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| | From Revolution to Reconstruction: Presidents: Thomas Jefferson: Letters: "FREE SHIPS MAKE FREE GOODS" |
 | | In the instructions of 1784, given by Congress to their ministers appointed to treat with the nations of Europe generally, the same principle, and the doing away contraband of war, were enjoined, and were acceded to in the treaty signed with Portugal. |
 | | In the late treaty with England, indeed, that power perseveringly refused the principle of free bottoms, free goods; and it was avoided in the late treaty with Prussia, at the instance of our then administration, lest it should seem to take side in a question then threatening decision by the sword. |
 | | We denied his position, and appealed to the universal practice of Europe, in proof that the principle of "free bottoms, free goods," was not acknowledged as of the natural law of nations, but only of it's conventional law. |
| odur.let.rug.nl /~usa/P/tj3/writings/brf/jefl140.htm (968 words) |
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