Prefatory Note
In President Wilson's address before the Congress on February
26, 1917, he said that
we must defend our commerce and the lives of our people in the
midst of the present trying circumstances, with discretion but with
clear and steadfast purpose. Only the method and the extent
remain to be chosen upon the occasion, if occasion should indeed
arise. Since it has unhappily proved impossible to safeguard our
neutral rights by diplomatic means against the unwarranted in
fringements they are suffering at the hands of Germany, there
may be no recourse but to armed neutrality, which we shall know
how to maintain and for which there is abundant American prec
edent.
In view of the statements contained in the President's address setting
forth the difficulties of the Government of the United States concern
ing its maritime commerce, it has been thought both interesting and
timely to collect and to publish the accompanying documents relating
to the maritime controversy with France during the presidency of
John Adams. The present pamphlet, the first of a series, contains
pertinent extracts from President Adams' messages, the respective
replies of the Senate and the House, the laws enacted by Congress to
meet the situation, and the proclamations issued by the President. By
way of introduction, there is prefixed an
extract from the learned note
of J. C. Bancroft Davis’ Treaties and Conventions between the United
States and other Powers (1776–1887), which gives in summary form
the history of the controversy, and there is appended the convention
of September 30, 1800, between the United States and France, negotiated
during this controversy and which brought it to an end.
James Brown Scott,
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