Alexandria gazette, commercial and political. [volume] (Alexandria [Va.]) 1812-1817, 1815-06-03
Tennessee inattackable, ard to protect

tincnt, will not get beyond the Allegha
ny mountain; the present pessessors of
Canada will scarcely encrease in popula-
ton the savages can neither multiply
nor unite together; and the Spanish pos
sessions will be given up to long alter
native of intestine divisions or of indo-
lence. But those iHestimable advantages
have been forgotten; repose and obscure
happiness rarely satisfy men. The want
of institutions framed with sufficient wis
dom to give an uniformity of inclination
to mixture of families who have not a
common origin, continues among the A.
mericans the egotism which that diversi-
ty of primitive manners must necessarily
have produced, and by inevitable conse-
quence, factious spirit and political i'm
prudence.
A residence of eight years in the Unit
ed States, has permitted the author to
examine, whether the prosperity of that
republic. which forms spectacle so new
to the greater part of Europeans, pro-
ceeds from any accidental circumstances.
or whether it reposes upon solid founda-
tions, upon a larry accordance of the
institutions with the natural necessities
of the country. 1t might be observed to
him that that imperfect prosperity might
suffice for the existence as well as for the
character of the Americans doubtless
they owe it in a great degree to external
circumstances but their happiness Will
be of long duration, if ceases only with
the miseries of the old world. When
our political commissions shall be appeas-
ed, Europe will not thereby be cured of
the restless discomfort of the inhabitants
of an old and popuIous country where
the Imagination is ardent, and The means
of existence limited. There will always
be numbers of men DESTROYS of living more
at large in the vast spaces of Louisiana
and Kentucky.
But, n. Turreau will say, the politi-
cal body has no consistence: the federal
chain is illusory: congress can effect no.
thing: it is subjected to the influence of
popular factions, and to the more PERM
cious influence of commercial interest:
those huctuating interests, always fore On
from true political principles, subjugatc
opinion itself; and not only the spirit Of
commerce is contrary to the spirit of de-
mocracy, but foreign commerce, to which
the Americans are passionately attached,
is precisely what is unsuitable for them.
Nevertheless, | will answer him, they
will subsist, and notwithstanding so ma
nv errors, that country will long be the
ASYLUM of unfortunate men and also the
land of promise to romantic spirits. The
situation of the United States protects
them, and it is the security which that
situation inspires, that permits them to a.
bandon themselves to sort OF political
disorder.
The moment perhaps approaches when
the states of the west and south will de-
tach themselves from those of the north
but that division will not be the effect of
enmity, it will leave them common inte-
rests and by giving more activity to their
operations, will render them stronger in
defensive war.
That separation would undoubtedly
take from them the hope of becoming
what is called in Europe great power,
but that would be also benefit. Hitber-
to commerce appears to be the only foun-
dation of such a pretension it is there
fore chimerical. If commerce has ele
waited Great Britain, that consideration
itself, as NJ. Turreau observes, ought to
dissuade the Americans from entering in
to competition with very great inferio-
rity of means. 1t is not reflection, it is
a sort of prejudice that from the begin
ming has induced them to follow the track
of the mother country. Thus the desire
of gain became blind habit, political
principles were weakened: 4 very soon
congress itself was obliged to conform to
the speculations of some merchants and
yield to the sediticus cry of few sea-
men: Z" the sea on bread.'
These observations that the author adj
dresses to the Americans, those reproach-
es that he makes to them, are dictated
by " regret at seeing people whom dan
gers and glory encircled in the cradle,
lose in youth their rights to independ-
erce and to prosperity, when their early
virtues ought to have secured to them
both" The Americans may yet, accord
ing to him, abandon disastrous system,
g make general reform in their instltu-
items, and content themselves with en-
ioying the benefits that they have recelv-
ed from nature, and which the NEST hap
ply geogl apbicalposition seems to suaran-
tee to Them"