5859. NEUTRALITY, Preserving.—[further continued].
You may, on every occasion,
give assurances [to the British government]
which cannot go beyond the real desires
of this country, to preserve a fair neutrality
in the present war, on condition that the rights
of neutral nations are respected in us, as they
have been settled in modern times, either by
the express declarations of the powers of Europe,
or their adoption of them on particular
occasions.—
To Thomas Pinckney. Washington ed. iii, 542.
(Pa.,
April. 1793)
