Martinsburgh gazette. [volume] (Martinsburgh, Va. [W. Va.]) 1810-1825, 1811-11-01
POLITICAL.
From the Charleston Courier.
TO JAMES MADISON,
No. ".
PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.


the basis, ON which you founded your idea of
an administration for the interest and glory
of this republic call my county to witness
shat you have, in no respect, failed to entail
zpon them the mseries that such folly might
be we'll supposed able to accomplish.
Your flatterers have the hardihood to call
Ss prosperous and happy people. They
ought to be ashamed of thus abusing the com
mon sense of their countrymen They ought
10 have more respect for you, sir, than thus
to outrage truth and put decency to shame,
by such assertions, made in your behalf A
prosperous and happy people does the ma
turc ofthngs alter, and does language change
the meaning of its terms, to suit the conve-
nience of these declaimers
Prosperity used to signify successful and
profitable employment of the sagacity and in
dustry Of man. Are we still prosperous when
these arc BUNDLED under ignorance, and when
industry only increases the effort without
bringing any reward Is the mechanic pros
porous Ii he be so, he is ungrateful, for he
does not cease to complain of the pressure of
this iron age. Is the planter prosperous
Look in the price current for the articles of
sotton, rice, indigo and tobacco. Is the mer-
chant prosperous Ask the directors of
banking institutions-inqur the rate of usury
Judge how they can be otherwise than
prosperous in these prosperous times
Aswe are prosperous, so too, we are hap
py people You are scholar, sir. and
know that happiness, in the abstract, is an
idea that agtates the dsputations of the uni.
yersities The question may be decided.
metaphysicaly, as fedged and unfledged ac-
ademicians may please: But, sir, when it
comes to practice and to life, we feel what
happiness means. OF late years we can Judge
with peculiar accuracy on this subject; we
estimate byan opposite, we can well describe
what happiness means by stripping state of
suffering of all its characteristics.
Generally speaking, prosperity and happi
ness so hand in hand They arc compan-
ions ofvery old acquaintance if they sepa
rate 1t Is to meet again. How long they are
to remain in this countryis not for YOUR ex
ceency to determine The American peo
pie must look to that, and must decide very
shortly. The cry of alls well. from the
capitol and from the palace by no means Sc
cures their residence. There was time
when faithful watchmen guarded our safety
but you know, sir, that times are altered.
Should you doubt my authority, on the
subject oiyoar conntry's prosperity and hap.
piness, pray call upon your secretary of the
treasury and ask him what are his WAYS and
means for meeting the current expenses of the
coming year.
The bank stock of government is sold
Western lands are at market but no one has
money to buy if they are sold they must be
sold at a sacrliice-custom house bonds are
mortgaged to pay the interest of the national
debt, and to redeem that proportion of the
principal which has uniformly been paid for
the purpose of deceiving the people: who
looked only at the reduction of the old debts
and did not calculate the increase of the new.
Direct taxes your own fears and the fears of
your friends will not suffer you to charge IN
On the country indirect taxation falls with
the commerce that must always be its feeder
You have nothing in anticipation on which to,
predicate loan. Under your suspicious adj
minlstraton no reason can exist for believing
that the next year will be IS prosperous or
happy as the present. We have seen. that
difficulties multiply and that embarras sments
increase from day to day. Your secretary Of
the treasury feels this truth very .ensibly.
Embarressments in the finances of ma
ton, sooner or later, brings sovereigns and
rulers to a state OF serious thinking. Indi-
siduals may suffer the privation of common
necessaries-g loom and despondencv NAV
settle upon the mass of society--general and
Increasing distress may pervade the land, and
still, monarch and president NAV be deaf
TO the voice of complaint as long as they have
the means of living luxuriously themselves
and OF carrying on the ordinary routine of
national business. But, sir, when the trea- |
sury becomes empty, when the revenue is
exhausted and the people are called upon for
new contributions, it is then that their muir
murs must be listened to. You are learn
cd man, sir, and can quote, from history
many examples to illustrate these remarks
Two signal cases to this point are 20 be found
in the records of England and France. iii
Charles the first had not been ohlined to re