5831. NEUTRALITY, Carrying trade and.—[further continued].
The rights of a neutral
to carry on a commercial intercourse with every
part of the dominions of a belligerent, permitted
by the laws of the country (with the exception
of blockaded ports and contraband of war), was
believed to have been decided between Great
Britain and the United States by the sentence
of the commissioners mutually appointed to decide
on that and other questions of difference
between the two nations, and by the actual payment
of damages awarded by them against Great
Britain for the infraction of that right. When,
therefore, it was perceived that the same principle
was revived with others more novel, and
extending the injury, instructions were given to
the Minister Plenipotentiary of the United
States at the court of London, and remonstrances
duly made by him on the subject.
These were followed by a partial and temporary
suspension only, without the disavowal of the
principle. He has, therefore, been instructed
to urge this subject anew, to bring it more fully
to the bar of reason, and to insist on the rights
too evident and too important to be surrendered.
Special Message. Washington ed. viii, 57.
Ford ed., viii, 417.
(Jan. 1806)
