MASSACHUSETTS REMONSTRANCE. 427 XXVI. the part of our government, toward France, and on the CHAPTER impressment question, a disposition to push to an untenable extent the right of our flag to protect British 1813. subjects against the claim of their own sovereign-a right useful to us merely as a means of acquiring wealth, while Britain insisted on her right to their service as essential, under present circumstances, to her very existence. If, upon thorough examination, the war seemed to be necessary, we should be justified-so, at least, the governor "presumed "-in affording our voluntary aid to it; but, did the United States appear to be in the wrong, that would afford the strongest motives of duty, as well as of interest, for desiring a change of policy. The two Houses, fully responding to the governor's claim of the right of free discussion, agreed to a Remon- July 15. strance, in which they denounced the perseverance in war, after the repeal of the British orders, as impolitic and unjust; impolitic from the distrust which it exhibited of the good faith of the English nation, giving color to the charge of co-operation with France, and thereby tending to arouse the whole British nation against us; and unjust, because we had not taken, on our part, all the steps necessary to remove grounds of British complaint as to the employment of her seamen in our ships; because the question of impressment had never been presented to Great Britain as one of peace and war, between which she might choose; and because, for aught that appeared, it was still possible to settle that question by negotiation. It was the hope of protection to commerce which had induced the Northern people, who did not need the aid of the South for their defense, to surrender to the general government so large a share of their sovereignty, and, in agreeing to the slave representation, to yield to XXVI. CHAPTER the South so undue a political weight. But, so far from protection to commerce, a bitter spirit of hostility to it had 1813. early evinced itself on the part of the central authority, ending, after a long course of harassments, in its total destruction by war-a war which appeared to be prompted rather by a subserviency to France most dangerous to our liberties, and by a lust of conquest, than by any disposition to defend endangered rights-a war ill conducted, excessively expensive, and which, in risking our future enjoyment of the fisheries, the great nursery of our seamen, and a means of support to thousands of our inhabitants, put us in jeopardy of losing what was of vastly more value than any Canadian territory we might be able to conquer, and what New England never could consent to abandon. "Under such circumstances," so this remonstrance concluded, "silence toward the government would be treachery to the people. In making this solemn representation of our sufferings and our dangers, we have been influenced only by the duty which we owe to our constituents and our country, to our consciences and the memory of our fathers. And to the Searcher of all hearts we appeal for the purity of our motives and the sincerity of our declarations!" The report of a committee, simultaneously adopted, complained of the admission of Louisiana, without the unanimous consent of the states, as unconstitutional and unauthorized, the commencement of a process of Western annexation which threatened to swamp the political influence of Massachusetts and the Eastern states, and which could not be suffered to pass in silence, lest silence. might seem to give consent. This complaint was re June 29. echoed in the remonstrance, which was forwarded to MORAL TREASON. 429 Congress, followed by a feeble protest against it on the CHAPTER part of the minority of the Legislature. XXVI. But the procedure which most excited the war party 1818. was the report of a committee of the Senate, of which Quincy was chairman-a report, denounced at Washington as "moral treason," in relation to a vote of thanks to Captain Lawrence for the capture of the Peacock. Similar votes to Hull, Decatur, and Bainbridge, passed by the preceding Legislature, had been regarded by many conscientious persons, so the report stated, as an encouragement and excitement to the continuance of an unjust, unnecessary, and iniquitous war. The committee, therefore, with all respect for the naval skill, and military and civil virtues of Lawrence, of which they professed. a high sense, recommended, and the Senate resolved, "that, in a war like the present, waged with June 15 out justifiable cause, and prosecuted in a manner indicating that conquest and ambition were its real motives, it was not becoming a moral and religious people to express any approbation of military and naval exploits not immediately connected with the defense of our seacoast and soil." This resolution, adopted a few days after the capture of the Chesapeake, but before the fate of Lawrence was known, was adhered to, through the influence of the conscientious party, for the remainder of the war, notwithstanding several attempts to set it aside on the part of Otis and the merely mercantile Federalists, frightened at the clamor raised against. It was partly as an offset to this action of the Federalists that one of the Crowninshield family, himself a noted privateersman, presently procured a flag of truce, and proceeded to Halifax for the body of Lawrence, which, on its arrival at Salem, was re-buried with pomp, Judge Story acting as the orator of the day. But regarding XXVI. CHAPTER the ceremony, notwithstanding its solemn disguise, as nothing better than a mere political trick, most of the 1813. state officers and leading Federalists declined to attend. The Constellation, United States, and Macedonian being blockaded, and the repairs of the Constitution not yet finished, after the loss of the Chesapeake the only American frigates at sea were the President and Congress, which continued to cruise, but without meeting any thing of force, and the Essex, which by this time was playing a conspicuous part in the Pacific. After a March 13. stormy passage round Cape Horn, Porter found, to his surprise, on reaching Valparaiso, that Chili had declared her independence of Spain, and, instead of the danger from a fast ally of England, which had made him hesitate about entering, he experienced a very friendly reception there. Having heard that the viceroy of Peru, in anticipation of war between Spain and the United States, had granted commissions to cruise against American whalers, he put to sea, and soon retook a captured American vessel, and shortly after a Peruvian cruiser, whose guns he threw overboard, and then dismissed. He next turned his attention to the British whalers, most of which being armed and provided with letters of marque, would, but for his presence in those seas, have taken or driven away all their American rivals. Of these armed British whalers, he captured in the course of five months not less than twelve, from which he obtained abundant supplies. Two he converted into cartels, to get rid of his prisoners, two others he armed as tenders and store ships, three he laid up at Valparaiso, and three others he sent to the United States, loaded with the oil found in the prizes. Not hearing of any more whalers, and understanding that some British frigates were after him, taking with him his two tenders and the two re Oct. NAVAL OPERATIONS. 431 XXVI. maining prizes, he retired to the group of the Marquesas CHAPTER or Washington Islands, there to put himself in order to meet the enemy. 1813. June 18. The Argus sloop-of-war, having landed Crawford in France, produced a still greater havoc than the Essex by the capture in the British Channel, not a little to the alarm of the British merchants, of twenty-one merchant vessels. But she herself was presently captured by the Aug. 13. Pelican, a sloop-of-war somewhat larger and stronger, after a severe engagement, in which Allen, her commander, was mortally wounded. All that now remained of the smaller cruisers were, the John Adams, which had been turned into a store-ship, the Hornet, blockaded at New London, the Syren, employed in the Gulf of Mexi co, and the Enterprise, of twelve guns, Captain Burroughs. This latter vessel while employed in watching for the British privateers, which issued from the Bay of Fundy, encountered, off Menhagen, the British brig Sept. 3. Boxer, of fourteen guns, which she compelled to strike, after a warm action, in which the commanders of both vessels were slain. The equipment of the Pike having restored to Chauncey an equality with the enemy's fleet, he had hastened to return to the Niagara frontier. The system of oper- July 21. ations by detachment was still persisted in, and Scott, now a colonel, was sent on board, with a body of troops, for a descent at Burlington Bay, at the head of the lake. The enemy there being found too strong, the fleet ran eastward as far as York, where Scott landed, burned the July 31. new barracks, and carried off a quantity of stores. From York, Chauncey returned to the Niagara, where he disembarked the troops, and a hundred sailors also destined to assist in manning Perry's Erie fleet. The enemy's fleet having appeared he gave chase, in hopes to bring |