusion is clearing away.
Thomas Paine.