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HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES.
Ch. 17.
the little diplomatic world at Washington increased. Monroe accepted his appointment and came for his instructions. Every one was alive with expectation. As public opinion grew more outspoken, the President was obliged to raise his tone. He talked with a degree of freedom which seemed more inconsistent than it really was with his radical policy of peace. With Thornton he was somewhat cautious.[1] Immediately after Monroe's nomination. Thornton asked the President whether he intended to let the new envoy pass to England and converse with British ministers about the free navigation of the Mississippi,—a right to which Great Britain, as well as the United States, was entitled by treaty.
- "The inquiry was somewhat premature, and I made it with some apology. Mr. Jefferson replied, however, unaffectedly, that at so early a stage of the business he had scarcely thought himself what it might be proper to do; that I might be assured the right would never be abandoned by this country; that he wished earnestly for a tranquil and pacific recognition and confirmation of it; that on the whole he thought it very probable that Mr. Monroe might cross the Channel. He reiterated to me with additional force the resolution of the country never to abandon the claim of free navigation,—which indeed cannot be without dissevering the Western States from the Union,—declaring that should they be obliged at last to resort to force, they would throw away the scabbard."
- ↑ Thornton to Lord Hawkesbury, Jan. 31, 1803; MSS. British Archives.
