Virginia Argus. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1796-1816, 1813-03-18

""""~S' arc SpsAcHS<piy diiRoSi n'ttp2ud'e
to the prosecution orShe other wars in Which
we are engagcd-and when the success of
those great & glorious exertions appears to
be almost desperate. from the mere circum-
stance of the impossibilty OF finding men to
supply the place of those who perish. In
the third place, we take il to be one of the
certain consequences of the continuance of
this war, that we shall either lose Canada
tor ever, to the great disgrace and NORTH
cation Of the country-orbe obliged to aban-
don the Peninsula, and carry on a still more
sanguinary and expensive war for its pre-
servation. In the fourth place, our West
India colonies will be starved and their
trade, which so many other causes have con-
CURED to depress, almost entirely ruined by
the swarms of privateers which, will issue
from every point of the adjoining continent
while our own supplies of grain, i'm the
event ct deficiency at home, and of naval
stores III the event of disasters in the North,
will be almost entirely cut of. Finally, we
shall excite not only spiri, of rooted hos
tility among people obviously destined to
| outnumber any European nation-but we
| shall train them before their day to the
cultivation of their home manufactures, and
| lose for ever that trade which it is our most
obvious interest to retain.
But it may be said, we did not make the
war The defiance was given, and tho blow
| struck by America ;-and Dsw we are under
! the absolute necessity of fighting. or of Civ
ing up the honour and the substantial inter-
ess of the nation. We cannot bring our
selves to admit this:-But If the fact were
made out, we should concur most heartily
in the conclusion-A nation like England,
| should submit to any thing ra'her than to
the slightest Impeachment of her honour. 1t
is not Only her pride and her enjoyment-
but her actual strength and, security, and
the vital spring of all her prosnerity. If
our honour is really committed ~ this con-
test,-and il America will listeiit6 no terms
of pacification which it is fitting for us to
concede Then the contest must go on -
| and every thing else must be sacrificed to
maintain it with spirit and effect. But if
matters are come at last to this deplorable
! extremity--ifit be true that we are no7v un-
der the necessity of yielding up the national
honor, or of persisting in such war as we
have described, it cannot at least be den-
ed, that it is crisis which has been very re-
Gently produced; and that it has been pro-
| duced by men, and by measures, that arc
sufficiently notorious. There is not a man
| IN the kingdom who can doubt, that if the
Orders in Council had been rescinded six
| months sooner, the war might have been en-
tirely avoided, and all other points ofdffer-
ehce between the countries adjusted upon
an amicable footing. Nor is there an indi
vidual who has attended at all to the pro-
| gress OF the dispute, who does not see that
it was embittered from the first, and wan
tonly urged to its present fatal issue, by the
insolent, petulant, and preposterous tone of
those very individuals who insisted upon that
miserable experiment--and plunged their
own country in wretcEednes, only to bring
down upon it the reluctant hostility of its best
customers and allies. If those mischevous
| and despicable councils were once cordially
renounced-if this paltry and irritating tone
were for ever interdicted at our public off
ces-if the negotiation were committed TO a.
man acceptable to the Americans. and free
from the suspicion of insincerity which the
character of our late diplomatic commu-
nications with her have so naturally excited !;
| we are fully persuaded, that a speedy and
an honorable termination might yet be put
to this unnatural contest, which, if it be
purely ruinous and disreputable to us, pro-
mise also to be so much more detrimental
than beneficial to our opponent.
At present, however, we confess that we
lock in vain for the indications of such a sa-
lutary change of policy-and are even dis
| posed to fear, that the same spirit OF animos-
| ity and unconciliating contempt which has
evidently pervaded tie whole proceedings
! OF the Government, still prevails to con-
siderable extent among the body of our peo-
pie. The pressure of present distress is too
heavy. indeed, to allow the war itself 10 be
! popular biz we suspect that the temper
| and disposition which have provoked it are
| still pretty general and such are the arts
by which courtly prejedices have been TO-
mented, and ancient grudges kept alive, that
| no small part of the nation look with feelings
| OF peculiar hostility towards the people to
| which they bear the nearest resemblance
| and willingly abdt their rulers in treating the
| Americans with less respect, and less cordi-
atty, than any.other foreign nation. If this
| proceeds from considering them az weaker
| than any other nation, ~ cannot say it is We
ry magnanimous IF from regarding them
as our own rebeliious offspring, it is neither
| very generous nor very wise. They assert
ed neutrality-suspicious. upon principles which
they derived from us, and upon which we
still make it our boast and our glory to act
Their revolt was the real evidence Of their
consanguinity- rebellion against us the
surest profit of thier genuine descent; and,
while all rational men are now satisfied that
their independence is much more advanta-
geous to US than any form of their submission
could have been, surely there is nothing in
their having established free government,
that ought TO give rise to any feelings of re-
pugnance or hostility in us. They are de
from our loins--they speak our Ian
guage-they have adopted our laws-they
retain our usages and rnanners--they read
our books--they have copied our freedom
they rival ot,P eo,raoo :. 81 -. a. =. -.