These instructions are very decisive in favor of our indubitable right to the fisheries; and it is possible, that Congress might be of opinion, that commerce would be the strongest inducement to the English to make peace, and at the same time, that there was something so naval in the fisheries, that the dread of acknowledging our right to them would be the strongest obstacle in the way of peace. They might think, too, that peace was of more importance to the United States, than a British acknowledgment of our right to the fisheries, which, to be sure, would have been enjoyed by our people in a good degree without it. Reasonings like these might influence Congress to revoke the commission and instructions in question. But whatever probability there might appear in them at that time, experience has since shown, that they were not well founded. On the contrary, arguments have been found to convince the British Ministers themselves, that it was the interest of their King and country, not only to acknowledge the American right to the fisheries, but to encourage the unrestrained exercise of it. These considerations, therefore, can be no longer of any weight against a treaty of commerce with Great Britain, or against accrediting a Minister to the Court of St James. Nor can I conceive of any motive now existing against this measure. On the contrary, so many advantages present themselves to view, that I think it my duty to recommend them to Congress as proper to be adopted without loss of time. If there are in Congress any of those gentlemen, with whom I had the honor to serve in the years 1775 and 1776, they may possibly remember, that in arguing in favor of sending Ministers to Versailles, to propose a connexion with that Court, I laid it down as a first principle, that we should calculate all our measures and foreign negotiations in such a manner, as to avoid a too great dependence upon any one power of Europe; to avoid all obligations and temptations to take any part in future European wars. That the business of America with Europe was commerce, not politics or war. And above all, that it never could be our interest to ruin Great Britain, or injure or weaken her any further than should be necessary to support our independence, and our alliances; and that as soon as Great Britain should be brought to a temper to acknowledge our sovereignty and our alliances, and consent that we should maintain the one, and fulfil the others, it would be our interest and duty to be her friends, as well as the friends of all the other powers of Europe, and enemies to none.