here at the time. 1 enclose you a letter from Monroe on the subject of
the late treaty. You will observe a hint in it, to do without delay what
we are bound to do. There is reason, in the opinion of our ministers,
to believe, that if the thing were to do over again, it could not be
obtained, and that if we give the least opening, they will declare the
treaty void. A warning amounting to that has been given to them, and
an unusual kind of letter written by their minister to our Secretary of
State, direct. Whatever Congress shall think it necessary to do, should
be done with as little debate as possible, and particularly so far as
respects the constitutional difficulty. I am aware of the force of
the observations you make on the power given by the constitution to
Congress, to admit new States into the Union, without restraining the
subject to the territory then constituting the United States. But when I
consider that the limits of the United States are precisely fixed by the
treaty of 1783, that the constitution expressly declares itself to be
made for the United States, I cannot help believing the intention was
not to permit Congress to admit into the Union new States, which should
be formed out of the territory for which, and under whose authority
alone, they were then acting. I do not believe it was meant that they
might receive England, Ireland, Holland, &tc. into it, which would
be the case on your construction. When an instrument admits two
constructions, the one safe, the other dangerous, the one precise, the
other indefinite, I prefer that which is safe and precise. I had
rather ask an enlargement of power from the nation, where it is found
necessary, than to assume it by a construction which would make our
powers boundless. Our peculiar security is in the possession of a
written constitution. Let us not make it a blank paper by construction.
I say the same as to the opinion of those who consider the grant of
the treaty-making power as boundless. If it is, then we have no
constitution. If it has bounds, they can be no others than the