most despicable." It was not the first
time the word "War" had been spoken, but the occasion made it doubly
significant and ominous; for it was the requiem of the measure upon
which the dominant party had staked all to avoid war, and the
elections had already declared that power should remain in the same
hands for at least two years to come. Within four weeks Madison was
to succeed his leader, Jefferson; with a Congressional majority,
reduced indeed, but still adequate.

The debate over the new measure, known as the Non-Intercourse Act, was
prolonged and heated, abounding in recriminations, ranging over the
whole gamut of foreign injuries and domestic misdoings, whether by
Government policy or rebellious action; but clearer and clearer the
demand for war was heard, through and above the din. "When the late
intelligence from the northeast reached us," said an emotional
follower of the Administration,[278] "it bore a character most
distressful to every man who valued the integrity of the Government.
Choosing not to enforce the law with the bayonet, I thought proper to
acknowledge to the House that I was ready to abandon the embargo....
The excitement in the East renders it necessary that we should enforce
it by the bayonet, or repeal. I will repeal, and could weep over it
more than over a lost child." There was, he said, nothing now but war.
"The very men who now set your laws at defiance," cried another, "will
be against you if you go to war;" but he added, "I will never let go
the embargo, unless on the very same day on which we let it go, we
draw the sword."[279]

Josiah Quincy, an extremist on the other side, gave a definition of
the position of Massachusetts, which from his ability, and his known
previous course on national questions, is particularly valuable. In
the light of the past, and of what was then future, it may be
considered to embody the most accurate summary of the views prevailing
in New England, from the time of the "Chesapeake" affair to the war.
He "wished a negotiation to be opened, unshackled with the impedimenta
which now exist. As long as they remained, people in the part of the
country whence he came would not deem an unsuccessful attempt at
negotiation cause for war. If they were removed, and an earnest
attempt at negotiation made, unimpeded by these restrictions, and
should not meet with success, they would join heartily in a war. They
would not, however, go to war to contest the right of Gre