Political History of the United States (Volume 2); With Special Reference to the Growth of Political Parties

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1902 edition. Excerpt: ... convention had the best of reasons for regarding as a desperate struggle for its existence. The government was bankrupt; its army a mere skeleton in comparison with its needs; its enemy vindictive and powerful, flushed with victory over the greatest military genius of modern times. One British army had landed at New Orleans, and another was on our northern frontier. But not a line of the report alluded in the most indirect way to the difficulties of the country, or showed any appreciation of its dangers. A more recent apologist, Mr. Henry Cabot Lodge, does not enlarge upon the patriotism of the members of the convention. In the biography of his Henry Cabot.. Lodge on the grandfather, George Cabot, he admits that convention. his object is to present one side, and that the side of the Federalists, in the strongest and clearest light. Unfavorable testimony from him, therefore, has great value, because it is the testimony of an unwilling witness. But Mr. Lodge admits that the convention said plainly to the general government: Unless you alter your present policy, a dissolution ef the Union will ensue; and that it intended to coerce the Administration by threatening them with separation. He admits also that it adopted and favored the doctrine that the states had a right to nullify laws of the United States which were in their opinion unconstitutional. These admissions, as we know, any candid student of its report is compelled to make. To summarize, then, the work of the convention in one short sentence: it advocated the doctrine of nullification, and threatened the dissolution of the Union. The most significant fact of all is that not a single Federalist in the United States, in any speech or letter which has been handed down, expressed any...