of five millions of treasury notes; to negotiate another loan of sixteen millions; the President was empowered to retaliate for violations of the usages of civilized nations either on the part of British or Indians; acts were passed for more perfectly organizing and increasing the army in numbers and means of strength; to encourage vaccination throughout the country; a law was also passed forbidding the employment, after the end of the war, either on private or national armed vessels, of any seamen other than actual citizens of this country and colored men born here, a politic measure designed to call the attention of the British Government to the necessity of adjusting the impressment evil, but to no effect; and a bill was passed providing for canceling the merchants' bonds. for goods seized under the non-importation act, and imported from England after the beginning of the war, this bill having a majority of only three votes in the House, where it was opposed by a majority of the Democrats.

CHAPTER XX.

WAR OF 1812-PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION-MR. MADISON'S SECOND INAUGURAL ADDRESS-SPECIAL SESSION

THE P

OF CONGRESS STEPS FOR PEACE.

HE Presidential election shared with the war the excitements of the summer and autumn of 1812. The contest was spirited, and the result was some indication of the degree of unanimity with which the war was supported. In 1808 there were 175 electoral votes, with one vacancy; now there were 217, with a vacancy in Ohio, and by a comparison of results at the two elections it will be seen that Mr. Madison's majority at the first election expressed a considerably larger per cent of the entire vote than did his last majority. In 1808 he had a majority of 75, and in 1812, of 39 electoral votes.

On the 10th of February, 1813, the two Houses met in the Representatives' Chamber, for counting the electoral votes, when the President of the Senate opened the certificates from the different States, and the votes were formally counted, the President of the Senate then declaring Mr. Madison to be re-elected President, and Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts, VicePresident, for the next four years.

For President Mr. Madison received 128, and De Witt Clinton 89 votes; and for Vice-President Mr. Gerry received 131, and Jared Ingersoll 86 votes.

Making no note of the vacancy in Ohio the electors were distributed with the following results:

FOR JAMES MADISON: Vermont 8, Pennsylvania 25, Maryland 6, Virginia 25, North Carolina 15, South Carolina 11, Georgia 8, Kentucky 12, Tennessee 8, Ohio 7, and Louisiana 3.

FOR DE WITT CLINTON: New Hampshire 8, Massachusetts 22, Rhode Island 4, Connecticut 9, New York 29, New Jersey 8, Delaware 4, and Maryland 5.

MR. GERRY FOR VICE-PRESIDENT: New Hampshire 1, Massachusetts 2, Vermont 8, Pennsylvania 25, Maryland 6, Virginia 25, North Carolina 15, South Carolina 11, Georgia 8, Kentucky 12, Tennessee 8, Ohio 7, and Louisiana 3.

JARED INGERSOLL FOR VICE-PRESIDENT: New Hampshire 7, Massachusetts 20, Rhode Island 4, Connecticut 9, New York 29, New Jersey 8, Delaware 4, and Maryland 5.

At noon on the 4th of March, 1813, Mr. Madison took the oath of office in the Capitol, and then, in the presence of a large assemblage of people of every kind, delivered the following

SECOND INAUGURAL ADDRESS.

"About to add the solemnity of an oath to the obligations imposed by a second call to the station in which my country has heretofore placed me, I find, in the presence of this 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 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 characteristics 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 expostulations had been exhausted; until a positive declaration had been received, that the wrongs provoking it would not be discontinued; nor until this appeal could no longer be delayed without breaking down the spirit of the nation, destroying all confidence in itself and 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 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 man's 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 relations, 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.

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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 councils from which they emanate; and if they did not belong to a series 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, 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 manifestation 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 should be re-sheathed. 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 independent people. Our country abounds in the neces