were captured and confiscated....our citizens taken from on board our ships and put in irons....they were put on board British ships of war, and compelled to fight the battles of despotism, against men who were engaged in the defence of their country, against men fighting in the cause of liberty, and for whom a lively sympathy was felt on account of the services rendered to America by them in our revolution. Was this no injury? Yet the gentleman from Jersey, (Mr. DAYTON) tells us the time was when had a single American citizen been oppressed or injured, the national honor would have been roused and asserted in his defence! What a wonderful discovery; it is to be lamented that it is all a fiction....that it has no existence but in the gentleman's unconscious imagination. Was it when the commander of a British frigate, the British captain Pigot, stopped the American citizen captain Jessup at sea, and because he complained of having his men impressed, tied him up and flogged him at his gang way....that the sense of national dignity was displayed....or when else, if the gentleman could tell, he ought, and he should be glad to hear the news?

He insisted that the wrongs done to us since the peace of 1783, by the British, were more deep, dishonorable and afflicting, than any other, or than has happened, or can happen, in consequence of the affair at New Orleans. Yet war was not advocated when Britain insulted and wronged us; recourse was had to measures of a pacific, and of a more certain and efficacious nature. Certain commercial propositions were brought forward, to counteract and coerce by her commercial nerves, the nation that had wronged us; a procedure very different from the military peace-march to New Orleans. In the midst of the discussion of these resolutions, Gen. Washington appointed Mr. Jay to proceed upon a negociation; and the propositions were given up to await the issue of negociation. In all negociations which we have undertaken with sincerity, we have succeeded. Washington did all that the most pacific policy required, to prevent war; he did so with sincerity; and notwithstanding the adverse counsels by which he was sometimes deceived, it was his favorite principle to avoid foreign alliances, and to study the arts of peace with diligence and constancy. It must be recollected by many persons in that house, that in a correspondence which took place during the discussions on the British treaty, speaking of those who opposed that treaty, he called them the "friends of war and confusion"....how far the title was proper, is not here to be enquired; but it is put

to their consideration, whether gentlemen who oppose negociation and advocate taking peaceable possession of a foreign territory by force of arms, are or not entitled to the epithets. But whether the gentlemen agree on this point, whether they profess a peaceable inclination in the invasion of foreign territory with arms in their hands, or openly avow their design to be actual hostility, is very immaterial to the public, who will appreciate the consistency of their pretensions and their propositions.

It had been correctly stated, that the true course of our policy always has been, and always ought to be, to pursue negociation, in preference to any species of menace or hostility. It was more consistent with a confidence in our own resolution, for moderation in difficulty, is always the true criterion of courage. The course now proposed by the amendments of his friend from Kentucky, was the same that had been formerly adopted. When the proceedings of the legislature were arrested by Jay's mission, this was the course. Eighty thousand militia were voted, and the country was placed in its true position for defence, a reliance upon the patriotism and courage of freemen. The same course was adopted with regard to France, on a later occasion....and in both the effect was answerable to the intention....we obtained peace by negociation. Those who advocate war measures now, recommended very different measures, in the case of British aggression....one gentleman, from New Jersey, indeed, disclaims any merit on this score....he washes his hands of all the sin which attaches to a love of peace....he disavows and rejects such a groveling system....born a soldier, the language of war is to him the harmony of the spheres; war is never mentioned, without stirring up his proud recollection of those wonderful atchievements, in which he partook his share of glory, in the blood stained field....his sympathies are aroused....like the sympathies of an old coach horse at the crack of a whip! It is a kind of instinct. ....no one can account for it....but that it is a natural propensity....it bears an analogy to love, it is an indiscribable something....and great warriors have been ever great lovers.... indeed all the ancient knights were in love as a matter of course. The passion for war, lasts as long as life, but that of love, (from a natural cause) is not always as durable, the former seems already predominant with the gentleman from New Jersey, and has betrayed him into an unguarded concession; whilst vaunting of his military atchievements, he has told us that he was defending the state of New York, when my friend,

who now represents that state with so much benefit to his country, and honor to himself, (Mr. CLINTON) was on his mother's lap, or in the egg-shell; this is making out the gentleman rather older than I expected he was, and is acknowleg. ing a weight of years, that I should hardly have thought a man of his gallantry would have been willing to own, before so numerous and elegant a collection of ladies, as at this time honor us with their company.

But we are told by another redoubtable knight, that we must have New Orleans whether the Spaniards will or not.... no ceremony in his opinion is necessary....he says we want it and therefore must have it. Thus, if a buck of high metal, were to see a fine horse, he might tell the rider; sir, that is a very excellent horse indeed; I want it, and you must alight; I do not mean to rob you sir, but really you must dismount, and let me have the horse....A lady may like a fine transparent muslin, or a shawl, or brocade, or something else that is very fine and fashionable, she vows to heaven she must and will have it; they belong to the shopkeeper to be sure, but what does that signify, the lady wants them, and all she has to do is to knock the shopkeeper down and gratify her wishes. Exactly parallel is the conduct recommended to us. If we can indeed obtain New Orleans in an honest way, if the man will sell his horse, or the shopkeeper his goods, why then we may have it; but we cannot become so insensible to justice or to our true policy, as to invade and take the property of an ally before we have complained and demanded our rights violated by an officer of that ally. If negociation fails, it will then be justifiable in us to redress ourselves, and insist on our right; if our right is resisted, and further injury done, the laws and usages of nations will justify us in retaliating....and in such an event, which he did not expect, we might be justified in going farther and taking more. But this we could

never do or attempt unless forced into a war, But as we are now called upon to act, nothing could be more unjust. We have heard of a right of ours under treaty being suspended, by we know not whom....all we know is, that a Spanish officer has undertaken to do this. But without telling your wrongs to his government, you are told to enter on the territory and spread fire, havoc, and desolation, among the unoffending and friendly inhabitants! Would the savage tribes of our wilderness do the like....they would not. You have just sent an ambassador upon this very subject, and you are told he must carry with him in his hand, an account of this invasion and ravage,

as his introduction to negociate on friendly and pacific terms ! We empower him to demand redress of what we have undertaken to redress ourselves....We ask for justice, and our recommendation is injustice....We ask the Spanish government, will you please to restore us our deposit? when we have not only taken it, but the whole island. What would be the reception of our minister under such circumstances? He would be sent back....and we should be told that they would try to take from us by force, what we had usurped beyond our just claim. Such is the policy which gentlemen recommend.

Some gentlemen read us the newspapers, some private letters from God knows who....another tells us of the prince of Parma and the king of Eutruria, and the duke of Modena.... that Spain is the actual aggressor....then that France is the real mover.... Further, from the same source we learn that lord Whitworth has arrived at Paris, and that the expedition of the French is suspended, because Great Britain wishes to purchase Louisiana. Thus it is demonstrated by the gentletlemen themselves, that they know not, or care not, what they are doing, and that they are desirous of acting in the dark; for, if we raise the sword, we know not whether it is to fall on the head of Spain, France, or England. If it should happen to be on the last, some gentlemen would certainly deplore their present impetuosity.

We have been told that Spain had no right to cede Louisiana to France; that she had ceded to us the privilege of deposit, and had therefore no right to cede her territory without our consent! Are gentlemen disposed to wage war in support of this principle? Because she has given us a little privilege, a mere indulgence on her territory, is she thereby constrained from doing any thing for ever with her immense possessions? No doubt, if the gentleman, (Mr. MORRIS) were to be the negociator on this occasion, he would say...." you mean "to cede New Orleans; no, gentlemen, I beg your pardon, "you cannot cede that, for we want it ourselves....and as to "the Floridas, it would be very indiscreet to cede that, as,

in all human probability, we shall want that also in less than "500 years from this day....and then, as to Louisiana, you "surely could not think of that, for in something less than "a thousand years, in the natural order of things, our popu "lation will progress towards that place also."

If Spain has ceded those countries to France, the cession has been made with all the incumbrances and obligations to which it is subject by previous compact with us. Whether Bo

naparte will execute these obligations with good faith, he could not say; but to say that Spain has no right to cede, is a bold assertion indeed....The people of America will not go along with such doctrines, for they lead to ruin alone. We are also told, that the power of the Chief Consul is so great, that he puts up and pulls down n all the nations of the old world at discretion, and that he can do so with us. Yet we are told by the wonderful statesman, who gives us this awful information, that we must go to war with this maker and destroyer of governments. If, after the unceasing pursuit of empire and conquest, which is thus presented to us, we take possession of his territory, from the gentleman's own declarations, what are we to expect, only that this wonderful man who never abandon's an object.....who thinks his own and the nation's honor pledged to go through whatever he undertakes....will next attack us? Does the gentleman think that this terrible picture, which his warm imagination has drawn, is a conclusive argument for proceeding to that war which he recommends?

The Senate, Mr. President, at this moment, presents a very extraordinary aspect; and by those not acquainted with our political affairs, it would appear a political phenomenon. Here we see a number of people from the eastern states and the seaboard, filled with the most extreme solicitude for the interest and rights of the western and inland states; while the representatives of the western people themselves, appear to know nothing of this great danger, and to feel a full confidence in their government. The former declaring that the western people are all ready for revolt and open to seduction; the latter ignorant of any such disposition, and indignant at the disgrace which is thrown on their character. In their great loving kindness for the western people, those new friends of theirs tell them, that they are a simple people, who do not know what is good for them, and that they will kindly undertake to do this for them. From the contiguous states of South Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, and Kentucky, (those states from which the gentleman from Pennsylvania, by his resolutions, proposes to draw the militia,) every member of this house is opposed to war; but from the east, (and one can scarcely refrain from laughing, to hear of the all important representatives of the state of Delaware in particular,) such is the passion for the wonderful, or the absurd, there prevails the liveliest sensibility for the western country!

Soon after the peace of 1783, our frontiers were in a situation where national feeling had much occasion for irrita