Terence P. Jeffrey: America’s Role Model on War and Peace

On Tuesday, January 22, 1793, a ship arrived in Dover, England. It brought with it some terrible news from France.

The story was detailed in the Wednesday edition of London Evening Mail. The headline was simple: “Execution of Louis XVI.”

“At six o’clock on Monday morning, the King went to take a farewell of the Queen and Royal Family,” This is the story. “After staying with them some time, and taking a very affectionate farewell of them, the King descended from the tower of the Temple, and entered the Mayor’s carriage, with his confessor and two Members of the Municipality, and passed slowly along the boulevards which led from the Temple to the place of execution.”

“Louis mounted the scaffold with composure, and that modest intrepidity peculiar to oppressed innocence, the trumpets sounding and the drums beating during the whole time,” It said.

Louis said these few words after he made a sign that he wanted to harangue all the people. ‘I die innocent; I pardon my enemies; I only sanctioned upon compulsion the Civil Constitution of the Clergy’ —

“He was proceeding, but the beating of the drums drowned out his voice,” The report stated. “His executioners then laid hold of him and an instant after, his head was separated from his body; this was about a quarter past ten o’clock.”

Uncertain news about the execution of King Ferdinand II was brought to Baltimore by a ship from Portugal that arrived in Baltimore the second week in March 1793.

The Maryland Gazette reported the following in one paragraph: “Yesterday arrived here from Oporto, Portugal, which place he left the 10th of February, captain Pell, of the ship Eagle, who informs, that the day previous to his departure the post had brought intelligence that the King of France was beheaded, and that the report was current there, and generally believed.”

The Pennsylvania Herald published on March 20th a story confirmating that the French King had been killed. “As soon as the execution was effected,” According to this report “three huzzas were given by the spectators, hats thrown in the air, and it is said, the executioners and many near the scaffold, dipt their buttons in the King’s bloods, as marks of victory and triumph.”

Only 10 days after receiving the news that France had killed Louis XVI in Britain, France declared war upon Britain and the Netherlands.

How did the United States react to this European war on terror?

On April 22, 1793, President George Washington — who had commanded the Continental Army to victory in the American Revolution — issued a “Neutrality Proclamation.” It said that the United States “should with sincerity and good faith adopt and pursue a conduct friendly and impartial toward the belligerent powers.”

Washington also stated: “I have given instructions to those officers, to whom it belongs, to cause prosecutions to be instituted against all persons, who shall, within the cognizance of the courts of the United States, violate the Law of Nations, with respect to the powers at war, or any of them.”

Three years later, Washington proudly supported his decision to keep America out from the European war that no American interest was seriously endangered in his Farewell Address.

“Observe good faith and justice toward all nations; cultivate peace and harmony with all,” Washington stated. “Religion and Morality enjoin this conduct; and can it be, that good policy does not equally enjoin it?”

“Europe has a set of primary interests, which to us have none, or a very remote relation,” Washington said. Washington stated, “She must engage in frequent controversies. The causes of which are fundamentally foreign to our concerns. It is therefore unwise for us to infiltrate ourselves by artificial ties in the ordinary vicissitudes and collisions of her friendships and enmities.

“Our detached and distant situation invites and enables us to pursue a different course,” Washington.

“Why forego the advantages of so peculiar a situation?” He said. “Why quit our own to stand upon foreign ground? Why, by interweaving our destiny with that of any part of Europe, entangle our peace and prosperity in the toils of European ambition, rivalship, interest, humor, or caprice?”

“In relation to the still subsisting war in Europe, my Proclamation of the 22d of April 1793, is the index to my plan,” Washington stated. Washington said:

“After deliberate examination, with the aid of the best lights I could obtain, I was well satisfied that our country, under all circumstances of the case, had a right to take, and was bound in duty and interest to take, a neutral position,” Washington. “Having taken it, I determined, as far as should depend upon me, to maintain it, with moderation, perseverance, and firmness.”

Washington was right to make America’s national interest the guiding star of our foreign policy — especially when the issue was war or peace.

This issue should be a role model for all American presidents.

CNSnews.com editor-in chief is Terence P. Jeffrey. You can learn more about him at the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

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