The spirit of democracy. [volume] (Woodsfield, Ohio) 1844-1994, 1846-08-22

claim WIN success, OF VI StatliuS
new one, with profit. But, sir, the
gravity of the matter before US, justice
to the two nations whose interests are
involved, require that l,should reduce
these generalities to form more exact
and specific. | proceed, therefore, to
well-known facts, disclosed by past and
corrobolated by current events. | al
lude not to the numberless aggressions
committed by England against us-ag-
gressions beginning before the treaty
of peace of 1888 was dry-aggressions
extending to, and resulting in the late
war. say nothing of the manifold
outrages commit!edupon our commerce
nothing of the impressment Of our
seamen-of her studied delay in dcliv-
ering certain posts and islands, as by
that treaty she was bound-of her pro-
tracted refusal to execute the bounda-
ry, as well as the commercial provis-
ions Of that treaty-of her constant
efforts to traduce the character and
outrage the flag of our country, in all
parts of the world. | say nothing of
her horrible practice, during the late
war, of bribing the pitiess Indian 10
butcher our women and children of the
West, whilst asleep, at night, in their
cabins. say nothing of her having,
within few years past, despatched an
armed force, at midnight, to invade our
shores to board an American steam
er moored to our soil--to cut it from
its moorings murder part of its
crew-to leave others for the murder
of the hames-to put the torch to the
boat, and then to send her, freighted
with the dead bodies of our country
men, headlong over the cataract of Nj
gra;--of these things | speak not
No, | shall begin with the treaty sign
cd nt Ghent on the oath Of December,
1914.
And now, sir, mark, as proceed,th
exact conformity of the facts, to the
policy have ascribed to Great Britain.
That treaty, terminated the late war.
Upon its face, it professed to consoli-
date peace between the two countries,
by providing for the adjustment of out
standing difficulties. From the ac-
kno wledgment of our Independence,
questions Of boundary and territorial
rights had been in discussion; and, as
it seems to have been the leading OBJ
iect of the negotiations at Ghent, to
adjust those questions, three-fourths of
the treaty, were devoted to that pur-
pose. The first of these questions re-
lated to the right to certain islands IN
the bays Of Passamaquoddy and Fun
dy; the second, to that part of the line
of boundary, from the point where the
forty-ffth degree ofnorth latitude strikes
the river lroquois, to the water COM
municalions between the lakes Huron
and Superior; the M1rd, to that part of
the line from the pointI have last named
to the northwestern point Of the Lake
of-the- Woods.
Now, sir, desire that this fact should
be kept constantly in mind, that these
three were, ,rih one exception, the only
questions of territorial right or bounda-
ry which had ever been started, down
10 the meeting Of the negotlators at
Client. say, with one exception, and
that was the question of boundary upon
the line bctwcen the Lake-ofthe- Woods
and the Rocky Mountains. Let it be
remembered, too, that this old question
was left unsettled, unprovided for, by
the treaty of Ghent; and that to this
old question, thus carefully excluded by
the British negotiators, they there, in
that very negotiation, added ne,D one,
also a question of boundary. Yes; by
them, pending that negotiation, a new
claim was, for the first time, set forth
to hitherto, undlsputed part of our
territory-to part Of the now sove-
reign State of Maine. And, sir, in Or
der that this new pretension might take
an enduring form, and stand recorded
fol future dispute, the British negotia-
tors contrived to assign it a place upon
the face Of the treaty. Thus, in that
very negotiation-a negotiation inten-
ded to terminate existing war, and pro-
Tossing to remove all causes of war in
iuture-the British negotiators studi'
ously held back one old, and as studl.
ously put forVard one new question Of
boundary, upon the very same line, OF
which the other questions formed a
part.
You will observe, sir, that in this
connexion, | have called not the name
of Oregon. No, this question, though
it embraced the western end OF the We.
ry same line, Uhat between the Rocky
Mountains and the Pacific ocean, was
then, unheard of-unheard of, either
before or during the negotiation at
Client. So far from having even him
ted the existence of such claim, the
British negotiators did not SO much as
name the country, westward OF the
mountains. And Why was this? Be-