would ask us a question something like that
which was put to a character in a play of Moliere: _Que diable
allait il faire dans cette galere?_--What the devil had we to do in
that galley?

"Now, I think the arbitrator would say, "What the devil had you to
do with that steamboat?" He would say that we struck the first blow.
Now, admit that,--and none of your state rights men can deny
it,--admit that, and all the rest follows of course. They will say
it was wrong--abstractly, if you please. Talking of abstractions, it
was wrong for an expedition to come over and burn the steamboat, and
send her over the falls. But what was your steamboat about? What had
she been doing? What was she to do the next morning? And what ought
you to do? You have reparation to make for all the men, and for all
the arms and implements of war, which we were transporting, and
going to transport, to the other side, to foment and instigate
rebellion in Canada. That is what the third party would say to us.
And it would come, in the end, after all the blood and treasure had
been wasted by a war between the two countries, to this, that we
must shake hands and drink champagne together, after having made a
mutual apology for mutual transgression. That is the way things are
settled between individuals,--'If you said so, why, I said so,'--and
thus the dispute is amicably settled. So we should have to do with
this national matter; for there is not any great difference in the
essentials of quarrelling and making up between nations and
individuals."

Mr. Adams then proceeded to another point of view in which he objected
to this resolution. He said:

"A prodigious affair has been made of this matter, as if the
government of the United States had outraged the State of New York,
because the great empire State of New York had undertaken to say
that she would _hang_ McLeod, whatever Great Britain or the general
government might do. Yes; whatever they might do, the great empire
State of New York would _hang_ McLeod! That was the language.

"What, sir, I ask, is the object of this resolution? To inquire of
the President of the United States whether any officer of the army,
or the Attorney-General of the United States, since the 4th of March
last, has visited the State of New York for any purpose connected
with the trial of A