be executed in time of peace? As to the man-subject. In a few words, I will tell you what ufactures of England, she can make them the I would do; place England and France upon manufactures of any country in Europe: she the same footing, by repealing the non-imporwill give you the exact marks, and stamps, and tation act, rescinding the proclamation, and repackages of any place to which your trade is pealing the embargo. Then ask for, and insist open, and she will defy you to distinguish her upon adequate reparation for the affair of the fabrics from those they attempt to imitate. Chesapeake. Make a treaty with Great BriBut, sir, the consequence chiefly to be dreaded tain, if as good terms could be obtained as those from such a measure, would be the practice of in either of the treaties which have been refussmuggling, to which it would certainly give ed. Agree to resist the execution of the Berlin birth. Can you expect in one moment to decree, and if she afterwards persisted in her change the habits of a whole country? We orders in council, declare war against her. know, sir, the power of habit: it is a second Such would be my course. War would be the nature. Can an act of Congress instantly last resort; and I believe, in my conscience, change your nature? No, sir, they who can we should never be driven to it, if the course afford it, will have what they have been accus- were pursued with a sincere disposition to pretomed to. They will pay any price for articles, serve peace. without which, perhaps, they can scarcely exist. Smuggling must follow, and will follow with forgery and perjury in its train. It is the honor and character of your trading people which now protects you from smuggling. Break down this sentiment, habituate them to perjury, destroy the disgrace attached to this violation of your law, and you lose half the security and means you have in the collection of your rev enue. The complaint has been made, that while we find fault with the measures proposed, we refuse to point out the course we would have the administration to pursue. I have, sir, no hesitation on my part, to disclose my opinion, or to offer the humble assistance of my advice on the Permit me, sir, to notice one remark of the honorable gentleman from Virginia, which had escaped me, and I am done. The gentleman told us, that the removal of the embargo was designed as a concession to our eastern brethren. I rejoiced to hear this sentiment of forbearance. Such sentiments give hopes that the Union may still be preserved. We have been led to the brink of a tremendous precipice; another false step, and we shall be lost in the abyss. Our safety is in treading back our steps. We have lost our way. Some ignis fatuus has beguiled us. There is a path of safety and honor-the path the nation once trod. Let us endeavor to regain it, and invoke the spirit of WASHINGTON to lead us once more into it! THE ARMY AND NAVY.* We have been reproached for having voted for an increase of the navy, while we are opposed to any augmentation of the army. I did vote for the four additional frigates, and I should have been willing to vote for four shipsof-the-line. The United States require, for the protection of their territory, a standing army of a certain amount. Our present military establishment exceeds ten thousand men. These are designed for the security of our persons and property upon land; and is not the person and property of the citizen entitled to protection on the ocean? God has decided that the people of this country should be a commercial people. You read that decree in the sea-coast of seventeen hundred miles which he has given you; in the numerous navigable waters which penetrate the interior of the country; in the various ports and harbors scattered along your shores; This extract is taken from Mr. Bayard's Speech in the United States Senate, on the twelfth of February, 1810: on the "bill to engage a corps of volunteers for a short period in the service of the United States." in your fisheries; in the redundant productions of your soil; and more than all, in the enterprising and adventurous spirit of your people. It is no more a question whether the people of this country shall be allowed to plough the ocean, than it is whether they shall be permitted to plough the land. It is not in the power of this government, nor would it be if it were as strong as the most despotic upon the earth, to subdue the commercial spirit, or to destroy the commercial habits of the country. Young as we are, our tonnage and commerce surpass those of every nation upon the globe but one, and if not wasted by the deprivations to which they were exposed by their defenceless situation, and the more ruinous restrictions to which this government subjected them, it would require not many more years to have made them the greatest in the world. Is this immense wealth always to be exposed as a prey to the rapacity of freebooters? Why will you protect your citizens and their property upon land, and leave them defenceless upon the ocean? As your mercantile property increases, the prize becomes more tempting to the cupidity of foreign nations. In the course of things, the ruins and aggressions which you have ex- | perienced will multiply, nor will they be restrained while we have no appearance of a naval force. I have always been in favor of a naval establishment-not from the unworthy motives attributed by the gentleman from Georgia to a former administration, in order to increase patronage, but from a profound conviction that the safety of the Union and the prosperity of the nation depended greatly upon its commerce, which never could be securely enjoyed without the protection of naval power. I offer, sir, abundant proof for the satisfaction of the liberal mind of that gentleman, that patronage was not formerly a motive in voting an increase in the navy, when I give now the same vote, when surely I and my friends have nothing to hope, and for myself, I thank God, nothing to wish from the patronage it may confer. You must and will have a navy; but it is not to be created in a day, nor is it to be expected, that in its infancy, it will be able to cope foot to foot with the full grown vigor of the Navy of England. But we are even now capable of maintaining a naval force formidable enough to threaten the British commerce, and to render this nation an object of more respect and consideration. In another point of view, the protection of commerce has become more indispensable. The discovery is completely made, that it is from commerce that the revenue is to be drawn which is to support this government. A direct tax, a stamp-act, a carriage tax, and an excise, have been tried; and I believe, sir, after the lesson which experience has given on the subject, no set of men in power will ever repeat them again, for all they are likely to produce. The burden must be pretty light upon the people of this country, or the rider is in great danger. You may be allowed to sell your back lands for some time longer, but the permanent fund for the support of this government is the imports. If the people were willing to part with commerce, can the government dispense with it? But when it belongs equally to the interest of the people and of the government to encourage and protect it, will you not spare a few of those dollars which it brings into your treasury, to defend and protect it? In relation to the increase of a permanent military force, a free people cannot cherish too great a jealousy. An army may wrest the power from the hands of the people, and deprive them of their liberty. It becomes us, therefore, to be extremely cautious how we augment it. But a navy of any magnitude can never threaten us with the same danger. Upon land, at this time, we have nothing—and proba bly, at any future time, we shall have but little -to fear from any foreign power. It is upon the ocean we meet them; it is there our collisions arise; it is there we are most feeble, most vulnerable, and most exposed; it is there by consequence, that our safety and prosperity must require an augmented force. |