My opinion, therefore, is, that it was wise to preserve our neutrality as long as possible, making an appeal to force the last reluctant resort; and, inasmuch as the majority of Congress, in 1809, resolved to change the peaceful character of this country, the intervening period has been employed in a last effort to avert the calamities of war; the result of which has relieved this Government from any liability to the charge of partiality to either of the belligerents, by compelling one of them, by their own act, to present themselves as the object of our just hostility.
Mr. Stanford said, as the resolution before the House contemplated an additional army, and from the avowal of its friends, involved in it the question of peace or war, he felt the desire to assign the reasons of his vote upon so important a subject. He was the more disposed to do so as he should probably find himself in a very small minority upon the question. He was not flattered, he said, with using arguments which would convince others; but for himself he felt their force strong enough to fix his mind against the measure. If he were to vote, he said, for the proposed army, he should vote inconsistently with all his former opinions and principles upon the subject, and he never could think of acting a part inconsistent with himself, and that more especially when all his experience had gone to confirm his first impressions, his honest prejudices against standing armies. Such establishments had always proved the bane of free Governments, and he could not see how we were to get along with them, and remain, as he believed we were, the freest and happiest people upon earth.
But, sir, we are told war is to be declared in certain events, and that the army proposed is to invade and take the Canadas. We are then to pass out of the limits of the United States and wage a war of the foreign offensive kind! If such was the contemplated use of this army when raised, he was still the more opposed to the measure. He was against the war itself, and the policy of it, and could by no means yield his vote to bring it about. That there were sufficient cause of war, he was ready to acknowledge, and he was not disposed in any the least degree to palliate the offences of Great Britain, or that of any of the other belligerents, committed on the persons and property of our citizens. All of them had deserved war at our hands, but we had at no time since the commencement of our present Government seen it our interest or policy to give into it, in the open and declared form, nor that of any other form, except that of a quasi character which happened under Mr. Adams's administration. The question never had been whether we had or had not cause of war, but whether the true interest of the United States did not, under all circumstances, call aloud upon us to cherish peace, and to avoid war and its evils as the last of the alternatives before us; and this, said Mr. S., he would be able to show was the Republican doctrine, as well in the old minority times as since that minority grew into a majority.
The gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Grundy) had made a direct appeal to the Republican party, and endeavored to rally and unite them in this, to them at least, new doctrine of war. If the appeal of the gentleman had any reference to him, he would beg leave to deny some of his positions. He had himself had some small share to act in the political scenes of '98-9, and he was glad to find from the gentleman's declaration that he had joined in the "clamor" of the day, to pull down the then Federal Administration for the unjustifiable war which they had gone into with France. Mr. S. said he knew he had joined in it most heartily. He believed he then acted right in all he did to supersede that Administration, and he still believed he was right. The best interests of the country forbade the war, and so the people determined, when ultimately they came to decide the question. That party thus ousted by the public voice, the present Republican majority was brought in upon their own professions of better principles, the love of peace and economy. But now, forgetting our old professions under a French crisis, we had raised the cry of war under a British one, and nothing short of it was to save our honor. Mr. S. declared if there was any difference in the causes of war then and now, he thought it turned most decidedly in favor of the former period, since the more intolerable outrage in the case of the Chesapeake had been at length atoned for. What were the facts? French decrees existed at that time against your rightful commerce—he spoke of the arrêttes or decrees of the French directory—these had the same practical effect on our maritime neutral rights that the British orders have now. French cruisers waylaid the mouths of your harbors, and captured your vessels; and the first successful act of the United States after the quasi-war commenced, was, the taking of one of these cruisers in the mouth of one of our harbors.
But, said Mr. S., the gentleman from South Carolina, (Mr. Calhoun,) tells us it is a principle of honor in a nation, as in an individual, to resist a first insult. If such doctrine is to be admitted, when should we have had a moment's peace? From one or the other belligerents of Europe, since their late wars commenced, we have never been without just complaints against them for some violation of our neutral rights, and of course must have taken an early share in their wars. The truth is, we cannot liken, nor will the similitude hold good between an individual's honor, or his sensibility to it, and that of a nation's. A single impressment or capture may be well admitted to form a ground of reprisal and war; but we should have been a ruined country long ere now, if, under the existing circumstances of the world, and belligerent Europe, we had yielded to this quickness of sensibility, and had gone to war for a first and single instance of aggression from either of the belligerents. The same gentleman argues that every thing now calls upon us to make a stand; that there was no danger to our liberties in a standing army of twenty or thirty thousand men, and that all admitted there was justifiable cause of war, and he believed it had now become necessary. This was declaiming, Mr. S. said, very handsomely upon the subject of war, he would agree; and he very well recollected we had heard the same doctrines precisely, and he thought he might be permitted to say, a strain of declamation, at least equally handsome, upon the same subject, and from the same State, in 1798-'9.[17] Mr. S. contended as the then doctrines of war, (and it must be admitted the causes of it were also alike in their character,) it was fair to expect that in due time public opinion would come to be the same in both cases.
But, Mr. S. said, he could not perceive how the present, of all others, had become the necessary and accepted time for war with Great Britain. The attack on the Chesapeake frigate had been lately atoned for, to the satisfaction of our Government; and, he trusted, had not been so done as to aggravate the crisis of affairs between the two countries. If calculated to do so, our Government could not have received it. The impressment of our seamen was a just complaint against the British Government; but it commenced under the Administration of General Washington, and no one would say he was less sensible to national honor and independence than ourselves. Under all the circumstances of that cause of complaint, he did not think it a cause sufficient for him to depart from the neutral ground he had assumed; nor was the annoyance of our commerce less vexatious in his time than since. In like manner, under Mr. Adams's Administration, the same complaints existed, though in that of the latter, not, perhaps, to the same degree; and, under the eight years of Mr. Jefferson's Administration, the same state of things continued, certainly with an increased degree of violence, to which was also added the more aggravating insult upon the Chesapeake. Mr Jefferson had never been suspected of partiality for Great Britain, and then, indeed, the accepted time had come for a war with that Government; all parties were united, and pledged themselves to support him in the war. The pulse of the nation beat high for it. But he felt, because he knew, that peace was the best interest of his country, and forbore to call Congress together. He had always admired the man; but, upon that occasion, he felt more than a sentiment of admiration toward him. When, at length, wrongs had thus accumulated, and called for some system of counteraction and resistance till negotiation could be farther tried, the embargo was resorted to in preference to war; and, when that was done away, a system of non-intercourse was substituted, and to that again succeeded the present alternative law of the same kind; the non-importation system which has grown out of this with Great Britain has not been tried one whole year yet. If gentlemen will have it that this is the accepted time for war, how has it happened that we have not had it before? Our Councils may be presumed to have been as sensible to aggression, and as patriotic to redress it, as we now are.
But, Mr. Speaker, said Mr. S., opposed as he was to the idea of the United States becoming one of the belligerent nations—to the linking our destinies with those of the European Powers; to the taking any share in their present conflicts, if his country once determined upon it, he would not then hesitate to vote any force, or other means to bring it to as speedy and as happy an issue as possible: until then he should preserve his own consistency; and contribute in no way to bring about that state of things which, he believed, would prove most ruinous to his country.
Mr. King.—Mr. Speaker, I should not have troubled this House with any remarks of mine, had it not been for the observations which have just fallen from my colleague from North Carolina. I shall not attempt, sir, to follow that gentleman in the history which he has given of the progress of party in this country, but shall content myself with stating, that, in our sentiments, we entirely differ; his is the doctrine of submission; yes, sir, the most abject submission; mine, I trust, is not. I am in favor of the resolution now on your table. I am aware, sir, of the many important considerations which will naturally suggest themselves to the mind of every real friend of his country, when he views the consequences which may result from the adoption of the measure now contemplated. When, sir, the habits of a nation, ingrafted, as it were, in its very nature, are about to be departed from; when the destinies of the country are about to be launched on an untried ocean, and when the doubt is about to be solved, whether our Republican Government is alike calculated to support us through the trials and difficulties of war, and guide us in safety down the gentle current of peace, I am aware, sir, that we should pause and ponder well the subject; that we should divest ourselves of those warm feelings which most generally take possession of our minds on viewing the unjust prostration of the rights of our country. Sir, that interest which I feel, in common with others, on the decision of a question of such magnitude and importance, will, I trust, induce this House to bear with me a moment, while, in a few words, I explain the motives by which I am actuated in giving my decided approbation to the resolution now under consideration. If, sir, I were merely to turn my attention to the local situation of that portion of the country which I have the honor particularly to represent; its extensive and exposed seacoasts, combined with its present commercial advantages; I should, without hesitation, give my vote to the proposed measure. But, sir, as in my individual capacity, I feel at all times willing to make not only pecuniary sacrifices, but to expose my person in vindicating the rights and interests of my country, in my Representative capacity, I will undertake to say, that my constituents will do no less. Sir, the demon Avarice, which benumbs every warm emotion of the soul, has not yet gained the ascendency in the South: the love of country animates every breast, and burns with inextinguishable ardor. Sir, they feel in common, I trust, with a great majority of every portion of this Union, the degradation of our country, in submitting for a moment longer to the dishonorable terms proposed directly or indirectly by the British Government. Mr. Speaker, I hold it to be correct, that, in discussing a subject of such importance, a view of the various matters necessarily connected with it, will not be considered irrelevant: but, sir, I will not weary the patience of this House with a detail of injuries, unparalleled in the history of former times, wantonly inflicted on a nation which manifested to the whole world her sincere desire to support the neutral stand which had been taken at the earliest period of her Government, and most tenaciously adhered to. We have carefully avoided, Mr. Speaker, any participation in that system of politics which has convulsed and distracted the European world. We have restricted ourselves in the full enjoyment of our rights, lest by strictly enforcing them, we might produce a collision with any nation, however little her conduct might be guided by the principles of equity. Sir, we have borne with injury, until, in the language of your committee, forbearance has ceased to be a virtue. We have remonstrated, we have appealed to the justice, to the interest, of the two great contending powers of Europe; every effort proved abortive; our calls for justice were drowned in the declaration that their measures were merely retaliatory, and not intended to interfere with neutral rights; thus, sir, the matter rested, when specific propositions were submitted to each. Yes, sir, by an act which has placed the impartiality of our country beyond the reach of suspicion, we demanded of each the revocation of her obnoxious edicts as the only means of preserving our friendship. We all know what has been the consequence: France has met our advances, has embraced our propositions. Great Britain not only refuses a repeal on her part, but, while she affects to lament the effects produced on neutral rights, takes the most effectual methods to render them perpetual. Sir, blindness and ignorance itself can no longer be deceived by British policy.
We have been told, sir, that this will be a war for the support of the carrying trade; let me here remark, and I wish to be distinctly understood, as avowing my determination never to give a vote, so long as I have the honor of a seat on this floor, which will involve this country in a war, for the recovery or support of this extraneous species of commerce. I believe I shall not be incorrect when I assert, that nine-tenths of this country never did and never will derive the smallest benefit from it. But, sir, the right to carry in our own ships the produce of our own country to any quarter, not thereby violating the laws of nations, or contravening legitimate municipal regulations, is one which I never will yield; for, sir, in doing so, we paralyze the industry of our citizens; we give a fatal blow to the best interests of our country. Yes, sir, we yield the principle, we invite to further encroachments. Our country, sir, is agricultural, but so intimately blended with commerce, that the one cannot long exist unaided by the other. Sir, I will not yield an inch of ground, when, by so doing, I destroy an essential right of my country—or sap the foundation of that independence cemented by the blood of our fathers. We were told by a gentleman from Virginia, (Mr. Randolph,) a few days since, that we have sufficient cause for war. I ask you, then, sir, why do we hesitate? Shall we always yield? Shall we always shrink from the contest? The adoption of this resolution is the touchstone—by it we rise or fall. We have been asked, Mr. Speaker, why not lay upon your table a proposition to go to war? It is there, sir; it is contained in this resolution; the moment we give it our sanction we declare our fixed resolve to render effective the force contemplated to be raised. Yes, sir, unless Great Britain manifests a disposition speedily to do us justice—by her acts, sir, not by her words. The gentleman from Virginia calls upon the Representatives of the seacoasts, of the slaveholding States, and asks if they are willing to say to England "we intend to go to war with you." Does the gentleman mean to excite our fears for the loss of our property? As one of the many on this floor who stand in the situation mentioned by that gentleman, I step forth to declare for myself and my constituents, that, when loss of national honor is placed in the scale, and attempted to be balanced by pecuniary interest, we will, without hesitation, kick the beam. But, sir, we are now contending for the restoration of our rights, the deprivation of which strikes at the very foundations of our prosperity. Sir, to us, it matters little whether our cities tumble into ruin by desertion for want of employment, by poverty produced by British wrongs and aggression, or, in vindicating the cause of our country, fall by a quicker process. Sir, I have no fear of invasion, and, therefore, have no fears arising from the black population, which strikes with so much horror on the sensitive mind of the gentleman from Virginia. For my country, Mr. Speaker, I lament its existence; I view it as the bane, the curse of the land, and most sincerely, sir, do I wish that a second Moses could take them by the hand, and lead them in safety to a distant land, where their cries would never more strike on the ear of sympathy.
We have been told, sir, that this will be a war of aggrandizement, a war of conquest. I am as little disposed to extend the territory as any other individual of this House. I know that dissimilar interests must and will prevail from a too great extension of our dominion. But, sir, we will not here enter into a discussion, whether an accession of country would or would not conduce to the interests of the Government. Sir, this will be a war forced upon us; we cannot, under existing circumstances, avoid it. To wound our enemy in the most vulnerable part should only be considered. Sir, I trust, if our differences with Great Britain are not speedily adjusted, (of which, indeed, I have no expectation,) we shall take Canada. Yes, sir, by force; by valor; not by seduction, as the gentleman from Virginia expresses it. I have no reliance on their friendship—I hope it will not be calculated on. Sir, I am not deterred from the firm purposes of my mind, by the predictions of the gentleman from Virginia. I have no fears, sir, that the people of our country will desert their Government while asserting the rights of the country; and I must believe, that gentleman's assertion to the contrary notwithstanding, that Virginia will not be the last to afford supplies.