By whom has this outrage been offered? By those who have constantly acknowledged our right, and now tell us that they are no longer owners of the country! They have given it away, and, because they have no longer a right themselves, therefore, they turn us out, who have an undoubted right! Such an insult, such unprovoked malignity of conduct, no nation but this would affect to mistake. And yet we not only hesitate as to the course which interest and honor call us to pursue, but we bear it with patience, tameness, and apparent unconcern.
Sir, said Mr. R., whom does this infraction of the treaty and the natural rights of this country most intimately affect? If the wound inflicted on national honor be not sensibly felt by the whole nation, is there not a large portion of your citizens exposed to immediate ruin by a continuance of this state of things? The calamity lights upon all those who live upon the Western waters. More than half a million of your citizens are by this cut off from a market. What would be the language, what would be the feelings of gentlemen in this House, were such an indignity offered on the Atlantic coast? What would they say if the Chesapeake, the Delaware, or the Bay of New York were shut up, and all egress prohibited by a foreign power? And yet none of these waters embrace the interests of so many as the Mississippi. The numbers and the property affected by shutting this river, are greater than any thing that could follow by the blockade of a river on the Atlantic coast. Every part of the Union was equally entitled to protection, and no good reason could be offered why one part should be less attended to than another.
Fortunately for this country, there could be no doubt in the present case; our national right had been acknowledged, and solemnly secured by treaty. The treaty had been long in a state of execution. It was violated and denied without provocation or apology. The treaty then was no security. This evident right was one, the security of which ought not to be precarious: it was indispensable that the enjoyment of it should be placed beyond all doubt. He declared it therefore to be his firm and mature opinion, that so important a right would never be secure, while the mouth of the Mississippi was exclusively in the hands of the Spaniards. Caprice and enmity occasion constant interruption. From the very position of our country, from its geographical shape, from motives of complete independence, the command of the navigation of the river ought to be in our hands.
We are now wantonly provoked to take it. Hostility in its most offensive shape has been offered by those who disclaim all right to the soil and the sovereignty of that country—a hostility fatal to the happiness of the Western world. Why not seize then what is so essential to us as a nation? Why not expel the wrongdoers?—wrongdoers by their own confession, to whom by a seizure we are doing no injury. Paper contracts, or treaties, have proved too feeble. Plant yourselves on the river, fortify the banks, invite those who have an interest at stake to defend it: do justice to yourselves when your adversaries deny it; and leave the event to Him who controls the fate of nations.
Why submit to a tardy, uncertain negotiation, as the only means of regaining what you have lost: a negotiation with those who have wronged you; with those who declare they have no right, at the moment they deprive you of yours? When in possession, you will negotiate with more advantage. You will then be in the condition to keep others out. You will be in the actual exercise of jurisdiction over all your claims; your people will have the benefits of a lawful commerce. When your determination is known, you will make an easy and an honorable accommodation with any other claimant. The present possessors have no pretence to complain, for they have no right to the country by their own confession. The Western people will discover that you are making every effort they could desire for their protection. They will ardently support you in the contest, if a contest becomes necessary. Their all will be at stake, and neither their zeal nor their courage need be doubted.
Suppose that this course be not now pursued. Let me warn gentlemen how they trifle with the feelings, the hopes, and the fears of such a body of men, who inhabit the Western waters. Let every honorable man put the question to himself; how would half a million round him be affected by such a calamity, and no prompt measures taken by the Government to redress it? These men have arms in their hands; the same arms with which they proved victorious over their savage neighbors. They have a daring spirit; they have ample means of subsistence; and they have men disposed to lead them on to revenge their wrongs. Are you certain that they will wait the end of negotiation? When they hear that nothing has been done for their immediate relief, they will probably take their resolution and act. Indeed, from all we have heard, there is great reason to believe that they will, or that they may have already taken that resolution.
They know the nature of the obstruction, they know the weakness of the country; they are sure of present success, and they have a bold river to bear them forward to the place of action. They only want a leader to conduct them, and it would be strange, if with such means and such a spirit, a leader should not soon present himself.
Suppose they do go, and do chase away the present oppressors, and that in the end they are overpowered and defeated by a stronger foe than the present feeble possessors. They will never return to you, for you cannot protect them. They will make the best compromise they can with the power commanding the mouth of the river, who, in effect, has thereby the command of their fortunes. Will such a bargain be of light or trivial moment to the Atlantic States. Buonaparte will then say to you, my French West India colonies, and those of my allies, can be supplied from my colony of Louisiana, with flour, pork, beef, lumber, and any other necessary. These articles can be carried by my own ships, navigated by my own sailors. If you, on the Atlantic coast, wish to trade with my colonies in those articles, you must pay fifteen or twenty per cent, of an impost. We want no further supplies from you, and revenue to France must be the condition of all future intercourse. What will you say to this? It will be vain to address your Western brethren, and complain your commerce is ruined, your revenue dwindles, and your condition is desperate. They will reply that you came not to their assistance in the only moment you could have saved them; that you balanced between national honor and sordid interest, and suffered them to be borne down and subdued, at a time when for a trifle you could have secured the Mississippi; that now their interest must be consulted, and it forbade any assistance to you, when following in the same train of ruin which overwhelmed them. If the evil does not immediately proceed the full length of disunion, yet the strength, the unity of exertion, the union of interest will be gone. We are no longer one people, and representatives from that part of the country in our public councils, will partake of the spirit and breathe the sentiments of a distinct nation; they will rob you of your public lands; they will not submit to taxes; they will form a girdle round the Southern States, which may be denominated a foreign yoke, and render the situation of that country very precarious as to its peace and past connections. Indeed, every aspect of such a state of things is gloomy and alarming to men who take the trouble of reflecting upon it.
Where is the nation, ancient or modern, that has borne such treatment without resentment of resistance? Where is the nation that will respect another that is passive under such humiliating degradation and disgrace? Your outlet to market closed, next they will trample you under foot upon your own territory which borders upon theirs! Yet you will not stir, you will not arm a single man; you will negotiate! Negotiation alone, under such circumstances, must be hopeless. No. Go forward, remove the aggressors, clear away the obstructions, restore your possession with your own hand, and use your sword if resistance be offered. Call upon those who are most injured, to redress themselves; you have only to give the call, you have men enough near to the scene, without sending a man from this side the mountains; force sufficient, and more than sufficient, for a prompt execution of your orders. If money be an object, one half of the money which would be consumed and lost by delay and negotiation, would put you in possession; then you may negotiate whether you shall abandon it and go out again.