A bull was never made more furious
at sight of a red flag, than Terrence Malone at the streamer of the
peace party. One who knows what Terrence had suffered cannot blame him.
At the very outset of the war, the government encountered open and
secret, manly and cowardly opposition. The Federalists in congress, who
had opposed the war scheme of the administration from the beginning,
published an address to their constituents in which they set forth the
state of the country at that time, the course of the administration, and
its supporters in congress, and the minority opinion for opposing the
war. This was fair and, if they acted on their convictions and not from
political prejudices, was honorable; but outside and inside of congress
there was a party of politicians composed of Federalists and disaffected
Democrats, organized under the name of the Peace Party, whose object was
to cast obstructions in the way of the prosecution of war, and to compel
the government, by weakening its resources and embarrassing the
operations, to make peace. They tried to derange the public finances,
discredit the faith of the government, prevent enlistment, and in every
way to cripple the administration and bring it into discredit with the
people. It was an unpatriotic and mischievous faction, and the great
leaders of the Federalists, like Mr. Quincy and Mr. Emot, who, when the
war began, lent their aid to the government in its extremity, frowned
upon these real enemies of their country; but the machinations of the
Peace Party continued until the close of the war, and did infinite
mischief unmixed with any good.
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