If there is no necessity imposed upon America to go to war, if there is no apprehension she will, by her own conduct, involve herself in one, the danger must arise from Great Britain, and the threat is, that she will make war against us if we do not comply.  Gentlemen first tell us that we have made the best possible bargain with that nation; that she has conceded everything, without receiving a single iota in return, and yet they would persuade us, that she will make war against us in order to force us to accept that contract so advantageous to us, and so injurious to herself.  It will not be contended that a delay, until an amicable explanation is obtained, could afford even a pretence to Great Britain for going to war; and we all know that her own interest would prevent her.  If another campaign takes place, it is acknowledged, that all her efforts are to be exerted against the West Indies.  She has proclaimed her own scarcity of provisions at home, and she must depend on our supplies to support her armament.  It depends upon us to defeat her whole scheme, and this is a sufficient pledge against open hostility, if the European war continues.  If peace takes place, there will not be even the appearance of danger; the moment when a nation is happy enough to emerge from one of the most expensive, bloody, and dangerous wars in which she ever has been involved, will be the last she would choose to plunge afresh into a similar calamity.

But to the cry of war, the alarmists do not fail to add that of confusion; and they have declared, even on this floor, that if the resolution is not adopted government will be dissolved.  Government dissolved in case a postponement takes place!  The idea is too absurd to deserve a direct answer.  But I will ask those gentlemen, by whom is government to be dissolved?  Certainly not by those who may vote against the resolution; for although they are not perhaps fortunate enough to have obtained the confidence of the gentlemen who voted against them, still it must be agreed, that those who succeed in their wishes, who defeat a measure they dislike, will not wish to destroy that government, which they hold so far in their hands as to be able to carry their own measures.  For them to dissolve government, would be to dissolve their own power.  By whom, then, I again ask, is the government to be dissolved?  The gentlemen must answer—­by themselves—­or they must declare that they mean nothing but to alarm.  Is it really the language of those men, who profess to be, who distinguish themselves by the self-assumed appellation of friends to order, that if they do not succeed in all their measures they will overset government—­and have all their professions been only a veil to hide their love of power, a pretence to cover their ambition?  Do they mean, that the first event which shall put an end to their own authority shall be the last act of government?  As to myself, I do not believe that they have such intentions; I have too good an