Portland gazette and Maine advertiser. (Portland, Me.) 1805-1818, 1808-06-06
9eiste!lalreous aeIeftions.
FROM THE REFunI1cAN CRISIS.

FROM THE REPUBLICAN CRISIS.
EVERY day discloses some new
evidence that we are or the brink Of an
awful precipice, and that unless The
judgments which are impending are
providentially averted, this country
must soon experience the most distress
sing calamities.
Thro' the weakness and the wicked
ness of a corrupt, time-serving admin
istration, we are brought into the most
perilous situation. lis passing belief,
and generations to come will imagine
they are hearing romance, when told,
thatin the short space Of seven years a
nation of freemen, have become Slaves
"a nation OF heroes, patriots and sages
have tamely and basely surrendered
their high prerogatves without the sha-
dow ofan equivalent.
A single step in retrospect, brings
to our view the happy days, The golden
age Of WASHINGTON. O lamented
giories, forever and forever gone =
No space appears unoccupied--aIl is
prosperity, all is happiness. Say not
that difficulties did not then exist
They did exist--they threatened-they
assailed us in many forms and diff
culties Of the most serious kind. In
many respects the times and Interior
circumstances were more threatening
than they have been since. Did Great
Britain menace The remembrance
Of recent injury and conflict sharpened
the edge of our resentments, and spur
red us on ia mutual aggrayations-Bu
Washington was there" And 'repuI-
sed with his breast the assaults Of the
thunder" With the voice of reason
he Gained our hostile feelings and,
IN the firm but temperate language OF
Justice, demanded, and obtained redress
from our naughty foe. Did revolu-
tlonary France exhaust her resources
Of intrigue and corruption to draw US
into the hidcous vortex of her beautiful
Friendship 2 The spirit and feelings Of
our citizens were already embarked on
her side and the difficuldesto our re-
naming neutral, for a time appeared
insurmountable.-But Washington was
ther,-and at his rebuke the emissaries
OF that mnny-headed monster" hid
or Croak'd in vain-And
recovering from its infatua-
ton, gazed with equal gratitude and
establishment on the black crimes of
Atheistical France, and the inevitable
ruin which we had so hardly escaped.
Who that has eyes to see and heart
70 feel, but must devUutly render thanks
to that benefcent providence which
over us in these our days of!
temptation and danger Wisdom,
truth, and virtue, then presided in our
and, amidst ten thousand dam
gers, preserved US unhurt, uncontami- |
mated.
But now--alas how changed ! The
contrast surely must cause every friend
to his country to " heave the natriot
slgh"-Every leading trait in the char
acter OF cur present administration is
marked with weakness, folly OF deceit.
"A correct exhibition of the state of
the country when Mr.. Jefferson came
INTO office, compared with what il now
Is, would be the severest satire on b;s
administration. We were then. nation.
ally, rich and prosperous-we are now
poor, and the sources Of our wealth are
completely blasted.-We were then
honorable for our magnanimity Of sn;r-
Is and respected for our means and
measures to maintain it. We are now
(shame TO its coward authors y in shirt
ana I'D measures, sunk below contemnt
hen, the nation which dared in
suit or lnjure us, I" though oceans rolPdl
between" Jekt our remonstrance andl
rendered JustiCe-Now, to shun the
occasion, we are compelled, by our own
wonderful administration, to obandon
the ocean, and to break off all com.
merce with the rest Of the world Ike
a spiritless, contemplate shanieL veb,-
ins ms own disgrace as he seeks for
safety IN the " digngfed Retirement oil