“If the Constitution is made of such brittle stuff as not to stand a single war; if it is only to be preserved by submission to foreign taxation,--I shall very soon lose all solicitude for its preservation.” With more than Federalist bitterness he taunted the hesitation of the Democrats,--“contemptible cowardice,” he called it. “It is time we should _assume_, if it is not in our natures, nerve enough to decide whether we will go to war or submit.” The House replied by striking out the recommendation of reprisals, by a vote of fifty-seven to thirty-nine. These two votes rendered the Administration for the moment powerless to make head against the sweeping Federalist victory. Josiah Quincy, who watched every symptom of democratic disaster, wrote as early as February 2, before the first defeat of the Administration:[369] “There is dreadful distraction in the enemy’s camp on the subject of removing the embargo. Jefferson and his friends are obstinate. Bacon and the Northern Democrats are equally determined that it shall be raised in March.” The next day Quincy added: “Jefferson is a host; and if the wand of that magician is not broken, he will yet defeat the attempt.” The contest had become personal; to break the “wand of the magician” was as much the object of Democrats as of Federalists, and neither Madison nor Gallatin could restore discipline. February 4 the Secretary of the Treasury wrote:[370] “As far as my information goes, everything grows more quiet in Massachusetts and Maine. All would be well if our friends remained firm here.” The attempt to hold the friends of the Administration firm brought only greater disaster. The vote in committee refusing to recommend reprisals took place February 7; and the next day Quincy wrote again: “Great caucusing is the order of the day and the night here. The Administration is determined to rally its friends, and postpone the removal of the embargo till May. But I think they cannot succeed. Bacon, I am told, stands firm and obstinate against all their solicitations and even almost denunciations. However, they had another caucus last night. The event is unknown. Jefferson has prevailed.” February 9 the result of the caucus was shown by a vote of the House discharging the Committee of the Whole, and referring the subject to the Committee of Foreign Relations, whose chairman was G. W. Campbell,--which amounted to a public admission that Madison’s plan had failed, and that some new expedient for uniting the party must be invented. Ezekiel Bacon refused to obey the caucus, and voted with the Federalists against the reference.