ted were embraced, or the
extremity to which the passions and contests of the moment had carried
all orders of men. But it is the province of real patriotism to
consult the utility, more than the popularity of a measure; and to
pursue the path of duty, although it may be rugged.

In the senate, the nomination was approved by a majority of ten
voices; and, in the house of representatives, it was urged as an
argument against persevering in the system which had been commenced.
On the 18th of April, a motion for taking up the report of the
committee of the whole house on the resolution for cutting off all
commercial intercourse with Great Britain, was opposed, chiefly on the
ground that, as an envoy had been nominated to the court of that
country, no obstacle ought to be thrown in his way. The adoption of
the resolution would be a bar to negotiation, because it used the
language of menace, and manifested a partiality to one of the
belligerents which was incompatible with neutrality. It was also an
objection to the resolution that it prescribed the terms on which
alone a treaty should be made, and was consequently an infringement of
the right of the executive to negotiate, and an indelicacy to that
department.

In support of the motion, it was said, that the measure was strictly
within the duty of the legislature, they having solely the right to
regulate commerce. That, if there was any indelicacy in the clashing
of the proceedings of the legislature and executive, it was to the
latter, not to the former, that this indelicacy was to be imputed. The
resolution which was the subject of debate had been several days
depending in the house, before the nomination of an envoy
extraordinary had been made. America having a right, as an independent
nation, to regulate her own commerce, the resolution could not lead to
war; on the contrary, it was the best means of bringing the
negotiation to a happy issue.

The motion for taking up the report was carried in the affirmative.
Some embarrassment was produced by an amendment offered by Mr. Smith
of South Carolina, who proposed to add another condition to the
restoration of intercourse between the two countries. This was,
compensation for the negroes carried away in violation of the treaty
of peace. The house avoided this proposition by modifying the
resolutions so as to expunge all that part of it which prescribed the
conditions on which the intercourse might be restored. A bill was