prevent the influence of the British [officers or agents] over the savages, obtain command of the lake, on which Upper Canada borders, and maintain co-operating relations with such forces as might be employed against other parts" [of the British Provinces.] The unfortunate result of General Hull's invasion of Upper Canada, and the fall of Detroit are then noticed. Complaint is then made of the employment of the savage tribes, by the British general, in attacks on the troops and inhabitants of the United States.

The protection of the northwestern frontiers, it is added, had been given to General Harrison, "who had the entire confidence of his fellow-soldiers and fellow-citizens, in that part of the country." The message refers to the attack made on Queenstown under General Van Rensselaer, in October; and it is said, "that the attack was conducted with distinguished gallantry." The President says, the object had been "to gain command of the lakes; and that a naval force would be provided there superior to that of the British." The refusal of the Governors of Massachusetts and Connecticut to call out the militia and place them under the command of an officer of the regular army, was thus noticed in the message; "if the authority [of the federal government] to call the militia into service and command for the public defence, can be thus frustrated, in a state of war, and of course, under apprehensions of invasion preceding war, we are not one nation for the purpose most of all requiring it; and the public safety may have no other resource than in those large and permanent military establishments, which are forbidden by the principles of our free government, and against the necessity of which the militia were intended to be a constitutional bulwark."

"On the coasts and on the ocean, the war has been as successful, as circumstances connected with its early stages could promise. Our public ships and private cruisers, by their activity, and where there was occasion, by their intrepidity, have made the enemy sensible of the difference between a reciprocity of captures, and the long confinement of them to their side. Our trade, with some exceptions, has safely reached our ports, having been much favored and protected by our public armed vessels.

"Anxious to abridge the evils from which a state of war cannot be exempt, I lost no time, after it was declared, in conveying to the British government the terms on which its progress might be arrested, without waiting the delays. of a formal and final pacification; and the Envoy at Lon

don was authorized to agree to an Armistice founded upon them. These terms required, that the orders in council should be repealed as they affected the United States, without a revival of blockades violating acknowledged rules: that there should be an immediate discharge of American seamen from British ships, and a stop put to impressments from American ships in future; with an understanding that an exclusion of the seamen of each nation from the ships of the other should be stipulated; and that the Armistice should be improved into a definitive and comprehensive adjustment of depending controversies.

"Although a repeal of the orders in council, susceptible of explanation meeting the views of this government, had taken place before this pacific advance was communicated to that of Great Britain, the proposition was declined, from an avowed repugnance to suspend the practice of impressments during the Armistice; and without any intimation that the arrangement proposed respecting seamen would be accepted. Whether the subsequent communications from this government, affording an occcasion for reconsidering the subject, on the part of Great Britain, will be viewed in a more favorable light, remains to be known. It would be unwise to relax our measures, on a presumption of such a result.

"Our affairs with France retain the posture which they held at my last communications to Congress. Notwithstanding the authorized expectation of an early and favorable issue to the discussions on foot, these have been procrastinated to the latest dates. The only occurrence meriting attention is the promulgation of a French decree, purporting to be a definitive repeal of the Berlin and Milan decree. This proceeding, although made the ground of the repeal of the British orders, is rendered, by the time and manner of it, liable to many objections.

"With a view to that vigorous prosecution of the war, to which our national faculties are adequate, the attention of Congress will still be particularly drawn to the insufficiency of existing provisions for filling up the military establishment. A revision of the militia laws, for the purpose of rendering them more systematic, and better adapting them to the emergences of the war, is at this time particularly desirable."*

* It is stated in the message, that the receipts into the treasury, for the year ending in September, were sixteen and a half millions of dollars-that three millions of the principal of the public debt had been paid; but six millions had been received on loans; and that eleven millions had been actually received on loans, at different times.

This statement of national affairs was as favorable to the conduct of the administration as could possibly be made; and made, it should be recollected, by one interested to render it as plausible and justifiable as might be, of the measures and policy adopted. It appears to have been an early plan of the executive to send troops into Canada, and to take possession of that territory. Reliance was also evidently placed, on the assistance of the militia, not merely for defence in case of invasion of the United States when the British became an enemy, by the declaration of war; but for increasing the force ordered to enter the British territory for conquest; and for regular service in the war, in such manner and to such extent as the federal executive might think proper; instead of calling on them, as the Constitution had provided, to defend the country against invasion.

By the correspondence between Admiral Warren, then Commander-in-Chief of all the British forces on and near the American continent, and the Secretary of State of the United States, which the President communicated to Congress, at this time; as well as by a proposition made by the British Commander-in-Chief in Canada; it was officially notified to the American administration, that the orders in council were repealed on the twenty-third of June; it was also proposed to suspend hostilities between the two nations; and to enter anew on negotiations relating to the laws of Congress interdicting the commerce and ships of war of Great Britain from the harbors and waters of the United States; and to the permanent revocation of the British orders in council.

But this proposition was not favorably received by the American administration; and in reply to it, the Secretary of State was directed by the President to declare, that a suspension of the claim, or forbearance to press or act upon it, during the cessation of hostilities, was indispensable to such cessation; for experience had fully evinced that no peace could be durable unless this object were provided for." But the instructions to the British Admiral, authorizing him to propose a cessation of hostilities, and to enter on further negotiations for the speedy restoration of peace, did not authorize him to adjust or discuss the subject of impressments.

The Secretary added, "without further discussing questions of right, the President is desirous to provide a remedy for the evils complained of on both sides. The claim of the British government is to take from the merchant vessels of other countries all British subjects. In this practice, the

commanders of British ships of war take from vessels of the United States American citizens. If the United States prohibit the employment of British subjects in their service, and enforce the prohibition, by suitable regulations and penalties, the motive for the practice is taken away. It is in this mode, that the President is willing to accommodate this important controversy with the British government; and it cannot be conceived on what ground the arrangement can be refused.

"A suspension of the practice of impressment, pending the armistice, seems to be a necessary consequence. It cannot be presumed, while the parties are engaged in a negotiation to adjust amicably this important difference, that the United States would admit the right, or acquiesce in the practice of the opposite party; or that Great Britain would be unwilling to restrain her cruisers from a practice, which would have the strongest tendency to defeat the negotiation. It is presumable, that both parties would enter into a negotiation with a sincere desire to give it effect. For this purpose it is necessary that a clear and distinct understanding be first obtained between them, of the accommodation which each is prepared to make. If the British government is willing to suspend the practice of impressment from American vessels, on consideration that the United States will exclude British seamen from their service, the regulations by which this compromise should be carried into effect, would be solely the object of negotiation. The armistice would be of short duration. If the parties agreed, peace would be the result. If the negotiation failed, each would be restored to its former state and to all its pretensions, by recurring to war."

The conduct of the administration, in reference to the proposal of the British government, for a cessation of hostilities, and an adjustment of the long-existing disputes between the two nations, was a subject of much discussion through the United States. By a moiety, if not the majority of the citizens, the course pursued by the federal executive was justified and approved; the rights of the nation, and of the seamen particularly, requiring the rejection of the overtures made by the British, and a vigorous prosecution of the war; while a large portion, perhaps one half of the people, as some writers asserted, being either opposed to the war at first, or at the unsuccessful enterprises of the army, and believing that the offers of the British government were consistent both with the welfare and honor of

the nation, condemned the policy of the administration in strong terms; and fully expressed their apprehensions, that the war must continue many years, if peace could only be restored on the conditions urged by the federal rulers; and that the consequence would be a close alliance with France, then governed by a military despot. It was believed the British ministry would never surrender the claim to search and take their own seamen from neutral merchant vessels-the right to take them by force from public armed ships was given up-and that it was improper to require it and to continue the war, therefore, while this was the only or chief difficulty in the way of negotiation and peace, was alike inexpedient and unjust. The war, however, was still prosecuted; and more efficient measures were adopted by Congress to render it successful.

The people were led to believe, by a partial statement of facts, and by addresses to their prejudices, that Great Britain was aiming to subdue the United States, and to bring them back to their former allegiance to the British king; and many were directly interested in the continuance of war, as it gave them office and employment. A small majority in Congress, also approved of the opinions and views of the President, as given in his message; and expressed their approbation of his rejection of the proposed cessation of hostilities by the British, on the terms offered; insisting "that the impressment of seamen being the princi pal cause of war, it must be prosecuted till that cause was removed." On some other important subjects, connected with the policy of the war, the majority of the federal legislature could not be persuaded to support the measures proposed by the warm friends of the administration. A law for the relief of merchants who had imported British goods after the 23d of June, and before the 15th of September, was passed, though opposed by most of the members who approved of the war. And the bill for increasing the naval establishment was also opposed by many friends of the administration; but finally received the sanction of the majority of Congress.