Abridgement of the Debates of Congress, from 1789 to 1856 (4 of 16 vol.)

It was just so with respect to the invasion of Canada. I heard of it last June. I laughed at the idea, as did multitudes of others, as an attempt too absurd for serious examination. I was in this case again beset by common sense and common prudence. That the United States should precipitate itself upon the unoffending people of that neighboring colony, unmindful of all previously subsisting amities, because the parent State, three thousand miles distant, had violated some of our commercial rights; that we should march inland, to defend our ships, and seamen; that with raw troops, hastily collected, miserably appointed, and destitute of discipline, we should invade a country defended by veteran forces, at least equal, in point of numbers, to the invading army; that bounty should be offered and proclamations issued, inviting the subjects of a foreign power to treason and rebellion, under the influences of a quarter of the country upon which a retort of the same nature was so obvious, so easy, and, in its consequences, so awful; in every aspect, the design seemed so fraught with danger and disgrace, that it appeared absolutely impossible that it should be seriously entertained. Those, however, who reasoned after this manner were, as the event proved, mistaken. The war was declared. Canada was invaded. We were in haste to plunge into these great difficulties, and we have now reason, as well as leisure enough, for regret and repentance.

The great mistake of all those, who reasoned concerning the war and the invasion of Canada, and concluded that it was impossible that either should be seriously intended, resulted from this, that they never took into consideration the connection of both those events with the great election for the Chief Magistracy which was then pending. It never was sufficiently considered by them, that plunging into war with Great Britain was among the conditions on which the support for the Presidency was made dependent. They did not understand, that an invasion of Canada was to be in truth only a mode of carrying on an electioneering campaign. But since events have explained political purposes, there is no difficulty in seeing the connections between projects and interests. It is now apparent to the most mole-sighted how a nation may be disgraced, and yet a Cabinet attain its desired honors. All is clear. A country may be ruined, in making an Administration happy.

I said, Mr. Speaker, that such strange schemes, apparently irreconcilable to common sense and common prudence, were, on that very account, more likely to be successful. Sir, there is an audacity, which sometimes stands men instead both of genius and strength. And most assuredly, he is most likely to perform that which no man ever did before, and will never be likely to do again, who has the boldness to undertake that which no man ever thought of attempting in time past, and no man will ever think of attempting in time future. I would not, however, be understood as intimating that this Cabinet project of invasion is impracticable, either as it respects the collection of means and instruments, or in the ultimate result. On the contrary, sir, I deem both very feasible. Men may be obtained. For if forty dollars bounty cannot obtain them, a hundred dollars bounty may, and the intention is explicitly avowed not to suffer the attainment of the desired army to be prevented by any vulgar notions of economy. Money may be obtained. What by means of the increased popularity derived from the augmentation of the navy, what by opening subscription offices in the interior of the country, what by large premiums, the cupidity of the moneyed interest may be tempted beyond the point of patriotic resistance, and all the attained means being diverted to the use of the army, pecuniary resources may be obtained, ample at least for the first year. And, sir, let an army of thirty thousand men be collected, let them be put under the command of a popular leader, let them be officered to suit his purposes, let them be flushed with victories, and see the fascinating career of military glory opening upon them, and they will not thereafter ever be deficient in resources. If they cannot obtain their pay by your votes, they will collect it by their own bayonets; and they will not rigidly observe any air-lines or water-lines in enforcing their necessary levies; nor be stayed by abstract speculation concerning right, or learned constitutional difficulties.

I will now proceed to discuss those topics which naturally arise out of the bill under consideration, and examine the proposed invasion of Canada, at three different points of view.

1. As a means of carrying on the subsisting war.

2. As a means of obtaining an early and honorable peace.

3. As a means of advancing the personal and local projects of ambition of the members of the American Cabinet.

Concerning the invasion of Canada, as a means of carrying on the subsisting war, it is my duty to speak plainly and decidedly, not only because I herein express my own opinions upon the subject, but, as I conscientiously believe, the sentiments also of a very great majority of that whole section of country in which I have the happiness to reside. I say then, sir, that I consider the invasion of Canada as a means of carrying on this war, as cruel, wanton, senseless, and wicked.

You will easily understand, Mr. Speaker, by this very statement of opinion, that I am not one of that class of politicians which has for so many years predominated in the world, on both sides of the Atlantic. You will readily believe, that I am not one of those who worship in that temple, where Condorcet is the High Priest and Machiavel the God. With such politicians the end always sanctifies the means; the least possible good to themselves perfectly justifies, according to their creed, the inflicting the greatest possible evil upon others. In the judgment of such men, if a corrupt ministry at three thousand miles distance shall have done them an injury, it is an ample cause to visit with desolation a peaceable and unoffending race of men, their neighbors, who happen to be associated with that ministry by ties of mere political dependence. What though these colonies be so remote from the sphere of the questions in controversy, that their ruin or prosperity could have no possible influence upon the result? What though their cities offer no plunder? What though their conquest can yield no glory? In their ruin there is revenge. And revenge to such politicians is the sweetest of all morsels. With such men, neither I nor the people of that section of country in which I reside hold any communion. There is between us and them no one principle of sympathy either in motive or action.

That wise, moral, reflecting people, which constitute the great mass of the population of Massachusetts – indeed, of all New England – look for the sources of their political duties nowhere else than in those fountains from which spring their moral duties. According to their estimate of human life and its obligations, both political and moral duties emanate from the nature of things, and from the essential and eternal relations which subsist among them. True it is, that a state of war gives the right to seize and appropriate the property and territories of an enemy. True it is, that the colonies of a foreign power are viewed, according to the law of nations, in the light of its property. But in estimating the propriety of carrying desolation into the peaceful abodes of their neighbors, the people of New England will not limit their contemplation to the mere circumstance of abstract right, nor ask what lawyers and jurisprudists have written or said, as if this was conclusive upon the subject. That people are much addicted to think for themselves, and in canvassing the propriety of such an invasion, they will consider the actual condition of those colonies, their natural relations to us, and the effect which their conquest and ruin will have, not only upon the people of those colonies, but upon themselves, and their own liberties and constitution. And above all, what I know will seem strange to some of those who hear me, they will not forget to apply to a case occurring between nations, as far as is practicable, that heaven-descended rule which the great author and founder of their religion has given them for the regulation of their conduct towards each other. They will consider it the duty of these United States to act towards those colonies as they would wish those colonies to act, in exchange of circumstances, towards these United States.

The actual condition of those colonies, and the relation in which they stood to the United States antecedent to the declaration of war, were of this nature. Those colonies had no connection with the questions in dispute between us and their parent State. They had done us no injury. They meditated none to us. Between the inhabitants of those colonies and the citizens of the United States, the most friendly and mutually useful intercourse subsisted. The borderers on this, and those on the other side of the St. Lawrence, and of the boundary line, scarcely realized that they were subjects of different governments. They interchanged expressions and acts of civility. Intermarriages took place among them. The Canadian sometimes settled in the United States; sometimes our citizens emigrated to Canada. After the declaration of war, had they any disposition to assail us? We have the reverse expressly in evidence. They desired nothing so much as to keep perfect the then subsisting relations of amity. Would the conquest of those colonies shake the policy of the British cabinet? No man has shown it. Unqualified assertions, it is true, have been made, but totally unsupported by any evidence, or even the pretence of argument. On the contrary, nothing was more obvious than that an invasion of Canada must strengthen the Ministry of Great Britain, by the excitement and sympathy which would be occasioned in the people of that country in consequence of the sufferings of the innocent inhabitants of those colonies, on account of a dispute in which they had no concern, and of which they had scarcely a knowledge. All this was anticipated – all this was frequently urged to this House, at the last and preceding sessions, as the necessary effect of such a measure. The event has justified those predictions. The late elections in Great Britain have terminated in the complete triumph of the friends of the British Ministry. In effecting this change, the conduct of the United States in relation to Canada has had, undeniably, a mighty influence, by the disgust and indignation felt by the British people at a step so apparently wanton and cruel.

As there was no direct advantage to be hoped from the conquest of Canada, so also, there was none incidental. Plunder there was none – at least, none which would pay the cost of the conquest. Glory there was none. Could seven millions of people obtain glory by precipitating themselves upon half a million, and trampling them into the dust? A giant obtain glory by crushing a pigmy! That giant must have a pigmy's spirit who could reap, or hope, glory from such an achievement.

Surely a people, with whom we were connected by so many natural and adventitious ties, had some claims upon our humanity. Surely if our duty required that they and theirs should be sacrificed to our interests or our passions, some regret mingled in the execution of our purpose. We postponed the decree of ruin until the last moment. We hesitated – we delayed until longer delay was dangerous. Alas! sir, there was nothing of this kind or character in the conduct of the Cabinet. The war had not yet been declared, when General Hull had his instructions to put in train the work of destruction. There was an eagerness for the blood of the Canadians – a headlong precipitation for their ruin, which indicated any thing else rather than feelings of humanity, or visitings of nature, on account of their condition. Our armies were on their march for their frontier, while yet peace existed between this country and the parent State; and the invasion was obstinately pursued, after a knowledge that the chief ground of controversy was settled by the abandonment of the British Orders in Council; and after nothing remained but a stale ground of dispute, which, however important in itself, was of a nature for which no man has ever yet pretended that for it alone war would have been declared. Did ever one Government exhibit towards any people a more bloody and relentless spirit of rancor? Tell me not of petty advantages – of remote, and possibly useful contingencies which might arise from the devastation of those colonies. Show any advantage which justifies that dreadful vial of wrath which, if the intention of the American Cabinet had been fulfilled, would, at this day, have been poured out upon the heads of the Canadians. It is not owing to the tender mercies of the American Administration, if the bones of the Canadians are not at this hour mingled with the ashes of their habitations. It is easy enough to make an excuse for any purpose. When a victim is destined to be immolated, every hedge presents sticks for the sacrifice. The lamb who stands at the mouth of the stream, will always trouble the water, if you take the account of the wolf who stands at the source of it. But show a good to us bearing any proportion to the multiplied evils proposed to be visited upon them. There is none. Never was there an invasion of any country worse than this, in point of moral principle, since the invasion of the West Indies by the Buccaneers, or that of the United States by Captain Kidd. Indeed, both Kidd and the Buccaneers had more apology for their deed than the American Cabinet. They had at least the hope of plunder; but in this case there is not even the poor refuge of cupidity. We have heard great lamentations about the disgrace of our arms on the frontier. Why, sir, the disgrace of our arms on the frontier is terrestrial glory, in comparison with the disgrace of the attempt. The whole atmosphere rings with the utterance, from the other side of the House of this word "glory" – "glory" in connection with this invasion. What glory? Is it the glory of the tiger, which lifts his jaws, all foul and bloody, from the bowels of his victim, and roars for his companions of the wood to come and witness his prowess and his spoils? Such is the glory of Genghis Khan, and of Bonaparte. Be such glory far, very far, from my country. Never, never may it be accursed with such fame.

"Fame is no plant that grows on mortal soil,Nor in the glistering foilSet off to the world, nor in broad rumor lies,But lives and spreads aloft, by those pure eyes,And perfect witness of all-judging Jove,As he pronounces lastly on each deed."May such fame as this be my country's meed!

But the wise and thoughtful people of our Northern section will confine their reflections to the duties which result from the actual condition of those colonies, and their general relations to the United States; they will weigh the duties the people of the United States owe to themselves, and contemplate the effect which the subjugation of those Canadians will have upon our own liberties and constitution. Sir, it requires but little experience in the nature of the human character, and but a very limited acquaintance with the history of man, to be satisfied that with the conquest of the Canadas, the liberties and constitution of this country perish.

Of all nations in the world, this nation is the last which ought to admit, among its purposes, the design of foreign conquests. States such as are these, connected by ties so peculiar; into whose combination there enters necessarily numerous jealousies and fears; whose interests are not always reconcilable; and the passions, education, and character of whose people, on many accounts, are repugnant to each other; with a constitution made merely for defence; it is impossible that an association of independent Sovereignties, standing in such relations to each other, should not have the principles of its union, and the hopes of its constitution, materially affected by the collection of a large military force, and its employment in the subjugation of neighboring territories. It is easy to see that an army collected in such a state of society as that which exists in this country, where wages are high and subsistence easily to be obtained, must be composed, so far as respects the soldiery, for the most part of the refuse of the country; and as respects the officers, with some honorable exceptions indeed, must consist, in a considerable degree, of men desperate sometimes in fortune, at others in reputation; "choice spirits;" men "tired of the dull pursuits of civil life," who have not virtue or talents to rise in a calm and settled state of things, and who, all other means of advancement or support wanting or failing, take to the sword. A body of thirty or fifty thousand such men, combined, armed, and under a popular leader, is a very formidable force. They want only discipline and service to make them veterans. Opportunity to acquire these, Canada will afford. The army which advances to the walls of Quebec, in the present condition of Canadian preparation, must be veteran. And a veteran army, under a popular leader, flushed with victory, each individual realizing, that while the body remains combined, he may be something, and possibly very great; that if dissolved, he sinks into insignificance; will not be disbanded by vote. They will consult with one another, and with their beloved chieftain, upon this subject; and not trouble themselves about the advice of the old people who are knitting and weaving in the chimney corners at Washington. Let the American people receive this as an undoubted truth, which experience will verify. Whoever plants the American standard on the walls of Quebec, conquers it for himself, and not for the people of the United States. Whoever lives to see that event – may my head be low in the dust before it happen! – will witness a dynasty established in that country by the sword. He will see a King or an Emperor, dukedoms, and earldoms, and baronies, distributed to the officers, and knights' fees bestowed on the soldiery. Such an army will not trouble itself about geographical lines, in portioning out the divisions of its new empire; and will run the parallels of its power by other steel than that of the compass. When that event happens, the people of New England, if they mean to be free, must have a force equal to defend themselves against such an army. And a military force equal to this object will itself be able to enslave the country.

Mr. Speaker – When I contemplate the character and consequences of this invasion of Canada; when I reflect upon its criminality and its danger to the peace and liberty of this once happy country; I thank the great Author and Source of all virtue, that through His grace that section of country in which I have the happiness to reside, is, in so great a degree, free from the iniquity of this transgression. I speak it with pride, the people of that section have done what they could to vindicate themselves and their children from the burden of this sin. That whole section has risen, almost as one man, for the purpose of driving from power, by one great constitutional effort, the guilty authors of this war. If they have failed, it has not been through the want of will or of exertion, but in consequence of the weakness of their political power. When in the usual course of Divine Providence, who punishes nations as well as individuals, His destroying angel shall on this account pass over this country – and sooner or later, pass it will – I may be permitted to hope that over New England his hand will be stayed. Our souls are not steeped in the blood which has been shed in this war. The spirits of the unhappy men who have been sent to an untimely audit, have borne to the bar of divine justice no accusations against us.

This opinion, concerning the principles of this invasion of Canada, is not peculiar to me. Multitudes who approve the war, detest it. I believe this sentiment is entertained, without distinction of parties, by almost all the moral sense, and nine-tenths of the intelligence, of the whole northern section of the United States. I know that men from that quarter of the country will tell you differently. Stories of a very different kind are brought by all those who come trooping to Washington for place, appointments, and emoluments; men who will say any thing to please the ear, or do any thing to please the eye of Majesty, for the sake of those fat contracts and gifts which it scatters; men whose fathers, brothers, and cousins, are provided for by the Departments; whose full-grown children are at, suck at the money-distilling breasts of the Treasury; the little men who sigh after great offices; those who have judgeships in hand or judgeships in promise; toads that live upon the vapor of the palace, that swallow great men's spittle at the levees; that stare and wonder at all the fine sights which they see there; and most of all wonder at themselves – how they got there to see them. These men will tell you, that New England applauds this invasion.

But, Mr. Speaker, look at the elections. What is the language they speak? The present tenant of the Chief Magistracy rejected, by that whole section of country, with the exception of a single State unanimously. And for whom? In favor of a man, out of the circle of his own State without much influence, and personally almost unknown. In favor of a man against whom the prevailing influence in New England had previously strong political prejudices; and with whom, at the time of giving him their support, they had no political understanding; in favor of a man whose merits, whatever in other respects they might be, were brought into notice, in the first instance, chiefly so far as that election was concerned, by their opinion of the utter want of merit of the man whose re-election they opposed.

Among the causes of that universal disgust which pervaded all New England, at the Administration and its supporters, was the general dislike and contempt of this invasion of Canada. I have taken some pains to learn the sentiments which prevail on this subject in New England, and particularly among its yeomanry, the pride and the hope of that country. I have conversed with men, resting on their spades and leaning on the handles of their ploughs, while they relaxed for a moment from the labor by which they support their families, and which gives such a hardihood and character to their virtues. They asked – "What do we want of Canada? We have land enough. Do we want plunder? There is not enough of that to pay the cost of getting it. Are our Ocean rights there? Or is it there our seamen are held in captivity? Are new States desired? We have plenty of those already. Are they to be held as conquered territories? This will require an army there. Then, to be safe, we must have an army here. And with a standing army, what security for our liberties?"

These are no fictitious reasonings. They are the suggestions I doubt not of thousands and tens of thousands of our hardy New England yeomanry; men who, when their country calls, at any wise and real exigency, will start from their native soils and throw their shields over their liberties, like the soldiers of Cadmus, "armed in complete steel;" yet men, who have heard the winding of your horn to the Canada campaign, with the same apathy and indifference with which they would hear in the streets the trilling of a jews-harp, or the twirring of a banjo.

The plain truth is, that the people of New England have no desire for Canada. Their moral sentiment does not justify, and they will not countenance its invasion. I have thus stated the grounds on which they deem, and I have felt myself bound to maintain, that this contemplated invasion of that territory is, as it respects the Canadians, wanton and cruel; because it inflicts the greatest imaginable evils on them, without any imaginable benefit to us; that, as it respects the United States, such an invasion is senseless, because, ultimately, ruinous to our own political safety; and wicked, because it is an abuse of the blessings of Divine Providence, and a manifest perversion of His multiplied bounties, to the purpose of desolating an innocent and unoffending people.

I shall now proceed to the next view I proposed to take on this project of invading Canada, and consider it in the light of a means to obtain an early and honorable peace. It is said, and this is the whole argument in favor of this invasion, in this aspect, that the only way to negotiate successfully with Great Britain, is to appeal to her fears and raise her terrors for the fate of her colonies. I shall here say nothing concerning the difficulties of executing this scheme; nor about the possibility of a deficiency both in men and money. I will not dwell on the disgust of all New England, nor on the influence of this disgust with respect to your efforts. I will admit, for the present, that an army may be raised, and that during the first years it may be supported by loans, and that afterwards it will support itself by bayonets. I will admit farther, for the sake of argument, that success is possible and that Great Britain realizes the practicability of it. Now, all this being admitted, I maintain that the surest of all possible ways to defeat any hope from negotiation, is the threat of such an invasion, and an active preparation to execute it. Those must be very young politicians, their pin-feathers not yet grown, and however they may flutter on this floor, they are not yet fledged for any high or distant flight, who think that threats and appealing to fear are the ways of producing a disposition to negotiate in Great Britain, or in any other nation which understands what it owes to its own safety and honor. No nation can yield to threat, what it might yield to a sense of interest; because, in that case, it has no credit for what it grants, and what is more, loses something in point of reputation, from the imbecility which concessions made under such circumstances indicate. Of all nations in the world, Great Britain is the last to yield to considerations of fear and terror. The whole history of the British nation is one tissue of facts, tending to show the spirit with which she meets all attempts to bully and brow-beat her into measures inconsistent with her interests or her policy. No nation ever before made such sacrifices of the present to the future. No nation ever built her greatness more systematically, on the principles of a haughty self-respect, which yields nothing to suggestions of danger, and which never permits either her ability or inclination to maintain her rights to be suspected. In all negotiations, therefore, with that power, it may be taken as a certain truth, that your chance of failure is just in proportion to the publicity and obtrusiveness of threats and appeals to fear.