Alexandria daily gazette, commercial & political. [volume] (Alexandria [Va.]) 1808-1812, 1811-09-30

military despotism, and the soldiers of liber-
ty have become the blood-hounds of the most
remorseless tyranny, the most insatiate ambi-
ton. The independence of all the surround.
ing States has been trampled on, the names of
many obliterated, and the commercial Repub-
lies, distinguished by an excess of wrong and
inockery, which has been as carefully proper
toned to their former liberty and happiness,
as if it were high treason to the conqueror e.
yer to have been free and prosperous Forms
of Government the most fantastic, and code
of laws inadequate to all the Just purposes of
law, have been prescribed indiscriminately
to France and all her fellow vassals, with as
es of the several States, and imposed with as
little ceremony, as new parade-dress on a
regiment OF conscripts. The rights of States
has been followed by those of individuals.
Their property has been rooted up by plum
der, OF moved down 0y still recurring con-
tributions, and by taxes increasing, as the
sources of payment are cut of or dried up.
Lastly, all the youth and manhood OF the I'M
est parts of Earope from the Vistula to the
shores Of the Mediterranean, scarcely supply
the yorAcity and eternal hunger of the Com
serif.i3n, that vultare, which perchcd on the
steps of the throne On which the French Mo-
och SITS incarnate, feeds on the heart and vitals
OF the grand victim beneath his foot !! Nor,
while az are oppressed, have single acts Of
peculiar atrocisy been wanting. The ingenu-
ity OF guilt has learnt to vary even the coaly
Ethiop's skin with spots Of deeper black.
These are truths, unexaggerated truths and,
thank Heaven they are likewise notorious
truths, which Fiction cannot hide, which So
phistry cannot raltigate--No nor yet can the
sickly prudery, SO fashionable at present, of
discountcnancing the plain honest nomencla-
ture OF vice and virtue, avail to dilute them
into insipidity.
Well then, if even the cold and torpid Hol-
lander, with the French bayonet at his throat,
can hardly stiac the curse that is struggling
there, what must not nation Of regencrated
Republicans who stand at safe distance; who
dared speak ali they think, and express all
they feel, among whom a general conviction
cannot exist without relieving itself as hubHc
ofinion--what must not America have telt
Her old Ally, rendered yet more dear as
: Sister Republic, enslaved to d foreign adven-
turer by means of the armies with which she
herself had entrusted him, as her sworn SOL
der. The republic passed away, like the
dream of slave, who had fallen asleep dur
ing the bargaining, which ended In transfer
ring him to a new and mere cruel master;
and the very name of liberty prescribed and
reasonable Add too the glaring contrast
between the perurcd Usurper OF France, le-
prous with guilt, farrsd and coated with con-
fluent great and small murders, and her own
spotless WAsHINGroN-and what must not
AMERICA have felt
But one country, like city on the breast OF
high mountain, still looked down upon the
stupendous inundation which had overwhelm-
ed the rest of civilized Europe, safe, though
not secure Here Was the sole refuge tor
the fugitives from the fury OF the dcluge;
here the sole aid TO those that yet struggled.
From the same heights blew the strong wind
which sbouldering the food, held 1t back, like
a wall of waters, threatening yet suspended !
Hence, and only hence, seemed to come the
divine mandate, and no farther Yes! Bril-
tain had remained entire when all else Oh Eu-
rome had been Remembered; she had risen
and strengthened, when all others had sunk
abiect and unresisting. With an expenditure
OF blood and treasure, with fecundlty OF re-
source and obstinacy Of effort, which the pre-
sent age witnesses, and posterity will contem-
Mate with >uCh wonder, as almost tnges Ger
tainty with feeling OF unbeiief, GreaI-Brltaln
has supported her agony Of glory, made her.
self mistress of the seas, and interceptlng the
iron rod with her trident, las saved from the
Usurper, not only the ocean, but every land
and nation to which the ocean is the only Prac-
tic,b.e road And this, Great-Britain has
been enabled to do, because she is free, go
verned by equal laws, and comparatively at
least) moral religious and obedient to the llv-
inc instincts of honor and virtuous ahame.
What then must not America have telt at
this spectacle? For Britain is her mother
country, the dear land of her foref,thers!
And if the same language, the same books, the
same laws, the same ancestry and with ex'
ception of one single generatlon) the Same
history, can consulate country IT that dear
and lofty word mean aught beside ene ciou
under our feet; the Britons still remain the
countrvmen of Americans Will she not
then have said to herself, had the councils OF
wisdom been heard, instead of a violent and