5871. NEUTRALITY, Public vessels.—[further continued].
Mr. Thornton's attempt
to justify his nation in using our ports as cruising
stations on our friends and ourselves, renders
the matter so serious as to call, I think, for
answer. That we ought, in courtesy and friendship,
to extend to them all the rights of hospitality
is certain; that they should not use our
hospitality to injure our friends or ourselves is
equally enjoined by morality and honor. After
the rigorous exertions we made in Genet's time
to prevent this abuse on his part, and the indulgences
extended by Mr. Adams to the
British cruisers even after our pacification with
France, by ourselves also from an unwillingness
to change the course of things as the war was
near its close, I did not expect to hear from
that quarter charges of partiality.—
To James Madison. Washington ed. iv, 501.
(M.
Aug. 1803)
