180 



reply. He says he shall have abundant reason to rejoice, if in di 

 recting the infirmities of my temper against him, they shall have 

 been diverted from a course in which they might have been disastrous 

 to the country. If in the history of my life, or in that of the coun 

 try, Mr. Russell could allege a single incident, in which the infir 

 mities of my temper ever have taken a course disastrous to the 

 country, I should have felt this Parthian shaft to be as deeply tinged 

 with venom to me, as with bitterness from the heart whence it sped. 

 But it has fallen short of its mark ; equally harmless to me and 

 useless to the professed patriotic self-devotion of the archer. 



And how stands the account of Mr. Russell ? At the negotiation 

 of Ghent, he had, as a member of the mission, been instructed, in 

 terms the most positive and unqualified, not to surrender the fish 

 eries. In that instruction, no sophistical distinction between a 

 right in the fisheries held by virtue of our Independence, and a 

 liberty in the fisheries held by grant from Great Britain, was war 

 ranted or allowed. No part of them was to be surrendered. And 

 the instruction was pointed and precise, to break off the negotiation 

 sooner than surrender them. The British plenipotentiaries had 

 presented the demard of surrender in such form, that there were 

 only two possible modes of saving them ; one, to agree to a new- 

 stipulation recognising them ; the other, to maintain that they had 

 not been abrogated by the war. A stipulation for a new recogni 

 tion is offered. Mr. Russell votes against it, because, as he alleges, 

 it would deprive the western country of an advantage, which they 

 would otherwise derive from the war. He prefers that the East 

 should /ose, so that the West may gain, by the result of the war. 

 lie rejects the proposal which would place both interests on the 

 fame footing as before the war. The East is his native section of 

 the Union. But it is a disaffected part of the country : and then 



&quot; Westward the star of empire takes its course.&quot; 



Well the other alternative is presented ; to maintain that the 

 liberties in question were not abrogated by the war. Mr. Russell 

 subscribes to this : but he now says it was &quot; in the spirit of com 

 promise, as a PRETEXT to preserve the fishing privilege, and to get 

 rid of&quot; the other proposition. Subsequently, Mr. Russell assents 

 to the other proposition itself, and subscribes his name to a letter 

 declaring that he had no objection to it. But this 100 he now says 

 was only in deference to the majority, and for fear that if he did 

 not subscribe, the enemy would accept it. The enemy, however, 

 despise this equivalent, so extravagant in the eyes of Mr. Russell : 

 and no sooner is it offered to them than they reject it. The peace 

 is concluded. The Mississippi navigation is not conceded to the 

 British ; and the preservation of the fishing liberties to this nation, 

 depends exclusively upon their maintaining the principle, that 

 they had not been abrogated by the war. Six weeks after signing 

 this treaty, Mr. Russell, still commissioned as a member of the 

 to negotiate a treaty of commerce with Great Britain, lia- 



