STATE PAPERS. 



449 



mating considerations, of which 

 the view here presented of our pe- 

 cuniary resources is an example. 

 With more than one nation we 

 have serious and unsettled contro- 

 versies ; and with one powerful in 

 the means and habits of war, we 

 are at war. The spirit and strength 

 of this nation are nevertheless equal 

 to the support of all its rights, and 

 to carry it through all its trials. 

 They can be met in that confi- 

 dence. Above all, we have the 

 inestimable consolation of know- 

 ing that the war in which we are 

 actually engaged, is a war neither 

 of ambition nor vain glory ; that it 

 is waged, not in violation of the 

 rights of others, but in the main- 

 tenance of our own ; that it was 

 preceded by a patience without ex- 

 ample, under wrongs accumulating 

 without end ; and that it was fi- 

 nally not declared until every hope 

 of averting it was extinguished by 

 the British sceptre falling into new 

 hands, clinging to former councils, 

 and until declarations were reiter- 

 ated in the last hour through the 

 British envoy here, that the hostile 

 edicts against our commercial 

 rights and our maritime independ- 

 ence could not be revoked, with- 

 out violating the obligations of 

 Great Britain to other powers as 

 well as to her own interests. To 

 Jiave shrunk, under such circum- 

 stances, from manly resistance, 

 would have been a degradation 

 blasting our best and proudest 

 hopes. It would have struck us 

 from the high rank where the vir- 

 tuous struggles of our fathers had 

 placed us, and would have betrayed 

 the magnificent legacy which we 

 hold in trust for future generations. 

 It would have acknowledged, that 

 Vol. LIV. 



on the element which forms three- 

 fourths of the globe we inhabit, 

 and where all independent nations 

 have equal and common rights, 

 the American people were not an 

 indejjendent people, but colonists 

 and vassals. 



It was at this moment^ and with 

 such an alternative, that war was 

 chosen. The nation felt the ne- 

 cessity of it, and called for it. 

 The appeal was accordingly made 

 in a just cause, to the just and 

 powerful Being, who holds in his 

 hands the chain of events and the 

 destiny of nations. It remains 

 only, that, faithful to ourselves, en- 

 tangled with no connections with 

 the views of other powers, and 

 ever ready to accept peace from the 

 hand of justice, we prosecute that 

 war with united council, and with 

 the ample faculties of the nation, 

 until peace be $o obtained, and as 

 the only means under the divine 

 blessing of speedily obtaining it. 



James Madison. 

 Nov. 4,1812. 



Proclamation of the Emperor 

 Alexander, dated St, Peters- 

 burgh, November 15. 



We, Alexander the First, by the 

 Grace of God, Emperor and 

 Autocrat of all the Russias, &c. 



It is well known to the whole 

 world in what manner the enemy 

 has entered the boundaries of our 

 empire. No step or means that 

 have so frequently been resorted to 

 by the punctual fulfilment of the 

 peaceable bti|julations, nor our 

 steady endeavours by all possible 

 means to avert tlie effects of a 



2 G bloody 



