262. ALEXANDER OF RUSSIA, Neutral Rights and.—
The northern nations of
Europe, at the head of which your Majesty
is distinguished, are habitually peaceable. The
United States of America, like them, are
attached to peace. We have then with them
a common interest in the neutral rights. Every
nation indeed, on the continent of Europe.
belligerent as well as neutral, is interested
in maintaining these rights, liberalizing them
progressively with the progress of science and
refinement of morality, and in relieving them
from restrictions which the extension of the
arts has long since rendered unreasonable and
vexatious,—
To the Emperor of Russia. Washington ed. v, 8.
Ford ed., viii, 440.
(W.
April. 1806)
