The will of the people is spoken, and it is ours.

We, the people of these United States of America, do hereby find the country of Great Britain guilty of the following unlawful and perjured crimes against the objectively neutral and unaggressive America -

For the seizing of our ships, impressment of our sailors in a fashion irreconcilable with a state of peace between these two great nations;

For the arbitrarily blocking of our independent commerce; for harassment of our noble merchant vessels both in the waters of Britain and yea, even in the waters of our very hometowns; for the jealous and inhumane blockade acts the Parliament of Great Britain has passed, inveigling from our seas the very unalienable rights we have fought them these two score years hence to have as out own;

For the incitement of violent uprisings by local tribes of warlike Indians on our under-settled western border; a war which knows no bounds of decency, spares no woman or child, earning the rightful moniker of 'savage';

For exacting upon us, in short, acts which by no means can be construed of the friendly actions of a trading partner and neutral ally to a peaceful nation, but which must instead be construed as hostile punishments for grievous crimes these United States have never committed against our British brethren.

What we find of this is a state of war against the United States in Britain, and a state of peace toward Britain within the United States.

I submit to this independent congress of the people that we have languished too long under these usurpations; too long have we stood idly by and watched the might of our great and rising nation sapped away by this menace, this sword a hair's breadth from falling with deadly force upon all our heads.

Let us no longer let these abominations continue unchecked; let it not be said that the people of America in 1812 let the hard-earned liberties our fathers stole from the mightiest empire on earth be stolen back by that same evil empire without protesting justly, as is our right.

Under our prerogative as a free nation of the world, let us declare henceforth a state of war between these States and Britain, and let us take up arms to preserve our liberty, our commerce, our justice. Let us show the world that we are what we already know ourselves to be; a virtuous, a free, and a powerful nation.

Why on earth would Britain, or France for that matter, enter into negotiations with these United States of the sort you describe? It is a fact universally acknowledged that negotiations are never carried out between two sides when one side thinks itself definitely stronger than the other. For this reason, Britain would never allow us to become the consummate backstabber by giving us protection from its navy in exchange for stricter regulations in America on French imports and vice versa if the Imperial Navy of Britain could much more easily subdue us into not trading with France at all, something it has become increasingly obvious Britain anticipates to be the case. One cannot garner respect from countries long established without demonstrating the capacity to unleash terrible force upon those who invoke our enmity. One cannot walk softly among the lions of the world without the consistent aid of a big stick.

And as to your concerns of conscription of your sons and brothers into the army of America, which would you rather have, the knowledge that your son died fighting for a just cause and a noble end, or the knowledge that he could have turned back the tide of tyranny from the shores of the land he loves, but for the qualms of a worrying guardian? Is not our army made strong by the men who support it?

Your remark implies that the inhabitants of New England hold monopoly on America's trade, and that the South and the West are ignorant of the tribulations of the colonies New England faces in trade. Nothing could be further from the truth. For tonnes of exports pour forth daily from the agricultural South, and they too have been grievously injured by the embargoes levied by the federalist mindset in order that America stay neutral. Would you really rather an America where we fight for our rights as free men and equal partners, or an America where we hide ourselves from the other powers of the world less they deem us traitorous in trading with an enemy and brand us with cruel and unusual punishments, such as the impressment of our seamen we have already experienced? Funding will always be possible in a united country where the people of America work together to protect their hard-won freedoms from the tyrannies of European giants who can know nothing of us, and should by all rights have nothing to do with us. Our weapons will fire, and their shots shall be heard round the world, and all shall say, "There it is, the sound of Liberty!"

You say there is no cause in fighting to show our strength? I say there is every cause in the world. Just two score years hence, our nation languished and stagnated under the oppressive rule of Britain. In our fight for independence from Her tyranny, we received much aid from the monarchical yet liberty-loving State of France. It was with the Glory of God we won, but also the Glory of France. Britain sensed this, and knew we were weak. She has henceforth conducted Herself as if we were not the great and rising nation we know ourselves to be, but merely a weak semi-independent colony, to be snatched back up whenever the affairs of Europe should allow. But the times have changed since our great Revolution. Our population has trebled, the expanse of our land has more than doubled. It is now even more laughable than it was in 1780 that Britain should have any hold over our nation. We can see this, and most of the world might agree, but Britain must be taught. They and their Indian cohorts must be shown that we are a growing nation and a force to be reckoned with. But in times of peace, my friend, we must assure them and you that we shall hold Britain and the Indians not as enemies and savages, but friendly and mutually beneficial trading partners and respected populations on equal footing with our most valuable citizens. These are the principles that America was created on. Are not all men created equal?

(1) The future of our trade has long rested in a state of compromise. The embargoes we have placed on Great Britain have been an ineffective strategy to show them our willingness to dedicate ourselves to our trade relations, and have hurt us far more than them. To impress upon Britain the seriousness of our intent to become a giant through peaceful trade, we must use force to show them that we will not submit to their tyranny. What would the merchants of New England have us do? Roll over like dogs when we are kicked, and suffer more abuse for't? And as for (3), peace has been tried, and it has failed to lend us the respect we deserve. Remember the Chesapeake!

(1)America already exists in a state of war with Great Britain; a fact that must be self-evident to any merchant who plies the high seas. Has he not been afrighted these past years of the high-handed actions by British seamen of unlawful impressment and confiscation of your goods? Need anyone really remind you of these grievous crimes by the British Majesty against our commerce? They have, in short, since our lauded break with their crown, treated us not as a fledgling nation and a friend to be nurtured, but rather a rebellious trial to be ignored and put down ‘til such time as he shall come round. I ask you, is this any way for the great nation of America to be treated by any country, however mighty? (2)In numbers and growth, we have fast outpaced the stagnant Old Lady, and our armies are ready at a moment’s notice to protect our lands and take from Her that which should be ours, while theirs languish in far scattered corners of Europe, weighted down with commands and battles far exceeding their true reach.

As if that were not enough, what of our brave pioneer men expanding our great frontiers to the West? They have their share of tribulations, and many of them are the product of our continued half-sided intercourse with the Crown(3). The ruthless indian tribes along our vast far Western border have yet an outdated alliegance to England, and as emissaries of their rulers in exile ruthlessly punish those who venture into what was once British territory. They need to be shown, once and for always, that they shall no longer deal with Britain, for they are in our land now, and must deal with us.

Thusly, our reasons for going to war are twofold, and unimpeachable. Our peace, which we have preserved as long as humanly possible by suffering while evils are sufferable has been repeatedly and violently broken by the evils of the British Empire. (4)It is our duty, then, to take up arms against a sea of troubles, in order to inform our British brethren that we will not be subdued by their unlawful punishments, we will not fade quietly into the night. We shall strike, and all those who stand against out fair and impressed cause shall feel our wrath.