Albert Gallatin

“ Yet no sacrifice of principles is required: men may remain firmly attached to those on which their party was founded and which they conscientiously adopted. There is no connexion between the principles or doctrines on which each party respectively was founded, and the question of war or peace with a foreign nation which is now agitated. The practice which has lately prevailed to convert every subject, from the most frivolous to the most important, into a pure party question, destroys altogether personal independence, and strikes at the very roots of our institutions. ”

“ England will remain burthened with additional debt and taxation.
An aged man, who has for the last thirty years been detached from party politics, and who has now nothing whatever to hope or to fear from the world, has no merit in seeking only the truth and acting an independent part. But I know too well, and have felt too much the influence of party feeling, not to be fully aware that those men will be entitled to the highest praise, who, being really desirous of preserving peace, shall on this momentous occasion dare to act for themselves, notwithstanding the powerful sympathies of party. ”

“ Exclusive of those who, either as contractors, or in some other way, are concerned with the large supplies wanted for the support of the army and navy, there is a class of capitalists who are enriched by the war. These are the money lenders, who shall have been bold enough to take up the public loans: unless indeed it should be intended to break public faith, and, on the return of peace, to question the obligation to pay them, upon the pretence of their enormous profits. What these profits are may be again illustrated by the example of Great Britain. ”

“ It is morally impossible for the bulk of the people of any country thoroughly to investigate a subject so complex as that of the respective claims to the Oregon territory; and, for obvious reasons, it is much less understood by the great mass of the population in England than in the United States. Everywhere, when the question is between the country and a foreign nation, the people at large, impelled by natural and patriotic feelings, will rally around their Government. ”

“ When our Government relies on the people for being sustained in making war, its confidence must be entire. They must be told the whole truth; and if they are really in favor of war, they will cheerfully sustain Government in all the measures necessary to carry it into effect. ”

“ It is perfectly clear that, since it has been fully admitted that the United States possess the same rights over the territory as Great Britain, they are fully authorized, under the convention, to enjoy all the rights which Great Britain claims for herself, and to exercise that jurisdiction which she has assumed as being consistent with the convention. ”

“ Can it be presumed that when, after the expiration of the term of notice, the convention shall have been abrogated, the President will not assert and maintain the sovereignty claimed by the United States? I have not the honor of a personal acquaintance with him; I respect in him the First Magistrate of the Nation; and he [Pg 33] is universally represented as of irreproachable character, sincere, and patriotic. Every citizen has a right to differ with him in opinion: no one has that of supposing that he says one thing and means another. ”

“ Great Britain claims no exclusive sovereignty over any portion of that territory. Her present claim, not in respect to any part, but to the whole, is limited to a right of joint occupancy in common with other States, leaving the right of exclusive dominion in abeyance. * * * * The pretensions of Great Britain tend to the mere maintenance of her own rights, in resistance to the exclusive character of the pretensions of the United States. ”

“ There is another class of men who may occasionally derive wealth from a war. Privateering consists in robbing of their property unarmed and unresisting men, engaged in pursuits not only legitimate but highly useful. It is nothing more nor less than legalized Piracy. For this the United States are not responsible; and it must be admitted, that the practice of all nations justifies them in resorting to those means, in order to make the enemy feel the calamities of war. ”

“ It is certainly true that England is very powerful, and has often abused her power, in no case in a more outrageous manner than by the impressment of seamen, whether American, English, or other foreigners, sailing under and protected by the American flag. I am not aware that there has ever been any powerful nation, even in modern times, and professing Christianity, which has not occasionally abused its power. The United States, who always appealed to justice during their early youth, seem, as their strength and power increase, to give symptoms of a similar disposition. ”

“ I am confident that no such person is to be found now in our councils or amongst our citizens; nor am I apt to suspect personal views, or apprehensive of the effect these might produce. My only fear is that which I have expressed, the difficulty for honorable men to disenthral themselves from those party sympathies and habits, laudable and useful in their origin, but which carried to excess become a tyranny, and may leave the most important measures to be decided in the National Councils by an enthusiastic and inflamed minority. ”

“ Beyond the naked assertion of an absolute right to the whole territory, so little in the shape of argument has been adduced, and so much warmth has been exhibited in the discussion of the subject, that it cannot be doubted that the question has now become, on both sides, one of feeling rather than of right. This, in America, grows out of the fact that, in this contest with a European nation, the contested territory is in America and not in Europe. ”

“ If there be no danger or intention of making war, those create a panic, who proclaim a determination to assert the exclusive sovereignty of the United States over the whole contested territory, with the full knowledge that Great Britain has uniformly and explicitly declared, that she would resist any such attempt. ”

“ I must say that I never knew a man belonging to the same party as myself, and I have no reason to believe that there was any in the opposite party, who would have sacrificed the interests of the country to those of any foreign power. ”

“ It is equally untrue to assert that the poorer class of people, by which must be meant all the laborers, or generally those who live on their wages, have nothing to lose by the war.
In this, and other large cities, for every thousand merchants, or men of capital who may be injured or thrown out of business, there are ten thousand men living on wages, whose employment depends directly or indirectly on the commerce of those cities. The number of common laborers is proportionately less in the purely agricultural districts. ”

“ But feelings do not confer a right, and the indulgence of excited feelings is neither virtue nor wisdom.
The Western States have no greater apparent immediate interest in the acquisition of Oregon than the States bordering on the Atlantic. These stand in greater need of an outlet for their surplus emigrating population, and to them exclusively, will for the present, the benefit accrue of ports on the Pacific, for the protection of the numerous American ships employed in the fisheries and commerce of that ocean. ”

“ Prudent capitalists, who do not speculate, and consider public stocks only as convenient and safe investments, will not advance money to Government so long as it is controlled by men whom they consider as reckless, and as entertaining rather lax opinions respecting public credit. ”

“ A portion of the people, both in the West and elsewhere, see clearly that such must be the consequence of giving the notice. Such men openly avow their opinions, prefer war to a longer continuation of the present state of things, are ready to meet all the dangers and calamities of the impending conflict, and to adopt at once all the measures which may ensure success. With them, the discussion brings at once the question to its true issue: Is war necessary for the object they have in view? ”

“ Although Great Britain seems, in this discussion, to have relied almost exclusively on the right derived from actual occupancy and settlement, she cannot reject absolutely those derived from other sources. She must admit that, both in theory and practice, the claims derived from prior discovery, from contiguity, from the principle which gives to the first discoverer of the mouth of a river and of its course a claim to the whole country drained by such river, have all been recognized to a certain, though not well-defined extent, by all the European nations claiming various portions of America. ”

“ It is in Oregon alone that we may hope to see a portion of the western shores of America occupied and inhabited by an active and enlightened nation, which may exercise a moral influence over her less favored neighbors, and extend to them the benefits of a more advanced civilisation. It is on that account that the wish has been expressed that the Oregon territory may not be divided. The United States and England are the only Powers who lay any claim to that country, the only nations which may and must inhabit it. ”

“ If instead of telling the people the whole truth, the attempt to conceal from them the necessity of the measures requisite for carrying on the war should be successful, a reaction in the public sentiment will most certainly take place, whenever it will have become impossible to delay any longer the heavy burden of taxation, for which the Nation had not been prepared. ”

“ It must also be remembered that a direct tax has heretofore been found as productive as the aggregate of all the other internal taxes levied by the General Government; that, in case of war, it must necessarily be imposed; and that, as it must, in conformity with the Constitution, be levied in proportion to the respective population of the several States, it will be much more oppressive on those which have not yet accumulated a large amount of circulating or personal capital. ”

“ Considering the imminent danger to which is exposed the immense amount of American property afloat on every sea, and the certain annihilation, during the war, of the fisheries, of the commerce with Great Britain, and of that with all the countries beyond Cape Horn and the Cape of Good Hope, the American merchants may be alarmed at the prospect of a war, the necessity of which they do not perceive. ”

“ The probable annual expenses which must be incurred in a war with England, and the resources for defraying them, are the next objects of inquiry.
It is extremely difficult to draw any correct inference from the expenses of the last war with England: the amount of the arrearages due on account of the military services at the time when the peace was ratified, is not stated with precision in any of the public documents which I have seen. Although the laws show the number of men voted, that of those actually raised has never to my knowledge been officially stated. ”

“ At the end of the year's notice, should Congress think it proper to make provision for giving that notice, we shall have reached a period when the national rights in Oregon must either be abandoned or firmly maintained. That they cannot be abandoned without a sacrifice of both national honor and interests, is too clear to admit of doubt. ”

“ It has been very generally asserted that men of property were averse to the war because the losses and burthens which it must occasion fall exclusively upon them; and that poor men were generally in favor of war, because they had nothing to lose.
It is true that the first great loss, caused by the war, will fall immediately on those interested in the maritime commerce of the United States, either as owners, insurers, or in any way employed in it. ”

“ In the nature of things, it seems almost impossible that a complete and absolute right to any portion of America can exist, unless it be by prescriptive and undisputed actual possession and settlements, or by virtue of a treaty. ”

“ It is believed that mere factories, established solely for the purpose of trafficking with the natives, and without any view to cultivation and permanent settlement, cannot, of themselves, and unsupported by any other consideration, give any better title to dominion and absolute sovereignty than similar establishments made in a civilized country. ”

“ Some exploring voyages, few of which are authentic, were indeed made by Spanish navigators; and the claims which may be derived from their discoveries have now been transferred to the United States, so far as discovery alone can give a claim, and no further. But, during more than two centuries that Spain had no competitor on the Pacific, there was on her part no occupancy, no settlement, or attempt to make a settlement. She had some missions on the western coast of the peninsula of California: but her missions or settlements in Northern or New California are of quite recent date ”