The Rhode-Island Republican. [volume] (Newport, R.I.) 1809-1841, 1811-09-25
MISCELLANY.
From the .ALsANr REcfsgEs.
On the difionafick a5surdiiies and anti s4nsei
iccn doctrines Of Timothy Pickering.
BY EDMOND c. GENET.
II (ifi-en of .New- York.


Ing and unfortunately the most common !;
hence those innumerablc collections of con-
Trajectory, useless and arbitrary laws which
cucumber the archives of almost every coun-
try. Called by the favour Of Court or of a
Republick TO the councils of nation, every
little ephemerai statesman considers himself
as Solon or Lycurgus, and crowds his
thoughts, his dreams or his rcsentments into
code of the people doomed to submit to his
crrours by such men, when MIR. Pickering
was driving with centrifugal rashness the
wheels Of the federal administration when
terror and extermina,ion were become the
sign and countcrsign of his measures when
his bosom friends, representatives OF peos
pie distinguished by its philanthropy, were
industriously exciting every American citi-
zen, every American woman, every Amcri-
can child, to murder every Frenchnan, every
French woman, and every French child in
America when the men-of-war Of the Unit :
cd States were degraded into tenders to the
British squadrons, and when unsuspccting
Frcnchmcn hailing with Joy the approach of
Americans as friends and brothers, received
carnage and death as the reward for their
credulity the laws OF the United States
have been disgraced by statutes destructive Of
the liberty Of the press and the freedom OF
thought air and light have been taxed, nat
uralizaticn protracted beyond the probable
/ duration Of human life, In q new country
whose agronomical and manufacturing policy
| ought constantly 10 favour the encouragement
| Of foreign emigration and our pational leg
| islature have been arlfully brought 10 pa.9
municipal and Of course repcalable laws, un-
necessarily bordering on REIMBURSEMENT OF
| maritime dominion secured and warranted
by ancient and modern treaties. Unable
now, to dictate such Irrational laws, that gen.
tleman TO indulge his lcgislating propensity
has embraced the law OF nations as his hobby
horse, and from the Presidential chair OF the
Essex Junto, promulgatcs under his own au.
l .h.,sisp the fsrann;call nr;nnirIsa AT sh- Dr.
sh navy, and presents that code OF oppres-
| sion and iniqoiiy, the occasion OF so many
| wars and under which our commerce has re-
| ceived so many injuries, as pattern OF hui
man wisdom. Such are his words az record
cd in his XVIth number.
"Wheh nation is engaged in war and
sends out It's armed vessels to cruize on the
! seas, the common highway OF nations, then
| the rights to chase, TO hail, to require an an-
/ swcr, 10 board, to search and eventually 10 at~
| tack accrues to the vessels of the nation at
war, because they have right TO capture
those of their enemy, for without these rights
naval war would be useless, or rather could
not exist The neutral armed vessel on the
contrary, seeing her nation is at peace with
all other nations, Possesses none of these rights,
1 because they arc rot necessary 10 any V me
| objects Of neutrality and feaee. On the con-
trary she is bornd to avoid every hostile act
| except in her own defence when unJustIy at-
| tackled. When she meets bclligerent arm
! ed vessel, ifis her duty, If it be demanded, to
make known her neutral character to prevent
| the shedding OF innocent blood and the evils
] Of war kazarded by refusal to answer. IS
neutral she has no evil or Incompetence 10
apprehcnd by making her neutrality known
she has no right to chase, TO hail, and insisr
! upon an answer to board and search because
/ she has no right to make capture"
] The French, during their revolutionary
| fever, had among them Prussian oy inc
name Of Anacharsis Cloots, who entitled him
self the orator of the human race and Mr.
Pickering, after this exhibition OF his knowl'
cdoe. il EQUALLY entitled to the distinction o
LEGISLATOR Of the seas. lie does not hum
ble his genius 10 study the old or the mod
! ern laws of nations he does not trouble
himself with the elaborate researches O
Cro,ius or Puffendcrf he has even forgot
ten the old friends Of the department oil state
Vat;el and Professor Martin but discpgag'
inc himself of all those letters, and consid'
cring the modern law Of nations as bubbi.
blown by the pride Of Catharine I'D and pull
fed up by Napoleon Ist. he embraces wisi
ycneration the regulations and orders OF tn'
British navy on the high seas as the law
nations, whenever they are favourable not
his country, but to its ancient opprcssors.
AS an American deeply Interested IN tn
honour and dignity Of the North america ei.:S.
eoniederacy, even admitting our marltlm %
dorninion to be out Of question In the Gas
now under consideration, my mind Ievo'ts. .
= a doctrine evidently designed to elminans
our navy. have diligently examined al IN
daeunncnfs relative 10 neutri