Overtures of Peace

.—History has delivered to us the quarrels of potentates, and the vices of monarchs; it hath informed us of the mean arts used by princes, when war has no longer become practicable, either from the emptiness of the treasury, or from the remonstrance of their subjects. At this period, kings complimented each other, restored the conquered territory, and ended where they began. In the present time, different overtures must be adopted; new language had recourse to. We are contending, not indeed with the vicious Louis, or the haughty Charles; we are warring with a great and free people, who will alike disdain the artifice of couorts, and the hypocrisy of statesmen. Our overtures, when we relinquish the system of conquest, must be open, manly, and generous.