ly, of which the following extract will sufficiently
exhibit the power and quality.

"The gentleman from Pennsylvania began by saying that he was for
peace--for universal peace. Then followed a most learned
dissertation to prove that it was an entire mistake to suppose that
we are not now prepared for war; and to demonstrate that a nation
which goes into a war unprepared will infallibly conquer; that it
must be so; that every unarmed and unprepared nation always had
conquered its armed opposers. No; we are not unprepared for
war,--not at all,--because we have in sight of the windows of this
capitol two armed steamers; one of them, as I am informed, nearly
disabled, so that she will need, in a great measure, to be rebuilt,
leaving for our use, in case of immediate hostilities, one entire
steamer, and with that we are to burn London; and though the
gentleman readily admitted that it was possible, nay, very probable,
that New York would be burnt too, yet, as London was four or five
times as large, we should have a great balance of burning on our
side. Yes; we were to conquer Great Britain and burn London, and we
were told that it would be a very cheap price for all this to have
the city of New York burnt in turn, or burnt first. And this was an
argument _for peace_!

"What else did the gentlemen say? What else did he not say? He made
a great argument and a valorous display of zeal in relation to the
right of search. O, that--that was a point never to be conceded--no,
never. He maintained that there is no such thing as a right of
search--no such right in time of war, none in time of peace. Well, I
do agree with the gentleman partially on that one point, so far as
to believe that there is no need of our coming to an issue with
Great Britain there, and we have not as yet. After reading, as I
have done, and carefully examining the papers put forth on both
sides, I asked myself, What is the question between us? And I have
heard men of the first intelligence say that they found themselves
in the very same situation. The gentleman has made a total
misrepresentation of the demand of Great Britain in the matter. She
has never claimed the right to search American vessels--no such
thing. On the contrary, she has explicitly disclaimed any such
pretension, and that to the whole extent we can possi