The adoption of the resolution would be a bar to negotiation, because it used the language of menace, and manifested a partiality to one of the belligerents which was incompatible with neutrality.

It was also an objection to the resolution that it prescribed the terms on which alone a treaty should be made, and was consequently an infringement of the right of the executive to negotiate, and an indelicacy to that department.
In support of the motion, it was said, that the measure was strictly within the duty of the legislature, they having solely the right to regulate commerce.

That, if there was any indelicacy in the clashing of the proceedings of the legislature and executive, it was to the latter, not to the former, that this indelicacy was to be imputed.

The resolution which was the subject of debate had been several days depending in the house, before the nomination of an envoy extraordinary had been made.

America having a right, as an independent nation, to regulate her own commerce, the resolution could not lead to war; on the contrary, it was the best means of bringing the negotiation to a happy issue.
The motion for taking up the report was carried in the affirmative.
Some embarrassment was produced by an amendment offered by Mr.Smith of South Carolina, who proposed to add another condition to the restoration of intercourse between the two countries.