tedly state that the recent treaty leaves the rights of the parties
as it found them. My difficulty is not that we have made a positive
concession, but that we have acted unadvisedly in not making the
abandonment of this pretension a previous condition to any conventional
arrangement upon the general subject."

On this part of your letter I must be allowed to make two remarks.

The first is, inasmuch as the treaty gives no color or pretext whatever
to any right of searching our ships, a declaration against such a right
would have been no more suitable to this treaty than a declaration
against the right of sacking our towns in time of peace, or any other
outrage.

The rights of merchant-vessels of the United States on the high seas, as
understood by this government, have been clearly and fully asserted. As
asserted, they will be maintained; nor would a declaration such as you
propose have increased either its resolution or its ability in this
respect. The government of the United States relies on its own power,
and on the effective support of the people, to assert successfully all
the rights of all its citizens, on the sea as well as on the land; and
it asks respect for these rights not as a boon or favor from any nation.
The President's message, most certainly, is a clear declaration of what
the country understands to be its rights, and his determination to
maintain them; not a mere promise to negotiate for these rights, or to
endeavor to bring other powers into an acknowledgment of them, either
express or implied. Whereas, if I understand the meaning of this part of
your letter, you would have advised that something should have been
offered to England which she might have regarded as a benefit, but
coupled with such a declaration or condition as that, if she received
the boon, it would have been a recognition by her of a claim which we
make as matter of right. The President's view of the proper duty of the
government has certainly been quite different. Being convinced that the
doctrine asserted by this government is the true doctrine of the law of
nations, and feeling the competency of the government to uphold and
enforce it for itself, he has not sought, but, on the contrary, has
sedulously avoided, to change this ground, and to place the just rights
of the country upon the assent, express or implied, of any power
whatever.

The government thought no skilfully extorted promises necessary in any
such cases. It asks