Alexandria gazette, commercial and political. [volume] (Alexandria [Va.]) 1812-1817, 1813-09-21
CROAKINGs.


CROAKlNGS.
Several of those vehicles Of cor
rup,ion, the Madisonian newspapers
have lately teemed with hints. inu.
endoes and positive charges against
the mede Of conducting the war on
the frontiers The honest, unsus-
peeting Madisouians wonder at this
sudden change in the tone of their
fayorite editors while that race OF
time serving reptiles, who fattes on
the public ruin. and who hold offices,
contracts and jobs ofvarious descrip-
tiens, are alarmed, least the pepula.
rity of their idol should be shaken !:
Both, however. appear to be igno-
rant Of the motives which have actu-
ated the editors in question. But
the mystery is easily unravelled.
Those editors are the champions OF
Armstrong for the next Presidency.
They begin the electioneering cam
paign by finding fault with the mode
hitherto adopted 10 coHductins the
war-and they begin thus, too, at
the very moment when the Secreta-
~, their candidate, is on his way to
the frontiers, for the ayowed pur-
pose of renovating the army by q
system of reform. But why did not
these honest guardians OF the public
welfare discover sooner what they
now pretend TO have discovered !? E"
very independent press from New
Hampshire to Georgia, has long
since exposed the wretched system
of the present cabinet. both as re-
CARDS the var and their policy in ge-
neral. Will Armstrong; advocates
pretend to say. that we have not
long ago told the people what they
now tell them1 And will they deny
that they have had the baseness to
charge US with apostacy for saving
nine months ago what they now say
themselves Yes. many more than
nine months have elapsed since we
pronounced judgment emphatically
against James Madison, as being dis
qualified for the high Office he sus-
tains. whether in peace or war. We
knew him to be weak, waverine and
tine serving; we knew him to be
circumventetf by selfish. intriguing
set Of adventures. as destitute OF
talents as integrity We knew that
this Swiss corps Of hirelings, this
band of political Janissaries, had got
such possession Of the Presidential
ear. such ascendancy at the capitol.
that truth might knock in vain for
admittanee ; in vain might any honest
enlightened and independent repub
iican expect to succeed should he at
tempt to obtain an audience for the
purpose Of exposing 10 Mr.. Madi.
son, in their true colOrs, the weak
ness OF his system, and the wicked
ness Of those who advised him to IS
adoption, and supported him in car
rying il on, for their own personal
ACKNOWLEDGMENT: all this we knew.
and candidly ard honestly proclaim
ed it. before the Janissaries had sue
eeeded in foisting their puppet a Sc
cond time into the seat of Executive
power. But what was our reward
for this honest exposition of the po-
Iitical character of Madison. and the
adventures who swarmed at his pa
lace and swayed his purposesl We
we're denounced by the Janissaries,
and the multitude whom they had de-
luded; We were declared apostatcs
from the republican faith: an unpa-
ralleled system Of persecution was
set on foot for our destruction /; not
only calumny. 10 secret whispers,
but perjury at the sacred altar Of
justice-p'jury, the most vile and
ahominaLle, was resorted to for the
purpose of blasting our character 4
destroying the well-earned and saiu-
tary influence Of our press. Such
were the measures adopted for our
destruction, by gang of unpriDci-
pied wretches, when il was found
that We could not be made subservi-
ent to their dark designs; that this
press was to he guided solely by the
independent Judgment Of its editor,
and that neither the vile arts nor the
arbitrary mandates of 1,yburn could
controul its operations.
That we spoke the truth then, is
now admitted nv some of the very