The Rhode-Island American, and general advertiser — Providence [R.I.], 1810-01-02 00:00:00, page 2

LA
wowsl; and then he talks of the spirit of
I his teveral letters of instructions.
Let us now, Sir, examine the documents
I for the insult alluded to in the resolution
before us. It really seems to mo that m»
government had he rd so much of the in
eolence of thia Mr. Jackson, that they ex
pected to be insulted, and anticipated it.
and dhibiwed him to prevent its occurring
in reality. I cannot fur myself see any in
sult that is offered to our government. It
appears that Mr. Jackson was urged for
the reasons of the disavowal, that ha stated
ft was entered into without competent
p< wers, end in violation of particular in-
Otrnctkms. He was u» ged again and made
thv same answer. The question would ad
mit of no other, unless he had acknow
ledged that it was entered Into with full
powers in Mr. Erskine so to do. and that
the British government had dWionourablv
refused to ratify it. Mt. Potter quoted the
followi ig as the offensive passages in Mr.
Jackson’s letters:
* I have, therefore, no hesitation in in
forming you. that his Majesty was pleased
to disavow the agreement concluded be
tween you and Mr. Erskine, because it was
Concluded is violation of that gentleman’s
Instructions. and altogether without au
thority to subscribe to the terms of it.—-
These instructions, I now understand by
your letter, as well as from the obvious de
duction which I took the liberty of making
in mine of the Hth mutant, were at the
Jtime, in spbstance, made known to you;
ho stronger illustration, therefore, can bt
given of the deviation from them which
occurred, than by a reference to the ternri
ot your agreement.”
•• I have shewn that that agreement was
not concluded in virtue of a full power,
and that the instructions given oil the oc
casion were violated.”
•• Whew I informed you the agree
ment ,c«i>clude<l here in April last, had
been framed in deviation from the instruc
tions given for the occasion, my explana
tion waA intended to apply to both parts of
that agreement; that nothing, required
by the most scrupulous accuracy, may bt
w nt mg, 1 now add, that the deviation
cons!'ted In not recording in the official
document oigned 'here, the abrogation of
the I*'esalent’s proclamation of the 2d
July, 1807, as well as the two reserve*
terrified in the paper of memoranda en
cloHfd in my official letter to you of the
27tb ultimo. There is another m 4ive for
the disavowal of this part of the arrange
ment, considered to lie so strong and so
self evident upon the very face of. the
transaction, th it I am not commanded to
du mot e than indicate it in the manner I
have already done. By this foibearanct
his M ■j' , sty conceives that he is giving an
additional pledge of his sincere disposition
to maintain a good understanding with the
United States.”
“ I must beg your very particular atten
tion to the circumstance that his Majesty’s
ratification has not because
the agreement was concluded without a
full power, hut because it was altogether'
Irreconcilablt to the instructions on which
it was professedly founded.”
“ Indubitably his agreement would nev
ertheless have been ratified, had .not the
instructions, which in this ca*e took the.
place of a full power, been violated.”
In all these passages, Mr. Potter said
he-c uid see p<» insult. |
H*r my own part, (said hr,) I do not be
lieve the English wish to settle with us at
this,-time, although they may have wished
it fortnrily; because all our restrictions
on our commerce operate in her fa/our.—
Our embargo taught her a lesson that she
ne'er ought to hate known ; though 1 be
lie'e It was laid on from the best of mo
tive,* ft taught her the imbecility of our
own gevernment to carry it rigidly Into ex
ecution ; and it taught her the value of
her possessions in America, and that she
could do without ns, and that our sufferings
by the measure were greater than hers.
The non-intercourse operates exclusively
in her f ivour, because we carry our pro
duce half way for her to neutral ports, glut
the market, and sell it tocher merchants
for half price. The growers of the pro
duce have to pay two freights instead of
one. And again—British goods are smug
gled into this country by speculators be
longing to no nation, and restrained by no
laws. The government receives nothing
for duties, and the people get goods for no
less money. Even our own vessels take
out a coasting license and gn direct to
Great-Britain, notwithstanding the prohi
bition of the non-intercourse law.
We hare been insulted and plundered
for fifteen years past by the belligerent na
tions, and, to be sure. Sir, we have borne
it with Christian p itience, upon the prin
ciple, I presume, that it is better to suffer
wrong than to do wrong. When we have
been smote on one cheek, we have turned
the other. When they have taken our
cloak we have been ready to give up our
coat, and to ask what they would please
to have next ? We have declared many
yearn since, if my memory serves me, that
we were the most wise and enlightened
nation in the world, and at another time
we have seriously declared that we would
not submit, Notwithstanding ail this, when
we have been insulted by one nation we
protest, when by another we remonstrate,
As to this resolution, I am against it on
general principles. I never did vote for
m resolve of approbation or for an address
under any administration, nor ever will.—
If we can have resolutions to approve, we
can have them to disapprove ; and it ought
to be a sufficient consolation to the Presi
dent, and I presume it is, to believe that
he squares his conduct by the constitution,
and that it meets the approbation of hit.
own conscience. But this, I presume is to
be held up to convince foreign nations that
we are not divided and that we will stand
by our government. At the last session this
business of approving was considered anti
republican, and the minority could not
then be permitted to approve the Presi
dent’s conduct. It was then of no impor :
tance to be unanimous; but now it seems
as though every thing that was near and
dear to us depended on the passage of this
joint resolution. I have known one Presi
dent ruined by addresses and votes of ap
probation ; it was then held up that the
minority was opposed to the administra
tion, and that we were abroad considered
a divided people; and the President was
addressed from states, corporations, and
societies from all parts of the United
States, approving every thing he had done,
and pledging their lives and fortunes tn
support him in any thing he might do. In
stead of his taking this as a mere compli
ment that cost nothing, he took it all in ear
nest ; but as soon as his constitutional period
of re-election came round, the people soon
convinced him of his errour, and dismiss
ed him from office, which gave him such
offence that he has declared war against
himself, his own conduct and administra
tion, and has even extended his resent
ment beyond the grdve, and charged al
most all the unpopular acts of his admin
istration upon one of the greatest men the
world ever knew, and who is not in ex
istence to answer for himself, when there
was not one of those acts during his ad
ministration but what, if he had refused
hio signature and approbation, qould have
been negatived as there was not a con
stitutional majority to.carry any one of
them without his approbation.' Perhaps
the same thing is now to be urged as was
then—a dtvlson among the people and the
necessity of uniting. There is no division
among the people now ; there was none
then ; the division is between the ins and
outs. The ins want to keep in and the
outs want to get iq, and the division is not
so much among the people as it is among
those who wish the people’s money—and
they now understand this thing very well,
and have found that the question never
has been in reality, how much of their
money should be spent, but who should
have it—not how the government should
be administered, but who should adminis
ter it; and not how many office* should bt
created, but who should fill, them. That
there are parties in the United States can
not be denied, and that it is for the in
forest of the people that it should b* so is
equally true ; and I could wish, let whet
ever party may have the ascendency In
the United St >tes, that they msy have hu*
a small majority, which will make then
more attentive' to business and more cir»
cumspect in their conduct, knowing that *
and when a national ship i* f Hacked in
our own waters, in eight of the smoke of
uur chimneys, we issue a proclamation;
and, last of all, when many gentlemen think
that we have been grbesly insulted by a
foreign Minister, that stain is to be wiped
away by the farce of a joint resolution. If
in individual finds fault with one nation’s
abusing os, his remark is immediately met
by observing that ether nations have abused
us as much. It we apply to France to do
us justice, she says we must resist the Or
ders in Council of Great-Britain and help
Iffr to restore the freedom of the seas.—
American commerce will then have ac
quired all its liberty and will be sure of
finding favour in the ports of France. If
we apply to Great-Britain for justice we
are told that we must resist the Berlin De
cree. We have been expecting justice
from those nations because we were just
ourselves; but,national justice and honour
are now out of the question with these na
tions, and avarice, ambition and power are
substituted in their room. It is not enough
for us to fold up our arms and consider, be
cause we are just and honest, that we are
the peculiar favourites of Heaven, and are
to be entirely exempt from the calamities
that are now overwhelming the civilized
world. We must prepare for the worst.—
I would make a firm and temperate decla
ration of our neutral rights, and I would
demand of France and England a recog
nition of them.. In the mean time I would
permit the merchants to arm in defence of
those rights, acting only in the defensive,
instructing them in such manner as that
no act of theirs should commit the peace
of the country. This, Sir, would replen
ish your treasury and prevent the necessi
ty of resorting to loans and direct taxes
The merchants have already become very
rich by the commerce of the country, and
they know best how to manage their own
affairs. If they should lose a few vessels
carrying to market the surplus produce of
this country, it would be no loss to the
country. What the merchant loot the far
mer would gain; the property would all
be in the country.
June 6, 1809.
Mr. Canning tells me that the con
versations detailed in Mr. Erskine’s letter
did not, as I had supposed, suggest that the
government of the United States would al
low it to be understood that British cruisers
might slop American vessels attempting to
violate the embargo and non-intercourse,
continuing as to France, &c. after they
should be withdrawn as to Great-Britain.
They suggested that the United States
would tide with the power revoking its
edicts against the power perseverfng.—
This Mr. Canning says he considered, (al
though he did not so insist upon it in the
recapitulation contained in his instructions
to Mr. Erskine,) as comprehending what I
thought he had represented the actual sug
gestion to be, and what he supposed I had
said to him in an informal conversation, at
his house in Briton-Street, on the 22d of
January, in an answer to one of his in
quiries.
“ It Will, I am sure, occur to you, as the
fact is, that the little which I may have
thrown out upon that occasion did not look
to the admission of Mr. Canning’s object
into any stipulation between the, two coun
tries, and that I viewed it only as a conse
quence that might, and would. If France
pet listed in her unjust decrees, grow out
of arrangements similar to those offered by
us in August last.
“ Having no longer any authority, (as
Mr. Canning knew,) to speak officially
upon that or any other point connected with
the Order in Council, and being desirous
that this government should purpose ne
gotiation at Washington, as well concern
ing the order as the affair of the Chesa
peake, I avoided as much as possible ex
planations upon details which would be
best managed at home by :he department
of state, and endeavoured to speak upon
what Mr. Canning proposed to me, in such
a manner as that without justifying unsuita
ble expectations on his part, or forgetting
what was due to the honour of my own
government, J might contribute to produce
an effort here towards friendly adjustment.
Agreeably to notice given, Mr. Bradley
asked and obtained leatw to bring in a bill
“ making further provision for the corps of
engineers,” and the bill was read and pass
ed to a second reading.
few changes may place them in • minori
ty; but I consider it otherwise whenever a
party come into power with an overwhelm
ing majority.
This resolution has for its object not
only the approbation of the President’s
conduct but the reprobating that of a fo
reign Minister and convicting him of a
gross premeditated insult. Mr. Jackson
only persists in asserting what he knew
himself, and that was, that Mr. Erskine
had no other instructions than those of the
23d of Januaiy, and that the settlement
made was not only without authority but in
violation of those instructions ; he does not
say that our government knew or did not
know he had no other, but merely states
what he knew himself. For my own part
I consider his dismissal as a hasty impru
dent measure, although I could have seen
no great good to be derived by bis staying,
as the terms held out in the despatch to
Mr. Erskine could never have been sub
mitted tp; but as his stay in this country
could have done us no possible injury, and
his dismissal and in the manner it has
taken place and the way we are now fol
lowing it up, may have a tendency to pre
cipitate us into a war unprepared, which
I consider one of the greatest evils that
can afflict any nation, I think it would
have been well to have extended our pa
tience and forbearance in this respect a
little farther.
Mr. Andkrson appeared and took his
seat., . i .
Mr. Pope from the committee to whom
was referred the bill from the House of
Representative* for the relief of William
and Elias Hector,Reported the same with
out amendment; and it was ordered to
pass to a third reading.
document#,
COMMUNICATED TO CONGRESS DECEM
BER 18—CONCLUDED.
Extract of a letter from Mr. Pinkney to
the Secretary <f State, dated London,
Extract of a letter from Mr. Pinkney to
Mr. Smith, dated London, June 9, 1809.
“ Mr. Erskine’s instructions concerning
the Orders in Council having been laid be
fore the House of Commons are now print
ed. You will find them in th* newspaper
enclosed.
'* it is not Improbable that when Mr.
Canning read those instruct ions to me, I
inferred from the manner in which the
three points stated in the Sth, 6th and 7th
paragraphs, are introduced anti connected,
that they were all considered as suggested
by Mr. Erskine's “ report of his conversa
tions with Mr. Madison, Mr. Gallatin and
Mr. Smithwhether I was led by any
other cause into the mistake of supposing
• hat the third, (as well as the first and se
3*md.) was so suggested, 1 am not sure;
and it is not very material
IN bENATE,
Thursday, Dkckmber 21.
“ Upon the second of the conditions men
tioned in Mr. Erskine’s instructions I made
several remarks. I stated that it had no
necessary connexion with the principal
subject; that it had lost its importance to
Great-Britain by the reduction of almost
all the colonies of her enemies ; that Ba
tavia was understood not to be affected by
it; that it could not apply to Guadaloupe,
(the only other unconquered colony,) since
it was admitted that we were not excluded
from a trade with Guadaloupe in peace ;
that I did not know what the government
of the United States would, upon sufficient
inducement, consent to do upon this point;
but that it could scarcely be expected to
give the implied sanction, which this con
dition called upon it to give, to thq rule of
the war of 1756, without any equivalent or
reciprocal stipulation whatsoever. Mr.
Canning admitted that the second condition
had no necessary connexion wi»h the Or
ders in Council, nnd he intimated that they
would have been content to leave the sub
ject of it to future discussion and arrange
ment. He added that this condition was
inserted in Mr. Erskine’s instructions, be
cause it had appeared from his own report
of conversations with official persons at
Washington that there would be no difficul
ty in agreeing to it.
“ I had, an interview yesterday with Mr.
Canning.
•• In conversation upon the first of the
conditions, upon the obtaining of which Mr.
Erskine was to promise the repeal of the
British Orders in Council, and a special
mission, I collected from what was said by
Mr. Canning, that the exemption of Hol
land from the effect of our embargo and
non-intercourse would not have been much
objected to by the British government. It
the government of the United States had
been willing to concede the first condition
subject to that exemption. Mr. Canning
observed that the expedient of an actual
blockade of Holland had occurred to then,
as being capable of meeting that exemp
tion ; but that Mr. Erskine had obtained n<
pledge, express or implied, or in any form,
that we would enforce our non-intercoursr
system against France and her depen
dencies; that our actual system would, it
not re-enacted or continued as to France,
terminate with the present session of Con
gress; that for aught that appeared to the
contrary m your correspondence with Mr.
Erskine or in the President’s proclamation,
the embargo and nun-intercourse laws
might be suffered without any breach of
faith to expire, or might even be repealed
immediately notwithstanding the peise-*
verance of France in her Berlin and other
edicts; and that Mr. Erskine had in truth
secured nothing more, as the consideration
of the recall of the Orders in Council, than
the renewal of American intercourse with
Great-Britain.
“ Upon the third condition I said a very
Few words. I re-stated what I had thrown
out upon the matter of it io an informal
conversation in January, and expressed my
regret that it should have been misappre
hended. Mr. Camuug immediately said
that he was himself of opinion that the idea
upon which that condition turns could not
well find it* way into a stipulation ; that he
had nevertheless, believed it proper to pro
pose the condition to the United States;
that he should have been satisfied with the
rejection of it; and that the consequence
would have been that they should have in
tei-cepted the commerce to which it refer
red, if any such commerce should be at
tempted.”
” Mr. Canaieg*s misconception a! some
informal observations from me in January
last, has been in part mentioned in my let
ter of the 6th instant. But the published
instructions shew, what I had not collected,
from hearing them read, that he under
stood me to have stated “ that the Ameri
can government was itself aware that with
out an enforcement, by the naval power of
Great-Britain, of the regulations of Ameri
ca with respect to France, those regula
tions must be altogether nugatory.” It
cannot be necessary to inform you that In
this, as in the other particulars alluded to
in my last letter, I bare been misappre
hended.
I ought to mention that the strong and
direct charge against thr American govern
ment, of “ manifest partiality” to France,
introduced, without any qualification or
mansgement of expression, into a paper
which Mr. Erskine was authorised to com
municate in extenso to you, did not strike
me when that paper was read to me by
Mr. Canning.” *
Ik July last, the Minister for foreign af
fairs of the King of Naples, Informed the
American Consul, that American vessels
and cargoes, with their papers, flee. in or
der, and with clearances direct for the
ports of the kingdom of Naples, would be
admitted to entry. In consequence of this,
a number of American vessels cleared for
Naples, among the rest the ship Hercules,
Extract of a letter from Mr. Pinkney fo
the Secretary ef State, dated June 23,
1809.
SALEM, December 29;
NEUTRAL COMMERCE.
the .mall*.
Yesterday afternoon the new and elegant 1
edifice erected in this town by the Benefit
cent Congregational Society, was dedi
cated to the service of Almighty God. At
2 o’clock, P. M. the service commenced by
Divine musick, and a player from the
Hev. Mr. Hill, of Rehoboth. After an
appropriate anthem, the Rev. Hewry
Edes, of thia town, addressed the Throne
of Grace, in a prayer peculiarly fervent
and impressive, imploring the benediction*
of Heaven, and offering to it* God the ario*.
ration of grateful hearts. The Rev. Jams*'
Wilson, Pastor of the church, delivered t
to a brilliant aad crowded auditory, a Dis
course from Leviticus xxvi. part of the
Ist and 2d verses, " lam the Lord your
God. Ye shall keefi my sabbaths and
reverence my sanctuary”—replete with
pious set t'ment, and breathing the charity
of a Christian. The Throne of Grace wa*
again addressed by the Rev. Mr. WtLSO* t
and an Ode composed for the occasion con
cluded the service.
West, of this port. Notwithataading this
invitation to a free trade, the owneFwf the
Hercules has received a fetter frfon his
correspondent at Leghorn, of the 13tb Oc
tober, informing him, that they had re
ceived letters from Messrs. Degen and Co.
the consignees, which mention, that im
mediately on landing the cargo, an order
came to the Cuatom-House to sequester it,
and that four other cargoes were in a sim
ilar situation, although no counter declara
tion ta that of July had been made. Messrs.
Degen and Co.*ay, under date of October
2d, that they were in daily expectation of
a decree being issued respecting colonial
produce; but no alteration had taken place
as late as the Bth. The other vessels are
schooner Hamilton, of New-York, ship
Augusta, of Baltimore, (with the new
American Consul on board,) brig Sophia,
and schooner Zephyr. This conduct of the
King of Naples was probably fimnded upon
the famous letter of Champagny to Gene
ral Armstrong, declaring the unalterable
principles of the Napoleon code,and “from
which, (Mr. Bentley says,) the, greatest
advantages can be hoped for the world.” *
Those advantages, it seems, we already
begin to experience •
BOSTON, December 30.
EXTRACT OF LETTER.
“ Washington, D&ember 22, 1809.
“ Congress has adjourned to Tuesday to
make merry Christmas*— And yet wd are
told we are on the eve of a war I Nero
fiddled when Rome was in a blase. The
resolution of the Prime Minister Giles, has
been before the House of Congress several
days; and is opposed with spirit and talent*
worthy a splendid triumph. The timidity
which had seemed to have unmanned the
federal members, disappears daily; and
they seem to have adopted a resolution to
do their duty like courageous patriots, to
unfold to the people their rent dangers';
nid to point oyt to them the detestable
duplicity and partiality of the back stain .
dictators of the administration. They ap
pear to treat with merited scorn and de
testation the vile aad slavish insinuations..
<>f foreign partialities, and being under
British influence ! They are Americans.
Some of them have risked their lives, and
spilled their blood in defence of American
freedom and independence; and are ready,
to do so again, when honcair duty and jus
tice require it But they will not stiff*
their indignation, when they see In the <
administration the most gross and palpable
deviation from accommodation, exhibited
towards one nation; and servile aj cqihaa
cy toward* another. And they are re
solved, at all events, to denounce this con- ,
duct to the people. They have been led
by circumstances to hope and expect bet
ter things from Mr. Madison; and they
still think that he is dictated to by a more
powerful influence behind the chair, thin
his own feelings:—But they will do thrir
duty, and like Cato, have the consolation
to reflect, that if our '* Rome nlust fall that
they are innocent.”
NEWPORT, December 30.
A letter from Washington, dated on the
23d instant, says, that our government Will
not declare war, that there will be no em
bargo, and that the non-intercourse law
will not continue as It now stands.
A subscription has been opened at ’
Charleston, South-Carolina, for the relief
of the unfortunate sufferers saved ffbm the
wreck of the sloop Thetis, of New-Bed
ford. It is stated, that they have scarcely ,
any clothes to cover them, and from the 4
bruises they have received, they are inca
pable of labour.
ProVifiinre,
TUESDAY. JANUARY
It gives us unfeigned pleasure to observe,
that the seal for Christianity so recently
manifested in the erection of this noble edi
fice is not abated, but is still progressive;
and we sincerely hope that such laudable
exertions may meet the reward they merit.
In an age abounding with vice and lieen
tiousnesa, we consider every Christian
church erected, of whatever denomination,
as ao many ramparts opposed to infidelity,
and we have ao doubt that the blessings of
heaven will crown such labtrnn with sop
cess.