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The First Legislative Proposal for Pacific Settlement

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 April 2017

Abstract

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Type
Current Notes
Copyright
Copyright © by the American Society of International Law 1938

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References

1 House Report 979 of June 13, 1838, 25th Cong., 2d Sess., Cong. Docs., Serial 336.

The report advised the House of Representatives against “the establishment of a permanent international tribunal” but recommended the memorialists to persevere in fostering a public opinion disposed “habitually to the accommodation of national differences without bloodshed.” It was founded on this interesting bit of reasoning:

“The truth is, that every war hereafter, will by the social disorders that are likely to accompany or follow such an event, throw additional obstacles in the way of future ones. The sword will thus prove to be the surest guaranty of peace.”

2 Wells, William V., The Life and Public Services of Samuel Adams, III, 175.

3 Wells, op. cit., III, 214–17.

4 The delegates at the time were Elbridge Gerry, Samuel Holten and Rufus King.

5 Massachusetts Archives, Senate Documents, 1610.

The manuscript version in the Adams papers deposited in the New York Public Library, differs from the engrossed copy in minor particulars of phrasing, spelling and capitalization, and is without date. Edwin D. Mead in The Principles of the Founders (Boston, American Unitarian Society, 1903) quotes from this text.

6 Journal of the Senate, 5, 360.

7 Journal of the House of Representatives, 5, 361.

8 The committee signing the indorsement consisted of Ebenezer Davis of Charlton, John Bacon of Stockbridge, and Samuel Osgood of Andover.

9 American State Papers, Foreign Relations, I, 90, 94, 100.