Virginia Argus (Richmond, Va.), 1808-05-06 00:00:00

VIRGINIA ARGUS.
[XVIII YEAR.]
A FREE PRESS MAINTAINS THE SOVEREIGNTY OF THE PEOPLE.
[No 1456.]
RICHMOND:—PRINTED (ON TUESDAYS AND FRIDAYS) BY SAMUEL PLEASANTS, JUNIOR, PRINTER TO THE COMMONWEALTH.
[Four Dollars Per Annum—Paid in Advance.]
FRIDAY, MAY 6, 1808.
[12 1-2 Cents Single.]
Advertisement.
THE sale not having taken place at the time appointed in a former advertisement; will be sold, on Friday the 6th day of May next, for ready money, on the premises, a
Valuable Tract of Land,
lying in the county of Halifax on Staunton river, containing seven hundred and twenty five acres, more or less; it was once the property of Samuel Beall, was sold by him to Wm. Moseley, and mortgaged by Moseley to Robert Andrews and John Pierce, trustees of Beall, to secure the payment of the purchase money—The indenture of mortgage, which was recorded in the general court, bears date the 23d day of June 1793. At the same time and place, such of the SLAVES as are described in the said mortgage, and may be produced by the said Moseley, will also be sold for cash.—The sale is made by virtue of a decree of the superior court of chancery for the Richmond district, pronounced in a suit therein depending, in which the said Pierce, surviving trustee is plaintiff, and the said Moseley is defendant, and for the purpose of raising the following sums, with interest, viz. 1081. 15s. with interest at the rate of 5 per cent, from the 1st of January 1793—1051. 2s. 6d. with like interest from the 1st day of January 1794—1017. 10s. with like interest from the 1st day of January 1795—971. 17s. 6d. with like interest from the 1st day of January 1796—961. 5s. with like interest from the 1st day of January 1797—811. 14s. with like interest from the 14th day of July 1803—and 35 dollars 88 cents, the costs of the suit. The residue of the money decreed to be raised the plaintiff does not pretend to claim, as appears by an endorsement made by the clerk of the said court on the order dissolving an injunction obtained by John B. Scott, to stay the sale of the said land, which endorsement is copied from a writing filed in the suit first above mentioned by the plaintiff's agent and attorney.
THE COMMISSIONERS. Richmond, March 11, 1808. wids
TO RENT,
A GOOD TENEMENT on Market Alley, opposite the Market House; it is among the best stands in the neighborhood for a grocery. For terms apply to the subscriber or to Harry Tompkins. ISAAC WEBSTER. February 15. tf
For Sale or Rent,
THE HOUSE, OFFICE & STABLE, with an excellent garden, all in good order, and at present occupied by Mr. Samuel P. Parsons, joining Major Prior, on the Hay-Market square. For particulars apply to JASPER ROBBINS, at Mr. John McEnery's. Feb. 24, 1808.
For Rent,
THE House on the Main Street, next to Messrs. Ellis and Alan, and now occupied by Mrs. Phebe. Possession will be given on the first of January next—apply to JOSEPH GALLEGO. Richmond. Dec. 27. 1807. tf
NOTICE.
WILL DISPOSE OF MY TRACT OF LAND, LYING in Powhatan county, containing 500 acres, of which there is 80 or more prime low grounds, which never is overflowed by the river Appomattox. There is also a fine mill set the dam nearly completed, and timbers ready to complete the mill, upon a never failing stream. The terms will be one-half cash, the balance in 12 months. I will sell or treat with any one between this and the 1st July next, otherwise it will be sold upon the premises, to the highest bidder together with other property. The terms of the personal property will be made known on the day of sale. January 5, 1808 John H. Saunders. ids
10 Dollars Reward.
RUN AWAY from the subscriber in Albemarle county, near Charlottesville, on Sunday the 11th of April,
A Negro Man, named George, Dark complexion, about thirty two years old, five feet eleven inches high, stout and well made, took with him a negro cotton coat and overalls, also, a long blue coat, a smooth fur'd hat, newly new, with a large brim. One of his arms is crooked, but won't be discovered with out being closely examined. I have reason to believe he is about Richmond. I will give the above reward to any person that will lodge the said negro in jail, so that I get him again, or fifteen dollars if delivered to me in Albemarle, besides what the law allows. Joel Terrell. Albemarle, April 13, 1808. 2w
TO RENT
The House and Lot, At present occupied by Mr. Hezekiah Mosby, pleasantly situated on Shockoe Hill and very convenient for the accommodation of a family. Possession may be had on the 3d March next, when Mr. Mosby's time will expire. Thomas Elliott. Richmond, 29th Jan. 1808. tf
LAND FOR SALE.—Pursuant to a deed of trust executed to the subscribers by John C. Miller, for the purpose of securing the payment of sundry debts therein mentioned: will be sold upon the first Monday in January 1808, for cash upon the premises, a tract of land, mentioned in said deed lying in the county of Powhatan, and supposed to contain between six and seven hundred acres. We shall make such title as is transferred to us by said Miller, saving all former encumbrances. The improvements upon this tract are such as are usual upon snug plantations in this part of the country, but better fenced than usual. Prince Edward, Oct. 16, 1807. CHARLES WOODSON, JAMES MADISON. Trustees. * The above sale is postponed till Tuesday the 28th day of June next. April 20, 1808. 10w
REMOVAL. WE have removed our Countinghouse to the house immediately below, and contiguous to the one we have hitherto occupied, where we have for sale, Muscovado Sugar by the hogshead or barrel, Sherry Wine, in quarter casks, and a few cases Old Claret of superior quality. ROBERT & ALLAN POLLOCK, & Co. March 3, 1808. (tf)
NOTICE. THE Subscribers having formed a connection in business, under the firm of HOVEY & SIZER, offer for sale, at the Store lately occupied by Mr. Charles J. Macmardo, the following articles: 50 bds. N. E. Rum, 25 bds. leaf and lump sugar, 12 bags of pepper 2 ton of bar lead 10 boxes cotton and wool cards, 25 boxes candles 15 boxes N. York chocolate 25 trunks of shoes assorted 50 tierces Stone Lime. HENRY HOVEY, JAMES SIZER. ALL PERSONS who are indebted to the Subscriber are requested to make immediate payment. No other indulgence will be given to those whose bonds and accounts have been due six months. HENRY HOVEY. April 5th, 1808. ep5w
Was committed to the jail of Surry county the 15th of February last, a negro woman named NANCY, who says that she formerly belonged to Emanuel Robertson of Princess Ann County, V. and was sold by him to Nathaniel Bowring of Kentucky, and that she made her escape from the said Bowring in the county of Nansemond on her way to Kentucky. Nancy is from eighteen to 20 years old, of rather a light complexion, four feet ten inches high, had on a calico jacket and Virginia cloth petticoat. The owner is requested to come forward, prove property, pay charges and take her away, otherwise she will be dealt with as the law directs. Benj. E. Browne, Sheriff. 15th April. 1808 3w
Valuable Lands. THE subscriber will sell, on a credit, or exchange for Property in Richmond or its neighborhood, the following LANDS, to wit: 822 acres in the state of Kentucky by survey bearing date the 10th day of October 1797, lying and being in the district set apart for the officers and soldiers of the Virginia state line, on Little Barren river. Also, 1000 acres, in Kentucky, by survey bearing date the 10th October 1797, likewise lying in the district set apart for the officers and soldiers of the Virginia state line, on the north side of Little river, a branch of Cumberland river, and about two and an half miles from the mouth of Little river. Also, 450 acres of Land in the county of Mason, state of Virginia, on Old Town creek, about 3 miles from Mason courthouse. Indisputable titles will be made to the above mentioned lands; and plots of each tract may be seen on application to the subscriber residing in Richmond. THOMAS BOHANNAN. January 23d, 1808. tf
I AM desirous to exchange the following property, or any part thereof, as may be agreed on for a small tract of good Land, in a healthy situation, with a dwelling house and other improvements, a good spring of water, and an agreeable neighborhood, at a distance of 30 to 100 miles up the country.—To say for Houses in this city—Lands in Henrico county, joining the sea. Jemy lands, and near this city—2,000 acres on Richland creek, in Lincoln county Kentucky—1,000 acres on the waters of the Ohio, in Mason county—and two tracts of Military Lands on the river Tennessee, each 866 2/3 acres. Robert Mitchell. Richmond, Feb. 6. 1808. tf
Joseph Marx & Co. Have on hand an assortment GERMAN OZNAEBURGS, TICKLENBURGS, DOWLASS, and TOWELLING, by the bale, box or piece. COGNAC BRANDY and MOLASSES. SACK SALT, coarse and fine. Which they will sell for cash, tobacco, or approved paper. Richmond, April 28, 1808. tf
JUST RECEIVED AT THIS OFFICE, No. 4, of THE American Military Library OR, Repository of Modern Tactics: Adapted to the use of the Militia of the United States.—Illustrated with a neat plate of nineteen manoeuvres. (The plate alone sells for 75 cents.) March 20
40 Dollars Reward. RUNAWAY from the subscriber, some time in May, 1807, a negro man named SAM, aged about 23 or 24 years—he was purchased of Mr. Freeland of Manchester, and belonged formerly to the estate of Mr. Macon, of Powhatan—about 6 feet high, very likely, stout and well made. He lived with Mr. Joshua Brotherhood in the year 1806, and had a wife at Mr. Gentry's who was then overseer for Doc. Currie near this city. Any person who will deliver the said negro to me in Richmond, or secure him in jail so that I get him again, shall receive the above reward. HENRY METTERT, Butcher. Richmond, May 2, 1808. (2)
Just Published, and for sale at S. Grantham's Printing office, oppo site Dr. Dweal's Medicine Store. MILITARY TACTICS, OR, The Soldier's Companion. teaching how to form companies— With directions for the formation and exercise of a battalion and regiment; AND THE VARIOUS FORMS OF REPORTS, &c. likewise, Evolutions for the Cavalry and Artillery, with explanations and improvements upon Baron Steuben. BY SAMUEL J. WINSTON, Brigade Inspector for the second brigade. The Subscribers will receive their book at the printing office of Seaton Grantland, where they are requested to call or send for them.
IMPRESSED SEAMEN. It has been represented to the Secretary of State, that Nathan Thompson, Thomas Williams, Benjamin Bagwell, Joseph Setta, Joseph Cox, Charles Redding, Samuel Henshaw, A. Girdon, Samuel Clapson, Wm. Thompson, John Brant, Thomas Webb, Matthew Soderborn, F. Race, George Smith, William Brown, Minor Smith, William Bender, Robert McCord, William Price, Henry Muller, David Porter, Benjamin Young, Charles Anderson, Isaac Gaines, Thomas Cook, William Jones, John Galloway, Peter Lewis, Thomas Marcum, John Malville, Daniel M. Hogan, James Bogg, William Tiel, John Jason, James Carney, John Lemont, William Lindsey, Nicholas Miller, John Porter, Peter Murphy, James Patterson, John Skinner, Thomas Allen, Christopher Styon, J. C. Breck, Jno. Swaine, John Jarvis, William A. Jennings, Theodore Young, James Hoyt, Joseph Rosey, John Till, Joseph Haswell, and John Williams, who call themselves American citizens, have been impressed and are now detained in the British service. The friends of these men are hereby notified, that upon their transmitting to this department, proof of the citizenship, together with a description of the persons of the above named seamen, measures will be taken to procure their discharge. DEPARTMENT OF STATE, April 13, 1808. The Editor of the National Intelligencer, and the Editors of such other papers as publish the laws of the Union, in the Atlantic States, are requested to insert the above notice three times in their respective Gazettes. April 26. 3t
For Freight or Charter, The fast sailing Schooner FOUR BROTHERS, Alpheus Burgess, Master; burthen sixty five tons. For further particulars enquire of the captain on board at Rockets at Lester's Wharf. May 2d, 1808. 1p
Two Elegant Rooms TO RENT. Enquire of the Printer. May 2, 1808. tf
For Rent, A HOUSE and LOT, adjoining the tenement occupied by the Hon. Creed Taylor, and late in the occupancy of Phineas Blake and Jasen French. Apply to E. W. TRENT. May 2d, 1808. tf
THE Subscriber respectfully informs his friends and the public, that he has lately received an Extensive Assortment of LEATHER, of the very best quality, which he will have manufactured in the BEST MANNER, to supply his customers, &c. and which he will dispose of on the most reasonable terms that such work can be sold. David Logan. April 27th, 1808. Strayed from Fairfield last Saturday, Two Horses, one a large Black, upwards of 15 hands high, has a blaze face and one or two white feet; the other a likely Bay, with a bob tail, about 15 hands high and has lately had a sore back, the mark of which still remains. I will reward any person who will deliver them to me now in Richmond and during the races, or in Powhatan county, if taken up 8 days hence. I expect they will make up the river on the north side. Wade Mosby. Richmond, 2d May, 1808. 2w
LETTER
To the Hon. HARRISON G. OTIS, Esq. By JOHN Q. ADAMS.
Washington, March 31, 1808.
DEAR SIR, I have received from one of my friends in Boston a copy of a printed pamphlet containing a letter from Mr. Pickering to the Governor of the commonwealth, intended for a communication to the legislature of the state, during their session recently concluded. But this object not having been accomplished, it appears to have been published by some friend of the writer, whose inducement is stated, no doubt truly, to have been the importance of the matter discussed in it, and the high respectability of the author. The subjects of this letter are the embargo, and the difference in controversy between our country and Great Britain—Subjects upon which it is my misfortune, in the discharge of my duties as a Senator of the United States to differ from the opinions of my colleague. The place where he questions upon the first of them, in common with others of great national concern, was between him and me, in our official capacities, a proper object of discussion, was the Senate of the Union—There, it was discussed, and as far as the constitutional authority of that body extended, there it was decided—Having obtained alike the concurrence of the other branch of the national legislature, and the approbation of the president, it became the law of the land, and as such I have considered it entitled to the respect and obedience of every virtuous citizen. From these decisions however, the letter in question is to be considered in the nature of an Appeal; in the first instance, to our common constituents, the legislature of the state—and in the second, by the publication, to the People. To both these tribunals I shall always hold myself accountable for every act of my public life. Yet, were my own political character alone implicated in the course which has in this instance been pursued, I should have forborne all notice of the proceeding, and have left my conduct in this, as in other cases, to the candor and discretion of my country.
But to this species of appeal thus conducted, there are some objections on constitutional grounds, which I deem it my duty to mention for the consideration of the public. On a statement of circumstances attending a very important act of national legislation, a statement which the writer undoubtedly believed to be true, but which comes from only one side of the question, and which, I expect to prove in the most essential points erroneous. The writer with the most animated tone of energy calls for the interposition of the commercial states, and asserts that "Nothing but their sense, clearly and emphatically expressed, will save them from ruin!" This solemn and alarming invocation is addressed to the Legislature of Massachusetts, at so late a period of their session, that had it been received by them, they must have been compelled either to act upon the views of this representation, without hearing the counter statement of the other side, or seemingly to disregard the pressing interest of their constituents, by neglecting an admonition of the most serious complexion. Considering the application as a precedent, its tendency is dangerous to the public. For on the first supposition, that the Legislature had been precipitated to act on the spur of such an investigation, they must have acted on imperfect information, and under an excitement, not remarkably adapted to the composure of safe deliberation. On the second they would have been exposed to unjust imputations, which at the eve of an election might have operated in the most inequitable manner upon the characters of individual members.
The interposition of one or more state legislatures, to control the exercise of the powers vested by the general constitution in the congress of the United States, is at least of questionable policy. The views of a state legislature are naturally and properly limited in a considerable degree to the particular interests of the state. The very object and formation of the national deliberative assemblies was for the compromise and conciliation of the interests of all—of the whole nation. If the appeal from the regular, legitimate measures of the body where the whole nation is represented, be proper to one state legislature, it must be so to another. If the commercial states are called to interpose on one hand, will not the agricultural states be with equal propriety summoned to interpose on the other? If the East is stimulated against the West, and the Northern and Southern sections are urged into collision with each other, by appeals from this act of congress to the respective States—in what are these appeals to end? It is undoubtedly the right, and may often become the duty of a state legislature, to address that of the nation, with the expression of its wishes, in regard to interests peculiarly concerning the state itself. Nor shall I question the right of every member of the great federative compact to declare its own sense of measures interesting to the nation at large. But whenever the case occurs that this sense should be "clearly and emphatically" expressed, it ought surely to be predicated upon a full and impartial consideration of the whole subject.—not under the stimulus of a one-sided representation—far less upon the impulse of conjectures and suspicions. It is not through the medium of personal sensibility, nor of party bias, nor of professional occupations, nor of geographical position, that the whole truth can be discerned, of questions involving the rights and interests of this extensive union.
LETTER
To the Hon. HARRISON G. OTIS, Esq. By JOHN Q. ADAMS.
Washington, March 31, 1808.
DEAR SIR, When their discussion is urged upon a state legislature, the first call upon its members should be to cast all their feelings and interests as the citizens of a single state into the common stock of the national concern. Should the occurrence upon which an appeal is made from the councils of the nation, to those of a single state, be one upon which the representation of the state had been divided, and the member who found himself in the minority felt impelled by a sense of duty to invoke the interposition of his constituents, it would seem that both in justice to them, and in candor to his colleague, some notice of such an intention should be given to him, that he too might be prepared to exhibit his views of the subject upon which his difference of opinion had taken place; or at least that the resort should be had, at such a period of time as would leave it within the reach of possibility for his representations to be received by the common constituents, before they would be compelled to decide on the merits of the case.
The fairness and propriety of this course of proceeding must be so obvious that it is difficult to conceive of the propriety of any other. Yet it presents another inconvenience which must necessarily result from this practice of appellate legislation. When one of the senators from a state proclaims to his constituents that a particular measure, or system of measures, which has received the vote and support of his colleague, are pernicious and destructive to those interests which both are bound with the most sacred of ties, with zeal and fidelity to promote. The denunciation of the measures amounts to little else than a denunciation of the man. The advocate of a policy thus reprobated must feel himself challenged by every motive of self defence to vindicate his conduct—and if his general sense of his official duties would bind him to the industrious devotion of his whole time to the public business of the session, the hours which he might be forced to employ for his own justification, would of course be deducted from the discharge of his more regular and appropriate functions. Should these occasions frequently recur, they could not fail to interfere with the due performance of the public business. Nor can I forbear to remark the tendency of such agonizing appeals to distract the councils of the state in its own legislature, to destroy its influence, and expose it to derision, in the presence of its sister states and to produce between the colleagues themselves mutual asperities and rancors, until the great concerns of the nation would degenerate into the puny controversies of personal altercation.
It is therefore with extreme reluctance, that I enter upon this discussion. In developing my own views and the principles which have governed my conduct in relation to our foreign affairs, and particularly in relation to the embargo, some very material differences in point of fact as well as of opinion, will be found in my statements, and those of the letter, which alone can apologize for this. They will not, I trust, be deemed in any degree disrespectful to the writer. Far more pleasing would it have been to me, could that honest and anxious pursuit of the policy best calculated to promote the honor and welfare of our country, which I trust is felt with equal ardor by us both, have resulted in the same opinions, and have given them the vigor of united exertion. There is a candor and liberality of conduct and of sentiment due from associates in the same public charge, towards each other, necessary to their individual reputation, to their common influence, and to their public usefulness. In our republican government, where the power of the nation consists alone in the sympathies of opinion, this reciprocal deference, this open hearted imputation of honest intentions, is the only adamant at once attractive and impenetrable, that can bear, unshattered, all the thunder of foreign hostility. Ever since I have had the honor of a seat in the nation I councils, I have extended it to every department of the government. However differing in my conclusions, upon questions of the highest moment, from any other man, of whatever party, I have never, upon suspicion, imputed his conduct to corruption. If this confidence argues ignorance of public affairs, to that ignorance I must plead guilty. I know, indeed enough of human nature to be sensible that vigilant observation is at all times, and that suspicion may occasionally become necessary, upon the conduct of men in power. But I know as well that confidence is the only cement of an elective government; election is the very test of confidence; and its periodical return is the constitutional check upon its abuse; of which the electors must of course be the sole judges. For the exercise of power, where man is free, confidence is indispensable; and when it once totally fails; when the men to whom the people have committed the application of their force, for their benefit, are to be presumed the vilest of mankind, the very foundation of the social compact must be dissolved. Towards the gentleman whose official station results from the confidence of the same legislature, by whose appointment I have the honor of holding a similar trust, I have thought this confidence peculiarly due from me, nor should I now notice his letter, notwithstanding the disappointment it so obviously implies at the cause which I have pursued in relation to the subjects of which it treats, did it not appear to me calculated to produce upon the public mind, impressions unfavorable to the rights and interests of the nation.
Having understood that a motion in the Senate of Massachusetts was made by you, requesting the Governor to transmit Mr.

Pickering's letter to the Legislature, together with such communications, relating to public affairs, as he might have received from me, I avail myself of that circumstance, and of the friendship which has so long subsisted between us, to take the liberty of addressing this letter, intended for publication, to you. Very few of the facts which I shall state will rest upon information peculiar to myself—Most of them will stand upon the basis of official documents, or of public or undisputed notoriety. For my opinions, though fully persuaded, that even where differing from your own, they will meet with a fair and liberal judge in you, yet of the public I ask neither favor nor indulgence. Pretending to no extraordinary credit from the authority of a writer, I am sensible they must fall by their own weakness, or stand by their own strength.
The first remark which intrudes itself upon the mind, on the perusal of Mr. Pickering's letter is, that in enumerating all the pretences (for he thinks there are no causes) for the embargo, and for a war with Great Britain, he has totally omitted the British order of council of November 11, 1807, those orders, under which millions of the property of our fellow-citizens, are now detained in British hands or confiscated to ten-fold as many millions of the same property would have been at this moment in the same predicament, had they not been saved from the exposure to it by the embargo, those orders, which if once submitted to, and carried to the extent of their principles, would not have left an inch of American canvas upon the ocean, but under British licence and British taxation. An attentive reader of the letter, without other information, would not even suspect their existence. They are indeed in one or two passages, faintly, and darkly alluded to under the justifying description of "the orders of the British government, retaliating the French imperial decree;" but as causes or even pretences of war with Great Britain, they are not only unnoticed, but their very existence is by direct implication denied.
It is indeed true, that these orders were not officially communicated with the President's message recommending the embargo. They had not been officially received—but they were announced in several paragraphs from London and Liverpool newspapers of the 19th, 11th and 12th of November, which appeared in the National Intelligencer of the 18th of December, the day upon which the embargo message was sent to Congress. The British government had taken care that they should not be authentically known before their time—for the very same newspapers which gave this unofficial notice of these orders, announced also the departure of Mr. Rose, upon a special mission to the United States. And we now know that of these all-devouring instruments of rapine, Mr. Rose was not even informed. His mission was professedly a mission of conciliation and reparation for a flagrant—enormous—acknowledged outrage. But he was not sent with these orders of council in his hands. His text, was the disavowal of Admiral Berkeley's conduct. The commentary was to be discovered on another page of the British ministerial policy—On the face of Mr. Rose's instructions, these orders of council were as visible, as they are on that of Mr. Pickering's letter.
They were not merely without official authenticity. Rumors had for several weeks been in circulation, derived from English prints, and from private correspondences, that such orders were to issue; and no inconsiderable pains were taken here to discredit the fact. Assurances were given that there was a reason to believe no such orders to be contemplated. Suspicion was lulled by declarations equivalent nearly to a positive denial: and these opinions were continued for weeks after the embargo was laid, until Mr. Erskine received instructions to make the official communication of the orders themselves, in their proper shape to our government.
Yet, altho' thus authenticated, and even altho' thus in some sort denied, the probability of the circumstances under which they were announced and the sweeping tendency of their effects, formed to my understanding a powerful motive, and together with the papers sent by the President, and his express recommendation, a decisive one, for assenting to the embargo. As a precautionary measure, I believe it would rescue an immense property from depredation, if the orders should prove authentic. If the alarm was groundless, it must very soon be disapproved, and the embargo might be removed with the danger.
The omission of all notice of these facts in the pressing enquiries "why the embargo was laid?" is the most surprising, because they are of all facts, the most material, upon a fair and impartial examination of the expediency of that act, when it passed—And because these orders, together with the subsequent, "retaliating decrees" of France and Spain, have furnished the only reason upon which I have acquiesced in its continuance to this day. If duly weighed, they will save us the trouble of resorting to jealousies of secret corruption, and imaginary terrors of Napoleon for the real cause of the embargo. These are fictions of foreign invention—The French Emperor had not declared that he would have no neutrals; he had not required that our ports should be shut against British commerce; but the orders of council, if submitted to, would have degraded us to the condition of colonies. If resisted, would have fattened the wolves of plunder with our spoils. The Embargo was the only shelter from the tempest. The last refuge of our violated peace.
I have indeed been myself of opinion that the embargo must in its nature be a temporary expedient, and that preparations manifesting a determination of resistance against these outrageous violations of our neutral rights caught at least to have been made a subject of serious deliberation in congress. I have believed, and do still believe, that our internal resources are competent to the establishment and maintenance of a naval force public and private, if not fully adequate to the protection and defence of our commerce, at least sufficient to induce a retreat from those hostilities and better from a renewal of them, by either of the warring parties; and that a system to that effect might be formed, uti-
mately far more economical, and certainly more energetic than a three years embargo. Very soon after the closure of our ports, I did submit to the consideration of the Senate, a proposition for the appointment of the committee to institute an enquiry to this end. But my resolution met no encouragement. Attempts of a similar nature have been made in the house of representatives, but have been equally discountenanced, and from these determinations decided in favor of both houses. I am not sufficiently confident in the superiority of my own wisdom to appeal, by a topical application to the congenial feeling of any one; not even of my own native section of the Union.
The embargo, however, is a restriction always under our own control. It was a measure altogether of defence, and of experiment. If it was injudiciously or overhastily laid, it has been every day since its adoption open to a repeal; if it should prove ineffectual for the purposes it was meant to secure, a single day will suffice to unbar the doors. Still believing it a measure justified by the circumstances of the time, I am ready to admit that those who thought otherwise may have had a wiser foresight of events, and a sounder judgment of the then existing state of things than the majority of the national legislature, and the president. It has been approved by several of the state legislatures, and among the rest by our own. Yet of all its effects we are still unable to judge with certainty. It must still abide the test of futurity. I shall add that there were other motives which had their operation in contributing to the passage of the act, unnoticed by Mr. Pickering, and which having now ceased will also be left unnoticed by me. The order of council of the 11th Nov still subsist in all their force; and are now confirmed, with the addition of taxation , by act of parliament.
As they stand in front of the real causes for the embargo, so they are entitled to the same pre-eminence in enumerating the causes of hostility, which the British ministers are accumulating upon our forbearance. They strike at the root of our independence. They assume the principle that we shall have no commerce in time of war, but with her dominions, and as tributaries to her. The exclusive confinement of commerce to the mother country, is the great principle of the modern colonial system; and should we by a dereliction of our rights at this momentous stride of encroachment, surrender our commercial freedom without a struggle, Britain has but a single step more to take, and she brings us back to the stamp act and the tea tax.
Yet these orders—hus fatal to the liberties for which the heroes of our revolution toiled and bled—thus studiously concealed until the moment when they burst upon our heads—thus issued at the very instant when a mission of atonement was professedly sent in these orders we are to see nothing but a "retaliating order upon France"—in these orders, we must not find so much as a cause—nay, not so much as a pretence, for complaint against G. Britain.
To my mind, sir, in comparison with those orders, the three causes to which Mr. Pickering explicitly limits our grounds for a rupture with England, might indeed be justly denominated pretences —in comparison with them, former aggressions sunk into insignificance. To argue upon the subject of our disputes with Britain, or upon the embargo, and keep them out of sight, is like laying your finger over the unit before a series of noughts, and then arithmetically proving that they are all nothing.
It is now however in a mere omission, nor yet in the history of the embargo, that the inaccuracies of the statement I am examining have given me the most serious concern—it is in the view taken of the questions in controversy between us and Britain. The wisdom of the embargo is a question of great, but transient magnitude, and omission sacrifices no national right. Mr. Pickering's object was to dissuade the nation from a war with England, into which he supposed the administration was plunging us, under French compulsion. But the tendency of his pamphlet is to reconcile the nation, or at least the commercial states, to the servitude of British protection, and war with all the rest of Europe. Hence England is represented as contending for the common liberties of mankind and our only safeguard against the ambition and injustice of France. Hence all our sensibilities are invoked in her favor, and all our antipathies against her antagonist. Hence too all the subjects of difference between us and Britain are alleged to be on our part mere pretences , of which the right is unequivocally pronounced to be on her side. Proceeding from a senator of the U.S. specially charged as a member of the executive with the maintenance of the nation's rights against foreign powers, and at a moment extremely critical of pending negotiation upon all the points thus delineated, this formal abandonment of the American cause, this summons of unconditional surrender to the pretensions of our antagonist, is in my mind highly alarming. It becomes therefore a duty to which every other consideration must yield, to point out the errors of this representation. Before we strike the standard of the nation, let us at least examine the purport of the summons.
And first, with respect to the impressment of our seamen. We are told that "the taking of British seamen found on board our merchant vessels, by British ships of war, is agreeably to a right claimed and exercised for ages." It is obvious that this claim and exercise of ages, could not apply to us, as an independent people. If the right was claimed & exercised while our vessels were navigating under the British flag, it could not authorise the same claim when their owners have become the citizens of a sovereign state. As a relic of colonial servitude, whatever may be the claim of Great Britain, it surely can be no ground for contending that it is entitled to our submission.
If it be meant that the right has been claimed and exercised for ages over the merchant vessels of other nations. I apprehend it is a mistake. The case never occurred with sufficient frequency to constitute even a practice much less a right. If it had been either, it would have been noticed by some of the writers on the laws of nations. The truth is, the question arose out of American independence—from the severance of
one nation into two. It was never made a question between any other nation. There is therefore no right of prescription.
But, it seems, it has also been claimed & exercised , during the whole of the three administrations of our national government. —And it is meant to be asserted that this claim and exercise constitute a right? If it is, I appeal to the uniform, unceasing and urgent remonstrances of the three administrations—I appeal not only to the warm feelings, but cool justice of the American people—nay, I appeal to the sound sense and honorable sentiment of the British nation itself, which, however it may have submitted at home to this practice, never would tolerate its sanction by law, against the assertion. If it is not, how can it be affirmed that it is on our part a mere pretence?
But the first merchant of the U.S. in answer to Mr. Pickering's late enquiries, has informed him that since the affair of the Chesapeake there has been no cause of complaint—that he could not find a single instance where they had taken one man out of a merchant vessel. Who is it that enjoys the dignity of first merchant of the U.S. we are not informed. But it had applied to many merchants in Boston as respectable as any in the U.S. they could have told him of a valuable vessel and cargo, totally lost upon the coast of England, late in August last, and solely in consequence of having had two of her men, native Americans, taken from her by impressment, two months after the affair of the Chesapeake.
On the 15th of October, the king of England issued his proclamation, commanding his naval officers, to impress his subjects from neutral vessels. This proclamation is represented as merely "requiring the return of his subjects, the seamen especially, from foreign countries," and then "it is an acknowledged principle that every nation has a right to the service of its subjects in time of war." Is this, sir, a correct statement either of the proclamation, or of the question involved, in which our rights are concerned? The king of England's right to the service of his subjects in time of war is nothing to us. The question is, whether he has a right to seize them forcibly on board of our vessels while under contract of service to our citizens, within our jurisdiction upon the high seas? And whether he has a right expressly to command his naval officers to seize them?—This is an acknowledged principle? Certainly not. Why then is this proclamation described as founded upon an unacknowledged principle? And why is the command, so justly offensive to us, and so mischievous as it might then have been made in execution, altogether omitted?
But it is not the taking of British subjects from our vessels, it is the taking under color of that pretence, our own, native American citizens, which constitutes the most galling aggravation of this merciless practice. Yet even this, we are told is but a pretence—for three reasons.
1. Because the number of citizens thus taken, is small .
2. Because it arises only from the impossibility of distinguishing Englishmen from Americans.
3. Because such impressed American citizens are delivered up, on duly authenticated proof.
1. Small and great in point of numbers, are relative terms. To suppose that the native Americans form a small proportion of the whole number impressed is a mistake—the reverse is the fact. Examine the official returns from the department of state. They give the names of between four and five thousand men impressed since the commencement of the present war. Of which number, not one fifth part were British subjects. The number of naturalized Americans could not amount to one tenth. I hazard little in saying, that more than three fourths were native Americans. If it be said that some of these men, though appearing on the face of the returns, American citizens, were really British subjects, and had fraudulently procured their protections, I reply that this number must be far exceeded by the cases of citizens impressed which never reach the department of state. The American consul in London estimates the number of impressments during the war, at nearly three times the amount of the names returned. If the nature of the offence be considered in its true colors, to a people having a just sense of personal liberty and security, it is in every single instance, of a malignity not inferior to that of murder. The very same act, when committed by the recruiting officer of one nation within the territories of another, is by the universal law and usage of nations punished with death. Suppose the crime had, in every instance, as by its consequences it has been in many, deliberate murder—would it answer or silence the voice of our complaints to be told that the number was small?
2. The impossibility of distinguishing English from American seamen is not the only, nor even the most frequent occasion of impressment. Look again into the returns from the department of state—you will see that the officers take our men without pretending to enquire where they were born; sometimes merely to shew their animosity or their contempt for our country; sometimes from the wantonness of power. When they manifest the most tender regard for the neutral rights of America, they lament that they want the men. They regret the necessity, but they must have their compliments. When we complain of these enormities, we are answered that the acts of such officers were unauthorised; that the commanders of men of war, are an unruly set of men, for whose violence their own government cannot always be answerable; that enquiry shall be made—a court martial is sometimes mentioned—and the issue of Whitby's court martial has taught us what relief is to be expected from that. —There are even examples I am told, when such officers have been put upon the yellow list. But this is a rare exception—the ordinary issue, when the act is disavowed, is the promotion of the actor.
3. The impressed native American citizens however upon duly authenticated proof, are delivered up. Indeed! how unreasonable then were complaint! How effectual a remedy for the wrong! An American vessel, bound to an European port, has two, three or four native Americans impressed by a British man of war, bound to the East or West Indies,—When the American cap-
tain arrives at his port of destination, he makes his protest, and sends it to the nearest American minister or consul. When he returns home, he transmits the duplicate of his protest to the secretary of state. In process of time, the names of the impressed men, and of the ship into which they have been impressed, are received by the agent in London; he makes his demand that the men may be delivered up; the lords of the admiralty, after a reasonable time for enquiry and advertisement, return for answer, that the ship is on a foreign station, and their lordships can, therefore, take no further steps in the matter; or, that the ship has been taken, and that the men have been received in exchange for French prisoners; or, that the men had no protections (the impressing officers often having taken them from the men); or, that the men were probably British subjects; or, that they have entered, and taken the bounty; (to which the officers know how to reduce them); or, that they have been married, or settled in England. In all these cases, without further ceremony, their discharge is refused. Sometimes, their lordships, in a vein of humor, inform the agent, that the man has been discharged as unserviceable . Sometimes, in a stern tone, they say he was an infostor . Or perhaps, by way of consolation to his relatives and friends, they report that he has fallen in battle, against nations in amity with his country. Sometimes they coolly return, that there is no such man on board the ship; and what has become of him, the agonies of a wife and children in his native land may be left to conjecture. When all these and many other such apologies for refusal fail, the native American is discharged; and when, by the charitable aid of his government, he has found his way home, he comes to be informed, that all is as it should be; that the number of his fellow sufferers is small ; that it was impossible to distinguish him from an Englishman; and that he was delivered up, on duly authenticated proof.
Enough of this disgusting subject; I cannot stop to calculate how many of these wretched victims are natives of Massachusetts, and how many natives of Virginia; I cannot stop to solve that knotty question of national jurisprudence, whether some of them might not possibly be slaves, and therefore not citizens of the U. States; I cannot stay to account for the wonder, why, poor, and ignorant, and friendless, as most of them are, the voice of their complaints is so seldom heard in the navigating states. I admit that we have endured this cruel indignity, through all the administrations of the general government. I acknowledge that Britain claims the right of seizing her subjects in our merchant vessels, and that even if we could acknowledge it the line of discrimination would be difficult to draw. We are not in a condition to maintain right, by war, and as the British government have been more than once on the point of giving it up of their own accord, I would still hope for the day when returning justice shall induce them to abandon it, without compulsion. Her subjects we do not want. The degree of protection which we are bound to extend to them, cannot equal the claim of our own citizens. I would subscribe to any compromise of this contest, consistent with the rights of sovereignty, the duties of humanity, and the principles of reciprocity; but to the right of forcing even her own subjects out of our merchant vessels on the high seas, I never can assent.
The second point upon which Mr. Pickering defends the pretensions of G. Britain is her denial to neutral nations of the right of prosecuting with her enemies and their colonies, any commerce from which they are excluded in time of peace. His statement of this case adopts the British doctrine, as sound. The right, as on the question of impressment, so on this, it surrenders at discretion; and it is equally defective in point of fact.
In the first place, the claim of G. Britain, is not to "a right of imposing on this neutral commerce some limits and restraints ," but of eradicating it altogether, at her pleasure, of interdiction it without a moment's notice to neutrals, after solemn decisions of her courts of admiralty, and formal acknowledgments of her ministers, that it is a lawful trade; and, on such a sudden, unnotified interdiction, of pronouncing upon all neutral commerce navigating upon the faith of her decisions and acknowledgments, and of gorging with confiscation the greediness of her cruisers; this is the right claimed by Britain; this is the power she has exercised; what Mr. Pickering calls "limits and restraints," she calls relaxations of her right.
It is but little more than two years, since this question was agitated both in England and America, with as much zeal, energy and ability, as ever was displayed upon any question of national law. The British side was supported by sir William Scott, Mr. Ward, and the author of War in Disguise. But even in Britain their doctrine was refuted to demonstration by the Edinburgh reviewers. In America, the rights of our country were maintained by numerous writers profoundly skilled in the science of national and maritime law. The answer to War in Disguise was ascribed to a gentleman whose talents are universally acknowledged, and who by his official situations had been required thoroughly to investigate every question of conflict between neutral and belligerent rights which has occurred in the history of modern war. Mr. Gore and Mr. Pinkney, our two commissioners at London, under Mr. Jay's treaty, the former, in a train of cool and conclusive argument addressed to Mr. Madison, the latter in a memorial of splendid eloquence from the merchants at Baltimore, supported the same cause; memorials, drawn by lawyers of distinguished eminence, by merchants of the highest character, and by statesmen of long experience in our national councils, came from Salem, from Boston, from New Haven, from New York, and from Philadelphia, together with remonstrances to the same effect from Newburyport, Newport, Norfolk and Charleston. This accumulated mass of legal learning, of commercial information, and of national sentiment from almost every inhabited spot upon our shores, and from one extremity of the union to the other, confirmed by the unanswerable and unanswerable memorial of Mr. Monroe to the British minister, and by the elaborate research and irresistible reasoning of the examina-
tion of the British doctrine, was also made a subject of full, and deliberate discussion in the senate of the U. S. A committee of seven members of that body, after three weeks of arduous investigation, reported three resolutions, the first of which was in these words, "resolved, that the capture and condemnation, under the orders of the British government, and adjudications of their courts of admiralty of American vessels and their cargoes, on the pretext of their being employed in a trade with the enemies of G. Britain, prohibited in time of peace, is an unprovoked aggression upon the property of the citizens of these U. S. a violation of their neutral rights, and an encroachment upon their national independence."
On the 13th of February, 1806, the question upon the adoption of this resolution, was taken in the senate. The yeas and nays were required; but not a solitary nay was heard in answer. It was adopted by the unanimous voice of all the senators present. They were twenty eight in number, and among them stands recorded the name of Mr. Pickering.
Let us remember that this was a question most peculiarly and immediately of commerce , and not agricultural interest; that it arose, from a call, loud, energetic and unanimous, from all the merchants of the U. S. upon congress, for the national interposition; that many of the memorials invoked all the energy of the legislature, and pledged the lives and properties of the memorialists in support of any measures which congress might deem necessary to vindicate those rights. Negotiation was particularly recommended from Boston, and elsewhere; negotiation was adopted; negotiation has failed; and now Mr. Pickering tells us that G. Britain has claimed and maintained her right! He argues that her claim is just; and is not sparing of censure upon those who still consider it as a serious cause of complaint.
But there was one point of view in which the British doctrine on this question was then only considered incidentally in the U. States; because it was not deemed material for the discussion of our rights. We examined it chiefly as affecting the principles as between a belligerent and a neutral power. But in fact it was an infringement of the rights of war, as well as the rights of peace. It was an unjustifiable enlargement of the sphere of hostile operations. The enemies of Great Britain had by the universal law of nations a right to the benefits of neutral commerce within their dominions (subject to the exceptions of actual blockade and contraband) as well as neutral nations had a right to trade with them. The exclusion from that commerce by this new principle of warfare which Britain, in defiance of all immemorial national usages, undertook by her single authority to establish, but too naturally led her enemies to resort to new and extraordinary principles, by which in their turn they might retaliate this injury upon her. The pretence upon which Britain in the first instance had attempted to color her injustice, was a miserable fiction; it was an argument against fact. Her reasoning was, that a neutral vessel by mere admission in time of war, into ports from which it would have been excluded in time of peace, became thereby deprived of its national character, and ipso facto was transformed into enemy's property.
[To be continued.]
Advertisement.
Pursuant to a deed of trust executed to the subscribers by Creed Huskins of Cumberland county, to secure a debt therein mentioned, due Thomas Mosby of said county, will be offered for sale in money, to the highest bidder, at the premises, on Saturday the 21st inst. a TRACT OF LAND, lying on the waters of Gena Guinea creek in Cumberland county, and containing one hundred and twenty three acres, with suitable accommodations for a family.
NEWTON FORD THOMAS DOWDY } Trustees. Cumberland, May 24, 1808 (3.)
By the Lieutenant Governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia.
A Proclamation.
WHEREAS it is represented to the Executive that the shop of D. Thomas C. Elliott of Charlotte county, containing medicine, furniture and other property of considerable value, was consumed by fire on the night of the 17th inst. and there is just cause to believe that the said shop was feloniously set on fire by some malignant incendiary or incendiaries at this time unknown; and whereas it is also represented that some time in the month of March or April last the dwelling house of Robert Barclay of the county of King William was destroyed by fire alleged to proceed in like manner from the felonious act of some atrocious incendiary or incendiaries (at this time also unknown) with a view to the destruction of the family of the said Robert Barclay. I have therefore thought fit, with the advice of the council of state, to issue this proclamation hereby offering a reward of one hundred dollars for the discovery and apprehension, and on a prosecution to conviction, of the incendiary or incendiaries in either of the aforesaid cases. And I do moreover enjoin all officers civil and military and exhort the good people of the commonwealth to use their best endeavors to discover, apprehend and cause to be brought to justice the incendiaries aforesaid.
Given under my hand, as Lieutenant Governor, with the seal of the commonwealth annexed, at Richmond, this 30th day of April, 1808.
(Signed) ALEXANDER MCRAE.
MEMOIRS
OF WILLIAM SAMPSON, Including particulars of his adventures in various parts of Europe; his confinement in the dungeon of the Inquisition in Lisbon, &c. &c. SEVERAL ORIGINAL LETTERS, Being his correspondence with the ministers of state in Great Britain and Portugal. A short sketch of the HISTORY OF IRELAND, Particularly as it respects the spirit of British Domination in that country; and a few observations on the state of manners &c in America. For sale at S. P.'s Book store.
Wirt's Speeches.
The Editor of the Argus has this day published the SPEECHES of WILLIAM WIRT, Esq. on the trial of AARON BURR, and others.

The noted & much admired ENGLISH HORSE  Jack Andrews; IMPORTED by W. Lightfoot, Esq. of Charles City county, and now his property, full 15 and a 1-2 hands high, a blood bay, finely formed, in high health, vigor and spirit, the most active and best bottomed horse ever imported into this country, now rising 14 years old.
Will stand the ensuing season at Temple Hill, on Mechanic's river, in Albemarle county, ten miles above Charlottesville, within 1 mile of German's mill and 2 miles of the brick tavern, and will be let to mares at five guineas the season, which may be discharged by the payment of 20 dollars if paid by the 10th day of August. Gentlemen's notes will be required with their mares for 5 guineas discharged as above; 3 guineas the leap, and 40 dollars to insure a mare to be with foal, and one dollar with each mare to the groom; the leap and groom money to be paid when the mare is covered. Provided the mare is changed the owner shall be liable. The season will commence the first day of March and end the first day of August. Extensive low and high ground pasture, well enclosed, in three separate fields, gratis. Servants will be boarded at $2 per week, and grain will be furnished at the market price and given in manner and quantity agreeably to direction, and all possible care taken to prevent accidents and escapes but will not be liable for any that may happen.
JAMES KINSOLVING, For William Lightfoot.
This celebrated horse's performances in England, has not been inferior to any horse there, except his brother Dick Andrews, who is considered now the best horse in that country, giving 7 pounds. Jack Andrews won twice in 1797, then Mr. Lord's property—See Racing Calendar for that year.
At Worcester, July 5th a maiden plate of £50 for 3 years old, 6 stone, 4 mile heats, was won by Jack Andrews, at 3 heats, beating Mr. Darlington's ch f Miss Edwin, 4 years old; Mr. Atkins's son's ch m Priscilla, aged; Sir W. W. Wynns's b h Sweet Botherem, 5 years old; Mr. Hardins b c Angelina, 4 years old.
At Nantwich, Thursday, July 8th—£50, for 3 and 4 years old, he won, beating Mr. Bayley's ch c Cannon, 4 years old; Stamford's b f Scotland, 3 years old.
At Derby, August 15th—He won £50, free for a nyehorse, beating Lilly of the Valley, Falconer and True Blue. In 1799, he won twice, to wit: At Ludlow, on Friday, the 4th of July, 4 mile heats, free for all ages, beating Lord Oxford's ch c Dart at 3 heats.
At Worcester, August 8th—He won the city and county subscription of £50, 4 mile heats, at 3 heats, beating Mr. Artley's filly Duchess, 4 years old; Mr. Coventry's b h Integrity, late Partner; Mr. Snell's ch g Hocks, 5 years old—after the first heat 4 to 1 on her; after the second heat 4 to 1 on Jack Andrews.
In 1800 he won 6 times, to wit: At Leves, then the property of Major Rooke, August 12th, he beat Lord Sackville's b h Laborie, 4 mile heats for 50 guineas—At Oxford, the town plate of £50, in August, was won by Jack Andrews, at 4 heats, beating Sir F. Poole's ch m Duchess of Limbs, 5 years old. Lord Doneghall's b h Wrangle distanced the 4th heat—September, at Warwick, he won the town plate of £50, 4 mile heats, beating Mr. Tharm's b h Marquis, Mr. Brooke's b h Sheshire, Mr. Edwards' b m Duchess.
At Abingdon, Tuesday, September 16th, the members' purse of £50, for all ages, 4 mile heats was won by Jack Andrews, at 3 heats, beating Sir F. Poole's b m Mucresant, 5 years old, Mr. Whelley's ch h Expectation, Mr. Fragley's b h Cupid—six to four on Mucresant.
In 1801, Jack Andrews at New Market, April 20th, received forfeit from Mr. Hethercoote's Symmetry, 8 stone, 5 lb. 200 guineas, half forfeit.
At Newmarket, June 16th—The Bebury stakes, a handicap of 100 guineas each, half forfeit, 4 mile heats, was won by Jack Andrews, aged, beating Lord Sackville's b h Expectation, 5 years old, Sir H. T. Vane's Cock fighter, 5 years old, Mr. Hethercoote's Hippena, aged, his royal highness the Prince of Wales's b h Dick Andrews, Mr. Hethercoote's Popinjay and Cox's Edwin.
June 17th, a sweepstakes of 5 guineas each, 20 subscribers was won by Jack Andrews, beating Mr. Grover's Lady Catherine, Mr. Howorth's Snuff Box.
Bedford, September 10th—The Woburn Stake of 10 guineas each, 4 miles, 5 subscribers, was won by his royal highness the Prince of Wales's b h Jack Andrews, aged, beating Mr. Watson's b h Tiumvir, Mr. Gilding's b c Skyrocket.
Endfield, September 23, £50, for all ages, 4 mile heats, was won by Jack Andrews, aged, at 3 heats, beating Mr. Frogley's gr g Ploughboy, Velvet horse Little Thought Of, Hephastion and Contester—See Racing Calendars for these years. It would swell an advertisement to too great length to mention all the races he has won.
Sweepstakes of 20 guineas each, 2 miles, 5 subscribers, Mr. Rooke's Jack Andrews, aged, 11 st. 7 lb. walked over—See Racing Calendar for 1802, page 385.
At Lambourne, in Sept. Wednesday 10th, he won the £50 gift of Lord Craven, 4 mile heats, at 4 heats, beating Mr. Coventry's ch h Sacrificant, Mr. Bacon's b m Snap.
WILLIAM LIGHTFOOT.  PEDIGREE Jack Andrews was got by Joe Andrews, his dam by Highflyer, his grandam Cardinal Puff, his great grandam by Tatler, his great grandam by Snip, his great great grandam by Lord Godolphin's Arabian, his great great great grandam by Stanyan's Arabian, which mare was own sister to Frampton's White Neck, full sister to the Minbury Galloway, great great great grandam by Sauce Box, a son of Gegg, sire of Croft's Old Partner.
The Famous High Blooded English Horse  HAMBLETON, BRED by the Duke of Grafton, a beautiful bright bay, near 10 hands high, of high form and elegance, rising 16 years old, in good health and great perfection, imported by Wm. Lightfoot, Esq. of Charles City county, will stand the ensuing season, at my plantation in Hanover county, 20 miles from Richmond and 2 from Hanover Town and New Castle, to cover mares at 6 guineas the season, for which a note will be required, dischargeable by the payment of 20 dollars at any time before the first of August next, when the season will expire, with one dollar to the groom for each mare, paid at the stable door. Ten dollars the single leap, and 40 dollars to insure a mare with foal. Good and extensive pasture, well enclosed, with branches running through the flat land affording as good forward pastures as any in this part of the country, gratis. Servants that may be sent with mares will be boarded for two dollars per week, and mares fed, if required, on reasonable terms. The greatest attention will be paid by my overseer, Mr. John Hog, but no liability for escapes or accidents. Any gentleman putting 6 mares to Hambleton may send one gratis.
GEORGE BLAKEY. February 15, 1808.
PEDIGREE Hambleton was got by Dungannon, sire of Bedford and one of the best sons of O'Kelly's famous Eclipse, who was esteemed to be the best horse in England at his day, and covered at fifty guineas as his dam by Snap, sister to Jupiter, bred by Mr. Cross, 1793—her dam, Young Mark's dam, by Blank, Sunling, Miss Meynell, by Partner, Greyhound, Curwen Bay Barb, Lord D'Arcy's Arabian, Whiteshirt, Old Montague mare. Thus it appears he descended from the best running stock in England.
PERFORMANCES This horse ranks very high as a racer, both for speed and bottom, as he proved successful in 20 races before he left the turf, 4 of which he walked over, none venturing to start against him. In '94 at Hambleton, Yorkshire, on Wednesday, May, 14th, he won a sweepstakes of ten guineas each, for 3 year olds, 6 subscribers, 2 miles, beating Mr. Bell's b f by Magnum Bonum, Fierce's b f by Young Mark, Turner's Confederacy, and Graddock's ch c Leicester. At York he won 50L for 3 year olds, beating Lowther's b c Griffin, Crompton's ch c Ambush, Sheppard's Madcap, Clifton's b c Cedar, and Garforth's ch c even betting on Ambush against the field. At Manchester, in June, he won 50L for 3 year olds, two mile heats beating Foreigner and Loyalist. At Stockton, Sept. 20, he won a sweepstakes of 20 guineas each, 5 subscribers, then Sir H. Williamson's property, formerly Mr. Hutchinson's, beating Field's Highflyer, out of Wren and Turner's Delphine—In 1795, Hambleton won 5 times, to wit: a handicap plate of 50L 3 mile heats, at 4 years old, beating Insect, Blacklegs and Wathin's b c 5 years old. At Edinburgh, July 20, he won his majesty's plate of 100 guineas 4 years old, 4 mile heats, beating Greyson's b h Archer, 6 years old, Mr. Peacock's ch g Farmer, and Mr. Wilson's Greeping Kate. At Dumfries in Oct. he won 50L beating Lord Darlington's b m Constant. In 1796, Hambleton won at Kelso, Oct. 5, a purse of 30 guineas beating Mr. Baird's Black Cock. In 1797, he won 8 times, to wit: at Middleham, in Yorkshire, a sweepstakes of ten guineas each, 5 subscribers, 3 mile heats, beating Merry Lad and Arthur. At Edinburgh, on Wednesday the 26th, 50 guineas for all ages, beating Eliza Fox and Betsey. On Friday the 28th, the ladies subscription purse of 50 guineas beating Fletcher's Jane. At Montrose, in Scotland, August, he walked over the ground for a 50L plate, and also walked over the ground for a subscription of 50L. At Kelso, Oct. 16 for a place of 50 guineas he walked over the ground—and also his majesty's 100 guineas given to the Caledonian Hunt, for any horse, &c., carrying 12 st at 4 mile heats, then 6 years old, he won against Mr. Wentworth's Trimbush, Piermont's Trimmer, aged, and Kinkade's Hector, aged—and Saturday following, a purse of 50L given by the Hunt, free for any horse, &c., beating Farewell and Holiker. At Carlisle he won 180 guineas for Mr. Sitwell, beating his b f by Meteor. In 1798, he won at Edinburgh, August, 50L for all ages, beating Maxwell's Arab, and Mr. Maul's Hip, potoponus. At Montrose he won a plate of 50 guineas for all ages, beating Pitforth and Contradictor. See the racing Calendars for the foregoing years.
Wm LIGHTFOOT.
Colt's Performances—London. Hambleton's colts also rank very high as racers, both for speed and bottom as they proved themselves good runners in England. In 1805, at Chertsey bridge, on Thursday 18th, Wentworth's b c Silverheels by Hambleton, two years old, won a sweepstakes of ten guineas 8 subscribers, two miles, beating Mr. Riddle's b c by Overton, dam of Spadille; Mr. Lonsdale's ch c by Pistorator dam by Paymaster—Lord Strathmore's g f by Overton, dam by Delphin—Several others also started but were not placed. At Durham, Wednesday, 24 h, a Maiden Plate of 50L, given by the country members, for all ages 3 mile heats. Sir H. Williamson's b c by Hambleton, 2 years old, run 4 heats, and proved second best—and 4 others started and proved themselves good runners.
CERTIFICATES London, 17th February, 1806. William Lightfoot, Esq.
Dear Sir,—Hambleton ought to stand very high with you, as his colts in this country turn out excellent runners. &c. Ro. Cress.
Charlotte, 10th May, 1806. I put five mares to Hambleton, and they all proved in foal, and the colts fine and large—I also have a mare which has bro't me four colts, one by Diomed, one by Dragon, one by Seagull, and another by Hambleton, and the Hambleton colt has the preference of either: I think her one of the finest fillies, both in size and figure that I ever saw.—Given under my hand.
Henry Lester. Lunenburg, 5th May, 1806.
This will certify that I put a mare to Hambleton in 1804, when he stood at Mr. H. Lester's in Charlotte county, and am as well pleased, if not better, with the colts by him, than with any of the same mare ever had—she previously bred by Coeur de Lion, Diomed, Quicksilver and Dion. Bed's Lester. Charlotte county.
In the year 1804 I put a mare to Hambleton, then kept by Mr. H. Lester of this county, and am fully persuaded that it is the best colt the mare ever had, and is in my estimation the best colt I ever bred from any horse. I moreover never have heard of any complaining of their colts from that horse. Thomas Read, Jr. Hanover County.
I herewith certify that Mr. Wm. Lightfoot's horse Hambleton, stood at my stable the last season, and that he has proved an excellent foal getter: his colts would do credit to any horse on the continent. Mr. Wm. Morris of this county and I put five mares each, all of which proved in foal. Given under my hand this 7th day of May, 1806. John Thornton. Albemarle county, Temple Hill, (Va.)
I do hereby certify that Mr. Wm Lightfoot's
English horse Hambleton, stood at my stable two seasons, viz in 1806 and 1807; and I consider him to be an excellent fine foal getter, as any horse that I have been acquainted with—I have seen a number of his colts; I consider them large, fine and handsome—Not one that I have seen was indifferent—I have previously put my fine mare Lady Slipper to Precipitate, Knowlesy and Hambleton, and she brought a colt by each, the Hambleton I consider much preferable. Given under my hand 10th December, 1807. James Kinsolving. Charlotte County, 6th May, 1806.
We the undersigned subscribers had colts dropped last season by Hambleton, and they are esteemed by us and we believe by the neighbours generally, to be remarkable good colts; being for the most part large, fine and handsome. We also believe that the season he stood in this country, he got as many colts as any horse could get with the same number of mares. William Mitchell, James Lakin, Clement Smithson, Overton Pettus, Thomas Pettus, Wm. L. Morton, W. B. Lester.
The Celebrated English Stallion  BEDFORD,
WILL stand this season at my house, in Chesterfield county, five miles distant from Goods and Bevil's bridges; on Appomattox river, and 25 from Richmond and Petersburg. The following terms will be attended to:—FORTY DOLLARS are required for the season: the same to be secured by a note to be sent with each mare, but the note may be discharged by the payment of TWENTY-FIVE DOLLARS at any time within the season, which will expire on the last day of July. The groom-fee will be ONE DOLLAR per mare. Should any mare sent to this horse not prove to be in foal, the owner, provided he retains possession of the same mare the succeeding season, may be permitted to put her to Bedford gratis. The mares will have the benefit of safe and extensive pasture, but no responsibility for escapes or accidents. They will be supplied with provender on very reasonable terms, provided the money is sent to make the purchase. Servants who attend the mares, will be boarded at the rate of ten shillings and six pence per week.
BEDFORD, from his performances and his real character, ought to stand at his former season price of fifty dollars, but the distressed situation of the country, as to money matters, induces the subscriber to reduce the sum and to make the payment of it as easy as possible to those who may think proper to raise from this elegant and valuable stock.
BEDFORD is a fine blood bay, nearly 16 hands high, with great bone and muscular power; his colts are equal if not superior to those of any horse in America. He is the sire of the following distinguished runners—Fairy, it is believed, shot out of thirteen races (4 mile heats) she won twelve, and is the only one that ever beat Leviathan.
Gaiatian, Nancy Air, Dungannon, Peggy, Lottery, Cup, Beaver, Volunteer, Nestor, Dutchess, Bona, Whiskey, and many other fine horses are the immediate descendants of Bedford.
BEDFORD, was imported by the late Col. John Hoomes, bred by Lord Grosvenor, was got by Dungannon, the best son of Eclipse, his dam Fairy by Highflyer, his grandam Fairy Queen, who was also the granddam of Citizen, by Young Cade, Ruth's Black-Eyes by Crab, Warlock Galloway by snake, Bald Galloway, Curwin Bay Barb.
THOMAS BRANCH. March 4, 1808. (w3m)
The thorough bred imported horse,  GOUTY,
WILL stand the ensuing season at my plantation on Rucker's Run, 5 miles from Amherst court house and 12 from Warminster, and will cover mares at 25 dollars the season, 13 dollars the leap and 40 dollars insurance with one dollar to the groom in either case. The leap money to be paid at the time of service, the season on first day of August, and the insurance on first day of March 1809. Crop tobacco inspected at any of the warehouses on James river from Lynchburg to Richmond will be received in payment at 5 dollars per 100 lb. if tendered on or before the day it becomes due. Pasturage gratis but no liability for accidents or escapes—GOUTY is a beautiful bay, 11 years old, 5 feet 3 inches high, elegantly formed and of great strength. He was got by Sir Peter Teazle, and came out of the celebrated Yellow-Mare, she was got by Tandem, her dam Perdita by Herod out of Fain Forester by Sloe, and so through the best stock that England has produced as may be seen by reference to the general stud book—Sloe was the most distinguished racer of his day, & was never beat. GOUTY's COLTS are running with great credit in England—In 1806 when only started, of which one was a winner and when losing they came in with great credit, beating the get of Buzzard, Precipitate, Oscey, Sir Peter Teazle and others of the first character in England—In 1807 Mr. Weatherby (author of the Racing Calendar) writes to me under date Sept. 12th, at which time the racing for that year was not over, that several of Gouty's colts were winners, and one of them had the misfortune to break his shoulder, or it was supposed he would have been the best of his year in England. The season will commence on first March and terminate first August.
R. RIVES February 10, 1808. tow
*** Extract of a letter just received by the Subscriber from Mr. Weatherby (author of the Racing Calendar) dated 15th January, 1808.—“For the small number of Gouty's colts which started the past year, their success has been very great, their being five winners, and I think not more than seven or eight have appeared. Signed, JAS. WEATHERBY.”
April 20.
At a Court held for Buckingham County, the 11th day of January, 1808.
James Murphy & Company, Plffs.  AGAINST  William Jones (son of John) and Thomas E. Jones, defts.
ON the motion of the plaintiffs by their counsel, and it appearing to the satisfaction of the court, that the defendant William Jones, is not an inhabitant of this state. It is ordered and decreed that unless the said William Jones shall appear here, or on or before May court next, and answer the bill of the plaintiffs, the court will then proceed to take the same for confessed as to him, and decree the matter thereof accordingly, and that a copy of this order be forthwith published in some public newspaper of the city of Richmond, for two months successively, and another copy be posted up at the front door of the courthouse of this county.
A Copy, R. ELDRIDGE, jr. D. C.
At a Court held for Buckingham County, the 11th day of January, 1808.
Sarah Holloway, widow of Robert Holloway, deceased; Gen. Scaton Holloway, and Elizabeth Holloway children and devisees of the said Robert Holloway, deceased, by the said Sarah their mother and next friend,
AGAINST  Smith Tandy and Nathan Ayres, Defendants.
ON the motion of the plaintiffs by their counsel, and it appearing to the satisfaction of the court that the defendant Smyth Tandy is not an inhabitant of this state: It is ordered and decreed that unless the said Tandy shall appear here on or before the first day of May term next and answer the bill of the plaintiffs; the court will then proceed to take the same for confessed as to him, and decree the matter thereof accordingly, and that a copy of this order be forthwith published in some public newspaper of the city of Richmond for two months successively, and another copy be posted up at the front door of the courthouse of this county.
A copy—Teste, R. Eldridge, jr. D. C.
United States Court, Fifth Circuit & Virginia District, Nov. term, 1807.
Charles and Jesse Ewell, Plffs.  Against,  Tristram Dalton & Tobias Lear, merchants and traders under the firm of Lear and Company, Defs.
THE defendants Tristram Dalton and Tobias Lear, not having entered their appearance and given security according to a rule of this court, and it appearing to the satisfaction of the court that they are not inhabitants of this district, on the motion of the pts. by their counsel, it is ordered that the said defendants do appear here on the first day of the next term and answer the pts. bill, and that a copy of this order be forthwith inserted in some one of the newspapers published in the city of Richmond, for two months successively, and posted at the front door of the capitol in the said city.
A copy—Teste, WILLIAM MARSHALL, Clk.
At a Court held for Cumberland County 25th January, 1808.
JOHN ANDERSON, Plaintiff,  AGAINST  JOHN HOLLAND & JAMES HOLLAND, Defendants.
THIS day came the plaintiff, by his attorney, and the defendant JOHN, not having entered his appearance and given security according to law and the rules of this court, and it appearing to the satisfaction of the court that he is not an inhabitant of this state; On the motion of the plaintiff by his attorney aforesaid, It is ordered that the said defendant JOHN, do ap. ear here on the fourth Monday in April next and answer the plaintiff's bill, and that a copy of this order be published in one of the public newspapers printed in the city of Richmond for three months successively and posted at the front door of the courthouse of this county.
A copy—Atteste, MILLER WOODSON, Clk.
BY virtue of a deed of trust executed to Edward P. Chamberlayne, dec. and myself by James B. Littlepage, to secure the payment of sundry debts therein mentioned, due by the said Littlepage, to Benjamin Mosby, assignee of William Dandridge, I shall on Wednesday the first day of June next, proceed to sell to the highest bidder, for ready money, at King William courthouse, a certain tract or parcel of LAND, lying and being in the parish of St. John's, and county of King William, and commonly known as and called by the name of Palmers, containing by estimation Four Hundred and Fifteen Acres of high Land, and One Hundred Acres of Marsh Land, be the same more or less, and bounded by the lands of Bernard Moore, William Gregory, George W. P. Custis and John Quarles, dec. and Mata pony River.
BERN'D LIPSCOMB. February 24. wids
BY virtue of a deed of trust executed to us by Ambrose Dudley of King William county, to secure a debt due by the said Ambrose Dudley to Benjamin Mosby, assignee of William Dandridge—We shall proceed to sell, for ready cash, for the best price that can be obtained, on the premises, on the second day of June next, a certain Tract or Parcel of Land, lying and being in the county of King William, being the same on which the said Dudley now resides, and the same which the said Dudley purchased of William Dandridge containing 602 acres, or so much thereof as will be sufficient to pay the sum of 400 pounds, current money, with legal interest thereon from the 1st day of April, 1807, till payment, together with all expenses attending the execution thereof.
BERN'D LIPSCOMB. 26th February, 1808. wids
10 Dollars Reward.
RUN AWAY from the Subscriber on Friday last, a Negro Man named JOHN, a carpenter by trade. He is six feet and upwards high, very likely, of insinuating manners, extremely polite when spoken to. For three years past he lived with Mr. Anderson Barrett. He has a free mulatto woman for his wife, in Richmond, living near the work house, where I expect he will stay. He took with him several articles of husbandry; amongst them, a pair of iron wedges, marked with the letter P. I will give a reward of ten dollars, if delivered to me in the lower end of Hanover, or eight if confined in jail, and I apprised of it. He is called by the negroes John Russell.
ARMISTEAD RUSSELL. Hanover, January 24, 1808. tf
MILITARY LANDS
IN THE STATES OF OHIO AND KENTUCKY. THE subscriber has for SALE, sundry and the tracts of LAND, on the waters of the Miami and Scioto rivers, state of Ohio. Also, on the waters of Cumberland and Green rivers, state of Kentucky, which will be sold low for cash or good bonds—For further particulars enquire of William Price, register, who has the title papers, or to
William Du-Val. Buckingham January 20, 1808, wtf
Richmond Tile Manufactory.
THE subscriber having procured the exclusive right to manufacture in this and several other states Harwood's much improved Patent Tile for covering houses, and at considerable expense erected the necessary buildings, &c. for carrying on that useful business extensively, now offers to supply, at a short notice, any quantity that may be required, at the moderate price of Thirty Five Dollars per thousand, delivered at his factory.
He can with confidence, founded on actual experiment, in the covering of about 20 houses in this city, assert, that houses can be covered with this tile as cheap in the first instance, as with shingles of the first quality, and when the security against fire, the difference of insurance, the durability and particular construction on these tiles to resist the most penetrating rains and snows are considered, he cannot doubt of meeting with considerable encouragement. It requires only the examination of a well covered roof to convince the most prejudiced mind of their superiority to any other tile heretofore made, or to the best slate, and will cost less than the latter, after paying the expense of water carriage to almost any part of this continent.
Particular attention will be paid to orders from other towns, and in all cases where they are shipped, he will deliver them whole and sound, along side of the vessels, at the expense of carriage only to the purchasers. Any person skilled in the art of tiling, will put on those tiles with great facility, but where they cannot be procured, he can engage a few here who have had some experience, and will go a moderate distance, if the job is of sufficient magnitude and their travelling expenses paid.
BENJAMIN DU VAL. Richmond, March 12, 1808.
N. B. I wish to sell Patent Rights in several other states. wtf B. D.
Penitentiary Store.
THE subscriber, Agent for the Penitentiary, offers for sale the following articles, the manufacture of that institution, at very low prices for cash only at retail, and at 90 credit at wholesale, for approved endorsed negotiable notes
CUT NAILS.
   Wholesale prices Retail prices.     3dy 12 cents. 14 cents per lb.   4 12 1-2 13 1-2   6 11 1-2 12 1-2   8 10 1-2 11 1-2   10 10 11   12 10 11   20 10 11   Slating nails 11 1-2 12 1-2  
CUT BRADS
   8dy 10 cents. 11 cents per lb.   10 9 1-2 10 1-2   12 Do. Do.   20 Do. Do.  
SPRIGS.
 3dy
39 cts. p. lb.
50 per m.  

We (in common with a number of other printers) were led into a mistake in last Tuesday's Argus, in stating that the bill for investing the President with power to suspend the Embargo had been postponed: that bill has passed both houses of congress and received the signature of the President. It will be found in the list of acts this day published.
Delegates chosen to represent this commonwealth in the next General Assembly. Norfolk Borough, Samuel B. Archer. Rockingham, Archbld. Rutherford, Wm. Bryan.
Roanoke, David Rowland, Elijah McLean. Shenandoah, James Allen, Samuel Strickler. King William, John Hill, Philip Aylett. Cumberland, John Hatcher, Jerman Baker.
SENATORS. James Trizant, for the district of Dinwiddie, &c. John Horace Upshaw, for Essex, &c. Col. Alexander Smyth, for Washington &c. without opposition.
Sensibly affected by our embargo, the manufacturers of England (our natural allies) are filling the Houses of Parliament with petitions against the orders of council which produce it: from such means, however, we expect but little benefit: the stern remonstrant must supercede the humble petitioner, before the interests of the nation will be attended to by a government, which rules in despite, not by consent of the people. The petitioners from Manchester amounted to upwards of 50,000 persons; but the largest number were from the West Riding of Yorkshire. The names attached to that petition occupied 74 sheets of parchment, each skin contained seven columns of names closely written—the parchment were 56 yards long.
In support of the petition from Liverpool, Mr. Rathbone detailed the various advantages derived from the American trade, stating that nearly 500 voyages were made from America to Liverpool alone, in the course of a year, in ships the burden of which amounted to more than 123,000 tons; that the amount of British manufactures annually exported to America, was more than 10,000,000 a year; that government derived from the Liverpool portion of trade alone not less than 1,000,000 a year, and that the average due from America to this country, is not less than 12,000,000, the payment of which is now interrupted by the embargo in the ports of the United States. Mr. Rathbone next took a view of the American trade to the West-Indies, and stated the dependence of those islands on America for provisions. He then adverted to the trade of America to the East Indies and China, the exports to each of 500,000, in silver only, and the facility which this was admitted to give to the trade of the East India company. Mr. R. concluded with lamenting the interruption of all these sources of revenue, and with exposing the mischievous effects of the late orders in council. He was followed by Mr. Richardson, Mr. Martin, and the chairman. Mr. J. Cropper; the last of whom added, that the supply of flax sent to Ireland this year, was only 10,000 casks, where the usual annual supply was about 60,000. Two petitions against these orders, one to the lords and the other to the commons, were then agreed to.
(Colvin's Reg.)
MR ADAMS' LETTER
We have read with inexpressible pleasure the answer of Mr. Adams to Mr. Pickering's letter. We must excuse ourselves from an attempt to give an abstract of it. It will be read by every patriot that can obtain a copy, and with the deepest interest. As these gentlemen are senators of Massachusetts, an appeal of the one to his native state against the measures of the other, as a demand of such a vindication, as it was in the power of Mr. Adams to give. And while the vindication simply justifies Mr. Adams in the part he has taken, it fixes upon Mr. Pickering those charges which we thought ourselves bound to make, that his letter did no honor to his understanding, and that whatever efforts might be made to give circulation to it, he must be condemned and despised by all our patriotic citizens. Mr. Adams has explained the true character of Mr. Pickering's appeal in all its tendency. He has followed him in all his statements with a power of refutation, that leaves no doubt behind. He carries us to the moment of the Embargo, and with one great truth, satisfies us. Mr. Rose's commission and the orders of council of the 11th November might have been signed to use the appropriate language of Mr. Adams, "with the same peal of ink." The subject of impressment is treated in the best manner, by assembling all the circumstances, too well known to us, from the part we have been obliged to take, in order to recover some of the children of our best families. The negotiation appears to oblige the humiliation of our nation without one hope from any promise made from Britain for such a voluntary degradation. May the American public have eternal gratitude to Mr. Adams for timely effort to save the nation. "If we must fall, let us fall free-men."
(Salem Reg.)
We learn that orders have been issued to liberate all American vessels carried into the ports of
France and her allies, except such as had taken out licences from Great Britain—Aurora.
The English ministerial and other prints, take great pains to shew their enmity to the government of the United States. Old Rose, in a late debate alleged that the president was disposed to go to war with Great Britain; and one of their newspapers has undertaken to publish a couple of columns of abuse, of Mr. Jefferson, for interlining and making marginal references on the rejected treaty. The fact, however, is, that the original signed and sealed draft, sent by Messrs. Monroe and Pinkney, is at this moment in the United States, and has been from its first receipt; so that the laborious artifice of the ministers of England in this particular, only tends to expose their disposition.—ib.
Gen. TARLETON, in the House of Commons, on the 8th of March, while the mutiny bill was under discussion, observed, "should there be a war with America, he would not recommend the defence of Canada—All the evils, he said, with which Europe had been visited within these 15 years, were the consequences of the revolution in that country. To Sweden he would send no troops—it was better to subsidize that country—if troops were necessary, the German Legion would be fittest to send there—(laughing) —The greatest and leading consideration should be the defence of this country and Ireland. It would avail us little to have our defended colonies, if we were vulnerable at home. Military men, it may be said, were fond of war, but many of those with whom he conversed, and who had seen a great deal of service, were not in love with it—(laughing)—There was not a man, he trusted, that would not rather lose his life than his liberty, and that would not most cheerfully suffer every privation in defence of the country. He therefore approved of the clause, permitting persons to enlist for life, in preference to a limited time. The clause, was carried, 169 to 100.
NEW YORK ELECTION.
Extract of a letter to the Editor of the Democratic Press, dated "New York, April 27th, 1808.
"Our election commenced yesterday, for members of congress, and of the state legislature; and as it may be agreeable to you to be informed from day to day of its progress, I will do myself the pleasure of communicating it to you.
"Both parties are perhaps equally animated, but not equally sanguine. The effort is on the part of the federalists a most strenuous one, and our party never was more zealous nor more active. We are however sure of success; the only question is about the largeness of our majority. Yesterday's election gave us by computation a majority of about 150.—To day's will more than double the majority, and the third and last will close with one larger than any that we have had since the election of 1801.
"Our members of congress will be elected by a majority of at least 1000—those of the senate (and both are a district election) by a larger majority, and those of the assembly (to represent the city and county of New York by 1 presume, a majority of about 600. The event will prove how far you may rely on my opinion. I will write to you to-morrow."
FROM THE AURORA.
To the Editor.
Sir, At the particular request of John Agnew, esq. the chairman of the meeting of the democratic citizens of the county of Adams, held in Gettysburg, upon the 5th of February last—I transmitted a copy of an address to the president of the U. States, agreeing to a resolution adopted by that meeting. To that address the president has been pleased to return the following reply; which I communicated to the chairman of the aforesaid meeting; and at his request, I forward a copy thereof to you for publication. Your compliance will confer an obligation on the democratic citizens of Adams county, and on no one more than upon
Yours, respectfully, Wm. CRAWFORD. Adams county, April 5, 1808.
Washington, March 20, 1808.
Sir, Having received through you, the address of the democratic citizens of the county of Adams, in Gettysburg, on the 15th February last, I ask permission, thro' the same channel, to return the answer, and to offer to them and to yourself the assurances of my high respect.
TH: JEFFERSON.
Dr. Wm. Crawford. To the Democratic citizens of the county of Adams, Pennsylvania.
I see with pleasure, fellow citizens, in your address of February 15, a sound recurrence to the principles on which our government is founded, an examination by that test, of the rights we possess, and the wrongs we have suffered, a just line drawn between a wholesome attention to the conduct of rulers, and a too ready censure of that conduct on every unfounded rumor, between the love of peace and the determination to meet war, when its evils shall be less intolerable than the wrongs it is meant to correct. With so just a view of principles and circumstances, your approbation of my conduct, under the difficulties which have beset us on every side, is doubly valued by me, and offers high encouragement to a perseverance in my best endeavors for the preservation of your peace, so long as it shall be consistent with the preservation of your rights. When this ceases to be practicable, I feel entire confidence in the arduous exertions which you pledge in support of the measures which
may be called for by the exigencies of the times, and in the known energies and enterprise of our countrymen, in whatsoever direction they are pointed. If these energies are embodied by an union of will, and by a confidence in those who direct it, our nation, so favored in its situation, has nothing to fear from any quarter.—To that union of effort may our citizens ever rally, minorities falling cordially on the decision of a question, into the ranks of the majority, and bearing always in mind that a nation ceases to be republican, only when the will of the majority ceases to be the law.
I thank you, fellow citizens, for the solicitude you kindly express for my future welfare. A retirement from the exercise of my present charge is equal to your good and my own happiness. Gratitude for past favors, and affectionate concern for the liberty and prosperity of my fellow citizens will cease but with life to animate my breast.
TH: JEFFERSON.
March 20, 1808.
From the National Intelligencer.
On the rise of congress, the public attention will be naturally directed to the course of measures pursued by them, and to the general situation of the country. Amidst events awfully momentous, involving the warfare of the whole of Europe, and threatening the peace of the United States, that body assembled. It was universally expected that affairs would soon reach a crisis, and that we should be either involved in war, or our relations of amity be restored. Various circumstances disappointed this expectation, and it was not until late in the session that the special mission of Mr. Rose was terminated. Since this event, there appears to have been but little difference of opinion with regard to the course of measures dictated by a sound policy. The precautionary measure of an embargo having been wisely taken on the first appearance of imminent danger, and our property being by it preserved from inevitable destruction, the only question that presented itself was, in what way we could the more effectually maintain our own interests without compromising the national character.
But two alternatives offered themselves: a continuance of the embargo, or war. Serious as the evils attending the former are admitted to be, those that could not fail to have ensued from the latter have been justly considered as much greater.
Had we resorted to war, against which nation, should the declaration have been made? There is no one to quibble as to say that war should have been waged against both England and France, and their whole train of allies and dependencies embracing all the nations of Europe if not against both these nations, where is the casus belli that could be relied upon to decide which had entitled itself to the distinction of the first blow? When both had injured us so deeply, would it not have worn the appearance of partiality, perhaps of pusillanimity, to have exerted our energies against one, at the very moment that we threw ourselves in the arms of the other? Besides, what could we have gained by such a step? Has France any thing to offer us in compensation for the injuries which would necessarily be inflicted upon our commerce by the British navy, provided it were exposed to the perils of the ocean, and we were the declared enemies of Britain? No man will say she has. And what has England to offer for our going to war against her rival? Nothing but colonial submission and the prostration of our commerce; for it is most manifest that so long as the evil war that now rules her government continues to preside, she will be satisfied with nothing short of our degradation.
It is this state of things, by which we are equally pressed by the two belligerent nations, which completely deprives us of all free agency, and points with an unerring finger to the system which has been pursued. Had it not been for the hostile conduct of Britain, our honor might have demanded coercive measures towards France; and for that of France, the ardent outrage on the Chesapeake, and the no less unprincipled orders of council might have demanded war against the Leviathan of the deep; as in either case, we might have promised ourselves with the expectation in that way of redressing our wrongs. But the almost equal hostility of both nations has put this possibility altogether aside; and we are no more under the necessity of entering the lists against them, than an unsupposed individual would be to oppose himself to the bayonets of a legion.
Hence the almost unanimous accordance of all parties in refraining, in the present posture of affairs, from offensive operations. Inasmuch, however, as it is impossible to calculate upon the conduct of foreign nations, and as a persistence in their unjust measures may leave no alternative but war, congress have adopted a system of defence, commensurate in their opinion to the expected danger. This consists in building a considerable number of gun-boats; in fortifying our ports and harbors; in raising six thousand additional troops; in placing one hundred thousand of the militia in readiness for immediate service, and in progressively arming the whole body of the people. For these several objects about five millions of dollars have been appropriated.
It is admitted, on all hands, that these measures will be very incompetent in case of a war, but it has been deemed politic to husband our resources for such an event, instead of exhausting them previously to the occurrence of actual danger. This policy is certainly strengthened by the vast importance attached by both of the belligerent parties to a rich treasury. It ought not, indeed, to surprise us, if events should show that England has hitherto abstained from a declaration of war, in the hope that the spoons committed by her on our trade, and our own measures might embarrass our finances in such a degree as to disable us from even paying, at the critical moment, making that decisive exertion which would convince her that we too have the power most essentially to injure her.
It is not our purpose, at present, to enter into any discussion of the nature or the effects of the embargo, and the other measures adopted by congress, or of the ground taken by the Executive with foreign nations. These, with other topics, and particularly the election of a future President, will receive as full an examination as shall be consistent with the publication of the important debates of congress still unfinished, and other important matters.
In the mean time, it has become the duty of every good citizen, of every American, who cherishes the patriotic feelings that made us an independent people, to support the government of his choice in that course of measures which has emanated from the fullest knowledge and the maturest deliberation. Whatever speculative differences of opinion there may have been with regard to the imposition of the embargo, the building of gun-boats,
the fortifying our harbors, and the raising additional troops, no man, who merits the name of an American, or is deserving of the blessings of liberty, can withhold his efforts to silence any discontent which they may have occasioned, or to carry them into decisive effect.—Party animosity may hold what language it pleases; but this will, and ought to be viewed as the test of every man's patriotism.
The measures pursued by our government impose another duty, to render the discharge of which easy and even pleasant only requires a moderate share of fortitude mingled with that enthusiasm which the occasion is so eminently calculated to excite. To render ourselves truly independent of foreign nations, it is absolutely necessary that we should vigorously develop our own resources. These are sufficiently extensive to supply all our wants, and we shall deservedly incur the reproach of the world if we do not draw upon them, in such a way as to convert what was meant as a vial injury into a real blessing. Manufactures, roads, and canals, are the great engines of national wealth, of individual prosperity, and of peace. This is the auspicious moment to put them into active operation. Once fully agoing, and we shall convince our enemies that we can do without them, and that every act of tyranny by which they deprive us of our neutral rights will recoil with a dreadful effect on themselves.
Boston, April 25.
Extract of a letter from a gentleman in Liverpool, dated March 12th, to his brother in this town.
"The orders of Council touch the very life strings of the commercial interest. Meetings of the merchants are very frequent, both here and in London. The manufacturing interest in the interior, to the number of upwards of one hundred thousand have petitioned the king for peace. The debates in Parliament are the most lengthy & animated on the side of the opposition, ever known: and if the American government continues the embargo until midsummer it is the general opinion a relaxation of British commercial restrictions must take place. The voice of the people grows louder and louder every day."
BALTIMORE, April 29. COMMUNICATION.
A meeting of all men who love their country and respect its laws, is requested at Peck's Hotel, this evening, at seven o'clock, for the purpose of entering into some resolutions to prevent violations of the several acts of congress laying an embargo, which, it is believed, are trampled upon by a few individuals, who love gain more than their country.
The substance of the resolutions intended to be proposed for adoption, is to have watches kept for the purpose of giving information to the revenue officers of every attempt to violate a law, which, all reflecting men believe to have been enacted for the general good and should not be trampled upon for the benefit of a few individuals, deserving the detestation of their countrymen, and violating a most important regulation. A MERCHANT.
A LIST OF ACTS
PASSED AT THE FIRST SESSION OF THE TENTH CONGRESS.
An act making further appropriations for the support of the navy of the U.S. during the year one thousand eight hundred and seven.
An act allowing an additional compensation to the Secretaries of the Mississippi, Indiana, Louisiana, and Michigan territories.
An act to change the name of the district of Biddeford and Pepperellborough, in Massachusetts, to that of Saco.
An act to appropriate money for the providing an additional number of gun-boats.
An act laying an embargo on all ships and vessels in the ports and harbors of the U.S.
An act to extend certain privileges as therein mentioned to Anthony Boucherie.
An act extending the right of suffrage in the Mississippi territory and for other purposes.
An act supplementary to an act intitled "An act for fortifying the ports and harbors of the U. States and for building gun-boats."
An act supplementary to an act intitled "An act laying an embargo on all ships and vessels in the ports and harbors of the U.S."
An act supplementary to an act intitled "An act regulating the grants of land, and providing for the disposal of the lands of the U. States south of the state of Tennessee."
An act to revive and continue in force for a further time, the first section of an act, intitled "An act farther to protect the commerce and seamen of the U. S."
An act to provide for the payment of certain expenses incurred in the impeachment of Samuel Chase.
An act for the relief of Oliver Evans.
An act to continue in force, for a limited time, an act intitled, "An act continuing for a limited time the salaries of the officers of government, therein mentioned."
An act authorizing the erection of a bridge over the river Potomac, within the district of Columbia.
An act making appropriations for the support of government during the year one thousand eight hundred and eight.
An act to erect a light-house on point Judith, in the state of Rhode Island.
An act making appropriations for the support of the navy of the U. States during the year one thousand eight hundred and eight.
An act to revive and continue certain causes and proceedings in the district court of the district of Columbia.
An act making appropriations for carrying into effect certain Indian treaties.
An act to provide for the payment of certain expenses incurred in the inquiry into the conduct of John Smith, a Senator from Ohio.
An act extending the right of suffrage in the Indiana territory.
An act supplementary to the act intitled "An act to prohibit the importation of certain goods, wares and merchandise."
An act making farther provision for the disposal of the sections of land heretofore reserved for the future disposition of Congress.
An act making additional compensation to the marshals for the districts of North Carolina and New Jersey.
An act for the relief of Samuel Whiting, Resolution to authorise the disposition of certain charts of the coast of North Carolina.
An act to allow the importation of old copper, salt-petre, and sulphur, free of duty.
An act making appropriations for the support of the military establishment of the U.S. for the year one thousand eight hundred and eight.
An act for the relief of Edward Weld, Samuel Beebee, and John Davidson.
An act for extending the terms of credit on revenue bonds in certain cases, and for other purposes.
An act in further addition to an act, intitled "An act to amend the judicial system of the U. S."
An act for procuring an additional number of arms, and for the purchases of salt-petre and sulphur.
An act in addition to the act, intitled "An act supplementary to the act, intitled "An act laying an embargo on all ships and vessels in the ports and harbors of the U. S."
An act remitting the duties payable on the importation of a monument to be erected in memory of the officers of the U. States' navy, who fell during the attack made on the city of Tripoli, in the year one thousand eight hundred and four.
An act granting William Wells the right of pre-emption.
An act for erecting a light-house on the south point of the Islands of Sapelo and for placing buoys and beacons in the shoals of the inlet leading to the Darien, and near the entrance of Ipswich harbor, near Plymouth harbor, before the harbor of Nantucket, and on the island of Tuckanuck, at or near the entrance of Connecticut river, and near the entrance of Great Egg Harbor river.
An act extending the time for issuing and locating military land warrants.
An act to amend the act intitled "An act establishing circuit courts, and abridging the jurisdiction of the district courts for the districts of Kentucky, Tennessee and Ohio."
An act farther to prolong the continuance of the mint at Philadelphia.
An act concerning the sale of the lands of the United States, and for other purposes.
An act authorising a detachment from the militia of the U.S.
An act authorising the sale of public arms.
An act to raise, for a limited time, an additional military force.
An act to authorise the transportation of certain documents by mail, free of postage.
An act to revive and continue in force "An act declaring the assent of Congress to certain acts of the states of Maryland and Georgia."
An act to continue in force for a further time an act intitled "An act for the more effectual preservation of peace in the ports and harbours of the United States and in the waters under their jurisdiction."
An act for the relief of the legal representatives of Thomas Barclay, deceased.
An act concerning public contracts.
An act for the establishment of a turnpike company in the county of Alexandria, in the district of Columbia.
An act for the relief of Matthew Smith and Darius Gates, jointly, & Darius Gates, separately.
An act to continue in force an act, intitled "An act to extend jurisdiction in certain cases to state judges and state courts."
An act to authorise the President of the U. States, under certain conditions, to suspend the operation of the act laying an embargo on all ships and vessels in the ports and harbours of the U. S. and the several acts supplementary thereto.
An act making provisions for arming and equipping the whole body of the militia of the U. S.
An act for the relief of Philip Turner.
An act to alter the time for the next meeting of Congress.
An act to establish certain post roads in the states of Georgia and Ohio.
An act concerning invalid pensioners.
An act making an appropriation to supply a deficiency in an appropriation for the support of government during the present year, and making an appropriation for defraying the expenses incident to the valuation of houses and lands, and the enumeration of slaves within the U. S.
An act making appropriations for the support of an additional military force for the year 1808.
An act to make Plymouth in North Carolina a port of entry, to change the name of the district of Nanjemoy to that of St. Mary's and to make Augusta, in the district of Maine, a port of delivery.
An act for the relief of George Hunter, Treasury to pay to the comptroller of the Treasury, in trust, the amount of certain bills drawn by John Armstrong, minister from the United States to the court of France, on the Treaty of the U. S.
An act to authorise and empower the President of the U. S. to exchange certain lands for other lands more suitable for fortification.
An act to make good a deficit in the appropriation of eighteen hundred and seven, for completing the public buildings, and for other purposes.
An act in addition to the act, intitled "An act laying an embargo on all ships and vessels in the ports and harbors of the U. States," and the several acts supplementary thereto, and for other purposes.
An act for the relief of Joseph Chase, Jared Gardner and others.
An act supplementary to "An act regulating the grants of lands in the territory of Michigan."