Marshall, Gerry, and Pinckney were refused
to be received, and again in the negotiation between Prince Polignac and
Mr. Rives. In the former case, although the message of the President
was alleged as the cause of the refusal to receive the ministers, yet
without any such explanation their successors were honorably accredited.
In the latter case the allusion in the message to an apprehended
collision was excepted to, but the reference made by Mr. Rives to
the constitutional duties of the President seems to have removed the
objection.
Having demonstrated that the United States can not in any case permit
their Chief Magistrate to be questioned by any foreign government in
relation to his communications with the coordinate branches of his own,
it is scarcely necessary to consider the case of such an explanation
being required as the condition on which the fulfillment of a treaty or
any pecuniary advantage was to depend. The terms of such a proposition
need only be stated to show that it would be not only inadmissible, but
rejected as offensive to the nation to which it might be addressed.
In this case it would be unnecessary as well as inadmissible.
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