They have swept away the very
constitutions under which the legislatures acted and the laws were made.
Even the fundamental sacred rights of man they have not scrupled to
profane. They have set this holy code at nought with ignominy and scorn.
Thus they treat all their domestic laws and constitutions, and even what
they had considered as a law of Nature. But whatever they have put their
seal on, for the purposes of their ambition, and the ruin of their
neighbors, this alone is invulnerable, impassible, immortal. Assuming to
be masters of everything human and divine, here, and here alone, it
seems, they are limited, "cooped and cabined in," and this omnipotent
legislature finds itself wholly without the power of exercising its
favorite attribute, the love of peace. In other words, they are powerful
to usurp, impotent to restore; and equally by their power and their
impotence they aggrandize themselves, and weaken and impoverish you and
all other nations.
Nothing can be more proper or more manly than the state publication,
called a _Note_, on this proceeding, dated Downing Street, the 10th of
April, 1796. Only that it is better expressed, it perfectly agrees with
the opinion I have taken the liberty of submitting to your
consideration. I place it below at full length,[25] as my justification
in thinking that this astonishing paper from the Directory is not only a
direct negative to all treaty, but is a rejection of every principle
upon which treaties could be made.
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