Date: 1981-07-08
Speaker: ROBERT C. BYRD (democrat)
Chamber: S

Mr. President. I continue with my series of statements on the United States Senate. The statement today concerns the years 1809Mr. President. let me describe a scene almost too terrible to contemplate: enemy soldiers landing on American shores. a pitched battle ending with the defeat of United States armed forces. enemy troops on the streets of Washington. D.C.. the Capitol. the White House. and other government buildings ablaze. Such a great national tragedy may seem inconceivable. and. yet that Is precisely what did happen here in the summer of 1814 when British troops broke through the American lines at the battle of Bladensburg. marched down Maryland Avenue and burned much of this city. How this calamity occurred. and the role of the United States Senate in the war of 1812. will be the subjccts of my remarks today. as part of my continuing series of addresses on the history of tbs% United States Senate. In MY last address. I discussed the Senate during the era of Thomas Jefferson. concluding with the election of his successor. James Madison. On January 23. 1808. Madison was chosen as his Partys presidential candidate by a RePublican congressional caucus. According to the diary of John Quincy Adams. who was then a Senator from Massachusetts. It was Vermont Senator Stephen Bradley who called the caucus together. Bradley U claimed to have received authority to call t such a conclave by the Republican caucus t four years earlier. and so he sent circE ulars announcing the meeting to all Republican members of the House and Senate. In fact. because party lines were so indistinct in those days. he sent notices to all but five members of the Senate and twentytwo membersof the House. excluding them only on the grounds that they "have never been in the habit of acting with us." Madison wvon by a vote of 83 to 6. indicating his strong popularity with congressional Republicans. However.. this margin is somewhat deceiving. since some sixty supporters of James Monroe of Virginia and George Clinton of New York boycotted the caucus. One who boldly attended the caucus and paid the price for it was Senator John Quincy Adams. son of former President John Adams whom Jefferson had defeated for the presidency in 1800. The younger Adams conversion to republicanism cost him his Senate seat that year when the Massachusetts legislature. outraged over Jeffersons Embargo. elected James Lloyd over Adams. Persident Jefferson. however. repaid his political debt to Adams by appointing him minister to Russia. As Professor Marshall Smelser had pointed out. In his masterful synthesis of this period. Thze Democratic Republic. 18011815. Madisons election by the caucus would affect his entire administration: "As the creation of the caucus. Madison could never dominate his makers."I Following after the strong presidency of Thomas Jefferson. Madison became a relatively weak president. This. of course. Is not to denigrate his considerable achievements In public life. as one of the leaders of the Constitutional Convention of 1787. as author with Alexander Hamilton and John Jay of the Federalist Papers. as leader of the Republicans In the House of Representatives. and as Secretary of State under Jefferson. But James Madison simply did not measure up to the demands of executive leadership In those troubled times. The paramount national issues when Madison became president were United States relations with England and France. In a previous address. I discussed President Jeffersons efforts towards neutrality and his Illfated Embargo. But Madisons administration began with a brief "honeymoon." even rosier than that accorded to most administrations. Relations with Great Britain Improved steadily. as a result of negotiations with the British Minister to the United States. David Erskine. and an agreement was reached by which the British would lift their odious orders in Council. Interfering with American trade. and the United States would respond by repealing Its NonImportation Act. President Madison called Congress into special session and in his first presidential message urged Congress to pass Implementing legislation. This was an Immensely popular act which won the new president great public acclaim from both the Republicans and the Federalists. On June 19. 1809. the Senate Footnotes at end of article. inanimously approved legislation lifting n he ban on trade. Once differences with S he House version could be settled. the t lenate passed the amended version on v rune 28. and then adjourned.! Tragically. he national Jubilation was soon shat- 1ered by news that the British Cabinet I iad repudiated Erskines agreement. :)nce again trade restrictions were im- c )osed and relations between the United States and Britain grew more strained. An examination of the proceedings of this first short session of the Eleventh Congress reveals marked differences between the Senate and the House. In the Senate there was little debate over Madisons proposal. Sessions appear to have been quite brief. with only a few speeches made by supporters of the bill (although I should add that not all remarks on the floor were tra.scribed in those days). The entire transcript of the rronthlong session fills only fifty pages in the Annals of Congress. By contrast. the House of Representatives was far more active. with longer sessions. lengthier speeches. more heated debate. and a willingness to take up a far greater range of subjects. (The House was still relatively small in number then and its rules were not as restrictive of debate as they are today). For that same first session of the Eleventh Congress. the transcripts of the House proceedings run to 420 pages. For the second session the Senate debates fill 100 pages while the House debates fill 1.400. This disparity helps to explain why the youthful Henry Clay of Kentucky decided to quit his seat in the Senate to stand for election to the House. As Clay wrote to James Monroe: "Accustomed to the popular branch of a legislature. and preferring the turbulence (if I may be allowed the term) of a numerous body to the solemn stillness of the Senate Chamber. It was a mere matter of taste that led me. perhaps injudiciously. to change my station." 4 Henry Clay did not fare too badly in the Househe. was elected Speaker on his first day in that body! one of his biographers. Clement Eaton. has called Henry Clay "the boldest and most decisive." and "one of the best and most powerful Speakers that the House of Representatives has ever had."" Clay has also been described as the "most powerful man In the nation from 1811 to 1825."1 Another hiitorian has speculated that when one considers Clays conspicuous opposition to the policies of Presidents Madison and Monroe. he was perhaps "the leader of an antiadministration faction within the Republican party rather than the leader of the party Itself." I I mention this to indicate that while the Federalist party was still in existence during the Madison era. the differences inside the majority Republican party were perhaps growing more significant than those between the two parties. In the House. "Harry of the West." as Clay was affectionately called by his supporters. became the leader of a young band of warhawks. Representing the western and southern states primarily. they spoke out loudly for war with Britain to avenge the nations honor. to protect their western states from Britishprovoked Indian attacks. to anex Canada. and to expand the United Itates territorially. Onc of the most ineresting sidenotes about the warhawks ias that many of the most hottempered .mong them shared the same boarding ouse on Capitol Hiill: Clay and George 3ibb of Kentucky. and John C. Calhoun. Villiama Lowndes. and Langdon Chieves 4f South Carolina. all roomed at Mrs. )owsons boarding house. The significance of patterns of restlence in early Washingumo was first un~overed by Professor James Sterling Yfoung of Columbia University in his fascinating book. The W~ashington Comn7nunity 18001828. published in 1963. By examining the early congressional directories. Professor Young found that members of Congress were listed not by their states or parties but by the boarding houses and hotels in which they lived. Furthermore. he found ahigh correlation between boarding house residency and patterns of voting in the Senate and House. In choosing Places of temporary residence In the capital city. members of Congress naturally congregated according to their political and regional interests. How one voted helped to determine with whom one lived. and perhaps vice versa. Washington. D.C.. during those early years. was not a city of rmonuments. museums. parks. and broad a venues. It was aL roughhewn wilderness ettlement. with muddy streets. a few taverns. and a handful of boarding houses. Foreign diplomats considered it a hardship post. and members of Congress found it equally inhospitable. an extra Inducement for keeping sessions of Congress as short as possible. Because of the acute shortage of housing. and the great problems of transportation in those days. most senators and representatives left their families at home. F ew could a 11ord the luxury of building or buying a private home In the capitaland Indeed. until modern times there was a definite political stigma to owning a home in Washington. for it seemed to symbolize a politicians alienation from his constituents. So. members of Congress lived in boardling houses on Capitol Hill. and down Pennsylvania Avenue as far as Georgetown. Their room3 served as offces for handling correspondence and other legislative business off the floor of the Senate and House chambers. and we can be sure that politics and legislative tactics were prime subjects of conversation in their dining rooms and around their fireplaces each evening. Every election year we hear much talk about the "mess in Washington".asnd so it is amusing to read In the early Congressional Directories that in 1800 there was a "Washington Mess" at Mrs. Wilsons boarding house. where seventeen senators and representatives roomed. The "Mess" was not a reference to the physical conditio4 of the boarding house or its lodgers. but to the practice of eatIng meals together regularly. as In. say. a military messhall. One can also find references to a !War Mess" of warhawks and to "Dowsons crowd" or "Coyles family" to the members of the Dowson and Coyle boarding houses. If we had been members of the Senate in 1800 we might have taken rooms at Mrs& Hamiltons. Mrs. Frosts. Miss Regans. or Mr. Claxtons on Capitol Hill. or at Mrs. Suters on F Street. Mr. Huddlestons on Pennsylvania Avenue. or Mr. Crawfords of Georgetown. Some of these appear to have been clusters of houses. as for Instance Mrs. Dowsons of Capitol Hill. where members were listed as staying at the "~House In which she resides." the "House next door." and the "House opposite side of the way." 8 (Parenthetically. boarding houses have not disappeared entirely from Capitol Hill in our own day. A number of them still stretch down East Capitol Street and Its environs. A "Mrs. Snyders" has long been a favorite temporary residence for scholars using the Library of Congress and the National Archives. and Appalachia House on Third Street. Southeast. provides rooms for students and faculty of Appalachian State University. located in Boone. N.C.. during their educatioxial trips to Washington.) I have been talking about Henry Clay and the warhawks in the House of Represeiitatives. to whom historians have devoted most of their attention during this period. but my purpose is really to focus on the Senate. There. the leader of the majority Republican party. and also the leading war advocate. was Senator William Branch Giles of Virginia. G!ies was fortytwo years old when hie was elected to the Senate In 1804. but he had already established himself In national Politics. A graduate of Princeton University. he had also studied law under George Wythe at the College of William and Mary. About half the members of the Senate during this era were college graduatesfar out of proportion from the national averageand Princeton. Yale. Harvard. and William and Mary were the colleges most members had attended. William Branch Giles entered the House of Representatives In 1790 at the age of twentyeight. There. he became the most outspoken opponent of Alexander Hamiltons financial program. and also of the Jay Treaty. He also denounced what he considered to be the adulation of President George Washington. Giles was a leader of the Republicans in the House. until ill health forced him to resign In 1802. Two years later he Joined the more sedate Senate. where he Quickly assumed leadership of the Jeffersonian forces during the Impeachment trial of Samuel Chase.10 John Randolph. another Republican leader in the House. considered Giles the most accomplished debater which his country had ever seen." Senator Thomas Hart Benton. in his monumental memoir of Congress. Thirty Years View. left us this description: "Mr. Giles neither read nor studied. but talked Incessantly with able men. rather debating with them all the while. and drew from this source of information.* and from the ready powers of his mind. the ample means of speaking on every subject with the fulness which theoccasion required. the quickness which confounds an adversary. and the effect which a lick in time always produces." 11 Footnotes at end of article During Jeffersons presidency. Giles was one of the administrations chief advocates In the Senate . but once James Madiso~n entered the White House. Senator Giles pugilistic tendencies reemerged. Attempting to explain his break with his partys standard bearer. Giles wrote to a friend that he had nothing but the "warmest friendship and the most affectionate regards" for Madison before he became President. but he came to see the new President as the "spirit and support of the most unprincipled parasites. and dupe of the most wretched intrigues." Of Madison he now said. "republicanism was not safe In his hands." u~ Giles was particularly galled by Madisons strong reliance on Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. a man for whom he had no use at all. Giles led a successful movement in the Senate to block Gallatins promotion to Secretary of State in Madisons Cabinet. But Giles was not the only Republican to show independence of the White House. In January 1809. sixteen Republican senators Joined with five Federalists to order all armed vessels Into active naval service. in an attempt to force the administration to prepare for war with Great Britain.0 Not all of the political fighting took place within the Republican ranks. The diminishing Federalist party Still offered convenienttargets for fire. In December 1809. for example. the archFederal1st Timothy Pickering. Senator from Massachusetts. rose in the Senate to denounce what he considered the unconstitutional seizure of West Florida fromn Spain. Madison had justified this move on the grounds that the territory was included within the Louisiana Purchase. but Pickering read from a letter by French Foreign Minister Talleyrand. dated December 21. 1804. arguing that the Louisiana Purchase included no territory east of the Mississippi. As Pickering finished this reading. Senator Samuel Smith of Maryland (brother of Madisons Secretary of State Robert Smith) rose to ask whether the document was still secret. Pickering. himself a former Secretary of State. realized that he had violated the Senates rules by reading a confidential document without the permission of the Senate. He tried to defend his action by arguing that sufficient time had elapsed to remove any need for secrecy. but his enemies Jumped on the chance to embarrass him. On a motion of Henry Claythen still a senator from Kentuckythe galleries were~cleared andthe Senate moved to censure Pickering for breach of confidence. Thus Timothy Pickering became the first member of the Senate ever to be censured. In the 172 years since then. the Senate has censured only seven of its members. In most cases the effect was bath personally and Politically devastating. anid. indeed. Pickering shortly afterwards resigned his seat." The drums of war sounded loudly in 1810. Senator Giles was chairman of a committee appointed to respond to President Madisons military Proposals. and. In January 1810. he reported a bill from this committee for the "fitting out. oficering. and manning lofl the frigates belonging to the United States." While the Republican party had long been philosophically opposed to a large navy. or any other sign of a strong central government. Giles now argued that the navy was not a threat to Individual liberty but would secure liberty for the American people. In a remarkable address In the Senate on January 23. 1810. Giles dissected the history of the two political parties. He argued that the takeover of the federal government by the Republican party had led them to . "run into the opposite extreme" from the Federalists 1..forts towards centralization. The Republicans had so relaxed the powers of the government as to "impair or destroy its efficacy In resisting foreign aggressors." Senator Giles declared that he opposed both of these extremes and wanted to find a middle way in which individual liberties could be protected while the nation armed itself for its own protection. Claiming that he did not want war. Giles wanted the nation prepared in case war came. And be added that should war with Britain aIse. then the United States would be justified in annexing nearby British territory. by which he was clearly referring to Canada. Giles bill passed the Senate by a vote of 25 to 6. but died in a House committee. As Giles first biographer. Dice Anderson. has written. the war af 1812. "if Giles had had his way. would have been the war of 1810." As this legislation showed. the collapse of Madisons diplomatic initiatives was leading Congress to take matters Into Its own hands. House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Nathaniel Macon had introduced a bill which was known as "Macons Bill Number one" which embodied the administrations proposals for limiting all British and French imports to only American ships. Objections to this bill In the Senate had led to significant revisions. and. in 1810. Congress passed what became known as "Macons Bill Number Two." This pivotal piece of legislation provided that the United States would trade with both Britain and France. but if one of these nations lifted its trade restrictions. then the United States would terminate all trade with the other. Initially. this legislation reopened American trade with Europe. and commerce flourished. But then the crafty French leader. Napoleon. acted to make it appear that France was lifting its trade restrictions. Under Macons Bill. the United States had no alternative but to suspend Its trade with Britain. President Madison issued a new proclamation of nonintercourse with Britain. which Congress affirmed in February jell1. - The Twelfth Congress.. which met at the call of President Madison a month earlier than scheduled. was a war Congress. Tempers had risen. and American foreign policy was in a sorry state. Trade with Britain was cut off. and yet evidence was emerging that in truth France had not suspended Its own trade restrictions. British naval supremacy in. the Atlantic was also galling to the young American Republic. so proud of its independence from Great Britain. Not only .S7216 were the British disrupting American commerce but they were conscripting American seamen. When the warhawks in the House voted to expand the size of the army by 10.000 men. the Senate raised the ante to 25.000. As we might expect. William Branch Giles took the lead on this issue. The United States had enjoyed a long course of prosperity. Giles told his colleagues In the Senate. "but we ought not to calculate upon perpetual exemption from the common calamities of nations. When days of adversity shall arrive. we should meet them with becoming fortitude and energy.""1 The "days of adversity" were closer at hand than Giles anticipated. President Madison and his new Secretary of State. James Monroe. had become convinced of the Inevitability of war. On April 1. 1812. Madison sent Congress a secret message asking for an extension of the embargo for sixty days to protect American ships as war approached. According to Joseph Gales. publisher of the National Intelligencer and one of the first reporters of congressional debate. -a delegation of members of Congress led by Speaker Clay called upon the president to assure him that a majority was ready to vote for a declaration of war If he requested it. On June 1. 1812. Madison sent Congresshis declaration of war. charging Britain with seizng American seamen. violating the nations neutral rights and territorial waters. blockading United States ports. and continuing their official restrictions oin United States trade. "We behold ....on he side of the United States. a state of peace toward Great Britain." wrote Madison. "Whether the United States sliall continue passive under these progressive usurptions and these accumulated wrongs. or opposing force to force In defense of their national rights. shall commit a just cause Into the hands of the Almighty Disposer of Events ... is a solemn question which the Constitution wisely confides to the legislative department of the Governmnent." I . On June 5. 1812. the House of Representatives voted 79 to 49 for war. In the Senate.. Federalists from New England and the midAtlantic maritime states worked to delay a vote. Realizing that the Republican ranks were divided. that some Republicans favored total war with Britain. while others wanted war with both Britain and France. or limited war. or continued delay. the Federalists loaded the war resolution with numerous amendments to provide a cover and an Inducement for Republicans to vote against the war. This strategy slowed down the war movement but could not Prevent final Passage of the resolution. One of the key votes was cast by Senator William Giles. who alternated between pro- and antiwar votes. According to Giles most recent biographer. Dr. Mary Giunta of the National Historical Publications and Record Commission. Giles believed that both Britain and France were guilty of outrages against the United States but to war on both of them simultaneously would be folly. He finally concluded that Britain posed the greatest threat. since it was based In Footnotes at ead of article. Canada and controlled the Atlantic. His final vote for war. therefore. was cast out of a "psychological fear of dominance by Great Britain." On June 17. 1812. the Senate voted 19 to 13 for war. Some of Madisons critics have charged that he capitulated to congressional pressures In return for his renomination to the office of president. This charge appears groundless. since Madisons renomination was made certain as early as March 1812 when the Pennsylvania leg-. islature elected a solid slate of electors committed to him. In May. Madison was renominated by the Republican caucus by a vote of 82 to 0. although again with several abstensions." Vice President George Clinton having died in office. the caucus nominated Governor Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts for vice president. Today we still associate Gerrys name with political redistricting: "Gerrym~ndering."1 President Madison did not buy his renomination with a declaration of war. He was as convinced as were the warhawks that war was both necessary and inevitable. but we may assume that the national war fever did not damage Madisons chances for reelection that November. Mr. President. as we have been made so painfully aware in recent Years. wars are not so easily fought on the battlefields as they are in the cabinet room or the congressional hearing room. Martial spirit and expectations of quiek and easy victory in the eyes of those who declare war cannot be quickly translated into military performance. Even with Great Britains preoccupation with Its coni fiict with Napoleon on the European Continent. the war in North America went very badly for the United States. The gallant young men who marched off to battle met with ignominious defeats. In the summer of 1812. the United States launched a disastrous attack on British Canada. an attack which ended with the city of Detroit occupied by the British. the American garrison at the site of presentday Chicago massacred. and with control of Lake Erie firmly in the hands of the British navy. In November. General Henry Dearborn led a large American force to Canada. but the state militias refused to follow him across the border. and the expedition was forced to turn back. These events exposed the weakness of the state militias and the need for a strong regular army. and also caused President Madison to reorganize the War Department. The only bright notes were the naval victories of the U.S. Constitution ("Old Ironsides") and of Captain Stephen Decatur. who captured the British warship Macedonian and towed it back to New London. Connecticut. The second session of the I welfth Congress opened on November 2. 1812 In a much more subdued mood. Members heard a message from President Madison calling for enlargement of the Navy and higher pay for the Army. and authorization of a $20 million loan to pay the costs of the war. The Senate and House responded favorably with far less opPosition than Madison had received during his first term. The only significant opposition to the president In the Senate came over his plan to add twenty more regiments of Infantry to the Army. and the- the opposition centered on lengthe.-.ng the time of enlistment from one year to upwards of five years." During 1813 the war situation grew bleaker. The British navy blockaded the entrances to the Chesapeake and Delaware bays. eventually extending their blockade from New England to the Georgia coast. The blockade was extremely effective. causing scarcities of goods along the East Coast. high inflation. and a drastic reduction In government revenues on customs which brought the government to the verge of bankruptcy. Meanwhile. the Americans again moved to gain control over the Orcit Lakes. In APrl a force of 1.600 Anicricans under General Dearborn seizcd the British naval fleet at York. the presentday city of Toronto. The mission ended with the destruction of two British ships under construction. but at the cost of 320 American lives and the control of the Lakes remained In British hands. The American forces were also accused of having burned government buildings as they left Yorken act which would stimulate a terrible revenge. However. we should note the General Dearborn. in a letter to Senator Joseph Varnum. insisted that his troops neither burned nor destroyed any public or private buildings in York. with the exception of two blockhouses and a few sheds belonging to the Naval Yard. It was the British. themselves. who set ablaze a frigate under construction and a large storehouse of naval equipment to keep them from falling Into the Americans hands. As General Dearborn explained: "Several of the most valuable public buildings. connected with their principal military positions. were destroyed by the explosion of their magazine. which proved so fatal to our troops. and although there were strong provocations for burning or destroying the town. nothIng of the kind took place." " In June the British captured the American warship Chesapeake outside of Boston harbor. an event we remember today for the dying words of its thirtytwoyearold captain James Lawrencc: "Dont give up the ship I" An even younger captain. twenty- eigh tyear -old Oliver Hazard Perry Inscribed these words on his flagship. the Lawrence. which played an important role In the greatest American naval victory of -the wvar. On September 10. 1813. the Americans Won a decisive victory over the British on Lake Erie. during which the Lawrence was so badly damaged that Perry was forced to move to another ship in his fleet. My colleagues may recognize from my description of this event the 20 by 30 foot depiction of the battle which hangs over the east staircase of the Senate wing. Just outside of my office. This impressive painting. by which we all pass many times during the dny. was added to the Senates artistic ..ollection In 1873. In the carved wooden ribbon across the top of the painting is the message that Perry sent to General William Henry Harrison after the battle: "We have met the enemy and they are ouis."