period. When I hear fuch language on this floor, I no longer wonder that merchants are petitioning you to make speculations, which in a fhort time muft end in their ruin. I afk the gentlemani from New York, who are the true friends to the petitioners, the majority who, forefeeing the hazard to which they would be ex pofed, reftrain them from falling into the hands of British cruiz. ers; or the minority who, by fupprefling the evidence of danger, induce them to enter into the moft ruinous fpeculations? By the one, the merchants ftill retain their property, depreciated, it is true, in a fmall degree: by the other, it will be loft to themselves and their country, and will go to augment the resources of our en emy. For, sir, let me affure the gentleman that he makes a very erroneous estimate of our preparations, and the time at which we will act. Our army and meafures are not merely on paper,as he ftates; but, were this the proper time and fubject, it could be fhewn that very confiderable advances have been made to put the country into the pofture of defence, and prepare our forces for an attack on our enemy. So far from being unprepared, fir, I believe that in four weeks from the time that a declaration of war is heard on our frontier, the whole of Upper and a part of Lower Canada will be in our poffeffion. We will not, I hope, wait the expiration of the embargo to take our ftand against England-that ftand which the beft intereft and honor of this nation have fo loudly demanded. With fuch a profpect, I again afk, would it be humanity or cruelty to the petitioners to grant their prayer, and, by relaxing the embargo in their favor, to entice them to certain deftruction?

The gentleman from Virginia ftated, to induce us to repeal the embargo law, and to make it odious, I fuppofe, with the com. munity, that it operated lefs feverely on the merchant than on the farmer and miller. He did not prove very diftinctly how this unequal preffure was produced. But I understood him to fay, that eaftern veffels could be had with fo much facility to make shipments to any European port, and that flour had rifen fo much already in confequence of the embargo, that the rife in the price nearly compenfated for the additional risk and price of exporta. tion. I obferve the gentleman fhakes his head in difapprobation of the ftatement. I fuppofe I miftook his ftatement. However, I could not miftake the conclufion which he drew, that the merchants, by eluding the embargo, had prevented the depreciation of the price of wheat and flour on hand. This, fir, is fufficient for my purpose. The gentleman from Virginia muft know, that from the character of trade, the profit of fuch trade, if it really exifts, cannot be confined to the merchants. It would foon raise the price of bread ftuffs in the hands of the other claffes of the community, and would prove that his statement of the diftreffed condition of the millers and farmers cannot be correct.

In his zeal against the embargo, the gentleman from Virginia fays, it was engendered between the committee on foreign rela

tions and the Executive. Engendered! The gentleman muft be fenfible of the impropriety of fuch language, as applied to the Executive or a committee of this Houfe. No, fir, it was not engendered; but adopted by both the Executive and committee, from its manifeft propriety as a prelude to war. There is no man in his reason, and uninfluened by party feelings, but muft acknowledge that a war in this country ought almoft invariably to be preceded by an embargo. The very perfons moft loud against that measure, would be the moft clamorous had it not preceded There, fir, has been much falfe ftatement in relation to the embargo. I remember, when it was under difcuffion on a former occafion, that a gentleman then obferved, he had certain information that the French minifter had been importuning our government to ftop the exportation of bread ftuffs to the Peninfula. I know not whether he intended to infinuate this as one of the causes of the embargo. Be it as it may, I do affert, from the highest authority, that no fuch application has ever been made directly or indirectly on the part of the French government. The affertion was of fuch a nature, as induced me to inquire into its correctnefs; and the refult is fuch as I have flated. I can scarcely fuppofe, that the gentleman intended to convey the idea that French influence had any thing to do with the measure. He must know that either the Executive or a majority of this body would refift with the greatest indignation any attempt to influence the measures of government; but fuch has been the ufe made of it by certain prints, either through the manner in which it was connected in debate with the embargo, or the very imperfect and unfair reports of the fecret proceedings.

One would fuppofe, from the language of the gentleman from Virginia, that he was much in the fecret of government. He fays the plan now is to disband the army, and carry on a predatory war on the ocean. Ican affure him, if fuch is the plan, I am wholly ignorant of it; and that should it be proposed it would not meet with my approbation. I am decifively of opinion that the beft interefts of the country will be confulted by calling out the whole force of the community to protect its rights. Should this courfe fail, the next beft would be to fubmit to our enemy with as good a grace as poffible. Let us not provoke where we cannot refift. The mongrel ftate, neither war or peace, is much the worst.

The gentleman from Virginia has told as much of the figns of the times. I did hope, that the age of fuperftition was paft, and that no attempt would be made to influence the measures of government, which ought to be founded in wisdom and policy, by the vague, I may fay, fuperftitious feelings of any man, whatever may be the phyfical appearances which gave rife to them. Are we to renounce our reafon? muft we turn from the path of juf tice and experience, becaufe a comet has made its appearance in our fyftem, or the moon has paffed between the fun and the

earth? If fo, the figns of the times are bad indeed-It would mark a fearful retrogade in civilization-it would prove a dreadful declenfion towards barbarifm. Sir, if we must examine the aufpices; if we muft infpect the entrails of the times, I would pronounce the omens good. It is from moral, and not from bru tal or phyfical omens that we ought to judge; and what more favorable could we de fire than that the nation is, at laft, roufed from its lethargy, and that it has determined to vindicate its interest and honor. On the contrary, a nation fo funk in avarice, and fo corrupted by faction, as to be infenfible to the greatest injuries, and loft to its independence, would be a fight more portentous than comets, earthquakes, eclipfes, or the whole catalogue of omens, which I have heard the gentleman from Virgin. ia enumerate. I affert, and gentlemen know it, if we fubmit to the pretenfions of England, now openly avowed, the independ ence of this nation is loft-we will be, as to our commerce, re. colonifed. This is the fecond struggle for our liberty; and if we but do juftice to ourselves, it will be no lefs glorious and fuccefs ful than the first. Let us but exert ourfelves, and we must meet with the profpering Imile of heaven. Sir, I affert it with confidence, a war juft and neceffary in its origin, wifely and vigoroufly carried on, and honorably terminated, would establish the integrity and profperity of our country for centuries.

MR. RANDOLPH rose to explain. He must have been misunderstood by the gentleman from Kentucky when he supposed him to have expressed an unwillingness to see a change effected in the administration of the government. He certainly had not expressed himself to that effect; he had no such feeling. On the contrary, (for he was not in the habit of making a secret of his political opinions) he could scarcely conceive of any change which would not be for the better; since, in his judgment of the affairs of the country,(whatever be the object of our policy-whether war or peace) could not have been more miserably conducted than they had been since the 4th of November last. It was not to the change, but to the means by which it seemed likely to be brought about, that Mr. R. had expressed any thing like repugnance. It was to the particular means and not the object that he had expressed dislike. He did not wish to see a change effected by the oppressions and exactions of the government itself, which should embody and bring into power a long depressed party with all its feelings of resentment or of another description in full vigor or operation. He had no wish to see a change brought about by means like this. He deprecated whatever might contribute to nourish a narrow and rancorous party spirit, which had been too long the curse of the country. And whenever it should be found to use the language of the gentleman from Ken. (Mr. Johnson) that he was acting with this or that party,indiscriminately justifying their follies andtheir crimes, he should feel himself obnoxious to the observations made by the gentleman from Kentucky,and not until then. [Continued in No 32]

CONGRESSIONAL REPORTER.

No. 32.] TWELFTH CONGRESS.... FIRST SESSION.

[1811-12.

Debate on Mr. Rhea's motion to postpone the consideration of the petition of a number of the citizens of Albany till the 4th day of July next.

May 6, 1812.

[Mr. Randolph's remarks continued from No. 31.1

No, sir; said Mr. R. I can inform, that gentleman that there is not a greater moral impossibility conceivable by the mind of man, than that I should stand in such a relation to any party whatsoever. Woe be unto that man, who consigns himself over to a slavish bondage! There was one remark made by the gentleman from Kentucky which he would not affect to misunderstand. The gentleman had exultingly said, that ere 90 days should elapse, those in opposition to the measures of government would be taught to be more silent; that once fairly entered on the war-[Mr. Johnson said the gentleman would understand him rightly-it was to the sort of opposition made to the loan, which in his mind was little less than treason, that he applied his remarks. He had no allusion to the proceedings of that House.] Mr. Randolph in continuation said, he did not very well understand the gentleman's explanation, because he was ignorant of the species of opposition to which the gentleman referred. He had always considered a loan to be a voluntary thing. He had heard indeed of forced loans, but if by a loan was meant a voluntary act on the part of the lender, he could not comprehend the nature of an opposition to a public loan. True, he had seen it more than hinted,by some of those who will be hereafter patriots of the revolution, by some of those who had escaped from the justice of their own country in Europe--that after the war was declared all the tories should be tarred and feathered. For it had been pronounced that this was to be a second war for independence-in order, he supposed, to enable the patriots aforesaid to enrol their illustrious names among those of the heroes of the Revolution No. 2. As long as he retained a seat on that floor-and heaven knows how long that will be he should not hesitate to express himself with the utmost freedom, notwithstanding any invidious personalities to which it might subject him. He disclaimed any allusion in this remark to the gentleman from Kentucky.

That gentleman had endeavored to convict him of the charge of inconsistency on the subject of the embargo; quoting a passage in a speech as far back as March 1806, when the ground was first broken which has since produced so many successive crops of restrictive measures. To such a charge of inconsistency as that, he should hardly take the trouble to make a defence. But surely the gentleman No. 32.

would recollect that since that period we had been under the discipline of an Embargo for almost 18 months If that be not sufficient to cure the Embargo mania, if that dose has failed in its effect on any man, he would only say he was an incorrigible subject and ought to be dealt with accordingly, by being dismissed to the hospital of incur ables. But for the last Embargo, an Embargo for 60 days, prepar atory to war, would have had the effect of which Mr. R. had spoken six years ago, and for which this was ostensibly laid. But the doleful experience of the Embargo of 1808-9 drove the people one and all-whig and tory, monarchist and democrat-federalist and repub lican, to escape as from a house on fire. Suppose in a certain stage of disease a regular physician to prescribe the Warm Bath, and his sturdy nurses should persist in plunging the unhappy patient into a cauldron and parboiling him for 48 hours? Do you think you could ever prevail upon the sick man (supposing him to survive the ope ration) or the physician to agree to another exhibition of the reme dy? No, sir; a burnt child dreads the fire. The word Embargo has become more ominous than the croaking of a 1aven. It affects all classes and descriptions of people, and all the fruits of the earth perish before it--like the desolation of those Locusts we hear of in Teneriffe. It is the most compendious system of devastation and self-destruction ever invented-a master-piece of human ingenuity. At the time referred to by the gentleman from Kentucky, this famous experiment had never been made, or (he believed) thought of by any human being in the world.

The remarks made on the subject of majority and minority were in their character so much like those to which he had been accustomed to listen in the spring of 1800 from the members of the then majority that they reminded him (as well as other circumstances which forced themselves on his observation) of old times. There was the same incessant talk of the majority speaking the sentiments of the people then as now-and that the minority must submit-accompanied by threats by no means unintelligible. They were as confident of their strength as the majority now is, and with as much reason, for they had some system-they would persist in running counter to the public sentiment under the idea of swimming with it-and like them, these gentlemen with all their patriotism and honor and gallantry and zeal will sink beneath the wave of public opinion, never to rise again, unless they rise under some other name.

You cannot go to war with the people divided on the subject; and the elections in New York and New England are decisive on that head. This is a different question, sir, from that of our independence; it is differently brought on; under different auspices—by different men, and far other councils. The war spirit is principally stimulated at this moment by those who have escaped from the tyranny or justice (as it may be termed) of the British government long since the war of independence. Almost every leading press in the United States is conducted by persons of that description-the