Address of Federalist Members of Congress on War with Great Britain.

• imprint_number: 1812.066
• title: An Address of members of the House of Representatives of the Congress of the United States, to their constituents, on the subject of the war with Great Britain
• sequence_number: 66
• year: 1812
• place_issued: Alexandria
• issuing_press: Samuel Snowden
• author: Federalist Representatives in Congress.
• notes: Text is a statement opposing the war with Great Britain, justifying the signers' vote against the declaration of war on June 15th; their argument is based on idea that the country's trade with England was the central national interest, so marginalizing all other considerations, both political and philosophical; the statement concludes saying:
  "At a crisis of the world such as the present, and under impressions such as these, the undersigned could not consider the war, in which the U. States, have, in secret been precipitated, as necessary, or required by any moral duty, or any political expediency."
  Address signed in print by 34 of the 36 Federalist representatives then in Congress, arranged geographically. north to south: New Hampshire (1), Vermont (1), Massachusetts (7), Rhode Island (2), Connecticut (7), New York (4), Pennsylvania (1), Delaware (1), Maryland (3), Virginia (4), and North Carolina (2); the four Virginia representatives were John Baker, James Breckinridge, Joseph Lewis, Jr., and Thomas Wilson; of 34 signers, only 3 survived in office beyond the end of the war, with 11 being turned out in the next election, 7 of them after just a single term; remarkably, none of the signers here were a part of the Hartford Convention.
  
  
• Related Bios:
  • Samuel Snowden

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