nvolve us in a war
abroad and discord and anarchy at home. So far as his acts, or those
of his agents, have threatened an immediate commitment in the war, or
flagrant insult to the authority of the laws, their effect has been
counteracted by the ordinary cognizance of the laws, and by an
exertion of the powers confided to me. Where their danger was not
imminent, they have been borne with, from sentiments of regard to his
nation, from a sense of their friendship towards us, from a conviction
that they would not suffer us to remain long exposed to the actions of
a person who has so little respected our mutual dispositions, and, I
will add, from a reliance on the firmness of my fellow-citizens in
their principles of peace and order. In the mean time I have respected
and pursued the stipulations of our treaties, according to what I
judged their true sense; and have withheld no act of friendship which
their affairs have called for from us, and which justice to others
left us free to perform. I have gone further. Rather than employ force
for the restitution of certain vessels which I deemed the United
States bound to restore, I thought it more adviseable to satisfy the
parties by avowing it to be my opinion, that, if restitution were not
made, it would be incumbent on the United States to make
compensation."

The message next proceeded to state that inquiries had been instituted
respecting the vexations and spoliations committed on the commerce of
the United States, the result of which when received would be
communicated.

The order issued by the British government on the 8th of June, and the
measures taken by the executive of the United States in consequence
thereof, were briefly noticed; and the discussions which had taken
place in relation to the non-execution of the treaty of peace were
also mentioned. The message was then concluded with a reference to the
negotiations with Spain. "The public good," it was said, "requiring
that the present state of these should be made known to the
legislature in confidence only, they would be the subject of a
separate and subsequent communication."

This message was accompanied with copies of the correspondence between
the secretary of state and the French minister, on the points of
difference which subsisted between the two governments, together with
several documents necessary for the establishment of particular facts;
and with the letter written by Mr. Jefferson to Mr. Morris, whi