not forgotten. Then they
deemed war nearly inevitable, and would not this adjustment have been
considered, at that day, as a happy escape from the calamity? The great
interest and the general desire of our people was to enjoy the
advantages of neutrality. This instrument, however misrepresented,
affords Americans that inestimable security. The cause of our disputes
are either cut up by the roots, or referred to a new negotiation after
the end of the European war. This was gaining everything. This, alone,
would justify the engagements of the government. For, when the fiery
vapors of war lowered in the skirts of our horizon, all our wishes were
concentrated in this one, that we might escape the desolation of the
storm. This treaty, like a rainbow on the edge of the cloud, marked to
our eyes the space where it was raging, and afforded, at the same time,
the sure prognostic of fair weather. If we reject it the vivid colors
will grow pale; it will be a baleful meteor, portending tempest and war.

"Let us not hesitate, then, to agree to this appropriation to carry it
into faithful execution. Thus we shall save the faith of our nation,
secure its peace, and diffuse the spirit of confidence and enterprise
that will augment its prosperity. The progress of wealth and improvement
is wonderful, and some will think, too rapid. The field for exertion is
fruitful and vast; and if peace and good government should be preserved,
the acquisitions of our citizens are not so pleasing as the proofs of
their industry, as the instruments of their future success. The rewards
of exertion go to augment its power. Profit is every hour becoming
capital. The vast crop of our neutrality is all seed-wheat, and is sown
again, to swell, almost beyond calculation, the future harvest of
prosperity. In this progress what seems to be fiction is found to fall
short of experience.... When I come to the moment of deciding the vote,
I start back with dread from the edge of the pit into which we are
plunging. In my view, even the minutes I have spent in expostulation,
have their value, because they protract the crisis, and the short period
in which alone we may resolve to escape it.

"I have thus been led by my feelings to speak more at length than I had
intended. Yet I have, perhaps, as little personal interest in the event
as any one here. There is, I believe, no member who will not think his
chance to be a witness of the consequences greater than mine. If,