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Rh almost without objection, for the Federalists themselves, especially those from the shipping states, desired a more efficient naval force. But on a bill for reinforcing the army the attack came. At first it was tame enough. The bill had already passed by a large majority to a third reading, when Josiah Quincy, of Massachusetts, the leader of the Federalists in the House, made an assault upon the whole war policy, which in brilliancy of diction and bitterness of spirit has hardly ever been excelled in our parliamentary history. He depicted the attempted invasion of Canada as a buccaneering expedition, an act of bloodthirsty cruelty against unoffending neighbors. Its failure was a disgrace, but “the disgrace of failure was terrestrial glory compared with the disgrace of the attempt.” If an army were put into the field strong enough to accomplish the conquest of Canada, it would also be strong enough to endanger the liberties of the American people. In view of the criminality of the attempt, he thanked God that the people of New England — referring to their vote against Madison in the preceding national election — “had done what they could to vindicate themselves and their children from the burden of this sin.” This was not the way to obtain an early and honorable peace. “Those must be very young politicians,” he exclaimed, his eye fixed on the youthful Speaker of the House, — “their pin-feathers not yet grown, and, however they may flutter on this floor, they are not yet fledged for any high or distant flight,