Document B
Source: Annals of Congress, 12th Congress, 1st Session (1812), II, 2219-2221
Excerpt from a Statement Signed by 34 Federalist Congressmen.
…How will war upon the land protect commerce upon the ocean? What balm has Canada for wounded honor? How are our mariners benefited by a war which exposes those who are free, without promising release to those who are impressed?
But it is said that war is demanded by honor… If honor demands a war with England, what opiate lulls that honor to sleep over the wrongs done us by France? On land, robberies, seizures, imprisonments, by French authority; at sea, pillage, sinkings, burning, under French orders. These are notorious. Are they unfelt because they are French?... With full knowledge of the wrongs inflicted by the French, ought the government of this country to aid the French cause by engaging in war against the enemy of France?...
The undersigned cannot refrain from asking, what are the United States to gain by this war? Will the gratification of some privateersmen compensate the nation for that seep of our legitimate commerce by the extended marine of our enemy which this desperate act invites? Will Canada compensate the Middle states for New York; or the Western states for New Orleans?...
Signed by thirty-four congressmen.
Source: Annals of Congress, 12th Congress, 1st Session (1812), II, 2219-2221
Excerpt from a Statement Signed by 34 Federalist Congressmen.
…How will war upon the land protect commerce upon the ocean? What balm has Canada for wounded honor? How are our mariners benefited by a war which exposes those who are free, without promising release to those who are impressed?
But it is said that war is demanded by honor… If honor demands a war with England, what opiate lulls that honor to sleep over the wrongs done us by France? On land, robberies, seizures, imprisonments, by French authority; at sea, pillage, sinkings, burning, under French orders. These are notorious. Are they unfelt because they are French?... With full knowledge of the wrongs inflicted by the French, ought the government of this country to aid the French cause by engaging in war against the enemy of France?...
The undersigned cannot refrain from asking, what are the United States to gain by this war? Will the gratification of some privateersmen compensate the nation for that seep of our legitimate commerce by the extended marine of our enemy which this desperate act invites? Will Canada compensate the Middle states for New York; or the Western states for New Orleans?...
Signed by thirty-four congressmen.