In order to convey an idea of the antagonistic spirit prevailing, quotation is here given from the _Boston Gazette_, of that period: “Is there a Federalist, a patriot in America, who conceives it his duty to shed his blood for Bonaparte, for Madison and Jefferson, and that host of ruffians in Congress, who have set their faces against us for years, and spirited up the brutal part of the populace to destroy us? Not one! Shall we, then, any longer be held in slavery, and driven to desperate poverty by such a graceless faction?” Parton further quotes many New England editors as saying: “No more taxes from New England, till the administration makes peace.” Parton further says that the great British expedition, so long mustering in the West Indies, so long delayed, cast a prodigious shadow before it, putting New York, Philadelphia and Baltimore on their guard; but that as the autumn passed without the reappearance of hostile force in the northern waters, the conviction gained ground that something overwhelming was in contemplation against the defenseless south and southwest. “It so chanced,” continues Parton, “that the 8th of January was the days on which it was first whispered about Washington that the President had received news of the British fleet at the mouth of the Mississippi. From that time the eyes of the country were fixed upon New Orleans—not hopefully.” “It is not an overstatement of the case,” continues Parton, “to say that there was not one well informed man in the northern states who believed that New Orleans could be successfully defended.” Again quoting from Parton: “After a week of gossip and foreboding, came news of the gunboat battle, and its disastrous results; also rumors of a great armament hovering on the Atlantic coast. ‘We are a lost country,’ said the Federal papers in doleful concert. ‘A wicked administration has ruined us. New Orleans having fallen an easy prey, the British General will leave a few acclimated black regiments to garrison that city, and bring the Wellington heroes around to the Chesapeake. Baltimore will not be able to resist. Washington will again be overrun, Philadelphia and New York will next be attacked, and who shall say with what results? See to what a pass Jefferson and French democracy have brought a deluded country!’” All sorts of dire rumors were in circulation, and to add to the gloom that prevailed in Washington and elsewhere, a snow storm of remarkable violence and extent set in on the 23rd of January, and continued for three days. Belated mails straggled in, showing that the American Army was still resisting. “New Orleans is not taken yet,” said the Western members, and the Republican editors. “It is merely a question of time,” replied the Federalists; “the next mail will finish New Orleans and you.”