Alexandria daily gazette, commercial & political. [volume] (Alexandria [Va.]) 1808-1812, 1812-06-09

such retaliation, your metioIlalists "a y AtAoi
to conceive any argument sufficient TO Con-
vince the neutral that his resistance TO the
system ought to be directed, not against ITS
author, but against the beiilgerent who re-
torted if ON his enemy on the prlnciple OF re-
taliation. If having taken the lead IN the course
of aggression be no aggrayaion, your. memo
rialists know not how TO deem 1t an extenua-
ton Of the offence.
If then the Berlin decree and the Orders OF
Council were the only injuries sustained, those
injuries would seem to require from nalioil'
Jealous OF its rights, and resolved to maintain
Them inyiola,c, resistance at least as deter"
mined against the encroachnlents o. france
as against those of Great Britain.
Rnt these are not the only injuries which
America has sustained, others still more la
gitious in their character, still more eXtrava-
gant in their principle, still more excessive
in their amount, are to be taken INTO cohsiue-
ration, when we review the causes OF complaint
against the two Bellgercnts.
AT a time when the cruisers OF U. britain
cover the Ocean, and from their numbers are
enabled to visit almost every merchantmen up
on that great high way ofnations, France con-
verts an involuntary submission to the exer-
else of this most unquestlonable bell8erent
RIGHT into crime, which exposes to conilsca-
ton the vessel and property which have been
visited.
Not content with employing her own force
in the capture of American vessels, France has
compelled every state enchained In her ALI
ances, to adopt her execrabie system, SO that
to become the ally Of Francei is to become the
scouIge of America.
Not content with capturing vessels bound
to the ports of her enemies, she involves IN
the same destruction those destined tor the
ports of her friends.
Not satisfied with her depredations ON the
Ocean, she takes with one remorseless grasp
American property to an immense amount,
which was intrusted to her ports and to the
ports Of other countries subject to her con-
troll, in the confidence inspired by professed
friendship, and the immemorial usage Of the
civilized world.
AS if to avoid the possibility Of recaptuEe,
she is not content with bringing our vessels
iHto port, condemning them with the accus-
toned forms, but burns them on the high
seas wherever they have the misfortune to
fall into the power of her cruisers.
These are atrocities which are committed
by France alone in these her enemy has
not yet participated.
If they could sustain aggrayatlon, that ag-
grayation would be found in her contemptu-
Gus and deceptive conduct respecting the pre-
tended repeal Of her DEGREES.
After having ,,ndertaken d0Cide for a.
merica the great question OF war and peace;
after hsving avowed that the object to effect
which she had applied the scourge with such
unrelenting rigor, was to arrange this country
in the externinating war she wages against
Britain, and that every difference would be
accommodated if the United States, foregoing
their own system, would adopt hers. After
having pronounced US, for the slowness with
which we advance in the road she has mark
ed out for us, nation without honor, without
energy, and without political system--a nation,
which refusing to fight Tor honor, might be
compelled to fight for interest; she has united
fraud to force, and has by vague deluslye pro-
mise, the execution whereof she never intend
ed, hoped to seduce the United States into
system, the full adoption of which, naked yio-
lence alone has not been able entirely to COM
pei.
In estimating the injuries committed by the
respective belligerents, the consideration that
those of France proceed from nation for
which the United States have uniformly ma
infested dispositions too friendly to be misun-
derstood, ought not to be entirely overlooked.
In war to be undertaken for the honor
and the character of the nation, your memo
rialists deem, these facts of infinite Importance
and know not how to suppose that they can
have lost their influence on the representa-
tives of the American people.
But it has been said that should France re-
peal her DEGREES so far as they infract our
neutra! rights, England would still retain her
orders in council for the purpose of compel
ling, France to surrender other principles, on
which neutrals have not right to insist.
When thisn state Of things shall actually
occur, when France shall actually repeal her