PROCLAMATION OF NEUTRALITY (1793)

The Proclamation of Neutrality (April 22, 1793) was issued by President george washington upon notification that France and Britain were at war. It pledged the United States to "pursue a course friendly and impartial" toward the belligerents and enjoined observance on all citizens upon pain of prosecution. Neutrality was bound to be difficult because of intense partisan feelings about the war, the privileges and obligations of the French alliance, and British rejection of American claims of neutral rights on the seas.

The importance of the proclamation for the Constitution was twofold. First, as a unilateral declaration by the President it seemed to preempt the power of Congress to decide questions of war and peace. Secretary of State thomas jefferson, although he acquiesced in the proclamation, had made this objection in the cabinet, and it was taken up by the Republicans. In a notable series of articles under the signature Pacificus, Secretary of the Treasury alexander hamilton defended the proclamation. His claim of independent executive authority in foreign affairs was opposed by james madison as Helvidius, who compared it to the royal prerogative of the English constitution. (Hamilton's argument prevailed in history, though Madison's antipathy to overriding executive power has not lacked supporters.) Second, as the conduct of neutrality was executive altogether, it afforded the first instance of government by administrative lawmaking. Decisions were made in the cabinet, without statutory authority, with the guidance only of the customary law of nations. Divided and uncomfortable in this work, the cabinet officers submitted twenty-nine questions to the ruling of the Supreme Court. The court declined to rule, however, and thus established the precedent against advisory opinions. Meanwhile, the government's attempt to prosecute violators of the proclamation was defeated by unsympathetic juries. Not until June 1794 did Congress enact a neutrality law, which codified the rules developed in the cabinet during the preceding year.

Merrill D. Peterson
(1986)

Bibliography

Thomas, Charles M. 1931 American Neutrality in 1793: A Study in Cabinet Government. New York: Columbia University Press.