Alexandria gazette & daily advertiser. [volume] (Alexandria [Va.]) 1817-1822, 1817-11-17
ALEXANDRIA:
.NOSDIY, .NoVEMBER II, 1917.
SOUTH AMERICA.

lonies appears every day more and more
appIicable to our reasoning on this very
important subject. 1t will be remember
ed that in the last observations which we
hazarded upon it, we laid some stress uP-
on the suggestion that the cause OF the
Patriots, it not actively, was Pass~eiy
aided by England, and the intelligence
brought by the Maria (puPlex) tends We
ry strongly to countenance that presumP-
tion. "Ships continue to be equipped IN
the river (says London paPer) for tue
purpose of conveying officers, nOn-com-
missioned officers and privates to aid the
Patriots iu South America. At present
one vessel is quite ready to sail, having
on board officers fully equipped, and 200
privates, to form rifle corps. Another
is in forward state Of preparation, and
has appointments for acava'ry regiment
600 strong: third is freighted with e.
quipments for lancers' corps. The Of
Ulcers are all men who have seen active
service, and are Of every rank from lieu
tenant colonies 10 eHsigus. The organi-
zation is so complete, and the arrange
ments so happily made, that they will be
Al
ready Tor Immediate service on their ar
| rival in America"
From this we are warranted in con-
Guiding that the preparations OF which II
speaks are not the first, but that others Of
the same kind had before gone on the
same destination. Ships continue to be
equipped" &c. The inference from
which plainly is, that either the cabinet
of st. James winks at the proceeding, or
that it is not within their competence to
prevent any British subjects, who may
like the enterprise, from going in arms to
Join the Patriots. In either Of these two
cases, will not az awkward responsibility
rest with some parts of our government,
or some defect be apparent in cur consti-
tuition? If the British ministers, by a
stroke of mastery secret policy, shall
have insinua,ed themselves permanently
between Us and the Spanish colonies,
what shall our political managers have to
say in their own justificatiOnF We are
at loss to conceive. Ii the British 60
| vernment be restrained by the coustitu-
ton of that realm from prohibiting their
subjects from going with their arms when
or where or for what purposes they
please, shall we pretend to say that our
constitution, under which American citi.
zens are now restraint by executive
proclamation from joining the Patriots,
| or even selling them armed vessels, is as
free as that Of Englandi 1t would be a
contradiction in terms to affirm it. Or,
finally, if the constitution does not au'ho-
rise such an act Of coercion, and never
theIess the government, that is to say the
legislature or the executive, or both, have
| taken Upon them to interdict the rights
of our citizens in that respect, what will
| it be in theml We tremble to think Of
it-nane it we dare not; and the upshot
will be, that while zoe incessantly-De,
the people, and our aatterers and oracles,
the public journals, and our kind com.
plimentary master-servants or servant
| masters, who rule US, cocker Us up in re.
turn for our votes with the adulatory as
surance that we are the most-nay, some
will have it, the emily free people on
earth; assuring US at the same time that
the British ale all slaves, reference
to plain matter II TACT, open to the eyes
of tie world, proves the truth to be this,
that an Englishman may, it he pleases,
even against the will of his government,
take up his sword and proclaim to bis
county," am going to JUN the Patriots
Of South America, and help them to fight
for their emancipation from colonial des.
potisn." In other words, that If an a.
gent for the Patriots ia England solicits