Tuesday, June 16.
Declaration of War.
The amendments to the bill from the House of Representatives, entitled "An act declaring War between Great Britain and her Dependencies, and the United States and their Territories," were reported by the committee correctly engrossed.
Mr. Bayard moved to postpone the further consideration of the bill to the thirty-first day of October next.
The motion did not oppose or deny the sufficiency of the causes, or the policy of the war. It went only to affirm what he trusted the course of his observations would render very evident, that this was not a time at which war ought to be declared.
He indulged a confidence, that upon so great an occasion the Senate would not be impelled to act by any little passions, nor by any considerations which did not arise out of an extended and distinct view of the interests of the country. It is not enough that we have cause of war; we must see that we are prepared, and in a condition to make war. You do not go to war for the benefit of your enemy, but your own advantage; not to give proofs of a vain and heedless courage, but to assert your rights and redress your wrongs. If you commence hostilities before you are prepared to strike a blow, and while your cities, your territory, and your property on the ocean, are exposed to the mercy of a Government possessing vast resources of war, what can you expect but to add new distresses, defeat, and disgrace to the wrongs of which you complain? It is a strange motive for war—a wish to gratify the rapacity, to swell the triumphs, and to increase the insolence of the enemy.
Mr. B. said, that neither the Government nor the people had expected, or were prepared for war. Even at this moment, the general opinion abroad was, that there would be no war, the mercantile and trading world had continued to act upon that opinion. Nor could people be persuaded that an unarmed nation was about to attack a nation armed cap-a-pie. No man had laid out his account for this war, and every one would be taken by surprise and unprepared for its shock.
You have at this moment an immense property abroad, a great portion of it in England, and part floating on the ocean and hastening to your ports. The postponement proposed might save a great portion of this property, and bring home the seamen now absent from the country. Gentlemen would remember the number of ships which left our ports on the eve of an embargo. These vessels had not had time to perform their voyages, and the greater part of them were still abroad. He knew that some members had no commiseration for the merchant who had dared to escape the embargo, and who had disregarded the salutary precautions, designed, as it was said, for his security. But he did not think it surprising, nor culpable, that those whose property consisted in ships, should be averse to seeing them rotting at the wharves, and even disposed to incur risks to find employment for them abroad.
Even, however, if it should be thought that the merchants had acted with indiscretion and folly, it is the part of a parental Government, such as this ought always to be, not to punish the citizens for their misfortunes, but to guard them against the effect of their errors. Besides, a loss of individual property was a loss to the State, as the public strength was derived from individual resources.
He stated that the question of war had been doubtful till the present moment. He did not believe that the President himself expected war at the opening of the session, nor for a long time after. A menacing language was held out; but the hopes of an accommodation were far from being abandoned. Much was expected from the Prince Regent's accession to his full powers. A change of Ministry was not doubted, and it was thought that in the change of men, there would have been found such a change of principles and measures, that the differences between the two Governments might be compromised and settled. This expectation was protracted till it became plainly evident that the Prince did not intend to change his father's Ministers, nor to depart from their principles or measures. When this discovery was made, the Administration had proceeded too far to recede.