26 



hours, and the vessels of the other might be privileged 

 from capture themselves, and for aught I see, might aid 

 in the capture of those of the other power, because the 

 grant was not mutual, but only existed on one side. 



The treaty remained unimpaired by the declaration 

 of war, or it did not; if it was unimpaired, then every 

 hostile act was wrong and illegal, if it was impaired, then, 

 the doctrine of Mr. Adams, as to its indestructibility 

 falls to the ground. 



Mr. Adams may choose to call this the British side 

 of the argument, but the period has arrived when he 

 cannot play off his catch words of British influence, 

 British partialities, British arguments. It needs not 

 a British argument to shew that on the suggestion of 

 Mr. Adams, an important and invaluable national inter 

 est was exposed to total loss from his misconstruction of 

 a plain principle, a principle founded on common reason, 

 and common sense, and which none but a man perverse 

 ly obstinate, and wilfully wrong headed and eccentric 

 would undertake to deny. 



It is in vain to call in the sanction of the other nego 

 tiators. If Mr. Adams will claim the whole merit of 

 his wonderful discovery of a new principle, if that prin 

 ciple be found upon investigation to be absurd and false, 

 resting on no equitable basis, and unsupported by any 

 custom or usage of nations, he ought to be sufficiently 

 magnanimous to take the blame of his erring and eccen 

 tric diplomacy. 



Besides the interest being exclusively a Massachu 

 setts interest, they might reasonably suppose that a 

 diplomatist as able and experienced as he was expected 

 to have been, would not have hazarded this great inter 

 est of his own state, unless he had examined the strength, 

 and tested the truth of the principle on which he meant 

 to place it. They confided too much, and that was 

 their error. It may seem surprising that they should 

 have been so deluded, yet it is not more surprising than 

 that the people of New England, intelligent, shrewd and 

 sagacious as they certainly are, especially, in all matters 

 touching their own interests, should still continue to be- 



