Alexandria gazette, commercial and political. [volume] (Alexandria [Va.]) 1812-1817, 1813-09-20

on the first Monday in next month.
ADDRESS.
The Friends of Peace ofthe county of
| Hunterdon, assembled at Flemington on
the lawful day of nomination, for the pur-
pose of consulting and agreeing upon
ticket to be supported at the ensuing
election, feeling deep concern in pub
lie affaits at this interesting crisis, re.
spectfulIy address the Electors of the
county.
The evils of a ruinous war are now
experienced by our once happy land
The melancholy forebodiDgs OF the wise
and good, which so generally impressed
the minds of the people of New Jersey,
without regard to former political d's-
tinctions, have been toe seriously realiz-
ed during the past year.
No single advantage has yet arisen
from state of hostility. The country
is suffering under general stagnation
of trade Foreign goods, by long ha-
bit, become the necessaries and COM
forts of life, have risen 10 double their
former prices, while the means of pur-
chase are daily diminishing in our hands.
Thousands who enjoyed comfort and
ease, have sunk into poverty and dis
tress. Our extended and once flourish.
ing sea.board is languishing under ri
gorous blockade-the communication
from port to port cut off and even the
navigation OF many Of our rivers and
bays, is destroyed by the war. Never
was country possessing so much hap
piness, so needlessly and wantonly ar
rested in its career, and so totally strip
ped of the means and sources Of pros
perity.
The experiment of war has now been
tri d--and all that was promised by its
advocates, has utterly failed. Army af-
ter army has been defeated or cut off;
and tue repeated attempts to over-run &
conquer the feeble and thinly pespled
provinces of Canada, have proved abor-'
tive. y
This wal to achieve, as was pretended,
the Liberty of the Seas" has driven
our vessels from the ocean-the quarrel
about "Sailor's Rights" has sent our
suffering seamen, by thousands, to Bri.
fish prisons; depri, ed tens of thousands
of their accustomed means of livelihood,
and left thousands to beg or to starve.
Our ships are swept from every sea
millions OF property have been captured;
millions are left to useless decay and
ruin and millions are forever lost to
the public revenues of the country.
Who can paint the sufferings, who
describe the Affections engendered by
war, the ravages of the sword, or the
pestilence and disease that ever follow
in its train. The widows and the or
phans Who can bind up their wounds,
who supply the places OF their protect
ors and fathers
But of all the multiplied calamities in.
cident to the present disastrous war,
those proceedings which directly threat
en- the extinction of civil liberty are to
US the most alarming. The Friends of
Peace, though assailed with calumny *
reproach, know their rights, and will
maintain them. They make no factious
opposition to this war. To all lawful
measures of government, they bow with
submission. Bur they will continue 20
exercise the rights of free men and free
citizens; 10 examine the conduct OF pub
lie men, and Judge of the propriety and
usefulness of public measures. These
privileges they inherit from their fa-
theirs they are their birth right; and
the blood and toll, and treasure OF the
revolution, sacrificed to ensure and per-
petuate them, was price too high to
suffer them to be yielded to those who
inculcate the slavish doctrine OF pas
sive obedience and non-resistance.
Against the arbitrary arrests OF their
fellow citizens, by the military-against
the tyranny of standing armies--the In
vasion of private rights, the violation OF
domestic security, W hich have been wan
,only s unconstitutionally exercised, un-
der cover Of military authority, since the
commencement the war, this meeting
does most solemnly protest. In these
measures they perceive the openings to
lespotic power, and the prelude to the
destruction OF the feedom of the people
and the happiness oil their country.
Added to the catalosse of suffcrings.
;'ivations and distyesses-the loss OF
ves and of property, mons,rous ma
,ional debt is already accumulated and