measures refer to war, not as actually existing, but only as a future possibility. Meanwhile there were “existing differences” only. Finally, on the 14th of May, 1800, four months before the signature of the Convention, and when the plenipotentiaries on each side were at a dead-lock, another Act was passed, authorizing the abandonment of the military preparations set on foot in contemplation of the contingency of war.[225] Such is a synopsis of testimony from Congressional legislation. And now, when it is considered that Congress alone, under the Constitution, has power to declare war, that it never made any declaration of war against France, and that throughout this whole period of trouble, in its whole series of acts, it expressly negatived the fact of war, is it not impossible to assert, that, according to the understanding of our Government, war actually existed? What Congress did, and what it failed to do, answer in the affirmative. The declarations of the Executive are as explicit as the declarations of Congress. In the instructions to our plenipotentiaries, under date of October 22, 1799, the Secretary of State, after mentioning the spoliations of France, says: “This conduct of the French Republic would well have justified an immediate declaration of war on the part of the United States; but, _desirous of maintaining peace_, and still willing to leave open the door of reconciliation with France, _the United States contented themselves with preparations for defence_ and measures calculated to protect their commerce.”[226] These plenipotentiaries declared to the French, under date of April 11, 1800, that the Acts of Congress, “_far from contemplating a coöperation with the enemies of the Republic_, did not even authorize reprisals upon her merchantmen, but were restricted solely to the giving of safety to their own, till a moment should arrive when their sufferings could be heard and redressed.”[227] Again, in a despatch to our minister in England, under date of September 20, 1800, the Secretary of State, who was none other than John Marshall, says: “The aggressions sometimes of one and sometimes of another belligerent power have forced us _to contemplate and to prepare for war as a probable event_”:[228] not as an actual event already arrived, but only as a probable event. In the face of such declarations, who can say that war existed?