produces a state of things which renders that impossible.]

It is true, agriculture suffered as well as commerce; but agricultural
products could be converted into food and clothing; they would not decay
like ships, nor would the producers be deprived of employment and
sustenance, like those connected with navigation.

Whether this step was intended to paralyze the North or not, it most
suddenly and decidedly produced that effect. We were told that it was
done to save our commerce from falling into the hands of the English and
French. But our merchants earnestly entreated not to be thus saved. At
the very moment of the embargo, underwriters were ready to _insure_ at
the _usual_ rates.

The non-intercourse was of the same general character as the embargo,
but less offensive and injurious. The war crowned this course of policy;
and like the other measures, was carried by slave votes. It was
emphatically a Southern, not a national war. Individuals gained glory
by it, and many of them nobly deserved it; but the amount of benefit
which the country derived from that war might be told in much fewer words
than would enumerate the mischiefs it produced.

The commercial States, particularly New-England, have been frequently
reproached for not being willing to go to war for the protection of
their own interests; and have been charged with pusillanimity and
ingratitude for not warmly seconding those who were so zealous to defend
their cause. Mr. Hayne, during the great debate with Mr. Webster, in
the Senate, made use of this customary sarcasm. It is revived whenever
the sectional spirit of the South, or party spirit in the North,
prompts individuals to depreciate the talents and character of any
eminent Northern man. The Southern States have even gone so far on
this subject, as to assume the designation of "_patriot States_," in
contra-distinction to their northern neighbors--and this too, while
Bunker Hill and Faneuil Hall are still standing! It certainly was a
pleasant idea to exchange the appellation of _slave_ States for that of
_patriot_ States--it removed a word which in a republic is unseemly and
inconsistent.

Whatever may be thought of the justice and expediency of the last war,
it was certainly undertaken against the earnest wishes of the commercial
States--two thirds of the Representatives from those States voted in
opposition to the measure. According to the spirit of the constitution
it ought not to have passed u