treaty negotiated with the British Court by Messrs. Monroe and Pinckney, and that although that treaty had not been ratified by Mr. Jefferson, arrangements might probably again be made. In relation to the second cause of war--the blockade of her enemies' ports, without an adequate force, the minority replied that it was not designed to injure the commerce of the United States, but was retaliatory upon France, which had taken the lead in aggressions upon neutral rights. In addition it was said, that as the repeal of the French decrees had been officially announced, it was to be expected that a revocation of the Orders in Council would follow. They could not refrain from asking what the United States were to gain from war? Would the gratification of some privateers-men compensate the nation for that sweep of American legitimate commerce, by the extended marine of Great Britain, which the desperate act of declaring war invited? Would Canada compensate the middle States for New York, or the Western States for New Orleans? They would not be deceived! A war of invasion might invite a retort of invasion. When Americans visited the peaceable, and, to Americans, the innocent colonies of Great Britain, with the horrors of war, could Americans be assured that their own coast would not be visited with like horrors. At such a crisis of the world, and under impressions such as these, the minority could not consider the war into which the United States had, in secret, been precipitated, as necessary, or required by any moral duty, or any political expediency. The country was divided in opinion, respecting either the propriety or the expediency of the war. The friends of the administration were universally in favor of it. [16] Allison, page 656.