Mr. K. observed, that this was an article of general consumption, and its manufacture ought to be encouraged; as it was known what difficulties this country had experienced, and might again experience, when placed in a situation in which a sufficiency of salt could not be obtained. He hoped, therefore, his amendment would be agreed to.

Mr. Smilie was afraid the House was getting into a practice that would produce great trouble and confusion, by departing from the usual and settled mode of proceeding. It had always been deemed irregular, when a subject was committed, to bring it forward in the House before the committee made its report. Look at our situation, said he. A gentleman proposes a tax on manufactures of cotton, another on salt. Every gentleman has his favorite manufacture which he wishes encouraged, so that an armful of resolutions will be thrown into the hands of this committee. Mr. S. said he was friendly to the manufactures of our country, and was willing to give them every aid; but he did not wish, in doing this, to break through established rules. If gentlemen would suspend their remarks on the subject until the Committee of Commerce and Manufactures make their report, they will then have a fair opportunity of delivering their sentiments fully, and of supporting such particular manufactures as they may deem of most importance to the country. He hoped that neither the amendment nor the resolution would be agreed to.

Mr. Alston considered the gentleman from Pennsylvania mistaken as to the rule and practice of the House. If the doctrine which he maintains were correct, gentlemen might be defeated in effecting the objects which they have in view. It was only to refer a subject to a committee; and if a majority of that committee were unfriendly, and either failed to report, or reported inimically, the friends of the measure might be defeated, though there were a majority in the House in its favor. It was a common practice, Mr. A. said, to refer a subject generally to a committee, and afterwards instruct them, by resolution, as to particular branches of the subject.

Mr. Newton (the Chairman of the Committee of Commerce and Manufactures) said, the subject of manufactures was considered as being generally before them, and he knew it to be the intention of the committee to take up the matter comprehensively; and if any gentleman shall think proper to give them information respecting any particular manufacture, either orally or in writing, they will be glad to receive it. Mr. N. thought the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Alston) was mistaken, when he said that a committee had the power of defeating the purposes of members; because, whenever a report was made, it was in the power of a majority of the House to amend it, and make it just what they please.

Mr. Quincy was in favor of the amendment offered by the gentleman from North Carolina, (Mr. King,) and thanked him for bringing it forward. Some of his constituents, men who lived on the sandbanks of the country, were deeply interested in the manufacture of salt, and had been nearly ruined by the repeal of the duty on that article. He was friendly to a duty on salt, as it was more equal and less felt in the payment than any other, and he had always thought it strange that the duty had been repealed.

Mr. Macon thought the proposition to tax this necessary of life, at a time when it is probable we may find a difficulty in procuring it in sufficient quantity, was very ill-timed. The repeal of this duty had been called strange. He thought it would have been more strange had Congress continued the duty when the Treasury was not in need of the money arising from it. If there was any thing strange in the business, it was that there should have been any opposition to the repeal. Mr. M. agreed with the remark made by a gentleman from Massachusetts some days ago, that taxes, to be just, ought to be equal. Would a tax on salt, he asked, be equal? It certainly would not. People on the seacoast would not feel it. Their cattle would refuse it, if given to them. The interior of the country, the people from East to West, would have to bear the weight of this tax. But the gentleman from Massachusetts says the repealing of this duty ruined his constituents, who live on the sandbanks of the country. He would not consent, however, to tax the people of his part of the country, living on sandhills, to support that gentleman's sandbank constituents.

But this duty, it is said, is to be laid to encourage manufactures. Why this great cry about domestic manufactures? He thought they had already sufficient encouragement from the present situation of things. The President had recommended the subject to the consideration of the House, and he had no doubt the committee, to whom it had been referred, would do what is proper on the subject. Mr. M. wished to know for what purpose this additional duty is wanted. If, said he, it be wanted for going to war, let us know it. For his part, he had heard so much about war formerly, that he hardly thought we should get at it now.

Mr. M. said on a former occasion, when the country was in a situation something like the present, a gentleman from Virginia was so alarmed lest salt sufficient could not be had, that he proposed a bounty on its importation. What, said Mr. M., will be the effect of a proposition for taxing salt in the country? He had no doubt that, in the Southern States, it would immediately raise the price of the article at Petersburg and Fayetteville. On this account, he hoped, if the House did not mean to lay a tax on salt, that the proposition would be immediately discarded. For himself, he would sooner consent to a land or poll tax than a tax on salt.

Mr. Smilie moved a postponement of the resolution until the first Monday in February next.

This motion was debated at some length. Some who wished to vote for it, wished the proposition for a tax on salt to be disconnected with the original proposition.

Friday, November 22.

Another member, to wit, Edwin Gray, from Virginia, appeared, produced his credentials, was qualified, and took his seat.

Apportionment of Representatives.

On motion of Mr. Dawson, the House resolved itself into a Committee of the Whole, on the bill for apportioning the Representatives among the several States, according to the third enumeration.

The bill having been read, the question on filling the blanks occurred. The first was in relation to the number of inhabitants for each Representative; when

Mr. Dawson observed, that he was instructed by the committee who directed him to report this bill, to propose filling the blank with the words forty thousand; but he should himself vote against filling the blank with this number, because it would deprive the State of Rhode Island of one-half of her present Representatives; it would deprive Connecticut and Maryland each of one member, and Virginia of two. He should, therefore, be in favor of filling the blank with 37,000, as this number would not deprive any State of a Representative, and it would only increase the present number of Representatives from 142 to 180.

Mr. Dawson then moved, that the said blank be filled with the words "thirty-seven thousand;" and the question thereon being taken, was resolved in the affirmative—yeas 102, nays 18.

Mr. Dawson moved to fill the other blanks in the bill, as follows: New Hampshire, five members; Massachusetts, eighteen; Vermont, five; Rhode Island, two; Connecticut, seven; New York, twenty-five; New Jersey, six; Pennsylvania, twenty-one; Delaware, one; Maryland, nine; Virginia, twenty-two; North Carolina, thirteen; South Carolina, nine; Georgia, five; Kentucky, ten; Ohio, six; and Tennessee, six.

The bill was ordered to be engrossed for a third reading, and the House adjourned.

Monday, December 2.

John Taliaferro, who has been declared entitled to a seat in this House, as one of the members for Virginia, in the place of John P. Hungerford, who has been declared not entitled to a seat in this House, appeared, was qualified, and took his seat.

Friday, December 6.

Mr. Emott presented a petition of Harrison and Lewis, of the city of New York, merchants, praying permission to import from the British West India Islands, goods to the amount of debts owing to them by certain inhabitants in said islands.—Referred to the Committee of Commerce and Manufactures.

Mr. Smilie presented a memorial of the President and Managers of the Union Canal Company of Pennsylvania, praying the aid and patronage of the General Government in accomplishing the extensive and useful works in which they are engaged; which was read, and referred to a select committee.

Messrs. Smilie, Ridgely, Ringgold, Baker, and Bleecker, were appointed the committee.

A message from the Senate informed the House that the Senate insist on their amendments, disagreed to by this House, to the bill "for the apportionment of Representatives among the several States according to the third enumeration;" agree to the proposed conference, and have appointed managers on their part at the same.

Foreign Relations.

The House resolved itself into a Committee of the Whole on the state of the Union, to which Committee of the Whole was committed the report of the Committee on Foreign Relations, made some days ago.

The report having been read—

Mr. Porter said that the House were probably expecting from the Committee of Foreign Relations some explanations of their views in reporting the resolutions now under consideration, in addition to the general exposition of them contained in the report itself. The committee themselves felt that such explanations were due, inasmuch as they had only reported in part, and had intimated their intention to follow up these resolutions, should they be adopted, by the recommendation of ulterior measures.

The committee, Mr. P. said, after examining the various documents accompanying the President's Message, were satisfied, as he presumed every member of the House was, that all hopes of accommodating our differences with Great Britain by negotiation must be abandoned. When they looked at the correspondence between the two Governments; when they observed the miserable shifts and evasions (for they were entitled to no better appellation) to which Great Britain resorted to excuse the violations of our maritime rights, it was impossible not to perceive that her conduct towards us was not regulated even by her own sense of justice, but solely by a regard to the probable extent of our forbearance. The last six years had been marked by a series of progressive encroachments on our rights; and the principles by which she publicly upheld her aggressions, were as mutable as her conduct. We had seen her one year advancing doctrines, which the year before she had reprobated. He had seen her one day capturing our vessels under pretexts, which on the preceding day she would have been ashamed or afraid to avow. Indeed, said Mr. P., she seems to have been constantly and carefully feeling our pulse, to ascertain what potions we would bear; and if we go on submitting to one indignity after another, it will not be long before we shall see British subjects, not only taking our property in our harbors, but trampling on our persons in the streets of our cities.

Having become convinced that all hopes from further negotiation were idle, the committee, Mr. P. said, were led to the consideration of another question, which was—whether the maritime rights which Great Britain is violating were such as we ought to support at the hazard and expense of a war? And he believed he was correct in stating that the committee was unanimously of the opinion that they were. The committee thought that the Orders in Council, so far as they go to interrupt our direct trade, that is, the carrying of the productions of this country to a market in the ports of friendly nations, and returning with the proceeds of them—ought to be resisted by war. How far we ought to go in support of what is commonly called the carrying trade, although the question was agitated in the committee, no definitive opinion was expressed. It was not deemed necessary, at this time, to express such an opinion, inasmuch as the injury we sustain by the inhibition of this trade is merged in the greater one to our direct trade.

The Orders in Council, Mr. P. said, of which there seemed now to be no prospect of a speedy repeal—certainly none during the continuance of the present war—authorized the capture of our vessels bound to and from ports where British commerce is not favorably received; and as that nation is at war with most of the civilized world, the effect was (as he understood from those who had much better information on the subject than he could pretend to) to cut up, at once, about three-fourths of our best and most profitable commerce. It was impossible that the mercantile or agricultural interests of the United States, which on the question of a right to the direct trade could never be separated, could submit to such impositions. It was his opinion, that going upon the ground of a mere pecuniary calculation, a calculation of profits and loss, it would be for our interest to go to war to remove the Orders in Council, rather than submit to them, even during the term of their probable continuance.

But there was another point of view in which the subject presented itself to the committee, and that was as regarded the character of the country. We were a young nation, and he hoped we cherished a little pride and spirit, as well as a great deal of justice and moderation. Our situation was not unlike that of a young man just entering into life, and who, if he tamely submitted to one cool, deliberate, intentional indignity, might safely calculate to be kicked and cuffed for the whole of the remainder of his life; or, if he should afterwards undertake to retrieve his character, must do it at ten times the expense which it would have cost him at first to support it. We should clearly understand and define those rights which as a nation we ought to support, and we should support them at every hazard. If there be any such thing as rights between nations, surely the people of the United States, occupying the half of a continent, have a right to navigate the seas, without being molested by the inhabitants of the little island of Great Britain.

It was under these views of the subject that the committee did not hesitate to give it as their opinion, that we ought to go to war in opposition to the Orders in Council. But as to the extent of the war and the time when it should be commenced, there would of course be some diversity of sentiment in the House, as there was, at first, in the committee.

That we can contend with Great Britain openly and even handed on the element where she injures us, it would be folly to pretend. Were it even in our power to build a navy which should be able to cope with her, no man who has any regard for the happiness of the people of this country would venture to advise such a measure. All the fame and glory which the British navy has acquired at sea, have been dearly paid for in the sufferings and misery of that ill-fated people at home—sufferings occasioned in a great measure by the expense of that stupendous establishment. But without such a navy the United States could make a serious impression upon Great Britain, even at sea. We could have, within six months after a declaration of war, hundreds of privateers in every part of the ocean. We could harass, if not destroy, the vast and profitable commerce which she is constantly carrying on to every part of this continent. We could destroy her fisheries to the north; we could depredate upon her commerce to the West India Islands, which is passing by our doors; we could annoy her trade along the coast of South America; we could even carry the war to her own shores in Europe.

Mr. P. said he had risen merely for the purpose of explaining to the House the opinion and views of the committee in relation to the resolutions now to be discussed, and he should be satisfied if he had been so fortunate as to succeed.

The question was then taken on the first resolution for filling the ranks of the present army, &c., and carried.

Saturday, December 7.

Territorial Government in Upper Louisiana.

Mr. Pleasants presented a remonstrance and petition of sundry inhabitants of St. Louis, in the Territory of Louisiana, stating the many injuries and inconveniences which would result from a change in their form of government, and praying that no alteration may be made in their said form of government.—Referred to the Committee of the Whole on the bill providing for the government of the said Territory.

Monday, December 9.

Foreign Relations.

The House resumed the consideration of the report of the Committee of Foreign Relations.

The question being on the agreement to the second resolution, authorizing the raising an additional regular force—

Mr. Grundy, as a member of the committee stated his impression that this was the vital part of the report; and although he had no desire to prolong debate, invited those who were opposed to the report now to come forward and state their objections to it.

Mr. Randolph said he was an old-fashioned politician. In the days of terror, we shrunk at standing armies; and what is the object now—defence? Who? Freemen who would not defend themselves. He would ask, if seven millions of Americans were to be protected in their lives and liberties by ten thousand vagabonds who were fit food for gunpowder? It would be necessary to know the ulterior views of the committee on this point. It would be proper, before a vote was taken on this resolution, to know for what purpose these additional troops were wanted. The House ought not to commit itself on a question of such magnitude without detailed information. He was as much opposed to raising standing armies now, as he had been in the reign of terror. He had seen too much of the corruptions attendant on those establishments, in the course of the investigation in which he was engaged, not to disclaim all share in the creation of them. The people of the United States could defend themselves, if necessary, and had no idea of resting their defence on mercenaries, picked up from brothels and tippling houses—pickpockets who have escaped from Newgate, &c., and sought refuge in this asylum of oppressed humanity. He contended that this resolution contained an unconstitutional proposition, and that the standing army now in the service of the United States was maintained in the very teeth of that part of the constitution which declares that no money for the support of a standing army should be appropriated for more than two years. He again called for information as to the object of the army now proposed to be raised; declaring, that, if the President should say they were necessary for the protection of New Orleans, to be employed against the Indians, or to repel incursions from Canada, (although this seemed not to be much thought of,) he should not refuse to grant them. He declared the report to be a negative position, which could not be combated except to disadvantage. He wished to know the constitutional resources of the committee, and expressed a hope that the remarks he had made would draw out the talents of that body.

Mr. Grundy.—I did not expect that the gentleman from Virginia would have made any inquiries into the motives or objects of that committee of which he himself was a member. He, sir, attended faithfully to his duty, and witnessed every step the committee took. He also saw the report before it was made to this House, and must have heard the exposition of our ulterior measures, as explained by our Chairman. Why, then, sir, shall he now affect not to understand us? Our object, by those who will listen, shall not be misunderstood. And, Mr. Speaker, as I have no political secrets, I feel no hesitation in declaring to you, to this House, and to the nation, the view I have taken of the subject. But before I do this, it is due to the committee that an explanation of their conduct should take place.

So soon as the Committee on our Foreign Relations was appointed, we were forcibly impressed with the serious and highly responsible station you had assigned us; to that committee, consisting of nine members only, were not only the eyes of this House but of the nation turned; and from us, in this, the most troubled season our world has ever known, was it expected that a course of measures would be recommended, calculated to protect the interests of seven millions of people. Under this impression, Mr. Speaker, we deemed it a duty to take time for deliberation; we thought it better to encounter the charge of having acted in a tardy and dilatory way, than to take a rash step, by which this nation might be plunged into difficulties, from which it could not be easily extricated. We therefore took the necessary time to weigh the arguments both for and against the measures we have recommended; and, as far as we were able, we surveyed the consequences which were to follow from the course we proposed. We foresaw, Mr. Speaker, that our countrymen were to fall in the meditated conflict, and that American blood was to stream afresh. Nor were we unmindful of the expenditure of public treasure. And, sir, what cost me more reflection than every thing else, was the new test to which we are to put this Government. We are about to ascertain by actual experiment how far our Republican institutions are calculated to stand the shock of war, and whether, after foreign danger disappeared, we can again assume our peaceful attitude, without endangering the liberties of the people.

Against these considerations, weighty in themselves, your committee felt themselves constrained to decide, influenced by existing circumstances of a character too imperious to be resisted: these I will enumerate before I sit down. My business at present is to address a particular portion of the members of this House—I mean, sir, the Republican members—and although what I am about to say might be deemed impolitic on ordinary subjects of legislation, yet, at this time and on this occasion, it would be criminal to conceal a single thought which might influence their determination. We should now, Mr. Speaker, forget little party animosities, we should mingle minds freely, and, as far as we are able, commune with the understandings of each other; and, the decision once made, let us become one people, and present an undivided front to the enemies of our country.

Republicans should never forget that some years ago a set of men of different politics held the reins of this Government, and drove the car of State; they were charged with being friendly to standing armies in times of peace, and favorable to expensive establishments; not for the purpose of opposing foreign enemies, but to encourage Executive patronage, and to bring these forces to operate upon the people themselves. These measures alarmed the Republicans; they remonstrated, they clamored, they appealed to the people, and by a national sentence, the men then in power were taken down from their high places, and Republican men were put in their seats.

If your minds are resolved on war, you are consistent, you are right, you are still Republicans; but if you are not resolved, pause and reflect, for should this resolution pass, and you then become faint-hearted, remember that you have abandoned your old principles, and trod in the paths of your predecessors.

According to my view of this subject, Mr. Speaker, we now stand on the bank; one movement more, the Rubicon is passed, we are in Italy, and we must march to Rome.

As a member of the committee, I feel no hesitation in saying, that if there be a member here, not determined to go with us to the extent of our measures, I prefer now to take my leave of him, rather than be deserted when the clouds darken, and the storm thickens upon us.

This admonition I owed to candor—I have paid it, not because I doubted; my purpose is settled, my mind reposes upon it. I may be in an error. If I am, I hope my country will forgive me. From my God I shall never need it, because he knows the purity of my motives.

What, Mr. Speaker, are we now called on to decide? It is whether we will resist by force the attempt made by that Government, to subject our maritime rights to the arbitrary and capricious rule of her will; for my part I am not prepared to say that this country shall submit to have her commerce interdicted or regulated by any foreign nation. Sir, I prefer war to submission.

Over and above these unjust pretensions of the British Government, for many years past they have been in the practice of impressing our seamen from merchant vessels; this unjust and lawless invasion of personal liberty, calls loudly for the interposition of this Government. To those better acquainted with the facts in relation to it, I leave it to fill up the picture. My mind is irresistibly drawn to the West.

Although others may not strongly feel the bearing which the late transactions in that quarter have on this subject, upon my mind they have great influence. It cannot be believed by any man who will reflect that the savage tribes, uninfluenced by other powers, would think of making war on the United States. They understand too well their own weakness, and our strength. They have already felt the weight of our arms; they know they hold the very soil on which they live as tenants at sufferance. How, then, sir, are we to account for their late conduct? In one way only; some powerful nation must have intrigued with them and turned their peaceful disposition towards us into hostilities. Great Britain alone has intercourse with those northern tribes; I therefore infer, that if British gold has not been employed, their baubles and trinkets, and the promise of support, and a place of refuge if necessary, have had their effect.

If I am right in this conjecture, war is not to commence by sea or land, it is already begun; and some of the richest blood of our country has already been shed. Yes, Mr. Speaker, in one individual has fallen, the honest man, the orator and the soldier.[14] That he loved his country none can doubt—he died to preserve its honor and its fame—I mean the late commander of the cavalry; you, sir, who have often I measured your strength with his in forensic debate, can attest that he in a good degree was the pride of the western country, and Kentucky claimed him as a favorite son. For his loss, with those who fell by his side, the whole western country is ready to march; they only wait for our permission; and, sir, war once declared, I pledge myself for my people—they will avenge the death of their brethren.

Tuesday, December 10.

Another member, to wit, James Cochran, from North Carolina, appeared and took his seat.

Spanish American Colonies.

Mr. Mitchill, from the committee appointed on that part of the President's Message which relates to the Spanish American Colonies, made a report, in part, thereon; which was read and referred to a Committee of the Whole on the state of the Union. The report is as follows:

Foreign Relations.

The order of the day being called for, the Speaker observed, that the gentleman from Virginia on the right of the Chair was entitled to the floor.

Mr. Randolph rose. He expressed his sense of the motive which had induced the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Grundy) to move the adjournment, yesterday, and of the politeness of the House in granting it; at the same time declaring that in point of fact he had little cause to be thankful for the favor, well intended as he knew it to have been—since he felt himself even less capable of proceeding with his argument, than he had been on the preceding day.

It was a question, as it had been presented to the House, of peace or war. In that light it had been argued; in no other light could he consider it, after the declaration made by members of the Committee of Foreign Relations. Without intending any disrespect to the Chair, he must be permitted to say that if the decision yesterday was correct, "That it was not in order to advance any arguments against the resolution, drawn from topics before other committees of the House," the whole debate, nay, the report itself on which they were acting, was disorderly; since the increase of the military force was a subject at that time in agitation by the select committee raised on that branch of the President's Message. But it was impossible that the discussion of a question broad as the wide ocean of our foreign concerns—involving every consideration of interest, of right, of happiness and of safety at home—touching in every point, all that was dear to freemen, "their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor!"—could be tied down by the narrow rules of technical routine. The Committee of Foreign Relations had indeed decided that the subject of arming the militia (which he had pressed upon them as indispensable to the public security) did not come within the scope of their authority. On what ground, he had been and still was unable to see, they had felt themselves authorized (when that subject was before another committee) to recommend the raising of standing armies, with a view (as had been declared) of immediate war—a war not of defence, but of conquest, of aggrandizement, of ambition; a war foreign to the interests of this country, to the interests of humanity itself.

He knew not how gentlemen, calling themselves republicans, could advocate such a war. What was their doctrine in 1798-'9, when the command of the army—that highest of all possible trusts in any Government, be the form what it may—was reposed in the bosom of the Father of his Country, the sanctuary of a nation's love, the only hope that never came in vain! When other worthies of the Revolution—Hamilton, Pinckney, and the younger Washington—men of tried patriotism, of approved conduct and valor, of untarnished honor, held subordinate command under him! Republicans were then unwilling to trust a standing army, even to his hands who had given proof that he was above all human temptation. Where now is the Revolutionary hero to whom you are about to confide this sacred trust? To whom will you confide the charge of leading the flower of our youth to the Heights of Abraham? Will you find him in the person of an acquitted felon? What! then you were unwilling to vote an army where such men as had been named held high command! when Washington himself was at the head—did you then show such reluctance, feel such scruples; and are you now nothing loth, fearless of every consequence? Will you say that your provocations were less then than now? When your direct commerce was interdicted—your Ambassadors hooted with derision from the French Court—tribute demanded—actual war waged upon you!

Those who opposed the army then were indeed denounced as the partisans of France; as the same men—some of them at least—are now held up as the advocates of England; those firm and undeviating Republicans who then dared, and now dare, to cling to the ark of the constitution, to defend it even at the expense of their fame, rather than surrender themselves to the wild projects of mad ambition! There was a fatality attending plenitude of power. Soon or late some mania seizes upon its possessors—they fall from the dizzy height through the giddiness of their own heads. Like a vast estate, heaped up by the labor and industry of one man, which seldom survives the third generation—power, gained by patient assiduity, by a faithful and regular discharge of its attendant duties, soon gets above its own origin. Intoxicated with their own greatness the Federal party fell. Will not the same causes produce the same effects now as then? Sir, you may raise this army, you may build up this vast structure of patronage, this mighty apparatus of favoritism; but—"lay not the flattering unction to your souls"—you will never live to enjoy the succession. You sign your political death warrant.

Mr. R. here adverted to the provocation to hostilities from shutting up the Mississippi by Spain in 1803—but more fully to the conduct of the House in 1805-'6, under the strongest of all imaginable provocatives to war; the actual invasion of our country. He read various passages from the President's public Message of December 3, 1805.

Mr. R. said that the peculiar situation of the frontier, at that time insulted, had alone induced the committee to recommend the raising of regular troops. It was too remote from the population of the country for the militia to act, in repelling and chastising Spanish incursion. New Orleans and its dependencies were separated by a vast extent of wilderness from the settlements of the old United States; filled with a disloyal and turbulent people, alien to our institutions, language and manners, and disaffected towards our Government. Little reliance could be placed upon them, and it was plain, that if "it was the intention of Spain to advance on our possessions until she should be repulsed by an opposing force," that force must be a regular army, unless we were disposed to abandon all the country south of Tennessee. That if "the protection of our citizens and the spirit and the honor of our country required that force should be interposed," nothing remained but for the Legislature to grant the only practicable means, or to shrink from the most sacred of all its duties—to abandon the soil and its inhabitants to the tender mercies of hostile invaders.

Yet this report, moderate as it was, had been deemed of too strong a character by the House. It was rejected: and, at the motion of a gentleman from Massachusetts, (Mr. Bidwell,)—who had since taken a great fancy also to Canada,[15] and marched off thither, in advance of the committee of Foreign Relations—"$2,000,000, were appropriated towards" (not in full of) "any extraordinary expense which might be incurred in the intercourse between the United States and foreign nations:" in other words, to buy off, at Paris, Spanish aggressions at home.

Was this fact given in evidence of our impartiality towards the belligerents?—that to the insults and injuries and actual invasion of one of them we opposed not bullets, but dollars; that to Spanish invasion we opposed money, whilst for British aggression on the high seas we had arms; offensive war? But Spain was then shielded, as well as instigated, by a greater power. Hence our respect for her. Had we at that time acted as we ought to have done in defence of rights, of the natale solum itself, we should (he felt confident) have avoided that series of insult, disgrace, and injury, which had been poured out upon us in long unbroken succession. We would not then raise a small regular force for a country where the militia could not act, to defend our own Territory; now, we are willing to levy a great army, for great it must be, to accomplish the proposed object, for a war of conquest and ambition—and this, too, at the very entrance of the "Northern Hive," of the strongest part of the Union.

An insinuation had fallen from the gentleman from Tennessee, (Mr. Grundy,) that the late massacre of our brethren on the Wabash had been instigated by the British Government. Has the President given any such information? has the gentleman received any such, even informally, from any officer of this Government? Is it so believed by the Administration? He had cause to think the contrary to be the fact; that such was not their opinion. This insinuation was of the grossest kind—a presumption the most rash, the most unjustifiable. Show but good ground for it, he would give up the question at the threshold—he was ready to march to Canada. It was indeed well calculated to excite the feelings of the Western people particularly, who were not quite so tenderly attached to our red brethren as some modern philosophers; but it was destitute of any foundation, beyond mere surmise and suspicion. What would be thought, if, without any proof whatsoever, a member should rise in his place and tell us, that the massacre in Savannah, a massacre perpetrated by civilized savages, with French commissions in their pockets, was excited by the French Government? There was an easy and natural solution of the late transaction on the Wabash, in the well-known character of the aboriginal savage of North America, without resorting to any such mere conjectural estimate. He was sorry to say, that for this signal calamity and disgrace the House was, in part, at least, answerable. Session after session, their table had been piled up with Indian treaties, for which the appropriations had been voted as a matter of course, without examination. Advantage had been taken of the spirit of the Indians, broken by the war which ended in the Treaty of Greenville. Under the ascendency then acquired over them, they had been pent up by subsequent treaties into nooks straitened in their quarters by a blind cupidity, seeking to extinguish their title to immense wildernesses, for which (possessing, as we do already, more land than we can sell or use) we shall not have occasion, for half a century to come. It was our own thirst for territory, our own want of moderation, that had driven these sons of nature to desperation, of which we felt the effects.

Mr. R., although not personally acquainted with the late Colonel Daviess, felt, he was persuaded, as deep and serious regret for his loss as the gentleman from Tennessee himself. He knew him only through the representation of a friend of the deceased, (Mr. Rowan,) some time a member of that House; a man, who, for native force of intellect, manliness of character, and high sense of honor, was not inferior to any that had ever sat there. With him he sympathized in the severest calamity that could befall a man of his cast of character. Would to God they were both then on the floor! From his personal knowledge of the one, he felt confident that he would have his support—and he believed (judging of him from the representation of their common friend) of the other also.

He could but smile at the liberality of the gentleman, in giving Canada to New York, in order to strengthen the Northern balance of power, while at the same time he forewarned her that the Western scale must preponderate. Mr. R. said that he could almost fancy that he saw the Capitol in motion towards the falls of Ohio—after a short sojourn taking its flight to the Mississippi, and finally alighting on Darien; which, when the gentleman's dreams are realized, will be a most eligible seat of government for the new Republic (or Empire) of the two Americas! But it seemed that "in 1808 we talked and acted foolishly," and to give some color of consistency to that folly, we must now commit a greater. Really he could not conceive of a weaker reason offered in support of a present measure, than the justification of a former folly. He hoped we should act a wiser part—take warning by our follies, since we had become sensible of them, and resolve to talk and act foolishly no more. It was indeed high time to give over such preposterous language and proceedings.

This war of conquest, a war for the acquisition of territory and subjects, is to be a new commentary on the doctrine that Republics are destitute of ambition—that they are addicted to peace, wedded to the happiness and safety of the great body of their people. But it seems this is to be a holiday campaign—there is to be no expense of blood, or treasure, on our part—Canada is to conquer herself—she is to be subdued by the principles of fraternity. The people of that country are first to be seduced from their allegiance, and converted into traitors, as preparatory to the making them good citizens. Although he must acknowledge that some of our flaming patriots were thus manufactured, he did not think the process would hold good with a whole community. It was a dangerous experiment. We were to succeed in the French mode by the system of fraternization—all is French! but how dreadfully it might be retorted on the Southern and Western slaveholding States. He detested this subornation of treason. No—if he must have them, let them fall by the valor of our arms, by fair, legitimate conquest; not become the victims of treacherous seduction.

He was not surprised at the war spirit which was manifesting itself in gentlemen from the South. In the year 1805-'6, in a struggle for the carrying trade of belligerent colonial produce, this country has been most unwisely brought into collision with the great powers of Europe. By a series of most impolitic and ruinous measures,[16] utterly incomprehensible to every rational, sober-minded man, the Southern planters, by their own votes, had succeeded in knocking down the price of cotton to seven cents, and of tobacco (a few choice crops excepted) to nothing—and in raising the price of blankets, (of which a few would not be amiss in a Canadian campaign,) coarse woollens, and every article of first necessity, three or four hundred per cent. And now that, by our own acts, we have brought ourselves into this unprecedented condition, we must get out of it in any way, but by an acknowledgment of our own want of wisdom and forecast. But is war the true remedy? Who will profit by it? Speculators—a few lucky merchants, who draw prizes in the lottery—commissaries and contractors. Who must suffer by it? The people. It is their blood, their taxes, that must flow to support it.

But gentlemen avowed that they would not go to war for the carrying trade—that is, for any other but the direct export and import trade—that which carries our native products abroad, and brings back the return cargo; and yet they stickle for our commercial rights, and will go to war for them! He wished to know, in point of principle, what difference gentlemen could point out between the abandonment of this or of that maritime right? Do gentlemen assume the lofty port and tone of chivalrous redressers of maritime wrongs, and declare their readiness to surrender every other maritime right provided they may remain unmolested in the exercise of the humble privilege of carrying their own produce abroad, and bringing back a return cargo? Do you make this declaration to the enemy at the outset? Do you state the minimum with which you will be contented, and put it in her power to close with your proposal at her option; give her the basis of a treaty ruinous and disgraceful beyond example and expression? and this, too, after having turned up your nose in disdain at the treaties of Mr. Jay and Mr. Monroe! Will you say to England, "end the war when you please, give us the direct trade in our own produce, we are content?" But what will the merchants of Salem, and Boston, and New York, and Philadelphia, and Baltimore, the men of Marblehead and Cape Cod, say to this? Will they join in a war professing to have for its object what they would consider (and justly too) as the sacrifice of their maritime rights, yet affecting to be a war for the protection of commerce?

He was gratified to find gentlemen acknowledging the demoralizing and destructive consequences of the non-importation law—confessing the truth of all that its opponents foretold when it was enacted. And will you plunge yourselves in war, because you have passed a foolish and ruinous law, and are ashamed to repeal it? "But our good friend the French Emperor stands in the way of its repeal," and as we cannot go too far in making sacrifices to him, who has given such demonstration of his love for the Americans, we must, in point of fact, become parties to his war. "Who can be so cruel as to refuse him this favor?" His imagination shrunk from the miseries of such a connection. He called upon the House to reflect whether they were not about to abandon all reclamation for the unparalleled outrages, "insults and injuries" of the French Government, to give up our claim for plundered millions; and asked what reparation or atonement they could expect to obtain in hours of future dalliance, after they should have made a tender of their person to this great deflowerer of the virginity of republics. We had by our own wise (he would not say wise-acre) measures, so increased the trade and wealth of Montreal and Quebec, that at last we began to cast a wishful eye at Canada. Having done so much towards its improvement by the exercise of "our restrictive energies," we began to think the laborer worthy of his hire, and to put in claim for our portion. Suppose it ours, are we any nearer to our point? As his Minister said to the King of Epirus, "may we not as well take our bottle of wine before as after this exploit?" Go! march to Canada! leave the broad bosom of the Chesapeake and her hundred tributary rivers—the whole line of seacoast from Machias to St. Mary's unprotected! You have taken Quebec—have you conquered England? Will you seek for the deep foundations of her power in the frozen deserts of Labrador?