Martinsburgh gazette. [volume] (Martinsburgh, Va. [W. Va.]) 1810-1825, 1812-10-09

$500
ton, on the 2lst Of Sept 1919, fer the par- 4
pose Of forming a General Ticket Of f. /
lectorS Of President and Vice. President, +
to the FrsehoIders Of Virginia: \
FELLow CITIZENS, :
YOU are already appraised of the :
views which have determined the time, the 4
place, and the occasion of this Convention =
We have to regret that the notice which gave !.
Use to 1T, so recently appeared, as to furnish !
to the counties most remote from that in which :
II originated, no certain opportunity of elect
ing Delegates in due time to aid our delibera-
tons. Had this notice been earlier published
and more generally difused, we are con-
hdant, that our number would have been
commensurate with the extent of the Com
monwealth. Reduced to the necessity of a.
bandoning the object of our assemblage, an
object intimately connected, as we believe,
with the salvation of our country, or of pro-
ceeding to its execution with the lights afford
ed us by the delegation of eighteen counties,
we have not hesitsted as to the course which
we should pursue.
Awfully impressed with the dangers which
threaten our country from the success of tho
only electoral ticket yet rendered to our adop-
ton conscious of the purity of our own mo-
tives, and confidently relying on your candour
and patriotism, we earnestly recommend to
the Jealous support of the Friend. of Peace.
Union and Commerce, throughout Virginia,
the subjoined nomination of Electors of Pre-
sident and Vice President of the United States.
AS friends of Commerce, we ask your CO.
operation in removing from Office an admins
tration which has nearly accomplished its to-
tai humiliation AS friends Of Peace. we
invite your solemn protest against the authors
OF an impolitic and unnecessary War. As
frIpn0s of l1nIop Wa invaGa n 70 "a r,,.+ tL~
progress of a system tending to its speedy and
awful dissolution.
Fellow Citizens, YOU have been grossly de-
ceived and betrayed by those in whom YOU
have confidently reposed the most sacred
trust. Unless you mean to measure your ere
dulity by their presumption, we beg you to
enquire into the causes of the present war
to unravel the sophistry by which they have
been perplexed, and to rend the veil by which
they have been obscured and discoloured.
Reject, we entreat you, the force of mere
authority, and assert the noble privilege of
f~reemen. Think, reason, and judge for your
selves.
Were authority, indeed, to be exclusively
regarded in deciding upon the policy OF the
present war, what authority is entitled to SO
much respect, as that of the very people, for
whose peculiar benefit, it is pretended to be
waged ? IL is a war to protect our navigation.
in defiance of the earnest petitions and re-
monstrances of those who own four ffths of
our ships who are the fathers, brothers and
sons, of nine tenths of our seamen. Hostili-
ties have been commenced in behalf of the
freedom of foreign commerce, at the moment
when the hand of the merchant is shut against
the loan required to conduct them.
If authority be rejected, what should be
our opinion of the choice which Mr.. Madison
has made of our foe. Four years have now
nearly elapsed, since the proposition was uni
versally asserted, by the friends of Admins
%tration, that Great Britain and France had
alike injured US, that war with both would
be impoiitic and that war with one of those
Belligeients would be abject submission to
the will of the other in the forcible language
of Congress, that " a selection could not be
made between them, on any principle of pro-
priety or justice" Concede, then, to the ad.
mInistratIon, all that it contended for, and
test, we pray you, by this concession, the
moral fitness and political expediency of that
selection ofan enemy, which it has since d.
liberately and solemnly made.
II the balance of injury sustained by the
United States, from the two principal belli-
gerents, hung in equilibrio, in November
1908, what effect have subsequent events pro-
duced upon it ?
Ii the interference of France in our quar-
rel with Spain, of which most abundant evil
dence was furnished by our ministers at home
and abroad, if her perfidious and open VIOLA
ton of the most important provisions of her
treaty with us, if her Berlin decree which
sought its justification in a measure other enc
my, pronounced by our secretary of state
highly beneficial to the commercial interests
OF this country, ifthese acts of hostility are
balanced by the theoretical injuries of Great
RriIain "a our minister In Eranca exnrasslu