There are, indeed, powers of peace conferred upon
Congress, which also come within the scope and jurisdiction of the laws
of nations, such as the negotiation of treaties of amity and commerce,
the interchange of public ministers and consuls, and all the personal
and social intercourse between the individual inhabitants of the United
States and foreign nations, and the Indian tribes, which require the
interposition of any law. But the powers of war are all regulated by the
laws of nations, and are subject to no other limitation. It is by this
power that I am justified in voting the money of my constituents for
the immediate relief of their fellow-citizens suffering with extreme
necessity even for subsistence, by the direct consequence of an
Indian war. Upon the same principle, your consuls in foreign ports are
authorized to provide for the subsistence of seamen in distress, and
even for their passage to their own country.
And it was upon that same principle that I voted against the
resolution reported by the slavery committee, "That Congress possess no
constitutional authority to interfere, in any way, with the institution
of slavery in any of the States of this confederacy," to which
resolution most of those with whom I usually concur, and even my own
colleagues in this House, gave their assent.
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