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REASONS FOR PROSECUTING THE WAR.

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is not for the human tongue to instil the sense of independence and honor. This is the work of nature-a generous nature, that disdains tame submission to wrongs.

The first argument of the gentleman from Virginia which I shall notice, is the unprepared state of the country. Whatever weight this argument might have in a question of immediate war, it surely has little in that of preparation for it. If our country is unprepared, let us remedy the evil as soon as possible. Let the gentleman submit his plan; and if it is a reasonable one, I doubt not it will be supported by the House. We are next told of the expenses of the war, and that the people will not pay taxes. Why not? Is it a want of capacity? What with one million tons of shipping, a trade of near one hundred million dollars, manufactures of one hundred and fifty million dollars, and agriculture of twice that amount, shall we be told that the country wants capacity to raise and support ten or fifteen thousand additional regulars?

No; it has the ability; that is admitted; but will it have the disposition? Shall we then utter this libel on the nation? Where will be found proof of a fact so disgraceful? Is not the course a just and necessary one? If taxes should become necessary, I do not hesitate to say the people will pay cheerfully. I know of only one principle to make a nation great-to produce in this country not merely the form, but the whole spirit of union; and that is, to protect every citizen in the lawful pursuit of his business. He will then feel that he is backed by his government-that its arm is his arm, and he will rejoice in its increased strength and prosperity. This is the road that all great nations have trod. Protection and patriotism are reciprocal.

The gentleman has not failed to touch on the calamity of war-that fruitful source of declamation by which pity becomes the advocate of cowardice; but I know not what we have to do with that subject. If the gentleman desires to repress the gallant ardor of our countrymen by such topics, let me inform him that true courage regards only the cause, that it is just and necessary, and that it despises the pain and danger of war. If he really wishes to promote the cause of humanity, let his eloquence be addressed to Lord Wellesley or Mr. Percival, and not to the American Congress. Tell them, if they persist in such daring insult and injury to a neutral nation, that, however inclined to peace, it will be bound in honor and interest to resist; that their patience and benevolence,

however great, will be exhausted; that the calamity of war will ensue, and that they, in the opinion of wounded humanity, will be answerable for all its devastation and misery. Let melting pity, a regard to the interests of humanity, stay the hand of injustice, and my life on it, the gentleman will not find it difficult to call off his countrymen from the bloody scenes of war.

Again, the gentleman is at a loss to account for what he calls our hatred of England. He asks, How can we hate the country of Locke, of Newton, Hampden and Chatham; having the same language, and customs as ourselves, and descending from a common ancestry? Sir, the laws of human affection are uniform. If we have so much to attach us to that country, powerful indeed must be the cause that has overpowered it.

Ex. CXIX. THE STAR-SPANGLED BANNER.

FRANCIS SCOTT KEY.

OH! say, can you see, by the dawn's early light,

What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming? Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous night,

O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly stream

ing;

And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.
Oh! say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

On the shore, dimly seen through the mists of the deep,
Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep

As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses ?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,
In full glory reflected now shines on the stream.

'Tis the star-spangled banner; oh! long may it wave O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

And where is that band, who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion

ON THE CONDUCT OF THE WAR.

A home and a country should leave us no more?

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Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps' pollution; No refuge could save the hireling and slave,

From the terror of death and the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand

Between their loved home and the war's desolation ; Blest with victory and peace, may the heaven-rescued land Praise the power that has made and preserved us a nation. Then conquer we must, for our cause it is just,

And this be our motto, In God is our trust.

And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

Ex. CXX.-ON THE CONDUCT OF THE WAR OF 1812-15.

HENRY CLAY.*

WHEN the administration was striving, by the operation of peaceful measures, to bring Great Britain back to a sense of justice, the gentlemen of the opposition were for oldfashioned war. And, now they have got old-fashioned war, their sensibilities are cruelly shocked, and all their sympathies lavished upon the harmless inhabitants of the ad

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* Mr. Clay is well known to have been one of the most successful of American orators, invariably captivating by his manner of delivery and style of composition, even when his hearers were not convinced by his reasoning. It may be well for young aspirants to distinction in public speaking to know what he regarded as the secret of his power. I owe my success in life," he said, "to one single fact; namely,, that at an early age I commenced, and continued for some years, the practice of daily reading and speaking the contents of some historical or scientific book." Acting on this hint, who need despair of achieving the same result?

Henry Clay was in active public life for fifty years; probably a longer time than any other American statesman has been. His name is often united with those of Calhoun and Webster, all having been distinguished as orators and statesmen, all passing their lives in the public service, and all dying within the space of about two years-1850-52. This triple loss was deeply felt by the nation, who knew that in the course of events it must be long before another such illustrious trio should arise to thread the tangled ways of political life together. A beautiful tribute to their memory will be found in its historical order in this book.

joining provinces. What does a state of war present? The united energies of one people arrayed against the combined energies of another; a conflict in which each party aims to inflict all the injury it can, by sea and land, upon the territories, property and citizens of the other,-subject only to the rules of mitigated war, practised by civilized nations. The gentlemen would not touch the continental provinces of the enemy; nor, I presume, for the same reason, her possessions in the West Indies. The same humane spirit would spare the seamen and soldiers of the enemy. The sacred person of his Majesty must not be attacked, for the learned gentlemen are quite familiar with the maxim that the King can do no wrong. Indeed, Sir, I know of no person upon whom we may make war but the author of the Orders in Council, or the Board of Admiralty, who authorize and regulate the principle of impressment!

The disasters of the war admonish us, we are told, of the necessity of terminating the contest. If our achievements by land have been less splendid than those of our intrepid seamen by water, it is not because the American soldier is less brave. On the one element, organization, discipline, and a thorough knowledge of their duties exist on the part of the officers and their men. On the other, almost every- . thing is yet to be acquired. We have, however, the consolation that our country abounds with the richest materials, and that in no instance, when engaged in action, have our arms been tarnished.

An honorable peace is attainable only by an efficient war. My plan would be, to call out the ample resources of the country, give them a judicious direction, prosecute the war with the utmost vigor, strike wherever we can reach the enemy, at sea or on land, and negotiate the terms of a peace at Quebec or at Halifax. We are told that England is a proud and lofty nation, which, disdaining to wait for danger, meets it half way. Haughty as she is, we once triumphed over her; and if we do not listen to the counsels of timidity and despair, we shall again prevail. In such a cause, with the aid of Providence, we must come out crowned with success; but if we fail, let us fail like men,-lash ourselves to our gallant tars and expire together in one common struggle, fighting for FREE TRADE and SEAMEN'S RIGHTS!

RIGHT OF OPPOSITION.

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Ex. CXXI.-RIGHT OF OPPOSITION.

Speech in Congress, 1814.

DANIEL WEBSTER.

ALL the evils which afflict the country are imputed to opposition. It is said to be owing to opposition that the war became necessary, and owing to opposition, also, that it has been prosecuted with no better success. This, Sir, is no new strain. It has been sung a thousand times. It is the constant tune of every weak and wicked administration. What minister ever yet acknowledged that the evils which fell on his country were the necessary consequences of his own incapacity, his own folly, or his own corruption? What possessor of political power ever yet failed to charge the mischiefs resulting from his own measures upon those who had uniformly opposed those measures?

The people of the United States may well remember the administration of Lord North. He lost America to his country, yet he could find pretences for throwing the odium upon his opponents. He could throw it upon those who had forewarned him of consequences, and who had opposed him, at every stage of his disastrous policy, with all the force of truth, reason and talent. It was not his own weakness, his own ambition, his own love of arbitrary power, that disaffected the colonies. It was not the Tea Act, the Stamp Act, the Boston Port Bill, that severed the empire of Britain. Oh, no! It was owing to no fault of Administration. It was

*This speech, apart from its intrinsic interest, is worthy of special notice as being the first formal one uttered by Daniel Webster on the floor of the House of Representatives, where he was destined so often to hold captive his entranced audience with those weighty sentences which, to use the words of a historian, "fell with all the force and sure aim of a trip-hammer." Many of his subsequent efforts are more brilliant, but the effect of this is said to. haye been "to demolish the pretences of the administration orators that it was the opposition who were to blame for the present state of affairs." He continues in an earnest appeal to Congress to make the American Navy their main dependence in the existing contest: "If the war must continue, go to the ocean. If you are seriously contending for maritime rights, go to the theatre where alone those rights can be defended. In protecting naval interests by naval means, you will arm yourselves with the whole power of national sentiment, and may command the whole abundance of national resources." Thus did his far-seeing wisdom point out the true stronghold of our national glory, which the government was so slow to acknowledge and to take advantage of.

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