ragraph was subjoined:

It may be judged proper for the order of Business, that the Association
of Nations have a President for a term of years, and the Presidency to
pass by rotation, to each of the parties composing the Association.

In that case, and for the sake of regularity, the first President to
be the Executive power of the most northerly Nation composing the
Association, and his deputy or Minister at the Congress to be President
of the Congress,--and the next most northerly to be Vice-president, who
shall succeed to the Presidency, and so on. The line determining the
Geographical situation of each, to be the latitude of the Capital of
each Nation.

If this method be adopted it will be proper that the first President
be nominally constituted in order to give rotation to the rest. In that
case the following Article might be added to the foregoing, viz't. The
Constitution of the Association nominates the Emperor Paul to be _first
President_ of the Association of Nations for the protection of Neutral
Commerce, and securing the freedom of the Seas.

The foregoing plan, as I have before mentioned, was presented to the
Ministers of all the Neutral Nations then in Paris, in the summer of
1800. Six Copies were given to the Russian General Springporten; and a
Russian Gentleman who was going to Petersburgh took two expressly for
the purpose of putting them into the hands of Paul I sent the original
manuscript, in my own handwriting, to Mr. Jefferson, and also wrote him
four Letters, dated the 1st, 4th, 6th, 16th of October, 1800, giving
him an account of what was then going on in Europe respecting Neutral
Commerce.

The Case was, that in order to compel the English Government to
acknowledge the rights of Neutral Commerce, and that free Ships make
free Goods, the _Emperor Paul_, in the month of September following the
publication of the plan, shut all the Ports of Russia against England.
Sweden and Denmark did the same by their Ports, and Denmark shut up
Hamburgh. Prussia shut up the Elbe and the Weser. The ports of Spain,
Portugal, and Naples were shut up, and, in general, all the ports of
Italy, except Venice, which the Emperor of Germany held; and had it not
been for the untimely death of Paul, a _Law of Nations_, founded on the
authority of Nations, for establishing the rights of Neutral Commerce
and the freedom of the Seas, would have been proclaimed, and the
Government of England must have consented to that L