added? Yes, monarchy, in due time, for these are the stuff which monarchies are made of. And for all these evils the people, that is, the industrious farmers and mechanics, are to be compensated in Quebec, in Halifax, and in glory. When all the vices and calamities which attend the system of an eternal succession of wars, present themselves before me, as a lover of my country, I hardly know whether to wish that the war we are about to engage in may be successful or not. If it shall be unsuccessful, I shall have to endure the mortification of seeing my country disgraced; and, if successful, I fear it will lure her on to a system of wars and debts, which must end in the loss of her liberties.

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little delay, and a little reflection, that they would soon cool under the walls of Quebec. If they cannot trust themselves in this comfortable place, they would soon be brought to other counsels amidst the snows of Canada.

Thus, Mr. Speaker, I have endeavored to explain, though in short, my views of the subject. In the present situation of the world, I am in favor of peace-but the majority have the right to decide. I shall consider the vote about to be given on this bill as pronouncing their determination; and should it be in favor of war, I shall deem it my duty to support that determination, and to do all in my power to make war successful, and to bring it to an honorable close.

Mr. D. R. WILLIAMS said, there was nothing more natural than a desire to justify the vote we are called upon to give upon so important a question a question as the present; even in ordinary cases it is both natural and justifiable; much more so in a case which is of sufficient magnitude, abstractly considered, to excite all our solicitude, now become infinitely more momentous by the course the argument has taken; for the question is, not only shall the bill pass, but shall there be war?

We are told, Mr. Speaker, that commerce must be protected. From whom does this come? Have the ship owners asked your assistance? Are there any petitions from merchants on your table? No. They, for once, beg only that you will let them alone; you have already loved them (as the ape did her child) so well, that you have hugged them almost to death. It is remarkable that this spirit of protecting commerce has come from the interior! It is not from the ship owners, but it is from men furthest removed from ships. When a man rises in this House, you may almost tell how After the maturest deliberation he had been ardent he will be, by knowing how far distant he able to give the subject, he must confess that he lives from the sea. But how, Mr. Speaker, are was not perfectly satisfied with the details of the we going to protect commerce? By taking Can- bill before the House. He believed it to be fairly ada! Under this pretext (I meant to say project,) liable to the objections urged against it by his our commerce is really to be swept from the ocean worthy friend from North Carolina, (Mr. MACON.) -it is to be annihilated! How will the capture Sir, the organization of the troops contemplated of Canada protect commerce? It will be like a to be raised is new; it is true it had been intiman who, for the purpose of securing a rice field, mated to be an imitation of the French organizashould go and fence his neighbor's corn field. No, tion, but that is not the fact, and, viewing it as Mr. Speaker, if you will defend your rights on the an experiment, he could not but distrust it or any ocean, it must be by a powerful maritime force- other that should be attempted at this time. It it must be by seventy-fours-it must be such a puts down the old system, which carried us safe force as can cope with your enemy: lay a fifty-six and triumphant through our war, and perhaps pound weight in one scale, and go to putting might better through another than to take up one pound weights in the other scale, and you will that is new, untried, experimental; besides, it have done nothing till you have put in fifty-six of certainly does establish a preference in the comthem you will not have raised the opposite side a mand of officers of the same grade in the old and single inch. It is the same in maritime affairs-this new army; he thought the jealousies suffiunless a nation can cope with, she builds ships only for her enemy.

I repeat, that it is the business of sound calculation, to determine whether the evils induced by such a fleet, would not be greater than all we should suffer from the want of it. The object of a nation, or individual, ought to be, to choose the least possible evil. Without regarding this principle, a person, because he had a right to travel a certain road, would not go round an inch, but would push forward, although it were beset by highway men, and his advance were certain death. A person who should fight for mere right, without any calculation of utility, would stop to cuff a bear or a thorn bush, if it chanced to be in his way. But, Mr. Speaker, some gentlemen appear to have an utter aversion to calculation-they seem as if they did not dare to trust themselves with it-they can hardly bear to adjourn from day to day. Let me tell those gentlemen, who have so much fear that the spirit will cool by a

cient already, without adding new causes; but as it is impossible every member should obtain his precise wishes in matters of detail, perhaps no one ought sooner to distrust his own judgment than himself, and as the principle of the bill met his approbation, he would vote for it, more especially as he considered it the first measure of war against Great Britain.

To his mind there appeared to be only these courses left for the nation: Repeal the nonimportation law and take a war with France; make war on Great Britain, or submit to the principle of her Orders in Council. Which alternative then shall we accept? He had no agency in bringing the country into its present situation, but it was not, therefore, less his duty to exert every effort to rescue her from it. The period had ‍arrived when he considered indifference as criminal; that he who was not for his country was against it. He was not disposed to repeal the non-importation law at this time; because he

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her? He thought not. A disposition to advance on a receding opponent marks her character; your own experience teaches; yield them but for a cent, or a moment, and her system is fastened on your neck forever. To war there must be an end; to this there never will be. Her system, sir, is levelled at your most valuable interests; in a pecuniary point of view, it carries poverty and wretchedness everywhere; in every other it ought to be spurned with detestation. Indeed, sir, it is fastening a gangrene at the heart of the nation, which will imposthumate in corruption and ruin; its life-strings must rot.

That the imposition of such a tax had excited a ferment injurious to herself, the consequence of which no sophistry could conceal? Was the burning of gin at Baltimore calculated to induce a belief that it might renew the same scenes with the destruction of tea at Boston? The outrage was, indeed, too nearly allied to the causes of the Revolution to be borne. The orders are therefore modified; but the evil still exists, the principle is retained, and is the same, whether exercised by her in imposing a tax on our trade, in restricting our commerce to particular places, or in asserting unbounded sovereignty on the ocean. What, at this moment, is the practical operation It has been said our Constitution is not calcuof her orders? She marks out the course and des-lated to sustain a war. It surely is not calculated tination of your ships, laden with the productions of your own soil; if you vary in the least from the limits she prescribes, your property is captured and condemned "for contravening His Majesty's Orders in Council!" Shall we be again asked for the causes of war?

The same gentleman of Virginia asks, what are the objects of the war? The objects are necessarily involved in the causes of war; and, to his mind, were legitimate, honorable, just, and necessary. The liberation of our unfortunate, incarcerated seamen is one object acknowledged by the gentleman to be proper. The sufferings of this meritorious description of citizens, who are as much entitled to protection as any other, (no matter how elevated,) cannot be palliated, and ought no longer to be endured. The right (not a restricted permission from Great Britain) to a free and common use of the ocean is another; the renunciation of a principle which exercises foreign jurisdiction over us, another; the reacknowledgment, not in form, but in fact, of independence practical sovereignty-another. There can be neither security for our rights nor our property, when the power of taxation can be exercised, (it is immaterial under what name or character,) without representation; for surely the produce of labor is his, who can take of it whatever he pleases. Deprived of these great and vital objects, who has a mind to calculate the result? And yet, great and vital as they are, they constitute only a part. Will the gentleman reply, they are neither just nor necessary? What gave rise to the Revolution? Not a paltry tax on stamps or tea, but the assertion of the right to those taxes. What now is our situation? The principle and practices against which we are called upon to act, are, in magnitude and importance, infinitely transcending those of that day. To avoid war, we have receded, step by step, until we have not one inch of honorable ground left to stand on. Are we not degenerated? He would be glad to learn from the gentleman which of the numerous outrages we have suffered from Great Britain is greatest. So numerous are they, it appeared to his mind almost impossible to determine which is worst. We are now called upon to assert these objects; if there is no other practicable mode than force, we are bound to make great and cheerful sacrifices to sustain that force. But suppose unqualified submission is yielded, will that satisfy

for submission; if it be, its brightest glories are gone, and his solicitude for its preservation must vanish with its virtues. He did not believe this was the fact. What is this Constitution? It is a system of government which combines a vast variety of interests and character in one great national family. In this family are many peculiar interests; how, then, is it to be kept together? He wished to feel for the people of New England as he felt for the people of the South-each have their peculiar interests. That of the Eastern section of the Union depends upon the right to navigate the ocean; that of the Southern States, in the possession of a certain species of personal property. If you withdraw the protection of the General Government from either, what is there left to cement its attachment to the Union? Will any man contend that the rights of the one on the ocean are not as dear, or ought not to be maintained, as far as practicable, as inviolate as those of the other on the land? But it has been said, by the same gentleman, the people will not support a war for any object that does not touch their soil. There seems to be a sort of magic in these words. The British capture American vessels laden with the products of our own soil, destined to France; the people will not resent this, because the soil is not touched. He would be glad to learn from the gentleman what principle is there that will justify the seizure of our produce on its passage from Charleston to Bordeaux that will not equally justify the capture of our vessels bound from Boston to New York? What then becomes of your coasting trade, the most important branch of commerce? It may all be destroyed; and yet, according to the doctrines of the day, the soil is not touched! But the destruction of the coasting trade is not sufficient to satisfy the implacable hatred of the enemy; the bays, rivers, and harbors, are infested with pirates; everything that floated on their broad bosoms is also destroyed; this comes still nearer the land, yet the soil is not touched! Suppose the soil is touched. the hostile standard planted on the castle, and Boston laid in ashes, will the gentleman be contented to drive the enemy to the lines? He dare not follow them; beyond it would be foreign war! Yes, sir, just as much foreign war as we propose to wage; the people will not bear it! This is just such stuff "as dreams are made of." The soil, sir, is touched; he felt it

every man must feel it in his pocket, if not in his heart, that the soil is touched, is violated. The violation reaches to the fireside of every man in the nation, and the violators ought to find that the day of retribution is come.

But, it is said, this war will not do; it will not be popular; that the provocations in 1798 were greater than they now are, and yet the old Republicans opposed the war of that day. It was not his intention to follow the gentleman (Mr. STANFORD) through his long details of those times. He was unwilling now to excite feelings long since buried. It appeared to him that this gentleman's opposition was induced by a singufar cause indeed. It seems we have adopted a new rule at the present session-one not practised on in 1798; and as there was no war then, it will be out of order to resort to it now.

[Mr. STANFORD explained, that he had not said there was no war then, but that he had been opposed to the war.]

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then out, but are now in? The sheer politician, the man who seeks a seat in this House for what he can get, no one can more heartily despise than himself. Such are the wretches who alone are affected by the circumstance of in and out; but the men who come here to represent and promote the interest of the country-who ask, who seek, who wish for nothing for themselves cannot be influenced by any such unworthy considerations. Argument upon this point is superfluous. He appealed to the gentleman himself for the fact. He could not but consider the inducements to avoid the war of 1798 to be very different from such as present themselves now. What was our situation then? Does it bear the least resemblance to the present? We then enjoyed a prosperous trade with Great Britain, which the gentleman states to be to that of France as thirty-two to two. Neutrality was then practicable; we were in fact reaping the golden fruits of neutral trade. While all its rich streams were pouring into our country from every part of the world, we were then growing rich and great; it surely was inexpedient to go to war; we could gain nothing by it; it was madness. Do these circumstances exist now.

He thought (continued Mr. WILLIAMS) it was not material to inquire whether the provocation was greater in 1798 than now; but whether the present causes of war can no otherwise be removed; and if not, is war therefore necessary and just? But, if we must look back into the amount But the people were jealous of the Army in of our losses then; if gentlemen must be met 1798. He wished he could speak of the transacupon their miserable calculations of pounds, shil- tions of those days without alluding to the facts lings, and pence, let us examine the statements calculated to excite unpleasant feelings. This of the gentleman from North Carolina; if I mis- was not his object. Why were they jealous? take him I shall be glad to be corrected. I un- They saw that the army was palpably useless, or derstood him to say the proof was indisputable, worse.. It was impossible to employ it against that the injuries then were greater than the pres- France; not so against themselves. The alien ent, because, in the Louisiana treaty, there was a and sedition laws; the doctrine of the necessity stipulation for the payment of more than three of humbling in dust and ashes a great democratic millions of dollars to American citizens, being the State, filled them with alarms; they feared their amount of depredation on our commerce by then rulers intended to change the Government, France; and that this sum far exceeded the and that the Army was the instrument to effect losses sustained by the Orders in Council. The that purpose. The volunteers, too, were opposed gentleman is unfortunate in his comparison. Al- their Prætorian bands-because the power vested though there are no documents in the possession in the States, in relation to them, was contraof the House which show the number of captures vened. The States were robbed of the absolute under the Orders in Council, from the best esti- right to officer them; he said robbed, as that mate he could make, and from the opinion of power which is wisely given to the States as a practical men in the House, that amount falls counterpoise to the physical force of the General far short of the recent captures that are every Government, was unconstitutionally taken from hour increasing. Since the decision of Sir Wil-them and given to the President alone. liam Scott, in the case of the Fox, ninety others He understood the gentleman from Virginia (he spoke from memory) had been condemned. (Mr. SHEFFEY) to say, we were going to war for The average value of these vessels and cargoes is a mere phantom; for, if the orders were repealed considered low at fifty thousand dollars, and in to-morrow, the trade to France was not worth the aggregate far exceed the losses he has alluded having. What are the orders worth? said he. to. When it is remembered, that, during the op- Nothing; they were only paper and ink. The eration of the Berlin and Milan decrees, American deep inroad that horrible system has made on the merchants withheld their shipments to France-character and interest of his country ought not for after the case of the Horizon every one was to be so considered. Is it possible there should alarmed-it is very evident that the orders have be one man left in the nation who can think the been as deadly as in such circumstances they revocation of a principle which not only shuts could be. Is other proof required? Look to the the continent of Europe against your commerce, insurance offices; they will not insure against but warrants its extension through every species captures under the Orders in Council for less and grade of injury and insult, only paper and than a war premium. ink! It may be easy for the gentleman, who estimates national honor as a bubble, to contemplate the Orders in Council with perfect indifference; but, for himself, he could not see in them any

Why, asked the gentleman from Virginia, (Mr. SHEFFEY,) shall we raise an army now, when we refused to do it in 1798? Was it because we were

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up the deficit of our exports to Great Britain. The gentleman states the exports of domestic produce to France at $2,700,000; to Great Britain at $32,000,000; of course, said he, to go to war for the revocation of the Orders in Council would be to barter a trade of thirty-two millions for one of two millions seven hundred thousand dollars. So that. by the same process of reasoning, had the orders destroyed the whole trade to French dominions, it would be still more unwise to resist them, as the trade to Great Britain would be in a still greater proportion than thirty-two to two. Is it possible the gentleman should not see that, by his argument, the greater the injury suffered from the Orders in Council, the greater would be their justification?

[Mr. SHEFFEY explained, that he had stated the exports to France were only $2,700,000, previous to the existence of the Orders in Council, and therefore could not have been reduced to that sum by those orders. He was satisfied the gentleman from South Carolina did not mean to mistake him.]

thing that was not perfectly loathsome. Sir, we have talked so long about trade-about what ought and ought not to be granted-it seemed we had forgotten what it ever had been. Let us look back a little; perhaps when we are sensible of what we have lost, we may be willing to make the greater efforts to regain it. I am apprized, sir, that the theory of the balance of trade between nations, taken from custom-house books, (we have no other authority,) has constantly. and, perhaps, will continue to deceive the wisest statesmen; but, so far as our reports from the Treasury go to show the amount of actual imports and exports, they may be safely relied on. What, sir, was the state of our commerce in 1804? Upon an average of the years 1802, 1803, and 1804, it stood thus: To the British dominions, in Europe, (Gibraltar excepted.) we annually exported, of domestic products, $16,430,000; of foreign merchandise, $2 260,000; making an aggregate of exports, $15,690,000; but the amount of our imports, from the same places, was $27,400,000; leaving a balance in favor of Great Britain of $11,710,000; but notwithstanding the ex- The gentleman (continued Mr. WILLIAMS) portation of cotton had increased in 1804 to does me justice; to misrepresent him is the far$6,200,000, the exports of that year were only thest thing from my intention. But, Mr. Speaker, $13,200,000, while the importation had been there is no difference in point of fact between the swelled to the enormous amount of $27,600.000; gentleman from Virginia and myself, however leaving a balance against us, for that year, $14,- we may differ about terms. Sir, that trade was 200,000. The balance in favor of Great Britain, destroyed by British agency, and it is altogether in our trade to British India, is stated at $8,500,000, immaterial whether the destruction was effected which, added to that of her European dominions, by her blockade of France, or by this or that constitute a balance in her favor of $15,240,000. Order of Council; the injury is received, the deIt is to this point he wished to call the gentle- struction is effected, the principle is the same. man's attention. How is that balance obtained? Sir, the injury is not confined to the reduction of If he will attempt to account for it indisputably, the trade to France only, but affects that to Great he must find the Orders in Council are not merely Britain also, so far as its profits are necessary to paper and ink. Again, sir, the importations from maintain that trade. But what is the condition all parts of the world, during the same period, of the commerce with Great Britain now, which were, from British dominions, $35,970,000; from he estimates at 32,000,000? Truly miserable. the Northern Powers, Prussia and Germany, The great staples of your country, wheat and flour $7,094,000; from Holland, France, Spain, and excepted, (observe they are not articles of permaItaly, (now France.) $25 475.000; from the do- nent export to Great Britain,) had better_be minions of Portugal, $1.083,000; from China and thrown off the wharf than shipped there. Let other native Powers of Asia, $4,856,000; from all me suppose the gentleman to be engaged in a parother places, $838,000; making an aggregate of ticular branch of commerce; that his sales are $75,316,000, The exports for the same period, restricted to a market glutted with from three to and to all other parts of the world, were, of do- ten times the amount of its consumption, would mestic produce, $39,928,000; of foreign merchan- not his ruin be inevitable? How is tobacco afdise, $28,533,000; of these amounts there were fected? Export 75,000 hogsheads to any place exported to the countries over which the French where only 15,000 are consumed, and the effect is dominion is now extended, of domestic produce, obvious. Inquire into the state of the cotton $12,183,000, and of foreign merchandise, $18,- market; where is the crop of 1810? A curse to 495.000; making the aggregate exports to those him who meddled with it! Where is that of places, $30,673,000; the aggregate imports amount- 1811? Rotting at home in the hands of the ing to $25,475,000, leaves a balance in our favor grower, waiting the repeal of the Orders in Counof $5,203,000; while, at the same time, the bal-cil. Sir, I know, I feel these to be some of the ance was on the trade to British dominions, $15,240,000 against us. Sir, what has become of this commerce? He entreated the gentleman to inform us how this immense balance was to be settled when all the commerce of the country, to other places than British, was cut off? Every practical man knows, the gentleman himself must know, that the profits of the trade now destroyed by the Orders in Council are necessary to make

effects of those orders; yet they must not be resisted, it would be to barter a trade of thirty-two for two! They are mere paper and ink!

But we are going to war for honor; that it seems is a mere bubble. It was astonishing to hear that gentleman, who himself cherishes as high notions of honor as other men, should seek to destroy it in his own country. That which is sacred in an individual, cannot be less so in a na