Apush. Paper

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...