Page:Memoir upon the negotiations between Spain and the United States of America which led to the treaty of 1819.djvu/143

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��which I cannot avoid looking upon with hoiTOur, is the system of piracy organized in the city of Baltimore, a thousand times more mischievous than tliat of the Barhary powers.* Nor will I impugn the system of those powers which, for particular views, have caused injuries to Spain: I know very well, that every nation is right in acting according to its own interests, and that when the sum of these requires a blow or secret injury to those that might some day or other prejudice it, there are few that have the delicacy to forbear; but this itself demands the attention of each nation, that it may oppose the designs of those that act so as to injure it; for one

��* 5a/^imore is honoured by the peculiar hatred of the Chevalier; and this Is easily accounted for: the enterprising activity of her citizens, their innate love of freedom and in- dependence, and their natural sympatiiies with the struj^- gling patriots of South America, induced many of them tu expatriate themselves, and by becoming citizens of the in- fant republicks, to acquire a legal right to aid them in their emancipation from the tyranny of the Madre Patria. The Constitution of the United States recognizes the right of every man, to throw oft' his allegiance, when it suits his views of happiness, to connect himself with another State; nor when this is done, can the United States exercise any fur- ther control over his conduct, while he infringes none of their laws. The insinuation, therefore, that it made a part of the system of the United States to protect their citizens in the violation of the laws of nations, is false and un- founded. T,

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