strated the necessity of providing more adequately for the future wants of the Government, which, in the opinion of the Executive, would be more effectually accomplished by a welldigested system of internal revenue.

The Message also makes a touching allusion to the cruelties practiced by the English, and, whilst anxious for peace, still urges a bold and vigorous prosecution of the war as the most effectual means for its attainment. *

With the utmost enthusiasm for the war, it was not inconsistent in Madison to pursue the high and statesman-like course he did. In reference to the Russian mediation, he immediately nominated Gallatin and Bayard, both peace men, to act conjointly with John Quincy Adams, in negotiating a peace. At almost the same time, Wm. H. Crawford, then a Senator from Georgia, and a conspicuous advocate for peace, was appointed Minister to the French Court, as the successor of Barlow.

The nominations of Adams and Bayard were confirmed; Gallatin was rejected by a vote of 18 to 17, on the ground of an incompatibility with the offices of Envoy Extraordinary and cabinet Minister.

The Russian mediation was declined by Castlereagh, on account of objections to mingling the negotiation with affairs on the continent, but informed the American Government that Great Britain was willing to enter upon a direct negotiation for peace.†

The American Congress, notwithstanding the pending of the proposition for peace, was determined on a vigorous preparation for war, and boldly expressed the sentiment of the nation in denouncing the flagrant violation of all the rules of civilized warfare which England had practiced towards us. The President, in his Message to this Congress, had alluded to the English practice in this respect in the very strongest terms of denunciation; the mention of the wrongs and outrages suffered by our gallant countrymen fired the indignation of Clay, who, upon the immediate reading of the Message, called attention to that portion of its contents, remarking in the most spirited manner in reference to the British armies and their savage allies, the American Indians,

* President's Message, Stat. Man., vol. i. p. 309.

Castlereagh to the Secretary of State; American State Papers, vol. ix.

p. 283.

"If they should be found to be as public report had stated them, they called for the indignation of all Christendom, and ought to be embodied in an authentic document which might perpetuate them on the page of history." On his motion, passed without opposition, that portion of the Message referring to British cruelties and outrage, was referred to a select committee, which reported through its chairman, Nathaniel Macon,—a wise, upright, and conservative man,-in a clear and forcible manner the many inhuman outrages the Indian allies of Great Britain had perpetrated upon American prisoners. The appointment of this committee was made with all due appreciation of the important and delicate trust committed to its keeping; a State paper was to be prepared under the sanction of an American Congress, which was to embody a volume of facts which will stamp ineffable infamy upon the English Government, its army, and its officers, as long as history itself shall endure, or the mild virtues of an enlightened society shall find a single votary.

Besides the eminent chairman, this committee consisted of Forsyth, Robert Wright, James Clarke, Perry W. Humphreys, Gaston, and Thomas Cooper, the two last being of the anti-war party. They were all men of the highest moral worth, and equally eminent for talent and long public service; Forsyth lived to be Governor of Georgia, Senator of the United States, Minister to Spain, and Secretary of State; Wright had been Governor of Maryland, and Senator of the United States; Clarke was afterwards Governor of Kentucky, and Gaston was a leading member of the Federal party, and afterwards Chief-Justice of North Carolina. It is proper that the members of this committee should be mentioned, that their authority may stand out as living and enduring testimony to the truth.

Under different heads, this report (which made a printed volume of two hundred pages) established the bad treatment of American prisoners; their detention as British subjects; the detention of mariners as prisoners, found in England when war was declared; the compulsory service of American seamen in British ships-of-war; the violation of flags of truce; the ransom of American prisoners from Indians in the British service; the pillage and destruction of private property in the Chesapeake Bay and neighborhood; the massacre and burning of prisoners, pillage and shooting of citizens, and burning their houses after surrendering to the British and

under their protection. The outrages at Hampton were the last mentioned in the report, in reference to which there exists ample authority for saying, that women who could not escape were hunted down by perpetrators of every indignity on their person; no help given to the wounded; the dead left unburied; the females were not only violated by these wretches, the English soldiers and officers, but slaves were encouraged to violate their own mistresses; the sick were murdered in their beds, as were the maimed and decrepid from extreme age; the pulpit and communion service of the Episcopal Church at Hampton was despoiled and robbed of the plate which bore the donor's name; to which must be added indiscriminate rape, one woman, the victim of multiplied brutality and ravishment on many occasions.*

Though painful, it is nevertheless the duty of history to record these brutal outrages. The English Government, always rapacious, will ever be remembered for its still darker deeds, in perpetrating, in defiance of the principles of an enlightened and Christianized civilization, acts that would disgrace the reign of Nero, and stamp even with a deeper dye the age of Heliogabalus or Cæsar Borgia; whilst in all time to come the spirit of the British Ministry of 1813 will find its kindred feeling in those Vandal outrages long since committed, though permanent upon the page of history, but to receive universal indignation; and if Castlereagh is forgotten, Cockburn and Beckwith will be linked in the record of English history as the licentious leaders of a licentious soldiery, whose disgraceful conduct would have been rebuked not only by Napoleon, but even the ruthless Attica or insatiate Zenghis.

In turning our attention to Congress at this period, we find it deeply engaged in the most important preparations for the vigorous prosecution of the war. The great need of the country, and the chief business of the Thirteenth Congress, was the adoption of the fiscal measures which the expenses of the war demanded, and more especially since the Russian mediation had been refused by Great Britain, and propositions from Great Britain for a cessation of hostilities rejected; to which may be added the increasing determination of the Executive to prosecute the war with greater vigor.

Report of the Select Committee of the House of Representatives; Journal of Congress, 1813; Ingersoll, vol. i. chapter vii.

Gallatin's plan to increase our finances was to double the existing duties on imports, as had been done, and to raise the deficiency which would exist by a resort to direct taxes. The latter mode, it was feared, would be unpopular. Madison thought that taxation and war would not work well together; and the Twelfth Congress had failed in a great measure to adopt any permanent system for raising funds adequate to the wants of the Government.

The finances at this time were in a state of great embarrassment. The Treasury notes which Congress had authorized to be issued, were at a heavy discount; the loans which had been made were effected at a corresponding

1813.

rate, whilst nearly every bank in the Union was in a crippled condition.

In the early part of this year the Government had felt very severely the pressure upon the Treasury; in truth, little or no economy had been exercised in the public expenditures in reference to the army; nor was it possible that the Executive could have acted otherwise, owing to the totally unprepared condition of the militia.

John W. Eppes, of Virginia, the son-in-law of Jefferson, and the successor of John Randolph, was at this time chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means, by whom a bill was reported, which passed the House, imposing a direct tax of three millions of dollars. The bill was very comprehensive in its details, embracing lands, houses, slaves, and nearly every article of luxury or general use appertaining to the internal commerce of the country.

July, 1813.

The taxes on lands, dwelling-houses, improvements, and slaves, were levied in accordance with the assessed value of the respective articles. The United States were divided into one hundred and ninety-nine collection districts, each having one principal collector and one principal assessor; this was the adjustment of a barely tolerable system of taxation, which was entirely inadequate to the war expenses.

We pass from this period to the reassembling of Congress, December 19, 1813. The reader will observe the omission to notice the military features of the war, which are foreign to the plan of this work, unless depending upon questions brought before Congress.

The Annual Message which was sent to Congress on this occasion alludes to the rejected mediation of Russia in the following bold and decided language:-"The British cabinet,

either mistaking our desire of peace for a dread of British power, or misled by other fallacious calculations, has disappointed this reasonable anticipation. No communications from our Envoys having reached us, no information on the subject has been received from that source. But it is known that the mediation was declined in the first instance, and there is no evidence, notwithstanding the lapse of time, that a change of disposition in the British councils has taken place or is to be expected. Under such circumstances, a nation, proud of its rights and conscious of its strength, has no choice but an exercise of the one in support of the other."*

The war, which pressed with peculiar heaviness on the New England States, was becoming still more unpopular. The newspapers of that section, through their correspondence as well as editorially, broached and kept alive the idea of a separate peace or a position of neutrality, leaving those States which chose to fight it out to bear the entire burden of the

war.

The anti-war party of New England was still more exasperated at the confidential Message of the President, recommending "that an effectual embargo on exports be immediately enacted."

The reasons given by the President in urging this measure were, the tendency of our commercial and navigation laws to favor the enemy and thereby prolong the war, supplies of the most essential kind continually finding their way to the British armies, in our own neighborhood as well as at a distance. Even the fleets that infested our coasts were constantly supplied from our own resources. This was an unwise as well as an abortive measure of the Administration. Calhoun, Cheves, and other talented members of the House opposed it. Calhoun was at the time chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, and gave it a reluctant vote.

It was hurried through both Houses in secresy. In the Senate it was apprehended that the votes of Giles, Stone, and Anderson would defeat this measure. Whilst this body, however, was in conclave, King and Gore reached Washington, and, without stopping even at their lodgings, hurried to the capitol to save this the too favorite policy of the Administration. Upon the publication of this act, it was received with dismay and consternation by the entire commercial commu*Stat. Man., vol. i. p. 312.

VOL. I.-26