United States oracle and Portsmouth advertiser — Portsmouth, N.H., 1803-10-01 00:00:00, page 1

A COMPARATIVE VIEW OF THE DISADVANTAGES
AND BENEFITS, WHICH, WOULD PROBABLY
ACCRUE TO THE UNITED STATES, FROM AN
ENLARGEMENT OF THEIR TERRITORIAL LlM
isrs BY THE PURCHASE OF EITHER
LOUISIANA or the FLORIDAS.
ONEY is the sinews of war ;" and even in a
state of national peace and fecurity,the wheels
of) business can never be made to move with case
and celerity without a cooflant application of this
magic oil. A fufficieut plenty and a due circulation
of money, from the centre to the extremities of a
country, like blood circulating in the bodies of ani
mall, is the life-fpring to agriculture, manufactures
and commerce.
Nlr. Livingston, in his Memorial, makes upon
this fubj^a some very pertinent remarks, which are
well worthy of notice and consideration. Speaking
of France, he fays, “ Her foil, climate and local
filiation gives her, as a commercial, and especially
as a manufacturing nation, great advantages over
all the nations of Europe. The spirit of inven
tion, the taste and industry of its inhabitants, place
her in the firft rank. But those advantages are won
derfully abridged by the want of capitals Sufficient to
make use of them. A rival nation, greatly inferior
in every one of these particulars, has by the effeCt
alone of an immense capital, obtained the fuperior
fry, not only in commerce, but also in manufactures;
and these advantages, by inereafiog the national for
tune, furnifh it with the means of obtaining that ve
ry superiority."
" Capitals increase the number of manufactures,
by the introduaion of machines, by the regular pay
ment of workmen, by the reJuaion of the interest
of money, and especially by the possession of new
markets."
The honourable memorialift proceeds to point out
the injurious consequences of " using the capitals
of the nation in distant countries ; of " multiplying
points ^f defence ; and of " squandering away the
capitals they want at home." He Rates that not
withflan^grbc extreme fertility of the Weft-In
dia Islands, "It is folly to beleive that they will
yield to France a compensation for her actual out
lets, unless it be after a great many years ;" and
that " the national expenditures will increase
with her colonies." He incidentally mentions "The
pains, the expencea and loss of men, which are in
separable from new settlements, in a marftiy coun
try and a burning climate ; the invasions of Indians ;
the infurreaion of (lives,” &c. He puts the quef
tfon, " Has France a fuprflaity ts men and money great
enough lojufiify the fettling of a new colony ?" He re
marks that " too' fettled tor one century, Louisiana
has never prospered under the French or Spanifli
Government ;" that " one century at lead will pass
away, before France may want possessions of that
kind ;'' that its settlement by the French '' would
divert capitals from a much more important chan
nel ;" and that “ the expence of such an eftablifh^
ment might ruin the public treasury.
These just and weighty remarks of the honorable
memoralitt, while they prove that France would in
evitably be impoveriffied by dissipating its capitals
in the fettling of Louisiana,do also apply, even with
much greater force, to the United States. It can
not Purely be pretended that there is in this country
" a Juperfiaity of money," It has no mines of gold
and fiivcr; and all the money it possesses or that it
ever can acquire, has been, and ever must be pur
chased from foreign countries, by the labour of its
inhabitants. If indeed there were now a large na
tional capital in the treasury, it would be needed at
home, for the inftruCtion of children were schools at
private expence are impracticable, and for a great
variety of other uleful Mid oeceflary improvements
among a young and increasing people : but inftcad
of possessing a clear capital io call), this nation is
loaded with a great debt, —the pr ice, in part, of its
independence.^- So lately as fourt ecn or fifteen years
ago, an extreme Icarcity of money was felt through
out the Union. Landsand almost every fpecitsof
property fell, in some places, mo re than fifty percent
—Public and private embarraffroent and distress was
the confeqence; and many families were ruined.
A concurrence of remarkable incidents such as in
their full combination, will probably never happen
again, poured into this country,during the convul
sions inEurope,an abundance of cash. Such flreams
of gold and silver no longer flow in upon our (hores;
the current has turned ; and money is very percep
tibly becoming scarcer. Incidents may soon hap
pen, which might render the scarcity of money
extremely dihreffing. The apparent quantity of
money, in this country, is much greater than the
real quantity. As the governments of the individ
ual (hues, as well as that of the Union, possess the
power of eftabli firing foh,and of multiplying them
indefinitely, the banking system has already been
carried loan unprecedented extent. Bank-paper is
not money, but is only the representative of money :
its value and its currency depend entirely on credit.
If only one capital bank should fail, it would (hake
the credit of others : if the banks generally should
flop their difeounts or reduce them nearly to the a
mount of their capitals, a very distressing scarcity of
.money would immediately ensue. The fame would
happen, should a sudden and general (hock be given
to commerce, from whence the national revenues
are principally drawn. Id combining and weighing
AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE TWENTY SEVENTH YEAR,
Wteb States
Portsmouth
PORTSMOUTH, N. H. Printed and Published every
Vol. XIII.] SATURDAY, OCTOBER i, 1803.
)' ALL THE DISPOSITIONS AND HABITS WHICH LEAD TO POLITICAL)
prosperity, RELIGION & MORALITY are indispensable,
SUPPORTS.— Washington's Legact.,
MISCELLANY.
o- —
From the Balance.
No. 111.
FOREIGN AFFAIRS.
AN ENGLISH
''View of the Whole Ground"
o—-
CC, The following Paper, has been published by the
British Government, and sent, by its direction to ever,
parifb in the Kingdom. It mill inform and admen*
ifo Americans, as well a; Englishmen ; —and mill
meII repay the snoft attentive or repeated per ufal.
CIRCULAR.
To the Officiating Ministers of the federal Pariffies in Eng
land and Whales.
IT having been thought necessary, that, at this
momentous crisis, His Majesty's fubjeds, in
every part of the kingdom, and of every rank and
degree, (hould be fully apprised of the danger
with which their property and their lives, liber
ties, and their religion are threatened, in order
that their energy may be called forth, and that,
under God's Providence, the fafety of the realm
may thereby be provided for, and its antient hon
or maintained ; It having been also tho't that
the Church is the most fafe, regular, and cer
tain channel of circulation,as well as the best sui
ted to the importance of the fubjed : It appears
advifeable to adopt that mode of communication,
more especially as, in the execution of this great
national purpose, such material aid may be expect
ed from the wifflom and zeal of the Clergy. -
In consequence whereof you will herewith receive
certain copies of a printed paper entitled, " Im
portantConfiderations for the People of this King
dom." It is requested, that you will be pleased
to cause partof them to be deposited in the pews,
and part to be distributed in the aides, amongst
the poor, on the Sunday following the day on
which you shall receive them. There are also
inclofed certain copies calculated for posting ; one
of which is intended to be placed on the church
door, and another in some such public part of the
parilh, as you may deem best fitted for making it
known among the Parilhioners.
- o
IMPORTANT CONSIDERATIONS,
FOR THE
PEOPLE OF THIS KINGDOM.
At a moment, when we are entering on a feene
deeply interesting, not only to this nation, but to
the whole civilized world ; at a moment, when
we all, without diftindion of rank or degree are
called upon to rally round, and to range ourselves
beneath the banners of that Sovereign, under
whose long, mild, and foftering reign, the far
greater part of us, capable of bearing arms, have
been born and reared up to manhood ; at a mo
ment, when we are, by his truly royal and pater
nal example, incited to make every facrifice and
every exertion ina war, the event of which is to
decide, whether we are fti'l to enjoy, and to be
queath to our children, the poffeffions,the com
forts the liberties, and the national honours,han
ded down to us from generation to generation by
our gallant forefathers ; or whether we are, at
once, to fall from this favoured and honourable
Ration, and to become the miserable crouching
Haves, the hewers of wood& the drawersofwater,
ofthofe very Frenchmen, whom the valour of our
fleets and armies has hitherto taught us to des
pise : at such a moment, it behoves us c^m'y &
all ihtfe circumstances, it seems evident that a large
additional debt must be produdive of very injurious
consequences to the nation ; and that prudence
dictates its avoidance, unleft there should be a certain
profpeß that the benefits arifagfam the purchased poffef
fan will over-balance the evils, which will flow from the
loss ts the purchase money. The annual interest of
such a debt would be a great and constant drain
of cafli from this country : and paid to a Foreign
Ration, it would go whence it could not return.
It is also to be considered that the premises, for
which the nation's money is to be given, (New-
Orleans excepted) will,,or a long time,bz produc
tive of heavy charges, without any benefits. If
left to remain unsettled, the nation by this bar
gain will merely " multiply points of defence ;"
for it will be bound in honour, if not in interest,,
to defend any part of its territory, however great
might be the expences which such defence would
cost. If on the other hand,the nation should at
tempt a speedy settlement of its newly acquired
poffeflions, (not to mention the loss that would
be sustained by the emigration of settlers from its
present territory, who might be much more ufe
fully employed at home,) its “ capitals would
by such an effort, be diverted from a much mere
important channel ;" " the national expenditures
would be increased," in rearing and supporting
infant governments : and " it is folly to believe
that those new settlements would yield to this
country a compensation for her adual outsets,
unless it be after a great many years."
In this view, which the memorial itfelf has
Sketched and exhibited, it appears that the vast
wilderhefs, the possession whereof by the United
States, is contemplated, will cost much in its
purchase, something in its defence, and much in
its settlement ; and that " a great many years
will pass away," before it will, in any measure
compensate for these national outsets.
CALCULATOR.
without dismay, to examine our situation, to con
fider what grounds of the awful contett in which
we are engaged ; what are the wilhes, the designs
and the pretensions of our enemies ; what wou d
be the consequences, if those enemies were to
triumph over us ; what are our means, and what
ought to be our motives, not on y for fruftating
their ma icious intentions, but for infl ding just
an A mcj\n ihlechaftifemenc on their insolent and
gui ty heads.
The grounds of th^ war are, by no means, as
our enemies pretend, to be fought for in a desire en
tertained by bis Majesty to ktepthc Island of Malta,
contrary to the Treaty of Peace, or to leave unful
filled any other part of his sacred engagements :
They are to be fought for in the ambition of the
Firfl Consul of France; and in his implacable ha
tred of Britain alone, he finds a check to that ambi
tion, which aims at nothing short of the conquest
of the world. His M lefty, ever anxious to procure
for his people prosperity and case, eagerly lelzed the
firft opportunity that offered itfelf for the rettorarion
of Peace ; but not without remembering, at the
fame time, that their lafety, for which it was his pe
culiar duty to provide, was not to be facrificed 'o
any other consideration. This peace he concluded
with the most tincere desire, that it might be dura
ble, and the conduct of France would be such as to
authorize him to execute, with f rupulous punAu
ality, every one of the stipulations of the Treaty.
But Scarcely was that compaß concluded, when the
First Consul, at the very time that his Majesty was
surrendering to France and Holland, the great and
numerous conquests he had made from them dur
ing the war, began a new fort of hostility upon the
weak and defencelels flares on the Continent of Eu
rope: Piedmont, a country equal to all Scotland,
was added to France; Holland, which had, at the
making of the Peace, been recognized as an inde
pendent nation, became more than ever, the object
of French rapacity and despotism; was compelled
to furnidi fllipsand dores for French expeditions,&
to feed and clothe French armies ; the only ofe of
which was to keep her in a date of flavith subjec
tion, and to render her faores an object of serious a
hrm and real danger to Great-Britain ; Switzerland
was invaded by a French army, which compelled
the peqpk of that once free and happy country, to
fubmfr to a government framed at Paris, the mem
bers of Which government were chiefly composed
of mm, who had betrayed the liberties of their
country and who were nominated by the Consul
himielf.
Notwithstanding, however, all these and several
othetnas of aggression and tyranny, some of which
were highly injurious to Great-Britain, and were
fhameful violations of the Treaty of Peace, Hill
his Majesty earnestly endeavoured to avoid a re
currence to arms ; but the Consul, emboldened
by our forbearance, and imputing to a dread of
his power, that which he ought to have imputed
solely to our desire to live at peace, manifested
his perfidious intentions, again to take possession
of Egypt, whence we had driven him in disgrace;
again to open a road to out possessions in India,
there to destroy one of the principal sources of
Our wealth and our greatness.
Not contented with thus preparing for our de
ftrudion from without, endeavoring to cut off
our intercourse with the rest of the world, Cut
ting as far as he was able, all the ports of other
countries against us; gradually destroying our
navigation, commerce, and trade ; hemming us
up in our own island, and exposing our manu
faaurers, artizans, and labourers, to the danger
of starving for want of employment ; hot con
tented with these malignant endeavors, and seem
ing to regard us as already within his grasp, he
audaciously interfered in the management of our
domestic concerns ; required us to violate our
laws by banishing those fubjeds of the French
Monarch, who had fled hither for shelter from
his unjust and tyrannical government; demand
ed of us the suppression of the Liberty of Speech
and of the Press, and in a word clearly demon
flrated his resolution not to leave us a moment's
tranquillity, until we had surrendered our con
(litution, until we had laid all our liberties at his
feet, and until, like the Dutch, the Italian, and
the Swiss, we had submitted to be governed by
Decrees lent us from France.
Besides the motives of ambition, the define to
domineer over, and to trample upon ail the rest
of mankind, the First Consul has a reason, pecu
liar to himlelf, for wifliing to reduce us to a
Rate of poverty, weakness, fubmiffion,and tilence
—which reason will be at once evident,when we
confider the origin ofhis authority, and the na
ture of his government. —Having succeeded,
through a long course of perfidious and blonjy
deeds, in usurping the throne of his lawful Sov
ereign ; having under the name of Equal ,y, ef
tabliihed in his own person and family, a govern
ment the most pompous and expensive, (Chile the
people are pining with hunger, an J in rags ;
having, with the word Liberty, co formally on
his lips erected a despotism the rr,ott oppressive,
the most capricious, and the mod cruel that the
Almighty, in his wrath, ever fuffered to exist ;
having, by fitch means, obtained such an end,
he feared, that while there remained upon earth,
and especially within a f„ #w leagues of France, a
people enjoying, undir a mild and legitimate'
Sovereign, all the Redings of freedom ; while
there remained f,ch a people, so fun ted, he
RAL GOVERNMENT, FIFTEENTH YEAR.
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Advertiser.
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Price one dollar AND fifty cents per ann. [No. 52.
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' EDGED. ™
dreaded, and not without reufon, that their feh
ti ments and their example would by degrees, pe
netrate fhrough his sorest of bayonet- his my
riads of spies, and would, firft or last, (hake the
foundation of his ill gotten power. He could
not, indeed, impute either to our Sovereign or to
his fubjeds, any design, much less any attempt,
to disturb him in the exercise of his usurped au
thority. We never have interfered, nor have
we ever shown any desire to interfere in the con
cerns of the Consul or hs Republic ; and his
M jefty, even after all the ads of provocation,
all the injuries and infalt- committed against
himfelf and his people has now solemnly renew
ed his declaration, that his objed is not to de
stroy or change any thing in the internal date of
Other countries, but solely to preserve, in his own
dominions, every thing dear to himfelf and his
fubjeds.
This, however, is not fufficieat to fatisfy the
Consul of Franco it is not fufficient that we ab
stain, both by anions and by words, from excit
ing difeontent among those who have the misfor
tune to be fubje&s to his sway ; we mtift not af
ford them an example, we mull not remain free,
left they should learn lessons of freedom } we
must destroy our ancient and venerable monar*
chy, left they should sigh for a lawful and mer
ciful king ; we mull not be happy, left the,
should covet happiness § we mull not speak, left
our voice should diflutb the peace of Bonaparte ;
we must not breathe, we mull cease to exist, be
cause our exigence gives umbrage to a man, who,
from the walls of Acre, fled, in shame and dis
grace, before a handful of Britons.
Such being the grounds of the war, such the
wilhes and designs, such, the preposterous and in
solent pretensions of the enemy, it next behoves
us to confider, what will be the confequer.ee to
ourselves, what will be our wretched lot, if that
enemy should succeed in the invasion and subju
gation of our country. Os what the French
would, in such case, do here, we may form some
iudgme it, from what they have done in all those
countries, u here the remissness of the govern
ment together with the pufillanimicy of the peo
ple, have given th m the predominance. There
is no country, into which they have been able to
enter, where their footfteps have not been mark
ed with blQoi; where they have spared either
high or low, rich or poor ; sex or age; where
terror has not been their forerunner, and where
desolation and misery have not marched in their
rear. In the long and black catalogue of French
cruelties towards the people of other countries,
those of the Firil Consul, and of the generals and
soldiers immediately under his command, firft
present themfeives to our attention. In 1796
Bonaparte at the head of a numerous French ar
my, invaded Italy, declaring to the people, that
h came as their friend and their brother, to
deliver them from taxes and slavery, and prom
ising them fafety for their perfohs, security for
their property, refped for their law,, and rever
ence for their religion. They listened, they be
leived ; they threw open their gates, they laid
down their arms, they received the Gallic Ser
pent to their bosom, and fatal indeed were the
effects to their credulity ! His reverence for their
religion he displayed by giving up all their places
of worship to indiferiminate plunder,and by dea
ling them with every species of sacrilege ; his
refped for their laws was evinced, not only by
the abrogation of those laws, but by the arbitra
ry enforcement of an unconditional submission to
the mandates of himfelf and hi, generals ; the
security which he promised to their property was
exhibited in enormous contribution, in the sei
zure of all the public funds, as well as those of
every charitable foundation, not excepting;
schools, hospitals, or any other resource for the
support of the poor, the aged, and the helpless ;
and, as to the persons of the unfortunate people,
he provided for their fafety by laying the whole
country under the severest military execution, by
giving up the towns and villages to fire & sword,
and by exposing the inhabitants to be pillaged
and murdered : y his rapacious and inhuman sol
diers, whom he authorifed and even ordered to
shoot every man that attempted to refill them,
whatever might be the crimes in which the,
were engaged
On, ^is ieturn from Italy, which he left in a
fta^e of beggary and irretrievable ruin, he pre-
I pared for the invasion of Egypt, a country which
I was at peace with France, and against the people,
1 or the government of which, F ance had no cause
of complaint ; i% ut the conquest of this country
was necessary in order to open a road to the In
dian poiteffions of Great Britain.—ln pursuit of
this object, Buonaparte invaded Egypt, where he
repeated his promises to refped religion, prop
erty, and persons, and where, the more effec
tually to disguise his purposes, he issued a pro
clamation, declaring himfelf and his army to be
true Mahometans ; and boafling of having made
war upon the Christians, and dellroyed their re
ligion. One of his firft deeds after this aft of a
poHacy, was to massacre almost all the inhabi
tants of the populous city of Alexandria, "the
;people," fays one of his generals, "betake them
, selves to their PROPHET, nd fill their mofauer ;
- but men and women, old and young, and e l <•
' bribes at t'' ?bread, ALL arc macacicdr C,i-;c