Many of the opposition affected to believe that the interests of the country would not be subserved, whether the war eventuated in her favor, or that of her enemy; they could see nothing to be gained by it; to which Mr. Clay said, ‘I will ask what are we not to lose by peace?—commerce, character, a nation’s best treasure and honor! If pecuniary considerations alone are to govern, there are sufficient motives for the war. Our revenue is reduced by the operation of the belligerent edicts, to about six millions of dollars. The year preceding the embargo, it was sixteen. Take away the orders in council, it will again mount up to sixteen millions. By continuing, therefore, in peace—if the mongrel situation in which we are deserves that denomination—we lose annually, in revenue alone, ten millions of dollars. Gentlemen will say, repeal the law of non-importation. If the United States were capable of that perfidy, the revenue would not be restored to its former state, the orders in council continuing. Without an export trade, which these orders prevent, inevitable ruin will ensue if we import as freely as we did prior to the embargo. A nation that carries on an import trade without an export trade to support it, must in the end be as certainly bankrupt, as the individual would be who incurred an annual expenditure without an income.’
Mr. Clay contended that England, in assigning the cause of her aggressions to be the punishment of France, with whom she was at war, was practicing a deceptive part; that this was her ostensible and not real course. It was her inordinate desire of supremacy on the seas, which could not brook any appearance of rivalry, that prompted her hostilities. She saw in your numberless ships, which whitened every sea, in your hundred and twenty thousand gallant tars, the seeds of a naval force, which, in thirty years, would rival her on her own element. She therefore commenced the odioussystem of impressment, of which no language can paint my execration! She DARED to attempt the subversion of the personal freedom of your mariners!
He closed by expressing his decided conviction of the justice of the undertaking, and hoping that unless redress was obtained by peaceable means speedily, war would be resorted to before the close of the session.
On the fourth of January following, the bill passed the house, after several ineffectual attempts to introduce amendments, by a vote of ninety-four to thirty-four, several voting for, who at the commencement of the discussion were bitterly opposed to it. This was the initiatory step taken by the government in relation to the war.
On the twenty-second of the same month, the committee to whom that portion of the president’s message was referred that contemplated a naval establishment, reported a bill in favor of its increase. To this also Mr. Clay gave his most vigorous support, advocating the construction of several warlike vessels, combating the many specious objections of those opposed to its increase, and showed clearly their fallacy. He described three degrees of naval power. The first was one of sufficient magnitude and strength as would enable us to go forth and successfully cope with that of any belligerent nation on the globe. But such a force, he contended, it was out of the power of the American nation to raise, neither under her present circumstances was it particularly desirable.
The second, was one by which we should be able to beat off any naval force or armament which Great Britain, or any other nation, might be able to send to and permanently station on our coasts. The force requisite would be about one third of that despatched by the foreign nation, according to nautical experience. He estimated that twelve line-of-battle ships and fifteen or twenty frigates would be sufficient to keep at bay the most formidable fleet England could send against us and maintain in American waters, during her conflict with European powers. A naval force like that, however, he admitted could not be raised then, but he urged congress to take such measures as should secure its construction as soon as possible, and estimated that its completion might be confidently expected in a few years. To him there was nothing in the vast extent of Great Britain’s naval resources intimidating. He maintained that her great distance from us, the perils which would environ a squadron on a foreign shore, and the ease with which, from the extent of our sea-coast, we could harass or escape an enemy, furnished proof sufficient to convince any unprejudiced mind, that we should be able very soon to assemble a navy capable of maintaining all our maritime rights and interests. The correctness of Mr. Clay’s views has since been amply verified, and the accuracy with which he foresaw and foretold futureevents shows him to have been gifted with no ordinary degree of prescience.
The third degree of naval force, Mr. Clay regarded as entirely in the power of the nation to raise and sustain. It was a force competent to prevent any single vessel, however large, from interrupting our coasting trade, from entering our harbors, and levying contributions from our large cities. This he argued and proved was within the immediate means of the nation, although vigorously opposed by those hostile to the war. He triumphed, however, singularly over them, reprobating with severity the policy that refused to provide against any dangers because it could not guard against all. ‘If,’ said he, ‘we are not able to meet the gathered wolves of the forest, shall we put up with the barking impudence of every petty cur that trips across our way?’
It was Mr. Clay’s ardent desire to provide a navy whose power should be commensurate with the interest it was designed to protect. This, our limited means in actual possession, the unavailability of those in our immediate vicinity, but above all, the depressing tendency on our financial department of those measures of inhuman cruelty towards our mariners on the one hand, and of arbitrary commercial exactions on the other by transatlantic powers, forbade us to expect. His remarks at that time in relation to this branch of our national defence, are worthy of the most attentive perusal. They abound with lucid argument, beautiful illustration, and convincing demonstration, with which it would be difficult to find a speech of similar length more replete.
It was an invariable rule with Mr. Clay, from which we find no instance of his deviation, whenever he investigated a measure of a public nature, to determine first accurately its bearing upon the whole community; how the happiness and prosperity of the nation would be affected by its introduction; and in the second place to graduate his efforts accordingly. Although rich in menial resources, possessing an inexhaustible intellectual mine, and an unfailing fountain of eloquence, he never drew largely on these when a subject of chimerical sectional importance came before him. It was only when one involving the public honor or dishonor arose—one on which the destinies of the republic were suspended—one which aimed at subverting or upholding the liberties of the people—that he made great drafts on them. He never wandered through the interminable wilds of diffuse debate, undetermined and undirected. As a skilful physician ascertains the state of his patient before prescribing for him, so Mr. Clay, previous to legislation, carefully scanned the social, civil, and political condition of the whole region for which he was to legislate, and then, without any meandering or circumlocution, procured and applied the appropriate remedy. Though often found amid the dust of debate, it was not of his own raising. The caballers of faction, the moreeasily to accomplish their base designs, often darkened the political atmosphere, which one blast of his eloquence seldom failed to purify. Perhaps at no previous period in our political history were demagogues, both in and out of congress, more busily or violently engaged than at this. Disclosures of the most astounding character had been made, and were making, by which it appeared that there were those who waited only for a suitable occasion to barter away their country’s freedom for foreign gold. The arguments of those who opposed an increase of our navy were of such a nature as to cause their patriotism to be questioned. Notwithstanding it was a fact which could not be concealed, that our sea-coast was entirely defenceless and exposed to the ravages of a hostile nation, and our commerce crippled, many contended that nothing beneficial could be realized from such increase, and even went so far as to say that our foreign commerce was not worth protecting. Mr. Clay was convinced that it was the most provident measure that could under the then existing circumstances be adopted, and advocated it with a zeal and energy that knew no bounds. He demonstrated its necessity, not only to the Atlantic states, but to the vast west. ‘If,’ said he, ‘there be a point more than any other in the United States demanding the aid of naval protection, that point is the mouth of the Mississippi. The population of the whole western country are dependent on this single outlet for their surplus productions. These productions can be transported in no other way. Close the mouth of the Mississippi, and their export trade is annihilated. Abandon all idea of protecting by maratime force the mouth of the Mississippi, and we shall hold the inestimable right of the navigation of that river by the most precarious tenure. The whole commerce of the Mississippi, a commerce that is destined to be the richest that was ever borne by a single stream, is placed at the mercy of a single ship lying off the Balize! Can gentlemen, particularly from the western country, contemplate such possible, nay probable events, without desiring to see at least the commencement of such a naval establishment as will effectually protect the Mississippi?’ He showed the intimate connection of commerce with a navy, by saying that ‘a marine is the natural, the appropriate guardian of foreign commerce. The shepherd and his faithful dog are not more necessary to guard the flocks that browse and gambol on the neighboring mountain. Neglect to provide the one, and you must abandon the other. Suppose the expected war with Great Britain is commenced—you enter and subjugate Canada, and she still refuses to do you justice—what other possible mode will remain to operate on the enemy, but upon that element where alone you can come in contact with her? And if you do not prepare to protect there your own commerce and to assail his, will he not sweep from the ocean every vessel bearing your flag,and destroy even the coasting trade?’ To the argument that foreign trade was not worth protecting, he asked, ‘What is this foreign commerce that has suddenly become so inconsiderable? It has with very trifling aid from other sources, defrayed the expenses of the government ever since the adoption of the present constitution, maintained an expensive and successful war with the Indians, a war with the Barbary powers, a quasi war with France, sustained the charges of suppressing two insurrections, and extinguishing upwards of forty-six millions of the public debt. In revenue, it has since the year 1789 yielded one hundred and ninety-one millions of dollars.’ Alluding to the eminent danger of our commercial metropolis, he remarked, ‘Is there a reflecting man in the nation who would not charge congress with a culpable neglect of its duty, if for the want of such a force a single ship were to bombard one of our cities? Would not every honorable member of the committee inflict on himself the bitterest reproaches, if by failing to make an inconsiderable addition to our gallant little navy, a single British vessel should place New York under contribution?’
Mr. Clay’s arguments went home to the hearts of the members of the house with most convincing energy, dispelling the dense cloud of prejudice which interested faction, strongly controlled by foreign influence, had succeeded in raising, driving his opponents from their strong holds of open opposition, and dragging from their hiding places those who were dealing their blows in secret. He succeeded in causing the congressional pulsations to be in unison with his own—to pass the bill by a handsome majority. Thus an appropriation was secured for repairing and enlarging the shield of our protection, that it might be able to meet and ward off the blow that seemed about to descend upon us, secured mainly by the indefatigable exertions of Mr. Clay. The result was in complete accordance with his far-seeing sagacity. Augmented and equipped according to the provisions of the bill, our navy was sent forth to battle and to victory. With the cry of our impressed and suffering seamen, mingled soon the joyful notes of triumph; release speedily succeeded; aggression ceased, and beneath the ‘star spangled banner,’ respected and honored, our merchantmen pursued their way to traffic where they pleased unmolested.