FEBRUARY, 1803. Mississippi Question. SENATE. Shore; but I will at once admit, that in cases of elytes as he advanced, and gaining new adherents minor rights, spoliation upon commerce in time at every step of his journey. He was received with of war; nay, in all cases that do not involve the acclamations of the liveliest joy in the capital city well-being, or national independence, negotiation of this country, and after employing all the soothand amicable adjustment should be resorted to; ing arts of fraternization, civic feasts, and public and demand of reparation should precede actual spectacle, he proceeded, as before, with his comhostility. I will even say, that were the Span-missions, and actually insisted upon, and exercised iards to cross the Mississippi at the Falls of St. the right of bringing into our ports and selling Anthony, and build a fort on our side of the river, prizes taken from nations with whom we were at place a garrison in it, and thus actually invade peace. This Minister had the address to seduce our territory, in my opinion we ought to negotiate many of our citizens to enlist under his banner; and demand explanations before we sent troops and but too many, even of our respectable men in to demolish the fort. Although the act would high employment, applauded his conduct and gave justify the immediate use of force, yet the station his measures a countenance they did not deserve. is so remote, and of so little importance in the use All ranks seemed pleased with the zeal and the of it, that friendly means might be safely and wise- boldness of the Minister's mind, and an union of ly resorted to in the first instance. this country with France in the war seemed inap-evitable, as no effectual steps had been taken to restrain this wild extravagant condition of things among us. I mention not these events with a wish to hurt the sensibility of any one, for I know that this country was then without experience; we had never before been in the relation of neutrality towards Powers at war, and we entertained a lively affection for France, because she had aided us in the Revolutionary war, and was then as we thought, contending for liberty herself. The respectable men who, led away by their feelings, joined in in the frenzy of that time, would not now display such opinions, or enter upon any public act to commit or endanger the peace and honest neutrality of their country. Quitting Europe, the gentleman exultingly peals to the usages of our own country, in cases which he alleges were either similar to, or stronger than the present. The name of WASHINGTON is introduced to silence all further dispute on this question! Sir, I reverence the authority of that great man's official conduct. He was the father of his country, the terror of its enemies, and the ornament of human nature. He is now gone to mix with the heroes and sages of other times and nations, in a happier world; but it was easily foreseen that those who seldom agreed with him in his life, would be the first, after his death, to fly for shelter to his example. when overtaken by calamity or misfortune! That man led the armies of his country to victory-to independence. He knew better than any man the interests, the feelings, the dispositions of the people. He witnessed the origin and progress of complaints on both sides respecting the inexecution of the Treaty of Peace between us and Great Britain. We just ly reproached them with detention of the western posts, and their refusal to deliver our slaves, as stipulated by treaty; they replied that we did not pay them our old debts. These disputes became the subject of negotiation, under the old Confederation, and we had a Minister in that country who attempted an amicable adjustment. When General WASHINGTON came to the head of our present Government, he sent another Minister to that country, and while he was endeavoring a peaceable accommodation, a storm broke out in France, which soon spread beyond its own boundaries, and involved the neighboring nations in war. The rulers of France, wishing to engage us in their quarrel, sent a Minister to this country with express instructions to embroil us, if possible, in this desolating war. Unfortunately that Minister possessed abilities and a disposition well adapted to such a mission. He landed in a part of our country remote from the seat of Government, and instantly began to issue his commissions to our citizens, not only to equip privateers and plunder the commerce of nations with whom we were at peace, but to enlist men and raise a military force within the United States, for the purpose of attacking the possessions of Spain in Florida. He travelled onward from Charleston towards the seat of Government, making pros Very unfortunately, however, we had then here a Minister from Great Britain who was but little inclined to promote good understanding, and who probably transmitted discolored accounts of all that passed from day to day. Things were sufficiently wrong without any exaggeration of their enormity. When these accounts reached England, was it wonderful that they considered war as begun? Was it strange that they should count upon hostility, when the acts of the people assumed but one complexion; when the Government had not taken means to do justice and prevent such injustice; when their ships were sold by their enemies, and every indignity put upon their subjects? Hence, we may trace the orders for spoliations; hence, the talk of Lord Dorchester to the Indians, and the other aggressions on the western frontier, which, however unjustifiable, were not altogether without provocation. In the meanwhile, the French Minister increased in his activity and boldness of enterprise, under the very eye of our Government; he multiplied his complaints against the Executive, and his caresses and professions upon the people, until, at last, confident in his numbers and support, he set the President at defiance, and threatened an appeal to the people. At that awful crisis of delusion, WASHINGTON came forward, Moses-like, and put himself in the gap between the pestilence and the people. He demanded the Minister's recall; he was recalled; he arrested the hands of our citizens who were armed to plunder in time of peace; he enforced the observation of the rules of justice and neutrality. When these things be came known in England, they produced a revocation of the orders to plunder our merchants. But the havoc and destruction had been dreadful; we were highly and justly incensed; the blood of both nations was up; it had scarcely cooled, and was easily roused to be ready for war. If the British had not recalled their orders of November, 1793, we undoubtedly should instantly have gone to war. It would have been unavoidable. nay, absolutely necessary. But when the revocation of those orders was known here, our President considered that our own conduct had not been perfectly regular; there was some cause of complaint against us, in the midst of all the just complaints we had against the British cruisers; there were also old differences, which had created great uneasiness between the two countries. In the recent causes of quarrel, we had been the first in suffering improper acts to be done by a foreign agent within our own territory, which we ought to have prevented as neutrals. Under all these circumstances, being already engaged in an Indian war, he resolved to try negotiation-an Envoy Extraordinary was according ly sent. How does all this 'apply to the present case? There had been old, unsettled differences with England; ours with Spain were settled by the treaty of 1795. There were horrible spoliations upon our trade by Britain, but we had permitted acts towards them with which we were obliged to reproach ourselves. Spain has also spoiled our commerce, and to an immense extent, without provocation. For that, the case of England would say negotiate, and we have actually been negotiating. But had England blockaded your harbors; had she shut out half a million of your people from access to the ocean; had she closed up the Chesapeake or the Delaware, would there have been negotiation? No. You would, you must have had immediate war. Such an invasion of the sovereignty and independence of the country would have left no hesitation in the mind of any man; but, fortunately, as our affairs then stood, we were not obliged to resort to hostilities. The man of high talents who undertook to negotiate, succeeded in forming a treaty between the two countries. Such, however, were the passions of the times, that the negotiator was grossly calumniated. The treaty was opposed by the formidable array of all the artillery of popular opinion, organized in town meetings, played off along the coast from Boston to Charleston, under the direction of the ablest engineer in this country. Public opinion was again shaken, but finally peace was preserved, the treaty went fairly into execution, and even the negotiator was elected their Governor, by the people of his own State, where he presided for a long time, with honor to himself, and infinite advantage to the interests and peace of the society; until at length he retired from public life, leaving an example which will always be useful for imitation, and serve, at the same time, as a severe reproof to those who may materially depart from it. Our differences and negotiations with England, FEBRUARY, 1803. then, furnished an interesting and serious view of the course we have taken in troublesome times, but certainly do not present anything like the present case. For, although they actually held our western posts, and built a new fort at the foot of the rapids of Miami, yet, we had never been in possession of those posts; we had not purchased the country from the Indians; we had no settlements near it; no great portion of our citizens were obstructed or cut off from the free exercise of their rights; and there were mutual complaints, perhaps mutual injuries, between the parties, which seemed to require negotiation, as the only mode in which they could ever be terminated. Next comes our difference with Spain. To this it may be answered, briefly, that we made a treaty with that Power; difficulties arose respecting the execution of that treaty; we had not then been in the possession or exercise of the rights claimed under the treaty. The Spaniards delayed and evaded the execution, in a very unjustifiable manner. But the Administration of that day did not rely upon negotiation alone; they ordered troops to the Ohio, and had the Spaniards persisted in their refusal, those troops would have acted decisively, without any new application to the Court of Spain. They saw the approaching storm; they entered upon the execution of the treaty, by running the line, and giving up the posts; and, if the War Office be examined, gentlemen will find that our troops were then so disposed as to fall down the river Mississippi, and act with effect at any moment. It was well known to us that Spain did not act in that business from the mere impulse of her own interests or wishes. She was then, and is still, under the irresistible influence of a powerful neighbor, with whom we at that time had serious differences-she was urged and pushed forward by France; for Spain, until she became thus dependant upon France, has ranked high for her good faith, and, in my opinion, deservedly higher than any other Court in Europe. Slow to promise, she has always fulfilled her engagements with honor, according to the spirit, without cavilling about the words of her treaties. When we were aware of all these things, when there was no absolute refusal, but only delay and evasive excuses about the execution, not about the right, it would not have been wise to precipitate an absolute rupture between the two countries. The proceedings with France are next adduced. These are fresh in the memory of every one, and need not be repeated. There was no blockade, no denial of egress to the ocean, no invasion, no territorial dismemberment, no attack upon the country which required the immediate use of force. True, they captured your ships, they heaped indignities upon you; but they also alleged that you had first broken the Treaty of Alliance. You negotiated; what else could you do? You had no navy. You could not go in quest of them, and they did not attempt to land on your shores. When their aggressions rose to such a height as to be tolerated no longer, and defensive war was resolved on, what was the conduct of the minority then? Did they come forward and offer their support like the minority now? No, sir, they declared the Administration was blameable; that the French had been provoked; that peace was still attainable by negotiation, and war at all events to be avoided. Look at the debates of that day, and you will discover that many leading men contended that our own Government was altogether in the wrong, and France in the right. Such was the impression abroad, that Talleyrand insultingly boasted of a party in our own country, and threatened us with the fate of Venice; and when the sacred right of embassy was trampled upon, as stated by the honorable gentleman from New York, still the cry at home was negotiate, negotiate! Surely there is very little, if any, resemblance between that case and this. However justifiable a war would have been then, we must have gone abroad to seek our enemy; now he has come to our doors, and stripped us of what is most precious and dear to us as an independent nation. SENATE. and proposes no effectual military preparations. While they are busy, we are to be idle-when they make the stroke, we are in our present defenceless state. Next year, we shall be as weak and exposed as now; our commerce equally scattered over the ocean; our seaports as defenceless; our army and navy as weak; and they have then possession of the disputed spot, with an armament to annoy us, and maintain their possession. The hortorable gentleman from Kentucky (Mr. BRECKENRIDGE) disclaims all apprehension of disgust, or disaffection among his constituents, or any of the Western people. They were not always in this mild, forbearing temper upon the subject of the Mississippi. It must be in the recollection of that gentleman, that Mr. Genet sent emissaries into Kentucky, distributed commissions there for enlisting men, and raising an army to take New Orleans, and open the navigation of the Mississippi to the Western people. A very gallant and able officer accepted the commission of General We are next told, under the third head of ob- on this expedition, and would undoubtedly have jections, that our national debt will be increased executed it, had not the recall of the French Minby war; that war will be the necessary conse-ister, and the failure of the expected resources, dequence of the resolutions; that our object is war. Sir, our object is not war, but the attainment of security for a right, without which our Union, our political existence, cannot continue. In seeking this security should war arise, it will be a less evil than insecure and delusive hopes of tranquillity. No doubt war will increase your public debt, but no more nor so much as vain attempts to secure this right another way; and, after failing, you must have a war. But your merchants will not obtain indemnities for spoliations. Their chance is but precarious now, and would be altogether as great in the way we propose to take. Seaports will be blockaded, and the Mississippi shut. The first is not probable, and as to the last, all the Western people must be satisfied when they see their country maintaining and asserting their right. The very effort to maintain it will consume a great portion of the resources and afford an extensive market to the aggrieved people, by supplying your military force. The river may as well be shut up completely as be in its present condition. An honorable gentleman (Mr. WRIGHT) has said, that we may have a place of deposit in our own territory, and navigate the river from thence. The gentleman has not certainly well considered this subject. The nearest point upon our territory is three hundred miles from the sea; the river crooked, the current rapid, the anchorage bad. A favorable wind in one direction of the river, would be adverse at the next bend. Ships could never ascend in any reasonable time, nor could they gain any point on our own territory, when they are forbidden to touch the shore, even to fasten a cable or tow-line. Without the privilege of the shore, the navigation would be impracticable. The honorable gentleman from New York had advanced a most extraordinary position: that if our adversaries have time to prepare, we also have time to prepare. Yet he resists the resolutions, feated the enterprise. What reason was there to suppose they would be more forbearing now? That officer was still alive, and if he was to erect his standard, the consequences could not be very doubtful. The honorable gentleman from Georgia (Mr. JACKSON) agrees with us in everything except as to the time of acting. He wishes to make an experiment at negotiation, but admits the magnitude of the dispute, and that it involves the very existence of Georgia and the Southern States. If the late events had happened upon St. Mary's, or if the Savannah had been shut up by the Spaniards, there would have been little doubt of the course that gentleman would have pursued. The news of the aggression and of the aggressors' graves would have reached the seat of Government by the same mail. He would not have waited to inquire by whose orders they came there, or whether they could be negotiated out of Georgia. Although the gentleman disagrees with us as to the time of acting, yet he has very honorably pledged himself for the ultimate result, should negotiation fail; and while it is impossible to agree with what he has said respecting the ordinary force of the country driving the new occupants from their fastnesses and forts in the marshes of Florida or New Orleans, yet, sir, there can be no doubt that the spirit which disdains to think of the hazard of such an enterprise, is of the utmost value to our country. For my own part, I have a pleasure in declaring my wish, that the gentleman now lived on the Mississippi, and that he had authority from this Government to act: I should have no doubt of the result, nor of the confidence and universal consent with which he would be supported. But he is certainly too much a soldier not to discern, that previous possession by a powerful enemy will require the labors and blood of a disciplined army, and the delay and skill requisite for the attack of a fortified country. We come now to consider the resolution offered SENATE. Mississippi Question. FEBRUARY, 1803. as a substitute. It is highly gratifying to find that them for this enviable dominion? Not territory, gentlemen are at last inclined to act-to do for you have none to spare, and they want none. something like defending the rights of our coun- Not commercial privileges-they will not want try. Is there any new shape given to this busi- them, for they will then have enough and to spare. ness by the proposed substitute? We propose What equivalent have you? What can you offer fifty thousand militia; they substitute eighty to men who know the value of such a country? thousand. To do what? Will gentlemen tell What would this Senate take for the surrender of us the difference? It is said ours are absolutely such an establishment were it ours? Let every imperative; if so, alter them, and give an un-Senator ask himself the question, and declare by qualified discretion. We will agree to it. My what rule of estimation his answer would be own opinion is, that they should be immediately dictated. acted upon. If the majority wish for a bare discretionary power, I assent to it. There is no difference except that one set of resolutions puts greater power in the hands of the President than the other. Are gentlemen on the other side afraid to trust the President? Do they think he will abuse this power? Will it hurt the negotiation? Instead of hurting it, our Minister ought to carry this act to Europe with him. He is not yet gone, and it may be sent with him. He would then have more means, and more forcible arguments to urge in his negotiation. But I know it has been said, and will be said again, that the new French owners will confirm or permit our right of deposit and free navigation of the Mississippi-they will open a free port and give us all we desire. Yes, sir, this would be the unkindest cut of all. I fear much less the enmity of the present possessors, than such neighbors. We shall hold by their courtesy, not by the protection of our own Government. They will permit, but you cannot enforce. They will give us all the advantages we now have and more. But will it be for nothing? Will they ask no return? This whole subject was known at the meeting Have they no ulterior views? No! During this of Congress; yet no step was taken, till our reso-insidious interval, they will be driving rivet after lutions were proposed. Now gentlemen are will-rivet into the iron yoke, which is to gall us and ing to do something! They seem willing to give our children. We must go to market through a means to a certain extent. Why not amend our line of batteries manned by veterans; and return resolutions, when their own are but a qualification home with our money through a fortified camp. of ours. We have but seven days to the end of This privilege will be held at their will, and may this session. Why dispute about a substitute, be withheld whenever their Intendant forbids its when amendments may be made to meet gentle- further continuance. men's wishes? They agree to go a certain length; then say so, and strike out the rest. Certainly we will go with you as far as you propose, for we have offered to go farther. No doubt my earnestness may have betrayed me into expressions which were not intended. Every honorable gentleman will therefore consider me as addressing his reason and judgment merely, But gentlemen say they have full confidence in without meaning to give cause of offence. But I the negotiation. Be it so. I cannot doubt the cannot conclude without addressing myself parassertion of the gentlemen, although I draw a ticularly to those Senators who represent the different conclusion from the same facts. But let | Western States. I entreat them to remember that me present the question in a new shape, not yet these resolutions are intended to vest a power offered in this House. We are not deliberating which may, or may not be used, as events arise. about the right of deposit in New Orleans merely, If events should show, in the recess, that negotianor about the island of New Orleans; we are told tion must fail, what is the President to do? He that we are to look for new and powerful neigh- must call Congress. This will consume time, and bors in Louisiana. What right has Spain to give the enemy gain immense advantages. Why not us these neighbors without consulting us? To put a force at his disposal with which he can change our present security into hazard and un-strike, with which he can have a pledge for your certainty? I do not believe that Spain has any future well-being? When the Atlantic coast is right to do so. What are the limits of Louisiana? willing, shall this security be lost by your votes ? It extends three thousand miles upon your frontier. Are you sure that you will ever again find the New Orleans is ceded with it. Then the province same disposition? Can you recall the decisive of Louisiana and New Orleans lie between the moment that may happen in a month after our Floridas, and the other Spanish dominions on this adjournment? Certainly the country may be in continent. It is not difficult to determine who such a state that at the next session you will have will command and own the Floridas. They must no such offer as at the present moment. There belong to the master of Louisiana and New Or- may be a pressure which would forbid it. Hereleans. Then the owners possess the lock and key tofore you have distrusted the Atlantic States; of the whole Western country. There is no en- now, when they offer to pledge themselves, meet trance or egress but by their leave. They have them and close with the proposal. If the resolunot only three thousand miles on your frontier in tions are too strong, new-model them. If the the interior country, but they have the command means are not adequate, propose other and more of your outlet to the ocean, and seven hundred effectual measures. But as you value the best inmiles of seacoast embracing the finest harbors interests of the Western country, and the union North America. This makes them, in fact, masters of the Western world. What will you give with the Atlantic coast, seize the present occasion of securing it forever. For the present is only a question of how much power the Executive shall have for the attainment of this great end, and no man desirous of the end ought to refuse the necessary means for attaining it. Your voice decides the direction this Senate will take, and I devoutly wish it may be one we shall never repent. SENATE. musical tones; neither shall I boast of Christian charity, nor attempt to display that ingenuous glow of benevolence so decorous to the cheek of youth, which gave a vivid tint to every sentence he uttered; and was, if possible, as impressive even as his eloquence. But, though we possess not the same pomp of words, our hearts are not Mr. GOUVERNEUR MORRIS.-Mr. President, I insensible to the woes of humanity. We can feel rise with reluctance on the present occasion. The for the misery of plundered towns, the conflagralateness of the hour forbids me to hope for your tion of defenceless villages, and the devastation patient attention. The subject is of great impor- of cultured fields. Turning from these features tance, as it relates to other countries, and still of general distress, we can enter the abodes of greater to our own; yet we must decide on grounds private affliction, and behold the widow weeping, uncertain, because they depend on circumstances as she traces, in the pledges of connubial affection, not yet arrived. And when we attempt to pene- the resemblance of him whom she has lost forevtrate into futurity, after exerting the utmost power. We see the aged matron bending over the ers of reason, aided by all the lights which expe- ashes of her son. He was her darling; for he was rience could acquire, our clearest conceptions are generous and brave, and therefore his spirit led involved in doubt. A thousand things may hap-him to the field in defence of his country. We pen which it is impossible to conjecture, and which will influence the course of events. The wise Governor of all things hath hidden the future from the ken of our feeble understanding. In committing ourselves, therefore, to the examination of what may hereafter arrive, we hazard rep-death; and his lip, the ruby harbinger of joy, lies utation on contingencies we cannot command. And when events shall be past, we shall be judged by them, and not by the reasons which we may now advance. There are many subjects which it is not easy to understand, but it is always easy to misrepresent, and when arguments cannot be controverted, it is not difficult to calumniate motives. That which cannot be confuted, may be misstated. The purest intentions may be blackened by malice; and envy will ever foster the foulest imputations. This calumny is among the sore evils of our country. It began with our earliest success in 1778, and has gone on with accelerated velocity and increasing force to the present hour. It is no longer to be checked, nor will it terminate but in that sweep of general destruction, to which it tends with a step as sure as time, and fatal as death. I know that what I utter will be misunderstood, misrepresented, deformed, and distorted; but we must do our duty. This, I believe, is the last scene of my public life; and it shall, like those which preceded it, be performed with candor and truth. Yes, my noble friends, [addressing himself to the Federal Senators near him,] we shall soon part to meet no more. But however separated, and wherever dispersed, we know that we are united by just principle and true sentiment. A sentiment, my country, ever devoted to you; which will expire only with expiring life, and beat in the last pulsation of our hearts. can observe another oppressed with unutterable anguish condemned to conceal her affection; forced to hide that passion which is at once the torment and delight of life; she learns that those eyes which beamed with sentiment, are closed in pale and cold, the miserable appendage of a mangled corse. Hard, hard indeed, must be that heart which can be insensible to scenes like these, and bold the man who dare present to the Almighty Father a conscience crimsoned with the blood of his children. Yes, sir, we wish for peace; but how is that blessing to be preserved? I shall here repeat a sentiment I have often had occasion to express. In my opinion, there is nothing worth fighting for, but national honor; for in the national honor is involved the national independence. I know that a State may find itself in such unpropitious circumstances, that prudence may force a wise Government to conceal the sense of indignity. But the insult should be engraven on tablets of brass, with a pencil of steel. And when that time and chance, which happen to all, shall bring forward the favorable moment, then let the avenging arm strike him. It is by avowing and maintaining this stern principle of honor, that peace can be preserved. But let it not be supposed that anything I say has the slightest allusion to the injuries sustained from France, while suffering in the pangs of her Revolution. As soon should I upbraid a sick man for what he might have done in the paroxysms of disease. Nor is this a new sentiment; it was felt and avowed at the time when these wrongs were heaped on us, and I appeal for the proof to the files of your Secretary of State. The destinies of France were then in Mr. President, my object is peace. I could as- the hands of monsters. By the decree of Heaven sign many reasons to show that this declaration she was broken on the wheel, in the face of the is sincere. But can it be necessary to give this world, to warn mankind of her folly and madSenate any other assurance than my word? Not-ness. But these scenes have passed away. On withstanding the acerbity of temper which results from party strife, gentlemen will believe me on my word. I will not pretend, like my honorable colleague, (Mr. CLINTON,) to describe to you the waste, the ravages, and the horrors of war. I have not the same harmonious periods, nor the same the throne of the Bourbons is now seated the first of the Gallic Cæsars. At the head of that gallant nation is the great-the greatest-man of the present age. It becomes us well to consider his situation. The things he has achieved, compel him to the achievement of things more great. In |