UNITED STATES, _January 21, 1801_.
_Gentlemen of the Senate_:
In compliance with your request, signified in your resolution of the
20th day of this month, I transmit you a report made to me by the
Secretary of State on the same day, a letter of our late envoys to him
of the 4th of October last, an extract of a letter from our minister
plenipotentiary in London to him of the 22d of November last, and an
extract of another letter from the minister to the Secretary of the 31st
of October last.
The reasoning in the letter of our late envoys to France is so fully
supported by the writers on the law of nations, particularly by Vattel,
as well as by his great masters, Grotius and Puffendorf, that nothing is
left to be desired to settle the point that if there be a collision
between two treaties made with two different powers the more ancient has
the advantage, for no engagement contrary to it can be entered into in
the treaty afterwards made; and if this last be found in any case
incompatible with the more ancient one its execution is considered as
impossible, because the person promising had not the power of acting
contrary to his antecedent engagement. Although our right is very clear
to negotiate treaties according to our own ideas of right and justice,
honor and good faith, yet it must always be a satisfaction to know that
the judgment of other nations with whom we have connection coincides
with ours, and that we have no reason to apprehend that any disagreeable
questions and discussions are likely to arise. The letters from Mr. King
will therefore be read by the Senate with particular satisfaction.
The inconveniences to public officers and the mischiefs to the public
arising from the publication of the dispatches of ministers abroad are
so numerous and so obvious that I request of the Senate that these
papers, especially the letters from Mr. King, be considered in close
confidence.