The treaties of the United States with foreign nations are in harmony with the principle so energetically proposed and upheld,--beginning with the Treaty of Amity and Commerce with France in 1778, and ending only with the Peruvian treaty as late as 1851. Here is the provision in the treaty with France, negotiated by Franklin, whose wise forethought is always conspicuous:-- “And it is hereby stipulated that free ships shall also give a freedom to goods, and that everything shall be deemed to be free and exempt which shall be found on board the ships belonging to the subjects of either of the confederates, although the whole lading or any part thereof should appertain to the enemies of either, contraband goods being always excepted. It is also agreed, in like manner, that the same liberty be extended to persons who are on board a free ship, with this effect, that, _although they be enemies to both or either party, they are not to be taken out of that free ship, unless they are soldiers and in actual service of the enemies_.”[73] The obvious effect of this stipulation is twofold: first, that enemies, unless soldiers in actual service, shall not be taken out of a neutral ship; and, secondly, that such persons are not contraband of war so as to affect the voyage of a neutral with illegality. Such was the proposition of Franklin, of whom it has been said, that he snatched the lightning from the skies, and the sceptre from tyrants. That he sought to snatch the trident also is attested by his whole diplomacy, of which this proposition is part. But the same principle is found in succeeding treaties, sometimes with a slight change of language. In the treaty with the Netherlands, negotiated by John Adams in 1782, the exception is confined to “military men actually in the service of an enemy,”[74]; and this same exception is also found in the treaty with Sweden in 1783,[75] with Prussia in 1785,[76] with Spain in 1795,[77] with France in 1800,[78] with Colombia in 1824,[79] with Central America in 1825,[80] with Brazil in 1828,[81] with Mexico in 1831,[82] with Chile in 1832,[83] with Venezuela in 1836,[84] with Peru-Bolivia in 1836,[85] with Ecuador in 1839,[86] with New Granada in 1846,[87] with Guatemala in 1849,[88] with San Salvador in 1850,[89] and in the treaty with Peru in 1851.[90]