otherwise than superfluous to observe that the
assembly will be in its nature diplomatic and not legislative; that
nothing can be transacted there obligatory upon any one of the States to
be represented at the meeting, unless with the express concurrence of
its own representatives, nor even then, but subject to the ratification
of its constitutional authority at home. The faith of the United States
to foreign powers can not otherwise be pledged. I shall, indeed, in the
first instance, consider the assembly as merely _consultative_; and
although the plenipotentiaries of the United States will be empowered to
receive and refer to the consideration of their Government any
proposition from the other parties to the meeting, they will be
authorized to conclude nothing unless subject to the definitive sanction
of this Government in all its constitutional forms. It has therefore
seemed to me unnecessary to insist that every object to be discussed at
the meeting should be specified with the precision of a judicial
sentence or enumerated with the exactness of a mathematical
demonstration. The purpose of the meeting itself is to deliberate upon
the great and common _interests_ of several new and neighbouring
nations. If the measure is new and without precedent, so is the
situation of the parties to it. That the purposes of the meeting are
somewhat indefinite, far from being an objection to it is among the
cogent reasons for its adoption. It is not the establishment of
principles of intercourse with one, but with seven or eight nations at
once. That before they have had the means of exchanging ideas and
communicating with one another in common upon these topics they should
have definitively settled and arranged them in concert is to require
that the effect should precede the cause; it is to exact as a
preliminary to the meeting that for the accomplishment of which the
meeting itself is designed.

Among the inquiries which were thought entitled to consideration before
the determination was taken to accept the invitation was that whether
the measure might not have a tendency to change the policy, hitherto
invariably pursued by the United States, of avoiding all entangling
alliances and all unnecessary foreign connections.

Mindful of the advice given by the father of our country in his Farewell
Address, that the great rule of conduct for us in regard to foreign
nations is, in extending our commercial relations, to have with them as