"I am highly gratified," were his final words, "I am highly gratified that the last public act of a long life should have been that of bearing testimony against this outrageous attempt.

It is indeed a consolation that my almost extinguished voice has been on this occasion raised in defense of liberty, of justice, and of our country." Of the war with Mexico, he was wont to say, "that it was the only blot upon the escutcheon of the United States." Aged as he was, he would not rest until he had made his last appeal for peace with Mexico.

He also prepared supplementary essays on war expenses: the first of these was published in 1847, the second in 1848.

For months all his faculties, all his feelings were absorbed in this one subject.

These pamphlets were widely circulated by the friends of peace.