uch and ought to be destroyed.
I detest the man and disdain the spirit that can ever bend to a mean
subserviency to the views of any nation. It is enough to be American.
That character comprehends our duties and ought to engross our
attachments." Considering the probable influence on the Indian tribes of
the rejection of the treaty, he said, "By rejecting the Posts we light
the savage fires, we bind the victims.... I can fancy that I listen to
the yells of savage vengeance and shrieks of torture. Already they seem
to sigh in the west wind,--already they mingle with every echo from the
mountains." His closing words again bring Chatham to mind. "Yet I have
perhaps as little personal interest in the event as any one here. There
is, I believe, no member who will not think his chance to be a witness
of the consequences greater than mine. If, however, the vote should pass
to reject, and a spirit should rise, as rise it will, with the public
disorders to make confusion worse confounded, even I, slender and almost
broken as my hold upon life is, may outlive the government and
Constitution of my country." This appeal, supported by the petitions and
letters which poured in upon the House, left no doubt of the result. An
adjournment was carried, but the speech was decisive. The next day,
April 29, it was resolved to be expedient to make the necessary
appropriations to carry the treaty into effect. The vote stood 49 ayes
to 49 nays, and was decided in the affirmative by Muhlenberg, who was in
the chair. But the House would not be satisfied without an expression of
condemnation of the instrument. On April 30 it was resolved that in the
opinion of the House the treaty was objectionable.

While Mr. Gallatin in this debate rose to the highest rank of
statesmanship, he showed an equal mastery of other important subjects
which engaged the attention of the House during the session. He was
earnest for the protection of the frontier, but had no good opinion of
the Indians. "Twelve years had passed," he said, "since the peace of
1783; ever since that time he had lived on the frontier of Pennsylvania.
Not a year of this period had passed, whether at war or peace, that some
murders had not been committed by the Indians, and yet not an act of
invasion or provocation by the inhabitants." In the matter of
impressment of American seamen, he urged the lodging of sufficient power
in the executive. Men had been impressed, and he held it to be the duty