no such pledges of any nation. If its character for
ability and readiness to protect and defend its own rights and dignity
is not sufficient to preserve them from violation, no interpolation of
promise to respect them, ingeniously woven into treaties, would be
likely to afford such protection. And as our rights and liberties depend
for existence upon our power to maintain them, general and vague
protests are not likely to be more effectual than the Chinese method of
defending their towns, by painting grotesque and hideous figures on the
walls to fright away assailing foes.

My other remark on this portion of your letter is this:--

Suppose a declaration to the effect that this treaty should not be
considered as sacrificing any American rights had been appended, and the
treaty, thus fortified, had been sent to Great Britain, as you propose;
and suppose that that government, with equal ingenuity, had appended an
equivalent written declaration that it should not be considered as
sacrificing any British right, how much more defined would have been the
rights of either party, or how much clearer the meaning and
interpretation of the treaty, by these reservations on both sides? Or,
in other words, what is the value of a protest on one side, balanced by
an exactly equivalent protest on the other?

No nation is presumed to sacrifice its rights, or give up what justly
belongs to it, unless it expressly stipulates that, for some good reason
or adequate consideration, it does make such relinquishment; and an
unnecessary asseveration that it does not intend to sacrifice just
rights would seem only calculated to invite aggression. Such
proclamations would seem better devised for concealing weakness and
apprehension, than for manifesting conscious strength and self-reliance,
or for inspiring respect in others.

Toward the end of your letter you are pleased to observe: "The rejection
of a treaty, duly negotiated, is a serious question, to be avoided
whenever it can be without too great a sacrifice. Though the national
faith is not actually committed, still it is more or less engaged. And
there were peculiar circumstances, growing out of long-standing
difficulties, which rendered an amicable arrangement of the various
matters in dispute with England a subject of great national interest.
But the negotiation of a treaty is a far different subject. Topics are
omitted or introduced at the discretion of the negotiators, and they are
re