Henry accepted the offer and was paid the sum for his papers.

Terrence obtained an interview with the president and said: 

“Misther Madison, why the divil did yez pay him such a price?  If ye’d ‘a’ left it all to me, I’d won the papers in three games of poker.”

The president thanked him and assured him that the government of the United States could well afford to purchase such valuable documents.

“And now, Misther Madison, I am about to lave ye for awhile,” said Terrence, “and I want to ask ye a very important question!”

“What is it?”

“Mind ye, if ye say yes, I’m goin’ to stand by ye through thick and thin.”  Mr. Madison assured him that his time was very much taken up, and begged that he would be as brief as possible.

“Are ye going to declare war, Misther Madison?  Now ye needn’t do any of the fighting yersilf.  All I ask is that ye just turn me loose.  I’ve got a frind, poor Sukey, who is still on board the English ship, and I just want permission to go and bring him back.”

President Madison assured him that the public would be notified in due time what course the administration would pursue, and that it was his intention to maintain the honor and dignity of the nation to the last extremity.

Terrence left the president and went over to the Continental House to see how Mr. Crane, the worthy secretary, looked with a rotten apple bandaged over each eye.  Terrence was arrested for assault and battery, plead guilty, and the patriotic Democrats took up a collection and paid his fine.

The disclosures of the documents procured from Henry, when made public, intensified the indignation of the Americans against Great Britain.  The inhabitants of New England were annoyed by the implied disparagement of the patriotism of their section of the Union.  Both parties tried to make political capital out of the affair.  The Democrats vehemently reiterated the charge that the Federalists were a “British party” and “disunionists,” while the opposition declared it was only a political move of the administration to damage their party, insure the re-election of Madison in the Autumn of 1812, and offer an excuse for the war.  The acrimony caused by these partisan feelings was at its height, when the New England governors refused to send their militia to the frontier; and the British government, in declaring the blockade of the American coast, discriminated in favor of that section.  That the British, mistaking partisan feeling for unpatriotic disaffection, hoped to carry out their plan for disunion, there is no doubt; but the suspicion that the New England people contemplated disunion and annexation to the English colonies was probably without foundation.

Terrence Malone remained in Washington City during the fierce contest between the Peace Party and the War Party.  He was a constant thorn in the side of the peace faction, and more than once came to blows with some of the members.  When war was declared, he sent the word to president that he was ready to set out at once, and shortly after took command of a privateer, which his father fitted out.