Martinsburgh gazette. [volume] (Martinsburgh, Va. [W. Va.]) 1810-1825, 1814-08-04

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put to sea in our good ship Of state from
a safe and secure harbour in a night of
blackness and tempest, and foolishly en-
countered the perils of the storm for a booty
which the first gentle breeze ofpeace would
have waited to their haven! They declared
war without preparation or the means of
making il, and in a manner which rendered
it doubtful whether they meant to prose
cute it or not. They had scarcely proyok-
ed the ire, before they propitiated the
mercy of the enemy. They exhibited to
the world the silly, humiliating spectacle
of threatening to fight and of supplicating
at the same moment Like Sir Hugh
Evans in his interview with DR.. CaiUs-
they carried the sword & the prayer book,
and hourished the one and sung and pray
ed with the other alternately, as the issue
of their policy became watering or doubt
| fully the manner of declaring the war,
| they provoked the resentment, and in the
manner of prosecuting it, the contempt of
the ~enemy-and squandered, in negotiat-
ing, the means with which they should
have screened the country from the depre
dations of his fleets. The same imbeciity
| characterised both their attempts for war
| and for peaee-and their unfortunate selec-
! ton of generals, is little worse than their
extrayagant nomination of ministers
extraordinary-So lavish are they in pat
ronage as to the latter, that their mission
looks like an army, and their army like a
platoon. So astonishing is their fatality,
that having once fixed upon a man in whom
the nation had confidence, they could Cd
ly be contented when they rendered him
Intellectually encumbering him with a Rus
sell and a Clay and an Adons.-They
may truly be said to have dealt in contra
RES. Their generals have all been peacea,
bic, and their ministers most hostile-and
there could not well be a greater paradox
than to send Dearborn to make war, and
Clay and Russell to make peace. In short,
so miserably have they managed both the
war the negotiation, that disaster follows
the train of the one, and fearful doubt and
apprehension hangs upon the other. Una
bic themselves to bring the contest to an
honorable issue, they have been valnly
waiting for the exaltation of Bonapartean
power, rising with hope, or sinking in des-
p~ondeDcy, as his prospects frightened or
were clouded. At length however, he has
fallen. England is triumphant, and precise.
ly the same state of things, which the fed
%eralists predicted, has happened.
1t is therefore certain that our rulers
have rushed into a war rashly and preci-
pitantly, at a time when they should not
have done it, with an enemy the most
dangerous, and prosecuted it SO wretchedly
as TO defeat its own object. They are
therefore answerable for the consequences.
If they did not foresee these things they
are inexcusably imbecile if they did, they
are corrupt. In this state of things it will
answe no purpose to Glamour about French
or British influence; bat every real friend
of his country will execrate a policy, too
blind to see or too corrupt to heed the
p~lainest causes connected with our nation
al happiness and prosperity and which in
its infatuated career has placed US at the
mercy of European politics How ditfe-
rent would have been the result of the fed
erai policy. Ii the nation were now at
peace, we should be in possession of every
advantage which the most successful war
could have obtained for us. The only Sc
riOus grounds of complaint would be re-
moved. The orders in council having been
long ago revoked, and the question of i'm
pressment being put to rest, through the
want of an opportunity by the British to
employ their marines. Our neutrality
would be safe, since there would be no mo.
tive or preteAt to impair it-Our indepen-
dence more stable than ever-our resources
unbounded-our people unoppressed by
taxes, and not wasted by wars, and our
commercial, agricultural and manufacturing
interests deriving a new spring from the
unshackled state of affairs in the world.
would shed prosperity over the whole ma
ton. But, alas! we are at war, and all
these blessings are jeopardised.
We entertain little apprehension that the
liberties of this country can ever be over
come, and the idea of recolonizing us, is
as absurd as it is revolving to the Ameri
can feeling. There is a spirit of bravery
and patriotism in the freemen of this land,
which will be all sufficient to preserve