!\'larch, 1822, when properly understood and construed in connexion with the antecedent acts and declarations of the Executive. It is obvious that the exclusion of the vessels of the one party from the ports of the United States, and the admission of those of the other, would be inconsistent with an impartial neutrality; and yet the President, in the same message from which Mr. Gorostiza has quoted, states that, "through the whole of this contest the United Stales have remained neutral, and have fulfilled with the utmost impartiality all the obligations incident to that character." In a previous message, of December 7th, 1819, he observes: "In the civil war existing between Spain and the Spanish provinces in this hemisphere, the greatest care has been taken to enforce the laws intended to preserve an impartial neutrality. Our ports have continued to be equally open to both parties, and on the same conditions." This language plainly refers to the whole of the contest; and the President is not to be understood, in his subsequent message, to which Mr. Gorostiza has referred, as intending to say that the vessels of either party were only permitted to enter the ports of the United States, from the period when the success of such party appeared to be probable. The construction which Mr. Gorostiza has given to the particular passage he has cited, is not only contradicted by other passages from the messages of the same Executive officer, but still more strongly, if possible, by the uniform acts of this Government in that and similar cases. It is a well-known fact that the vessels of the South American provinces were admitted into the ports of the United States, under their own or any other flags, from the commencement of the revolution: and it is equally true that, throughout the various civil contests that have taken place at different periods among the Stales that sprung from that revolution, the vessels of each of the contending parties have been alike permitted to enter the ports of this country. It has never been held necessary, as a preliminary to the extension of the rights of hospitality to either, that the chances of the war should be balanced and the probability of eventual success determined. For this purpose, it has been deemed sufficient that the party had declared . its independence, and, at the time, was actually maintaining it. Such having been the course hitherto pursued by this Government, however important it might be to consider the probability of success, if a question should arise as to the
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