STATE PAPERS. 



i4C) 



Whereas the enemy by a sudden 

 incursion have succeeded in in- 

 %'ading the capital of the nation, 

 defended at the moment by troops 

 less numerous than their own, and 

 abnost entirely of the militia ; 

 during their possession of which, 

 though for a single day only, they 

 wantonly destroyed the public 

 edifices, having no relation in their 

 structure to operations of war, nor 

 used at the time for military an- 

 noyance; some of these edifices 

 being also costly monuments of 

 taste and of the arts, and others 

 repositories of the public archives, 

 not only precious to the nation, as 

 the memorials of its origin and its 

 early transactions, but interesting 

 to all nations, as contributions to 

 the general stock of historical in- 

 struction and political science. 



And whereas advantage has 

 been taken of the loss of a fort, 

 more immediately guarding the 

 neighbouring town of Alexandria, 

 to place the town within the range 

 of a naval force, too long and too 

 nuch in the habit of abusing its 

 superiority wherever it can be ap- 

 plied, to require, as the alternative 

 of a general conflagration, an un- 

 disturbed plunder of private pro- 

 perty, which has been executed 

 in a manner peculiarly distressing 

 to the inhabitants, who had in- 

 considertely cast themselves upon 

 the justice and generosity of the 

 victor. 



And whereas, it now appears, by 

 a direct communication from the 

 British Commander on the Ame- 

 rican station, to be his avowed 

 purpose to employ the force under 

 his directwu, " in destroying and 

 laying waste such towns and dis- 

 tricts upon the coast as may be 

 found assailable;" adding- to this 

 Vol LVI. 



declaration the insulting pretext 

 that it is in retaliation for a wanton 

 destruction committed by the army 

 of the United States in Upper 

 Canada, when it is notorious, that 

 no destruction has been committed, 

 which, notwithstanding the mul- 

 tiplied outrages previously com- 

 mitted by the enemy, was not un- 

 authorized and promptly shown to 

 be so ; and that the United States 

 have been as constant in their en- 

 deavours to reclaim the enemy 

 from such outrages, by the con- 

 trast of their own example, as 

 they have been ready to terminate, 

 on reasonable conditions, the war 

 itself. 



And whereas, these proceedings 

 and declared purposes, which ex- 

 hibit a deliberate disregard of the 

 principles of humanity, and the 

 rules of civilized warfare, and 

 which must give to the existing 

 war a character of extended devas- 

 tation and barbarism, at the very 

 moment of negociation for peace, 

 invited by the enemy himself, 

 leave no prospect of safety to any 

 thijig within the reach of his pre- 

 datory and incendiary operations, 

 but in manful and universal de- 

 termination to chastise and expel 

 the invader. 



Now, therefore, I, James Ma-» 

 dison. President of the United 

 States, do issue this my proclama- 

 tion, exhorting all the good people 

 thereof, to unite their hearts and 

 hands in giving effect to the ample 

 means possessed for that purpose. 

 I enjoin it on all officers, civil and 

 military, to exert themselves in 

 executing the duties with which 

 they are respectively charged. And 

 more especially, I require the offi- 

 cers commanding the respective 

 military districts, to be vigilant 

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