Alexandria daily gazette, commercial & political. [volume] (Alexandria [Va.]) 1808-1812, 1811-03-26

serve reader, that Promise !; the law did not
authorize him to take a fromisr for afas. he
must hrst know the fact he was, as his Own
editor Gales, expresses it, " mere miaisfe-
Tst4 oIhceS" without tic power of excereising
any discretion on the subject; without the
power OF even considering whether hi2ntise
might not be taken as performance: no---hc
had 20 rgheto venture aconJecture; to admit
any construction; nor accept 0: any thing short
CT the plain 1actter u fact. TLs fact was first
to take pk.cc, (and whether that was so, cur
courts end juries, thank God, nave yet the
privilege OF declaring and he Was, then mere
~ 20 declare the satne to the pubic; and if
Great-Britain, (says the law shouid not with
IN :hreemon:hs taeregt Ter, (that is three months
after that ictsand the subsequent declaration
OF it) so revoke or modify Ter DEGREES in like
manner, sc. then that certain sectors Of the
original non-intercourse acts should be revived
against her. Here is a municipal act an act,
consequently, that, according to tie cnaces-
sions Of the administration Itself, as published
in Jetfcrson's message and documents, of No
vcrlber 1908, the United Suites had perfect
right to make, without consulting the pleasure
CT any foreign nation; and waen made to con-
ambassador then III France, 6 but it is only
while they continue to exercise this right with
out suffering any degree of restraint from e-
ther power, France or England that they Can
maintain the independent relation in which
they stand to BOTH" But in the case before
! us, France permits us not to exercise this
! right she tells us how she Shall construe
and how We must execute our own statute: in
sho.i, she lays down the terms which she in-
sists upon our obtaining from G. Britain, be.
| fore she entities herself to the benefit of ou.
law, namely, f.At &. Britain shall not only re-
pei her orders in council; but that she Shall
abandon her principles of blockade, sc. Per-
NIT us to ask, ought not this if nothing else,
! to have made the president pause before he as
sumcd the responsibility OF issuing the procla-
NATION He saw, that, instead OF the fact re-
q,,ircd by the law, he had Only received pro-
mise !; he saw that this trom;se Was made him
Oily on 4 condition, AID he also saw, that it
was u condition, which he had no reason to
expect nc ccuii ever obtain. AID certainly had
not tie means 10 cnforcc, the fu.iiIpent OF go
nor could lie aroit:, also, sccing, that Bona
partc, In cEing this condition, was openly
Insulting bcss Jim and the American nation.
] In.,s..uch as Il was demanding from G. Eri-
! tain the abandonment OF 4 principle, which
! Bonarartc himself hid been acting upun Fnr
years, and was acted Upon ut that riomsnt So!
i mean the principle of paper blockaa,s; Tor
M.:.t osner bioc.sadcs has Eonaparte been able
| 10 institute at any time since the War began
Yet he tells Nj. Madison, without ceremony,
that he mus, compel England co give up this
! species CT l,ockatlc, before nc, Bonaparte,
shall consider ncr as cnti:.!n, herself to the BE-
! nett Of our law, or Us 10 the benefit OF the re-
peal OF his DEGREES.
AS to this conduct Of France, cannot ex-
press better than in Mr.. i ,l.sor,,s OWN lam
gua:sse, IN his letter to Mr.. pinkney of March
1905 " 1t is su, ?adding Il blow at our ma
tional independence and mockery at our UNI
dcrstandings."
But let us leave matter OF fact, a little while,
and take up supposition. Let us suppose,
then, that instead of q promise, we obtainedan
Official notice from Bonapurte. that he had
verbally revoked his edicts on tine first Nov,
accompanied with restoration Of all the pro-
perry seized under the RamboYillet decree.
The next question will be, What would be ne
cessa.y to page G. Brit:in in SUCH state OF
delinquency, as to subject her to the penal
pTOSlSODS VI TIC at IL VIC luih W liiN oSsS
we shall find that it allowed her three iull
months, from, not verb;i repeal OF the de-
crees, lat from an absolute cessation of their
opcruton, and declaration of "that tact In
the Presidents proclamation. Now, we know,
officially, that rs late as the 25th OF December,
those DEGREES were in the full tide OF sue
ccssiul experiment." (and probably they arc
SO YETI consequently the three months could
not possibly begin to run against England be-
fore 'tat period !; but as the fact OF their ccs-
sasion has not been declared by the presl-
dents proclamation since the s6th OF Decs-l-
Der, neither can the three months, according
to the act of May, have begun to run against
England yet.
We have arrived then at this CONCLUSION:
that OH tue most favorable suppositlon, the
proclamation OF the president Was put iol "a
without any legal authority to issue 1t. and was
without force and void, consequently couia
neither have the effect to repeal the stature Oh
Nav 1910 against France, Tor to revive the
statute of Mgrch 1899 against England; ana