he party declaring in their venal prints, that the American
administration was base, and cowardly, and tamely suffering the
outrages, abuses and contempt of the nations of Europe, without
possessing the spirit to resent, or the power to resist them; and that
"_we could not be kicked into a war_." Yet after the administration
had exhausted every effort to bring England to do justice, and war was
declared, these very federalists called the act wicked and inhuman;
and denounced the President for plunging the country into hostilities
with the mistress of the ocean, the most powerful nation of the
earth! They called this _act_ of Congress, "_Madison's War_," and did
every thing in their power to render that upright man odious in the
eyes of the unthinking part of the community. This was not all; these
arrogant men, assumed to themselves "_all the talents_," and "_all the
virtues_" of the country, used every mean in their power to paralyze
the arm of government, and reduce the energies of the nation, in the
face and front of our adversary. By arguments and threats, they
induced the monied men in Massachusetts, very generally, _to refuse
loans of money to government_; and to ruin our resources. Did not this
party, denominated _federalists_, exult at the disasters of our arms;
and did they not vote in the Senate of Massachusetts, that "it was
unworthy a religious and moral people, to rejoice at the immortal
achievements of our gallant seamen?" In the midst of our difficulties,
when this powerful enemy threatened us by sea and land, with an army
force from Penobscot, another through Lake Champlain, another at the
Chesapeake, while nothing but resistance and insurgency was talked of
and hinted at within! Did they not in this state of things, and with
these circumstances, did not Governor Strong, and the federal party
generally, seize hold of this alarming state of our affairs, to call
the _Convention at Hartford_, and that not merely to perplex the
government, but to be the organ of communication between the enemy and
the malcontents? Did they not _then_ talk loudly of our worm eaten
Constitution; and did they not call the Union "_a rope of sand_," that
could no longer hold together? If there be a line of transgression,
beyond the bounds of forgiveness, the _leaders_ of that party, who put
Mr. Strong up for Governor, have attained it. These things I gather
from the papers, and from the history of the day, as I have collected
them