The Statesman.
London, England, 1819-03-11 00:00:00

AMERICAN INTRLLIGENCE.

In t►e last New York Papers is contained a speech
of Mr. Clays which we greatly secret we cannot lay
Lei. ►s ea► readers 211011 length. It breathes so go.
noise a lore of liberty, and so just a jealousy's( the
growth of rnititiry power, that we earnestly recess-
intend the conclusion, wllch is all our space will admit
us to insert, to their attention:—

' He would not trespass much longer upon the
, „.• time of the Committee; bat he trusted he should be
l-alndolged with some few reflections upon the danger
of petteitting the conduct, on which it had been his
painful duty to animadvert, lopeµ without a solemn
expression of disapprobation of this Huse; Baal
to your recollection', said he, the free mations which
have goes before its. Where are they mow, end bow
have they lost their liberties? if we could snowed
ourselves back to ages Wife Greece sod Rome Noe-
tithed in their greatest prosperity, and, mingling is
the throng, ask a Grecian if he did not fear some
daring military Chieftain, covered with glorNsease
Philip or Alexauder, would use day overthrew Ms
liberties? No! no! the confideet sod indignant
Grecian would reclaim, we have eothieg to feu
him our heroes; our liberties will be eternal. If a
Roman citizen bad been asked, if he did not fear
the Conqueror of Gaul might establish a threes'
upon the ruins of the public liberty, he would have I
instantly repelled the enjest insinuation. Yet Greece
had fallen : Cieur had passed the itubicon, and the
patriotic a, my of Breton could not preserve the Ober-
ties of his event ry ! The celebrated Madame de Stall,
in her last and perhaps best work, has said, that I
in the very year, almost the very month, when the
President of the Directory declared that Monarchy
would never more stow its frightful head in France,
llooaparte, with his grenadiers, entered the Palace
-of St. Cloud, sod dispersing with the bayonet the De-
puties of the People, deliberating on the affairs of the I
State, laid the (Dandelion of that vast fabric of des-,
potism which overshadowed ail Europe. He hoped I
lint to be misunderstood ; he was far from intimating L
that General Jackseo cherished any designs inimical
to the liberties of the coentry. Ha believed his is.
tentless pore and patriotic. lie thanked God that
he would not, bet he thanked him still mere the( he
could not, if he would, overturn the Liberties of the
Itepublic. Bet precedents, if bad, were fraught with
the most dangerous consequences. Mats has been
described, by some of those who have treated of his
swore, as a bundle of habits. The definitinn was
much truer whets applied to Governments. Prece-
dents were their habits. There was one important
difference between the formation of habits by an in&
vides% and by Governments. He contracts it only
after frequent repetition. A single instance fives the
habit and determines the directions of G menu.
Against the alarming doctrine of unlimited discretion
in ear military Commanders, when applied even to
prisoners of war, he most enter his protest. It began
open them; it would end on us. lie hoped that oar
happy form of Government was destined to be perpe-
tual ; bet if it were to be preserved, it most be by the
practice of virtu*, by justice, by moderation, by wag.
naniasity, by greatness of soot, by keeping a watchful
and steady eve on the Executive : and, abort all, by
halite' to a strict accosetability the military branch
of the public force.
" We are fighting, said Mr. C., a great moral
battle, for the benefit, not only of our country, bet
of all mankind. The eyes of the whole world are
in lived attention upon us. One, sod the largest,
portion of it is geeing with contempt, with jeelensy,
•1111 with envy ; the other portion with hope, with
confidence, and with affection. Every where the
black cloud of legitimacy is suspended over the
world, save only one bright spot, which breaks oat
from the political hemisphere of the West, to brighten
and animate, and gladden the human heart. Ob-
scare that by the downfall of Liberty here, end all
ntsekind are enshrouded in one universal darkness.
To you, Mr. Chairman, belongs the high privilege of
transmitting, unimpaired to posterity, the fair cha-
racter sod the liberty of our country. Do you ex-
pect to execute this high trust by trampling, or sof-
tering to be trampled down, law, justice, the Con-
stitution, and the rights of other People ?—by ex-
hibiting esamples of inhumanity, and cruelty, end
ambition ? —When the minions of Despotism heard,
in Europe, of the seizure of Pensecola, how did
they chuckle, and chide the admirers of our
institutions, tauntingly pointing Cr. the decimators.
dons of a spirit of injustice and aggrandizement made
by our country, in the mid., of amicable topic's.
ties. Behold, said they, the conduct of those
who ere constantly reproaching Nines. Yoe
saw how these admirers were astoooded and hang
their beads. You saw, ton, when that illestiiers
man who presides over as adopted his pacific, mode-
rate, and jest cootie, how they once more lifted up
their heedsorith exultation and delight beaming in their
countenances. Aod you saw bow those 'MMus them-
selves were finally compelled to unite in the /merit
praises bestowed upon oar Government. Beware
how you forfeit this exalted character. Beware how
yes give a fatal unction, in this infant period of tier
Republic, scarcely yet two score years old, to mili-
tary loubordination. Remember that Greece had
her Alexander, Rome hie CUM r, England her Cum-
well, France her itenepute, and that, if we 'mild