The constitutionalist — Exeter, N.H., 1810-08-13 00:00:00, page 2

prosperity that pervaded every part
, <c °' th e un i° n , your ears were for a
long-time continually assailed with
<6 the declaration, That your rulers
<c were your enemies; that they were
friends to Monarchy, and were
tdking effectual measures to sub
vert your constitution, and estab
" lish a tyrannical government over
you. This is a serious charge, and
I'' if true, merited not only removal
" from office, but exemplary punish
' ment. But charity required that
you should not believe the men,
" whom you elected to office, and who
'' had sworn and were interested to
'' support your constitution, could be
I"guilty of such criminal intentions
" and traitorous conduct, without the
" most plenary evidence to substanti.
" ate their guilt. The Federal Ad
" ministration never laid claim to in
'' fallibility; they were men of like
" passions with yourselves, subject to
" mistake. They sometimes commit
" ted errors, but they were of the head,
" not of the heart; they proceeded
" from the want of correct informa
" tion, not from corrupt or wicked
f motives. Could Washington,
" who spent so many wearisome days
" & sleepless nights for your sakes;
" could he, who had so justly acquired
" such a mighty mass of reputation ;
" who nobly refused all pecuniary re
" ward for his unparalleled services;
✓ " —could he wish to destroy the very
" government, he had established, and
" prostrate all your rights, and his
" own dear bought fame, at the foot
" stool of despotism! Sainted shade!
" forgive the malicious, the cruel in
" sinuation? No my countrymen, ev
" ery act of his highly useful life une
" quivocally proved his sacred attach
" ment to rational liberty and elective
" government. Every act of his ad
" ministration was to preserve your
*' constitution and form of government
1 " inviolate.",
" The charge of the Federalists be
" ing advocates for Monarchy is not
" true? it exists only in the reports
"of their enemies. Require proof of
" the charge from those who make it,
and the only answer you receive is
" bold assertions often repeated."
" Examine the measures of the pre
" sent administration, and compare
" them with those of the Federalists.
" I know Mr. JEFFERSON and his
" advocates have made many LIBERAL
" professions of their attachment to
" Republicanism, to Liberty and E
" quality, and the Rights of Man.
" But unfortunately his professions
" and actions are at variance. Has
" not he, and his adherents, in fact,
" violated your constitution, and in
" troduced Monarchical principles into
" the government? To prove this
" look at the numerous and arbitrary
" removals he has made of worthy,
, faithful men, from office ; men who
" had fought and bled in your defence;
" who had grown grey with age, but
" poor in your service, to make room
" for others certainly not more de
<c serving. Many, very many, of
" these removals he made during the
“ recess of the Senate. lie made the
" vacancy, he caused the contingency
" to happen, which alone gave him the
" power to create the officer without
" the advice of the Senate.
" The present administration have
«in an arbitrary manner, removed
« Judges from office, against whom
« no charge of misbehaviour was ever
" suggested, notwithstanding the con
" stitution expressly declared " they
" should hold their office during good
« behaviour."
" You have been told that the pre
" sent administration relieved you
" from burthens, and yet preserved a
" full treasury. 'Tis true they repeal
" ed the taxes on peach brandy,wisky,
," loaf sugar, coaches, &c. and retain
<6 ed that on salt, brown sugar and
" molasses. And if they have collect
" ed monies to meet the demands up
" on the Treasury, it is owing to the
" prudent measures of former admin
" istrations ; they have reaped what
" their predecessors sowed. Hence
" in the year ending September 30th,
« 1802 they received on account of
" the arrears of the Internal taxes,
cc the direct tax, sale of public ships,
" and prizes, dividends of bank stock,
<< and sale of bank shares, more than
" two millions six hundred thousand
" dollars; a sum far exceeding the
" former net annual proceeds of the
46 internal taxes."
Pause, Sir, at the end of these ex
tracts, and indulge in a little sober re
flection. Consider how much truth,
moral and historical, and how much
sound political reasoning is here ex
pressed. Consider with what solemn
assurances of sincerity you made
these remarks, and with how much
apparently honest zeal you urged them
on the public.
Turn then and review your recent
labours in the Concord Patriot. Pe
ruse the long columns of drivelling fol
ly and base misrepresentations which
you have published in that prints Per.
.
*
A New-York Jeffersonian paper
calls the conquest of a part of Spain by
the treachery and bayonets of the ty
rant of France, " reconciling the king
dom to a new order of things ?!" By
the same pen the generous assistance
Great Britain has afforded the Sons of
Liberty of Spain, in their gallant ef
forts to defend their rights and proper
ty, their children and fire-sides, and
the Altars of their God, is denominate
ed a " pertinacious interference," be
cause, under Heaven, it has retarded
the footsteps of the bloodhounds of
France in their race of conquest. The
same pen announces with exultation
the prospect, "that the influence of
the English in the peninsula is drawing
to a close ;" the result of which will
be the subjugation of the whole king
dom to the domination of Bonaparte ;
and this event is also hailed as the
"Restorer of Peace [the deathlike
peace of despotismjto that agonized
[by whom has it been agonized ^por
tion of the world." In addition to
this the Spanish Patriots, merely for
their oposition to the French encroach
ments, are branded as " desperadoes,
actuated by "the hope of plunder ;
Yes, Americans, these gallant Span
iards—whose cause is so strongly as
simulated to yours in 1776—wh0 have
defended their country for more than
two years ; and who have resisted the
Power of Francelouger than any other
country in Europe —are branded as
you were in 1776, "rebels, " des
peradoes," and "plunderers !" and
this too by men who call themselves
free Americans. • But this is not all
—the myrmidons of French power
who are invading their country, and
carrying death and carnage into every
province, are denominated "vigorous
assailants," and their success predicted
with exultation. If this be not the
effect of '' French influence,” let them
tell us from what influence it doth
proceed? The Mamelukes who lick
the dust from the feet of the Usurper
in Paris, can only utter similar sen
timents, and practice similar servility.
Can the people want any other proof
of the existence of French influence in
the U. States, than can be found in the
exultations in and predictions ofthede
feat of the Spanish Patriots, and rejoic
ing at the success of the lawless invad
ers of Spain and Portugal? We trust
not. — Cent.
The men who thus inveighed against
federal policy have now had ample op
portunity and means of trying the ef
fect of their boasted system. They
are now in their tenth year of expe
riments and whatis the result ? Why,
if we take the confessions daily made
in their public newspapers, and from
haps the comparison, bVen in yob,
may awaken some sentiments of com
punction and remorse; although it
must be confessed that those men, who
seek to triumph in their political
course, by the means of duplicity and
hypocrisy, commonly atchieve the first
victory over their own consciences.
That you have encountered the strug
gle with this enemy in your own
bosom there is no room to doubt; and
while some think that the contest could
not have been /very arduous, all per
ceive that you have been attended with
complete success. BRUTUS.
Under existing circumstances it
would perhaps be improving our judg
ment of men and things to take a re
view of what has past in relation to
the conduct of former administrations
and the party now in power.
Most of us well remember the fed
eral administrations, and few have for
gotten the principal grounds of com.
plaint urged against them with respect
to. their foreign policy by those who
are styled the democratic party. The
two grand defects in the policy of
Washington and Adams, as constantly
insisted upon by Jefferson or his fol
lowers, were, a want of nerve in as
serting our rights against England, and
of complacency, or friendly demean
our, in our negociations with France.
The first, it was declared could be over
awed by assuming an imposing attitude,
or by interdicting the importation of
her manufactures ; and the other by
amicable and liberal treatment, we
were assured would be rendered quite
harmless and friendly.
All the difficulties which the two
federal administrations experienced at
certain perods both with England
and France, we were told over and
over again by the Aurora and other
leading democratic papers., writers and
speech-makers, might thus be settled
and completely done away.—And be
cause this kind of policy was not pur
sued to the extent which the then op
positionists required, those who admin
istered the affairs of the nation were of
ten reproached in very bitter terms ^s
wanting in capacity, courage or patri
otism.
What " Influence" is this?
[to BE CONTINUED.]'
SIGNS OF THE TIMES.
Strange as it may seem, we are much
deceived, if the ministerial party in
this country, are not at the present
moment engaged in paving^ the way
for an attempt to re-establish the Em
bargo, or some other commercial re
strictions, equivalent to the Embargo.
Having found that the Emperor of
their dearly beloved France, will not
pat up even with their pretended im
partiality between him and Great-
Britain, but to punish them for one
step awry has laid his all devouring
hand upon untold millions of our prop
erty, they are alarmed, not at the loss
es our merchants have sustained, but
at the dtepleasnre of " His Majesty,"
and are wishing to regain the ground
in his good graces which they have im
prudently lost.
On the 29th of June, a writer in the
National Inteligencer, under the
French signature of “ Sully," began
a series of papers on our national cir
cumstances. His second number ap
peared on the 2d of July, and his third
on the 13th.—This writer begins, as
all our Jeffersonian cabinet writers do,
with some very pretty general remarks,
accompanied by an intermixture of
very plausible abstract logic, quite
dispassionate and candid, talking well
and meaning nothing. As he proceeds,
however, his doctrines gradually un
fold, and promise to become somewhat
interesting to us in the Eastern States.
^ c Sully," in his third number, has
the following passage :—
'" If then the conduct of England
and France towards us has been char-)
acterized by a deeper atrocity than is
to be ordinarily discovered in the con
duct of one nation to another, it has
arisen from the impression on their
minds, real or imaginary, of our supe
rior interference with their interests,
and the feeble restraint that arose from
the apprehension of any injury that we
could inflict upon them, as a retalia
tion for the wrongs imposed upon us.
“ It is important to take this view
of the subject, to shew that the evils
to which we have been exposed, aris
ing out of the nature of things, ought
not to be considered as either accident
al or temporary, and to convince us
that in the progressive stages of our
commercial course we shall have to en
counter the same obstacles, probably
aggravated in proportion to our pro
gress ; in other words, that if we at
tempt through the medium of com
merce to grow rich at the elpence of
others, the object can only be gained
by the sword; and that we must pre
pare ourselves, if such be our reso
iution, for the sanguinary scenes, the
oppressions and the expences, which
have invariably followed in the train
of every such effort, which has been
either crowned with success, or lost in
defeat.
2 This view is further important, as
the lips of their leading characters, it
has completely failed, and affairs are
absolutely now worse than when the
undertaking was first commenced.
After all the terrors of war speeches,
war resolutions, hostile proclamations,
embargo &non-intercouse,OldEngland
still bears on her course with the same
steady helm which has long govern
ed her councils ;, while France, most
lamentable to tell, instead of being
soothed by friendly acts or conces
sions, seems only to increase in hos
tility as we give in to her demands.
Great-Britain, it is true, while she in
terdicts our trade with her enemy,
does permit our vessels to enter her
ports freely, at a time when her ships
are excluded from ours, and general
ly suffers them to sail on the high seas
unmolested :—But France, 'not only
sinks and burns them upon the ocean,
but proscribes their entrance not only
into the ports of her enemy, but ac
tually seizes and confiscates them
whenever they enter her own or those
where her power extends.
A fair experiment has thus been
made of federal policy and democrat
ic policy. The one succeeded, the
other has totally failed. In about six
months General Washington settled
affairs with old England, which set
tlement lasted for ten years when the
treaty expired. With France he found
more difficulty, and two or three years
elapsed before order was restored. It
was not indeed until she was coerced
under Adams' administration that she
consented to treat and call in her pri
vateers. She then made a treaty, which
as soon as she found she could do it
with impunity, she broke and tore
into ribbons. And maugre all the
kindnesses, concessions and friendly
acts of her best friends in this country
since, she has gone on step by step
from sequestration to confiscation,
from sinking to burning, from plunder
ing to imprisoning, and from interdict
ing our vessels from her enemy's ports
till at length she absolutely forbids
their entrance into her own or those
of her allies.— Trenton Fed.
From the Connecticut Mirror.
ized, that so long as we confined our
selves to the cultivation of our lands,
and the fabrication of articles called
for by our wants, we should have
been permitted to remain undisturbed ;
that commerce has been, from the be
ginning of the world, the prize for
which contending nations have fought
even to their annihilation."
By "Sully," then, we are told,
that mo cv#a whuh our merchants
have suffered by foreign depredations,
grew out of the nature of things, not,
by any means, from the bad measures
of our administration ; and that com
merce is the nature of things, from
which spring all these evils—and as if
this was not enough, he proceeds
gravely to inform us, that if we still
continue our commerce, it can becar
ried on only by the sword —that is by
sheer fighting. And Mr. Smith who
is always in tune to sing the Doxology
to the cabinet musick still more grave
ly tells, us, that —" A people, that
pursue with immoderate ardor the road
to riches, always do it at the hazard of
their rights and peace —that if we had
been wise, we should have been slow
to embark our wealth on the ocean—
and that commerce has been from the
beginning of the world, the prize for
which contending nations have fought
even to their annihilation."
Believing this to be cabinet lan
guage, we think the interests of the
commercial States call loudly on the
freemen who inhabit them, to watch
the course of our government with a
steady eye. By a course of beggarly
policy we arc reduced to the depths of
disgrace and now we are to be told by
the authors of our misfortunes, that
the inordinate love of wealth, and the
influence of luxury, have brought us to
these calamities ; and that the remedy
is alone to be found in an abandon
ment of the great source of our wealth,
viz. oar trade, and that in this way
our prosperity, and influence, are to
be annihilated. The Cabinet that cal
culates on reducing the commercial
States to the most abject condition of
penury and distress, " reckons with
out its host." The people of the com
mercial States are not such egregious
blockheads as not to know, that the
evils which wopid be caused by the
destruction of their trade, will fall ex
clusively on themselves. The southern
States are perfectly indifferent on this
subject. They well know that for
eigners will come after their tobacco
and cotton, or they can find means to
send it to Amelia-Island, from whence
it can be taken by foreign ships, and
they get their price. But the Eastern
commerce is the strength of that part
of the country. It furnishes wealth
not only to the merchant, but to the
farmer, and the mechanic, and if once
it is destroyed, the prosperity and im
portance of the Eastern States are
blasted forever. It is in vain to at
it proves the innocence of our rulers
in producing the wrongs we endure
from foreign powers. England, and
France have insolently told us that the
injuries of which we complained were
the result of onr partiality to the one
or the other; and successive factions
among ourselves have risen to moment
ary consequence by inculcating and
diffusing the belief. But nothing could
be more false or absurd. Partiality to
whom? To either England or France
from a regard to the form of their gov
ernments or their chiefs? Whatever
difteren ces may be discovered in them,
too little resembling our own, is to be
found to command the slightest por
tion of affection or reverence. If the
bloody plains of Europe demonstrate
the ferocity of one, the depopulated,
starving and famished plains of India
evince the equal barbarity of the other,
to say nothing of the total destitution
of principle on the ocean."
Here, in language somewhat obscure,
indeed, but sufficiently intelligible to a
moderately attentive reader, we find
the drift we are to expect from this
writer. " This view of the subject
(he says) is important to shew, that
the evils to which we have been expos
ed, are not accidental or temporary ;
and to convince us, that in the pur
suits of commerce hereafter, we shall
have to encounter the same obstacles
probably aggravated; and that if we
attempt to grow rich through the me
dium of commerce, at the expence of
others, the object can only be gained
by the sword."
In the same paper of the 4th July,
is a long editorial article, containing
some sentiments, not in-apposite to
the subject we are engaged upon :
" Luxury," says Mr. Smith, " al
ways involves a sacrifice of Liberty.
It is immaterial what the nature of the
government may be ; it is the eternal
destiny of man, in proportion as he
aggrandizes his animal to sacrifice his ra
tional character. A people, therefore,
that pursue with immoderate ardor the
road to riches, always do it at the haz
ard of their rights and peace.
" Had we been wise, we should
have been slow to embark our wealth
on the ocean ; we should have real-
Extract of a letter from an American
gentleman in Paris, dated May 31st,
per the Tamaahmaah, from Liver
pool.
" Things are daily growing worse,
and my hopes, which from the first were
faint, are entirely extinguished. There
is a report in circulation, that an order
has been sent to Bordeaux to sequester
any American funds which may be in
the hands of the merchants of that place.
This may not be well founded ; but, it
will not surprize me. The officers oty
government, are extremely vigilant ts
frustrating all partial arrangements.
In Dunkirk, there has lately been two
cases of ships captured by privateers,
who compromised with the captors, one
of which was the America, of Philadel
phia, and the master paid the captors
100,000 francs, and immediately on
taking charge of his ship, she was seiz
ed by the officers of government, and
sequestered. In short, I do not see
, any prospect of any American proper
ty under seizure in this country being
released."
The pregnancy of Bonaparte's new
Empress says the London papers is
officially announced!
"We do not learn whether an,
change in our affairs with Great Brit
ain had taken place : but it has been
rumored, that the Emperor Napoleon,
has issued a Decree for the capture
and condemnation of all the America?:
property he can get hold of.
" Captain Story, of the Tamaahm
aah, informs us that the British frigate
Venus, with Mr. Morier (the new
Charge des Affaires to America) on
board, was to sail from Portsmouth on
the 24th of June ; and that Mr. Jack
son is to return to England in the frig
ate Venus.
" On the 19th of June Parliament
was prorogued : Sir Francis Burdett
was on that day liberated from the
Tower. There were great rejoicings
among his partizans, and it is said a
more numerous assemblage of people
in the streets of London, than took
place when he was committed.
"new-york, Aug. 2. —On Tues
day afternoon, the fast sailing brig
Tamaahmaah, Captain Story, arrived
at Hurlgate, from Liverpool, which
port she left on the 24th of June, and
has brought advices about three weeks
later than before received.
C-onr^p W. Fm?ng r Esq. late A
merican Charge des Affaires in Spain,
came home in the above vessel; and is
the bearer of despatches from our
minister at the Court of St. James, to
the Secretary of State, and we under
stand will proceed with them this
morning.
tempi to amuse us with the sing song
of domestic manufactures. Manu
facturing does now, and always did
exist in New-England, to a certain ex.
tent. Probably it will extend to a
somewhat greater degree. But the
whim of turning all the wealth of the
commercial States into weavers shops,
is too silly to gull the poorest brain,
in the community. Our countrymen
are not made for it, nor will they sub.
mit to it, unless some n&re substantial
necessity calls on them to make the
sacrifices which such a change of life
demands. Whence the necessity ?
How happens it, that a nation boast
ing of unbounded wisdon, of great in
trepidity, of an unconquerable love of
liberty, and of a population of seven
millions is unable to pursue i/s lawful
business, but is so humbled, so debased,
as to be obliged to relinquish many of
the most string and important attri
butes of sovereignty and independence ?
Cloak the matter how we may, our
disgraces spring from affection to,
or fear of France, and hatred to
Great-Britain. Bonaparte liked
the Embargo, because it was intended
to distress the British. —Hence the
favoritism of Mr. Jefferson and his
votaries for the measure. The coiq
mercial States, particularly in New-
England, spoke the language of op
position in such strains, that our little
tyrants turned pale, and revoked, or
rather shifted their decrees; and the
substitute was not satisfactory to the
great land Leviathan of Europe. He
frowned, and his tad-poles in this
country greatly quake and tremble,
and with humble submission, are pre
pared to retrace their steps, and regain
if possible his mighty favour, even at
the sacrifice of all the sources of
wealth, power and influence, which a
large portion of the nation possess.—
The project may look well on paper,
it may dazzle in theory, butTAKE THE
word of a New-England MAN, IT!
WILL NEVER SUCCEED IN PRACTICE.
EXETER,
MONDAY, AUGUST 13, 1810:
— — @ @@@|^^;@@s@®t
Foreign Articles.
Important.