Alexandria daily gazette, commercial & political. [volume] (Alexandria [Va.]) 1808-1812, 1812-07-29
THE VOICE OF PROPHECY

n,son the policy Of maintaining permanent
.Napv, BIZ an american Citizen.
War which changes the pre-eXistlng and
establishes new relations between states and
empires, naturally produces policy untavor-
able to the freedoms OF commercial inter-
course-Laws oppressive on the commerce of
neutral nations, become here the obvious In
terest of the belligerent powers. Neutrality
is ever odious to nations at war. They will
court It's secret aid by intrigues, or they will
fret it into open violence by unwarrantable in
suits. An enraged competitor would destroy
that sun which shines with equal feryor on
his rival as on himself.---Fear alone will COM
pei nation calmly to permit its enemy to re-
ceive through the commerce of the neutral
state the sinews of war. Unless we possess
the means of exciting this fear, in vain may we
desire to retain our navigation.--A powerful
nation will tell US, these ports you may enter,
those you shall not. Disregarding the rights
of neutrality, while she dispatches her squad
rons to another quarter, she will proclaim a
whole country to be bloCkaded, in order to
starve its inhabitants into terms. Wherethere
is no plausible pretext for actual blockade she
will by fraudulent constructions of the law OF
nations, a law which is made at once every
thing and nothing, as the authority of force
may please to interpret it, or by more frandu-
lent eyasions of existing compacts, extend the
list of contrabanG articles. She will finally
tell US, {" with this nation you are permitted to
trade, but with that you shall hold no inter-
course. You shall not import the manniac
lures of this state, to that you shall not eX-
port your own commodities" She will spe-
city not only the channels ofour commerce but
the burdens of the vessels we shall employ;
& the articles that shall compose their cargoes.
Do we submit to the encroachments of one ma
ton, our submission will not only invite the
capacity but will be conceived to Justify, or
be urged to excuse the spoliation of ALTO
redress our wrongs, should we withhold our
favors from the nation, who has commenced
the injury, she will plumber us to the full a.
mount OF wants.-The only alternatlyeth eE
left us is by A GENERAL EMBARGO to blend
our friends with our enemies. To seek thro'
miserable retirement within our she'll to re-
pair one loss by mourning greater, and pu-
nish the plunderer of three or twenty millions
ofproperty by the annual sacrifice of sixty
And shall the expences which would attend
the preservation of ourindependence, be deem
ed sufficient reason for abandoning it altoge-
5 Their 20
"What would be the operation of Com
mercial War, in which We should oppose our
imbecility to the naval strength of powerful
maritime enemy? Many of our rivers present
no other obstacle to foe from their mouth
to their source, than the rocks which terml-
nate their navigation. A feet of twenty sail,
properly distributed, would block up every
harbor in the United States. Hall that num-
Der would shut up the narrows of n. York,
the entrance of the Sound, the ports OF Boston
and Charleston, and the mouths of the Della
ware and Chesapeake. A single armed ship
would intercept every bark that is carried
down the Mississippi. A stroke is aimed at
our industry whose paralytic power would be
felt through every part of the community.
the Sinews of Iabour are wlthercd. The has
bandman neglects the harvest field, his plough
share rusts in the furrow. The disconsolate
mariner beholds the sails of his vessel idly
flapping in the wind, or Indignantly sees her
led away by rapacious enemy. The Usher
men Of the North no longer frequent the banks
of Newfoundland, or course the whale In the
southern ocean. He turns to the Atlantic and
with hopeless detection beholds tho avenues
to ain employment, to which nature had con-
Quoted him in childhood, which she had made
the honor and support of bis maturity, closed
up. The silence of desolation reigns in our
cities. Perhaps even the flames of war fill
them with the cries Of their defenceless inha-
bitants Flying from their paternal abode
they curse the wealth which invited the rapa-
city of theirenemy and their government zvhich
sarrenders them kahtess prey to his ho7ver.
Public credit calls in vain upon the empty
treasury for the sums destined for the national
debt. The necessary violation of private con-
tracts undermines the morals OF society.
The government itself, hitherto accustomed
20 rely almost exclusively upon the duties
on imports for revenue to fulfil Its engage
rrentS GEES the nOhlic confidence desert