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French freedom, he supposed. But hear the 8th article:

with hers. Whether the Orders in Council are repealed I know not, and I care not. They do not prevent us from trading with France; France "To favor commerce on both sides, it is agreed, herself excludes us. They have not prevented that, if in case a war should break out between the thirty millions of American property from find- two nations, which God forbid! the term of six months ing its way into the ports of France, and thence after the declaration of war shall be allowed to the into the imperial coffers. How did this property merchants and other citizens, and inhabitants respectget there? He spoke of the practical effect of ively, on the one side and the other, during which time the Orders in Council. Their principle, or want they shall be at liberty to withdraw themselves, with of principle, was another thing. "The Berlin their effects and moveables, which they shall be at liband Milan decrees," as our own Government had erty to carry, send away or sell, as they please, withofficially pronounced, "had restrained the Ameri- much less their persons, be seized, during such term out the least obstruction. Nor shall their effects, can merchants from sending their vessels to of six months. On the contrary, passports, which France." No sooner were they duped into a be- shall be valid for a time necessary for their return, lief that these injurious decrees were, or would shall be given to them for their vessels, and the effects be removed, than thirty millions of American which they shall be willing to send away or carry with property (the Orders in Council to the contrary them; and such passports shall be a safe conduct notwithstanding) found its way to France, to be against all insults and prizes which privateers may caught in her municipal trap. And we are to go attempt against their persons and effects. And if any to war for the privilege of a scanty trade, under thing be taken from them, or any injury done to them licenses, with France-taking our returns in or their effects, by one of the parties, their citizens or French silks at the very instant that we our-inhabitants, within the term above prescribed, full satselves are passing prohibitory and highly penal isfaction shall be made to them on that account." laws against this very licensed trade! This is the consummation of folly and inconsistency. Reverse the picture-suppose your vessels condemned in English ports for having touched at a French port, or having been searched by a French cruiser. The proceeds poured into the coffers of the British Exchequer to the amount of thirty millions, The British Ministry mock you with a nominal revocation of their Orders in Council, substituting some contrivance that answers, the same end. Your diplomatic puppet gathers courage to ask for the plundered property of our citizens. He is told, with true French nonchalance, "Why, as to that affair, it is to be settled by the law of reprisal." What would you say? Sir, you are laughed at as idiots, for expecting the restoration of thirty millions from the grasp of a foreign Power-and that power France! You may as well go to Algiers to look for the money. Mr. R. said, that having attempted to describe the aggressions of France in 1798 and 1799, when the Republicans refused to go to war with her, he would now advert to injuries of a later date, and he challenged a comparison of them with those of any nation under the sun.

And yet, sir, in a time of profound peace; in the face of this solemn stipulation; in the teeth of this treaty, signed by his own hand, when the imperial ruler of France himself could not insinuate that we had infringed one iota of it, had our merchants been decoyed into his ports, robbed, incarcerated, treated with every species of contumely and disgrace, in a manner in which, had we been at open war with France, he was not at liberty to treat them until after a fair notice of six months. In Bordeaux, Antwerp, Amsterdam-in every port under the control of Francenot forgetting Naples, the kingdom of Joachim Murat-there had been one uninterrupted scene of American plunder. In private life, there was a description of men so flagitious, so notorious for the disregard of every principle of morality, honor, and religion, as to be considered privileged to do and to say what they pleased; and in this class we seemed disposed to rank the present ruler of France. He stood absolved from all the obligations which are binding on other men. No act of turpitude, or ill faith from him, could excite any emotion or surprise; it was overlooked

as a matter of course.

In the year 1800, a treaty was negotiated by By the Article 12th. "It shall be lawful for the citiMr. Davie, and other Commissioners appointed zens of either country to sail with their ships and merby Mr. Adams, with the present ruler of the chandise (contraband goods always excepted) from French Empire. This treaty, signed by Bona- any port whatever, to any port of the enemy of the parte's own hand, was ratified by the late Presi- other, and to sail and trade with their ships and merdent (Mr. Jefferson) and the Senate, the succeed-chandise with perfect security and liberty, from the ing year. The third article provides for the mutual res-mies of both, or of either party, without any oppositoration of the public ships taken during the existence of hostilities between the two contracting parties:

countries, ports, and places, of those who are the ene

directly from the places and ports of the enemy afore tion or disturbance whatsoever; and to pass not only mentioned, to neutral ports and places, but also from The fourth for the restoration of property cap- belonging to an enemy, whether they be under the one place belonging to an enemy to another place tured (in actual war) and not definitively con-jurisdiction of the same Power, or under the several;

demned:

The sixth declares "that commerce between the parties shall be free." The subsequent conduct of the French Government is a suitable ommentary on this text "free." This was

unless such ports or places shall be actually blockaded, besieged, or invested."

"Article 14th. It is hereby stipulated that free ships shall give a freedom to goods, and that everything shall be deemed to be free and exempt which shall be

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found on board the ships belonging to the citizens of burst upon the House, Mr. R. had been anxiously either of the contracting parties, although the whole waiting for some great political or military prolading, or any part thereof, should appertain to thejector to point out a way by which we could get enemies of either, contraband goods being always excepted."

Under this article our ships have been burnt and sunk on the high seas, in the prosecution of their lawful trade.

at Halifax, or even at Quebec. He had seen and heard nothing that indicated a tolerably_correct information of the subject. Whilst England maintained the mastery of the seas, and could throw supplies into them at pleasure, he supposed "Article 17. And that captures on light suspicions they were to be starved out. He was forcibly may be avoided, and injuries thence arising prevented, reminded of a ludicrous caricature, published soon it is agreed that when one party shall be engaged in after the siege of Gibraltar. That fortress was war, and the other party be neuter, the ships of the represented to lie in the moon-and whilst the neutral party shall be furnished with passports similar Duke de Crillon was making passes at it with to that described in the fourth article, that it may ap- a small sword, Don Quixote, on his Rosinante, pear thereby that the ships really belong to the citi- with Sancho (the best and most honest Governor zens of the neutral party; they shall be valid for any of whom he had ever heard) mounted on Dapple, number of voyages, but shall be renewed every year— at his back, exclaimed, with true Castilian gravthat is, if the ship happens to return home in the space ity to his trusty squire, "we'll starve them out of a year. If the ships are laden, they shall be pro-Sancho!" This tit-bit, Canada, which had invided not only with the passports abovementioned, but also with certificates similar to those described in the same article, so that it may be known whether they carry any contraband goods. No other paper shall be required, any usage or ordinance to the contrary notwithstanding. And if it shall not appear from the said certificates that there are contraband goods on board any such ship, and the commander of the same shall offer to deliver them up, the offer shall be accepted, and the ship shall be at liberty to pursue its voyage, unless the quantity of contraband goods be greater than can conveniently be received on board the ship of war, or privateer, in which case the ship may be carried into port for the delivery of the same."

Article 18. Regulates the manner of search, "for the avoidance of disorder and abuse."

flamed the cupidity of northern contractors, made us forget the disturbances among our savage neighbors the hostilities committed or meditated along our whole northwestern and southern frontier. Symptoms of discontent were manifesting themselves among the Creeks-in the State of Georgia. As to Louisiana, he did not consider it as an integral part of the United States. We had bought it and might sell it he felt himself as much at liberty to sell it as to dispose of his own slaves. If we were to have war, he hoped it would be for something of greater national benefit than to enrich the commissaries and contractors from Michillimackinac to Niagara and Frontignac.

But why recite these stipulations, when our He repelled the charge of avarice made against Minister at Paris had been compelled to state to the opponents of the present measure. Avarice, the French Government, "that to appeal to our although the most sordid and degrading vice of solemn treaty with the ruler of France, or to the the individual character, was one of the first virlaws of nations," which are the principles of eter-tues of a statesman. To husband the public revnal justice and truth, "would be literally to ap-enues, to ease the public burdens, where consistent peal to the dead." And yet, with all this glaring with the public interest, was one of the cardinal testimony of French perfidy, injustice, injury, duties of a wise or beneficent Government. He and insult, we hear of pledges to France, of de- extolled the avarice of Elizabeth and her Bursignating our enemy, and that enemy not France. leigh and Walsingham, and that of Frederick the Sir, if you go to war it will not be for the pro- Great, which, aided by his genius, enabled him to tection of, or defence of your maritime rights. build up a first rate power in Europe to make Gentlemen from the North have been taken up a Prussia. He compared the parsimony of these to some high mountain and shown all the king- great Sovereigns and Ministers, with the profudoms of the earth; and Canada seems tempting sion and prodigality that had overthrown the monin their sight. That rich vein of Gennesee land, archy of the Bourbons. We had been told of which is said to be even better on the other side honor in one scale, and dollars and cents in the of the lake than on this. Agrarian cupidity, not other of cold calculators-the calculators were maritime right, urges the war. Ever since the on the other side. They begin at home. Their report of the Committee on Foreign Relations generosity is not misapplied. They were reckcame into the House, we have heard but one wordoning up the portion of those very dollars and -like the whip-poor-will, but one eternal monot-cents that might fall to their share. Seekers onous tone-Canada! Canada! Canada! Not a after commissions, embryo colonels and generals, syllable about Halifax, which unquestionably should be our great object in a war for maritime security. It is to acquire a prepondering northern influence, that you are to launch into war. For purposes of maritime safety, the barren rocks of Bermuda were worth more to us than all the deserts through which Hearne and McKenzie had pushed their adventurous researches. Since this great bomb, the report of the Committee, had

contractors, commissaries, and the whole tribe of leeches that fasten on the public purse-these were the true calculators. His friend from North Carolina, and himself were calculating pro bono publico; to save the people's money, not to share it. This was the character of their avarice. It was not of that description which views with equal eye, "the public million and the private groat."

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articles which we could no longer supply? As to the question whether the British Ministry were capable of such an act? there was nothing too mean, too vile, too infamous for Governments to do. The veteran politician was unsusceptible of friendship or enmity; he simulated the one or the other, just as it suited his own individual interest, his own crooked schemes and plans of advancement, to which he made every other consideration bend.

Mr. RANDOLPH returned his thanks to Mr. importation act, had not our agents been obliged JOHNSON and Mr. WRIGHT for the courtesy and to wink at a smuggling trade by that concern, in urbanity with which they had conducted the de-order that the Indians might be furnished with bate. He said, although he felt no sort of delicacy towards General Wilkinson, yet, in deference to the feelings of the gentleman from Maryland, (Mr. WRIGHT,) who, thinking of that person as he did, had displayed much liberality towards Mr. RANDOLPH he should forbear the unnecessary expression of opinions which wounded a gentleman professing to be the personal friend of General Wilkinson, and sincerely believing him innocent. Yet he must not be understood as modifying the opinions, which he had heretofore expressed of The gentleman from Maryland had expressed that man, who was sometimes styled the Com- surprise at Mr. RANDOLPH's manner of speaking mander-in-Chief. He had been compelled to of our origin from an English stock. Could that wade through a mass of testimony respecting gentleman repose his head upon his pillow withhim, among which that of the General himself out returning thanks to God that he was descended was not the least conclusive, which left no more from English parentage? Whence but from that doubt on his mind as to his real character, than origin came all the blessings of life, so far as politihe had of the being of a God-and he must re- cal privileges are concerned? To what is it ow nounce his reason before his conviction on eithering that we are at this moment deliberating under subject could be shaken. The public sentiment had pronounced an irreversible sentence, that no mock tribunal could affect.

Mr. R. said, that he had been misapprehended by the gentleman from Kentucky, (Mr. JOHN SON.) While he held himself utterly irresponsible for sentiments ascribed to him in the public prints, where it was hard to tell whether his language or his meaning was more perverted and mutilated, he should be sorry to be misunder: stood by a gentleman on that floor, who had conducted himself in debate with so much liberality toward his adversary as that gentleman had displayed. Mr. R. had never said, that on an explicit requisition of troops, by the Executive, he would vote the number required. He had said, that if the Executive, who was charged with the public defence, should declare to that House that this force was necessary to enable him to extend that protection over the United States and their dominions, which it was his duty to see afforded, for instance, to garrison New Orleans against meditated attack; to guard against apprehended danger from our savage neighbors, or from any formidable European Power-it would be with great distrust of his own judgment and information if he refused the grant.

He had asked for proof of British connexion with the late massacre; he had been answered by one gentleman, "I have no doubt of it;" while another had attempted to show, from the history of our late war, (what no man ever denied.) that the Government of England was capable of such an act. He foresaw that he should have to postpone his trip to Canada. He had asked for proof of the savages having been instigated by the British Government, or its agents, and he had been told of the trade of the Northwest Company. Was that any novelty? Might we not as well charge ourselves with a participation in the act, because we had furnished them with similar articles? Was the Northwest Company the British Government? Was it in any degree under the control of that Ministry? In fact, since the non

the forms of a free representative Government? Suppose we had been colonies of any other European nation-compare our condition with that of the Spanish, Portuguese, or French settlements in America? To what was our superiority owing? To our Anglo-Saxon race. Suppose we had descended from those nations-from the fast, especially, which stood self-condemned, on her own confession, as incapable of free Government, hugging her chains, glorying in her shame, priding herself in the slave's last poor distinction, the splendor of her tyrant master? Had we sprung from the loins of Frenchmen, (he shuddered at the thought!) where would have been that proud spirit of resistance to Ministerial encroachment on our rights and liberties, which achieved our independence? We should have submitted to the tea tax, the stamp act, and the whole train of Grenville and North ministerial oppression. That which we lifted our hands against in determined scorn, would have been deemed an indulgence. Look at the province of New Spain, or Mexico, as it is, not with strict propriety, called. With a phys ical force greatly superior to ours in 1776, she had not dared to burst the chains of Spanish despotism, divided, weakened, almost extinct as was the Spanish monarchy. Mr. R. adverted to historical documents to show that America ought to be proud of her Anglo-Saxon descent. We were vastly particular about the breed of our horses, cattle, and sheep, but careless of the breed of hu man nature. And yet to our Anglo-Saxon origin we owed our resistance to British tyranny. Who were the members of the first Congress? From Massachusetts, Samuel Adams, and t'other Adams too,) Robert Treat Paine, not Tom. From Connecticut, Roger Sherman, a man of the most profound political wisdom. From New York, James Duane, John Jay. From New Jersey, William Livingston. From Pennsylvania, Thomas Miffliu. From Delaware, Cæsar Rodney, Thomas McKean. From Maryland, William Paca. From Virginia, Peyton Randolph, George Washington, Patrick Henry, Richard Bland, Edmund Pendle

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ton. From South Carolina, Henry Middleton, ousies, that overwhelm your Majesty's colonies with John Rutledge, Christopher Gadsden, Edward Rutledge. In what school had these illustrious men formed those noble principles of civil liberty asserted by their eloquence and maintained by their arms? Among the grievances stated in their remonstrance to the King, a "standing army" met us at the threshold. It was curious to see in that list of wrongs, so many that had

since been self-inflicted by us.

"The authority of the Commander-in-Chief, and under him, the Brigadier General, has, in time of peace, been rendered supreme in all the civil governments in America."

Here, indeed, only in one.

"The Commander-in-Chief of all your Majesty's forces in North America, has, in time of peace, been appointed Governor of a Colony."

The same case had happened here in the appointment of General Wilkinson to the govern

ment of Louisiana.

"The charges of usual offices have been greatly increased; and new, expensive, and oppressive offices, have been multiplied."

The same case now.

"The officers of the customs are empowered to break open and enter houses, without the authority of any civil magistrate, founded on legal information."

This power, too, has been exercised here. "Humble and reasonable petitions, from the Representatives of the people, have been fruitless." How does this apply to the petitions from our commercial towns, some of which were refused reference or consideration?

"Commerce has been burdened with many and oppressive restrictions."

useless

In this we had not been behindhand with Lord North himself.

"In the last session of Parliament, an act was passed for blocking up the harbor of Boston."

We have blocked up every port from Maine to Georgia. These great men never anticipated the time when our whole coast should be under the paper blockade of embargo laws; when these should be considered as the legitimate exercise of our restrictive energies; they never dreamed of such oppressions.

"Extending the limits of Quebec, abolishing the English and restoring the French laws, whereby great numbers of British freemen are subjected to the latter, and establishing an absolute Government, and the Roman Catholic religion throughout those vast regions that border on the westerly and northerly boundaries of the free, Protestant, English settlements."

affliction; and we defy our most subtle and inveterate enemies to trace the unhappy differences between Great Britain and these colonies, from an earlier period, or from other causes than we have assigned. Had they proceeded on our part from a restless levity of temper, unjust impulses of ambition, or artful suggestions of seditious persons, we should merit the opprobrious terms frequently bestowed upon us by those we revere. But so far from promoting innovations, we have only opposed them; and can be charged with no offence, unless it be one to receive injuries, and be sensible of them..

"Had our Creator been pleased to give us existence in a land of slavery, the sense of our condition might have been mitigated by ignorance and habit. But, thanks to his adorable goodness, we were born the heirs of freedom," &c.

"The apprehension of being degraded into a state freemen, while our minds retain the strongest love of of servitude, from the pre-eminent rank of English liberty, and clearly foresee the miseries preparing for us and our posterity, excites emotions in our breasts, which, though we cannot describe, we should not wish to conceal.'

Mr. R. also read an extract showing Doctor Franklin's opinion as to the state of the colonies previous to the troubles of the stamp act. That wise man had explicitly declared that ours was the only instance of an extensive empire in which the remote provinces were as well governed as the metropolis and its vicinity. The question was not whether we should continue in our happy situation, previous to the British attempts to tax us without our consent, (for better, he allowed, we could never expect to be,) but whether we should give up that enviable condition without a struggle. The gentleman from South Carolina must excuse him if he preferred the authority of Dr. Franklin, and of these authors of our independence, to his own (Mr. CALHOUN'S ;) in this school, at the feet of Gamaliel, he had studied his political principles. We had received our indelible character of freemen from our Anglo Saxon descent. Sprung from the loins of Spaniards, Portuguese, ond Frenchmen! what should we have known of representative Government, of jury trial, of the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus, the palladium of liberty itself?

But he had been guilty of estimating the resources of the adversary against whom we were about to contend, and our own capacity to maintain the war for any beneficial result. This was the first instance in which he had heard an open contempt of all calculation as to the means of carrying on a war, or the strength of the enemy, in the discussion of a war question. He augured nothing good from such rashness, such ignorance of the first principles of politics, of the elementary knowledge of a statesman. Indeed, he had, in the course of the debate, with this exception, heard nothing that had not before been said, and better said. Mr. R. could not, out of deference to those gentlemen who feel so sensitive an antip"From this destructive system of Colony adminis-athy to calculation, forbear progressing with his tration, adopted since the conclusion of the late war, | dull, dry matters of fact, although they were so have flowed those distresses, dangers, fears, and jeal- little in unison with the flowing speculations of

These truly great and wise men were not indifferent to the interests of religion. They knew and felt that it was the basis of all that was valuable in the human character, that society and Government could not exist without it. They had not had the benefit of "The Age of Reason," nor even of "The Rights of Man,"

the day. He quoted the review of Pasley's Essay on the British Military Policy. (He had not been able to procure the work itself.)

"The population opposed to us in our contest with the Emperor of the French, Captain Pasley estimates as five to one, and, numerically speaking, he is perhaps sufficiently accurate. But the power of producing and maintaining armies results so little from mere population, that previous to the time of Francis I, it is well known that no standing army was or could be maintained in Europe, and from that time armies have only increased with increasing civilization. The cause of this is not obscure. Millions of persons may subsist in a rude state, and consume the produce of the soil, without acquiring a particle of that kind of power which contributes to the maintenance of an army, or to any other national object. In the feudal times, imperfect agriculture and the want of roads scarcely permitted the cultivators to dispose of a surplus sufficient to furnish money contributions for the support of the regal and baronial courts. The progress of civilization taught a more economical and effectual application of human labor; and an increasing number of persons could be fed, besides those who cultivated the land. To procure their share, these superfluous lookers-on became manufacturers, whence arose, in the natural order of gradation, trade, money, and facility of taxation; and it is in reality from the degree in which scientific or skilful labor exists in a country, that the permanent maintenance of armies is to be calculated. In a ruder state of things nothing can be furnished beyond the raw material-untutored

DECEMBER, 1811.

ters and workmen, in London, twenty years ago—now upwards of two thousand are engaged in this manufacture; but this increase in their number is accompanied by the discharge of thousands and tens of thousands from manual labor; and so proportionally has machinery lent aid to all the other trades and callings. Co-operating with machinery, in advancing our national power, is obviously the division of labor; the effect of which, having been so ably examined and stated, as to have become an undisputed principle, has only been mentioned in this place, lest we should seem to forget that it has conspicuously increased in the last ten years.

"The following statement of our effective forces, including officers, at the close of the last year, will be at once satisfactory to our readers, and useful to our argument. Our regular cavalry appears, from the authentic returns, to have been, on the 25th of December last, 31,375. Our regular infantry, including the foreign and colonial corps, 911,574. The artillery, horse, and foot, 22,346, making in all, of regular land forces, The vote for seamen and marines was, 265,395 men. in 1810, increased to 145,000; and it was stated in Parliament that this increased vote was necessary, because that number were actually in the service. The regular militias of the Empire amounted to 95,444, and thus we have a total actual military and naval force of a force more upwards of five hundred thousand men than double the military establishment of the Roman Empire, under Augustus. And here we must observe, that the measure of interchanging the British and Irish militias, the most important and beneficial to the Empire, which has been proposed since the union, will have the effect, in addition to many other and greater "The real inquiry for our purpose therefore is, the advantages, of increasing our actually disposable force quantity of machinery, of scientific labor, and of the by nearly 16,000 or 20,000 men, the number of regu means of employing both, existing in England, as com-lar troops which it has hitherto been thought expedient pared with the same resources in the dominions of Bonaparte. A difference in our favor all will allow, because if both had remained stationary since the commencment of the war, our superiority was evident from the vent of our manufactured goods on the Continent, and that too in despite of the higher price paid in England for labor to each individual workman. And what has happened since the commencement of the war? Except those ornamental manufactures which are maintained, not by profit, but at the expense of Government, from motives of vanity or policy, all manufacture in France is extinct, or nearly so.

man,

Over the rest of the Continent war has occasioned a

desolation unparalleled since the eruption of the Barbarians; and war contributions have annihilated the

visible capital of the manufacturer, and therewith, of course, all his exertions. This we may conclude without fear of error from the otherwise unaccountable and incredible avidity with which English goods are purchased even in increased quantities, though at a price proportioned to the danger of hazarding the vengeance of the laws, if they may be so called, which have been

made for their exclusion.

to retain in Ireland, and which we apprehend may be most safely and most usefully replaced by the British

militia.

The local militia of Great Britain, which assembled for exercise at the last inspection, amounted to 167,000. The volunteers in Great Britain, are 52,000 infantry, and 18,000 cavalry. In Ireland, 67,000 infantry, and 8,000 cavalry-a total irregular force of 312,000.

66

and commanding spectacle of eight hundred and twenThus, in the whole, we offer to the world the proud ty thousand men in arms; and this has been accomplished, as the increased comforts of all classes of society abundantly prove, without any unnatural exertion or ruinous expenditure of our strength. To our enehis five-fold superiority of population, he does not, cermy, everything is opposite; and, accordingly, with all tainly, only because he cannot, maintain many more troops and seamen than ourselves, even by the severest exactions of tyranny."

He asked for our surplus of capital, of labor, of population, out of which (except in the pastoral state) a military power could grow.

It had been asked, why was the country un"The prosperous application of large capital we have daily opportunity of seeing. In one place, a large prepared for defence? Was he expected to ansteam engine performs the manual labor of five hun-swer this question? The Administration, and dred able men; in another place, a cotton mill works with all the delicacy of five hundred skilful artisans; and a thousand men may thus be marched to the army without national loss. In machinery less striking than these popular instances, no less progress has been made. For instance, agricultural instruments employed about a hundred and twenty persons, mas

their overwhelming majorities, must answer it. They had wantoned in the plenitude of their power. Who could say them, nay? Was it Mr. RANDOLPH's fault, that the gentleman from South Carolina had never, in the course of his extensive experience, heard of a proposition to arm the whole body of the militia? which had been