A History of the Reception Clause

WARNING: Do not break the law before, during, or after reading anything I mention.


An excerpt of my article on the History of the Reception Clause of the U.S. Constitution
    
     In September 1792, Secretary of State, Thomas Jefferson, wrote a lengthy letter to President George Washington explaining that the Secretary of Treasury, Alexander Hamilton, entertained dangerous designs to subvert the very essence of Republican government. This letter highlighted the political dissention plaguing Washington's cabinet and the nation. Hamilton's "system flowed from principles adverse to liberty," Jefferson exclaimed to the President, "and was calculated to undermine and demolish the Republic, by creating an influence of his department over the members of the Legislature."19 Jefferson further claimed, with regard to French and English commercial policies, that

my system was to give some satisfactory distinctions to the former, of little cost to us, in return for the solid advantages yielded us by them; and to have met the English with some restrictions which might induce them to abate their severities against our commerce.20

Jefferson adamantly despised Great Britain's commercial depredations of American trade, which Hamilton seemingly favored. Hamilton "has forced down his own system," the secretary passionately noted, which was "inconsistent with the honor and interest of our country."21 In Jefferson's view, Hamilton was too involved with the policies under the State Department's purview, and "stepped farthest into the control of the department of the other."22  The dispute was centered on the seperation of power doctrine, and the sphere of influence of departments over certain federal operations and policies.  

     Washington's administration faced significant problems in April 1793, commercial trade, especially involving the West Indies, the revolutionary debt the United States owed France, internal political dissention, coupled with the murderous turmoil associated with France's Reign of Terror. In a letter to the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, John Jay, Hamilton clearly delineated the major foreign policy dilemmas confronting the United States in regard to the French Question. On April 9, 1793, one day after Edmond Charles Genet, newly appointed French Minster to the United States, arrived in South Carolina, Hamilton addressed the issue of whether the Minister should be received by the United States. The Treasury Secretary asked Jay

[i]f we receive a Minister from the Republic, shall we be afterwards at liberty to say - We will not decide whether there is a Government in France competent to demand from us the performance of the existing treaties. What the Government in France shall be is the very point in dispute. 'Till that is decided the applicability of the Treaties is suspended. When that Government is established we shall consider whether such changes have been made as to render their continuance incompatible with the interest of the U States.23

Hamilton suggested that the instability of France's government should induce the United States to change its foreign policy posture. "I am of the opinion," Hamilton confidently remarked, "that we have at least a right to hold the thing suspended till the point in dispute is decided."24 The revolutionary war debt the United States...


19 Andrew A. Lipscomb, The Writings of Thomas Jefferson (Washington, D.C., 1903) vVIII.,397.
20 Ibid., 398.
21 Ibid., 399.
22 Ibid.
23 Harold C. Syrett, The Papers of Alexander Hamilton (New York, 1969), vXIV, 297.
24 Ibid.