into the negotiation. It was utterly against my judgment and
wishes; but I was obliged to submit, and I prepared the requisite
despatches to Mr. Rush, then our minister at the court of London.
When he made his proposal to Mr. Canning, Mr. Canning's reply was,
'Draw up your convention, and I will sign it.' Mr. Rush did so, and
Mr. Canning, without the slightest alteration whatever,--without
varying the dot of an _i_, or the crossing of a _t_,--did affix to
it his signature; thus assenting to our own terms in our own
language.

"The convention came back here for ratification; but, in the mean
time, another spirit came over the feelings of this house, as well
as of the Senate. A party had been formed against the administration
of Mr. Monroe; the course of the administration was no longer
favored, and the house came out in opposition to a convention drawn
in conformity to its own previous views.

"But now, as I do not wish to intrude on the attention of this
committee a single moment longer than is necessary, I will pass over
the rest of what I might say on this subject, and recur, in a few
observations, to the other war-trumpet which we have heard within
the last two days.

"They unite in one purpose, though they seem to be pursuing it by
different means. The gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Wise), confining
his observations to our relations with Mexico, also urges us to war
with the same professions of a disposition for peace as were so
often repeated by the gentleman from Pennsylvania in regard to Great
Britain. He does not immediately connect the questions of war with
Mexico and war with Great Britain, but apparently knows and feels
that they are in substance and in fact but one and the same
question; and that, so surely as we rush into a war with Mexico, we
shall shortly find ourselves in a war with England. The gentleman
appeared entirely conscious of that; and I hope that no member of
this committee will come to the conclusion that it is possible for
us to have a war with Mexico without at the same time going to war
with Great Britain. On that subject I will venture to say that the
minister from England has no instructions. That is not one of the
five points on which the gentleman from Pennsylvania tells us our
controversy with England rests, and the surrendering of which is