376
HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES.
Ch. 16.
- "The gentleman talked of resistance, and resistance on sea," said Willis Alston of North Carolina, in reply to Quincy.[1] "Did any one believe that he seriously meant meeting the powerful navy of Great Britain on the sea,—of that Britain who had been emphatically styled 'the mistress of the ocean,' and who was 'fighting for the liberties of the world and of mankind'? No, sir; nothing of the kind is meant. Submission to her orders would be the inevitable consequence of the gentleman's resistance, and finally a loss of everything dear to the American character,—a loss of our liberty and independence as a free people."
As though one such admission were not enough, Alston obstinately recurred to it. "An idea of that sort of resistance is too idle to merit serious consideration." That Willis Alston was a man of no great distinction might be true; but such expressions were not confined to him. Richard M. Johnson of Kentucky, as brave a man as lived, could not face the idea of war:—
- "At the most alarming crisis that ever convulsed the political world, when empires and kingdoms have changed with the season, and America, buffeted on every side, has maintained the ground of perfect neutrality, this nation should make a pause on this high eminence before they plunge into the dread conflict."
A nation which had never yet moved a muscle could hardly "make a pause;" but even if Colonel Johnson's figures had been more correct, the sentiment was in his mouth unexpected, for in Kentucky
- ↑ Annals of Congress, 1808-1809, p. 556.
