The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1873-03-06
Attitude of Eugland HewarsIl
America During Wasllington's,
First Presfts ency.


Mr. Parton says, in his biography
of Jefferson, in the Atlantic Monthly
ior February:
| President Washington's chief diff
lculties, alter the public debt had been
provided for, arose from the relations
of the young Republic with foreign
powers. TO weakness everything is
difficult. The necessity of keeping
| the peace was so manifest and so ur-
gent, that the government could not
meet the representatives of an un-
! friendly power on equal terms. The
United States signified merely thin
line of settlements along the Atlantic
coast; open OIL the side of the ocean
TO hostile fleet, and on the, western
boundary to the Indian tribes; Spain
holding New Orleans, and Great Brit
tain Canada. There was no army,
no navy, no surplus revenue; and the
country was but just recovering from
the exhaustion and ravage of.an eight
years war. asg4. ctr .sup-of --a--
When General Washington came to
the Presidency in 1889, six years bad
elapsed since the peace. In the treaty
of 1888, Great Britain had agreed to
evlcuate, without n eedless delay, ev-
cry fortified place within the bounda-
ries of the United States; and vet
British garrison's still held seven
American posts of little use to her,
but of vial importance both to the
honor and the safety of this country
posts, the retention of which was a
menace as well as an injury for they
kept open the great natural highways
from Canada into the, United States.
To these. substantial wrongs was ad-
ded a neglect, an indifference,a "a silence
that looked like systematic discourte-
sy. Congress sent Mr.. Adams to
London, in 1856, to represent the new
member of the family of nations near
the court of one of the Oldest. No
English minister was sent to oAmeri-
ca till six years after. Mr.. Adams,
though he was received civilly enough
was kept haunting ante-chambers Tor
three months before he began to get
any certainty as to the reason why the
posts were retained. lDsi G- l0r eli fi
Great Britain imposed such restric-
tions upon American commerce as
seem, at present, too preposterous for
belief. From her West India Islands,
American vessels were excluded ;and
only such American products were "a
admitted as could not be dispensed
with-grain, horses, live animals used
for food, timber, tar, and turpentine.
But neither an American vessel, nor
American products of any kind what
ever, were admitted into one Brit,
ish, possession which could do
without them nor into New Found li
land, Canada or India. From Great
Britain itself, whale oil, salt fish, and
were excluded. and grain
only admitted when the people must
have it or go hungry.
The American people might not be
mp in their Puffendorf. nor was Vat "
tai often seen on.the family table. but
the St. Clair massacre struck horror
to the coldest heart, and excited re-
dections iii the dullest head. Every
one could enter into such cases as that
Of Hugh Purdie, a native of Virginia, y {
in London streets, carried,
10 sea in man-of-war, ordered to be
by the admiralty, put in irons
and flogged after those orders had r
been received, aud set on shore in
strange land without the means. of
,ubsisting for day. 1t took fifty.
years to get the hatred out of the
hearts of the American people which
was engendered, not so much by war 4
Is by this insolent persistence in out "a
age after the war; 5.1A M bna 3Isa