Alexandria daily gazette, commercial & political. [volume] (Alexandria [Va.]) 1808-1812, 1810-08-14
From the PHILADELPHIA Register.

~ u
WE WILL STICK TO OUR PARTY.--This
sentiment of false honor, or rather Of blind
obstinacy, has prodigious and most bane-
full influence at the present day. Itrenders
people deaf TO the solemn lessons Of expe-
rience, and causes them TO sin wiIfully a.
gainst the conviction Of their own words.
Thousands and tens Of thousands in this
country know that they ha. esbern wretch
edly deceived. They know that the boasts
and fine promises to which they have lis.
tened with rapture, have been in no. wise
tulalled that the system of policy pursued
by their visionary leaders, has been preg-
nant with evils; and that the man to whom
they all bowed the knee, as tho he were a
god, did, by his whim whams, by his par
tial and imprudent measures, bring nAore
mischief upon this nation than he-would be
able to counterval, were every hair OF his
head an ingot of gold. They had behsld
this nation in the summitof prosperity, at
peace and in high honor with the rest OF the
world, possessing vast commerce, which
was projected by respectable and respect
ed navy. They had bsheld all the wheels
of business, agricultural, commercial and
mechanical, in brisk motien--no citizen at
loss for employment, nor any regular and
lawful employment but met with reasonable
profits. They had behsld the whole coun-
try in greater prosperity than probably any
country else ever enjoyed.
But they were told by ambitious, ar,ful
men, that things were going wrong; that
different course Of policy would add i'm
'mensely to the prosperity Of the country
In an evil hour they were. caught in the
snare. They gave ear to hase latterers and
-calumniators and discarded the men who
hadled them right. Would they have done
this, had they foreseen the consequences
Would they have done it, had they fore
seen that the nation, in nine years, under
this new order Of things, would b. shorn Of
its hcuors, would lose its reputation, and
would sink faster than it ever rose; in z
word, would be reduced TO the embarrassed
and comparatively feeble and 4eontemplble
condition it now is ihs No Thousands
Of them, had they ar first foreseen all this,
would have shrunk back with horror irCEsl
the desperate schemes into which the cum
ming and ambitious were attempting TO ca
.iole them. Yet, after experience has fully
taught them that they are sinking the ship,
and must themselves sink with it, and that,
to the nation, destruction and misery is IN
he way they still persist. Though they
are convinced, they are obstinately deter
mined not to be converted. Why? Be-
cause, think they, zUe must stick to cur tsr-
ty.t That is, in plain English, having been
once wrong, we will always continue So
This is the eStren.= of folly and madness.
" To err is human, It's the common Oct
i" Of frail mortality; and he alone
+" Is wise and happy, who, when Ills arc done
+" Persists not, but would hea! the wound he
made;
" But self. sufficient obstinacy ever
" Is folly utmost height"
SO said and so sang the old Grecian poee
Sophocles, who had no means else of moral
instruction, but from the light Of nature.
-as &c: