Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 1.djvu/212

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180
CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.


yeas and 13 nays. (Annals of Congress, 1811-1812, part 1, pp. 287-298.) The nays were: Senators Bayard and Horsey, of Delaware; Dana and Goodrich, of Connecticut; Howell and Hunter, of Rhode Island; Oilman, of New Hampshire; Lloyd, of Massachusetts; German, of New York; Lambert, of New Jersey; Reed, of Maryland, and Worthington, of Ohio. Not a Southern or Western senator is recorded as voting against the declaration of war except Senator Worthington, of Ohio, and the record of the vote states the nays as 13, but gives the names of only 12. The bill with amendments now went to the House. The amendments were concurred in June 18th. President Madison, on the following day, June 19th, issued his proclamation declaring that war exists between Great Britain and the United States.

It does not pertain to the purpose of this sketch to relate the events of the war which followed this declaration. Two conclusions cannot be resisted: 1st. It was a just and necessary war. 2d. It was a Southern measure.

The able historian, Mr. Henry Adams, thus analyzes the vote in Congress: "Except Pennsylvania, the entire representation of no Northern State declared itself for the war; except Kentucky, every State south of the Potomac and the Ohio voted for the declaration. Not only was the war to be a party measure, but it was also sectional." This statement is fully sustained by the facts and by the testimony of nearly every historian who has written on the subject. Public sentiment is further illustrated the presidential election which followed just after the declaration, and after an exciting and bitter canvass, resulting in the following electoral vote of 1812;