public spirit in the English nation. To that justice we now appeal. You have been told that we are seditious, impatient of government, and desirous of independency. Be assured that these are not facts, but calumnies. Permit us to be as free as yourselves, and we shall ever esteem a union with you, to be our greatest glory, and our greatest happiness; we shall ever be ready to contribute all in our power to the welfare of the empire; we shall consider your enemies as our enemies, and your interest as our own. But, if you are determined that your ministers shall wantonly sport with the rights of mankind—if neither the voice of justice, the dictates of the law, the principles of the constitution, nor the suggestions of humanity, can restrain your hands from shedding human blood, in such an impious cause, we must then tell you, that we will never submit to be hewers of wood or drawers of water, for any ministry, or nation in the world. Place us in the same situation that we were in, at the close of the last war, and our former harmony will be restored. But lest the same supineness, and the same inattention to our common interest, which you have for several years shown, should continue, we think it prudent to anticipate the consequences. By the destruction of the trade of Boston, the ministry have endeavored to induce submission to their measures. The like fate may befall us all. We will endeavor, therefore, to live without trade, and recur for subsistence to the fertility and bounty of our native soil, which will afford us all the necessaries, and some of the conveniences of life. We have suspended our importation from Great Britain and Ireland; and, in less than a year's time, unless our grievances should be redressed, shall discontinue our exports to those kingdoms, and the West Indies. It is with the utmost regret, however, that we find ourselves compelled, by the overruling principles of self-preservation, to adopt measures detrimental in their consequences, to numbers of our fellow-subjects in Great Britain and Ireland. But, we hope, that the magnanimity and justice of the British nation will furnish a Parliament of such wisdom, independence, and public spirit, as may save the violated rights of the whole em pire, from the devices of wicked ministers and evil counsellors, whether in or out of office; and thereby restore that harmony, friendship, and fraternal affection between all the inhabitants of His Majesty's kingdoms and territories, so ardently wished for by every true and honest American. JAMES MADISON 1751-1836 James Madison was born in Port Conway, Virginia, March 16, 1751. Though not a soldier, he holds one of the foremost places among the eminent men who were instrumental in bringing about the political independence of the United States and in organizing a working government for the new republic. He was graduated from Princeton College in 1771. After his graduation, he returned to his home, devoting himself to the study of law. The beginning of Madison's public career dates from his election as a delegate to the Virginia State convention which met at Williamsburg in 1776 and instructed its delegates to the Continental Congress to record their votes in favor of declaring immediate independence. In its deliberations on framing a constitution for the State he was the most prominent champion of free religious worship. In 1780 he was sent as a delegate to Congress. It was the gloomiest period of the great struggle for independence. He did all in his power to relieve the prevailing financial distress and to ameliorate the condition of the army. It was through his efforts, ably seconded by Jay, that the plan of a Spanish alliance was abandoned and America's right to the navigation of the Mississippi was safeguarded. To provide means to defray the expenditures of the government, Madison in 1783 proposed an impost duty to be levied by the general government, a measure which proved unpopular with the majority of the States. The principal efforts of his life were thenceforth directed to create a strong central government. In the convention of 1787 in Philadelphia the labors of no one contributed in a greater degree to attain that end than those of Madison. No one had a greater and more honorable share in the task of harmonizing the many conflicting interests, claims, and prejudices of the various States composing the new Union. The Virginia plan" presented by Edmund Randolph, which struck at the root of the evil and had originated with Madison, finally prevailed. During Jefferson's term of administration he became Secretary of State and conducted with much skill the negotiations to adjust our differences with France, Spain, and England. At the expiration of Jefferson's second term he was elected to the highest office in the gift of the American people. One of his first acts was the promulgation of the non-intercouse act directed against France and England. The war with England soon broke out, and it was the all-overshadowing event of his administration. At the close of his second term, in 1817, Madison retired from public life and withdrew to his estate at Montpelier, where he died June 28, 1836, in his eighty-fifth year. THE BRITISH TREATY Delivered in the House of Representatives, April 15, 1796 M R. CHAIRMAN: The subject now under the consideration of the committee is of such vast extent, of such vital importance to this country, and involves so many topics which demand minute investigation, that I wish, at setting out, to be understood as not pretending to go through all the observations that may be applicable to its circumstances, but as endeavoring to present it in a mere general view, persuaded that the omissions I shall make will be amply supplied by other gentlemen who are to follow me in the discussion. The proposition, sir, immediately before the committee, amounts to this; that the treaty lately made with Great Britain ought to be directly carried into effect, by all such means and provisions as are peculiarly within the province and the competency of the House of Representatives to supply. This, sir, is the substance of the point immediately in question; but it will, in examining it, be proper to keep constantly in view another proposition which was made yesterday, by the gentleman from Pennsylvania, and referred to the committee, and which will be taken up of course, if the immediate question shall be decided in the negative. Sir, if the proposition for carrying the treaty into effect be agreed to by the House, it must necessarily be upon some one or other of the three following considerations: That the legislature is bound by a constitutional necessity to pass the requisite laws, without examining the treaty or considering its merits -or that, on due examination, the treaty is deemed to be in itself a good one-or that, apart from these considerations, there shall appear extraneous reasons of sufficient weight to induce the House to carry the treaty into effect, even though it be in itself a bad treaty. The first of these considerations, however, |