University of Virginia Library

5881. NEUTRALITY, Rights.—[further continued].

The nations of the earth
prostrated at the foot of power, the ocean
submitted to the despotism of a single nation,
the laws of nature and the usages which have
hitherto regulated the intercourse of nations
and interposed some restraint between power
and right, now totally disregarded. Such is the
state of things when the United States are left
single-handed to maintain the rights of neutrals,
and the principles of public right against a warring
world.—
R. to A. Niagara Republicans. Washington ed. viii, 155.
(1809)