3549. GOVERNMENT, Recognition of.—[further continued].
I am sensible that your
situation must have been difficult during the
transition from the late form of government
[in France] to the reestablishment of some
other legitimate authority, and that you May
have been at a loss to determine with whom
business might be done. Nevertheless, when
principles are well understood, their application
is less embarrassing. We surely cannot
deny to any nation that right whereon our
own government is founded, that every one
may govern itself according to whatever form
it pleases, and change these forms at its own
will; and that it may transact its business
with foreign nations through whatever organ
it thinks proper, whether king, convention,
assembly, committee, president, or anything
else it may choose. The will of the
nation is the only thing essential to be regarded.—
To Gouverneur Morris. Washington ed. iii, 521.
Ford ed., vi, 199.
(Pa.,
March. 1793)
