The enquirer. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1804-1815, 1812-01-23

be reason tor pursuing it. If the object of
the war be the defence of national CharaC.
ter, IL cannot be unattainabie. But suppose
it designed only to procure revocation of
the Orders iii CounCi1-has the hon. gen.
tieman given us a very consistent argu-
ment to prove that this effect cannot be
produced
He has told us that we can do England
little injury by sea, and even that we 81 all
be unable to raise troops for the invasion of
her provinces In our neighborhood. AS to
the injury which we may do her at sea, the
number and enterprise of our seamcn, the
near approach to cur coast, which the YES
sells engaged i'll her most valuable trade
rnust make, and the general opinion of naval
men, must determine the question. But that
| we shall DC unable to raise the army propo-
sed, or to occupy Canada in less than five
years, is an assertion too humilia.ing to be
admitted without proof We have been
told, indeed, that troops are most easily
raised in country which is invaded but
the opinion is contradicted by experience &
reason. In the moment of invasion, every
man is employed in attending to his pro-
perry, in removing his family, or in securing
them home and subsistence. During the
revolutionary war, the greatest number of
troops was, think, enlisted in states which
were safest from invasion. Our country will
| HiNottptN OtiSi do SS d proportion OF ltS
| population now as then, and this will be a
force amply adequate to- the occasion
But the gentleman from Virginia cannot
see how our resistance on land can remove
the English Orders in Council. He suppo-
ses, however, that the conduct of nations
| depends upon their interest, and that even
| now it may be doubted whether the interests
| Of England do not require a revocation of
| these Orders. Now let our efforts be as
weak as the gentleman has represented
| them, and they will produce to England
| some Inconvenience and some diversion of
her force. If it be doubtful, then, whether
it be her interest to continue her orders
while we patiently submit to them,it should
seem certain that it must be her interest to
repeal them when their continuance involves
the additional inconvenience which even the
languid war which has been predicted would
produce.
The honorable gentleman, determined to
alarm, ii he cannot convince US, unfolds a
muster roll of spectres which haunt but few
imaginations out of this House. The ruin of
our constitution and of our seaports is to be
the inevitable consequence of the war. But
are these dangers peculiar to the war in
which we expect to be involvedf That war
is In itself an evil, that it is not unattended
by distress and bloodshed, we know The
honest statesman will avoid it, when he can
do so without renouncing the honor and the
essential interests of his country When
these require, he will meet it. But from
the general evils of war, what conclusion
does the gentleman draw? That we should
never engage in it? Is it not strange, that
SO practical statesman, the denouncer of
the romantic notion of war fhonor, should
have INDUCED this vision of a perpetual
peace!
The danger OF our constitution is perhaps
that which the gentleman considers the most
alarming. A standing army offers an instru-
ment which may at any time be employed a.
gainst liberty. l am afraid, sir, of terms
standing army-a large regular force,
maintained in time of peace, would be Just
subject of public jealousy. But the force
proposed is not a standing army. 1t will be
employed against a foreign enemy, or it will
be disbanded. While engaged in war, the
most timid politician will see it without "a
larm; and on the return of peace, the same
cause will remove our fears for private Sc
Curity and public liberty. That cause is to
be found in the bill upon your table-in the
ample and wise provision for the future sup
port of the soldier-in his freehold The
most jealous patriots of England have cons-
dered their militia, although regular force,
as the natural protector of public liberty,
because its officers are required to possess a
landed qualification. But this security for
the good behavior of the officers we extend
To every soldier i'll the army. That these
men should, at the conclusion of the war,
leave their lands unvisited, to follow an am
bilious general to a desperate and Disgrace
full conflict with their fellow citzens, is
impossible.
From military usurpation, such as the
gentleman so much breads, we were saved,
he says, after the war of the revolution, by
the virtue of one man. To the merits of
General Washington, my feelings and my
Judgment equally subscribe. He had a mind
too great to be bribed by title OF by power
III crown had been within his reach, he
would have disdained it. But a crown ne
yer was within his reach. The men who
most loved and revered him, whose lives he
might have commanded as the protector of
his country, were incapable of becoming the
slaves of any despot. l will not consent, sir,
to demoiish the fair fame of our revolutiona-
ry army, that its fragments may be en-
ployed in raising a monument evento Wash
ington.
The constitution is as little endangered
by the influence, as by the physical force
which this army may give to government.
The body OF electors throughout our coun-
try, is too numerous to be corrupted by
commissions. In their expectations of of
flee, there are always more candidates who
/ fail than succeed. disappointment will be
stronger than gratitude.
Tie cxpcDce OF the war, sir, is another
danger by which the mind of the honorable
gentleman is oppressed. The estimate for