posed that while it falls within the necessary power and practice of regulating our commercial intercourse with foreign countries according to circumstances, the act would be regarded as not warranted by the Constitution; or that while it was a partial restriction only, and had for its object an entire freedom of our commerce, by liberating it from foreign restrictions, unlawfully imposed, it could be viewed as destroying commerce; and least of all that a likeness could be seen between a law enacted by the representatives of the country, with a view to the interest of the country, and acts of a government in which the country was not represented, framed with a view to the interest of another country at the expense of this. If appeals to the justice of the belligerents, through their interests, involve privations on our part also, it ought to be recollected that this is an effect inseparable from every resort by which one nation can right itself against the injustice of others.

"If sacrifices made for the sake of the whole result more to some than to other districts or descriptions of citizens, this also is an effect which, though always to be regretted, can never be entirely avoided. Whether the appeal be to the sword or to interruptions or modifications of customary intercourse, an equal operation on every part of the community can never happen."

CHAPTER XVI.

MR. MADISON AS PRESIDENT-DECLARATION OF WAR WITH GREAT BRITAIN-THIRD ANNUAL MESSAGE.

MR.

R. MADISON now began to realize that his Cabinet had not been fortunately chosen. A fair set of men, indeed, it was for peaceful times, in the main, but not suited to great emergencies. Mr. Gallatin, an able and valuable man at the head of the Treasury, was opposed to war or any measures leading to it. Dr. Eustis was not a very reliable war minister; and the President was in a great quarrel with Robert Smith, who, it was believed, had got entirely beyond his depth in the State Department.

Although Mr. Madison was very anxious for several party and friendly reasons to have Smith succeed Mr. Adams at St. Petersburg, and in that manner prevent dissatisfaction among the leaders when harmony was so much needed, yet Mr. Smith managed to give his separation from the Cabinet the aspect of a serious rupture with the President. Mr. Madison had taken upon himself a great deal of the work of the department for which Mr. Smith appeared unqualified; but he was finally convinced that the outside influence of the Secretary of State was seriously prejudicial to the Administration.

In March the President had a long, candid talk with Smith, in which he reminded him of his conduct, and his actual failures in the duties of his office, and

asked him to consider favorably the mission to Russia, from which Mr. Adams was inclined to withdraw. On the 1st of April he sent for Smith, who declined the foreign appointment, and handed in his resignation, and they met no more.

Of this affair Mr. Madison left a full account among his writings, in part to justify himself against statements published by Smith in the Aurora, five days after his unceremonious quitting of his office.

On the 1st of April, 1811, the President wrote to Mr. Jefferson:

"You will have inferred the change that is taking place in the Department of State. Colonel Monroe agrees to succeed Mr. Smith, who declines, however, the mission to Russia, at first not unfavorably looked at. I was willing, notwithstanding many trying circumstances, to have smoothed the transaction as much as possible, but it will be pretty sure to end in secret hostility, if not open warfare. On account of my great esteem and regard for common friends such a result is truly painful to me. For the rest I feel myself on firm ground, as well in the public opinion as in my own consciousness."

This mild mood was greatly changed after Mr. Smith did come out in "open warfare," and again he wrote to Mr. Jefferson on the 8th of July:

"You will have noticed in the National Intelligencer that the wicked publication of Mr. Smith is not to escape with impunity. It is impossible, however, that the whole turpitude of his conduct can be understood without disclosures to be made by myself alone, and, of course, as he knows, not to be made at all. Without these his infamy is daily fastening itself upon him, leaving no other consolation than the malignant hope of revenging his own ingratitude and guilt on others."

Mr. Monroe was appointed to the State Department in November, 1811, and, on the eleventh of the following month, William Pinkney of Maryland, former

minister to England, took the office of Attorney General in place of Mr. Rodney, resigned. Thus remodeled the Cabinet stood at the opening of the war with England.

In the spring of 1811, Joel Barlow was sent as minister to France, and through him great efforts were again made to establish better relations with that country. But all to no purpose. But all to no purpose. Napoleon now announced his determination to adhere to his decrees. England would not repeal her "orders in council," and France made this a pretext of not carrying out the promises she had made.

The elections for the next term of Congress had taken place, and resulted favorably for the war and Administration party, the Democratic supremacy being maintained in both Houses.

Congress assembled on the 4th of November, 1811, and continued in session until the 6th of July of the following year. The House was organized with Henry Clay, a warm new supporter of the Administration, as Speaker; and, on the 5th, the President sent to Congress the following message:

THIRD ANNUAL MESSAGE.

"FELLOW-CITIZENS OF THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES:

"In calling you together sooner than a separation from your homes would otherwise have been required, I yielded to considerations drawn from the posture of our foreign affairs; and in fixing the present for the time of your meeting, regard was had to the probability of further developments of the policy of the belligerent powers toward this country, which might the more unite the national councils in the measures to be pursued.

"At the close of the last session of Congress, it was hoped that the successive confirmations of the extinction of the French decrees, so far as they violated our neutral commerce, would have

induced the government of Great Britain to repeal its orders in council, and thereby authorize a removal of the existing obstructions to her commerce with the United States.

"Instead of this reasonable step toward satisfaction and friendship between the two nations, the orders were, at a moment when least to have been expected, put into more rigorous execution; and it was communicated through the British envoy just arrived, that while the revocation of the edicts of France, as officially made known to the British government, was denied to have taken place, it was an indispensable condition of the repeal of the British orders that commerce should be restored to a footing that would admit the productions and manufactures of Great Britain, when owned by neutrals, into markets shut against them by her enemy; the United States being given to understand that, in the meantime, a continuance of their non-importation act would lead to measures of retaliation.

"At a later date, it has indeed appeared that a communication to the British government of fresh evidence of the repeal of the French decrees against our neutral trade was followed by an intimation that it had been transmitted to the British plenipotentiary here in order that it might receive full consideration in the depending discussions. This communication appears not to have been received; but the transmission of it hither, instead of founding on it an actual repeal of the orders, or assurances that the repeal would ensue, will not permit us to rely on any effective change in the British cabinet. To be ready to meet with cordiality satisfactory proofs of such a change, and to proceed in the meantime in adapting our measures to the views which have been disclosed through that minister, will best consult our whole duty.

"In the unfriendly spirit of those disclosures, indemnity and redress for other wrongs have continued to be withheld, and our coasts and the mouths of our harbors have again witnessed scenes not less derogatory to the dearest of our national rights than vexatious to the regular course of our trade.

"Among the occurrences produced by the conduct of British ships-of war hovering on our coasts, was an encounter between one of them and the American frigate commanded by Captain Rodgers, rendered unavoidable on the part of the latter by a fire commenced without cause by the former, whose commander is, therefore, alone chargeable with the blood unfortunately shed in maintaining the honor of the American flag. The proceedings of a