The enquirer. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1804-1815, 1807-01-29

not uSSlUC Wncu our troops VIII aFVlvc-tneY
will get poheflion of the ordnance, and nothing
can prevent the reduction of Orleans but a
pitched battle.
But who can Zee, according 10 the intiration
of fome gentlemen, in the refolutiou under diff
cufIion, propolition either for a war or peace
eaabliihment. 1t is no fuch proposition. It
feems, however, that an expreiiion of mine
bore hard on the worthy gentleman from Penn
fylvauia, for which am very forty. But
can only fay, q" let the CALLED jade vince, Our
withers are unwrung." But beg leave TO re-
pei in the mott decided manner the charge that
we are triumphing at the consequences of the
meaiures of the lait year. If could triumph
at the calamitous fituation of my country, there
is ample caufe indeed for triumph. But let me
change Gtuations with the other gentleman.
Let him have the finger of fcorn pointed at
him--Let him be denounced, let the cry of mad
dog, of political detection be raifed againft
him-and let him fee all the meafures for which
this denunciation was made adopted and af1ert-
ed by his advertaries-would he not feel fome
chucklng-or would he be 10 bafc, 70 mean, 70
abjeet, as to lay down and fay that tho he
knew them to be right, he dare not declare them
10. You may begin with thefe msafures, aud
go on from alpha TO omega. The 6rft of them
is the famous non.importation law. It's gone
abandoned, given up. Another great point of
difference was the bill relative to the public
debt, which we have had under confederation
this day. 1t is paHed. Then comes the falt
taX-pafied on recommendation from the ex-
ecutive. We have next the mealures for the
increaie of the public force; we have bill
from the Senate to that effect. And are we to
be amufed by aqaibbling dittin6ion between
war and peace eftablilhment /. The force is
the fame, in either cafe ready to he ufed againft
foreign enemies or domeitc onfpirators there
& h hat
ton was lefS obnoxious than theirs in as much
as the peace efabliihment is for all time, the
war ettablifbment merely temporary. And is
1t not wonderful that gentlemen who avow
themtelves hottie 20 Handing army are a.
gainft temporary, but in favor permanent
eftablifhment. No, fir, / cannot take a retro
ipect of the pat without feeling degree of
conicious pride that my aid was not given, that
bad no hand in the acts of commiiiion or omit
fon that have brought us to this deplorable
fate of things. am aiked if | foreiaw the
confpiracy of this, as he has been called, mo-
dcrn Catalina, and if / did not, am delired to
take no credit to myfelf for the meafures pro-
pofed. What Will logic of this kind go
down with the houfe or the nation Becaufe
we did not point out individual danger, but
toretold it in the general, are we to be denied
the credit of warning the country againlt any
danger? But well recolleSt there was an ar
yument urged, if not in thefe words, to this
effect if you do not protect the weftern peo-
pie, and extend to them the benefits of free,
equal, and ftrong government | fay Rropg,
for none but an equal and free government can
be ftrong; they will look out for friends and
protectors elfewhere and is not this predict
on verified ? tits, fir 1 fay not this in relati-
on to the wefern people exclulively ; the fame
would be the cafe in any other part of the u
Mon. Suppofe the line of Vermont threaten
ed T.; that Brtifh troops fhould pats it in bottle
array and that the Britih minifer fheuld act
in the fame way with the Spanifh minifer?
What would the public fenGblity be /? What
1t ought to have been lat year,-what it ought
to be now.
But the gentleman from Pennsylvania fays,
by pafling this reiolution we fhal betray a want
of confidence in the executive, and more efpe-
cially in the PIsfdent-that he will give US
fhch information as he thinks proper, and If we
want more, we act like naughty boys, who call
for more than comes totheir fhare. Indeed Did
that gentleman, in the better part of his poIiti-
cal life, utter fuch fentiments. I'll warrant
him he did not, and when he feels how contra
detory they are to all the good old maxims of
the republican party, / am confident he will alb
jure them. AS TO my confidence, | am not 70
fortunately ftuated as the gentleman from
Pennsylvania; becauie my belief in men, po-
a
as of faith. There never did, or can exit a
Preiident of the United States who will COM
mand my confidence to the extent of the gen
tleman from Pennsylvania, and / believe the
cultivation of degree of fcepticfm in politics
would not be unufeful to that gentleman as well
as others. My confidence in the executive will
depend on their conduct. IF their conduA
lhall be fuch as it ought to be, they fhaIl have
my confidence. But j cannot &c 70 far az TO
mortgage it to them, be their conduct what il
may, without refsrving even an equity of re-
demption. This may be an infirmity of nv
nature but cannot, I never could act other
wife. | think the gentleman fad, that if on
account of the acquiiition of LouiGana, il were
thought necefiary to increafe our peace eta
bfhment, he ihoud be willing to go as far as
the bill from the Senate goes. When was that
territory acquired? Since the laR felion IF
70, his obiervation is TO the purpofe but TO
make an acquiltion, obtained three or four
years ago, the caule of augmenting the peace
eftablfhment of the prefent day, is rather un-
fortunate, and it appears to me that if the in
create of the army be intended for pacific DIR
poies, the greater the increafs the worfe our
htuation. As to Handing armies, have no
great idea of them-trHgeJ eonJun1ere maitland
with regard to our army they are 70 cst up
that little reliance can be placed upon them.
We find one company between the two nates
Of Rhode Hand and Connecticut, one company
in Bottom harbor, and at the arfenal at Spring
field, one company appointed to defend the