Portland gazette and Maine advertiser. (Portland, Me.) 1805-1818, 1807-11-02
aeiscfIlarlfous SELECTIONS.
To Farmers and LandAolders.


You have seen in the democratic pa
pers, If YOU read them, for a year or
two past, a constant strain Of harrangue
to persuade you, that you have differ
ent and distinct interest from the mer-
chant. You have been told by Duane's
/ ESSAYS, called g Politics for Farmers"
which were published and very warmly
recommended in all our Jefiersonian
prints, that the interests of the Farmers
and the Merchants claShed, and that the
former should consider themselves as a
rival class in society and cherish sort
of hostility against the views and inter-
/, ests Of the latter Since the late great
struggle to reconcile this country to
war, you have again been told by Mr..
JefFerson's paper, and the sentiments
have been detailed in all the minor
prints ofthe party, that the interests of
the merchants must not, in the discus
sion of this question, be allowed any
weight. Insulting you as capable Of
seeing your commercial brethren ruin
ed without a sensation of regret, you
are told as though it would remove eve
ry objection in your minds, that on
then, will fall the principal weight of
those evils which the contemplated war
viii produce.
Farmers and Landholders ! the time
seems fast approaching when the fall
sity-of these disgraceful doctrines will
be exposed by bitter experience. Let
me persuade you to remark what has
already takcH place, to teach you what
is to follow. Lumber is, in the eas-
tern part of this state, an important ar
tiole of commerce. Before the enlist
ing Of British seamen, mutineers and
! deserters into our service brought on a
dispute with England, (the result Of
which is alarming) boards brought in
Portland and other eastern ports four.
teen dollars a thousand. Commerce
is impeded by public distrust-boards
are already down 10 seven dollars
thousand. Who suffers most-the
farm owner, who makes the lumber
for sale or the merchant! In purchas-
ing and selling hundred thousand
Of boards before, the merchant, If he
gained ten per cent. cleared lao dollars.
In purchasing and selling the same
now, allowing him a proportionable
profit on his stock, he will gain but 70
dollars, losing 20 by fear of war. The
owner Of the farm and mill, received
before, for his 100 900 boards, l,4oo
dollars. He can now get but 700 for
the same quantity-losing 700 dollars
where the merchant loses bat 20, on
one and the same article.
| We come next TO Our Farmers in
! Massachusetts, proper, Newhampshire
and Vermont. You know what your
beef sold for last winter. The mer-
chant 10 whom you sold, gained a Ger
! tain percentage on the quantity he pur-
chased. II the demand falls this season.
IS there isevery reason to suppose it
will, the merchant viii loose a portion
of has tra.. md profits. But the farm
er win SINK one quarter, one third, per
| lIaps one half Of the whole CAST years.
value Of his tecf.
| IF the fear Of war produces this eff
| feet what VIII the reality?
These reflections, though they do
| not bear upon the merits ofthe nation
al dispute, siiew in plain and practical
view, how gross is that delusion which
the administration and their support
| ers are zea!ously spreading through the
country. But the froth Of words must
and certainly will soon yield 10 such
demonstration, as is now beginning,
When the lumber cart goes home and
The teamster tells his employer, was
obliged to sell your boards for dollars
thousand, for could get no more
when the drover goes back to the coun-
try, having sold his cattle for half price
let our eastern forester and farmer Of
the interior rumnage up the National
E1:eMgencer, the aurora or the ChroH-
! icie, and console themselves if they can,
with the false assurances of those advo-
Gates of war-those lying prophets who
said to them" fear nothing--the tenn
pest will but sweep away the merchant,
! whom you ought to hate. ''-Refertory.
- s0to5ooSjsc1D
! ANECDOTES, sc.
! rucTEn ny A TpsyFItk-.