irst marked one of many instances wherein he broke the green withes
which party fastened upon him, and maintained the cause of his country,
referring the care of his fame to God and to an impartial posterity. Like
Decimus Brutus, whom Julius Caesar saluted among his executioners with
the exclamation "Et tu, Brute!" John Quincy Adams was not unfaithful, but
he could not be obliged where he was not left free.

Jefferson retired in 1809, leaving to his successor, the scholastic and
peace-loving Madison, the perilous legacy of perplexed foreign relations,
and embittered domestic feuds. Great Britain now filled the measure of
exasperations, by insolently searching our vessels on the high seas, and
impressing into her marine all whom she chose to suspect of having been
born in her allegiance, even though they had renounced it and had assumed
the relations of American citizens. War was therefore imminent and
inevitable. Russia was then coming forward to a position of commanding
influence in Europe, and her youthful Emperor Alexander had won, by his
chivalrous bearing, the respect of mankind. John Quincy Adams was wisely
sent by the United States, to establish relations of amity with the great
power of the North; and while he was thus engaged, the flames of European
war, which had been so long averted, involved his own country. War was
declared against Great Britain.

It was just. It was necessary. Yet it was a war that dared Great Britain
to re-assert her ancient sovereignty. It was a war with a power whose
wealth and credit were practically inexhaustible, a power whose navy rode
unchecked over all the seas, and whose impregnable garrisons encircled the
globe.

Against such a power the war was waged by a nation that had not yet
accumulated wealth, nor established credit, nor even opened avenues
suitable for transporting munitions of war through its extended
territories--that had only the germ of a navy, an inconsiderable army, and
not one substantial fortress. Yet such a war, under such circumstances,
was denounced as unnecessary and unjust, though for no better reason than
because greater contumelies had been endured at the hands of France. Thus
a domestic feud, based on the very question of the war itself, enervated
the national strength, and encouraged the mighty adversary.

The desperate valor displayed at Chippewa and Lundy's Lane, at Fort Erie
and Plattsburgh, and the brilliant victories won in contests between
single