This seems to me the more necessary and desirable because, I regret to
say, the language, which your Excellency employs in your memorandum, is
susceptible of being construed as impugning the good faith of the United
States in the performance of its duties as a neutral.
I take it for granted that no such implication was intended, but it is
so evident that your Excellency is laboring under certain false
impressions that I cannot be too explicit in setting forth the facts as
they are, when fully reviewed and comprehended.
In the first place, this Government has at no time and in no manner
yielded any one of its rights as a neutral to any one of the present
belligerents.
It has acknowledged, as a matter of course, the right of visit and
search and the right to apply the rules of contraband of war to articles
of commerce. It has, indeed, insisted upon the use of visit and search
as an absolutely necessary safeguard against mistaking neutral vessels
for vessels owned by any enemy and against mistaking legal cargoes for
illegal. It has admitted also the right of blockade if actually
exercised and effectively maintained.
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