and Randolph. The Federals
were in power, the Republicans in opposition. When the
Republicans got into power in 1801 under Jefferson they
pursued their anti-British policy till they finally
brought on the War of 1812 under the presidency of Madison.
The strength of the peace party lay in the North; that
of the war party lay in the South. The peaceful Federals,
now that Independence had been gained, were in favour of
meeting the amicable British government half-way. When
Pitt came into power in 1783 he at once held out the
olive branch. Now, ten years later, the more far-seeing
statesmen on both sides were preparing to confirm the
new friendship in the practical form of Jay's Treaty,
which put the United States into what is at present known
as a most-favoured-nation position with regard to British
trade and commerce. Moreover, Washington and his Northern
Federals much preferred a British Canada to a French one,
while Jefferson and the Southern Republicans thought any
stick was good enough to beat the British dog with.

The Jeffersonians eagerly seized on the reports of a
speech which Carleton made to the Miamis, who lived just
south of Detroit, and used it to the utmost as a means
of stirring up anti-British feeling. Carleton had said:
'You are witnesses that we have acted in the most peaceable
manner and borne the language and conduct of the United
States with patience. But I believe our patience is almost
exhausted.' Applied to the vexed questions of the Western
Posts, of the lawless ways of the exterminating American
pioneers, and of the infinitely worse jobbing politicians
behind them, this language was mildness itself. But in
view of the high statesmanship of Washington and his
government it was injudicious. All the same, Dundas, more
especially because he was a cabinet minister, was even
more injudicious when he adopted a tone of reproof towards
Carleton, whose great services, past and present, entitled
him to unusual respect and confidence. The negotiations
for Jay's Treaty were then in progress in London, and
Jefferson saw his chance of injuring both the American
and British governments by magnifying Carleton's speech
into an 'unwarrantable outrage.' He also hoped that an
Indian war would upset the treaty and bring on a British
war as well. And the prospect did look encouragingly
black in the West, where the American general Wayne was
ready waiting south of Lake Erie, while the trade in
scalps was unusual