Martinsburgh gazette. [volume] (Martinsburgh, Va. [W. Va.]) 1810-1825, 1812-08-21

the mode of chusing Electors of President and
Vice President Of the u. States, from the etec
taoR by-districtS, to that by general ticket,
renders the above notice indispeasably neces-
sary, unless we are content TO sit patiently
down, and to look with indifference ON the
ruin of our once happy country. Virginia
will be entitled to five and twenty votes in the
ensuing presidential election. One of them
will be given by person selected from our
former electoral district, and who will conse-
quently be known to us. But we are required
toSelect four and twenty others, whom we nei-
Their know, nor shall have an opportunity of
knowing, before we are convened to elect
them, unless we obtain such knowledge thro'
deputies of our own choice, possessing our
confidence, and authorised with those deputed
by other counties of the state, to form list
of electors whose views in selecting chief
magistrate of the u States shall correspond
with our own.
The season of the year, the face Of our
country, which will impose more arduous
Journey to any convenient place of meeting on
our brethren beyond the mountains, conspire
to recommend Staunton, in the county of Au-
gusta, for that purpose, while its nearly cen
trail situation will assure to the assembly of
4
| to the remote parts of the commonwealth, be-
fore the day of the election lists of those per-
sons on whom they advise us to devolve the
| solemn and important trust of chusng Pre-
sident and Vice President of the u States.
The election of Electors of President and v.
President will take place in Virginia on the
first Monday of November. There yet re,
mains, fellow citizens, time enough to act with
effect, although we have none to spare That
consideration, combined with jdst sense of
the magnitude of the object for which you
are called together, will produce, it is conf
IDENTIFY hoped, such an assemblage of the free
holders of Loudoun on Saturday next, as will
evince that they, at least, are not unmindful
of the dangers that environ them. The de-
struction of the Freedom of the Press, the
Palladium of all our other rights, is not the
least of those calemities with which these por-
! tentous times threaten our beloved country
Taxes, conscriptions and war, the total ami
! hilation of our foreign, and the interruption
OF our domestic commerce, alarming amino
| sites and divisions among ourselves menace
the waste of our fortunes, the dissolution Of
our Union, the prostration of our lndepen
dence, and the subversion of our Liberty,
1t rests with you, fellow citizens, in part, al
least, to determine whether America chained
to the triumphal car of Bonaparte, shall BIZ
numbered in the melancholy list of enslaveG
and degraded nations, who fawn upon hi
power, exult in his smiles, and tremble at hi
frowns or true to the maxims of her past his
! tory, and faithful to the cause of liberty, she
] shall once more assert against tyrant'
threat the right to be free, neutral and indie
| pendent.
! 1t is not war that we dread Those who
presume to impeach our courage, know thai
we are not inferior in bravery to themselves
Nor are we bent, as they would insinuate, on
the pursuit of gain, in opposition to the in
| terest and the honor of our country, We can
discover no just concern for either in the
choice which has been recently made of our
foe. We cannot discover how the interest of
our country is to be promoted by preference
of the total humiliation of foreign trade, to
an unrestrained commerce with more than
half the world. And we perceive not the glo-
~ which can result from an union of our arms
with those of the perfidious and blood thirsty
tyrant of Europe, in a war against the liber-
| ty independence and happiness of all man.
kind
! Let us, fellow citizens, select chief ma
gistrate, whose prejudices and partialities
| shall oppose no obstacle to speedy and ho-
| norable adjustment of our dispute with Eng
land, or should an immediate peace be unat-
| tainable on honorable terms, who will have
J the capacity, frmness and courage so to con-
duct the war in which we are involved, as to
save us from the tyranny which has hitherto
Invariably followed the friendship of France.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
NAxrM.-Let the Lars rnie-This is the
sheet anchor of Republic The instant we
fly from that rule, we at sea, left to the
mercy of the passions or caprice of indivi-
duals