only to the mission of two of our own public officers to the State of New York, with whose instructions England should never have been made acquainted. But, instead of this, it is highly probable that the British Government knows all about them, whilst our own countrymen are profoundly ignorant on the subject.

This mission was so extraordinary-so unlike any thing that had ever occurred under any former Administration, that curiosity alone might prompt us to inquire why a brave and gallant general of our armies had been sent off four or five hundred miles-not to meet and battle (as he had often and gloriously done) the enemies of his country, but, strange to tell, to attend to a law-suit in court. Only think of it, sir; an old soldier, covered with his scars and his honors, sent out to assist the law officer of the Government to argue a demurrer to an indictment, or to file a plea to the jurisdiction of a county court. Heavens! as the eloquent gentleman from Kentucky, [Mr. MARSHALL,] would say, "what an immortal petrefaction" of human folly!

But, sir, to be serious. Was General Scott despatched to New York for any purpose connected with the trial of McLeod? And, if so, what could have been that purpose? Was it to effect a release by the sword, if the Attorney General should fail to procure it by the purse? Such a purpose is incredible. What then? Why, the most probable conjecture is, that Mr. Webster had learned, from some source or other, that McLeod was to be liberated at all events, and at every hazard, by the British authorities in Canada; that, in the event of a conviction, our soil was to be again invaded, our jail at Lockport to be pulled down or burnt like the Caroline; and, if necessary, to shoot and sabre and murder our people, as they had done before!

Sir, I want to know all about this military expedition; and, if my conjecture should prove correct, then I want to know why Mr. Webster should feel so much sympathy for this English subject, who inhumanly boasted that his sword was yet red with the blood of an American citizen,-why he should send him testimony and counsel, and render him every assistance in his power to escape justice and to elude the law.

Surely Mr. Webster was under no obligation to the British nation so to volunteer his services in behalf of one of her subjects. That would make him more like a British consul than an American Secretary of State. From that hour (if not before) when Mr. Fox declared the approval of the burning of the Caroline, and the murder of her crew, by his Government, Mr. Webster should have said: "Then go and defend McLeod yourself; employ his counsel with your own or your nation's money; collect his testimony for him yourself; henceforth and forever I leave him to his fate, to answer to the insulted and violated laws of New York in the best manner he may." The more especially should he have said and acted in this manner, after those threats which I suppose to have given rise to General Scott's expedition to New York.

But, sir, this whole mission has been marked, throughout, not more by the most morbid and misapplied sympathy, than by the novelty and inconsistency of the duties which it imposed on the Attorney General. It is the duty of that officer to prosecute, not to defend, criminals; to give counsel to our President, and to the heads of departments-not to traverse the country for the release of foreign felons, who, at the dead hour of midnight, by boats propelled by muffled oars, invade our territory, burn our property, and imbue their hands in better blood than ever flowed in English veins.

Such are the duties of the Attorney General, as declared by the statute of 1789. What duties were assigned to him in this degrading mission-degrading to him who sent, and to him who was sent? You may find them in page 25 of document No. 1.

"The President is impressed with the propriety of transferring the trial from the scene of the principal excitement to some other and distant country. You will take care this be suggested to the prisoner's counsel.

"Having consulted with the Governor, you will proceed to Lockport, or wherever else the trial may be holden, and furnish the prisoner's counsel with the evidence of which you will be in possession, material to his defence. You will see that he have skillful and eminent counsel, if such be not already retained; and, although you are not desired to act as counsel yourself, you will cause it to be signified to him, and to the gentleman who may conduct his defence, that it is the wish of this Government that, in case his defence is overruled by the court in which he shall be tried, proper

steps be taken immediately for removing the cause, by writ of error, to the Supreme Court of the United States."

You perceive, sir, that he was not to go as public, but as secret counsel-not to plead for McLeod himself, but to see that he had others, "skillful and eminent," to do so; that he was to furnish him with testimony; and, above all, in case of conviction, that it was the wish of the Government that the case should be taken to the Supreme Court of the United States; that the prisoner's counsel was to be told that such was the wish of the Government.

The defendant, it was supposed, might not feel sufficient anxiety to save his neck from the halter by appealing to a higher tribunal, and must, therefore, be encouraged to do so by the assurance that the Government wished him to do so.

Mr. Attorney General is to signify to him that he had better appeal than die!

Mr. Speaker, I pause to ask if, after this, you can believe that wonders will ever cease? At all events, can you believe they are likely to cease during this life-preserving, felon-saving branch of this Administration? I say nothing of its head, who had come in too unexpectedly, and was surrounded by too many perplexities at that period, to be presumed to have given much attention to this subject; but I speak emphatically of this branch of the Administration.

Mr. Speaker, I wish now to call your attention to the remaining clause of this resolution, to wit: "whether the British Government has been given to understand that McLeod will be released or surrendered."

It is probable that the President can give us but little more than the information contained in his message. I shall, therefore, under that supposition, submit my views on the merits of the McLeod case, and the course pursued by the Secretary of State in the correspondence, as it now stands.

To understand the merits of this case, and to judge of the propriety or impropriety of the course pursued by Mr. Webster in it, we must have a clear and distinct understanding of the facts. For these, I refer you to the speech of the honorable chairman of the Ways and Means at the last session; to the statement of the case made by Mr. Webster himself; and,

lastly, to a condensed and nervous statement of them in the other end of the Capitol, which has never been denied or contradicted there or on this floor.

What is it? The

"This brings me to the case before us. facts of the case are all spread out in official documents, and the evidence is clear and undeniable. An American steam ferry-boat traverses the Niagara river; she carries passengers and property from one shore to the other. The English believe (and perhaps truly) that she carries men and arms to the insurgents in Canada; and without any appeal to our Governments, either State or Federal-without applying to us to put our own laws in force against her-an English officer, of his own head, without the knowledge of the British Government, determines to do what? Not to watch the suspected vessel, arrest her in the fact, seize the guilty and spare the innocent; but to steal upon her in the night, board her asleep, and destroy her at the American shore, under the flag of her country. In the evening of the meditated outrage volunteers are called for-fifty or sixty dashing, daring fellows-ready to follow their leader to the devil,-for that was the language used; and it proves the expedition to have been a diabolical one, and worthy to be led as well as followed by demons. The arms were sabres and pistols; the season of attack, midnight; the means of approach, light boats and muffled oars; the progress slow, silent, and stealthy, that no suspicious sound should alarm the sleeping victims. The order was death and no quarter. Thus prepared and led, they approach the boat in the dead of the night-reach her without discovery-rush on board-fly to the berths cut, slash, stab, and shoot all whom they see-pursue the flying, and, besides those in the boat, kill one man at least upon the soil of his country, far from the water's edge. Victorious in an attack where there was no resistance, the conquerors draw the vessel into the midst of the current, set her on fire, and with all her contents-the dead, the living, the wounded, and the dying-send her in flames over the frightful cataract of the Niagara. McLeod, the man whose release is demanded from us, was (according to his own declarations, made at the time in his own country, repeated since in ours, and according to the sworn testimony of one of the survivors) an actor

in that piratical and cowardly tragedy. According to his own assertions, and the admission of his comrades, he was one of the foremost in that cruel work, and actually killed one of the 'damned Yankees,' (to use his own words,) with his own hands." -Mr. Benton's speech in Senate United States.

Now, sir, on these facts, which it warms one's American blood to recite, can this band of merciless desperadoes be liable to punishment under the laws of New York, where their crimes were perpetrated? To my mind, after the best examination I have been able to give to the subject, there can be but one response. McLeod, one of the perpetrators, is answerable, unless he can show that it was a public military expedition, set on foot by the proper authorities in Canada, with or without a previous declaration of war against this country, commanding the specific things to be done for which he now stands indicted in the State of New York. I repeat-commanding the specific things to be done for which he is indicted.

In time of open public war, such authority would be presumed. The courts would look to the public acts, proclamations, declarations of war, and other proceedings of notoriety; and out of these would find immunity to the individuals engaged, whilst the Government would retaliate on the enemy by like incursions into their territory. But in time of profound peace, with all subsisting treaty stipulations of amity in full force, no such presumptions can be resorted to. Express, positive, and unequivocal commands from competent authority are all that can justify him. Were such commands given? The whole case turns upon that fact. The case will turn on that fact in the courts of New York. The prisoner must come forward with the orders of Sir Francis Head, I believe then Governor General of Canada. If not direct from him, he must show order from some military commander who issued them, and who received his orders from the supreme Colonial Government. Further back than that it would not be necessary, as I conceive, to trace the orders. If such orders covered and embraced the specific act for which he was indicted, the courts of New York will and ought to discharge him. But if the orders were general, "to break up the establishment at Navy Island," that would not do; or if they were "to destroy any vessel convey