I am certain that the ministers
were then, and are now, invested with the fullest confidence of the
major part of the nation, to pursue such measures of peace or war as the
nature of things shall suggest as most adapted to the public safety. It
is in this light, therefore, as a measure which ought to have been
avoided and ought not to be repeated, that I take the liberty of
discussing the merits of this system of Regicide negotiations. It is not
a matter of light experiment, that leaves us where it found us. Peace or
war are the great hinges upon which the very being of nations turns.
Negotiations are the means of making peace or preventing war, and are
therefore of more serious importance than almost any single event of war
can possibly be.
At the very outset, I do not hesitate to affirm, that this country in
particular, and the public law in general, have suffered more by this
negotiation of experiment than by all the battles together that we have
lost from the commencement of this century to this time, when it touches
so nearly to its close. I therefore have the misfortune not to coincide
in opinion with the great statesman who set on foot a negotiation, as he
said, "in spite of the constant opposition he had met with from Prance."
He admits, "that the difficulty in this negotiation became most
seriously increased, indeed, by the situation in which we were placed,
and the manner in which alone the enemy would _admit_ of a negotiation.
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