The enquirer. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1804-1815, 1809-03-07

'NhN ~ SCAoA w h'-t
L .tlo not pretend to understand, it was deter
mined. by 4 formal vol" too, that there was
y nice distinction somewhere, between busi-
nrss nny!ntshcd and unfinished business-
and 10! What does the House, but take M
the proposition of a gentleman from Fer-
mont to repeal the embargo. Although they
mad been bo!stering up the embargo before
buttrcssing it, as many intelligent and ho-
nest men believe, at the expence of the best
principles of the constitution, they now took
up the resolution for repeating the embar-
barge. What happened that night rod
knows-but the next day the bill was re-
sumed, urgency again decreed and it was
driven, Jehu-like, through the House, thro'
all le stages from n committee to it's third
reading and final passage. !, who nave
scarcely been able to hold mp my head since
the night when that report was so vehe-
mently passed, which has slept so soundly
ever since, came to the House at 9 or 10 o.
clock with Che hope if nor OF speaking. at
least or exercising my right of s1ffrage--.
but somewhere between four and five O'Clock
IN the morning / was compelled to leave it ::
and at breakfast, about two in the afternoon
on that day, l heard that the bill was pas
sed-you know hOSv, :ir. Mr.. Randolph
said, he mentior"d this thing not with the
slightest view of creating unpleasant sensa.
tloIs Ill the bosom of any human beiug-no-
thing was further from his mind--but to
prevent, 1t possible, the recurrence of a ST.
pilar circumstance !; and to do more-to
shew. that after all their vibrations, and le-
Sisiative contentious, they had come back TO
the proposal laid on the table almost the
first dav of the session to repeal the embar-
go; and he did most cordially congratulate
every man iii the House upon this event, eX-
cept those gentlemen who considered the
embargoa political panacea, which no cir
cnmstances, whatsoever be the consequence,
should ever induce us to give up. He trus-
ted that they were few, and though he had
such confidence III some of them that he be-
lteved nothing would change their opinion,
he hoped that this few were daily and hour
ly diminishing.
10 get back in his rambling way to this
decisive stroke, not now, but some time or
other OF going to war, of taking Canada
IL would be a sort of deed of trust from the
BODY politician Instrument with which I
am sorry to say that we gentlemen from the
5onih are but too we'll acquainted-a deceit
fui present relief at the eXpence of 4 certain
but remote evil, we may invert the tele-
scope from its true position and the evil les
to our vjcw-but the day must come
when that pledge must be redeemed and
indeed whatsoever cause he might have as
an individual, he should not like to give bond
- ~ A'6hN bSHN } Sal lac ilsi
ia the mean time undergo a great rcvoluti-
on ct opinion he might change his religi-
Ola ; perhaps turn Quaker; and really if
ne we're TO Change at all, he believed he
could not do better; for theirs was a system
OF order, industry, charity and peace-of
comfort and atauence too, very good things
in their way.
lie was against piunging in this dashing
way into war; because there was n posi-
Ia a 70 nnxr ---- II
(Mr. BurwelD seemed to think, a pretty
good hope, that we might get out of the
scrape without a war, provided we would
take his prescription. He felt the more and
more indisposed to war, and should every
day while he lived, when he looked at GER
tam consequences and reflected on certain
doctrines which had grown too familiar, in
his apprehension, to the minds of that House.
We too had a navy. 1t had cost us near
twenty-three millions of dollars, about ten
millions Of which had been spent by the fer
mer administration 1t had cost us a great
deal more than LonisianNa and he ventur-
ed to say that none but those gentlemen who
view louisiana las he did the embargo) as
a positive evil, would consider our navy of
as much importance to- us as the navigation
of the Mississippi. The cost is tremendous
for a machine which, if they adopted his
colleagues (Mr Nicholas's) proposition,
must be enlarged, repaired, beautitied &
built up on an extended scale. it was more
unfortunate that VIC had paid so much for
the cost OF a machine rusting all the time
IN ldlcness. We might then calculate from
this fact what this cost would be, provided
the House adopted the resolution of the gen
tleman from Virginia, in it's broad form, the
most dangerous ever presented in that House
and pledged the nation to the maritime
! defence Of commerce.
From the commencement Of the present
administration. to the present day, a princi-
pie so ahhorrcut to his mind, so dangerous to
the liberties of this country, had never been
proposed to Congress. II cOntemplates a
pledge Of every drop of blood, Of every shil-
ling Oh money, TO the maritime protection of
commerce. Eat modUs in rebuS. He was
not willing on one day to lay the axe to the
neck Of commerce, to decolllte her-and the
next day to dccollate himself, to commit sui
eide for the sake of m Ifcommercc
could not take care ~ofitseif, it was not worth
caring for. But after all that had been 4aid
on the subject OF 2 navy, properly so called,
ships and scamcn , uld, somehow or other,
work ont their owu salvation. A great ma
ny Of them may be destroyed, but the rest
would make such profitable voyages As to
induce others to run the same risk. He look
ed ut this proposition, therefore, with az