This, unfortunately, was not clear to foreign nations, and it necessarily complicated relations with them.

Yet under that theory Adams had to act.

Had he arrived before the Proclamation of Neutrality it is difficult to see how he could have proceeded otherwise than to protest, officially, against any British declaration of neutrality, declaring that his Government did not acknowledge a state of war as existing, and threatening to take his leave.

It would have been his duty to _prevent_, if possible, the issue of the Proclamation.
Dallas, fortunately, had been left uninformed and uninstructed.

Adams, fortunately, arrived too late to prevent and had, therefore, merely to complain.