5000 Year Leap

by Skousen, W. Cleon

  Against the insidious wiles of foreign influence, (I conjure you to believe me fellow citizens) the jealousy of a free people ought to be constantly awake; since history and experience prove that foreign influence is one of the most baneful foes of Republican Government. But that jealousy to be useful must be impartial; else it becomes the instrument of the very influence to be avoided, instead of a defence against it. Excessive partiality for one foreign nation and excessive dislike of another, cause those whom they actuate to see danger only on one side, and serve to veil and even second the arts of influence on the other. Real Patriots, who may resist the intriegues of the favourite, are liable to become suspected and odious; while its tools and dupes usurp the applause and confidence of the people, to surrender their interests.

  The Great rule of conduct for us, in regard to foreign Nations is in extending our commercial relations to have with them as little political connection as possible. So far as we have already formed engagements let them be fulfilled, with perfect good faith. Here let us stop.

  Europe has a set of primary interests, which to us have none, or a very remote relation. Hence she must be engaged in frequent controversies, the causes of which are essentially foreign to our concerns. Hence therefore it must be unwise in us to implicate ourselves, by artificial ties, in the ordinary vicissitudes of her politics, or the ordinary combinations and collisions of her friendships, or enmities:

  Our detached and distant situation invites and enables us to pursue a different course. If we remain one People, under an efficient government, the period is not far off, when we may defy material injury from external annoyance; when we may take such an attitude as will cause the neutrality we may at any time resolve upon to be scrupulously respected; when belligerent nations, under the impossibility of making acquisitions upon us, will not lightly hazard the giving us provocation; when we may choose peace or war, as our interest guided by our justice shall Counsel.

  Why forego the advantages of so peculiar a situation? Why quit our own to stand upon foreign ground? Why, by interweaving our destiny with that of any part of Europe, entangle our peace and prosperity in the toils of European Ambition, Rivalship, Interest, Humour or Caprice?

  'Tis our true policy to steer clear of permanent Alliances, with any portion of the foreign world. So far, I mean, as we are now at liberty to do it, for let me not be understood as capable of patronising infidility to existing engagements (I hold the maxim no less applicable to public than to private affairs, that honesty is always the best policy). I repeat it therefore, let those engagements be observed in their genuine sense. But in my opinion, it is unnecessary and would be unwise to extend them.

  Taking care always to keep ourselves, by suitable establishments, on a respectably defensive posture, we may safely trust to temporary alliances for extraordinary emergencies.

  Harmony, liberal intercourse with all Nations, are recommended by policy, humanity and interest. But even our Commercial policy should hold an equal and impartial hand: neither seeking nor granting exclusive favours or preferences; consulting the natural course of things; diffusing and deversifying by gentle means the streams of Commerce, but forcing nothing, establishing with Powers so disposed; in order to give to trade a stable course, to define the rights of our Merchants, and to enable the Government to support them; conventional rules of intercourse, the best that present circumstances and mutual opinion will permit, but temporary, and liable to be from time to time abandoned or varied, as experience and circumstances shall dictate; constantly keeping in view, that 'tis folly in one Nation to look for disinterested favors from another; that it must pay with a portion of its Independence for whatever it may accept under that character; that by such acceptance, it may place itself in the condition of having given equivalents for nominal favours and yet of being reproached with ingratitude for not giving more. There can be no greater error than to expect, or calculate upon real favours from Nation to Nation. 'Tis an illusion which experience must cure, which a just pride ought to discard.

  In offering to you, my Countrymen these counsels of an old and affectionate friend, I dare not hope they will make the strong and lasting impression, I could wish; that they will controul the usual current of the passions, or prevent our Nation from running the course which has hitherto marked the Destiny of Nations: But if I may even flatter myself, that they may be productive of some partial benefit, some occasional good; that they may now and then recur to moderate the fury of party spirit, to warn against the mischiefs of foreign Intriegue, to guard against the Impostures of pretended patriotism; this hope will be a full recompence for the solicitude for your welfare, by which they have been dictated.

  How far in the discharge of my Official duties, I have been guided by the principles which have been delineated, the public Records and other evidences of my conduct must Witness to You and to the world. To myself, the assurance of my own conscience is, that I have at least believed myself to be guided by them.'

  In relation to the still subsisting War in Europe, my Proclamation of the 22d. of April 1793 is the index to my Plan. Sanctioned by your approving voice and by that of Your Representatives in both Houses of Congress, the spirit of that measure has continually governed me; uninfluenced by any attempts to deter or divert me from it.

  After deliberate examination with the aid of the best lights I could obtain I was well satisfied that our Country, under all the circumstances of the case, had a right to take, and was bound in duty and interest, to take a Neutral position. Having taken it, I determined, as far as should depend upon me, to maintain it, with moderation, perseverence and firmness.

  The considerations, which respect the right to hold this conduct, it is not necessary on this occasion to detail. I will only observe, that according to my understanding of the matter, that right, so far from being denied by any of the Belligerent Powers has been virtually admitted by all.

  The duty of holding a Neutral conduct may be inferred, without any thing more, from the obligation which justice and humanity impose on every Nation, in cases in which it is free to act, to maintain inviolate the relations of Peace and amity towards other Nations.

  The inducements of interest for observing that conduct will best be referred to your own reflections and experience. With me, a predominant motive has been to endeavour to gain time to our country to settle and mature its yet recent institutions, and to progress without interruption, to that degree of strength and consistency, which is necessary to give it, humanly speaking, the command of its own fortunes.

  Though in reviewing the incidents of my Administration, I am unconscious of intentional error, I am nevertheless too sensible of my defects not to think it probable that I may have committed many errors. Whatever they may be I fervently beseech the Almighty to avert or mitigate the evils to which they may tend. I shall also carry with me the hope that my Country will never cease to view them with indulgence; and that after forty five years of my life dedicated to its Service, with an upright zeal, the faults of incompetent abilities will be consigned to oblivion, as myself must soon be to the Mansions of rest.

  Relying on its kindness in this as in other things, and actuated by that fervent love towards it, which is so natural to a Man, who views in it the native soil of himself and his progenitors for several Generations; I anticipate with pleasing expectation that retreat, in which I promise myself to realize, without alloy, the sweet enjoyment of partaking, in the midst of my fellow Citizens, the benign influence of good Laws under a free Government, the ever favourite object of my heart, and the happy reward, as I trust, of our mutual cares, labours and dangers.

  On September 19 Washington left Philadelphia for Mount Vernon. ]

  179. *To JAMES WARREN

  Middlebrook, March 31, 1779.

  Dear Sir: I beseech you not to ascribe my delay in answering your obliging favor of the 16th. of Decr. to disrespect, or want of inclination to continue a corrispondence in which I have always taken pleasure, and thought myself ho
nord.

  Your Letter of the above date came to my hands in Philadelphia where I attended at the request of Congress to settle some important matters respecting the army and its future operations; and where I was detained till some time in Feby., during that period my time was so much occupied by the immediate and pressing business which carried me down, that I could attend to little else; and upon my return to Camp I found the ordinary business of the Army had run so much behind hand, that, together with the arrangements I had to carry into execution, no leizure was left me to endulge myself sooner in making the acknowledgment I am now about to do, of the pleasure I felt at finding that I still enjoyed a share of your confidence and esteem, and now and then am to be informed of it by Letter. believe me Sir when I add, that this proof of your holding me in remembrance is most acceptable and pleasing.

  Our conflict is not likely to cease so soon as every good Man would wish. The measure of iniquity is not yet filled; and unless we can return a little more to first principles, and act a little more upon patriotic ground, I do not know when it will, or, what may be the Issue of the contest. Speculation, Peculation, Engrossing, forestalling with all their concomitants, afford too many melancholy proofs of the decay of public virtue; and too glaring instances of its being the interest and desire of too many who would wish to be thought friends, to continue the War.

  Nothing I am convinced but the depreciation of our Currency proceeding in a great measure from the foregoing Causes, aided by Stock jobbing, and party dissensions has fed the hopes of the Enemy and kept the B. Arms in America to this day. They do not scruple to declare this themselves, and add, that we shall be our own conquerers. Cannot our common Country Am. possess virtue enough to disappoint them? Is the paltry consideration of a little dirty pelf to individuals to be placed in competition with the essential rights and liberties of the present generation, and of Millions yet unborn? Shall a few designing men for their own aggrandizement, and to gratify their own avarice, overset the goodly fabric we have been rearing at the expence of so much time, blood, and treasure? and shall we at last become the victims of our own abominable lust of gain? Forbid it heaven! forbid it all and every State in the Union! by enacting and enforcing efficacious laws for checking the growth of these monstrous evils, and restoring matters, in some degree to the pristine state they were in at the commencement of the War. Our cause is noble, it is the cause of Mankind! and the danger to it, is to be apprehended from ourselves. Shall we slumber and sleep then while we should be punishing those miscreants who have brot. these troubles upon us and who are aimg. to continue us in them, while we should be striving to fill our Battalions, and devising ways and means to appreciate the currency; on the credit of wch. every thing depends? I hope not. Let vigorous measures be adopted; not to limit the prices of Articles, for this I believe is inconsistent with the very nature of things, and impracticable in itself, but to punish Speculaters, forestallers, and extortioners, and above all to sink the money by heavy taxes. To promote public and private oeconomy; Encourage Manufactures &ca. Measures of this sort gone heartily into by the several States would strike at once at the root of all our evils and give the coup de grace to British hope of subjugating this Continent, either by their Arms or their Arts. The first, as I have before observed, they acknowledge is unequal to the task; the latter I am sure will be so if we are not lost to every thing that is good and virtuous.

  A little time now, must unfold in some degree, the Enemys designs. Whether the state of affairs in Europe will permit them to augment their Army with more than recruits for the Regiments now on the Continent and therewith make an active and vigorous compaign, or whether with their Florida and Canadian force they will aid and abet the Indians in ravaging our Western Frontier while their Shipg. with detachments harrass (and if they mean to prosecute the predatory War threatened by Administration through their Commissioners) burn and destroy our Sea Coast; or whether, contrary to expectation, they should be more disposed to negotiate than to either is more than I can determine; the latter will depend very much upon their apprehensions from the Court of Spain, and expectations of foreign aid and powerful alliances; at present we seem to be in a Chaos but this cannot last long as I suppose the ultimate determination of the British Court will be developed at the meeting of Parliament after the Hollidays.

  Mrs. Washington joins me in cordial wishes, and best respects to Mrs. Warren; she would have done herself the pleasure of writing but the present convayance was sudden. I am, etc.

  On March 31 Washington wrote to Lieut. Col. Frederick Weissenfels, of the Second New York Regiment, in answer to his application that the command of the regiment, late Livingston's (Fourth New York Regiment), would be given to the senior lieutenant colonel: "In determining the matter on this ground, I would flatter myself that you will not find yourself in the least injured or deprived of any rank to which you may be intitled." This letter is in the Washington Papers.]

  184. To THE PRESIDENT OF CONGRESS

  Head Quarters, Valley Forge, April 4, 1778.

  Sir: I have now the honor to acknowledge your several letters of the 21st, 29th and 30th ulto. with their inclosures, which have been duly received.

  It gives me pain to observe, they appear to contain several implications, by which my sensibility is not a little wounded.

  I find myself extremely embarrassed by the Steps I had taken towards an Exchange of prisoners and the formation of a general Cartel, making more ample provision for their future accomodation and relief.

  The Views of Congress seem to be very different from what I supposed them, when I entered into my late engagements with General Howe. Their Resolution of the 30th ulto. pointedly requiring a strict adherence to all former ones upon the subject, will in all probability render them impracticable.

  I considered some of their Resolutions as dictated on the principle of retaliation, and did not imagine the terms they contained would be insisted on, in negotiating an agreement calculated to remedy the evils which occasioned them. In most respects they might be substantially complied with, but there are some points to which an exact conformity must of necessity destroy the Idea of a Cartel. One is, the obliging the Enemy to pay Gold and Silver on equal terms for continental Currency, estimating the Articles supplied them at their actual prices with us, as seems to be the design of the Resolve of the 19th. December. Another is, that subjecting the inhabitants of these States, taken in Arms against them, to trial and punishment agreeable to the Resolve of the 30th of the same month.

  I am well aware that appearances ought to be upheld, and that we should avoid as much as possible recognizing by any public Act, the depreciation of our currency; but I conceive this end would be answered, as far as might be necessary, by stipulating that all money payments should be made in Gold and Silver, being the common Medium of Commerce among Nations, at the rate of 4/6 for a Spanish milled dollar &c. by fixing the price of Rations on an equitable Scale, relatively to our respective circumstances, and providing for the payment of what we may owe, by sending in provisions and selling it at their market. The Rates of Money and the prices of provisions and other Commodities differ every where, and in treaties of a similar nature between any two States, it is requisite for mutual convenience, to ascertain some common Ratio, both for the value of Money in payments and for the Rates of those Articles on which they may arise.

  It was determined, on mature consideration, not to concede any thing expressly that should contradict the Resolution of the 30th Decemr. but at the same time, if it is designed to be the rule of practice, it is easy to perceive it would at once overturn any Cartel that could be formed. Genl. Howe would never consent to observing it on his part, if such a practice were to exist on ours. Though the law ought not to be contravened, by an express article admitting the exchangeability of such persons, yet if it is not suffered to sleep, it is in vain to expect the operations of it will ever be acquiesced in by the Enemy.

  This placed the matter entirely in the hands of the Stat
es and naturally would have left no civilians available for exchange with the Continental authority. It had also been resolved by Congress (Dec. 19, 1777) that no exchange take place until all accounts for subsistence of prisoners between the United States and Great Britain be settled and the balance due the United States be paid. "The beauty of it is," wrote Alexander Hamilton to Governor Clinton (March 12), "on a fair settlement, we shall without doubt be in Mr. Howe's debt; and in the meantime, we detain his officers and soldiers as a security for the payment, perhaps forever. At any rate, it cannot take place all next summer." ]

  The measures I have taken must evince that it is my determination to pay the fullest attention to the interests of Citizens and to the rights of General Lee in the treaty; and I think it but justice to the Gentlemen appointed to negociate it, to declare, that I know them to be so fully impressed with the importance of both of those objects, as to make them chearfully observant of the injunctions of Congress, so far as not to conclude any agreement, of which the exchange of Genl. Lee and the alternative respecting Citizens, are not essential parts. These points had been early determined on.

  It is with no small concern that I have been obliged to trouble Congress upon the subjects of this letter, and should they appear to them in the same light they do to me, and they should think proper to remove the obstacles which now oppose the Business in hand, I must request they will be pleased to communicate their determinations, as expeditiously as possible, that the Commissioners may govern themselves accordingly and either proceed to forming a Cartel or to put an end to the negociation. Before the Resolves of the 30th came to hand, they had met and been in treaty two days, with a prospect of a favorable accomodation.

  I am happy to inform Congress, that General Lee will be out on parole tomorrow, in place of General Prescot; and I have every reason to expect, if the negociation can be continued on admissible terms, that his Exchange will immediately follow the releasement of Col. Campbell and the Hessian Field Officers. It is agreed that Lt. Colo. Allen shall be exchanged for Lt. Colo. Campbell.