5837. NEUTRALITY, Fraudulent use of flag.—
As there appears * * * a probability
of a very general war in Europe, you
will be pleased to be particularly attentive to
preserve for our vessels all the rights of neutrality,
and to endeavor that our flag be not
usurped by others to procure to themselves the
benefits of our neutrality. This usurpation
tends to commit us with foreign nations, to subject
those vessels truly ours to rigorous scrutinies
and delays, to distinguish them from
counterfeits, and to take the business of transportation
out of our hands.—
To David Humphreys. Washington ed. iii, 533.
Ford ed., vi, 205.
(Pa.,
1793)
