Martinsburgh gazette. [volume] (Martinsburgh, Va. [W. Va.]) 1810-1825, 1814-10-27

| vessels? An American ot1;er boards
| British merchant vessel, and claims, as A
merican citizens, whom he pleases. How
MANY British searlen would dIsclaim I'll
! tie which would take them to the United
| States and secure them there all the ad :
vantagss Of citizenship The rule OF evi-
denee as the ground Of impressment in
! every instance, must likewise be recipro-
caed between the two governments. The
acknowledgment of the men would surely
be better proof of their national charac-
ter than the decision of a British officer
who boarded an American vessel, however
| impartial he might be and strong his pow
err of discrimination, when opposed by the
voluntary and solemn declaration of the
party In this way we might draw from
the British service the greater part, If not
all their seamen | might further ask, WY
was this acknowledgement made at this
late period, for the first time only, after
the declaration of war, and wnen on that
account il could produce no effectP In the
various discussions of this subject, In ma
nv of which it has been demanded whether
the British government would tolerate such
n praetice from American ships of war, no
such insiaaation was ever given
IfGreat Britain had found the employ
ment of her seamen in pur service ininri
| Gus to her, and been disposed&to resnect
our rights, the regular course o. nroeee ling
would have been for her government to
have complained to the govera'hsnt:of the
United States of the inl iry, All TO- have
proposed a remedy. Had this been t'ne,
and no reasonable remedy been adopted,
sound in principle and reciprocal N It's ope-
ration, the British government ial5n have
had some cause of complaint AID some
plea for taking the remedy into its own
hands. Such procedure would, at least
have given to its claim of impressment the
greatest FEASIBILITY We know that such
complaint was never made, except IN de-
fence of the practice of impressment, and
that in the mean time the practice ms gone
on, and grown into an usage, which, with
all its abuses, had resistance been longer
DELAYED. might have become law The
origin and progress of this usurpation at
ford strong illustrations of the British poll
CIV The practice and the claim began to-
oether, soon after the close our revolutions
~ war and were applicable to deserters
only. They extended next to all British
seaynen then to all British subjects, in
Guiding, as in the case of emigrants from
Ireland, persons who would not have been
subj ect to impressment1 IN BRUSH ports, not
being seafaring men and, hnaily' TO
Swedes, Danes, and others, known to be
not British subjects, and by their protec'
tons appearing to be naturallzed citizens
of the United States
Other views may be taken of the subject,
to show the unlawfulness and absurdlty Of
the British claim If British cruisers have
a rich. 70 take British seamen from oar yes
sells, without regarding the abuses lnsepara-
BILE from the practice, they may take from
them, on the sams principle ana win
much greater reason every species of pro
perty to which the British government has
any kind of claim. Allegiance cannot give
to sovereign better right to take his SUB
iects than ownership to take his property -
There would be no limit to this pretension
or its consequences. All property forfeited
bv expectation, contrary to the laws of
Great Britain, every article to which her
sovereignty, jurisdiction, or ownership
would extend, in British vessels, would be
liable to seizure in those OF the United
States The laws of England would be
executory in them. Instead of being part
of the American, they would become a
part of the British territory.
1t might naturally be expected that Great
Britain would have given, by her conduct,
some support to her pretensions {; that if she
had not disclaimed altogether the principle
of naturalization, she would at least have
excluded from her service foreign seamen.-
Her conduct, however, has been altogether
at variance with her precepts She has
given great facility to naturalization, in all
instances whore it could advance her inter
est, and peculiar encouragement to that of
foreign seamen. She naturaiizes by special
act Of parliament. She naturalizes all per
sons who reside certain term of years in
British colonies; all those who are born of
British subjects, in foreign dominions and-i
all seamen VINO have served a certain short
term in the British service; and would
* u I,