other, for a firm neutrality: and there were two men at that time in the councils of the President, who supported these two opinions. The advocate of the war system did not venture openly to oppose the system of neutrality, which he knew to be the wish of the country. To have opposed it openly; to have declared, in plain terms, that we ought not to remain neutral, but to engage in the war, with finances so deranged, a government so imperfectly established, and a condition of affairs so unsettled, would, as he well knew, have disgusted and alarmed the people and ruined the project. He therefore acted with more art and address. He labored to the utmost to induce the President, not to decide himself upon the question of neutrality, but to convene Congress, and refer the decision to them. Why? Because it was known that a popular body, like Congress, was infinitely more susceptible of enthusiasm, more easily wrought on by management and intrigue, more obnoxious to the influence of popular clamor, mobs and venal presses, than the cool, deliberative councils of the President. It was also known, that in case of a reference to Congress, the neutral system would lose the aid of its author's talents, who was precluded, by his official station, from a seat in that body. To this point then, the author of the war system directed his force. He labored to convince the President, that it did not belong to him to decide the question of neutrality; but to Congress, to whom the constitution required it to be referred; and in this effort, it is well known that he was aided, to the utmost, by that description of people, who have, since that time, omitted no opportunity in their power of hurrying us into a war against England.

Fortunately, however, the President saw and avoided the snare. His sound judgment and penetrating discernment enabled him to perceive all the hazards of such a reference: his good sense prevented him from entertaining a doubt about his constitutional power to decide this question, and his firmness enabled

him to make and support the decision. The proclamation of neutrality accordingly appeared.

It no sooner made its appearance, than the war party and their chief raised an outcry against it, from one end of the continent to the other. The French minister, (Genet,) who arrived soon after, remonstrated; the popular societies formed under his auspices. published resolutions, and the venal presses, the principal of which was under the immediate direction of the author of the war system, poured forth abuse against the proclamation of neutrality, the minister who advised it, and the President by whom it was issued. In short, Mr. Chairman, no expedient, which disappointed intrigue and an artful, enraged spirit of party could devise, was omitted, for raising an universal, popular indignation against this proclamation of neutrality, and for preparing Congress to condemn and reverse it. The changes were rung from town to town, from state to state, and from one end of the union to the other, on pusillanimity, on national degradation, on ingratitude to France, on servile submission to England; and this proclamation was furiously assailed, with the very same weapons which we have since seen employed against the British treaty, justly considered as a part of the same system of neutrality.

The efforts of the friends of war and their chief, were, however, unavailing. The people of America, indeed, felt a warm and almost enthusiastic partiality for France, whom they considered as contending for liberty, and on this partiality the party founded strong hopes of success. But the good sense of the people enabled them to discern, that whatever might be their wishes for the success of France, the interests of their own country lay in preserving peace; and they gave, throughout the union, the most unequivocal proofs of approbation, to the proclamation of neutrality. When Congress met, this sentiment had become so strong and universal, that the war party did not dare to oppose it. The proclamation was approved of by Con

gress, and the party and their chief once more had a hook put into their nose.

Though a second time disappointed, they did not, however, lose courage, nor abandon their schemes. But, as a system of neutrality had now been adopted, it was too late to talk of war; and the next step, therefore, was to explain this neutrality, in such a manner, as would render it, in effect, an alliance with France, and a state of hostility against England. This was attempted accordingly; but, as the author of the war system held an official station in the executive department, he could not openly appear in the attempt. The French minister came forward and advanced the pretensions, which it was the part of the other personage to second and support, in the President's council. A right was claimed on the part of France, to arm, fit and commission ships of war in our ports; to exclude British ships of war, under pretences which would have applied to every possible case; to enlist crews among our citizens; to raise armies in our country; and to preclude our courts of justice from all cognizance of prizes, taken and brought in by vessels acting under French commissions. It was contended on the part of France, that we ought to resist, by force, the right claimed by England, and clearly acknowledged by the law of nations, to take the goods of her enemies, when found on board of our neutral vessels. It requires no discernment, Mr. Chairman, to see that these pretensions, had they been agreed to, would have placed the direction of our affairs in the hands of France, and must instantly have induced a state of war between us and England. This was well understood by the war party; and, therefore, as every body recollects, they aided and supported the French minister, to the utmost of their power. These pretensions, indeed, were repelled by the President, who adopted a system wholly different, a system of national independence and fair neutrality; but it is well known to have been adopted contrary to the opinion and in spite of

the efforts of the chief of this party. When it was adopted, he did indeed defend it, in his official character; but he has taken care to declare his abhorrence of it, and the French minister did not fail to accuse him of duplicity, for having written officially in its defence. While officially defended by their chief, the party themselves assailed it with the most persevering violence. The haranguers exclaimed, the self-created societies passed resolutions, the presses devoted to the party teemed with abuse, and that, in particular, which was under the immediate direction of the chief, poured forth one continued torrent of virulent invective. Afraid to attack the head of the executive department himself, whose tried virtue, whose splendid services, whose great and well earned popularity, could not fail to rouse the public indignation, against any who might impeach the purity of his conduct, all the shafts were levelled at the counsellor, by whose advice the system was supposed to have been adopted, and by whose talents it was ably supported. It was every where declared, and every where most industriously propagated, that this person had enslaved the mind of the President, and misled his judgment. Every where, by every press and every club, was this person branded as a speculator, a thief, a plunderer of the public treasury, which was under his superintendence, a wretch in the pay of England, in fine, the most profligate of traitors, and the most dangerous of public enemies. These calumnies, asserted within these walls, circulated by members of this House, were industriously wafted from state to state, for the purpose of overwhelming with obloquy and public hatred, the author and prop of the neutral system, as an essential step towards the destruction of the system itself. When the public mind was thought to be sufficiently prepared, a direct attack was made on him in this House, for the purpose of driving him from office, so that the President, deprived of his counsels, might the more easily be brought to concur in the designs of the

war party and of France. The charges before circulated in a vague and indirect form, were reduced to a specific accusation, and brought before this House, as the grounds of a vote of impeachment. But although the party had met with some success, while they confined themselves to their strong hold, to the " Ambiguas in vulgum spargere voces" which I mentioned in the beginning of my observations, yet when they ventured to fight on the open plain of fact and proof, they were totally routed; when their vague calumnies assumed the shape of resolutions, they were easily refuted. Every charge was repelled by a vast majority of this House; and the wise and virtuous statesman to whom his country is so much indebted, rising triumphant from the contest, established his fame and his system on a basis more solid than ever: like some mighty oak, whose roots are more strongly fixed, and new vigor added to its growth, by those storms which seem to threaten its overthrow.

Thus the war party were again discomfited; and in spite of all their efforts, aided by the efforts of the French minister, a system of fair and impartial neutrality, calculated to preserve justice to all, and keep peace with all, was completely established.

Though beaten, however, Mr. Chairman, they were not subdued; nor could they be induced to relinquish their favorite object of war and alliance. They waited for a favorable opportunity of renewing the attack, and that opportunity the unjust aggressions of England on our trade too soon supplied. These aggressions, joined to the remembrance of our former contest with that power and the resentments remaining from her former injuries, raised a flame of indignation throughout the country, which pervaded all classes and distinctions of people, and prepared the public mind for measures of hostility. The occasion was seized by the war party, and used with an activity and zeal which gave them the fairest prospects of success. The at