DIPLOMACY OF THE UNITED STATES. BEING AN ACCOUNT OF The Foreign Relations of the Country, FROM THE FIRST TREATY WITH FRANCE, IN 1778, το THE TO THE FIRST EDITION. THIS work is intended to give a view of the Foreign Relations, an account of the policy pursued, or, as it is sometimes termed, a diplomatic history of the country, from the first intercourse of the Government with Europe in 1776-7-8, to the end of the year 1814. We have selected that period for the close of the "account," as a general pacification then took place, and those considerations, which, during the wars of the French revolution, gave so much importance to our negotiations abroad, were, in consequence of the state of peace, entirely put at rest. We have given a condensed exposition of some of the important principles of the Laws of Nations, brought into discussion since the year '92, though the nature of the work has not permitted an extended dissertation on any of those topics. It is proper to observe that, in preparing this work, great use has necessarily been made of the collection of American state papers, and of the journals of Congress, both of the Confederation, and of the present government, together with the documents, debates, &c. to be found in the Parliamentary History of Great Britain, and other works of that description. The valuable collections of the Ebeling and Warden libraries on American subjects, now in the possession of Harvard University, and the excellent collection of American tracts in the Athenæum in this town, may be consulted to advantage on any topic, relative to this country. Boston, April 1826. |