Document A
Source: Madison, James. Journal of the House of Representatives of the United States, 1811-1813. MONDAY JUNE 1,1812. Online Posting. American Memory Website. Library of Congress. June 20, 2011
Excerpt from President James Madison’s Message to Congress June 1, 1812
British cruisers have been in the continued practice of violating the American flag on the great highway of nations, and of seizing and carrying off persona sailing under it…
The practice… is so far from affecting British subjects alone that, under the pretext of searching for these, thousands of American citizens, under the safeguard of public law and of their national flag, have been torn from their country and from everything dear to the; have been dragged on board ships of war of a foreign nation and exposed, under the severities of their discipline, to be exiled to the most distant and deadly climes, to risk their lives in the battles of their oppressors, and to be the melancholy instruments of taking away those of their own brethren.
British cruisers have been in the practice also violating the rights and the peace of our coasts. They hover over and harass our entering and departing commerce… Under pretended blockades… our commerce has been plundered in every sea, the great staples of our country have been cut off from their legitimate markets, and a destructive blow aimed at our agricultural and maritime interests…
In reviewing the conduct of Great Britain toward the United States, our a en on is necessarily drawn to the warfare just renewed by the savages on one of our extensive frontiers- a warfare which is known to spare neither age nor sex… It is difficult to account for the activity and combinations which have for some time been developing themselves among tribes in constant intercourse with British traders and garrisons, without connecting their hostility with that influence, and without recollecting the authenticated examples of such interposition [meddling] heretofore furnished by the officers and agents of that government… We behold 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 toward Great Britain.
Source: Madison, James. Journal of the House of Representatives of the United States, 1811-1813. MONDAY JUNE 1,1812. Online Posting. American Memory Website. Library of Congress. June 20, 2011
Excerpt from President James Madison’s Message to Congress June 1, 1812
British cruisers have been in the continued practice of violating the American flag on the great highway of nations, and of seizing and carrying off persona sailing under it…
The practice… is so far from affecting British subjects alone that, under the pretext of searching for these, thousands of American citizens, under the safeguard of public law and of their national flag, have been torn from their country and from everything dear to the; have been dragged on board ships of war of a foreign nation and exposed, under the severities of their discipline, to be exiled to the most distant and deadly climes, to risk their lives in the battles of their oppressors, and to be the melancholy instruments of taking away those of their own brethren.
British cruisers have been in the practice also violating the rights and the peace of our coasts. They hover over and harass our entering and departing commerce… Under pretended blockades… our commerce has been plundered in every sea, the great staples of our country have been cut off from their legitimate markets, and a destructive blow aimed at our agricultural and maritime interests…
In reviewing the conduct of Great Britain toward the United States, our a en on is necessarily drawn to the warfare just renewed by the savages on one of our extensive frontiers- a warfare which is known to spare neither age nor sex… It is difficult to account for the activity and combinations which have for some time been developing themselves among tribes in constant intercourse with British traders and garrisons, without connecting their hostility with that influence, and without recollecting the authenticated examples of such interposition [meddling] heretofore furnished by the officers and agents of that government… We behold 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 toward Great Britain.