It has been said that we do not act justly; that we encourage British seamen to run away, because we do not apprehend them and send them back, when they have run away from their vessels; they run away before our people see them, of course there is no encouragement to the running away. As to the sending them back, we are not bound to do it; and if it depended on me one should never be sent back, until the British ceased impressing and plundering our citizens, and I would agree that every man who engaged in the war on our side should have the right to be naturalized, though he fled from British naval tyranny.
It is remarkable that, while we hear not a word said to justify England for impressing and plundering the people of the United States, that so much should have been said to prove that we ought not to have gone to war with her, and that we were wrong in doing so. This is the best way that could have been devised to keep her aggressions out of view; not to say a word about them, and talk a great deal about the hardships of war, and the taxes which must be imposed to carry it on, winding up all their lamentations for the state of the country, with, if it was not for the war, a little trade could be carried on. Impressment, then, is a mere trifle, compared with this trade, and it may be that Great Britain understands it so, and is willing to gratify us with this trade for kin-sake, as long as we are contented to be impressed for kin-sake. The citizens who are impressed would tell her, if telling would release them, that nations are no kin.
This surely has been the most unfortunate Government from its establishment to the present time that ever existed; almost every thing that has been done is wrong: it was wrong to fix the seat of Government here; it was wrong to place this House and the houses for the offices so far from each other; it was wrong to give paper protections to American seamen; it was wrong to have a little mercy in the revenue laws; it was wrong to repeal the internal taxes; I believe that was called oppression—though I am no prophet, I venture to predict, that to lay them to carry the war on will be wrong also; to take Canada would be wrong;—indeed, it would be difficult to find any thing which has been done right, according to the modern Federal creed. How are we to get things right? Give up the chair you are in to one, the White House to another, and they will soon give you a sedition law which will put all right. The great discovery which these gentlemen have made, that so much has been wrong under every Administration, would surprise the people, were they not this moment astonished at the discovery of perpetual motion by Redheffer—two such great discoveries must add vastly to the character of the nation.
The attempt to take Canada is so wicked that some of the gentlemen are quite alarmed at it. We hear of the unoffending Canadians, but not of the unoffending sailor; at one time they are the most unoffending and loyal people in the world, at another they are French, and not fit to be united in our Government. We have heard much of the same sort formerly said about the people of Louisiana, and they have become a State, without any trouble to themselves or the Union. What has become of that high Federal spirit which disdained to buy Louisiana? Where is it when Canada is mentioned? The Federalism which desired to conquer Louisiana and keep it by force of arms, is changed when Canada is the question. The outrageous conduct of Great Britain is as much worse than that of Spain, as her impressment and plundering were worse than the refusal of the right of deposit. For one, I am willing to have Canada and Florida, and have them you must before many years. The situation of Mobile is such as to compel you before very long to take possession of it. Canada and Florida would rid us of bad neighbors, and make us more happy.
The committee then rose and reported the bill.
The several amendments made in Committee of the Whole were agreed to by the House.
Mr. Fitch again moved to strike out the 4th section, giving the President exclusively the appointment of all officers under the rank of field officers.
The question was decided in the negative by yeas and nays. For the motion 34, against it 74.
And the bill was then (half past six o'clock) ordered to be engrossed for a third reading, without a division.
And on motion, the House adjourned until to-morrow.