5710. NAVIGATION, Develop.—
Our
people are decided in the opinion that
it is necessary for us to take a share
in the occupation of the ocean, and their
established habits induce them to require
that the sea be kept open to them, and
that that line of policy be pursued which
will render the use of that element to them
as great as possible. I think it a duty in those
intrusted with the administration of their affairs
to conform themselves to the decided
choice of their constituents; and that therefore,
we should, in every instance, preserve
an equality of right to them in the transportation
of commodities, in the right of fishing
and in the other uses of the sea.—
To John Jay. Washington ed. i, 404.
Ford ed., iv, 88.
(P.
1785)
