e they might deem offensive and an
explanation of every word to which an improper interpretation could be
given. The principle, therefore, has been adopted that no foreign power
has a right to ask for explanations of anything that the President,
in the exercise of his functions, thinks proper to communicate to
Congress, or of any course he may advise them to pursue. This rule is
not applicable to the Government of the United States alone, but, in
common with it, to all those in which the constitutional powers are
distributed into different branches. No such nation desirous of avoiding
foreign influence or foreign interference in its councils; no such
nation possessing a due sense of its dignity and independence, can long
submit to the consequences of this interference. When these are felt, as
they soon will be, all must unite in repelling it, and acknowledge that
the United States are contending in a cause common to them all, and more
important to the liberal Governments of Europe than even to themselves;
for it is too obvious to escape the slightest attention that the
Monarchies of Europe by which they are surrounded will have all the
advantage of this supervision of the domestic councils of their
neighbors without being subject to it themselves. It is true that in
the representative Governments of Europe executive communications to
legislative bodies have not the extension that is given to them in the
United States, and that they are therefore less liable to attack on that
quarter; but they must not imagine themselves safe. In the opening
address, guarded as it commonly is, every proposition made by the
ministry, every resolution of either chamber, will offer occasions for
the jealous interference of national punctilio, for all occupy the same
grounds. No intercommunication of the different branches of Government
will be safe, and even the courts of justice will afford no sanctuary
for freedom of decision and of debate, and the susceptibility of foreign
powers must be consulted in all the departments of Government. Occasions
for intervention in the affairs of other countries are but too numerous
at present, without opening another door to encroachments; and it is no
answer to the argument to say that no complaints will be made but for
reasonable cause, and that of this, the nation complained of being the
judge, no evil can ensue. But this argument concedes the right of
examining the communications in question, which is