The enquirer. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1804-1815, 1804-06-20
RICHMOND:
COMMUNICATED FOX THE kNoUfRES.
Vindication Of Virginia.
NO. II.

The American States had ef!eced by their
combination, what they would in vain have ex.
Pected from their t;parate efforts. They had
united their councils and their arms in the fiup-
port of their common rights; s. the exertions of
all, had (ucceeded in ftcuring the liberties OF
each. They had waded hand in hand through
all the caiamities of a long and flnguinary war
they had exhaufted a large creature, and much of
the beit blood of their REFLECTIVE inhabitants in
| this Perilous pilgrimage but they had at length
| arrived at the land o. promile. They had raft
ed shemtelves from the humble condition of Bril-
th colonies, to the elevated rank of free and in
dependent Rates. Each had acquired for the
| others the ineitimable privilege of GROWING
their united exertions and their common victory
by the formation of free and provident conftitu-
tons. Would it not have been ridiculous for
| them, inftead of enjoying all the blciiings which
were thus prcfufcly fpread before them; n.tead
of generouGy ccntending which ihould bet ie-
cure their free contributions by wife and vigil
liant policy; to enter into the ufelefs controver-
fy of which ftate had made the greateft exertions
during the revolution, and which had deierved
the greateft merit for the victory they had Joint
! ly obtained! IF the circumstances OF the times
bad infpired in iome greater zeal, or impofed
upon others itronger neceiiity of contributing
more than their proper quota to the war, of
what mighty moment was it that the proporti-
onate merit of each fate ihould have been accu-
| IdtSIy duJulted. y nave ilcSItalnSQ the peCu-
mary expenditures of the different itates, might
have been the dictate of found policy becaufe
they had no other f:ale to calculate the proper
ton of the public debt which each of them
| ihould be called upon to difcharge. But how
would the public interef have been promoted
| by counting Up the drops of blood which each
had generously fhed for the common well
fare; of bringing into the field of companion
all the heroes and politicians who had fuccefive-
Itr dorm &c
entering into the elaborate, frutlefs, and queru-
lous enquiry, whether the fouthern, weiten, or
northern inhabitants had mott highly deferved
| the need of heroic achievement or enlightened
policy? Surely the ambition of any one fate
would have been efficiently contented with al
lowing to others, and wearing on its own ho-
i noured brow, Jingle leaf of the laurel,
without claiming the executive honors of the
victorious wreath. This was the obvious duty
which every confederation of ttlict juftice, or an
enlightened love of our country ihould have
contributed to have impofed mPen then; safiili,
which all the fympathies of the American cha
racter, nurtured by common war and federal
government would have Inclined them to OBJ
ferve. Twenty years had paiied over with
out producing any fyftematic attempt to in
vettigate the relative merits of the ftates dur
ing the revolutionary war; and the diigraceful
effort to interrupt this liberal difpolition has
months.
Let IL the honors of this attempt be given
to thoie federalifts of the northern ftates who
have anxioully afpired to diflolution of the
union. They have called in all the ungenerous
arts of INTERPRETATION to aiiift them in the ex-
ecution of their fchemes. They have not been
contented with afierting that the fouthern ftates
had adopted fet of interefts unfavorable to the
intereftS of the northern inhabitants and that
Virginia was at the head of this fouthern
confederacy. Their exertions have taken a wi
der range. They have laboured to bring the
mott profound contempt upon her national
: character, by eating into ihade all the virtues
which have ever been attributed to her inhabi-
tants, and by drawing at full length all their
imperfeGtions. They have contrived to define
ate picture, which Hlould combine the wildeft
ambition with the mott contemplate cowardice
and inactivity. They have thought it necefa-
ry to the fucceis OF their chemes, that the fate
OF Virginia thould appear " thorn OF all the
beams" with which her revolutionary exertions
had encirCled it and which had hitherto given
it fuch difinguifhed luftre in the American con-
fellation. They have turned over the pages of
the American hiftory for the purpofe of proving,
that her exertions during the revolution were not
concentrate with her own refources, or equal
to the exertions of her filter ftates. Far be it
from NE to detraGt from the well-earned honors
OF the other Rates, acquired during the revolut-
on. Far be 1t from me to fay that their achiev4
ments have been eclipfcd by thofe of my own
countrymen yet j may without prejudice or
vanity exprefs my belief, that they do not
poiieis hyperion iutre Ill the annals of our
country. To fettle this point, let us once
more reftlme thcie hiforical documents. Let
us enquire, not whether Virginia has made great
er eXertions and deferved higher glory than the
other ftates; bit whether ihe has not at leait
contributed an equal effort to the confummati-
on of American independence. Let US examine
TINS iubject in regard to her Political meaf4re5,
and to her military exeriioUJ.
i POLITICAL MEAsUREs.-All the colonits
from England had brought with them the fame
fpirt and kind of political freedom, which has
'er animated i'll fome degree the inhabitants of
that country, and which the Britiih contribution
is IN fome refpects calculated to nfpire. They
brought with them the important maxim that
the hgl7afiUe power of the country at leaR
ihould be conferred on men of their own choo-
ling, and that the right of pafing laws for the
Retirement Of financial arrangements fhould be-
long to this elective body, uncontrolled by the
legiiIature OF the mother country. IF we look
into the charters of che different colonies, or if
we examine the fpecifc intruetions given by
the Engllih proprietaries to their agents in Ame-
rlca, we HALL find that either the right is ex-