Now, Gentlemen, information of the action of the British government on
this subject was transmitted to us at Washington within a few days after
the installation of General Harrison. I did not think that it was proper
to make public then, nor is it important to say now, all that we knew on
the subject; but I will tell you, in general terms, that if all that was
known at Washington then had been divulged throughout the country, the
value of the shipping interest of this city, and of every other interest
connected with the commerce of the country, would have been depressed
one half in six hours. I thought that the concussion might be averted,
by holding up to view the principles of public law by which this
question ought to be settled, and by demanding an apology for whatever
had been done against those principles of public law by the British
government or its officers. I thought we ought to put ourselves right in
the first place, and then we could insist that they should do right in
the next place. When in England, in the year 1839, I had occasion to
address a large and respectable assemblage; and allusion having been
made to the relations of things between the two countries, I stated
then, what I thought and now think, that in any controversy which should
terminate in war between the United States and England, the only eminent
advantage that _either_ would possess would be found in the rectitude of
its cause. With the right on our side, we are a match for England; and
with the right on her side, she is a match for us, or for anybody.

We live in an age, fellow-citizens, when there has been established
among the nations a more elevated tribunal than ever before existed on
earth; I mean the tribunal of the enlightened public opinion of the
world. Governments cannot go to war now, either with or against the
consent of their own subjects or people, without the reprobation of
other states, unless for grounds and reasons justifying them in the
general judgment of mankind. The judgment of civilization, of commerce,
and of that heavenly light that beams over Christendom, restrains men,
congresses, parliaments, princes, and people from gratifying the
inordinate love of ambition through the bloody scenes of war. It has
been wisely said, and it is true, that every settlement of national
differences between Christian states by fair negotiation, without resort
to arms, is a new illustration and a new proof of the benign influence
o