summate skill as an able and ingenious argument; supporting a cause against which truth and justice, and all sense of honor would ultimately appear in bold and unmistakable opposition. This paper, which was purged of the violence and temper it had received from its author, served as the great incentive to the anti-war party, which greatly increased in a short time. It opposed the war, because aggressions by one of two nations. at war afforded no ground of retaliation by a neutral nation. The British orders in council excluded us only from the trade of France and its dependents, Holland and Italy. The utter ruin to our commerce, the inability to cope with Great Britain, and the danger to our constitutional form of Government, were some of the chief objections stated in this paper, and constantly urged by the anti-war party in and out of Congress.

The most violent opposition to the war existed in Massachusetts; especially about Boston, which, though the cradle of the Revolution, was then the nursery of Federalism. Here it was that Elbridge Gerry, the candidate of the war party for Governor, was beaten by Caleb Strong, the anti-war candidate, by a vote of thirteen hundred. From the very same Plymouth Rock, where the firm and unwavering standard of liberty was first planted, Caleb Strong, the Governor of Massachusetts, in his message to the legislature, denounced the Administration as subservient to France, threw odium and discredit upon the war loans, and planted, perhaps, the seed of that opposition which will be a lasting shame to the New England States. The infection spread to Maryland, and also to Connecticut and other Northern States.

The Boston press was bold and abusive in denunciation of the war and the war loans, whilst the pulpit itself was stained by the abuse poured forth by the clergy in opposition to the war, and those measures necessary to carry it on. Copious extracts might be made from the many political discourses, which, under the garb and assumed sanctity of a sermon, issued from the Northern pulpit.*

The entire separation of Church and State under the Constitution of the United States, as well as under the constitutions of all the States, is among the most valuable and interesting features in our Government. This separation tends greatly to enhance the purity of the Church, and it is always

* Ingersoll, vol. i. chapter i.

a melancholy scene when the pulpit is to be corrupted by the political passions of the day, the most violent being always hurled from that sacred desk, when once contaminated by the foul breath of party spirit.

It is an element in American politics that, whilst it is unmixed with the splendor of that holy creed which is above the temporary wants of man, feels and appreciates the force and purity of its moral power. The pastoral relation is one of great influence and family endearment, which stamps its image upon politics, manners, habits, society, education, and even Government itself; for it has been supposed by an eminent historian that "The Congress which declared war, deterred by the denunciations of the Church and authorities of the several States, left undone the duty of levying direct taxes and internal duties."* Upon this point, however, the opinion may be safely maintained, that it was the policy of Congress to rely at this time upon loans, rather than the immediate assessment of taxes.

May 18,

During the session of this Congress James Madi1812. son was nominated for re-election as President by a unanimous vote of eighty-two Republican members of Congress, who met in caucus for that purpose. Langdon, of New Hampshire, was nominated at the same time for VicePresident, but being upwards of seventy years of age, he refused to accept. The nomination was afterwards conferred on Gerry, the recently defeated war candidate for governor, in Massachusetts.

The Republican members of the New York Legislature were dissatisfied with the administration of Madison, and, fusing with some of the Federal friends of De Witt Clinton, nominated him in opposition to Madison. In September of this year the Federalists held a convention in the City of New York; eleven States were represented, and seventy members were present. This convention, deeming it the surest means of defeating the election of Madison, resolved to support Clinton for the Presidency, and nominated Jared Ingersoll as Vice-President. Congress had been in session since the 4th of November; it had been a protracted and exciting session; war had been declared against the most powerful nation in Europe; all eyes were turned to the means of sustaining the country in its arduous and perilous undertaking; and firm

* Ingersoll, vol. i. chap. i.

and willing hearts will always find the means of self-preser

vation.

The expenditures had been greatly increased by the new army bill, and by appropriations for the navy. The only tax laid was one doubling the impost. Five millions of Treasury notes were issued, and a loan of eleven millions of dollars, with a surplus of eight millions a year from impost, previously pledged to redeem the national debt, which amounted to fortyfive millions of dollars, were the financial efforts of this Congress.

The national income for the year 1812 was only about nine millions and a half of dollars; whilst it was estimated. the war would cost between thirty and forty millions.

The revenue from impost, with double duties, could not exceed thirteen millions.

With such a miserable show in our financiering talent, it would seem that the heart of the patriot must sicken; yet it is a pleasing reflection to learn, that the forty millions of old debt with which we commenced the war, which in less than three years reached one hundred and twenty millions, was, interest and principal, all liquidated in less than twentyfour years.*

Let the statesmen of Europe learn this truth and profit by its force and beauty, that this young and often ridiculed republican Government, is the only one known to history that has ever paid its national debts. The manner in which it was done, and the credit to whom it belongs, I will notice in the progress of this work.

With this exhibition of our financial talent and capacity, Congress adjourned on the 12th of July, 1812.

Notwithstanding the declaration of war which had but so recently been proclaimed to the world, before a hostile foe had trod our soil, or a single vessel reached our shore, this Government was still anxious to restore the friendly relations that had once existed.

June 23.

The orders in council had been repealed a few days after the declaration of war by the United States Government, which was unknown in Washington, as was the declaration of war in London.

Whilst each Government was ignorant of the steps taken by the other, Monroe, the American Secretary of State, wrote

* Ingersoll, vol. i. p. 58.

June 26.

to Russell, Chargé d'Affaires of the United States in England, apprising him of the declaration of war, but authorizing him to agree to an armistice for the negotiation of a treaty, on condition that the orders in council should be repealed, and the impressment of seamen from our vessels should be discontinued. As an inducement to the British Government to discontinue the practice of impressment, Russell was authorized to give assurance that a law would be passed (to be reciprocal) to prohibit the employment of British seamen in the public or commercial service of the United States. At an interview between Russell and Castlereagh, the latter spoke with great impatience of the continued hopes that were entertained in America, that the right of impressment would ever be relinquished. He went so far as to say that "our friends in Congress had been so confident in that mistake, that they had ascribed the failure of such an arrangement solely to the misconduct of the American Government." All of Russell's propositions were rejected, though they were exceedingly temperate and just. Castlereagh expressed surprise, that as a condition preliminary to a suspension of hostilities, the Government should have made the proposition that the British Government should desist from its time-honored custom of impressment.*

The haughty Englishman had even gone so far as tauntingly to say, "If the American Government was so anxious to get rid of the war, it would have an opportunity of doing so on learning the revocation of the orders in council."

After this contemptuous rejection of the fair and just propositions for an amicable adjustment of our difficulties, it devolved upon the United States to prosecute the war with the utmost vigor by land and by sea.

It is a pleasing and instructive duty to notice at this period, not only the happy influence the republican form of our Government had upon the minds of a large class of people then constituting a portion of our population, but the essential service they rendered the cause of liberty by the generous support they offered in behalf of their adopted country.

I allude to the co-operation of a body of influential foreigners, then residing in the United States, in the bold and fearless manner in which they advocated the war. There was

*Correspondence between Russell and Castlereagh, Amer. State Papers, vol. ix. p. 70.

a large demand for printers and editors, which could not be supplied from domestic sources; many who had been driven from their Parent Land, by the oppression of their Government, found a safe and happy home in the United States. They had seen abroad the wrongs that had been imposed upon our unoffending country. Upon reaching our shores they mingled their sympathy with our distress, and freely came to our rescue in advocating a war that necessity had forced upon us. Randolph complained that nearly every influential press in favor of the war was conducted by foreigners. He instanced, with a sneer, whilst history heralds it with a blaze of honor, the "Aurora" and the "Democratic Press," at Philadelphia, edited, the one by Duane, the other by Binns; the "Whig," at Baltimore, edited by Irving; and the "Intelligencer," at Washington, by Gales. It was noticed by Foster, the British Minister, present when war was declared, which he stated. in the House of Commons, that among those who voted for war "were no less than six late members of the Society of United Irishmen.”*

The policy of the United States has been severely censured by many able writers on the war of 1812. There was error in the particular blow that was first aimed at the enemy, the invasion of Canada; but the design of invasion was right as well as politic. We could do nothing by sea, was then the universal impression; to meet the gigantic force of Great Britain either on the land or the ocean, we had but the skeletons of a few regiments and a few frigates. The great effort should have been to destroy the chief elements of British naval and territorial power at the first blow. The aim at conquering Canada was exceedingly unpopular at the North; whilst in reality it would have been, if successful, but stripping the branches of English aggrandizement on this continent, instead of striking at the root of this overshadowing power. With the limited force we then had, we could have made it much more effectual by the seizure and occupation of Halifax than any other point belonging to the British. This was the great rendezvous, in America, of British naval power, by the occupation of which all her transatlantic facilities would be paralyzed; which might effect an entire revolution in the commercial and naval power of England. The people of the North would have favored this design, and lent a more generous aid

* Hild. Hist. U. S., second series, vol. iii. p. 315.