CONTENT S.

SPEECH of Mr. Charles Pinckney, at Charleston,
July 22d, 1795

Speech of Mr. J. Thompson, at Petersburg, August
*ift, 1795

Proceedings of a Town Meeting at Wilmington, Auguft 4th, 1795

Speech of Mr. Cafar Rodney, at Wilmington, August 4th, 1795

Memorial of the Citizens of Wilmington and its Vicinity to the Prefident of the United States

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Reply of the Prefident to the Citizens of Wilmington 38

Late Governor of South Carolina, at a very numerous Meeting of the Citizens of Charleston, the 22d July, 1795, to hear the Report of their Committee on the Treaty between Great- Britain and the United States of America. Carefully collected from the Notes of Mr. Pinckney, and afterwards infpected by himself.

E began by saying, that having been absent in the country, he was prevented from attending their meeting on the 16th-but, conceiving it the duty of every friend to his country, on an occafion fo interesting to their commercial rights, he requested permiffion to ftate fome obfervations in fupport of the opinion he should give on the treaty.

In doing this, he faid he fhould follow the advice that had just been properly given by the Intendant, and be very moderate. In difcuffions of fuch importance, moderation appeared to him effential to the discovery of truth.

It was fomewhere very well faid, that paffion and intempetance never failed to wreft the fceptre from reason; and he hoped they would not, on this interesting occafion, prevent the fair application of argument to the judgment of an affembly fo numerous and refpectable as that was.

In examining the treaty, it appeared to him neceffary previously to trace the manner in which Mr. Jay, had been appointed to this truft, and the inftructions he had received; in order to determine how far it was conducted, in its commencement and progrefs, upon thofe principles which were conformable to the fpirit and intention of that article of the constitution which refpects treaties, and to the candor and fairness which ought to govern in all negociations where any thing like reciprocity is to be expected, and where there was no determination, on the part of the government, or its negociator, that unneceffary and difhonorable facrifices were. to be made.

He faid that it must here be acknowledged, that as Mr. Jay's appointment had originated in a breach, if not of the letter, yet moft clearly of the fpirit of the conftitution-which seems to have intended, that a judiciary thould be erected in a manner that would render it independent of the influence of

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the executive and legiflature, or of those prejudices which the most distant connection with either muft neceffarily produce; and that the fame man fhould not have it in his power to form a treaty, and afterwards, as a judge, prejudiced as he must be by being concerned in its negociation, to decide upon its meaning: fo there had appeared, for a confiderable time, a determination in a party in our government to force a connection with Great Britain, not only at the risk of this valuable guard to the administration of justice, by ef-. tablishing a precedent for taking the judges from the bench, while in office, and giving them diplomatic or other appointments, but in a breach of a still more important limitation of the conflitution-the one which refpects the power of the prefident to form treaties with the advice and confent of the fenate.

By referring to the proceedings of the fenate on this occafion, it appears that the prefident, in a fhort, unexplanatory meffage, ftated to them, that, from the communications of our minister in Great Britain, our affairs with that court wore a ferious afpect; that before we reforted to the laft expedient, which had been the fcourge of fo many nations, he thought negociation preferable, and nominated Mr. Jay as envoy extraordinary on that occafion. He faid, his confidence in our minifter refident there remained undiminished; but he ftill was of opinion, the measure was neceffary; that such an envoy, going from among us at this time, would have fuller information of the ftate of things, and carry with him more effectually the fenfibility and feelings of the people.

On this meffage being fent to the fenate, it was very properly fuppofed, by fome of the members of that body, that the prefident ought to have fubmitted to them the whole of the business upon which Mr. Jay was to have been fent; and a motion to that effect was brought forward, but negatived. Mr. Jay's appointment was confented to; and, as far as he understood to be the fact, he was abfolutely fent to negociate a treaty with Great Britain, without his inftructions being fubmitted to the fenate, or that body being acquainted with the prefident's intention to enter into a negociation, which was ultimately to lead to the formation of a treaty of fuch immense confequence to every part of the union. He had been informed, and he believed his information was correct, that many of the members of the fenate at that time were of opinion, Mr. Jay was fent for the purpose of obtaining compenfation for the depredations in the Weft Indies; to demand the delivery of the pofts, and the execution of the treaty of peace; and to require a ftipu-

lation, that our veffels should not in future be liable to seizure or condemnation on any pretence. He was fure that this was the general opinion of the people in this part of the union; and, as he had obferved, he understood it to be the opinion of the

fenate.

If this is the fact, that Mr. Jay's inftructions for forming this treaty were not submitted to the fenate, nor received their affent, he confidered it as a matter of great importance indeed, and that required the most serious attention of the people, how far the constitution ever intended to authorize the prefident to enter into any negociation with a foreign power, without his having firft fubmitted his intentions and inftructions to the fenate and received their advice and affent, as well with refpect to the neceffity of such negociation, as to the propriety of his inftructions.

Mr. Pinckney faid, his opinion clearly was, that the conftitution gave no power to the prefident to commence a negociation, without previously fubmitting his intentions and inftructions to the fenate, requiring their advice and receiving their affent. The words "by and with the advice and confent of the fenate" admit no other explanation. He cannot be faid to advife with them upon a measure, if he forms a treaty without their knowledge, and merely leaves to them the power of determining whether they will ratify it or not, after it has been folemnly concluded by the minifter.

The true construction of this article, and the ufe the people of the union will one day require to be made of it, is, if the prefident thought a foreign negociation neceffary, that he fhould previously confult the fenate, and be governed by their opinion, how far it would be proper, and upon what conditions, to proceed in it; and that if the fenate, without the previous interference of the prefident, thought a negociation proper, ́that they should advise it, and that the prefident fhould enter upon it. Although a contrary ufe had hitherto been made of this power, yet Mr. Pinckney faid, that it well deferved the attention of the public, whether any other construction ought to be admitted; and that if a different ufe had been made of it, or if the article was doubtful, or open to any other meaning, whether it was not of greater confequence than any thing that had been agitated fince the revolution, that thefe doubts fhould be removed, and the meaning he contended for, unequivocally given to the article. If, on the other hand, a power was to be given to the prefident to enter into negociations with foreigners, without acquainting the fenate with their nature, or the connections he wishes to form, and he fhould merely

leave to them the power of ratifying or not, it must at once be feen, that the agency, which the conftitution intended to give the fenate, in the formation of treaties, was in a great measure destroyed; and that as it was an unusual, and fometimes a hazardous thing, and productive of war, or other national calamities, for nations to refufe to ratify a treaty after it had been figned by the minifter, who, it is to be fuppofed, was properly inftructed, and acted agreeably to the inftructions and wifhes of thofe who fent him, there could be no doubt of improper treaties being FORCED upon the people.

If the fenate were not to have a right to advise the prefident to a negociation, which they confidered as proper, without his previous interference-if no foreign connection was to take place but of his propofing-it then indeed became an enquiry of the highest importance, how far the people or the conftitution of the United States ever intended to place all its foreign connections, all the treaties they may think neceffary to their peace and fecurity, to their general interefts, or the regulation of their commerce, in the hands of one man: a man in whom, by giving him the right to nominate, they had already placed all the honors and offices of the government; and to which unexampled power in any thing that had even the appearance of a free government, an attempt, was here made to add the all-important one of concluding treaties without the knowledge of the senate, and leaving it to them merely to ratify: a power which, under an unwife use of it, may involve us in wars, abridge our rights, and would, as he fhould attempt to fhew, by fuch treaties as Mr. Jay's, eventually deftroy our navigation and commerce, and the right congrefs had to regulate them.

He would, upon a proper occafion, enter more largely into thefe fubjects; he had at prefent mentioned them with a view to prove the neceffity of the people's feriously attending to a treaty, in the commencement of which there have been two breaches of the conftitution, and which, from the manner of its negociation, must neceffarily bring before the public a difcuffion of the important fubjects which on this occafion he had only time very flightly to touch upon.

If, however, a treaty was confidered as indifpenfible, and our trade was in fo languid a ftate that it could not be advantageously carried on without the fupport of, or a connection with Great Britain, furely Mr. Jay was of all men the most improper that could have been appointed; the most unlikely to obtain those advantages which the humbled and diftreffed fituation of that country gave us a right to expect,-nay, to demand; and without which it is the univerfal opinion of all the rea!