besides including that portion of the decrees which operates within a territorial jurisdiction, as well as that which operates on the high seas, against the commerce of the United States, should not be a single special repeal in relation to the United States, but should be extended to whatever other neutral nations unconnected with them may be affected by those decrees.

"And, as an additional insult, they are called on for a formal disavowal of conditions and pretensions advanced by the French government, for which the United States are so far from having been themselves responsible, that, in official explanations, which have been published to the world, and in a correspondence of the American minister at London with the British minister of foreign affairs, such a responsibility was explicitly and emphatically disclaimed.

"It has become indeed sufficiently certain, that the commerce of the United States is to be sacrificed, not as interfering with belligerent rights of Great Britain, not as supplying the wants of their enemies, which she herself supplies, but as interfering with the monopoly which she covets for her own commerce and navigation. She carries on a war against the lawful commerce of a friend, that she may the better carry on a commerce with an enemy, a commerce polluted by the forgeries and perjuries which are for the most part the only passports by which it can succeed.

"Anxious to make every experiment, short of the last resort of injured nations, the United States have withheld from Great Britain, under successive modifications, the benefits of a free intercourse with their market, the loss of which could not but outweigh the profits accruing from her restrictions of our commerce with other nations. And to entitle those experiments to the more favorable consideration, they were so framed as to enable her to place her adversary under the exclusive operation of them. To these appeals her government has been equally inflexible, as if willing to make sacrifices of every sort, rather than yield to the claims of justice, or renounce the errors of a false pride. Nay, so far were the attempts carried to overcome the attachment of the British cabinet to its unjust edicts, that it received every encouragement within the competency of the executive branch of our government, to expect that a repeal of them would be followed by a war between the United States and France, unless the French edicts should also be repealed. Even this communication, although silencing for ever the plea of a disposition in the United States to acquiesce in those edicts, originally the sole plea for them, received no attention.

"If no other proof existed of a predetermination of the British government against a repeal of its orders, it might be found in the correspondence

CHAP. IV.

1812.

States at London, and the British secretary for BOOK XI. foreign affairs, in 1810, on the question whether the blockade of May, 1806, was considered as in force or as not in force. It had been ascertained that the French government, which urged this blockade as the ground of its decree, was willing, in the event of its removal, to repeal that decree; which being followed by alternate repeals of the other offensive edicts, might abolish the whole system on both sides. This inviting opportunity for accomplishing an object so important to the United States, and professed so often to be the desire of both the belligerents, was made known to the British government. As that As that government admits that an actual application of an adequate force is necessary to the existence of a legal blockade; and it was notorious, that if such a force had ever been applied, its long discontinuance had annulled the blockade in question, there could be no sufficient objection on the part of Great Britain to a formal revocation of it; and no imaginable objection to a declaration of the fact that the blockade did not exist. The declaration would have been consistent with her avowed principles of blockade, and would have enabled the United States to demand from France the pledged repeal of her decrees; either with success, in which case the way would have been opened for a general repeal of the belligerent edicts; or without success, in which case the United States would have been justified in turning their measures exclusively against France. The British government would, however, neither rescind the blockade, nor declare its non-existence, nor permit its non-existence to be inferred and affirmed by the American plenipotentiary. On the contrary, by representing the blockade to be comprehended in the orders in council, the United States were compelled so to regard it in their subsequent proceedings.

"There was a period when a favorable change in the policy of the British cabinet was justly considered as established. The minister plenipotentiary of his Britannic majesty here proposed an adjustment of the differences more immediately endangering the harmony of the two countries. The proposition was accepted with a promptitude and cordiality corresponding with the invariable professions of this government. A foundation appeared to be laid for a sincere and lasting reconciliation. The prospect, however, quickly vanished. The whole proceeding was disavowed by the British government, without any explanation which could at that time repress the belief that the disavowal proceeded from a spirit of hostility to the commercial rights and prosperity of the United States. And it has since come into proof, that at the very moment when the public minister was holding the lan

"In reviewing the conduct of Great Britain towards the United States, our attention is necessarily drawn to the warfare just renewed by the savages on one of our extensive frontiers-a warfare which is known to spare neither age nor sex, and to be distinguished by features peculiarly shocking to humanity. It is difficult to account for the activity and combinations which have for some time been developing themselves among the tribes in constant intercourse with the British traders and garrisons, without connecting their hostility with that influence, and without recollecting the authenticated examples of such interpositions heretofore furnished by the officers and agents of that government.

"Such is the spectacle of injuries and indignities which have been heaped on our country; and such the crisis which its unexampled forbearance and conciliatory efforts have not been able to avert. It might, at least, have been expected, that an enlightened nation, if less urged by moral obligations, or invited by friendly dispositions on the part of the United States, would have found in its true interests alone a sufficient motive to respect their rights and their tranquillity on the high seas; that an enlarged policy would have favored the free and general circulation of commerce, in which the British nation is at all times interested; and which, in times of war, is the best alleviation of its calamities to herself, as well as the other belligerents; and more especially that the British cabinet would not, for the sake of a precarious and surreptitious intercourse with hostile markets, have persevered in a course of measures which necessarily put at hazard the invaluable market of a great and growing country, disposed to cultivate the mutual advantages of an active commerce.

"Other councils have prevailed. Our moderation and conciliation have had no other effect than to encourage perseverance, and to enlarge pretensions. We behold our seafaring citizens still the daily victims of lawless violence, committed on the great and common highway of nations, even within sight of the country which owes them protection. We behold our vessels freighted with the products of our soil and industry, on returning with the honest proceeds of them, wrested from their lawful destinations, confiscated by prize-courts, no longer the organs of public law, but the instruments of arbitrary edicts; and their unfortunate crews dispersed and lost, or forced, or inveigled, in British ports, into British fleets; whilst arguments are employed in support of these aggressions, which

4

have no foundation but in a principle equally supporting a claim to regulate our external commerce in all cases whatsoever.

"We behold, in fine, on the side of Great Britain, a state of war against the United States— and on the side of the United States, a state of peace towards Great Britain.

"Whether the United States shall continue passive under these progressive usurpations, and these accumulating wrongs; or, opposing force to force, in defence of their natural rights, shall commit a just cause into the hands of the Almighty Disposer of events; avoiding all connections which might entangle it in the contests or views of other powers, and preserving a constant readiness to concur in an honorable re-establishment of peace and friendship, is a solemn question, which the constitution wisely confides to the legislative department of the government. In recommending it to their early deliberations, I am happy in the assurance that the decision will be worthy the enlightened and patriotic councils of a virtuous, a free, and a powerful nation.

"Having presented this view of the relations of the United States with Great Britain, and of the solemn alternative growing out of them, I proceed to remark, that the communications last made to congress, on the subject of our relations with France, will have shown that since the revocation of her decrees as they violated the neutral rights of the United States, her government has authorised illegal captures by its privateers and public ships, and that other outrages have been practised on our vessels and our citizens. It will have been seen also, that no indemnity had been provided, or satisfactorily pledged, for the extensive spoliations committed under the violent and retrospective order of the French government against the property of our citizens seized within the jurisdiction of France.

2

"I abstain at this time from recommending to the consideration of congress, definitive measures with respect to that nation, in the expectation that the result of unclosed discussions between our minister plenipotentiary at Paris and the French government, will speedily enable congress to decide with greater advantage on the course due to the rights, the interests, the honor of our country. "JAMES MADISON.

66

Washington, June 1, 1812."

The following is the act which was read in a secret sitting of the two houses on the 1st of June, and which gave rise to the motion that placed the two countries in a state of war:"An act, declaring war between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and the dependencies thereof, and the United States of America, and their territories.

"Be it enacted, by the senate and house of

representatives of the United States of America, in congress assembled, that war be, and the same is hereby declared to exist between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and the dependencies thereof, and the United States of America, and their territories; and that the President of the United States be and he is hereby authorised to use the whole land and naval forces of the United States to carry the same into effect; and to issue to private armed vessels of the United States, commissions of letters of marque and general reprisal, in such form as he shall think proper, and under the seal of the United States, against the vessels, goods, and effects of the government of the said United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and the subjects thereof.-June 18, 1812.-Approved.

"JAMES MADISON."

In consequence of the above declaration of war, orders were issued, July 31, from the admiralty, to all commanding officers of the navy, to detain and send in all American vessels whatever. An embargo was at the same time laid on all American vessels in the river, and an order to a similar effect was sent off to all the out-ports. This war against Great Britain had several opponents in the United States. Mr. Randolph, in an interesting address to his constituents, thus concluded;

"Having learned, from various sources, that a declaration of war would be attempted on Monday last with closed doors, I deemed it my duty to endeavour, by an exercise of my constitutional functions, to arrest this heaviest of all possible calamities, and avert it from our unhappy country. I accordingly made the effort of which I now give you the result, and of the success of which you will already have been informed before these pages reach you. I pretend only to give the substance of my unfinished arguments. The glowing words-the language of the heart-have passed away with the occasion that called them forth: they are no longer under my controul. My design is simply to submit to you the views which have induced me to consider a war with England, under existing circumstances, as comporting neither with the interest nor the honor of the American people; but as an idolatrous sacrifice of both, on the altar of French rapacity, perfidy, and ambition. France has for years past offered us terms of undefined commercial arrangement, at the price of a war with England, which hitherto we have not wanted firmness and virtue to reject. The price is now to be paid.

"We are tired of holding out; and, following the example of the nations of continental Europe, entangled in the artifices, or awed by the power of the destroyer of mankind, we are prepared to become instrumental to his projects of universal

dominion. Before these pages meet your eye, BOOK XI. the last republic of the earth will have enlisted under the banners of the tyrant, and become a CHAP. IV. party of his cause. The blood of American free1812. men must flow, to cement his power, to aid in stifling the last struggles of afflicted and persecuted man,-to deliver up into his hands the patriots of Spain and Portugal, to establish his empire over the ocean, and over the land that gave our forefathers birth,-to forge our own chains; and yet, my friends, we are told, as we were told in the days of the mad ambition of Mr. Adams, that the finger of heaven points to war.' Yes, the finger of heaven does point to war. It points to war, as it points to the mansion of eternal misery and torture, as to a flaming beacon, warning us of that vortex which we may not approach but with certain destruction. It points to desolated Europe, and warns us of the chastisement of those nations who have offended against the justice, and almost beyond the mercy of heaven. It announces the wrath to come upon those who, ungrateful for the bounty of Providence, not satisfied with peace, liberty, security, plenty at home,-fly, as it were, into the face of the most high, and tempt his forbearance.

"To you I can speak with freedom, and it becomes me to do so; nor shall I be deterred by the cavils and the sneers of those who hold as 'foolishness' all that favours not of worldly wis dom, from expressing fully and freely these sentiments, which it has pleased God, in his mercy, to engrave upon my heart. These are no ordinary times. The state of the world is unexampled. The war of the present day is not like that of our revolution, or any which preceded it, at least, in modern times. It is a war against the liberty and happiness of mankind': it is a war, of which the whole human race are the victims, to gratify the pride and lust of power of a single individual.

"I beseech you, put it to your own bosoms, how far it becomes you as freemen, as christians, to give your aid and sanction to this impious and bloody warfare against your brethren of the human family. To such among you, if any such there be, who are insensible to motives not more dignified and manly than they are intrinsically wise, I would make a different appeal. I adjure you, by the regard which you have for your own security and property, for the liberties and inheritance of your children, by all that you hold dear and sacred, to interpose your constitutional powers, to save your country and yourselves from a calamity, the issue of which it is not given to human foresight to divine.

"Ask yourselves, if you are willing to become the virtual allies of Bonaparte? Are you willing, for the sake of annexing Canada to the Northern States, to submit to that overgrowing system of

CHAP. IV. 1812.

BOOK XI. taxation, which sends the European labourer supperless to bed?-to maintain, by the sweat of your brow, armies, at whose hands you are to receive a future master? Suppose Canada ours, is there any one among you who would ever be, in any respect, the better for it, the richer, the freer, the happier, the more secure? And is it for a boon like this, that you join in the warfare against the liberties of man in the other hemisphere, and put your own in jeopardy ?"

Mr. Foster is said to have recommended that the war, in the first instance, should not be pursued with vigour on the part of the British, under the hope that conciliation would be the result, as soon as the real intentions of the British government should be ascertained. It was not supposed, that, of the American army, more than 1,000 men were in a fit state to undergo the discipline, and undertake the duties of war; and that Sir George Prevost, with 8,000 men, might easily penetrate into the interior of the republic. Immediately after war was declared, Mr. Foster demanded and received his passports.

About this time (July 31) Sir William Scott pronounced the judgment of the admiralty-court in the case of the American ship Snipe, the arguments upon which had lasted for several days. The captor had contended, that the ship was liable to condemnation, under the orders in council, she having been taken, on the 28th of March, 1812, entering the river of Bourdeaux; while, on the other hand, the claimants contended, that those orders in council had ceased to operate before the capture, on account of a French decree, bearing date the 28th of April, having repealed the Berlin and Milan decrees, to which those orders had only been retaliatory measures, which the British government were pledged to annul from the date of the repeal of the French decrees. As the claimants contended that the Berlin and Milan decrees were actually repealed by the French decree of 1811, it was for them to prove that those decrees were so repealed, and that they were repealed in such a manner, as to impose an obligation on other nations to take notice of such a repeal. This sort of evidence, which was only to be got in the enemy's country, was perfectly accessible to the claimants (if any such evidence existed), but was not accessible to the captors. The Berlin and Milan deerees had been ushered into the world with the greatest solemnity, and published in the French official papers. There was no one who could doubt their existence or authenticity. If those decrees were intended to be repealed, why were they not repealed in a manner equally authentic and official? In the said month of March, they were, however, officially spoken of by the French government as not only being in existence, but as fundamental laws of the empire. If that word

The

carried any meaning, it must imply that the French government would not abandon those decrees. Those decrees had been promulgated to the world in the most authentic and public manner; and if there had been any intention of repealing them, it might be expected, on every principle of good faith and honest policy, that the revocation should be made equally public, or, at least, that it should be made public to all those whom it might concern. The British government, however, by no means recognized the authenticity of the instrument put into their hands on the 20th of May, or acknowledged that paper as a bona fide decree of repeal, bearing the date prefixed to it; but revoked the orders in council, as a measure of conciliation to America. date of this paper was neither subsequent to his majesty's declaration of the 21st of April, nor had it been publicly promulgated, nor had it been acted upon. To meet the terms of the declaration of April, it ought to have been a repeal of the Berlin and Milan decrees generally, and not merely with respect to America. It ought to have been unconditional, and its authenticity regularly proved. This was, in fact, the title-deed under which the parties claimed: and its authenticity was, therefore, the first thing to be proved by them. The paper had no appearance of authenticity on the face of it, as it bore date in April, 1811, and had never been produced or heard of till May, 1812.

"An untrue date being found attached to it was a falsification of a fatal nature, when the deception was evidently intended for the purpose of fraud. There was every reason to believe that the instrument never had existence, until the French government had received the declaration of the 21st of April. There was no individual who ventured to assert any knowledge of its previous existence. In the warm controversy which had taken place between America and this country on the subject, the correspondence on our part consisted very much of a demand for the production of any authentic document repealing those decrees. No such document was known by the American minister; no such document was known to the tribunals, or prize-courts of France; or to those persons who were principally affected by it. He would be doing a great injustice, indeed, to Mr. Russel, if he were to attribute his silence, upon this head, to any thing but his complete ignorance of the existence of such a document: he was the American minister in France, at the date of this decree, and yet he had never made any allusion to such a document, in answer to the many pressing solicitations which had been made to him to procure evidence of the repeal. When the ruler of France chose to send this paper into the world, antedated by above a year, it was evidently one of those exorbitant de

mands which that person is in the habit of making on the credulity of mankind. The court would not now admit farther proof of such a document having been in existence; such proof could only be sought in the officina fraudis, whence the fabrication first issued, with every stain of inbred corruption on its front. It appeared that the French ruler left the question of restitution of American vessels to be determined by his special pleasure. Now this country did demand, and had a right to demand, that there should be a clear and definite rule of law, acting in a clear and definite manner; and that matters of this sort should not be left in a state of uncertainty, or perpetual fluctuation. It, therefore, appeared to him, that there was no evidence that any legal

1812.

revocation of those decrees had taken place; and BOOK XI. that the instrument relied upon by the claimants, as their title-deed, had no marks of authenticity CHAP. VI. about it, but was evidently fabricated for a particular He should determine on the case purpose. before him, and on all those that depended on the same principle, that the instrument, purporting to be a French decree, dated in April, 1811, did not take those cases out of the general operation of the law, as described in the orders in council; and that, therefore, those vessels captured under them, before the 20th of May, 1812, could not be discharged from their operation. It was only to the vessels captured after the 20th of May, that the revocation of the orders in council applied." ราษ

As the conduct of America demanded retaliation, the following resolutions took place at the court at Carlton-house, October 13, his royal highness the prince-regent present in council.

"Whereas, in consequence of information having been received of a declaration of war by the government of the United States of America against his majesty, and of the issue of letters of marque and reprisal by the said government against his majesty, and his subjects, an order in council, bearing date the 31st of July last, was issued, directing that American ships and goods should be brought in, and detained till further orders. And whereas his royal highness the prince-regent, acting in the name and on the behalf of his majesty, forebore, at that time, to direct letters of marque and reprisal to be issued against the ships, goods, and citizens of the said United States of America, under the expectation that the said government would, upon the notification of the order in council of the 23d of June last, forthwith recal and annul the said declaration of war against his majesty, and also annul the said letters of marque and reprisal :

"And whereas the said government of the United States of America, upon due notification to them of the said order in council of the 23d of June last, did not think fit to recal the said declaration of war and letters of marque and

sisted in condemning, the ships and property of his majesty's subjects as prize of war, and have refused to ratify a suspension of arms agreed upon between Lieutenant-general Sir George Prevost, his majesty's governor-general of Canada, and General Dearborn, commanding the American forces in the northern provinces of the United States, and have directed hostilities to be recommenced in that quarter:

"His royal highness the prince-regent, acting in the name and on the behalf of his majesty, and with the advice of his majesty's privy-council, has hereby pleased to order, and it is hereby ordered, that general reprisals be granted against the ships, goods, and citizens of the United States of America, and others inhabiting within the territories thereof (save and except any vessels to which his majesty's license has been granted, or which have been directed to be released from the embargo, and have not terminated the original voyage, on which they were detained and released), so that as well his majesty's fleets and ships, as also all other ships and vessels that shall be commissioned by letters of marque, or general reprisals, or otherwise, by his majesty's commissioners for executing the office of lord-high-admiral of Great Britain, shall and may lawfully seize all ships, vessels, and goods belonging to the government of the United States of America, or