Having forborne to declare war until to other aggressions had been added
the capture of nearly a thousand American vessels and the impressment of
thousands of American seafaring citizens, and until a final declaration
had been made by the Government of Great Britain that her hostile
orders against our commerce would not be revoked but on conditions as
impossible as unjust, whilst it was known that these orders would not
otherwise cease but with a war which had lasted nearly twenty years, and
which, according to appearances at that time, might last as many more;
having manifested on every occasion and in every proper mode a sincere
desire to arrest the effusion of blood and meet our enemy on the ground
of justice and reconciliation, our beloved country, in still opposing
to his persevering hostility all its energies, with an undiminished
disposition toward peace and friendship on honorable terms, must carry
with it the good wishes of the impartial world and the best hopes of
support from an omnipotent and kind Providence.
JAMES MADISON.
SPECIAL MESSAGES.
SEPTEMBER 26, 1814.
_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
I transmit to Congress, for their information, copies of a letter from
Admiral Cochrane, commanding His Britannic Majesty's naval forces on the
American station, to the Secretary of State, with his answer, and of a
reply from Admiral Cochrane.
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