said much about his
own views; that the President had a right to declare his opinion to
our citizens and foreign nations; that it was not the interest of this
country to join in the war, and that we were under no obligation to join
in it; that though the declaration would not legally bind Congress, yet
the President had a right to give his opinion of it, and he was against
any explanation in the speech, which should yield that he did not intend
that foreign nations should consider it as a declaration of neutrality,
future as well as present; that he understood it as meant to give them
that sort of assurance and satisfaction, and to say otherwise now,
would be a deception on them. He was for the President's using
such expressions, as should neither affirm his right to make such
a declaration to foreign nations, nor yield it. Randolph and myself
opposed the right of the President to declare any thing future on the
question, Shall there or shall there not be a war? and that no such
thing was intended; that Hamilton's construction of the effect of the
proclamation would have been a determination of the question of the
guarantee, which we both denied to have intended, and I had at the
time declared the executive incompetent to. Randolph said he meant that
foreign nations should understand it as an intimation of the President's
opinion, that neutrality would be our interest. I declared my meaning to
have been, that foreign nations should understand no such thing; that,
on the contrary, I would have chosen them to be doubtful, and to come
and bid for our neutrality. I admitted the President, having received
the nation at the close of Congress in a state of peace, was bound to
preserve them in that state till Congress should meet again, and might
proclaim any thing which went no farther. The President declared he
never had an idea that he could bind Congress against declaring war, or
that any thing contained in his proclamation could look beyond the first
day of their meeting. His main view was to keep our people in peace;
he apologized for the use of the term neutrality in his answers,
and justified it, by having submitted the first of them (that to the
merchants, wherein it was used) to our consideration, and we had not
objected to the term. He concluded in the end, that Colonel Hamilton
should prepare a paragraph on this subject for the speech, and it should
then be considered. We were here called to dinner.

After dinner,