Alexandria daily gazette, commercial & political. [volume] (Alexandria [Va.]) 1808-1812, 1812-07-21
coNTINUED.

tienCe and industry, ana considerable lenYtu
of time, to collect twenty five thousand men.
Have YOU the least prospect, if you declare
war, of attacking Canada this season 1t is
impossible that you can do 1t with effect
You will be sufficiently occupied in defending
your frontiers against the savages.
1t is not on land then that you expect I'M
mediatcly to assail your enemy. Is it on the
ocean that the impression is to be made You
have twenty vessels Of war-Britain has up
wards of thousand. What will avail the &C
tivity or galantry of your officers and seamen
against such disparity of force. Your little
navy must fall Immediately or be driven from
the ocean. Some gentlemen indulge great
expectations from privateers but has Great
Britain any unarmed or unprotected trade
which they can attack Privateers have no
other object than plumber and booty. They
avoid armed vessels-and defended as is the
British commerce in every part OF the world
by her great naval force, it is little to be eS-
pected that privateering will be attended with
much success or encouragement. But while
we are searching for the means OF annoying
the commerce of Britain, does 1t become US
to overlook at this moment the condition OF
our own. A valuable part of the trade from
beyond the Cape of Good Hope has not yet
arrived. Of the numberlesS vessels which
sailed upon the eve of the embargo few have
returned Your merchant vessels are with
out convoy and utterly defenceless Your con-
dition, therefore, is, that with more commerce
exposed, your adversary will possess greater
means of annoyance, and the consequence
must be, that we shall lose infinitely more than
we can expect to gain.
Under such circumstances what should hur-
nv us into the war? Are gentlemen afraid if
thew wait till November that the world will
not last long enough to afford them time to
CRAFTY in war their mighty resentment against
Britain? He believed as he hoped, that there
was no honorable gentleman on the floor who
would not live long enough to have COM
plete surfeit of the war, though 1t should be
postponed for few months.
He said he was greatly influenced in his
motion for postponement by the combined
considerations of the present defenccless
condition of the country and the protection
which Providence had given US against ma
rhine power In the winter season. During
the winter months you will be defended by the
elements. Postpone the war TIL November,
and we shall not have to dread an enemy on
our coast till April. In the mean time go on
with your recruiting, fill up, discipline, and
train your army. Take the stations if you
please which will enable you to open an early
campaign. Your trade will al have time to
return, before hostilities commence, and hav-
ing all your ships and seamen at home, you
| may be prepared to put forth all your strength
| upon the ocean on the opening of the ensuing
| spring. Shall we by an untimely precipitan-
cy, yielding to fretful impotence of delay,
| throw our wealth into the hands of the enemy
| and feed that very rapacity which it is our OBJ
| iect to subdue or to punish.
We can lose nothing by delay; much will
be certainly saved and at moment SO preg-
nant with great events, it was most evidently
our true policy to temporize.-You give up
no right yield no pretension and profit by G.
! very day in rendering the condition OF the
country more secure and its attitude more lor-
midable. The just appreciation OF time is "a
mong the highest points of political sagaclty.
| To know what step the times Will warrant,
and 70 take the step at the proper tlme' is &C.
| Morally matter of more important and dltfi-
| cult consideration than the nature of pro-
| posed measure. Without enqulrlng whether
| war was the right course tor the nation to take
under existing circumstances, he did most
confidently assert that this was not the time
when war ought to be commenced.
Mr.. B. said it belonged to the motion he had
| submitted to bring under review the alledged
causes of war, and to enquire into the proba-
bility of our attaining the objects for which
] we were to embark in the war. If we are to
come out of the war as we enter into it, after
| having wasted the blood and treasure of the
nation, and loaded the country with debt and
taxes, it would certainly be more rational to
| submit at once to the wrongs we endure. If
we expect to ex ort any concession from Bril-
tain, we must be prepared for long, obstinate
! and bloody conflict.
Rritair, OF this Innrnant certainly does not