Martinsburgh gazette. [volume] (Martinsburgh, Va. [W. Va.]) 1810-1825, 1812-05-15
Whole No. 676.

were we, on that day p-why-Retiring be-
Hind Embargo- What prospect is there that
your e~nlistments will be so rapid as will ena-
BILE you to raise more men in the ninety DAYS,
| which are to come, than in the one hundred
and fifty which have past? know there Is,
on the carpet, a grand scheme, Of augmenting
the chance Of enlistments, BY reducing the
time of service from five years to eighteen
months. But how does this prognosticats az
to the efficiency Of the .foroes This PROPOSE
ton is perfectly Characteristic. You want an
embargo army, and not a fighting army.
Ever since you appointed a collector of a nor
thern seaport major- general, ] have been sa-
tisfed that what you intended was, an army to
fight ~smugglers and not Canadians.
You prepare TO 90 to war for commercial
rights, in Ninety daysp--Where p-- How p
A navy is out of the question. And as to the
purpose of farming our merchantmen, although
that resolution was passed with as much, | be-
lieve more unanimity than any ether Of all
those proposed by the committee of foreign
relations, 1t has been laid asleep in the com
mittee and not a man has venturcd to sug-
gest, even that 1t was to be put into Parliamen-
tary form, much less that it was to be carried
into effect.
When | see such a palpablc failure in all
the means natural and necessary for carrying
on the war when | see the exposure Of your
seaboard when ] see the actual military force
instead of being encreascd in efficiency, in fact,
reducing neither promises, nor assevcrations.
nor oaths shall make me believe that you will
go to war at the end of ninety days. Oppo-
sait nature. Nature has decided against
you. Instead of that feast of war, to which
we were invited at the beginning of the ses-
sion, we have served up to us the old dish Of
III frL.-. - -. -r IL - u
prophecy to tell the result. AT the end Of
ninety days. you will find that your prepare
tion is not sufficient. The horrors Of war will
be preached up very assiduously during our
recess. Familiarity with embargo will dimi-
f nish its dread. The restrictive system be.
comes identified with some personal, local,
paltry interest. The navigating states are sa-
crificed and the spirit and character Of the
country are FRUSTRATED in the dust by fear, or
by ~avarice.
This embargo will not serve the American
/, people. But l will tell you whom it may
! serve it will serve the French Emperor
! His interest is apparent. 1t operates on his
enemy by denying our produce to her armies.
But where is the American interests Coercion
on Great Britain is not intended. Ifwar with
J this power be really its purpose, then much
81 of this very property ought to be got out Of
the country. 1t is useless and must perish If
it remain in it. And the resources of the
country and its ability for war are augmented
by the whole amount of the returns which its
sale would produce.
In every point Of view | look on this meA-
sure as a cruel abandonment of our national
rights as inpolitic as deceptive as calcu-
lated to impress on the American people an
idea that it is your intention to maintain com
mercial rights, which, its true effect, is, to
abandon. Here is another effect which it is
calculated to produce, and which Of all others
ought, at a crisis of this kind, to be avoided.
Its tendency must be to raise a jealousy be-
tween the Southern and the Eastern and mid
die States. The flour and produce of the
southern states have had during the whole
winter an open trade and free market. Those
of the middle and Eastern States have been
restrained by climate and winter. Nature is
just opening for our relief, and the palsying
hand of government 10 now to be extended, to
give a death blow to our hopes. Is it by a
course of policy of this kind that you intend to
conciliate affection, or excite confidence ? will
it not be said, that your own products being
sold, you were Indifferent, what became OF
ours?
Let me not be understood as objecting to
this Embargo, as a preparation for war al
tho even, as such, its utility is dubious. |
object to it, because it is no efficient prepare
ton because it is not a progress towards ho-
norable war, but is a subterfuge from this
question. If we must perish, let us perish by
any hand, except our w Any fate is bet
ter than self-slaughter.
A message was received from the Senate
by Messrs. G. w. Campbell and Bibb, in
forming that the Sen ate had passed the bill
laying an embargo with amendments-the
principal one was altering the term from six
ty to ninety days.
MIR. LEWIS rose and said. he was not so