Martinsburgh gazette. [volume] (Martinsburgh, Va. [W. Va.]) 1810-1825, 1812-08-28

they permitteda most savage and inhuman
murder to be perpetrated, of the intention to
perpetrate which they were repeatedly warn
ed, and which they could have easily prevent
Ell. They may, and probably viii, escape
punishment in this world, but let them trem-
bic when they recollect, that there is tri-
bunal above, whose Judge will penetrate the
lnnermost recesses OF their hearts, and, be
fore an assembled universe, will pronounce
the sentence due to their crimes.
The means by which the sanguinary mob
OF Baltimore was reused into action are not
unknown.-lt was no sooner generally under
stood in the country that war would be de-
clared against Great Britain, than the demo
cratic editors, in the principal cities of the
union, began to use a language of menace
against those who opposed the administration,
before That time happily unknown in this land
of liberty. The idea was sedulously inculca-
ted that the right to animadvert on the mea-
sures of the administration, or in other words,
the freedom of speech and the freedom of the
press would cease with the commencement OF
hostiities, and vengeance was denounced a
ganst those, who, after that period, should
dare to question the expediency of the war, or
the virtue, wisdom and ability of our rulers
just Heaven! and these are the people who
few years since were so clamorous against the
sedition law, and such loud asserters of the
liberty of the press, which they falsely de.
elared that law to have infringed.
The National Intcllgencer, tho not SO In
temperate in its language, as some other pa
pers, advocated the same infamous and liber-
ticidal doctrine. Let it be well recollectcd
that the National Inteligencer is the official
mai Of a cd, p.n.ct trait ic n oh
mel thro' which the wishes and feelings and in
tentions of the executive are conveyed to the
people--it is the engine used to give tone to
public sentment--it is the the text book from
which the democratic papers throughout the
union derive their hints and their topics of
discussion--it is the oracle, in short, to which
all the staunch adherents of the administrati
on resort for the solution of every difficulty.
In such paper, speaking the language OF
the administration, and with so many means
of promoting order. harmony and obedience
to the laws, the following language, in sub.
stance, was used" When war shall be de-
clared the voice of disaffection must be hush
ed those who arc not for us must then be
considered against us, and will be treated
sccordingIy."*
Let us dispassionately inquire intothe mean.
|
the phrase they who are not for us" includes
the whole federal party-a party, which boasts
of Washington as its political father, which
numbers in its ranks some of the most distIn
guished of the heroes Of our revolution, whom
the scythe of time and the fury of mobs have
spared, as well as some of the most enlighten
ed statesmen, and some of the most virtuou,
patriots that have lived in any age or coun.
try When the editor of the National Intelli
gencer says t" they who are not for us must be
considered against u.s." he either asserts an
insignifc ant truism, or he means to convey
the idea that the federalists are to be consi
dered as the enemies of the country-as trai-
tors to that country for which SO many of
them have poured out their blood" They
will be treated accordingly" he adds. The
federalists opposing the war will be treated as
enemies to their country-Heaven grant us
patience to restrain Just Indignation, when
little insignificant prig Of an editor, scarce
iy landed on our shores, dares to threaten the
hoary veterans of the revolution with the pu-
nishment of traitor -!
"The voice of disaifection must be hushed.'
Who are the disaffected PIT is most clear
from the context that he means the federal
its, in general, for they are all opposed to
the war; but, more particularly, the federal
editors 1t is the voice of the federal editors
which must be hushed They must cease to
expose, in their journals, the folly and inca
pacity of our rulers--they must cease to ex-
hort the people to change those rulers, and
thereby rescue the country from impending
ruin-they must do thus, or be treated as enc
mics to the country.
But how, and by what means, is this pu-
nishment to be inflicted on them Mot by
virtue of any law there is not, there cannot
be, law commanding the infection of such
punishment The constitution of the United
States expressly declares, that Congress shah
pass no law sbridging the freedom of speech
or of the press How. then, repeat, is this