Virginia Argus. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1796-1816, 1807-02-13
VIRGINIA ARGUS.
RICHM MO Nd:
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY IS, 1907.


THE. intelligence lately received from
Baltimore, that our differences with Great
Britain, have been accommodated, and that
M. Monroe is now on his way to the United
States, together with the Treaty he has con-
Guided, has confirmed our own suppositions
OF the truth, and fully corroborates the hopes
held forth in Mr.. Jeiferson's late communi-
cations to congress, as well as Tie reasona-
bic expectations which might be entertain
ed from the present state of affairs in Eu-
rope. The victories of Bonaparte on the
continent. however pregnant with evil in o.
ther respects, have probably produced one
good effect, in compelling Great Britain TO
do US justice. At a time when her COM
Inerce is about to be excluded from all the
ports in Europe, and the wide-spreading
Sevastations Of thatnnparalleledcon queror,
who daily progresses nearer 30 univer sal en-
pire, threaten soon to consume her altoge-
Their, the only resource of our guonddm ~
a:annicGl mother country appears to be in
the Friendship OF the children she has So
grievopsly insulted and oppressed. In this
awful and portentous crisis, it will be the
magnanimous policy of America, not to re-
member her injuries with malice but ne
Vertheless to preserve adignihedneutrality
content with asserting and maintaining
her own rights, without intermeddling with
those of others; well knowing that the COR
rupt government of Great Britain is as
much disposed to grasp at power as that of
France and that success at present makes
the only difference between them, relative
TO their conduct to othernations The doc
trne of the necessity of preserving the ba
lance of power i'll Europe, which has occa-
stoned so many ridiculous, and, at the same
time, deplorablc wars among the nations of
Of, ~. Vii 10.
will never influence the happy people OF
these United States, to quit the plain path
ofpeace and prosperity. Our endeavor, we
trust, will always be to defend ourselves a
sainst all invaders, and to trade with equal
freedom with all nations, however unfavor-
able may be our opinions of their forms of
government, or of the conduct of their ru-
lers. As political QuiXottes or reformers,
We will never engage in foreign wars, but
instruct mankind in the duties, by our
own example of just and upright conduct,
and point out to them the road to true felici-
ty, by exhibiting the spectacle to an admir-
ing world, of the blissful state of free, qui-
ct, and unambtious people, whose glory,
consisting in cultivating the arts of peace,
will be far more precious than all the bloc
dy trophies of Macedonia, Rome, or still
more terrific France.
THE conduct of the House of Represen-
tatives of the United States, in rejecting the
bill, "To suspend the privilege of the writ
" of Habeas Corpus for limited time in
"certain cases." was highly commendable,
and consistent with the republican princi-
pies which govern the majority of that body
II is an old, and very correct maxim, that
evil ought not to be done that good may come
Gift; for, in fact, although the Almighty has
it in his power to deducc good from evil, or
rather, to defeat the bad designs of men, aud
turn them to the wise purposes of his provi-
dence, vet where men commit that which
is wrong in itself, he seldom prcspers their
exertlons, or enables them TO accomplish a.
ny permanent good Whenever wicked
principles are complied with, for temporary
purposes, notwithstanding the motive is said
TO be the establishment of a system bencf-
cial to mankind, it may be taken for grant
cd, either that those who act ia that manner
are hypocrites and secret enemies to the
cause they pretend to espouse, or are mis-
led to their own destruction. The Ameri-
can and French Revolutions present TO the
world striking examples to prove the truth
of this important maxim. The leaders Of
the revolution in America, pursued noble
ends by noble means, and were finally Sue
ccssful while those who attempted to di-
rect the storm in France, by adopting the
Jesuitical maxim, that the end sanctihed =.
means, and that every thing was right Win,
was done for the safety of their country de-
feated their own object in the end, -and ge-
morally persisted on scaffod. This mea-
sure of suspending the habeas corpus act
now SO familiar, unfortunately, to the ty.
rants of Great Britain, is exactly similar tc
the arbitrary arrests permitted in France,
during the revolutionary government, when
freedom and republicanism were all the cry
of the factions III power, while their practice
was in direct opposition to their professions
The rejection of the bill by the House of Re-
representatives., is a remarkable evidence in
addition to the mass already furnished 20 the
same effect, that the republicanIsm of Amc-
Ficans, is not in theory only, but in practice,
that the dread OF foreign danger or of do
mcstic Instructions, will not turn them a
side from the course of political integrity,
however trying and difficult their situation
may seem to be. It must be admitted, how
ever, that, in this case, the conspiracy OF
Burr having been i'll all probability already
dissipated, the danger could by no means
warrant the adoption Of the measure pro-
posed by the Senate, even in conformity
with the erroneous principle we have men
toned and VIC arc astonished that the ma
jority of that house, consisting of protested
republicans, could ever have agreed to such
bill.