Alexandria daily gazette, commercial & political. [volume] (Alexandria [Va.]) 1808-1812, 1811-08-05
From the SALEM Gaseffe.
Mr. PIcKERING'S ADDRESS
TO THE
PEOPLE OF THE UNITED SIAFES
=. No. XIX.
/no,cIudeG
(C0neluded.)

4 e
Tam welIaw.re that the reasons assign
ed by the French minister for the KAN
bouiilet decree are but tGlse- pretenees.-
LYING. formal, organized LYING, is a part
of the French emperor's system OF 60
vernment, as the plander OF American
!" commerce is within the scope OF his po-
Iiey."* But those who still affect to be-
lieye in his.promises--Who, HE the ERE
sident and Congress of the u States, pass
laws aud issue proclamations lonhied on
the promises and declarations Oh HE en-
perOr Napoleon, whose open violation OF
the law of nations and Of his treaty With
the United States, Mr.. Madison had,him-
self publicly stated; whose utter disregard
to truth, whose perfidy aad complicated
crimes can i'm modern times lind no parai:
lei: and which have been manifest to them
and to the world such men; say, who
have had the evidences OF his falsehood
and perfidy before their eyes-cvidences
received and read by the President, and
by him laid before Consress-sueh men
cannot consistently object to the empe--
ror's iniquitous perversion OF their own
acts, and Offering them as reasons for his
robberies; for they still continue to trust
lin. ~
Among the papers laid by ,!le President
before Congress at the commencement OF
the last session, was letter OF July 8.
As, 0, confirming what had been SAID IN
his letter of June 9TH, from Mr.. Secreta
~ Smith to Gen. Armstrong In which Is
the following passage :--s' AS has been
heretofore stated 10 yon. a satisfactory pro-,
vision for restoring the property lately
surprized and seized [under the Ram
bouilet decree by the order or at the in
stance OF the government, mast De CON-
bined with a repeal OF the French edicts,
with view to nOn-interc0urse with
reat-Britain, such a provision being an
indispensable evidence Of the just purpose
Of France towards the United States"
But notwithstanding this determination Of
the President on the 9Th OF June and Jul
~, without any restoration, nay, after a
positive declaration by the Frenc]fgo govern
ment that it was taken as a reprisal, and
that "the law Of reprisal must gOvern''tt-
that is, absolute contiscatiOn N0tWith-
standing all this, and witheut an actual re-
peal of the French DEGREES. and oaly upon
the declaration of the most faitliless of hu-
man beings, that those DEGREES Would be
repealed on certain conditions, one of
which (the previous revocation of the Bri-
fish orders in counci!) il remained exclu-
sively with the British government 10 per-
form, but which Mar. Madison knew would
not he performed (because as early as the
SIS; of august. 1910. the British secreta-
~ of state wrote 10 our minister in Lon
don that before such revocation ofthe Or
ders in council would take place +" the
repeal of the French DEGREES must actu-
ally have taken effect Notwithstanding
all these things Mr.. Madison issued his
proclamation declaring that the edicls of
France violating the neutral commerce Of
the United States had or the, fst Of No
vember last been SO revoked as to cease
TO have that effect Thus proclaiming to
the United States and to the world as a
fact what he did not know TO be a fact
on the contrary. what the official eyi-
dence in his possession required him to
believe was not ii feet; and in proclaim
ing which as fact he must knowingly
have disregarded the essential provision
of the law Of Congress under which he
protested to act, and from which alone
could be derived the authority to declare
s"The most extraordinary phenomenon
ever Known moral prodigy unexampied
in the history of mankind-is now exhibited
in France. l mean the regular, systematic,
elaborate organization Of faNhood, as tie 3D.
sis Of the government and tie soul Of all its
hubiie aets"- Faber's. Sketches of the Inter.
nal State of France, quoted in the American
Review for April 1911.
At the close of my 18th address, without