The Wheeling repository — Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.], 1807-08-06 00:00:00, page 4

sonallv responsihie for any damages -bv j
detention and trial, when the vessel anil
cargo shall be acquitted ; but govern
ment pays the expence.—Hente vessels
are liable to be detained and sent in on
the slightest suspicion. [ True A/ner.
For the Wheeling Repository.
In the beginning of the year 1 798, the
United States-were in a critical situati
on with France. Under various pre
texts, France was sweeping our whole
commerce from the ocean. She'had re
fused to receive our Minister, ‘Mr.
Pinckney, who had been appointed bv
President Washington, and declared
that she would not receive another Ple
nipotentiary from the United States, un
til a redress ol grievances, demanded of
tne American government, should be
obtained. President Adams had after
wards appointed three F.nvovs extraor
dinary to France, and it was in the be
ginning ol INI arch rumoured that these
.‘ni ce Envoys were about to return,with
out being recognized or received by the
French government. In the mean time
some measures were taken for defence
in case oi war, and the calling out eighty
thousand militia, as authorised by an act
of Congress, was talked of. On these
various subjects the loliowing articles
appeared in the Aurora of March 2d,
1798.
i5y die current intelligence from Lu*
4 rope there is some reason to apprehend
‘ that our Envoys are returning from
* France without hat ing reconciled the
‘ differences. I hope this is not the fact;
* but if it is, what are we to do? In the
4 event cf official communication j arriv
4 ing, which shall announce the failure
4 of our negotiations, our war hawks
4 will be impetuous for waging war with
4 that Republick,which rides on the clouds
4 and directs the fates of surrounding na
‘ tiems:
Again. 4 The eighty thousand militi? (
* cannot cost less than a dollar a day per j
4 man ; horses, baggage, e::tra pay to of-1
4 ficcrs, and a multitude of contingencies
* of all kinds, will cor;t at least as much
4 more: but say that the w hole amounts
* only to five hundred dollars per annum
4 for each man. This is not only within,
* but far within the fact. After all, these
4 eighty thousand men, admitting each
* ot them to be a Hercules or a Scan
* derberg, arc totally unequal to the de
* fence of a sea coast of fifteen hundred
* miles. They are only as eight hundred
4 men to an extent of'fifteen miles; and
4 nobody’ can tell upon what point the
‘ French may disembark.
4 But it is said that we arc too far off,
4 and that they will find it difficult to
4 cross the Atlantick. Have yc forgot
4 ten that Howe landed at Long Island,
4 and was victorious ; at Elk, and was
1 victorious ; that he marched round the
‘country, and again at Germantown was
4 victorious ? Have ye forgot that Corn
4 wallis, with an handful of men, march
* ed up and down the two Carolinas and
4 Virginia, and almost, as it were, tore
* out their entrails ? Georgia became,
4 in the literal sense, a desart. Will any
‘body compare Howe to Bonaparte, or
4 Cornwallis to Jourdan ?*
Again. * We return from this cxcur
4 sion,to the expense of a first campaign;
‘for the avenue to a man's heart lies in
4 general through his breeches pocket.—
4 Eighty thousand militia, at five hun
4 dred dollars per head, come to forty
4 millions of dollars for the first year.
4 Suppose that the United States con
4 tain two hundred and fifty thousand
4 substantial land-holding farmers. This
4 comes to an hundred and sixty dollars
4 lor each ol them. Money will have
4 vanished, and five hundred dollars tv ill
4 be more easily raised now, than an
4 hundred and sixty in the midst of a
4 French war.
‘ At the c.ime time the British coun
‘ tervailing duty, like a cannon ball
‘ sweeping the stump of a man’s arm,
‘ will just hnish the business. JVe shall
4 hear no more of the disgraces of the A
‘ mtrican fagyfor that fag will cease
4 to exist.'
Such was the language held in the
Aurora, when the country was on the
eve ot a war with France, and such was
generally the language of those opposed
to the then administration of the nation
al government. The Federalists are
now in opposition. We are on the eve
of a war with Kngland. Do we hear of
any such language from Federalists
I)o they calculate the expense ? Do they
exaggerate the force of the enemy? Do
they degrade the spirit of their country
men, by reminding them of the victories
ot Howe and Cornwallis ? Or do they
declare to the world, “ that the avenue to
44 the heart of an American lies through
“ his breeches pocket?"
If such sentiments as the above were
to be advanced by Federalists, they
would be held up as traitors and incen
diaries, and they would deserve the cha
racter. What then ought to be thought
of the propagators of the above article?
Let the Aurora now tell. That paper
of the 15th July, republishes the follow
ing toast drank" at Boston:—“ May hos- 4
tility, if resorted to, be the result of *
“ cool reflection, and not produced by
u self-created committees and unautho
“ rised assemblies.” This sentiment
conveys something of censure on the ci
tizens of Norfolk,for taking upon them
selves what ought to be performed bv
the government. Whether the sentiment
be corrector not,tis immaterial. It bears
no comparison with what I have cited
above ; but hear the comments of the
Aurora upon it.—4 The toasts and sen
1 timents uttered in this meeting, thro’
1 out, partook of the same malignant spi
‘ rit: the character of the country, the ef
Lfect of public sentiment on foreign 71a
4 lions, the very shew of liberality, were
4 all put out of view, and party rancour
4 and disappointed ambition and avarice
‘ marked the whole of their proceedings. *
4 The'prescnt administration of the na
‘ tion appeared to be more an object of
‘ hate, than the pirates who had shed the
4 blood of our citizens.*
To such motives the Editor of the Au
rora, at this firne, attributes the slightest
censure on any measure pursued against
the English. Is it not fair to charge the
Aurora with similar motives, when in
1793 it proclaimed to the world, that we |
could not but be worsted in a war with
France; when it recounted the victories
ot Howe and Cornwallis, and declared
that they ought not to he compared to
Bonaparte and Jourdan; when i t ricli -
doled the i lea ol’ defending our sea
coast with eighty thousand militia, tho*
each should be an Hercules or Scantfer
berg ; and pronounced that the avenue
| to the heart of an American lay through
his breeches pocket?
I wish these observations published
in the Repository, for thg purpose of
shewing that the opposition of the Fe
deralists to the present administration,
is not so 1 maligj-iant' as the farmer op
position to the Federal administration.
So much censure has for a long- tithe
been thrown upon the Federalists, that *
a great many honest men are led to con
sider a Federalist as theunost detestable
of men.—To produce and compare the
language and conduct of the Federalists
at this time, with the language and con
duct of the opposition in 17S7, 1798,
and 1799, may have some tendency to
remove false impressions.
A Federalist. }