Page:Life of Henry Clay (Schurz; v. 1).djvu/102

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HENRY CLAY.

who think that threats and appealing to fear are the ways of producing any disposition to negotiate in Great Britain, or in any other nation which understands what it owes to its own safety and honor.” The voluntary yielding of England with regard to the Orders in Council had shown how peace might have been secured. But he was convinced that the administration did not want peace. The administration party had its origin and found its daily food in hatred of Great Britain. He reviewed the whole diplomatic history of the United States to show that Republican influence had always been bent upon forcing a quarrel with England, and that during Jefferson's and Madison's administrations there had been constant plotting against peace and friendship. This review he followed with a scathing exposure of the subserviency of the administration to the audacious and insulting duplicity of Bonaparte, and the shameful humiliation of the government in consequence of it. Finally, he declared that, while he would unite with any man for purposes of maritime and frontier defense, he would unite with no one nor with any body of men “for the conquest of any country, either as a means of carrying on this war or for any other purpose.”

This savage attack struck deeply. It was followed by several speeches on the same side, insisting that the quarrel between the United States and England had, after the revocation of the Orders in Council, been narrowed down to the impressment