799. BELLIGERENTS, Policy toward.—
Far from a disposition to avail ourselves
of the peculiar situation of any belligerent
nation to ask concessions incompatible
with their rights, with justice, or reciprocity,
we have never proposed to any the sacrifice
of a single right: and in consideration of existing
circumstances, we have ever been willing,
where our duty to other nations permitted
us, to relax for a time, and in some cases,
that strictness of right which the laws of nature,
the acknowledgments of the civilized
world, and the equality and independence of
nations entitle us to.—
R. To A. Orleans Legislature. Washington ed. viii, 129.
(June. 1808)
