Page:Life of Henry Clay (Schurz; v. 1).djvu/96

84 that, unless he yielded to their views, another candidate for the presidency would be chosen. This Clay denied, and there was no evidence to discredit his denial. Madison was simply swept into the current by the impetuosity of Young America. He himself declared in 1827, in a letter to Wheaton, that “the immediate impulse” to the declaration of war was given by a letter from Lord Castlereagh to the British Minister at Washington, Forster. which was communicated to the President, and which stated “that the Orders in Council, to which we had declared we would not submit, would not be repealed without the repeal of the internal measures of France. With this formal notice no choice remained, but between war and degradation.”

John Randolph made a last attempt to prevent the extreme step. Having heard that the President was preparing a message to Congress recommending a declaration of war, he tried to force a discussion in the House by offering a resolution, “that it was inexpedient to resort to war with Great Britain.” He began to debate it on the spot. Clay, as Speaker, interrupted him, and put to the House the question whether it would proceed to the consideration of the resolution. The House voted in the negative, and Randolph was silenced. On June 1 the President's war message came. On June 18 a bill in accordance with it, which had passed both Houses, was signed by the President, who proclaimed hostilities the next day.