resolutions, looking to war, and the sixth resolution, calculated only for a state of peace, the yeomanry of the country will recollect the fate of the army of six thousand, and will reluctantly engage in your service, lest they, too, should be employed in an ignoble warfare against the fens of the Mississippi and the hosts of mosquitoes and gallinippers with which they are infested.

This, sir, is my view of the subject; but, as we all appear to be travelling to one result, and only differ about the route which would be most advisable, and gentlemen whose superior wisdom, talents, and experience, I am bound to venerate, differ with me as to the mode of proceeding, and have determined not to go with me, I will go with them; at the same time, if any accident should happen, I shall have nothing to answer for my constituents have no ships.

DECEMBER, 1811.

cumstances, call aloud upon us to cherish peace, and to avoid war and its evils as the last of the alternatives before us; and this, said Mr. S., he would be able to show was the Republican doctrine, as well in the old minority times as since that minority grew into a majority.

The gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. GRUNDY) had made a direct appeal to the Republican party, and endeavored to rally and unite them in this, to them at least, new doctrine of war. If the appeal of the gentleman had any reference to him, he would beg leave to deny some of his positions. He had himself had some small share to act in the political scenes of '98-9, and he was glad to find from the gentleman's declaration that he had joined in the "clamor" of the day, to pull down the then Federal Administration for the unjustifiable war which they had gone Mr. STANFORD said, as the resolution before the into with Franee. Mr. S. said he knew he had House contemplated an additional army, and joined in it most heartily. He believed he then from the avowal of its friends, involved in it the acted right in all he did to supersede that Adquestion of peace or war, he felt the desire to ministration, and he still believed he was right. assign the reasons of his vote upon so important The best interests of the country forbade the war, a subject. He was the more disposed to do so as and so the people determined, when ultimately he should probably find himself in a very small they came to decide the question. That party minority upon the question. He was not flatter- thus ousted by the public voice, the present Reed, he said, with using arguments which would publican majority was brought in upon their own convince others; but for himself he felt their professions of better principles, the love of peace force strong enough to fix his mind against the and economy. But now, forgetting our old promeasure. If he were to vote, he said, for, the fessions under a French crisis, we had raised the proposed army, he should vote inconsistently cry of war under a British one, and nothing short with all his former opinions and principles upon of it was to save our honor. Mr. S. declared if the subject, and he never could think of acting a there was any difference in the causes of war then part inconsistent with himself, and that more and now, he thought it turned most decidedly in especially when all his experience had gone to favor of the former period, since the more intol confirm his first impressions, his honest preju-erable outrage in the case of the Chesapeake had dices against standing armies. Such establish- been at length atoned for. What were the facts? ments had always proved the bane of free Gov-French decrees existed at that time against your ernments, and he could not see how we were to get along with them, and remain, as he believed we were, the freest and happiest people upon earth.

rightful commerce-he spoke of the arrêttes or decrees of the French directory-these had the same practical effect on our maritime neutral rights that the British orders have now. French cruisers waylaid the mouths of your harbors, and captured your vessels; and the first successful act of the United States after the quasi-war commenced, was, the taking of one of these cruisers in the mouth of one of our harbors. He begged leave to read the decree itself-and there were others passed about the same time not less obnoxious.

"January 18, 1798, Art. 1.-The character of vessels in what concerns their quality, as neutral or enemy, shall be decided by their cargo; in consequence, every vessel found at sea, laden, in whole or in part, with merchandise coming from England or her possessions, shall be declared good prize, whoever may be the proprietor of their productions or merchandise."

But, sir, we are told war is to be declared in certain events, and that the army proposed is to invade and take the Canadas. We are then to pass out of the limits of the United States and wage a war of the foreign offensive kind! If such was the contemplated use of this army when raised, he was still the more opposed to the measure. He was against the war itself, and the policy of it, and could by no means yield his vote to bring it about. That there was sufficient cause of war, he was ready to acknowledge, and he was not disposed in any the least degree, to palliate the offences of Great Britain, or that of any of the other belligerents, committed on the persons and property of our citizens. All of them had deserved war at our hands, but we had at no To the spoliations committed under decrees of time since the commencement of our present this kind, which they have always refused to Government seen it our interest or policy to give retribute and make good, they added a further ininto it, in the open and declared form, nor that of dignity to the nation in the persons of its Envoys. any other form, except that of a quasi character They refused to receive them in their character as which happened under Mr. Adams's administra- such, but clandestinely met their subordinate tion. The question never had been whether we agents to intrigue and tamper with them for had or had not cause of war, but whether the true bribes, and for a considerable time withheld the neinterest of the United States did not, under all cir-cessary passports for their return home. Wrongs

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selves. Under all the circumstances of that cause of complaint, he did not think it a cause sufficient for him to depart from the neutral ground he had assumed; nor was the annoyance of our commerce less vexatious in his time than since. In

and indignities like these, said Mr. S., the Republican minority of '98-9 did not consider of magnitude enough for the United States to forego the great interests of peace, and give into the war, which was then made to redress them. How the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. GRUN-like manner, under Mr. Adams's Administration, DY) could avow himself the advocate of peace doctrines then, and those of war now, would be for himself to reconcile. He felt that those in terests were as omnipotent now as they were then.

But, said Mr. S., the gentleman from South Carolina (Mr. CALHOUN) tells us it is a principle of honor in a nation, as in an individual, to resist a first insult. If such doctrine is to be admitted. when should we have had a moment's peace? From one or the other belligerents of Europe, since their late wars commenced, we have never been without just complaints against them for some violation of our neutral rights, and of course must have taken an early share in their wars. The truth is, we cannot liken, nor will the similitude hold good between an individual's honor, or his sensibility to it, and that of a nation's. A single impressment or capture may be well admitted to form a ground of reprisal and war; but we should have been a ruined country long ere now, if, under the existing circumstances of the world, and belligerent Europe, we had yielded to this quickness of sensibility, and had gone to war for a first and single instance of aggression from either of the belligerents. The same gentleman argues that everything now calls upon us to make a stand; that there was no danger to our liberties in a standing army of twenty or thirty thousand men, and that all admitted there was justifiable cause of war, and he believed it had now become necessary. This was declaiming, Mr. S. said, very handsomely upon the subject of war, he would agree; and he very well recollected we had heard the same doctrines precisely, and he thought he might be permitted to say, a strain of declamation, at least equally handsome upon the same subject, and from the same State, in 1798-9.* Mr. S. contended as the then doctrines of war, (and it must be admitted the causes of it were so alike in their character,) it was fair to expect that in due time public opinion would come to be the same in both cases.

But, Mr. S. said, he could not perceive how the present, of all others, had become the necessa

6

the same complaints existed, though in that of the latter, not, perhaps, to the same degree; and, under the eight years of Mr. Jefferson's Administration, the same state of things continued, certainly with an increased degree of violence, to which was also added the more aggravating insult upon the Chesapeake. Mr. Jefferson had never been suspected of partiality for Great Britein, and then, indeed, the accepted time had come for a war with that Government; all parties were united, and pledged themselves to support him in the war. The pulse of the nation beat high for it. But he felt, because he knew, that peace was the best interest of his country, and forbore to call Congress together. He had always admired the man; but, upon that occasion, he felt more than a sentiment of admiration toward him. When, at length, wrongs had thus accumulated, and called for some system of counteraction and resistance, till negotiation could be farther tried, the embargo was resorted to in preference to war; and, when that was done away, a system of non-intercourse was substituted, and to that again succeeded the present alternative law of the same kind; the nonimportation system which has grown out of this with Great Britain has not been tried one whole year yet. If gentlemen will have it that this is the accepted time for war, how has it happened that we have not had it before. Our Councils may be presumed to have been as sensible to ag-> gression, and as patriotic to redress it, as we now are.

He would beg leave to turn to a vote of this House at the last session of the tenth Congress, when Mr. Jefferson was still President. The embargo was about to be repealed, and such gentlemen as felt themselves disappointed in its effects, were disposed to substitute a more energetic system than that of non-intercourse, and proposed the following amendment to the bill "and to cause (meaning the President) to be issued under suitable pledges, and precautions, letters of marque and reprisal against the nation thereafter continuing in force its unlawful edicts against the commerce of the United States." This was ry and accepted time for war with Great Britain.considered, as indeed it was, a question of war, The attack on the Chesapeake frigate had been and the vote stands only 36 to 74. The affair lately atoned for, to the satisfaction of our Gov-of the Chesapeake then hung over us, and all the ernment; and, he trusted, had not been so done circumstances under which we found ourselves as to aggravate the crisis of affairs between the called more imperiously for redress than they two countries. If calculated to do so, our Gov- ever had done before or since, and still a different ernment could not have received it. The im- view of what was the true interest of the counpressment of our seamen was a just complaint try prevailed. Again, he would turn to the against the British Government; but it commen- second session of the eleventh Congress, under ced under the Administration of General WASH- the present Administration, and still we should INGTON, and no one would say he was less sensi- find that a large majority in this House were deble to national honor and independeuce than our-termined not to abandon the peace of the nation.

This allusion is supposed to be to Mr. HARPER, then from South Carolina.

12th CoN. 1st SESS.-17

They were disposed to countervail the belligerent edicts, by commercial restrictions, and to adopt anything in that way, short of war; but nothing

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dishonorable terms proposed directly or indirect- my country-or sap the foundation of that indely by the British Government. Mr. Speaker, I pendence cemented by the blood of our fathers. hold it to be correct, that, in discussing a subject We were told by a gentleman from Virginia, (Mr. of such importance, a view of the various mat- RANDOLPH,) a few days since, that we have suffiters necessarily connected with it, will not be cient cause for war. I ask you, then, sir, why do considered irrelevant; but, sir, I will not weary we hesitate? Shall we always yield? Shall we the patience of this House with a detail of inju- always shrink from the contest? The adoption ries, unparalleled in the history of former times, of this resolution is the touchstone-by it we rise wantonly inflicted on a nation which manifested or fall. We have been asked, Mr. Speaker, why to the whole world her sincere desire to support not lay upon your table a proposition to go to war? the neutral stand which had been taken at the It is there, sir; it is contained in this resolution; earliest period of her Government, and most te- the moment we give it our sanction we declare naciously adhered to. We have carefully avoid- our fixed resolve to render effective the force coned, Mr. Speaker, any participation in that system templated to be raised. Yes, sir, unless Great of politics which has convulsed and distracted Britain manifests a disposition speedily to do us the European world. We have restricted our-justice-by her acts, sir, not by her words. The selves in the full enjoyment of our rights, lest by gentleman from Virginia calls upon the Represtrictly enforcing them, we might produce a col- sentatives of the seacoasts, of the slaveholding lision with any nation, however little her conduct States, and asks if they are willing to say to Engmight be guided by the principles of equity. Sir, land "we intend to go to war with you." Does we have borne with injury, until, in the language the gentleman mean to excite our fears for the of your committee, forbearance has ceased to be loss of our property? As one of the many on a virtue. We have remonstrated, we have ap- this floor who stand in the situation mentioned by pealed to the justice, to the interest, of the two that gentleman, I step forth to declare for myself great contending Powers of Europe; every effort and my constituents, that, when loss of national proved abortive; our calls for justice were drown-honor is placed in the scale, and attempted to be ed in the declaration that their measures were balanced by pecuniary interest, we will, without merely retaliatory, and not intended to interfere hesitation, kick the beam. But, sir, we are now with neutral rights; thus, sir, the matter rested, contending for the restoration of our rights, the when specific propositions were submitted to deprivation of which strikes at the very foundaeach. Yes, sir, by an act which has placed the im- tions of our prosperity. Sir, to us, it matters partiality of our country beyond the reach of sus- little whether our cities tumble into ruin by deserpicion, we demanded of each the revocation of tion for want of employment, by poverty produc her obnoxious edicts, as the only means of pre-ed by British wrongs and aggression, or, in vindiserving our friendship. We all know what has been the consequence: France has met our advances, has embraced our propositions. Great Britain not only refuses a repeal on her part, but, while she affects to lament the effects produced on neutral rights, takes the most effectual methods to render them perpetual. Sir, blindness and ignorance itself can no longer be deceived by British policy.

cating the cause of our country. fall by a quicker process. Sir, I have no fear of invasion, and, therefore, have no fears arising from the black population, which strikes with so much horror on the sensitive mind of the gentleman from Virginia. For my country, Mr. Speaker, I lament its existence; I view it as the bane, the curse of the land, and most sincerely, sir, do I wish that a second Moses could take them by the hand, and lead We have been told, sir, that this will be a war them in safety to a distant land, where their cries for the support of the carrying trade; let me here would never more strike on the ear of sympathy. remark, and I wish to be distinctly understood, as For one, sir, I promise, I would not expose myavowing my determination never to give a vote, self to the waves of the sea. We are told, Mr. so long as I have the honor of a seat on this floor, Speaker, that we stand pledged to France, that which will involve this country in a war, for the we must become a party with her in this war. recovery or support of this extraneous species of Sir, I call upon the gentleman from Virginia to commerce. I believe I shall not be incorrect make the assertion good, to fix the imputation when I assert, that nine-tenths of this country upon the Executive or upon this House. Sir, my never did and never will derive the smallest ben- pledge is to my country, to this very land; here, efit from it. But, sir, the right to carry in our and here alone, the warm affections of my heart own ships the produce of our own country to any find a point around which to rally. To all other quarter, not thereby violating the laws of nations, Governments, I am perfectly indifferent-I am no or contravening legitimate municipal regulations, Frenchman, I am no Englishman. is one which I never will yield; for, sir, in doing so, we paralyze the industry of our citizens; we give a fatal blow to the best interests of our country. Yes, sir, we yield the principle, we invite to further encroachments. Our country, sir, is agricultural, but so intimately blended with commerce, that the one cannot long exist unaided by the other. Sir, I will not yield an inch of ground, when, by so doing, I destroy an essential right of

We have been told, sir, that this will be a war of aggrandizement, a war of conquest. I am as little disposed to extend the territory as any other individual of this House. I know that dissimilar interests must and will prevail from a too great extension of our dominion. But, sir, we will not here enter into a discussion, whether an accession of country would or would not conduce to the interests of the Government. Sir, this will be a

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DECEMBER, 1811.

war forced upon us; we cannot, under existing put it to the nation-was it brave? Was it concircumstances, avoid it. To wound our enemy sistent with that independence we profess to in the most vulnerable part should only be consid- maintain, to submit without a struggle to that ered. Sir, I trust, if our differences with Great annihilation of the liberties of those hardy sons of Britain are not speedily adjusted, (of which, in- their country, seeking their subsistence on the wadeed, I have no expectation,) we shall take Can- tery element, that common highway of nations? ada. Yes, sir, by force; by valor; not by seduc- Sir, they are our brothers, they are entitled to the tion, as the gentleman from Virginia expresses it. same privileges, to the same protection. Yet the I have no reliance on their friendship-I hope it gentleman from Virginia feels no sympathizing will not be calculated on. Sir, I am not deterred emotions of soul, on calling to mind the hardfrom the firm purposes of my mind, by the predic-ships they endure. Yet, sir, he declares to us that tions of the gentleman from Virginia. I have no should he be convinced that Great Britain has fears, sir, that the people of our country will de-either directly or indirectly spilled the blood of sert their Government while asserting the rights our citizens, he would hesitate no longer, he of the country; and I must believe, that gentle- would march to Canada. Let him, sir, turn his man's assertion, to the contrary notwithstanding, eyes to those floating mansions, he will there bethat Virginia will not be the last to afford sup-hold the blood of our citizens-brave, honest, inplies. We are told, sir, that Republicans are in- dustrious citizens-streaming in torrents, shed by consistent; that, in 1798, they refused to raise an the hands of their brothers, their friends. We army, although General WASHINGTON would be have been told, sir, that Great Britain never will at their head, and that we then had sufficient relinquish her right, (for such they affect to call cause to go to war with the Directory of France. it;) for one, sir, I never will submit to it. I had For myself, sir, I was at that period conning the rather that fast-anchored isle, that protector of lessons of childhood. I will not now undertake the liberties of the world, should be swept from to say, whether, at that time, there was or was the catalogue of nations than submit that one not cause for war, as has been declared. To me American-one natural-born citizen-should, at it matters not. Sir, I am just commencing my her will, be torn from his family, his country, and political career; I am consistent; I find my coun-kept in a state of the most, horrid slavery. Sir, try degraded by insults unrevenged; almost ruin- this will not be a war of conquest. It will be a ed by her efforts to preserve friendship with na- struggle for existence. I am sorry I have detaintions who feel power and forget right; and, al-ed the House for a moment; I perfectly agree though I am opposed to the principle of having large standing armies in our country, yet, sir, under these circumstances, I feel justifiable in departing from the general principle. Washington is no more? Yes, sir, the Father of his Country can no longer wield its destinies. But I trust there are men, (without resorting to acquitted felons,) Mr. Speaker, on whom the confidence of this nation might in safety repose; men whose military skill would be fully adequate to every emergency; men who, actuated by that patriotic love of country, not uncommon in the annals of this nation, would fight our battles, redeem the national spirit, and, when nations had returned to a sense of justice, and reparation had been made for the wrongs wantonly inflicted on us, would, without hesitation, resign their authority into the hands of the Government from whence it emanated. We have been told, Mr. Speaker, that Great Britain is fighting the battles of the world; that we are protected by that nation "who rides on the mountain wave, whose home is on the deep." Sir, for myself, I disclaim her protection -protected in what, sir? In our property? No; it is a notorious fact that we are plundered in every quarter of the world-on our coasts-even in the very mouths of our harbors. Are we protected in our liberties? Let the voice of our impressed seamen, torn from their homes, their wives, their families, speak their protection! Let the cries of their miserable offspring, deprived of their protector, their friend, their father, declare their protection. But, sir, I have done. I am unwilling to cast a censure on the Government of my native country; but I put it to this House, I

with the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. TROUP) that we should put an end to debate. I have been drawn into these remarks by what fell from my colleague. I again repeat, that his doctrine is nothing more or less than submission. Sir, I denounce the principle.

.

Mr. BOYD.-Mr. Speaker, I should not have risen, on the present occasion, had not the honorable Committee of Foreign Relations requested all those that did not intend to vote for such ulterior measures as they might hereafter find necessary to bring forward, would not vote for the present resolutions, as they were a part of a system that might eventuate in war, &c. From those observations, I feel myself, and those that I in part have the honor to represent, called on to say how far I will go, and how far I will not go. Sir, when we talk about war, we ought to know for what we are going to wage it, and to see that the means are commensurate to the end. Let it not be thought by this that I have any apology to make for Great Britain, or her manifold wrongs. I have none. I say, perish the heart, the head, and the tongue, that will attempt her justification or apology! No, sir, they are a nation, of pirates, and have committed many wrongs on us; and it becomes us to look for our remedy, and how it is to be obtained. We are told that these resolutions are a part of a war measure. I do not receive them as such, but as preparatory to what may happen or become necessary. But, for argument sake, suppose it so, and that we are to have war-your army raised, and ready to march to the Canadas; with how many are you going to take them? In my opinion, not less than fifty