the first frenzy of the moment, the
universal cry was for immediate war. Although hostilities were not
declared, the feelings of America were from that day at war with
England." (Breckenridge's History of the War of 1812.)

This state of feeling was precisely what President Madison wished to
create, preparatory to his meditated war with England, in connection
with the French usurper.]

[Footnote 182: "Indignant at this neglectful treatment, Henry returned
to Boston, and obtained a letter of introduction from Governor Gerry to
Madison, to whom he offered to divulge the whole conspiracy, _of which
he had been the head and soul_, for a certain sum of money. Madison gave
him $50,000, and the swindler embarked for France. There is but little
doubt that Henry made a fool of the Governor of Canada, and completely
overreached the President. The publication of the correspondence,
however, increased the hatred both against the Federalists and the
English nation." [The object President Madison had in view.] (Headley's
History of the War of 1812-1815 with England, p. 49.)]

[Footnote 183: "The _Henry Plot_ (as it was denominated) was clamoured
through America as a crime of the deepest dye on the part of Great
Britain, tending to disorganize the Government, to dismember the Union,
and to destroy the independence of the States. The fictitious and
exaggerated importance which the American Government affected to attach
to this trivial matter had, however, some influence in confirming the
spirit of hostility towards Great Britain which at that time pervaded
America, and shortly after broke out in open war. This self-sufficient
miscreant having, as he fancied, taken ample vengeance upon the
Government of his native country, could not, with any degree of decency,
remain in the States, from whence he sailed for France in an American
sloop-of-war, carrying with him the reward of his treason and the
universal contempt of mankind." (Christie's History of the War of 1812,
p. 55.)

Yet, at this very time, there were American and French emissaries in
both the Canadas (as the proclamations of the Governors show), with a
view of exciting disaffection to the British Canadian Government, in
order to wrest the Canadas from England and subject them to France and
the United States.

"The Americans had been declaring, for several years, that they would
take the provinces. They had even boasted of the ease with which the
intended conquest could be