Submitted by: Submitted by JillBrinko
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Category: US History
Date Submitted: 10/27/2015 06:36 AM
John Randolph Opposes War
In opposition to the War Hawks stood an array of elected officials who opposed war against
Britain on various grounds. Some were Federalists who suspected the Republicans of using the
conflict to align the country with France, others feared the usurpation of power by the president
at the expense of Congress; still others predicted certain defeat at the hands of the British
military. One of the most prominent of the antiwar voices belonged to John Randolph of
Roanoke, Virginia, who spoke passionately for peace from within the Republican ranks. His
speech that appears below was delivered to Congress in December 1811; it is taken from The
Debates and Proceedings in the Congress of the United States ... 12th Cong., 1st sess.
(Washington, 1853), 441, 445-47, 450, 454-55.
An insinuation had fallen from the gentleman from Tennessee, (Mr. Grundy.) that the late
massacre of our brethren on the Wabash had been instigated by the British Government. Has the
President given any such information? has the gentleman received any such, even informally,
from any officer of this Government? Is it so believed by the Administration? He had cause to
think the contrary to be the fact; that such was not their opinion. This insinuation was of the
grossest kind-a presumption the most rash, the most unjustifiable. Show but good ground for it,
he would give up the question at the threshold-he was ready to march to Canada. It was indeed
well calculated to excite the feelings of the Western people particularly, who were not quite so
tenderly attached to our red brethren as some modern philosophers; but it was destitute of any
foundation, beyond mere surmise and suspicion.... Advantage had been taken of the spirit of the
Indians, broken by the war which ended in the Treaty of Greenville. Under the ascendency then
acquired over them, they had been pent up by subsequent treaties into nooks, straightened in
their quarters by a blind cupidity, seeking to extinguish their...