STATE PAPERS. 



429 



developing themselves among the 

 tribes in constant intercourse with 

 British traders and garrisons, with- 

 out connecting their hostility with 

 that influence ; and without recol- 

 lecting the authenticated examples 

 of such interpositions heretofore 

 furnished by the officers and agents 

 of that government. 



Such is the spectacle of injuries 

 and indignities which have been 

 heaped on our country; and such 

 the crisis which its unexampled 

 forbearance and conciliatory efforts 

 have not been able to avert. It 

 might at least have been expected, 

 that an enlightened nation, if less 

 urged by moral obligations, or in- 

 vited by friendly dispositions on 

 the part of the United States, 

 would have found in its true in- 

 terests alone a sufficient motive to 

 respect their rights and their tran- 

 quillity on the high seas : that an 

 enlarged policy would have favour- 

 ed the free and general circulation 

 of commerce, in which the British 

 nation is at all times interested, and 

 which in time of war is the best 

 alleviation of its calamities to her- 

 self, as well as the other bellige- 

 rents ; and more especially that 

 the British cabinet would not, for 

 the sake of a precarious and sur- 

 reptitious intercourse with hostile 

 markets, have persevered in a 

 course of measures which necessa- 

 rily put at hazard the invaluable 

 market of a great and growing 

 country, disposed to cultivate the 

 mutual advantages of an active 

 commerce. 



Other councils have prevailed. 

 Our moderation and conciliation 

 have had no other effect than to 

 encourage perseverance, and to 

 enlarge pretensions. We behold 

 our veafaring i itizens still the daily 



victims of lawless violence com- 

 mitted on the great and common 

 highway of nations, even within 

 the sight of the country which 

 owes them protection. We be- 

 hold our vessels freighted with the 

 products of our soil and industry, 

 or returning with the honest pro- 

 ceeds of them, wrested from their 

 lawful destinations, confiscated by 

 prize courts, no longer the organs 

 of public law, but the instruments 

 of arbitrary edicts, and their un- 

 fortunate crews dispersed or lost, 

 or forced or inveigled in British 

 ports into British fleets ; whilst 

 arguments are employed in support 

 of these aggressions, which have 

 no foundation but in a principle 

 equally supporting aclaim to regu- 

 late our external cotnmerce in all 

 cases whatsoever. 



We behold, in fine, on the side 

 of Great Britain, a state of war 

 against the United States; and, on 

 the side of the United States, 

 a state of peace towards Great 

 Britain. 



Whether the United States shall 

 continue passive under these pro- 

 gressive usurpations, and these 

 accumulating wrongs, or, oppos- 

 ing force to force in defence of 

 their natural rights, shall commit a 

 just cause into the hands of the Al- 

 mighty Disposer of events, avoid- 

 ing all connections which might 

 entangle it in the contests or views , 

 of other powers, and preserving a 

 constant readiness to concur in an 

 honourable re-establishment of 

 peace and friendship, is a solemn 

 question, which the constitution 

 wisely confides to the legislative 

 department of the government. In 

 recommending it to their early 

 deliberations, I am happy in the 

 assurance, that the decision will 



be 



