h theirs; should a law be passed injurious to the
dignity of another nation--in all these and other similar cases a demand
for explanation would be respectfully received, and answered in the
manner that justice and a regard to the dignity of the complaining
nation would require.

After stating these principles, let me add that they have not only been
theoretically adopted, but that they have been practically asserted.
On two former occasions exceptions of the same nature were taken to the
President's message by the Government of France, and in neither did
they produce any other explanation than that derived from the nature
of our Government, and this seems on those occasions to have been
deemed sufficient, for in both cases the objections were virtually
abandoned--one when Messrs. Marshall, Gerry, and Pinckney were refused
to be received, and again in the negotiation between Prince Polignac and
Mr. Rives. In the former case, although the message of the President
was alleged as the cause of the refusal to receive the ministers, yet
without any such explanation their successors were honorably accredited.
In the latter case the allusion in the message to an apprehended
collision was excepted to, but the reference made by Mr. Rives to
the constitutional duties of the President seems to have removed the
objection.

Having demonstrated that the United States can not in any case permit
their Chief Magistrate to be questioned by any foreign government in
relation to his communications with the coordinate branches of his own,
it is scarcely necessary to consider the case of such an explanation
being required as the condition on which the fulfillment of a treaty or
any pecuniary advantage was to depend. The terms of such a proposition
need only be stated to show that it would be not only inadmissible, but
rejected as offensive to the nation to which it might be addressed.
In this case it would be unnecessary as well as inadmissible. France
has already received, by the voluntary act of the President, every
explanation the nicest sense of national honor could desire. That which
could not have been given to a demand, that which can never be given
on the condition now under discussion, a fortunate succession of
circumstances, as I shall proceed to shew, has brought about. Earnestly
desirous of restoring the good understanding between the two nations,
as soon as a dissatisfaction with the President's message was shewn
I suppressed e