About
to add the solemnity of an oath to the obligations imposed
by a second call to the station in which my country
heretofore placed me, I find in the presence of this
respectable assembly an opportunity of publicly repeating
my profound sense of so distinguished a confidence and of
the responsibility united with it. The impressions on me
are strengthened by such an evidence that my faithful
endeavors to discharge my arduous duties have been
favorably estimated, and by a consideration of the
momentous period at which the trust has been renewed. From
the weight and magnitude now belonging to it I should be
compelled to shrink if I had less reliance on the support
of an enlightened and generous people, and felt less
deeply a conviction that the war with a powerful nation,
which forms so prominent a feature in our situation, is
stamped with that justice which invites the smiles of
Heaven on the means of conducting it to a successful
termination.
May
we not cherish this sentiment without presumption when we
reflect on the characters by which this war is
distinguished?
It
was not declared on the part of the United States until it
had been long made on them, in reality though not in name;
until arguments and postulations had been exhausted; until
a positive declaration had been received that the wrongs
provoking it would not be discontinued; nor until this
last appeal could no longer be delayed without breaking
down the spirit of the nation, destroying all confidence
in itself and in its political institutions, and either
perpetuating a state of disgraceful suffering or regaining
by more costly sacrifices and more severe struggles our
lost rank and respect among independent powers.
On
the issue of the war are staked our national sovereignty
on the high seas and the security of an important class of
citizens, whose occupations give the proper value to those
of every other class. Not to contend for such a stake is
to surrender our equality with other powers on the element
common to all and to violate the sacred title which every
member of the society has to its protection. I need not
call into view the unlawfulness of the practice by which
our mariners are forced at the will of every cruising
officer from their own vessels into foreign ones, nor
paint the outrages inseparable from it. The proofs are in
the records of each successive Administration of our
Government, and the cruel sufferings of that portion of
the American people have found their way to every bosom
not dead to the sympathies of human nature.
As
the war was just in its origin and necessary and noble in
its objects, we can reflect with a proud satisfaction that
in carrying it on no principle of justice or honor, no
usage of civilized nations, no precept of courtesy or
humanity, have been infringed. The war has been waged on
our part with scrupulous regard to all these obligations,
and in a spirit of liberality which was never surpassed.
How
little has been the effect of this example on the conduct
of the enemy!
They
have retained as prisoners of war citizens of the United
States not liable to be so considered under the usages of
war.
They
have refused to consider as prisoners of war, and
threatened to punish as traitors and deserters, persons
emigrating without restraint to the United States,
incorporated by naturalization into our political family,
and fighting under the authority of their adopted country
in open and honorable war for the maintenance of its
rights and safety. Such is the avowed purpose of a
Government which is in the practice of naturalizing by
thousands citizens of other countries, and not only of
permitting but compelling them to fight its battles
against their native country.
They
have not, it is true, taken into their own hands the
hatchet and the knife, devoted to indiscriminate massacre,
but they have let loose the savages armed with these cruel
instruments; have allured them into their service, and
carried them to battle by their sides, eager to glut their
savage thirst with the blood of the vanquished and to
finish the work of torture and death on maimed and
defenseless captives. And, what was never before seen,
British commanders have extorted victory over the
unconquerable valor of our troops by presenting to the
sympathy of their chief captives awaiting massacre from
their savage associates. And now we find them, in further
contempt of the modes of honorable warfare, supplying the
place of a conquering force by attempts to disorganize our
political society, to dismember our confederated Republic.
Happily, like others, these will recoil on the authors;
but they mark the degenerate counsels from which they
emanate, and if they did not belong to a sense of
unexampled inconsistencies might excite the greater wonder
as proceeding from a Government which founded the very war
in which it has been so long engaged on a charge against
the disorganizing and insurrectional policy of its
adversary.
To
render the justice of the war on our part the more
conspicuous, the reluctance to commence it was followed by
the earliest and strongest manifestations of a disposition
to arrest its progress. The sword was scarcely out of the
scabbard before the enemy was apprised of the reasonable
terms on which it would be resheathed. Still more precise
advances were repeated, and have been received in a spirit
forbidding every reliance not placed on the military
resources of the nation.
These
resources are amply sufficient to bring the war to an
honorable issue. Our nation is in number more than half
that of the British Isles. It is composed of a brave, a
free, a virtuous, and an intelligent people. Our country
abounds in the necessaries, the arts, and the comforts of
life. A general prosperity is visible in the public
countenance. The means employed by the British cabinet to
undermine it have recoiled on themselves; have given to
our national faculties a more rapid development, and,
draining or diverting the precious metals from British
circulation and British vaults, have poured them into
those of the United States. It is a propitious
consideration that an unavoidable war should have found
this seasonable facility for the contributions required to
support it. When the public voice called for war, all
knew, and still know, that without them it could not be
carried on through the period which it might last, and the
patriotism, the good sense, and the manly spirit of our
fellow-citizens are pledges for the cheerfulness with
which they will bear each his share of the common burden.
To render the war short and its success sure, animated and
systematic exertions alone are necessary, and the success
of our arms now may long preserve our country from the
necessity of another resort to them. Already have the
gallant exploits of our naval heroes proved to the world
our inherent capacity to maintain our rights on one
element. If the reputation of our arms has been thrown
under clouds on the other, presaging flashes of heroic
enterprise assure us that nothing is wanting to
correspondent triumphs there also but the discipline and
habits which are in daily progress.
|