Thus disappointed in our just expectations, it became my imperative
duty to consult with Congress in regard to the expediency of a resort
to retaliatory measures in case the stipulations of the treaty should
not be speedily complied with, and to recommend such as in my judgment
the occasion called for. To this end an unreserved communication of the
case in all its aspects became indispensable. To have shrunk in making
it from saying all that was necessary to its correct understanding,
and that the truth would justify, for fear of giving offense to
others, would have been unworthy of us. To have gone, on the other
hand, a single step further for the purpose of wounding the pride of a
Government and people with whom we had so many motives for cultivating
relations of amity and reciprocal advantage would have been unwise and
improper. Admonished by the past of the difficulty of making even the
simplest statement of our wrongs without disturbing the sensibilities of
those who had by their position become responsible for their redress,
and earnestly desirous of preventing further obstacles from that source,
I went out of my way to preclude a construction of the message by which
the recommendation that was made to Congress might be regarded as a
menace to France in not only disavowing such a design, but in declaring
that her pride and her power were too well known to expect anything from
her fears.
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