CHAPTER Kilmainham, who in this abused and insulted country XXIV. have set up for political teachers, but who give no other 1811. proof of progress in Republicanism except a blind devo tion to the most ruthless military despotism which the world ever saw. These are the patriots who scruple not to brand with the epithet of Tory the men"-this was spoken with a look at Colonel Philip Stewart, an officer of the Revolution, one of the new Federal members from Maryland-"by whose blood your liberties have been cemented. These are they who hold in such keen remembrance the outrages of the British armies, from which many of them were deserters. Ask these self-styled patriots where they were during the war of the Revolution (for they are most of them old enough to have borne arms), and you strike them dumb; their lips are closed in eternal silence. "But the outrages and injuries of England! Bred up in the principles of the Revolution, I can never palliate, much less defend them. Though I must now be content to be called a Tory by patriots of the last importation, I can well remember, and the impression is indelible on my memory, flying from Arnold and Phillips with my mother and her new-born babe, driven from pillar to post by Tarleton and the British Pandoors, while her husband and my father was fighting the battles of his country. But are we to get rid of one evil, supposing that possible, at the expense of a greater one? Suppose France in possession of the British naval power— and to her the trident must pass should England be unable to wield it-what would be your condition then? What would be the situation of your sea-ports and your sea-faring population? Ask Hamburg; ask Lubec; ask Savannah. If French privateers, pent up in our harbors by the British bull-dogs, and receiving at our hands RANDOLPH ON WAR. 278 XXIV. every right of hospitality, from which their enemy is ex- CHAPTER cluded, capture within our waters American vessels-such being their deportment under such circumstances, what 1811. could we expect were they the uncontrolled lords of the ocean? Had those privateers at Savannah borne British commissions, or had your shipments of cotton, tobacco, ashes, or what not, to London or Liverpool, been confiscated, and the proceeds put into the English exchequer, my life upon it, you would never have listened to any miserable wire-drawn distinctions between 'orders and decrees affecting our neutral rights,' and 'municipal decrees' confiscating in a mass your whole property. The whole land would have blazed out in instant war! "And shall Republicans become the instruments of him who has superseded the title of Attila to be called the scourge of God? If, instead of being as I am, my memory clouded, my intellect stupefied, my strength and spirits exhausted, I had the completest command of my faculties, I should still fail to give utterance to that strong detestation which I feel toward such characters as Genghis, Tamerlane, Kouli Khan, and Bonaparte, malefactors of the human race, who grind down men into mere material of their impious and bloody ambition! Yet, under all the accumulated wrongs, and insults, and robberies of the last of these chieftains, we are about to become a party to his views, a partner in his wars!" No attempt was made at a general reply to Randolph, though several who followed ventured an occasional sidethrust. Among these speakers was Calhoun, who now exhibited, for the first time, that dexterous logic which, under cover of a resort to first principles, always furnished him with ingenious and original arguments in favor of any view which the feelings or interest of the moment might prompt. He insisted that it was a prin CHAPTER ciple of honor, as applicable to nations as to individuals, to repel a first insult. XXIV. 1811. • But when, asked Stanford, of North Carolina, an old Republican, a member of the House since 1797-when, on that principle, should we have a moment's peace? If the country were invaded or attacked, it must be defended; all agreed to that. But the war proposed was an offensive war, which a nation young and growing, like ours, ought not to venture upon, thus putting to hazard the very rights for which it was proposed to fight. Some of the more moderate Democrats, while they declared their intention to support the resolutions, protested against being pledged thereby to any ulterior measures. The Federalists said but little. Preparation for war had always been a part of their political creed; and, accustomed as they had been to the Jeffersonian policy, they could not believe, though a winter invasion of Canada was talked of, that war was really intended. Doc. 19 The resolutions were all adopted, twenty-two being the highest vote in the negative; and committees were appointed to bring in bills. Already the Smith party in the Senate, anxious to signalize their zeal, had hurried through a bill for frontier rangers, another for filling up the ranks of the existing army, and a third for raising, not 10,000 additional men, all the administration wanted, but 25,000, to serve for five years, or till discharged. This larger number had been urged by Giles in a speech evincing much bitterness, if not against Madison, certainly against Gallatin. In the House, Lowndes and Clay advocated the larger number. Clay intimated distinctly that war was near, and he gave expression to his zeal and confidence by the extravagant boast that although Boston, New York, Philadelphia, every Atlantic sea-port should fall into the WARLIKE PREPARATIONS. 275 XXIV. Jan. hands of the enemy-although the whole country east CHAPTER of the Alleghanies should be invaded, and one or more state sovereignties be annihilated, yet that, in the hands 1811. of the patriots of the West, the Union and the national government would still be safe. Such were the risks which the war men freely professed themselves ready to encounter. These bills for increasing the armed force speedily passed the House. That for 25,000 additional 1812. regulars, provided for the appointment of two major generals and of five additional brigadiers. The inducement held out to recruits was a bounty of sixteen dollars, and at the time of discharge three months' extra pay and a hundred and sixty acres of land. Two dollars for every recruit was also to be paid to the enlisting officer. Another act shortly followed, appropriating $1,500,000 Jan. 14. for the purchase of arms, ordnance, camp equipage, and quarter-masters' stores, and $400,000 for powder, ordnance, and small arms for the navy. Meanwhile, as the state Legislatures successively met, resolutions came in from Pennsylvania, Georgia, Kentucky, Virginia, New Jersey, and Ohio, promising te stand by the general government in decisive measures, The same spirit was evinced in a very warm reply to the opening speech of Governor Gerry, by the Massachusetts House of Representatives, again in session-a paper in which Great Britain was denounced as a "piratical state;" her practice of impressment as "man-stealing;" and the opponents of the administration as "incep tive traitors," "domestic partisans of a foreign power." Thus sustained, the violent faction hurried through a new act, authorizing the president to accept, and, any time within two years, to employ 50,000 twelve months' volunteers, to be armed by the United States, but to clothe themselves, and, if mounted, to provide their own XXIV. CHAPTER horses, for which they were to be allowed a sum of money. Much controversy arose whether these volun1812. teers ought to be regarded as militia or as regulars. In the authority given to them to choose their own officers under the state laws, the former idea seemed to prevail. There was also a good deal of debate whether the president had a right to march the militia beyond the limits of the United States. Giles and Cheves contended strongly that he had; but the decided current of opinion was the other way. It seemed, however, to be taken for granted among the administration men that the vol unteers might agree to obey such orders, while the Federalists contended that, being a part of the militia, it would be illegal to march them out of the country, even with their own consent. In addition to these volunteers, great reliance, in case of hostilities, was placed on the ordinary militia. To secure greater efficiency, the attempt, so often defeated, was again renewed, to divide this force into three classes, according to age, to be made liable to different degrees of duty, and to arm the whole at the expense of the United States. This plan, especially the arming, was zealously supported by many Southern members; the more so, as the militia in that part of the Union were very ill provided with arms. The Northern members replied that all the arms on hand would be quite few enough for actual use. In fact, the whole supply did not exceed 200,000 stand. As to the proposed classification, its beneficial effects at the South, where the present organization was very imperfect, was wholly problematical; while at the North there would be great danger in disturbing the present tolerable organization, with no certainty that the new scheme would succeed. These objections defeated the bill by a close vote. Two other acts were presently |