And if we can not yet flatter ourselves that this may be
accomplished, as advances toward it the establishment of the principle
that the friendly flag shall cover the cargo, the curtailment of
contraband of war, and the proscription of fictitious paper blockades--
engagements which we may reasonably hope will not prove impracticable--
will, if successfully inculcated, redound proportionally to our honor
and drain the fountain of many a future sanguinary war.
The late President of the United States, in his message to Congress of
the 2d December, 1823, while announcing the negotiation then pending
with Russia, relating to the northwest coast of this continent, observed
that the occasion of the discussions to which that incident had given
rise had been taken for asserting as a principle in which the rights and
interests of the United States were involved that the American
continents, by the free and independent condition which they had assumed
and maintained, were thenceforward not to be considered as subjects for
future colonization by any European power.
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