Martinsburgh gazette. [volume] (Martinsburgh, Va. [W. Va.]) 1810-1825, 1812-04-24

not help seeing by what m,ans they have fal
le how political freedom has been acquired.
noS it has oeen preserved, and how 1t has
beea lost. Thus che records of experience are
constantly accamulating, and every genera
ration has a fairer opportunity to grow wise,
than the one that preceded it. TINS is plain
IN theory, but does not appear in fact at
least not TO the extent that might have been
reasonably expected. Every age produces a
full crop OF knaves and simpletons the for
mer being the hammer, and the latter the an
Oh The same political tricks, to dupe the
people and cheat them out OF their rights,
under colour of extraordinary zeal for their
interests, nave been played off in the eigh-
teenth and nineteenth centuries, with as much
success as they were thousands of years ago.
In vain the vastly accumulated volume of ex.
perience hes open. In vain the sceptres, as it
were, OF fallen republics pass along in solemn
procession, and point the present generation
to the fatal courses of their ruin: UNDECIDED
they pass along and their warnings are lost.
Nations, as well as individuals, If they neg
iect to acquire wisdom eheaply from the ex-
perlence OF others, must buy it dear by their
own experience and happy for them if they
90 not get it too late. 1t is commonly said
that bought wit is the best. Ii is SO IN some
respects; more especially as it usually sticks
by one the longest, and wears the best. But
very frequently it is either bought at a dearer
rate than the purchaser can afford, or too late
to be of any service. A burnt child will be
the more careful how he gets again into the
fire bat it he be burnt MORALLY, the wit
gained by it will do him very little good.
Now 10 apply this to our own coantry the
people OF tae United States have enjoyed all
along a pretty comfortable sense OF their W
importance. They nave es leemed themselves
to be the most enlightened as well as the freest
people upon the earth. Certainly they have
had superior privileges, and superior means
for securing and perpetuating them. Tney
have had warnings innumerable from the fate
OF other nations. Where now are all the free
republics, ancient and modern, of the conti-
nent of Europe ? " Death and destruction say,
we have heard the fame ofthem with our ears
They have all gone the same way they Pc
rished by the same means. Their ruins are
beacons to warn US. Are the people of the
United States the wiser for all this ? On the
contrary, it is evidently true that they are fol
lowing the footsteps of those once free and
happy nations which lost their liberties by
their own folly and madness. They wantonly
throw away tie lights of history, and are deaf
to the warnings of former ages. The clear
evidence oftheir senses they set at def
ance. A fish that has been once pricked,
shuns the hook: not so they. Experience,
even their own experience, has whipt and
thumpt them soundly but can neither beat
in wisdom, or beat out folly. Jeshurun like,
they " waxed fat, and kicked" When their
prosperity was in the full TIDE, and they had
every thing that heart could wish, they dis
| carded the wise and honest statesman who,
under Providence, had raised them to the pin
nacle of political happiness, and exalted those
men who tlattered in order to fleece them.
| Themselves must see by this time, that our
nation has fallen, UNNECESSARILY fallen from
its high state that it is impoverished, weak
| ened and distracted, by mad and futile pro
| jects, and is held in scorn abroad and that
every succeeding session of congress only
serves to make Z" confusion worse confounded.n
They see this yet they obstinately refuse to
retrace their steps. With eyes open, they rush
forward towards the precipice. They still dis
card and reproach the men who were the inf
struments of raising them to a condition OF
political happiness beyond all perallel. The.
still cleave to the men who have been the
means of bringing the country into disgrace
and distress, and to the verge of ruin as if
those who had brought it into this abject con-
dition were the most proper persons to raise
and restore it. Reason pleads with them in
vain: conscience and regard to country, plead
in vain. SslfUiH, having its fixture in party
rancor, prevails over every thing else. They
had rather give up a yard of conscience than
an inch of will. They would seemingly let
the country sink, so the leaders of their party
might rise on its ruins and riot in its spoils.
And what must follow? Experience at last
will give them such reproofs and scourgings,
as they can neither despise nor forget. They
will have bought zrit i'm plenty. b,ft it will be