I pray your excellency to observe that my argument does not deny a right
to all foreign powers of taking proper exceptions to the governmental
acts and language of another. It is to their interference in its
consultations, in its proceedings while yet in an inchoate state, that
we object. Should the President do an official executive act affecting
a foreign power, or use exceptionable language in addressing it through
his minister or through theirs; should a law be passed injurious to the
dignity of another nation--in all these and other similar cases a demand
for explanation would be respectfully received, and answered in the
manner that justice and a regard to the dignity of the complaining
nation would require.
After stating these principles, let me add that they have not only been
theoretically adopted, but that they have been practically asserted.
On two former occasions exceptions of the same nature were taken to the
President's message by the Government of France, and in neither did
they produce any other explanation than that derived from the nature
of our Government, and this seems on those occasions to have been
deemed sufficient, for in both cases the objections were virtually
abandoned--one when Messrs.
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