On this whole matter the Senate will act as it thinks best, ordering that investigation which the case requires. For myself I have but one desire, which is, that this effort, begun in the discharge of a patriotic duty, may redound to the good of our country, and especially to the purity of the public service.
APPENDIX.
(A.) Page 15.
AUTHORITIES REFERRED TO IN SPEECH.
Wheaton, our great authority, in Lawrence’s edition, page 727, quotes Vattel as laying down the rule of neutrality:—
“To give no assistance where there is no previous stipulation to give it; nor voluntarily to furnish troops, arms, ammunition, or anything of direct use in war.”
Vattel, as quoted, then says:—
“I do not say, To give assistance equally, but, To give no assistance; for it would be absurd that a State should assist at the same time two enemies.”—Le Droit des Gens, Liv. III. ch. vii. § 104.
Another home authority, the late General Halleck, in his work on International Law, after speaking of merchants engaged in selling ships and munitions of war to a belligerent, says:—
“The act is wrong in itself, and the penalty results from his violation of moral duty as well as of law. The duties imposed upon the citizens and subjects flow from exactly the same principle as those which attach to the government of neutral States.”