2018 Practice Exam - Q5: Extent of Change in U.S. Foreign Policy

Source: President George Washington, Neutrality Proclamation, April 1793.

Whereas it appears that a state of war exists between Austria, Prussia, Sardinia, Great Britain, and the United Netherlands, of the one part, and France on the other; and the duty and interest of the United States require, that they should with sincerity and good faith adopt and pursue a conduct friendly and impartial toward the belligerent powers:

I have therefore thought fit by these presents to declare the disposition of the United States to observe the conduct aforesaid towards those powers respectively; and to exhort and warn the citizens of the United States carefully to avoid all acts and proceedings whatsoever, which may in any manner tend to contravene such disposition.

Source: Treaty of Greenville, August 1795.

A treaty of peace between the United States of America and the tribes of Indians called the Wyandots, Delawares, Shawnees, Ottawas, Chippewas, Potawatomis, Miamis, Eel Rivers, Weas, Kickapoos, Piankashaws, and Kaskaskias....

Article 1st: Henceforth all hostilities shall cease; peace is hereby established, and shall be perpetual; and a friendly intercourse shall take place between the said United States and Indian tribes....

Article 4th: In consideration of the peace now established...the United States relinquish their claims to all other Indian lands northward of the River Ohio, eastward of the Mississippi, and westward and southward of the great lakes and the waters uniting them, according to the boundary line agreed on by the United States and the King of Great Britain, in the treaty of peace made between them in the year 1783....

Article 5th: To prevent any misunderstanding about the Indian lands relinquished by the United States...the meaning of that relinquishment is this: the Indian tribes who have a right to those lands, are quietly to enjoy them, hunting, planting, and dwelling thereon so long as they please, without any molestation from the United States; but when those tribes or any of them shall be disposed to sell their lands, or any part of them, they are to be sold only to the United States, and until such sale, the United States will protect all the said Indian tribes in the quiet enjoyment of their lands against all citizens of the United States, and against all other white persons who intrude upon the same. And the said Indian tribes again acknowledge themselves and all their people to be under the protection of the said United States and no other power whatever.

Source: Letter from Thomas Jefferson to James Monroe (United States minister to France), September 1795.

Mr. Jay’s treaty has at length been made public. So general a burst of dissatisfaction never before appeared against any transaction. Those who understand the particular articles of it, condemn these articles. Those who do not understand them minutely, condemn it generally as wearing a hostile face to France. This last is the most numerous class, comprehending the whole body of the people, who have taken a greater interest in this transaction than they were ever known to do in any other. It has, in my opinion, completely demolished the monarchical party here. The chamber of commerce in New York, against the body of the town, the merchants in Philadelphia, against the body of their town, also, and our town of Alexandria have come forward in its support.

Source: James L. Cathcart, United States consul at Tripoli, letter to the Secretary of State, May 1800.

The only conclusion which can be drawn from the Bashaw’s [pasha of Tripoli, Yusuf Karamanli] proceedings is that he wants a present, and if he does not get one, he will forge pretences to commit depredations on the property of our fellow citizens; His letter to the President will be the means of keeping him quiet until he receives an answer....I therefore can see no alternative, but to station some of our Frigates in the Mediterranean, otherwise we will be continually subject to the same insults which the Imperials [Austria-Hungary], Danes, Swedes, and Ragusians [region in modern day Croatia] have already suffered and will still continue to suffer, if they do not keep a sufficient Naval force in this Sea to protect their trade.

Source: Secretary of the Treasury Alexander James Dallas, An Exposition of the Causes and Character of the War between the United States and Great-Britain, 1815.

The United States had just recovered, under the auspices of their present constitution, from the debility which their revolutionary struggle had produced, when the convulsive movements of France excited throughout the civilized world the mingled sensations of hope and fear—of admiration and alarm. The interest which those movements, would in themselves, have excited, was incalculably increased, however, as soon as Great Britain became a party to the first memorable coalition against France, and assumed the character of a belligerent power...the difference of the scene would no longer exempt the United States from the influence, and the evils of the European conflict. On the one hand, their government was connected with France, by treaties of alliance and commerce; and the services which that nation had rendered to the cause of American independence....On the other hand, Great Britain leaving the treaty of 1783 unexecuted, forcibly retained the American posts upon the northern frontier; and, slighting every overture to place the diplomatic and commercial relations of the two countries, upon a fair and friendly foundation, seemed to contemplate the success of the American revolution, in a spirit of unextinguishable animosity.

Source: Secretary of State John Quincy Adams, an address delivered at the request of the Committee of the Citizens of Washington, on the occasion of reading the Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1821.

America, in the assembly of nations, since her admission among them, has invariably, though often fruitlessly, held forth to them the hand of honest friendship, of equal freedom, of generous reciprocity. She has uniformly spoken among them, though often to heedless and often to disdainful ears, the language of equal liberty, of equal justice, and of equal rights. She has, in the lapse of nearly half a century, without a single exception, respected the independence of other nations while asserting and maintaining her own. She has abstained from interference in the concerns of others, even when the conflict has been for principles to which she clings, as to the last vital drop that visits the heart....

But she goes not abroad, in search of monsters to destroy. She is the well-wisher to the freedom and independence of all. She is the champion and vindicator only of her own....

She well knows that by once enlisting under other banners than her own, were they even the banners of foreign Independence, she would involve herself, beyond the power of extrication, in all the wars of interest and intrigue, of individual avarice, envy, and ambition, which assume the colors and usurp the standard of freedom. The fundamental maxims of her policy would insensibly change from liberty to force....She might become the dictatress of the world. She would be no longer the ruler of her own spirit.