University of Virginia Library

TO RICHARD RUSH

Dr. Sir I have recd. your favor of Sepr. 10, with
a Copy of the printed documents on the subject of
the slave trade. The mask of humane professions
covering an indifference in some & a repugnance
in others to its effectual abolition, is as obvious as it
is disgusting. G. B. alone, whatever may be her
motives, seems to have the object really at heart.
It is curious at the same time to observe her experiment
for bringing about a change in the law of
Nations by denominating the trade Piracy, without
the universal consent, wch. she held essential to the
Code of the armed neutrality dissented from solely by
herself. Her Cabinet is chargeable with a like inconsistency,
in its readiness to interpose between the
Allied Powers & Spanish Ama. & its scruples to do so
agst. the invasion of Spain herself. Nor is it easy to
reconcile the advances made to you in behalf of our
Southern neighbors, with a disrelish of your proposition
that their Independence be immediately
acknowledged, a right to do which appears to have
been publicly asserted. In point of mere policy, it
excites surprize, that if the Brit. Govt. dreads the
foreseen extension of the views of the Holy Alliance
to Span. Ama. in the event of success in the invasion

of Spain, it did not arrest the invasion, as it might
have done, by a like interposition with that which
is to stifle the projected resubjugation of her former
Colonies. It can excite no surprize, indeed, that our
co-operation should be courted in measures that
may lead to war; it being manifest that in such an
issue G. B. would be under the dilemma, of seeing
our neutral commerce & navigation aggrandized at
the expence of hers, or of adding us to her enemies
by renewing her Paper blockades, and other maritime
provocations. May it not be hoped that a
foresight of this dilemma will be a permanent check
to her warlike propensity?

But whatever may be the motives or the management
of the B. Govt. I cannot pause on the question
whether we ought to join her in defeating the efforts
of the Holy Alliance to restore our Independent
neighbors to the condition of Spanish Provinces.
Our principles & our sympathies,—the stand we have
taken in their behalf, the deep interest we have in
friendly relations with them, and even our security
agst. the Great Powers, who having conspired agst.
national rights & reforms must point their most
envenomed wrath agst. the U. S. who have given the
most formidable example of them; all concur in enjoining
on us a prompt acceptance of the invitation
to a communion of counsels, and if necessary of arms
in so righteous & glorious a cause.[54] Instead of

holding back, I should be disposed rather to invite,
in turn, the B. Govt. to apply at least "the small
effort" of Mr. Canning to the case of the French
Invasion of Spain, and even to extend it to that of
the Greeks. The good that wd. result to the World
from such an invitation if accepted, and the honor
to our Country even if declined, outweigh the
sacrifices that would be required, or the risks that
wd. be incurred. With the British fleets & fiscal
resources associated with our own we should be safe
agst. the rest of the World, and at liberty to pursue
whatever course might be prescribed by a just
estimate of our moral & political obligations.

You ask my view of the claim of the U. S. to the
navigation of the St. Lawrence thro' the Brit. territory,
and my recollection of the grounds on which they
claimed that of the Mississippi thro' Spanish territory.
On the latter point I may refer to a Report of a
Committee of the Revolutionary Congress in 1780[55] in

which among other things the right of the U. S.
is argumentatively touched on; and to the extract
now inclosed from a letter I wrote to Mr. Jefferson
then at Paris in the year 1784, in which there is a
glance at the cases having more or less of analogy
to that of the Mississippi. It being, more easy to
obtain by another hand the extract as it stands than
to separate the irrelevant matter by my own, I must
trust to that apology for obtruding a perusal of the
latter. At the dates referred to the navigation of
the Mississippi was a cardinal object of national
policy; and Virga. feeling a particular interest in it,
thro' Kentucky then a part of the State, the claim
was warmly espoused by her Public Councils of
which I was a member at the last date and one of her
Delegates to Congress at the first.

As a question turning on Natural right & Public
law I think the navigation of the St. Lawrence a
fair claim for the U. S.

Rivers were given for the use of those inhabiting
the Country of which they make a part; and a primary
use of the navigable ones is that of external
commerce. Again, the public good of Nations is
the object of the Law of Nations, as that of inṽiduals
composing the same nation, is of municipal
law. This principle limits the rights of ownership
in the one case as well as in the other; and all that
can be required in either is that compensation be

made for individual sacrifices for the general benefit.
This is what is done in the case of roads & the right
of way under a municipal jurisdiction, and is admitted
to be reasonable, in the form of tolls, where
a foreign passage takes place thro' a channel protected
& kept in repair by those holding its shores.
Vattel allows a right even in Armies marching for
the destructive purposes of war, to pass thro' a neutral
Country with due precautions. How much stronger
the claim for the beneficial privileges of commerce?

In applying these principles it is doubtless proper
to compare the general advantage with the particular
inconvenience and to require a sufficient preponderance
of the former. But was there ever a case in
which the preponderance was greater than that of
the Mississippi; and the view of it might be strengthened
by supposing an occupancy of its mouth limited
to a few acres only, and by adding to the former
territory of the U. S. the vast acquisition lately
made on the waters of that River. The case of the
St. Lawrence is not equally striking, but it is only
in comparison with the most striking of all cases,
that its magnitude is diminished to the eye. The
portion of the U. S. connected with the River & the
inland seas, through which it communicates with
the Ocean, forms a world of itself, and after every
deduction suggested by the artificial channels which
may be substituted for the natural, they will have
a sufficient interest in the natural to justify their
claim and merit their attention. It will be a question
with some perhaps whether the use of the River

by citizens of the U. States will not be attended with
facilities for smuggling, and a danger of collisions
with a friendly power, which render its attainment
little desirable. But if any considerable body of
Citizens feel a material interest in trading thro' that
channel, and there be a public right to it, the Govt.
will feel much delicacy in forbearing to contend
for it.

How far it may be expedient to appeal from the
transitory calculations to the permanent policy of
G. B. in relation to Canada, as was done with respect
to Spain & Louisiana, you can best judge. I have
noticed allusions in Parliament to the considerations
recommending an alienation of the Province; and it
is very possible that they may be felt by the Govt.
But it may well be expected that the solid interest
of the Nation will be overruled by the respect for
popular prejudices, & by the colonial pasturage
for hungry favorites. It is very certain that Canada
is not desirable to the U. S. as an enlargement of
Domain. It could be useful to them only, as shutting
a wide door to smuggling, as cutting off a
pernicious influence on our savage neighbours, and
as removing a serious danger of collisions with a
friendly power.

Having made these observations as due to your
request I must not decline saying, that whatever
just bearing any of them may have on the point of
right, in the case of the St. Lawrence I consider
the moment for asserting it not the most propitious,
if a harmony of views be attainable with the B.

Govt. on the great subject of Spanish America, to
say nothing of other subjects in principle akin to it.
I doubt not however that eno' will be left to your
discretion, and that there will be more than eno' of
that to so manage the discussion as to prevent an
interference of one object with another.

Just as the above was closed, the fall of Cadiz
& the Cortes are confirmed to us. What next is the
question. Every great event in the present state
of the world may be pregnant with a greater. As
the Holy Alliance will premise negotiation & terror
to force agst. the new States South of us, it is to be
hoped they will not be left in the dark as to the
Ultimate views of G. B. in their favor. To conceal
these wd. be to betray them as Spain has been
betrayed