before expelled from a jocky-club for cheating, and had been lately turned out of doors for his unworthy conduct to a neighbor's wife."*

The nation had now taken the first preliminary step towards a declaration of war against Great Britain. It was received with general approval by the people, though in some sections it was as bitterly opposed, as any other act of hostility towards England would have been. All that could now engross the attention of Congress was the preparation for the coming contest, which all saw was inevitable. A majority of the people, as well as the Republican members of Congress, thought that too much delay had already occurred in bringing matters to a crisis. Negotiations even were carried on with Foster, the British Minister, who frequently held out the hope that the difficulties would be adjusted. It was evident, from the diplomatic correspondence with Foster, that no concession was proposed, and it was determined by the Republican members of Congress that a deputation should wait on the President, and urge not only an active and vigorous preparation, but a speedy declaration of war. Henry Clay, who was foremost in this delegation, exerted the most decided influence upon the President; he demonstrated the folly of seeking a peaceful adjustment of our difficulties. He would cut short the argument with Foster, and appeal to arms and the God of battles for the vindication of our rights.

March 22.

It was about this time that the attention of the Government was arrested from the consideration of war with England, to a brief notice of the condition of affairs with France.

The dispatches which had been anxiously expected from Barlow, our Minister to France, were brought in by the Hornet. They only told of the fruitless mission he was filling, and of the determination of the French to hold on to the Berlin and Milan decrees.

At this session of Congress, Louisiana was admitted into the Union as a State, and the Territory previously called Louisiana was organized, with a Territorial government, under the name of Missouri. Acts were also passed to prohibit the exportation of specie, wares, or merchandise from the United States during the continuance of the embargo. A General

*Garland's Life of Randolph, vol. i. p. 298; Memoir of Clay, vol. i. p. 64; Hild. Hist. U. S., second series, vol. iii. p. 294.

Land Office was established as a part of the Treasury Department; six millions of acres were set apart to pay the one hundred and sixty acres bounty promised to the soldiers of the United States; an issue of five millions of dollars in Treasury notes was authorized, and the duties on imports were raised one hundred per cent.; American vessels were prohibited from trading with the enemy.

1812.

The elections which had taken place in the spring of this year were somewhat unfavorable to the views of the Administration; in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and New York, a considerable change had taken place in favor of the Federal party. After the interview between the committee which had waited on Madison, his mind seemed fixed on taking immediate steps of hostility against England; Clay, whose personal influence was always very great, was perhaps of more weight on this occasion than in any other event of his brilliant and useful career, for he was the spokesman of this famous deputation, and successfully persuaded Madison to the decisive steps he took, though his chief confidential adviser, Albert Gallatin, remained inflexible in his opposition to war.

On the 1st of June, the long-sought event was 1812. consummated; Madison performed the crowning event, not of his administration, but his life; he issued his War Message, as it has been styled; in which, after recapitulating in clear and strong language the aggressions of the English Government, he says, "We behold, in fine, on the side of Great Britain, a state of war against the United States; and on the other side, of the United States, a state of peace towards Great Britain. Whether the United States shall continue passive under these progressive usurpations and these accumulating wrongs, or opposing force to force in defence of their national rights, shall commit a just cause into the hands of the Almighty Disposer of events, avoiding all connections which might entangle it in the contest or views of other powers, and preserving a constant readiness to concur in an honorable re-establishment of peace and friendship, is a solemn question which the Constitution wisely confides to the legislative department of the Government." After recommending the above course to be pursued towards Great Britain, the President abstained from recommending any definite measures to be taken towards France, because

there then existed an unclosed discussion between our Minister at Paris and the French Government.

John Randolph moved to refer the Message of the President to a Committee of the Whole; but the House preferred referring it to the Committee on Foreign Relations. John C. Calhoun, the chairman, with a majority of the committee, consisting of Felix Grundy, John Smilie, John A. Harper, Joseph Desha, and Ebenezer Seaver, reported to June 3. the House a full and explicit manifesto, which was the basis of a declaration of war. The committee, after exhibiting a long, continuous, and unsatisfied demand for remuneration on account of the depredations the English had been committing on our commerce, the impressment of American seamen by the commanders of British ships-of-war, the British doctrine and system of blockade, and the adoption and continuance of the orders in council, in an able and patriotic State paper, concluded,-"Relying on the patriotism of the nation, and confidently trusting that the Lord of Hosts will go with us to battle in a righteous cause, and crown our efforts with success, your committee recommend an immediate appeal to arms.

In consideration of the multiplied wrongs we had received from the British Government, a detailed enumeration of which I have given elsewhere, Congress was not long in adopting the recommendation of the committee.

Calhoun, who presented the report, likewise offered a bill declaring war against Great Britain. The bill was referred to a Committee of the Whole; on the next day it was reported back, when a resolution was offered by McKee to include France also in a declaration of war. This proposition received only ten votes. When the bill was reported to the House, the declaration of war passed by a vote of 79 to 49. The bill was delayed fourteen days in the Senate; Giles, one of the Senators from Virginia, moved to substitute letters of marque and reprisals against both France and England, in the place of a declaration of war against the latter; this motion was lost by a vote of 14 to 18, when the bill passed by a vote of 19 to 13. Seven Republicans,-Bradley, of Vermont, Gilman, of New Hampshire, German, of New York, Lambert, of New Jersey, Worthington, of Ohio, Reed, of

* American State Papers, vol. viii. p. 399.

Maryland, and Pope, of Kentucky,-out of honest convictions of opposition to the war, voted with the Federalists.

Of the seventy-nine members who voted for the war in the House, sixty-two resided south and seventeen north of the Delaware; of the nineteen Senators who voted for war, fourteen resided south and five north of the Delaware.* The war was evidently a measure of the South and West; and it is but another evidence of the blind devotion to immediate profit rather than future incalculable good, that bound the North to the anti-war party, for it was to their benefit that it ultimately resulted, as I will show at another time.

The act declaring war was from the pen of William Pinckney, the Attorney-General: it was brief, but comprehensive; and on the 18th day of June, 1812, received the approval of the President, and on the following day he issued the procla mation announcing that war existed between this country and Great Britain, and calling upon the people to sustain the public authorities.†

Upon the immediate declaration of war was organized an anti-war party, composed chiefly of the Federalists and those disaffected Democrats who had used every exertion to thwart the efforts of the Administration, and to smother the voice. of an outraged and oppressed people.

Not

The great object of the Republican party being now obtained, nothing remained but to provide the necessary means for conducting the war in the most energetic manner. withstanding the long time the prospect of war hung over the nation, Congress had yet been exceedingly remiss in providing for the wants of the Government in case it should occur. Fifteen millions of dollars were appropriated for the army; nearly two millions seven hundred thousand for the navy. Not one cent had, however, been provided for by taxes, and

* Hild. Hist., second series, vol. iii. p. 306; Stat. Man., vol. i. p. 354; Sullivan.

This brief and comprehensive act is in the following words :-" Be it enacted, &c., That war be and the same is hereby declared to exist between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and the dependencies thereof, and the United States of America and their territories; and that the President of the United States is hereby authorized to use the whole land and naval force of the United States to carry the same into effect, and to issue to private armed vessels of the United States commissions, or letters of marque and general reprisal, in such form as he shall think proper and under the seal of the United States, against the vessels, goods, and effects of the Government of the said United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and the subjects thereof.”—Journal of Congress, 1812.

the income by customs and from the public land sales was not more than nine millions five hundred thousand dollars. It was a true policy to avoid the imposition of taxes at the commencement of the war, which might have been at its earliest stage too severe a test for the popularity of the Administration. It is a remarkable incident, that within five days after the declaration of war by Congress, the English Government repealed the orders in council, which was done as soon as official information was received that the French decrees had been repealed. The duplicity of the French Government had doubtlessly prolonged the existence of the orders in council, and it is more than probable, had the declaration of war been postponed until the news of the repeal could have reached the American Government, that the war would either have been averted for a while, or been declared against the French Government, for which a large party in the country and some members of Congress were equally inclined.

It would have been impossible, however, to stay but for a short time that high and burning temper so justly manifested against the outrageous conduct of Great Britain by the majority of the American people. The orders in council were repealed; yet what atonement had been offered in satisfaction of that systematic effort, so long pursued, to prostrate the commerce of the country beneath the relentless trident of Great Britain? Could the repeal of the orders reimburse us for the immense value of the boats and cargoes that had been destroyed? or was it possible to make reparation for the thousands of true-hearted American sailors who had been piratically taken from our vessels and forced into the British service? Not only those American citizens who had fled from the tyranny of the English Government were taken, but the adopted citizens of this country, without regard to their language or nativity, were as ruthlessly snatched from the American deck with that ensign of liberty in hand, the stars and stripes of the United States, as would have been the arrest of a vagrant sailor about to depart from some English boat.

The declaration of war had scarcely passed the American Congress, when the Federal members in the House of Representatives published an address to their constituents, setting forth the grounds of their opposition to the war. This address, which was drafted by Quincy, was marked by con