1812. EMBARGO BEFORE WAR. 349 securing his renomination at their hands, their threat being that unless he did so they should drop him.* But all that history can positively assert is that Madison pursued such a programme, step by step, and that no nominating caucus was held until he had quite committed himself. It was a thirty days' embargo, as the preliminary to war, which Clay proposed to the President on the 15th of March.† But this allowed too short a time for war preparations, and on a final understanding it appears to have been fixed at sixty days. On the 1st of April the President by confiApril 1. dential message recommended a temporary embargo, the House Committee on Foreign Relations being all ready to act. Their bill, which corresponded to the message, was reported, debated, and forced through the House the same day, the vote on its passage standing 70 to 41. The Senate next morning suspended the rules and carried the bill through all the stages except the last, with an amendment which increased the time of the embargo to ninety days. On the 3d of April the bill was returned to the House, where this amendment was concurred in. The President approved the bill, and it became a law on the 4th. This extension of the embargo, from sixty to ninety days, was produced by a last effort on the part of moderate Republicans at peaceful accommodation. They would have made April 2. April 3. * See 6 Hildreth; Adams's Gallatin, 456. There has always been a mystery in this matter. Madison's Correspondence shows that by March 10th he considered war inevitable, but it fails to reveal how far he may have chosen to take the lead in forcing a rupture with Great Britain. The statement that Madison was coerced by a committee of war members, who threatened to forsake him unless he declared war, was openly made in Congress soon afterwards. James Fiske, a Vermont Congressman, is said to have avowed that he was himself a member of that committee. See 1 Statesman's Manual, 444. But Clay and his friends have positively denied the story. Mr. Adams (Adams's Gallatin, 456), examining the statement in the light afforded by the Pickering Papers, concludes that the threat related to quite a different matter, namely, that of sending Bayard to England on a special mission, to which our text presently alludes. Monroe Correspondence. Act April 4th, 1812. embargo a means rather of negotiation than war.* Their plan was to dispatch a new envoy to London with our ultimatum, and the conservative Bayard appears to have been favored for this service. Madison inclined, perhaps, to some such experiment at conciliation with England, but if so he was deterred by the resolute opposition of Clay and the warhawks. A perilous responsibility it must have been, truly, for any President to undertake such a mission at such a time, and block the enthusiasm of war. John Adams had not gone thus counter to the wishes of his friends, in 1799, until he saw that the enemy had thrown out the white flag. Not the shadow of a concession was yet disclosed by the British cabinet. And yet, such were the forces already working at London on America's behalf, that had a suitable envoy, with fair credentials, been dispatched at this moment, the war of 1812 would, in all probability, have been averted. The embargo debates in Congress, brief as they were, brought the Federalist members and Randolph once more into a concerted opposition. But while Randolph, who served on the House committee, apprehended what this embargo meant, and invoked the Executive to thwart his colleagues, Quincy professed to treat the measure not as a preliminary to war, but an attempt to escape from it, an insincere, despicable proposal. The peace men, indeed, were loath to believe that an executive, as prudent and fair as Madison, would suffer the country to be launched into a war with the greatest naval power in the world, while so little prepared for it. But, though. * Madison's Writings, April 24th, 1812. † Annals of Congress, April, 1812. The secrecy of the embargo proposition was not well kept. Randolph had refused in his committee to discuss the question under any such pledge. An Alexandria newspaper, pending the action of the Senate, published an account of the proceedings and vote in the House; its editor was arraigned but refused to say more than that certain members of the House had given him the information. Upon a hint from Calhoun of what was coming, a flying express was dispatched by Lloyd, Quincy, and Emott, the last of March, to let Philadelphia, New York, and Boston know that embargo would be laid: from which three ports, in consequence, several vessels loaded and put to sea before government could detain them, the tidings having reached Boston in seventy-six hours. 1812. WAR SPIRIT RISING. 351 a friend of peace, and well aware of the danger of such a contest, Madison was borne along by the impulse of the hour.* It was the impetuous Clay who arrayed the administration. Alarmists appealed to the fears of the people; Clay to their hopes, their courage. Weak as we are, said Clay, when reminded of French aggressions, we could fight France, too, if necessary, in a good cause, the cause of honor and independence. "We have complete proof," he said, " that England would do everything to destroy us. Resolution and spirit are our only security." Like Grundy, he viewed the embargo as a war measure, and war, he predicted, we should have when this embargo expired.† May. This temporary embargo was accepted by the country as an incipient act of war, and the forerunner of a spirited policy. Mass meetings held in Philadelphia and Baltimore voted with ardor to sustain the President and Congress. The military spirit rose rapidly in the South and West. But in New York and Boston a violent opposition developed, which discouraged the new loan, and stigmatized Madison, the Virginia cabal, and "the madmen of Kentucky and Tennessee," as highwaymen who ought to find their own pistols. Here commerce protested against the vindication of her rights. With such a division of opinion, and the downfall of the national bank fresh in remembrance, the administration party firmly held the popular majority, at the same time weakening its grasp upon the moneyed section of the Union. Of this tokens appeared in the spring elections. Federalists and peace men made decisive gains in the New York legislature. Dropping Gore and Juntoism, in Massachusetts, the same party restored Strong, the old favorite, to the governorship; profiting * Madison observed to Mr. Bancroft, in 1836, that "he knew the unprepared state of the country, but he esteemed it necessary to throw forward the flag of the country, sure that the people would press onward and defend it."-Adams's Gallatin, 460. † Annals of Congress, April, 1812. To the embargo act succeeded another prohibiting exportations by land, whether of goods or specie.Act April 14 h, 1812. Niles's Register, April-May, 1812. by Gerry's blunders, and the excitement produced by the news of a fresh embargo.* Griswold was re-elected in Connecticut, rating now as a full Federalist. Rhode Island voted the peace ticket. In New Hampshire neither candidate received a majority at the polls, though a Republican legislature conferred the governorship upon Plumer, formerly a Federalist, but now in sympathy with the administration. The Washington societies, which banded together the young conservatives of New England, paraded with great pomp on the auniversary of our first inauguration day, bearing Roman standards illustrating "Commerce," "Peace," and the "National Glory." Embargo was lampooned through the East as a "terrapin war." May 18. The Congressional caucus assembled late in May; eighty-two Republican members present. Madison received their entire vote for President. George Clinton having died in April, they next nominated Langdon for VicePresident. But Langdon, who was aged and infirm, having already retired from office in New Hampshire, declined national honors, and at a subsequent caucus Gerry was selected in his stead. War approached with the summer. The New York militia prepared to garrison the north and western frontiers of the State. The British government, over the borders, was actively recruiting, and building small vessels on the lakes. News from abroad afforded not the slightest hope for accommodation. Under Lord Lansdowne, in the House of Lords, and Brougham, in the House of Commons, resolves had been introduced looking to the repeal of the Orders in Council, but these resolves were defeated by large majorities. The Monroe and Foster correspondence had been wound up to an ultimatum, and each refused to yield. "I no longer entertain a hope," wrote our chargé, Russell, from London, "that we *The embargo express (supra, p. 350) reached Boston just before election day. † See Boston Centinel; Niles's Register, etc.; Lossing's War of 1812, 224. Niles's Register. 1812. WAR AGAINST GREAT BRITAIN. 353 May 29. can honorably avoid war.' They who had ridiculed the new embargo as a delusive retreat from war, found that war in sixty days was still the meaning of our government. Knowing that a war message was forthcoming, Randolph tried to precipitate an open discussion in advance, but Calhoun stopped him, and, upon the Speaker's ruling, he was required to reduce his motion to writing, and refrain from discussion until the House had agreed to consider it. This motion, which, after the tenor of Spriggs's resolution in 1798, Randolph drew up so as to read that it was "inexpedient to resort to war" with Great Britain, the House quickly refused to consider by 72 to 37, and Randolph took his seat, for the first time chagrined and silenced. June 1. The President's war message was sent in June 1st. The House was cleared to receive it. In this document our causes of complaint against Great Britain since 1803 were recounted: British impressments, British infringements upon American waters, British sham blockades, British Orders in Council, British tampering with the Indians. Should we longer remain passive under these progressive wrongs and usurpations, or oppose force to force in defence of our national rights? This message was referred to the usual committee, which two days after, through Calhoun, reported a declaration of war. Quincy and Randolph tried in vain to have the doors thrown open for debating this important question. The bill passed the House, June 4th, by 79 to 49, and went to the Senate. Here the Giles June 3. June 4. * March 4th, 1812. Executive Correspondence; Niles's Register. Madison wrote in 1827 that what gave the immediate impulse to our declaration of war against England, was a letter from Castlereagh to Foster, which the latter put into the hands of Monroe for our President to read, which stated distinctly and emphatically that the British Orders in Council would not be repealed unless France repealed her internal restrictions. This formal notice left our Executive no choice but to declare war or retreat.-3 Madison's Writings, 554. It is to be observed that this was sixty days after the embargo message, instead of ninety as the amended embargo act provided. Probably the House leaders, while seeming to accede to the Senate, adhered to their original plan. VOL. II.-30 |