if a corrupt ministry, at three thousand miles distance, shall have done them an injury, it is an ample cause to visit with desolation, a peaceable and unoffending race of men, their neighbors, who happen to be associated, with that ministry, by ties of mere political dependence. What though these colonies be so remote from the sphere of the question in controversy, that their ruin, or prosperity, could have no possible influence upon the result? What though their cities offer no plunder? What though their conquest can yield no glory? In their ruin, their is revenge. And revenge, to such politicians, is the sweetest of all morsels. With such men, neither I, nor the people of that section of country in which I reside, hold any communion. There is, between us and them, no one principle of sympathy, either in motive, or action.

That wise, moral, reflecting people, which constitute the great mass of the population of Massachusetts, indeed of all New-England, look for the sources of their political duties nowhere else, than in those fountains, from which spring their moral duties. According to their estimate of human life and its obligations, both political and moral duties, emanate from the nature of things, and from the essential and eternal relations, which subsist among them. True it is, that a state of war, gives the right to seize and appropriate the property and territories of an enemy. True it is, that the colonies of a foreign power are viewed, according to the law of nations, in the light of its property. But in estimating the propriety of carrying desolation into the peaceful abodes of their neighbors, the people of New England will not limit their contemplation to the mere circumstance of abstract right, nor ask what lawyers and jurisprudists have written, or said, as if this was conclusive upon the subject. That people are much addicted to think for themselves, and in canvassing the propriety of such an invasion, they will consider the actual condition of those colonies, their natural relations to us, and the effect,

which their conquest and ruin will have, not only upon the people of those colonies, but upon themselves; and their own liberties and constitution. And above all, what I know will seem strange to some of those who hear me, they will not forget to apply to a case occurring between nations, as far as is practicable, that heaven-descended rule, which the great author and founder of their religion has given them, for the regulation of their conduct towards each other. They will consider it the duty of these United States, to act towards those colonies, as they would wish those colonies to act in exchange of circumstances, towards these United States.

The actual condition of those colonies, and the relation in which they stood to the United States, antecedent to the declaration of war, were of this nature. Those colonies had no connexion with the questions in dispute between us and their parent state. They had done us no injury. They meditated none to us. Between the inhabitants of those colonies and the citizens of the United States, the most friendly, and mutually useful intercourse subsisted. The borderers, on this, and those on the other side of the St. Lawrence, and of the boundary line, scarcely realized that they were subjects of different governments. They interchanged expressions and acts of civility. Intermarriages took place among them. The Canadian sometimes settled in the United States. Sometimes our citizens emigrated to Canada. After the declaration of war, had they any disposition to assail us? We have the reverse, expressly, in evidence. They desired nothing so much as to keep perfect the then subsisting relations of amity. Would the conquest of those colonies, shake the policy of the British cabinet? No man has shown it. Unqualified assertions, it is true, have been made, but totally unsupported by any evidence, or even the pretence of argument. On the contrary, nothing was more obvious, than that an invasion of Canada must strengthen the ministry of Great

Britain, by the excitement and sympathy, which would be occasioned, in the people of that country, in consequence of the sufferings of the innocent inhabitants of those colonies, on account of a dispute, in which they had no concern, and of which they had scarcely a knowledge. All this was anticipated. All this was frequently urged to this House, at the last and preceding sessions, as the necessary effect of such a meaThe event has justified those predictions. The late elections in Great Britain, have terminated in the complete triumph of the friends of the British ministry. In effecting this change, the conduct of these United States in relation to Canada, has had, undeniably, a mighty influence, by the disgust and indignation, felt by the British people, at a step so apparently wanton and cruel.

As there was no direct advantage to be hoped from the conquest of Canada, so also there was none incidental. Plunder there was none. At least none, which would pay the cost of the conquest. Glory there was none. Could seven millions of people obtain glory, by precipitating themselves upon half a million and trampling them into the dust? A giant obtain glory, by crushing a pigmy! That giant must have a pigmy's spirit, who could reap, or hope, glory from such an achievement.

Surely a people, with whom we were connected by so many natural and adventitious ties, had some claims upon our humanity. Surely, if our duty required that they and theirs should be sacrificed to our interests, or our passions, some regret mingled in the execution of the purpose. We postponed the decree of ruin, until the last moment. We hesitated-we delayed, until longer delay was dangerous. Alas! sir, there was nothing of this kind, or character, in the conduct of the cabinet. The war had not yet been declared, when Gen. Hull had his instructions to put in train, the work of destruction. There was an eagerness for the blood of the Canadians, a headlong precipitation for

their ruin, which indicated any thing else, rather than feelings of humanity, or visitings of nature, on account of their condition. Our armies were on their march for their frontier, while yet peace existed between this country and the parent state; and the invasion was obstinately pursued, after a knowledge that the chief ground of controversy was settled, by the abandonment of the British orders in council; and after nothing remained but a stale ground of dispute, which, however important in itself, was of a nature, for which no man has ever yet pretended, that for it alone, war would have been declared. Did ever one government exhibit, towards any people, a more bloody and relentless spirit of rancor? Tell not me of petty advantages, of remote and possibly useful contingencies, which might arise from the devastation of those colonies. Show any advantage, which justifies that dreadful vial of wrath, which, if the intention of the American cabinet had been fulfilled, would, at this day, have been poured out upon the heads of the Canadians. It is not owing to the tender mercies of the American administration, if the bones of the Canadians, are not, at this hour, mingled with the ashes of their habitations. It is easy enough to make an excuse for any purpose. When a victim is destined to be immolated, every hedge presents sticks for the sacrifice. The lamb, who stands at the mouth of the stream, will always trouble the water, if you take the account of the wolf, who stands at the source of it. But show a good to us, bearing any proportion to the multiplied evils, proposed to be visited upon them. There is none. Never was there an invasion of any country worse than this, in point of moral principle, since the invasion of the West Indies by the buccaneers, or that of these United States, by Captain Kidd. Indeed both Kidd and the buccaneers had more apology, for their deed, than the American cabinet. They had at least the hope of plunder. But, in this case, there is not even the poor refuge of cupidity. We have heard great lamentations

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about the disgrace of our arms on the frontier. Why, sir, the disgrace of our arms, on the frontier, is terrestrial glory, in comparison with the disgrace of the attempt. The whole atmosphere rings, with the utterance, from the other side of the house, of this wordglory"-"glory," in connexion with this invasion. What glory? Is it the glory of the tyger, which lifts his jaws, all foul and bloody, from the bowels of his victim, and roars for his companions of the wood, to come and witness his prowess and his spoils? Such is the glory of Gengis Khan and of Bonaparte. Be such glory far, very far, from my country. Never,never may it be accursed, with such fame.

"Fame is no plant that grows on mortal soil,
Nor in the glistering foil

Set off to the world, nor in broad rumor lies,
But lives and spreads aloft by those pure eyes
And perfect witness of all judging Jove,

As he pronounces lastly on each deed."

May such fame as this, be my country's meed!

But the wise and thoughtful people of our northern section will not confine their reflections to the duties which result from the actual condition of those colonies, and their general relations to the United States; they will weigh the duties the people of the United States owe to themselves, and contemplate the effect which the subjugation of those Canadians will have upon our own liberties and constitution. Sir, it requires but little experience in the nature of the human character, and but a very limited acquaintance with the history of man, to be satisfied, that with the conquest of the Canadas, the liberties and constitution of this country perish.

Of all nations in the world, this nation is the last which ought to admit among its purposes the design of foreign conquests. States, such as are these, connected by ties so peculiar, into whose combination there