of the country. What do we mean by our neutral policy? Not, I
suppose, a blind and stupid indifference to whatever is passing around
us; not a total disregard to approaching events, or approaching evils,
till they meet us full in the face. Nor do we mean, by our neutral
policy, that we intend never to assert our rights by force. No, Sir. We
mean by our policy of neutrality, that the great objects of national
pursuit with us are connected with peace. We covet no provinces; we
desire no conquests; we entertain no ambitious projects of
aggrandizement by war. This is our policy. But it does not follow from
this, that we rely less than other nations on our own power to vindicate
our own rights. We know that the last logic of kings is also our last
logic; that our own interests must be defended and maintained by our own
arm; and that peace or war may not always be of our own choosing. Our
neutral policy, therefore, not only justifies, but requires, our anxious
attention to the political events which take place in the world, a
skilful perception of their relation to our own concerns, and an early
anticipation of their consequences, and firm and timely assertion of
what we hold to be our own rights and our own interests. Our neutrality
is not a predetermined abstinence, either from remonstrances, or from
force. Our neutral policy is a policy that protects neutrality, that
defends neutrality, that takes up arms, if need be, for neutrality. When
it is said, therefore, that this measure departs from our neutral
policy, either that policy, or the measure itself, is misunderstood. It
implies either that the object or the tendency of the measure is to
involve us in the war of other states, which I think cannot be shown, or
that the assertion of our own sentiments, on points affecting deeply our
own interests, may place us in a hostile attitude toward other states,
and that therefore we depart from neutrality; whereas the truth is, that
the decisive assertion and the firm support of these sentiments may be
most essential to the maintenance of neutrality.

An honorable member from Pennsylvania thinks this congress will bring a
dark day over the United States. Doubtless, Sir, it is an interesting
moment in our history; but I see no great proofs of thick-coming
darkness. But the object of the remark seemed to be to show that the
President himself saw difficulties on all sides, and, making a choice of
evils, preferred rather to send minist