SENATE.] Mississippi Question. [FEBRUARY, 1803. forbidden the harmonies and the charities of social life. He commands a noble and galiant nation, passionately fond of glory. That nation stimulates him to glorious enterprise, and, because they are generous and brave, they ensure his success. Thus the same principle presents at once the object and the means. Impelled by imperious circumstances, he rules in Europe, and he will rule here also, unless by vigorous exertion you set a bound to his power. the First Consul may leave on his left. The fertile plains near Leipsic contain the magazines for his armies when he shall think proper to march to Berlin. Westphalia and Lower Saxony are open on the side of Flanders and Holland. The Maine presents him a military road to the borders of Bohemia. By the Necker he approaches Ulm, and establishes himself on the Danube.* These rivers enable him to take the vast resources of his wide domain to the point where he may wish to employ them. Menacing I have trespassed on your patience more at pleasure his neighbors, he is himself secured than I wished, although, from the lateness of by a line of fortresses along his whole frontier. the hour, much has been omitted of what I Switzerland, which was the only feeble point of ought to have said. I have endeavored to show his defence, and which separated his Gallic and that, under the existing circumstances, we are Italian dominions, has lately been subjected. now actually at war, and have no choice but The voice you now hear, warned the Swiss of manly resistance or vile submission. That the their fate more than eight years ago. The idea possession of this country by France is dangerseemed then extravagant; but realized, it ap-ous to other nations, but fatal to us. That it pears but as a necessary incident. Russia is deprived of her influence in Germany, and thereby of a principal instrument by which her policy might operate on the great powers of the South. The Germanic body is indeed in the hand of the First Consul. Three new Electors along the Rhine are under the mouths of his cannon. They dare not speak. Speak! None dare speak. They dare not think any thing inconsistent with his wishes. Even at their courtly feasts they sit like Damocles, destruction suspended over their heads by a single hair. Would you know the sentiment of England? Look at the debates. In the two Houses of Parliament they speak their fears. Such being the general sentiment of Europe, can it be supposed that they will view without anxiety a new extension of that power and dominion, the object of their hatred and apprehension? Will it be said that there is a security to the freedom of mankind from the moderation with which this enormous power is to be exercised? Vain delusion! This power is not the result of accident. At the moment when France dethroned her sovereign, it was easy to foresee that a contest must ensue in which her existence would be staked against the empire of the world. If not conquered by surrounding princes, (and the hope of such conquest, unless by the aid of her own citizens, was idle,) her numerous armies acquiring discipline must eventually conquer. She had the advantages of situation, and those which result from union, opposed to councils uncertain and selfish. It was easy also to foresee that, in the same progress of events, some fortunate soldier would seat himself on the vacant throne; for the idea of a French Republic was always a ridiculous chimera. Buonaparte has placed himself at the head of that nation by deeds which cast a lustre on his name. In his splendid career he must proceed. When he ceases to act he will cease to reign. Whenever in any plan he fails, that moment he falls. He is condemned to magnificence. To him are This was spoken before the campaigns of Ulm, Aus terlitz and Jena. forms a natural and necessary part of our empire; that, to use the strong language of the gentleman near me, it is joined to us by the hand of the Almighty, and that we have no hope of obtaining it by treaty. If, indeed, there be any such hope, it must be by adopting the resolutions offered by my honorable friend. Sir, I wish for peace-I wish the negotiation may succeed, and therefore I strongly urge you to adopt those resolutions. But though you should adopt them, they alone will not ensure success. I have no hesitation in saying that you ought to have taken possession of New Orleans and the Floridas the instant your treaty was violated. You ought to do it now. Your rights are invaded-confidence in negotiation is vain; there is therefore no alternative but force. You are exposed to imminent present danger. You have the prospect of great future advantage. You are justified by the clearest principles of right. You are urged by the strongest motives of policy. You are commanded by every sentiment of national dignity. Look at the conduct of America in her infant years, when there was no actual invasion of right, but only a claim to invade. She resisted the claim; she spurned the insult. Did we then hesitate? Did we then wait for foreign alliance? No; animated with the spirit, warmed with the soul of freedom, we threw our oaths of allegiance in the face of our sovereign, and committed our fortunes and our fate to the God of battles. We then were subjects. We had not then attained to the dignity of an independent Republic. We then had no rank among the nations of the earth. But we had the spirit which deserved that elevated station. And now that we have gained it, shall we fall from our honor? Sir, repeat to you that I wish for peacereal, lasting, honorable peace. To obtain and secure this blessing, let us by a bold and deci sive conduct convince the Powers of Europe that we are determined to defend our rights; that we will not submit to insult; that we will not bear degradation. This is the conduct which becomes a generous people. This con FEBRUARY, 1803.] Mississippi Question. [SENATE. duct will command the respect of the world. | tives and clamor abroad. But we are not to FRIDAY, February 25. The Senate resumed the consideration of the resolutions respecting the indisputable right of the United States to the free navigation of the Mississippi, together with the proposed amendment thereto. Mr. ANDERSON (of Tennessee) said he rose with much diffidence, after the very able discussion which the subject had already undergone; after so many men distinguished among the first in our country had treated it with so much ability, he could not expect to furnish many new facts or observations on the subject. But coming from that part of the country which is particularly interested in the discussion, he felt himself particularly bound to offer a few remarks, which some erroneous statements that had fallen in debate, from the gentleman from Delaware, (Mr. WHITE,) particularly called for. He would, while he was up, endeavor to add a few observations on the resolutions. The first of the resolutions appeared to him to be introduced merely with a view to involve the members who were opposed to hostile measures in a dilemma. It was the assertion of a truth which no one would deny, but it was connected with other resolutions or assertions, which must from propriety bring the whole under a negative vote. Taking the naked proposition that we have a right to the place of deposit, we all agree; that it has been suspended, we are equally agreed; but there we stop; by prefacing their resolutions with these truths, they expect either to induce us to vote for other things repugnant to our judgment, or afford room for the imputation of wrong mo The resolutions called upon us to declare the deprivation of the right of deposit to be hostile to our honor and interests. On this there were a variety of opinions; and it appears to be agreed (for it was not contradicted by any) that the act of an individual unauthorized cannot be either a cause of war, or the act of the government of which he is an officer. No gentleman has positively declared the act to be authorized by Spain. We have the best evidence that the case will admit of, that it has not been authorized. As the act of an individual, therefore, it cannot affect the honor of this country. That her interests are affected is agreed on all hands; but then the due course of proceeding has been adopted, and redress is to be expected. If it should be denied us, we have our remedy, and it is then that it will become a point of honor. But now, as had been well said by his friend from Georgia, (Mr. JACKSON,) if we were to rashly declare the act of the individual contrary to our national honor, we could not retrograde; and if Spain should not do us justice, he trusted that we should then take our strong ground, and not give way a step. This would be the effect. Gentlemen do not know the American character they underrate it: there is not that levity in it which gentlemen suppose, capable of being SENATE.] Mississippi Question. [FEBRUARY, 1803. lightly led astray. The character of America is | nected with another Government; we began by fixed, and when real necessity calls for their ex- petition in the terms of abjectness and humility, ertions, the people will require no artificial ex-which are incidental to subjects of monarchs; citement. which are always necessary, in order to conceal From time to time, he had heard in that House the spirit and the presumption, of which mon and in other places, the most wanton and cruel archs are always jealous in their subjects; but abaspersions cast upon the people of the Western ject as we appeared, the very temper and phrase country. He knew not how gentlemen could re- of humility deceived our oppressor into a belief concile their pretensions of regard for the West- that we were too lowly to entertain the manly ern people with the odious imputations which temper of resistance against oppression. Yet our were constantly cast upon their attachment.precursory and reiterated humility did not HDThe whole of the opposition appeared to concur nerve our arms nor subdue our minds, when it in their illiberality towards the Western people, became necessary to fling off the trammels of op at the very moment they were professing so pression. The result, we now enjoy. Wha much zeal for their good. The late President of that very power from which we had detached the United States had in the most unwarrantable ourselves, refused to carry her treaty into exeermanner told him, that the Western people were tion, did we then go to war? She held several ready to hold out their hands to the first for- of our fortresses; we were entitled by every eigner that should offer them an alliance; the right of nature, and the usage of nations, to seize same sentiment is echoed here, only in different upon them; Lot like the right of deposit, a terms. But such vile imputations attach not to privilege enjoyed on the territory of another, the Western people, but to those who employed but fortresses held, and in military array on our them. The Western people are Americans, who own territory. Did we then make war? No, wasted the spring-tide and summer of their days we negotiated; and when another power subin the cause of their country; men who, having sequently attacked us, we pursued the same spent their patrimony in establishing their coun- course with the like success. The gentleman try's independence, travelled to the wilderness, (Mr. Ross) has told us that when President to seek a homestead for themselves and children. WASHINGTON came into office, he would not Was it honorable, was it consistent with those have negotiated for the Mississippi, had he not labored efforts for their good, which we are told found the negotiation already begun. The gesactuate gentlemen, to calumniate them in so un-tleman has not told us upon what authority he worthy a fashion? Gentlemen appear by their states this, or how he came to possess the knowgestures to deny that they have been guilty of ledge of a fact of which all others are ignorant; this calumny. But my charge against them is a fact, too, contradictory of his practice through not of that evasive or double character which life, and of the principles of that legacy which they deal in; the words they have used I have he left to his country. taken down-they are; "The French would draw the Western people into an alliance," "The Western people would be influenced by the insidious emissaries of France," "Corruption would find its way among them, and be transferred even to that floor." Is this not calumny of the darkest hue? Is this the way in which six hundred thousand men are to be stigmatized? Men, a greater proportion of whom are soldiers who fought for the independence of America, than ever was to be found in the whole State (Delaware) to which the gentleman belongs. During twelve years, eight of which one of the first men the world ever saw, or perhaps ever will see, presided over our affairs, the policy of pacific negotiation prevailed in our councils; a policy somewhat more hostile in its aspect was attempted by his successor, but still negotiation succeeded negotiation, and success attended perseverance. In the early stages of our existence, before we were yet a nation, it is indeed true that we drank of the cup of humiliation, even to the dregs; it was the natural effect of our dependent situation; of the prejudices that bound us, and from which great violence was necessary, and was employed to detach us. Such humiliation would not befit us now; no motives exist to demand or justify it: we were then a part of another nation, and con Mr. S. T. MASON, said, that if he were to consult the state of his health, he should not trouble the Senate with any remarks on the resolutions before them. But he had heard in the course of debate, certain observations, such strange and paradoxical arguments; insinuations and assertions of such a nature as ought not to be passed unnoticed. Doubtful whether his strength would sustain him through the whole scope which in better health he should take, he would endeavor to limit his arguments to a few of the most prominent particulars, which excited his attention, and to the delivery of his reasons for preferring the substitute propositions of his friend from Kentucky, (Mr. BRECKENRIDGE,) to the original resolutions of the gentleman from Pennsylvania. He had heard, in the debate, many professions of confidence in the Executive. He was very glad to hear such unusual expressions from that quarter. However, it was entitled to its due weight-what that was he would not inquire; but this he would say, that this unexpected ebullition of confidence went very much farther than he should be disposed to carry his confidence in any man or any President whatever. Gentlemen tell us that they are willing to intrust to the Executive the power of going to war, or not, at his discretion. Wonderful indeed is this sudden disposition to confidence? Why do not gentlemen give away that which they have some authority or right to bestow? Who gave them the power to vest in any other authority than in Congress the right of declaring war? The framers of this constitution had too much experience to intrust such a power to any individual; they early and wisely foresaw, that though there might be men too virtuous to abuse such a power, that it ought not to be intrusted to any; and nugatory would be the authority of the Senate, if we could assume the right of transferring our constitutional functions to any man or set of men. It was a stretch of confidence which he would not trust to any President that ever lived, or that will live. He could not as one, without treason to the constitution, consent ever to relinquish the right of declaring war to any man, or men, beside Congress. We are told that negotiation is not the course which is proper for us to pursue. But to this he should reply, that such was the usage of all civilized nations; and, however gentlemen might attempt to whittle away the strong ground taken by his friend from New York, he had shown, in a manner not to be shaken, that negotiation before a resort to the last scourge of nations, is the course most consistent with good policy, as well as with universal practice. The gentleman from Pennsylvania had indeed | told us that Great Britain had departed from that practice; unfortunately for Great Britain and the gentleman's argument, he told us, at the same time, that she had sustained a most serious injury by her injustice and precipitation. She went to war to seek retribution, and after fighting a while, she left off, and forgot to ask the retribution for which she went to war! And this is the example held up for our imitation; because Great Britain violated the law of nations, we are called upon to do so too! We are told also that Great Britain commenced war during our Revolution, against the Dutch, without any previous notification; that she did the same in the late war with France, and in both cases seized on the ships in her harbors; that is, like a professional bully, she struck first, and then told them she would fight them-and this is the gracious example held up to us. The merits of the different propositions consisted in this, that by the amendments we propose to seek the recourse of pacific nations-to follow up our own uniform practice; we pursue, in fact, the ordinary and rational course. The first resolutions go at once to the point of war. This was openly and fairly acknowledged by the gentleman from New York (Mr. G. MORRIS.) The gentleman from Pennsylvania, (Mr. Ross,) indeed, told us that it is not war-it was only going and taking peaceable possession of New Orleans! He did not before think the gentleman felt so little respect for the Senate, or estimated their understandings so much inferior to his own, as to call such a measure an act of peace! How did the gentleman mean to go, and how take peaceable possession? Would [SENATE. he march at the head of the posse comitatus? No! he would march at the head of fifty thousand militia, and he would send forth the whole naval and regular force, armed and provided with military stores. He would enter their island, set fire to their warehouses, and bombard their city, desolate their farms and plantations, and having swept all their habitations away, after wading through streams of blood, he would tell those who had escaped destruction, we do not come here to make war on you-we are a very moderate, tender-hearted kind of neighbors, and are come here barely to take peaceable possession of your territory! Why, sir, this is too naked not to be an insult to the understanding of a child! But the gentleman from New York (Mr. MORRIS) did not trifle with the Senate in such a style; he threw off the mask at once, and in a downright manly way, fairly told us that he liked war-that it was his favorite mode of negotiating between nations; that war gave dignity to the species-that it drew forth the most noble energies of humanity! That gentleman scorned to tell us that he wished to take peaceable possession. No! He could not snivel; his vast genius spurned huckstering; his mighty soul would not bear to be locked up in a petty warehouse at New Orleans; he was for war, terrible, glorious havoc! He tells you piainly, that you are not only to recover your rights, but, you must remove your neighbors from their possessions, and repel those to whom they may transfer the soil; that Buonaparte's ambition is insatiable; that he will throw in colonies of Frenchmen, who will settle on your frontier for thousands of miles round about, (when he comes there;) and he does not forget to tell you of the imminent dangers which threaten our good old friends the English. He tells you that New Orleans is the lock and you must seize upon the key, and shut the door against this terrible Buonaparte, or he will come with his legions, and, as Gulliver served the Lilliputians, wash you off the map. Not content, in his great care for your honor and glory, as a statesman and a warrior, he turns prophet to oblige you-your safety in the present year or the next, does not satisfy him-his vast mind, untrammelled by the ordinary progressions of chronology, looks over ages to come with a faculty bordering on omniscience, and conjures us to come forward and regulate the decrees of Providence at ten thousand years distance. 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 negotiator on this occasion, he would say: "You mean to cede New SENATE.] Mississippi Question. [FEBRUARY, 1803. Orleans; no, gentlemen, I beg your pardon, you | of Delaware in particular,) such is the passion cannot cede that, for we want it ourselves; and for the wonderful, or the absurd, there prevails as to the Floridas, it would be very indiscreet the liveliest sensibility for the Western country! to cede that, as, in all human probability, we Mr. NICHOLAS said,-When the gentleman from shall want that also in less than five hundred Pennsylvania (Mr. Ross) opened his war project, years from this day; and then, as to Loui- his resentment appeared to be confined wholly siana, you surely could not think of that, for in to Spain; his sole object the securing the navisomething less than a thousand years, in the gation of the Mississippi, and our right to a connatural order of things, our population will pro- venient place of deposit on that river. We gress towards that place also." were told by that gentleman, that we are bound If Spain has ceded those countries to France, to go to war for this right, which God and nsthe cession has been made with all the encum-ture had given the Western people. What are brances and obligations to which it is subject by we to understand by this right, given by God previous compact with us. Whether Buonaparte and nature? Surely not the right of deposit, will execute these obligations with good faith, for that was given by treaty; and as to the right he could not say; but to say that Spain has no of navigation, that has been neither suspended right to cede, is a bold assertion indeed. The nor brought into question. But we are told by people of America will not go along with such the same gentleman, that the possession of New doctrines, for they lead to ruin alone. We Orleans is necessary to our complete security. are also told, that the power of the Chief Con- Leaving to the gentleman's own conscience to sul is so great, that he puts up and pulls down settle the question as to the morality of taking all the nations of the Old World at discretion, that place, because it would be convenient, he and that he can do so with us. Yet we are would inform him that the possession of it will told by the wonderful statesman, who gives us not give us complete security. The island of this awful information, that we must go to war Cuba, from its position, and the excellence of with this maker and destroyer of Governments. its harbors, commands the Gulf of Mexico as If, after the unceasing pursuit of empire and completely as New Orleans does the river Misconquest, which is thus presented to us, we sissippi, and to give that complete security take possession of his territory, from the gen- that he requires of the President, the island of tleman's own declarations, what are we to ex- Cuba must likewise be taken possession of. It pect, only that this wonderful man, who never has been shown that the measures proposed by abandons an object-who thinks his own and the gentleman from Pennsylvania, and he would the nation's honor pledged to go through what-again demonstrate it, if it was necessary, are ever 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 calculated to bring upon the Western country all the mischiefs that gentleman has depicted as resulting to them from a loss of the navigation of the river Mississippi. If we are driven to war to assert our rights, the Western people must make up their minds to bear that loss during the war; for without a naval superiority, which we have not and cannot obtain, or the possession of Cuba, we shall not be able to avail ourselves of the navigation to any useful purpose. Although we may take possession of the Floridas and New Orleans, it is from a conviction of its pernicious effects upon the Western country, as well as other reasons, that he was averse to appealing to arms as long as there is a prospect of attaining our object in another way. The gentleman from New York, finding the weight of argument against him, and that a resort to arms would not be justifiable upon the ground taken by his friends, with a boldness and promptitude that characterizes veteran politicians, has not only assigned new and different causes for war, but new objects, and a new and more powerful enemy to cope with. He no doubt felt the force of the arguments that have been used to show the improbability that Spain would authorize an act that would produce a rupture with this country, at the moment that she was parting with Louisiana, and when she could not possibly derive any advantage from the wrong that she could do us by that act; and at a time when we knew from unquestionable evidence that it is the desire of |