If our citizens have not already been shedding each other's blood,
it is not owing to the moderation of Mr. Genet, but to the forbearance
of the government. It is well known that if the authority of the laws
had been resorted to, to stop the Little Democrat, its officers and
agents were to have been resisted by the crew of the vessel, consisting
partly of American citizens. Such events are too serious, too possible,
to be left to hazard, or to what is more than hazard, the will of an
agent whose designs are so mysterious.
Lay the case then immediately before his government. Accompany it with
assurances, which cannot be stronger than true, that our friendship for
the nation is constant and unabating; that faithful to our treaties,
we have fulfilled them in every point to the best of our understanding;
that if in any thing, however, we have construed them amiss, we are
ready to enter into candid explanations, and to do whatever we can be
convinced is right; that in opposing the extravagances of an agent,
whose character they seem not sufficiently to, have known, we have
been urged by motives of duty to ourselves and justice to others, which
cannot but be approved by those who are just themselves; and finally,
that after independence and self-government, there is nothing we more
sincerely wish than perpetual friendship with them.
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