meat of them, or, at least the fufpention of the departure of the courier, that we may have time to give notice to our conflituents, that they may, with the zeal that has always animated them, prepare the people for the fad news, and endeavour to avoid thofe evils, which, from the knowledge we have of the ftate of things we cannot but expect and dread. follow the dictates of his paternal Heart. His majefty, in the first place, informed by our report of the fatisfactory explanation given by the refpective deputies of the provinces fucceffively, was graciously pleafed, in order to calm the alarms of his fubjects, to fend us his commands, that in cafe the declarations of the ftates fhould be agreeable to the execution of the preliminaries, his Done at Vienna, Aug. 16, 1787. royal pleafure fhould be fignified, Ita eft, (Signed) De Cock. Declaration of the Emperor's Inten- Gentlemen, The folemn deputation from the provincial states appointed to lay at the foot of the throne the public tellimony of the nation's attachment to his majesty's auguft perfon, and the vote of the said states in the laft concentration of the troops, being an additional inftance of that fincerity, finally, the declaration of the aforefaid ftates concerning the execution of the preliminary articles, prescribed by the royal difpatch of the 16th of Auguft laft, together with the explanatory act of the 1ft inftant, which was approved of as fatisfactory to the dignity of the throne, empowers the emperor to 3 which his dignity could not permit him before to make known. We have the fingular happiness to have it now in our power to obey his commands: wherefore we here by declare, in the name of the emperor and king, and in confequence of his orders: ift, That all the conditions, fundamental laws, privileges and franchifes, in fine, the joyous entry, are, and thall be maintained, and remain untouched conformably to the acts of his majesty's inauguration, both as to the civil and ecclefiaftical order. 2dly, That the new tribunal of juftice, the intendancies and their committees fhall no longer be sufpended, but be, and are entirely fuppreffed; his majefty, by his parental fondnefs, and his juftice, being induced to give up this point, as well as thofe which had been regulated by two diplomas, iffued out the ft of January last concern ing the adminiftrations, the provincial ftates, and the intermediasy committee, or deputation from the faid states. 3dly, This tribunal, fuperior and inferior jurifdictions of the towns, and of the flat country, in fine, the order and adminiftrations of juftice, the ftares and their deputies, as well as the refpective adminiftra. tions of the towns and of the flat coun. an country, shall henceforth remain on Laftly, in regard to redreffing any infraction of the joyous entry, conferences fhall be held with the ftates according to their requifition, their propofals on that head hall confequently be attended to, and his majefty fhall difpofe thereof according to equity, juftice, and the fundamental laws of the province. Whereupon, gentlemen, I pray God to have you in his holy keep "FERDINAND, &c. "Gentlemen, For your information and inftruction we fend you the annexed copy of a dispatch which we this day address to the council of Brabant. “TRAUTTMANSDORFF. "Bruffels, Dec. 13, 1787. "Counterfigned by order of his excellency, "L. C. VANDEVELD." FERDINAND, &c. Gentlemen, It is with the greateft furprife that we faw a printed letter in circulation addreffed to you on the 3d instant by the states of Brabant, at the rifing of their affembly, to thank you for the affistance you had given them for the prefervation of the fundamental laws and privileges of Brabant, in which work your wifdom had facilitated their proceedings, by means of the conferences which they had held with commiffioners from your body; the ftates inviting you at the fame time to maintain in future the fame understanding with them on every point in any wife relating to the public good, and particularly to the prefervation of privileges; and requiring you, with a view of making this common agreement more certain and advantageous, firmly to refolve that no edict or inftrument of government, having any relation whatever to the joyful entry, which may be fent to the council or chancery of Brabant, shall be published or carried into execution, without the knowledge. and advice of the ftates or their deputies, who will deliberate upon them with fuch of their colleagues The Joyful Entry is a charter of liberty confirmed to the fubjects of Brabant, by one of their fovereigns; and it is called by that name, because the charter was granted by the prince on the occafion of his making an entry into his capital, to the great joy of his people. The charter began with the words, "The Joyful Entry." as may be prefent, and requiring you finally, in order that their wishes on this head may be fulfilled, to take fuch further measures (and to communicate them to the ftates) as your wonted wisdom may fuggeft. Without dwelling upon the indecency with which the ftates exprefs, in this letter, the little confideuce they have in the folemn and repeated promifes made by his majefty to maintain their conftitution, and which he is most firmly refølved to maintain in all its parts, we declare to you that his majefty will never fuffer any encroachment whatever upon his fovereign rights, under the fpecious pretext of privileges; and after that, we cannot refrain from reminding you most feriously, that though your oath of office for maintaining the joyful entry has been taken to and before the ftates, you are not, for all that, in any respect their officers, or authorifed by that oath to have the leaft connection with them, with out the knowledge and confent of the emperor, your only matter, of whom alone you are officers, both by the places you fill, and the oath you have taken; for which reafon, we most exprefly forbid you, by thefe prefents, to hold any connection, relation, correfpondence, or keep up any understanding whatever on public affairs, either in a body or by commiffioners, with the ftates or their deputies, without the previous knowledge or exprefs command of his majefty or his reprefentative. It being our intention, that if in any edict, ordinance, or inftrument, that government may fend you, you find any thing which to you may appear contrary to the joyful entry, you confine yourfelves barely to make a reprefentation of it to government, whofe bufinefs it will then be to judge, whether the na ture of the cafe is fuch, that the ftates ought to be heard upon it. We alfo ftrictly forbid you to return the fates any anfwer to the letter in question; and we command you, in cafe you fhould have already anfwered it, or come to any refolution upon the subject matter of it, to fend us immediately a copy of it. TRAUTTMANSDORFF. Counterfigned, by order of his excellency, L. C. VANDEVELD.' Circular Letter tranfmitted by the United States of America, in Congrefs affembled, to the Governors of the refpective States. SIR, New-York, April 17. Our fecretary for foreign affairs has tranfmitted to you copies of a letter to him from our minister at the court of London, of the 4th day of March, 1786, and of the papers mentioned to have been enclofed in it. We have deliberately and difpaffionately examined and confidered the feveral facts and matters urged by Britain as infractions of the treaty of peace on the part of America, and we regret that in fome of the ftates too little attention appears to have been paid to the public faith pledged by that treaty. Not only the obvious dictates of religion, morality, and national honour, but also the firft principles of good policy, demand a candid and punctual compliance with engagements conftitutionally and fairly made. Our Our national conftitution having committed to us the management of our national concerns with foreign ftates and powers, it is our duty to take care that all the rights which they ought to enjoy within our jurifdiction by the laws of natious and the faith of treaties, remain inviolate. And it is alfo our duty to provide that the effential interefts and peace of the whole confederacy, be not impaired or endangered by deviations from the line of public faith, into which any of its members may, from whatever caufe, be unadvisedly drawn. Let it be remembered that the Thirteen Independent Sovereign States have, by exprefs delegation or power, formed and vefted in us a general, though limited fovereign ty, for national purpofes fpecified in the confederation. In this fovereignty they cannot feverally participate (except by their delegates) nor with it have concurrent jurifdiction; for the ninth article of the confederation most exprefly conveys to us the fole and exclufive right and power of determining on swar and peace, and of entering into treaties and alliances, &c. When, therefore, a treaty is conftitutionally made, ratified, and publifhed by us, it immediately be comes binding on the whole nation, and fuperadded to the laws of the land, without the intervention or fiat of fate legiflatures. Treaties derive their obligation from being compacts between the fovereign of this, and the fovereign of another nation; whereas laws or ftatutes derive their force from being acts of a legislature competent to the paffing of them. Hence is is clear that treaties must be implicitly received and obferved by every member of the nation; for as state legiflatures are not competent to the When making of fuch compacts or tresa ties, fo neither are they competent in that capacity, authoritatively to decide on, or afcertain the conftruc tion and fenfe of them. doubts arise respecting the construc tion of ftate laws, it is not unusual or improper for the state legiflatures by explanatory or declaratory acts, to remove those doubts: but the cafe between laws and compacts or treaties, is in this widely different ; for when doubts arife refpecting the fenfe and meaning of a treaty, they are fo far from being cognizable by a ftate legislature, that the United States in congrefs affembled have no authority to settle and determine them: for as the legiflature only, which conftitutionally paffes a law, has power to revife and amend it; fo the fovereign only, who are parties to the treaties, have power by mutual confent and pofterior articles to correct or explain it. In cafes between individuals, all doubts refpecting the meaning of a law, are in the first inftance mere judicial queftions, and are to be heard and decided in the courts of juftice, having cognizance of the caufes in which they arife, and whofe duty it is to determine them according to the rules and maxims established by the laws of nations for the interpretation of treaties. From these principles it follows of neceffary confequence that no individual ftate has a right by legifla tive acts to decide and point out the fenfe in which their particular citizens and courts fhall understand this or that article of a treaty. It is evident that a contrary doctrine would not only militate against the common and established maxims and ideas relative to this fubject, but would prove no lefs ludicrous in practice than it is irrational in theory; for in that case, the the fame article of the fame treaty might by law be made to mean one thing in New Hampshire, another thing in New-York, and neither the one nor the other of them in Georgia. How far fuch legislative acts would be valid and obligatory even within the limits of the ftate paffing them, is a quellion which we hope never to have occafion to difcufs. Certain however it is, that fuch acts cannot bind either of the contracting fovereigns, and confequently can not be obligatory on their refpective nations. But if treaties, and every article in them, be (as they are and ought to be) binding on the whole nation; if individual ftat s have no right to accept fome articles and reject others; and if the impropriety of ftate acts to interpret and decide the fenfe and construction of them, be apparent; ftill more manifest must be the impropriety of state acts to controul, delay, or modify the operation and execution of thefe national compacts. When it is confidered, that the feveral states affembled by their delegates in Congrefs, have exprefs power to form treaties, treaties fo formed are not afterwards to be fubject to fuch alterations as this or that legiflature may think expedient to make, and that too without the confent of either of the parties to it, that is in the prefent cafe without the confent of all the United States, who collectively are parties to this treaty on the one fide, and his Britannick majesty on the other. Were the legiflatures to poffefs and to exercife fuch power, we should foon be involved, as a nation, in anarchy and confufion at home, and in difputes, which would probably terminate in hoftilities and war with the nations with whom we may have formed 1787. treaties. Inftances would then be frequent of treaties fully executed in one ftate, and only partly executed in another; and of the fame article being executed in one manner in one ftate, and in a different manner, or not at all, in another ftate. Hiftory furnishes no precedent of fuch liberties taken with treaties under form of law in any nation. Contracts between nations, like contracts between individuals, fhould be faithfully executed, even though the fword in the one cafe, and the law in the other, did not compel it. Honeft nations, like honest men, require no restraint to do juftice; and though impunity and the neceffity of affairs may fometimes afford temptations to pare down contracts to the measure of convenience, yet it is never done but at the expence of that esteem, and confidence, and credit, which are of infinitely more worth than all the momentary advantages which fuch expedients can extort. But although contracting nations cannot, like individuals, avail themfelves of courts of juftice to compel performance of contracts; yet an appeal to heaven and to arms is always in their power, and often in their inclination. But it is their duty to take care that they never lead their people to make and fupport fuch appeals, unlefs the fincerity and propriety of their conduct affords them good rea fon to rely with confidence on the juftice and protection of Heaven. Thus much we think it useful to obferve in order to explain the principles on which we have unanimoufly come to the following refolutions, viz. "Refolved, That the legislatures of the feveral states cannot of right pass any act or acts for interpreting, (G) explain |