The war was declared because Great Britain arrogated to herself the pretension of regulating foreign trade under the delusive name of retaliatory Orders in Council — a pretension by which she undertook to proclaim to American enterprise, “Thus far shalt thou go, and no farther.” Orders which she refused to revoke after the alleged cause of their enactment had ceased because she persisted in the act of impressing American seamen, because she had instigated the Indians to commit hostilities against us, and because she refused indemnity for her past injuries upon our commerce.
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Justification of War (1813)
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The war was declared because Great Britain arrogated to herself the pretension of regulating foreign trade under the delusive name of retaliatory Orders in Council — a pretension by which she undertook to proclaim to American enterprise, “Thus far shalt thou go, and no farther.” Orders which she refused to revoke after the alleged cause of their enactment had ceased because she persisted in the act of impressing American seamen, because she had instigated the Indians to commit hostilities against us, and because she refused indemnity for her past injuries upon our commerce.