duty, and I shall continue to perform it by all the means which the
Constitution and the laws have placed in my power. My opinion of the
value and importance of these laws corresponds entirely with that
expressed by Mr. Monroe in his message to Congress of December 7, 1819.
That wise, prudent, and patriotic statesman says:

It is of the highest importance to our national character and
indispensable to the morality of our citizens that all violations of
our neutrality should be prevented. No door should be left open for the
evasion of our laws, no opportunity afforded to any who may be disposed
to take advantage of it to compromit the interest or the honor of the
nation.


The crime of setting on foot or providing the means for a military
expedition within the United States to make war against a foreign state
with which we are at peace is one of an aggravated and dangerous
character, and early engaged the attention of Congress. Whether
the executive government possesses any, or what, power under the
Constitution, independently of Congress, to prevent or punish this
and similar offenses against the law of nations was a subject which
engaged the attention of our most eminent statesmen in the time of the
Administration of General Washington and on the occasion of the French
Revolution. The act of Congress of the 5th of June, 1794, fortunately
removed all the difficulties on this question which had theretofore
existed. The fifth and seventh sections of this act, which relate to the
present question, are the same in substance with the sixth and eighth
sections of the act of April 20, 1818, and have now been in force for
a period more than sixty years.