“The first principle of all republican government—and of all government founded on reason and justice,” Carey wrote “is that the will of the majority, fairly and constitutionally expressed, is to be the law of the land. To that the minority is sacredly bound to submit.” Any other approach, he continued, would result in the overthrow of the government and anarchy.[1]
He claimed the Federalists promoted the will of the majority while they were in power. Once out of power, they abandoned it altogether. Federalist writers characterized the War of 1812 as “unholy—wicked—base—perfidious—unjust—cruel—and corrupt.” [2]
British papers alleged that the United States was the belligerent. Federalist papers repeated it. Responding to those allegations, Carey argued that impressment alone justified war. If European nations had impressed English sailors, Britain would have gone to war with them. The British seized American ships bound for France, Holland or Northern Italy. At the same time, Britain issued licenses to her merchant marine for trade on the Continent. That trade was illegal if carried in American vessels. Britain used Napoleon’s Berlin and Milan Decrees as the excuse to violate American neutrality.[3]
To bolster his arguments, Carey reprinted excerpts:
“…the Berlin and Milan decrees [were] used as a mere pretext….The plain design of the British government was to deprive France of the benefits of external commerce, unless the profits of it were divided with [Britain].”[4]
Federalist Senator James Bayard II of Delaware, October 11, 1811
“…the Orders in Council are wholly unjustifiable, let them be bottomed either on the principle of retaliation or of self preservation.”[5]
Federalist Senator James Lloyd of Massachusetts, February 28, 1812
“…the sentiment of indignation throughout the country at the continuation of the orders in council is loud and universal from both parties!…It is too true…that our administration have become willing dupes to the insidious policy of Napoleon…the scrupulous adherence of your cabinet to an empty punctilio, will too probably unite the whole country in opposition to your nation…” [6]
Federalist Harrison Gray Otis to a friend in London, January 14, 1812
How the British accused the United States of starting the war:
“It is well known to the world, that [Britain] was not the aggressor in [the War of 1812].” [7]
British Prince Regent, November, 1813
“Now that the tyrant, Bonaparte has been consigned to infamy, there is no public feeling in this country stronger than that of indignation against the Americans…”[8]
The London Times, April, 1814
How the Federalists repeated it, blaming Madison and the influence of Napoleon:
“The British orders in council and the casual abuses arising from the practice of impressment, have ceased to be considered by impartial men as the causes of the present war…The real causes of the war must be traced to …the policy of Washington and the friends and framers of the constitution; to implacable animosity against those men…to the influence of worthless foreigners over the press, and the deliberations of the government in all its branches; — to a jealousy of commercial states [New York and New England] fear of their power, contempt of their pursuits, and ignorance of their true character and importance; –to the cupidity of certain states [the West] for the wilderness reserved for the miserable aborigines;–to a violent passion for conquest…and, above all, to the delusive estimates of the power…of France and Great Britain, and a determined hostility towards [Britain] as the firmest basis of party power.”[9]
House of Representatives of Massachusetts, June 1814
“In the prosecution of a war founded in falsehood, declared without necessity and whose real object was extent of territory by unjust conquests, and to aid the late tyrant of Europe [Napoleon] in his view of aggrandizements, our rulers could expe[c]t no aid from the people of this commonwealth excepting only that which they had a strict “right by the constitution to demand.”[10]
Senate of Massachusetts, June 1814
Next: Why Carey Changed His Mind While Writing the Olive Branch
[1] Mathew Carey, The Olive Branch or Faults on Both Sides, Federal and Democratic (Philadelphia: M. Carey November 8, 1814) 170.
[2] Carey, Olive Branch, 172.
[3] Carey, Olive Branch, 175.
[4] Carey, Olive Branch, 175-6.
[5] Carey, Olive Branch, 176.
[6] Carey, Olive Branch, 175-177.
[7] Carey, Olive Branch, 178.
[8] Carey, Olive Branch, 179.
[9] Carey, Olive Branch, 178. (Reply of the House of Representatives to the speech of Massachusetts Governor Strong.)
[10] Carey, Olive Branch, 178-179. (Answer of the Senate of Massachusetts to Governor Strong’s speech.)
