LETTER CXXXV.--TO GOUVERNEUR MORRIS, March 12,1793
TO GOUVERNEUR MORRIS.
Philadelphia, March 12,1793.
Dear Sir,
Your Nos. 8 to 13, inclusive, have been duly received. I am sensible
that your situation must have been difficult during the transition
from the late form of government to the re-establishment of some other
legitimate authority, and that you may have been at a loss to determine
with whom business might be done. Nevertheless, when principles are well
understood, their application is less embarrassing. We surely cannot
deny to any nation that right whereon our own government is founded,
that every one may govern itself according to whatever form it pleases,
and change these forms at its own will; and that it may transact its
business with foreign nations through whatever organ it thinks proper,
whether King, Convention, Assembly, Committee, President, or any thing
else it may choose. The will of the nation is the only thing essential
to be regarded. On the dissolution of the late constitution in France,
by removing so integral a part of it as the King, the National Assembly,
to whom a part only of the public authority had been delegated, appear
to have considered themselves as incompetent to transact the affairs of
the nation legitimately.
Pages:
344
345
346
347
348
349
350
351
352
353
354
355
356
357
358
359
360
361
362
363
364
365
366
367
368