AMERICAN SPEECHES, FORENSIC AND PARLIAMENTARY, WITH PREFATORY REMARKS: BEING A SEQUEL TO DR. CHAPMAN'S 'SELECT SPEECHES.' CONTENTS OF THE SECOND VOLUME. Page MR. Madison's Speech in the House of Representatives of the United States, on the British Treaty, Fisher Ames's Speech, on the same subject, MR. MADISON'S SPEECH, IN A COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE HOUSE, ON THE BRITISH TREATY, 15th APRIL, 1794. The Question-Resolved, as the opinion of this Committee, that it is expedient to pass the laws necessary for carrying into effect the Treaty with Great Britain. EVERY man who pretends to be tolerably conversant with the history of America, is sufficiently acquainted with the origin and consequences of Mr. Jay's mission to St. James's, with the nature of the treaty he effected with the British cabinet, the exasperation excited by it in the opposition party, and the firmness displayed by Washington in ratifying it. "The predetermined hostility which this treaty was doomed to encounter (says the illustrious biographer of Washington) increased its activity as the period for deciding the fate of that instrument approached. On its particular merits, no opinion could be formed, because they were unknown; but on the general question of reconciliation between the two countries, a decisive judgment was extensively made up. The sentiments called forth by the occasion, demonstrated that no possible adjustment of differences with Great Britain, no possible arrangement which might promise a future friendly intercourse with that power, could be satisfactory. The executive (Washington) was openly attacked, its system condemned, and the mission of Mr. Jay particularly was reprobated in terms of peculiar harshness." |