Martinsburgh gazette. [volume] (Martinsburgh, Va. [W. Va.]) 1810-1825, 1812-10-09

Nv V - GuAW va 3 " 1a1' 0PtH 49, E
Gus and stinted charity oftheir plunderers, in
cities and villages already SwarIning with the
wretched victims of misery and want ? What
have we from England to counterbalance
those taunts and ratings, which called in
question our national Independence, degrad-
ed our legislatures to the rank of the colonial
parliament Of Jamaica, reproached US with a
want of energy and policy, and disdsinfully
and insultingly minated that unless we pur-
sued the course pointed out TO US by the des.
pot and scourge of Europe we might have to
fight for interest after having refused to fight
for honor? Did our non Intercourse law pro
woke from England, an order of council, like
the decree of Rambouillet ? Did she, in this
instance, initiate the policy of the govern
ment, or copy, in others. the language of the
minister Of France ? Has there been no dit
ference in the manner in which these belliger-
ents have sought to Justify, or to excuse their
attractions of our rights between the Ia
boured arguments of the minister OF England,
and the contemptuouSs silence ofthat of France.
A silence which Mr. Barlow assures us, has
not even youchsafed a verbal answer to his
humiliating intercessions for an explanation
of the continued burnings OF our vessels on the
high seas, /" that most distressing of all the
modes by which belligerents exercise power
contrary to right.p
The orders of council, of November 1902,
never iustiiable, have been relaxed, from
time to time subsequent notifications, while
the conduct Of France, diversified by her va
rious DEGREES and her contradictory construc-
tions of them, proceeded from great, to ag-
gravated outrages and insults.
On the other hand, how have these injnri-
Gus acts, and this contumelions language been
regarded by our administrator ? Did 1t
meet the insults of the Duke of Galore, offer
ed near the court of his master, with the
same jealous sensibility which it evinced, UNI
der the doubtful and the disclaimed insinua-
ton of Mr.. jackson, at that OF Washington ?
Was Mr.. Serrurier, on his arrival from
France, after the pretended repeal of The Der
lin and Milan DEGREES began to be every
where questioned, and the prosperity OF this
nation hung upon the doubtful inquiry, pur-
sued with the same jealous mterrogatorles,
with the same ingenious and unceaslng efforts
to vary the true question OF controversy be
tween the two governments, to the injury OF
France, which marked that able correspon-
dence with hlr. Foster, which preceded the
present war with England ? Was the sys-
tenn OF non, importations, embargoes and non
intercourse, so long, and so pertlnaciously
pursued, a system Of avowcd neutrality but
Of actual hostility, equal in its operation on
the two belligerents, who were said, IN JUS
tiication of it, to have alike injured US, and
10 guard against whose continued aggressions
it was protested to be alike intended!
We will not appeal TO the language of the
administration as authority for what it has
felt at different times upon these subjects
Il would have been happy for our country, if
NSa .pUIH haitian pnIu ON its tnRnmnnt That
judgment once s~olemnly determined not to
revive the provisions of the on-intercourse
law against Great Britain, until France should
have not only repealed her Berlin and Milan
DEGREES, but that, also, Of Rambouillet and
have actually restored, or promised restitu-
ton of the millions of our property rapacious-
" seized under it. To such a sensib lily we
cannot appeal, on such a judgment we cannot
rely, for authority, because the evidence
which it furnishes is in open contradiction
with itself An administrator without sys.
tenn, can have its character distinguished,
mo- by It's principles, but by It's acts. Its sen,
sibillty has hitherto put up with the insults of
France, without requiring frontier, the re-
traction OF one eplthet of abuse, or a s~atisfac-
tory explanation or atonement for one act OF
violence The memorable proclamation of
November 1910, evinces that the Rambouiliet
decree, and the consequent plumber Of our
merchants constituted no insaperable obsta-
Gle, to a commercial discrimination, in favor
of France, against her inveterate enemy. In
fine, neither that decree, itself, nor her unre-
trscted insults, nor her contemptuous and
perfidious breach of that faith which she
plighted by the letter of her minister, of the
5th of August, 1910, assuring us of the actual
repeal of her other DEGREES nor all these in
juries together which might be regarded al
interpretations of a gracious Providence in oul
favor, if they could shield US from French al
iiance. have sufficed TO save US from a wal
with Great. Britain A war. in contradiction