On the 10th of October the President transmitted a message to Congress, with the despatches received from Ghent, and the protocol of the English legation. Their reading was listened to with breathless silence, and as the extraordinary claims set forth by England became one after another clearly revealed, the astonishment of the members exceeded all bounds, and they gazed at each other incredulously. The Federalists were paralyzed with disappointment. The party had never received such a blow since the commencement of the war. Their arguments were prostrated. They had always represented England as desirous of peace, fighting only because she was forced to by a reckless, unprincipled administration and party. Towards the nation at large she cherished no hostile feelings, and entertained no ultimate sinister designs. But the mask was now snatched away, and she stood revealed in all her arrogance and injustice. If any thing more than the ravages on our coast was needed to bind the nation together in one determined effort, it was furnished in these despatches. As the news spread on every side, the passions of men were kindled into rage. What, burn up our victorious war-ships on those great mediterraneans, the command of which had been gained by such vast expenditures and such heroic conduct--abandon forts standing on our own soil, around which such valiant blood had been shed? "Never, never," responded from every lip. Scarcely less excitement was produced by the discussion of the Indian boundary question. Stripped of its false pretences, it looked solely to the prevention of all settlement on our part, of the North-western territory, and designed to bar us forever from acquiring possessions in that quarter. To give some show of fairness to the transaction, it was proposed that both countries should be restricted from purchasing the land of the Indians, but leave the market open to the whole world beside. In short, that vast territory, including a large portion of Ohio, all of Michigan, Illinois and Indiana, must not only be surrendered by us, but placed under the complete control of the British government, whose ships of war were alone to sail the waters that washed its northern limits, and whose fortifications were to awe the inhabitants that occupied it. Never before had the cry of war rung so loudly over the land, and the nation began to prepare for the approaching conflict with an earnestness and determination that promised results worthy of itself and the cause for which it struggled. The Federalist journals came at last to the rescue, declaring that the terms offered were too humiliating and degrading to be entertained for a moment. Only one paper in Boston was besotted enough to assert that they were honorable and ought to be accepted.