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elections, to demonstrate the extraordinary attachment to the government which prevails in that great and respectable state. In the next congress there will not be a single member in opposition from Pennsylvania, and her state elections have been attended with nearly the same distinguished unanimity. Under the influence of such honorable principles, and under the auspices of the great character who so deservedly holds the reins of her government, and so extensively possesses the confidence of his fellow citizens, we have nothing to apprehend on her part from the evils with which we have been so liberally menaced. Delaware, who has no western country, who carries on little or no trade with the western states, and who has no immediate interest in the present question, has indeed lifted up her voice against the measures of the general administration, and has demanded a more energetic course, I shall be the last man to speak disrespectfully of any of the state governments....I mean not to disparage the conduct of Delaware, and I trust I do not, when I say that New York, which has a greater interest in the Spanish infraction than any of the Atlantic states, is entitled to equal attention; and she has, thro' her legislature and executive, declared her warmest approbation of the course pursued by the general government on this interesting occasion.

It is equally in vain for the honorable mover to declare that the seizure of New Orleans will facilitate negociation, and avert war....that we will lose our character if we do not....that delay will give Spain time to prepare....that our executive has taken no course that we know of....and that the opposition will lend us their aid if we follow their advice. In opposition to these suggestions, we say that the seizure of New Orleans is war in fact, and will shut out negociation; that character is to be lost, not by firm and honorable moderation, but by rash and boyish precipitation; that delay is an evil that cannot be avoided, if we pursue the path of negociation, which is the course our government has taken, and that if it gives our adversary time for preparation, it will also furnish us with the same advantage; that however desirable it may be to produce an union of sentiment and action among our fellow citizens, we are certain that it will not result from the adoption of the present measure; that the great body of the people will consider it rash and unjust; and that in gaining the transient and doubtful support of a small minority, we will alienate the affections, and lose the confidence of our best friends, who will certainly desert us when we desert the laudable principles which ought alone to entitle us to their esteem and attachment,

If negociation shall prove successful, and of this I have no doubt, all the evils resulting from war will be averted: If, on the contrary, it shall eventuate unfortunately, and we shall be compelled to face all consequences, and risk all dangers in the maintenance of our national honor and national rights, great and abundant advantages will still result from the pursuit of this course, and we will be enabled to appeal to the sword, with a full conviction of the justice of our conduct ....with the unanimous suffrage of our country, and to the perfect satisfaction of the world. In the mean time, we can form some necessary preparations, and we can ascertain the feelings and bearings of foreign governments. Every day of procrastination will find us better prepared, and will give us more people, more resources, more treasure, more force.... with less debt. Our national character will stand high for moderation and justice; our own citizens, and foreign nations, will entertain but one opinion on the subject; and we can then confidently appeal to that great and good being, who holds in his hands the destiny of nations, to smile upon our cause....but, if in the inscrutable decrees of his providence, it is ordained that we must perish, we will at least fall with dignity, and maintain our character when we lose our existence.

Mr. DAYTON rose to answer the interrogatories which had been so vauntingly put by the honorable member from N. York, (Mr. CLINTON.) He had asked, Where were those gentlemen, who now advocate these strong resolutions, in that day when the British were committing their depredations upon our property, so lately as in 1794? For one, said Mr. D. I can answer. I was at my post in the other house, and the advocate of measures as strong, nay, stronger than those now proposed. I believed then, as I now do, that if the appointment of an envoy extraordinary could be followed by preparations for war in case of failure, it would contribute, not merely to the success of a negociation, but also to the goodness of the terms. Why did not the gentleman from New York carry his enquiries back to the far more gloomy and trying times of 1776? Had he asked where we then were, said Mr. D. I could have told him that we, or some of us at least, were employed in his own state, upon the interior frontiers, defending the very people whom he now represents, from the irruptions of savages, and the devastation of an enemy. Where was then this honorable interrogator himself? Doubtless in some place of safety, perhaps dangling on the knee of the mother, or probably still in the egg-shell.

To what do all such questions tend? Certainly not to elucidate the subject, nor to conciliate parties. The long list of extraordinaries, with which the honorable gentleman from N. York had introduced his argument, must have excited the expectation that his speech would partake of the same quality. Severe in his strictures upon declaimers, his own language was that of declamation....reprobating asperity in debate, on the part of others, he had indulged himself in a style little decorous or becoming, and exhausted against his opponents his full cup of bitterness. He had declared, with a boldness of assertion not unusual to him, that the resolutions under consideration, contained declarations of war: But this was not the fact: They were merely intended as preparations for an event which some regard as inevitable, and all believe to be too probable. They went, indeed, to shew, so far as declarations could do it, that the legislature of the country know our rights and will defend them, and that those of the most distant of our citizens are as dear to us as the nearest. For the people of the western country, said Mr. D. I have long entertained an affection. This affection has not been confined to professions only; for during the twelve successive years for .which I have had the honor of a seat in the two branches of the national legislature, my votes will shew that I have been uniform in my exertions to promote the security, growth, and happiness of that people. I have, indeed, regarded them among the most meritorious portions of our citizens, because to them, we who sat in ease and security, were indebted for extending our settlements into the wilderness, protecting an exposed frontier, and for enhancing the value of our territorial possessions; and because, but for them, but for their enterprize, their courage, and their industry, the waters of one of the finest rivers in the world would still flow useless to the ocean, or at least, without use or profit to the Atlantic states represented on this floor. These facts acknowleged, I ask whether we are not bound by the strongest moral and political obligations to make with these people a common cause, to feel their injuries as our own, and to avenge insults offered to them, as if directed immediately against ourselves. What is their present situation? or rather let me ask, what are their grievances and complaints, and what have we done to redress them? The state of that country has been depicted by the senator from Pennsylvania, (Mr. Ross) in colours high indeed, and lively, but most true and just. Whilst he proved that he felt for his brethren and remembered them,....whilst he des

tribed their wrongs and sufferings in language the most animated, glowing, and impressive, he did not forget the temper which became him as a senator, nor the great line of policy which, as a representative of the whole Union, it behoved him to regard. He told you, sir, what indeed you hear with every western wind and western mail, that the great and only outlet for the productions of nearly half a million of people, was closed upon them, or placed under such prohibitions as to render the navigation of the river almost useless, and that unless immediate relief were afforded them, their property would waste and perish on their hands. Their only resources for paying their obligations to the public, and their debts to individuals, would fail, and the little real property they had acquired, would be sacrificed to make good the deficiency. These, sir, are not imaginary evils, but real: they are not confined to the inhabitants of the western waters, but extend, in their effects, to every part of our country. Allow me here to give a faint idea of the importance of the trade of that country, by reading extracts from a communication made to me, from a source in which I confide, and which is in a great measure drawn from official documents.

[Here Mr. DAYTON read a paper to shew that three articles only of American produce, entered at New Orleans in 1801, (as taken from their custom-house books) amounted to one million, six hundred thousand dollars. These were cotton, tobacco, and flour; and that the other nine or ten principal articles of export from thence, in that year, would have swelled the whole to nearly four millions, but now would certainly exceed it. It further appeared, officially, that from the 1st February to 10th June, 1802, 150 vessels of from 100 to 300 tons, cleared at the custom-house of New Orleans, and that 80 vessels more of from 200 to 300 tons were necessary to take off the produce then in store.... That the state of Tennessee produced one fourth, or one million of it.

Thus then we see, said Mr. DAYTON, that property amounting to four millions, annually exported in the first six months of the year, is to be embargoed at the will of a foreign government, or the caprice of a Spanish intendant, or, if permitted to pass at all, permitted uder such restrictions and impositions as to take away all the profit of transportation, and render it scarcely worth the raising.

What have we done to remove the obstruction, and redress the wrong? We have sent a minister itenerant from Paris

to Madrid, and from Madrid to Paris, to negociate upon the subject. There may be precedent for this: there may be courtesy in the measure; but what are precedents, what are the forms of courtly politeness, to an injured, an outraged, a starving people?

I have thus far confined myself, said Mr. D. to the injury, as relating to the interests of the country; but is nothing due to the dignity and honor of the nation most grossly insulted by the act? Let them who will be the dupes of the artful, insidious insinuation that it is an unauthorized act, an irregular proceeding of a subordinate officer of a government which can punish, with banishment or instant death, the smallest diviation from duty. I do not believe the tale: I never believed it and a late official act must undeceive all, whose minds are not shut to the impressions of truth. A late proclamation issued from Baton Rouge, a Spanish port 150 miles above New Orleans, prohibits all intercourse between Spaniards and Americans. Our people descending the river, in pursuit of lawful commerce, are forbidden to buy an egg or a mess of salt, or any comfort of life, from the possessor of the banks, in the long, dreary distance of 270 miles. This proclamation is issued from their highest post, that it might extend more certainly and rapidly into every settlement; and thus our brethren, without provocation on their part, are cut off from those.comforts, which in all countries are granted to all but open enemies. Will gentlemen call this also the unauthorized act of a Spanish intendant? The irregular proceeding of a commandant of a Spanish post, or petty lord of Grandprè? This act was more offensive and more insolent than the other, because it inflicted upon us a more serious injury, without the slightest pretext of benefit to themselves.

Sir, said Mr. D. there was a time, when, if the poorest individual ment, “I am an American citizen, and have been insulted as such," he would have been listened to with interest, and pocr and humble as he might have been, the dignity of the country would have been considered as in some measure represented and attacked in him, and its spirit roused to resent the insult. But there is a time, when, I fear, we are about to turn a deaf ear, or at least to listen with apathy, to the injuries inflicted upon half a million of our citizens, and the insults offered to the whole nation. I will not say that we are about to act as if honor, rights, and dignity may be graduated by a scale of cents and dollars, and even our liberties and independence have their price; but I will freely say, that tame submission to a

among us could say to his brethren and his govern

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