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Les diagrammes suivants illustrent la m6thode. trrata to pelure, nd □ 32X f ■ I: 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 5 6 T A^ INaUIRY INTO TUB PAST AND PRESENT ^RELATIONS Of FRANCE AVD THS tJNiTED STATES OF AMERICA. •* the illustrious example just quoted should be here Imitated by those whose *• proper stations in our political world have been usurped by the most inca- ** pable and contemptible men that ever presumed to be ambitious; by ** men, who are no less devoid of the accomplishments of liberal and useful *' science, than of all the distinguishing qualifications of real statesmen— wha *' are hot the guides, but the instruments, of the people— who axe at once the ** shame and the scourge of their country." Protpeetus of the Ameriean Rnit^g. LONDON: PRINTED FOR J. HATCHARD, BOOKSELLER TO HER ^JJUESTY, NO. 190, OPPOSITE ALBANY, PICCADILLY. 1811, Prmieil bjr ^. Gobncll, littk Qikcb Sticct, tioftitoii. I PREFACE. The fullowing pages present a picture of the American go- vernment in its relations with France, which nnist, of neces- sity, embrace many features of its characteristic policy to- wards Great Britain. The picture is drawn by a native artist of considerable ability, who, whilst he gives, as may be seen in all his writings, ample credit to the genius and high calling of his countrymen, hjis nevertheless availed him- self of the means which he possesses to portray in their true colours the genius and disposition of the ruling party, and ©f those more immediately engaged in the functions of go- vernment. In saying this, it is almost superfluous to intro- duce to our Readers the nnme of Mr. Walsh, who has al- ready distinguished himself in the field of literature and po- litics, and who is the Editor of a new work called the Ame- rican Review, which bids fair, at no very distant period, to place his country on a level with our ovi-n in the merit of this sort of production, It will, in fact, be compara- tively of greater utility than any similar work in Europe, be- cause it will not only convey to us the opinions, more valu- able than is generally supposed, of our Trans-atlantic bre- thren, upon the productions of the British press, but will bring us acquainted with those of their oWn ; and this inter- course of letters will, in some sort, be a substitute for that more enlarged commercial intercourse which, until interrupted by T IV ^RErACE. the tot.ll prevalence of French inllucncc at Washuigton, con- tributed so nuich to the mutual pr()S[Krlty of botli countries. The following article is extracted from the first volume of the American Review, which was published at Philadelphia on the first day of the present year, and is to be continued quar- terly. \Vc may safely rcconmlend the whole volume to the perusal of the public, especially the very interesting Letter! upon England and France, which, together with this tract, vvc presume to come from the pen of Mr, Walsh himself, and to be addressed to his friend and co-operator in the cause of good taste and good principles — Robert Goodloe Harper ; — but this extract has been made and published in a separate form, because it is coticcivcd to be pre-eminently important, at the present juncture of affairs, that the conduct of the United States towards France, by which that of Great Bri- tain towards them must in a great decree be regulated, should be thoroughly understood by the politicians of our country, as it unquestionably is by the writer of the follow- ing pages. That his statenieilt of the case is correct, can be afRrmalively decided by every person who will give himself the trouble of referring to the official documents on which it is founded. That his conclusions, drawn from these pre- mises, are incontrovertible, is no less manifest by the sen- timents expressed by the American executive itself, in nti- merous passages which he quotes, and by the following note which is 6ui)joined, in another part of the Review, to an appendix of the State Papers, laid before Congress by the President, at the opening of the present session. This note appears to us to be so conclusive, that we cannot better con- tribute to the elucidation of the subject, than by transferring it into our present sheet. " The president of the United States stands pledged not to proceed in giving effect to the act of the first of May, in favour of France, * in case the late seizure of the property « of the citizens of this country has been followed by an ab- ^ PREFACB. V * solute confiscation, and restoration be fitally refused.' — * The only ground,* says our secretary of state, in his letter to general Armstrong on this subject, * short of a prelimi- * nary restoration ot the property, on which the contemplated * arrangement can be made, will be an understanding that * the confiscation is reversible, and that it will become ira- ' mediately the subject of discussion, luith a reasonable pro" * 5per/ of justice to our injured citizens.* There has been' Mo distinct, formal understanding with the French govern- ment, that the coTiJiHation is reversible, and the language used by the president in his message, gives us plainly to in- fer, that there is as yet no * reasonable prospect of justice ' to our injured citizens.' General Armstrong quitted France without having left this busincr.s, even in a train of adjust- ment, and received only a verbal assurance, as he tells us, that the fate of the property seized in France, would depend upon that of the French vessels seized here, under our Non- intercourse Law. A verbal assurance, particularly from the French government, will not, we suppose, be construed, even by the most sanguine of our politicians, into * a reasonable * prospect of redress to our injured citizens.* The only ground of reliance, r»r of reasoning in this case, is to be found in the written declaration m the above letter of the duke of Cadore, that, ' As to the merchandise corifiscated, it * having been confiscated as a measure of reprisal^ the prin- ' ciples of reprisal must be the law in that affair.* ** The footing upon which the business is hcr^ placed, merits a short examination. The French government has not informed us officially, how it construes * this law of re- * prisal ' which is to govern in the afl^air ; and some sniisler omens may be drawn by our 'injured citizens* with regard to the infcrpretation which will be given to this law", when they advert to the meaning of the term co?tfiscatedf employed in the declar; tion of the French minister, and to the general character of the French government. Le; u« apply, how- ^w VI rREFACB. ever, to this case, the principles of the law of reprisal, as they were universally admitted, and acted upon by the world, before the French revolution, and sec in what relation France and tlic United States will then be placed. ** No doctrine appertaining to the law of nations, wa» better settled, than that of reprisals. The great jurists of Europe call a state of reprisals, an imperfect war, and lay down the most positive, as well as the most indisputable rules, on this subject. If our readers wish to have a full ex- position of thecv; rules, from the authorities which formerly tlecided such questions, we refer them to Grotius, lib, 3. c. 2. — to Puffendorf, lib. 5. c. 13. — to Burlamaqui, liv. 4. ch. 3. -~to the discussions between Sir William Temple and the pensionary De Witt — and to Vattel, b. 2. c. 17. All the writers on national law concur in the following maxims, and Vattel is particularly full and explicit ; — that reprisals can be justifiably resorted to by a nation, only when she has expe- rienced a flagrant injustice from another ;— only after redress has been solemnly demanded, and peremptorily refused, or unreasonably delayed ; — that property seized under the law of reprisals, is to be restored^ when satisfaction is made by the offending nation ; and can be subjected to final confiscation, in no case lut where redress has leen revised, and is lecome hopeless, *' Under these maxims, it is impossible to consider the seizure made by the French government, as an act of reprisal ; nor is it possible, withont sacrijieing our national honour, to treat with France on that ground. France sustained no in- jury from us : she demanded no redress ; the seizure which she made was nothing less than an act of rapine, an unpro- voked^ audacious robbery. Our administration call it, in their correspondence with general Armstrong, * an enormous * outrage j'—* a signal aggression on the principles of justice ' and good faith ;* — ' a proceeding of violence, for which re- * paration must be made, as a preliminary to a general ac- I ^>^ ! i PREPACE. Mt * commodalion of the clifTorcnccs l)ct\vccn thu two countries, * and which must be redressed if it be not the purpose vf the * French government to remove every idea of friendly adjust- * ment with the United States.* " Let us now suppose that France is willing to act, in this instance, upon the true principles of the law of reprisals, ard to restore the property which she has seized, provided we consent to make reparation for the supposed injury, which alone could entitle her to call her proceeding an act of re- prisals. Now we assert, that the administration of this coun- try cannot consent to treat with France on this ground j — . nor make the reparation which she may demand, without prostituting the national dignity and honour. They cannot proceed to negotiate with France on the principles of reprisals, without admitting the legality of the French seizures ; with- out admitting, by necessary implication, that France had been injured by us, and is entitled to redress; without falsify- ing thus their own declarations, and conceding the point, that they were not authorized to confiscate French property undck- our Non-intercourse Law ; — that is to say, .that they were not authorized to exercise a right of territorial sovereignty which they have expressly allowed to France, in the case of the Berlin decree. Nothing, we think, can be clearer than this position j — that any act of restitution, whether real or imaginary, made by us to France, on the principles of re- prisals, presupposes, necessarily, that Iraiice is the party wronged, and the United States the offending nation. To do any act^, under all the circumstances of the case, and after the expression of feeling in which our government has indulged on this subject j to do, we say, any act from which such an inference could, by any possibility, be drawn, is to descend from the level of equality and independence in our relations with France, and to sacrifice our dignity as an equivalent for the restoration of property, for the detention of which there is not the least colour of justice or right. a 2 w 1 rnuFACE. '« This is, in fact, the very attitude of humiliaticii and disgrace in u hich France may wish to place us. She knows well that she has very httle or no properly to reclaim from lis. It is not then to r )btuin a restitution of any actual losses sustained bv the operation of our Non- intercourse Law, that she will condescend to treat with us upon the principles of rc- misal. She calls, or may call, for the mere formality of a restitution, with no oilier view but to obtain reparation for her injured honour. She means to extort from us, in order to glut her own pride and to consummate our debasement, an implied admission that our Non- intercourse Law was an aggression on her honour, and her measure of sequestration but a fair and justifiable retaliation. We have nothing to restore to her, and must therefore be sensible, that she can have no other meaning in demanding from us the formality of a restitution, <' Notwithstanding these obvious considerations, our secre- tary of state instructed general Armstrong to make an agree- ment to this effect, if it should be demanded, — in a convert' tionalform to he sanctioned by the senate of the United States, stating, at the same time, that there was no analogy between our Non-intercour$e Law and the decree of Rambouillet ! * Light lie the ashes on American pride !' " We must, however, in fairness add our opinion, that this strength of logic, however powerfully it might operate upon unbiassed minds, will be made to yield to the apparently infatuated policy which Messrs. Jefferson and Madison are unremittingly pursuing in their relations with foreign powers. The mention of these gentlemen's names makes it necessary to inform those of our readers who may be ignorant of the circumstance, that, although removed from the head of affairs, Mr. Jefferson's is &lill the invisible hand that guides he political machine. His principles are as completely pre- dominant as during the eight years of his presidency ; ancj although there be wanting: in the execution of them som?!* i pRr.FAcr. IX i what of the .ncrgy and ilccision wliith clisiingiUi.h lnm iVoui his successor, yd Mr. Madisun is now, as he then was, cer- tainly a very wilhng, and, in many instances, not an mnvorlhy propoundcr of his system. Wc have, therefore, nothing to expect on the score of moderation or forbearance from the American government. Ail their wislies, pre- possessions, and exertions, are embarked on the side of our ene'.iiy. Supposing the niembcra of that government to be sincere and honest statesmen, they must also believe their interests to lie in the same direction. They, like some few of onr own politicians, believe, or aflect to believe, that the sun of Britain is setting ; that we are doomed ultimately to succumb in the conflict which we yet maintain with the despot who has subdued the continent. It remains, there- fore, with ourselves to confim or to overthrow this belief. By our own acts must it he determined whether '* our resources " be yet unimpaired," and whether, as expressed by t^e poet, " Our hearts arc strengthcn'd and our glories rise."— An act is novv in its passage through Congress, which, if it become a law, without any conconiitant measure in regard to France of a similar import, of which no indication has yet arisen, will be a full, uiictiuivocal, and avowed adoption, by the United States, of Bonaparte's continental system. It purports, that we n)ay buy as much American produce as our market can dispose of, but that not a bale of British goods, manufactured or oliierwise, shall be imported into the United States. This must be, and is, meant to have the full co-operative effect of the French burning decrees. What Mr. Canning only hinted at in his correspondence with Mr. Pinkney is now publicly avowed and acted upon. America has actually embarked in the only kind of warfare against us which her means will allow of. Fortunately we have means of converting this species of hostility into the X PREFACE. most ruinoirt engine of counter-action that imbecility ever brought upon the devoted head of its victim j and at the same time of muhiplying our own native resources. From the competition' of the produce of the United States with that of our own colonies, most of the articles of which it consists are so accumulated in our markets, as scarce to find a sale upon any terms that leave a fair profit to the importer. It is but justice to those of our fellow- Subjects who have employed their industry and their capital in ex- ploring new, and, for a time, doubtful sources for their own an^ their country's prosperity, that they, now the common utility of thc'r discoveries is ascertained, should have the full benefit of them. It would be the only punishment befitting the dignity of a great empire to inflict upon the arrogance of a democratic faction, to shut them up in the mazes of their own labyrinth ; to accept their challenge, and close upon their terms of Non-intercourse. It would be only a fit recom- pense to the intelligent and enterprising spirit of our own fellow-subjects to exclude from our home and West India markets the timber and the fish of the United States, the continued admission of which has been for some time a subject of just complaint in the mercantile world. We will not think so meanly of our country, of her statesmen, or of any class of her meichanls or manufacturers, as to believe, that, for the comparatively small vent which now takes place of our manufactures in the United Stales, they would consent to surrender the dignity aaid the political importance of the empire to a band of demagogues, acting upon the principles, and in the manner, described by Mr. Walsh. It remains for us only to remind our readers, that it is an American, not an English politician, whose opinions they are about to peruse. This should be continually borne in remembrance, to obviate the idea of any undue bias, either against the Gallic confederacy at Washington, or in favour of our own itational seniimcntv,. It is at the same time no an they in ther ir of no PREFACE* XI more than justice to a very numerous and very respectable part of the American commi .lity, to declare our firm con- viction, that in the following passage, with which we shall conclude this short prefatory address, our author has cor- rectly stated the sentiments of those amongst his country- men who are most favourable to the cause of public and private virtue, of national and individual liberty : " We should lose all hope for the preservation of any of " the true honours, or comforts, or embellishments of " existence, if we did not discern in the midst of an ocean *• of confusion and of horrors, one solid rock braving the " fury of the tempest, and invulnerable to the assaults of the ** billows. To this rock we look in part for our own safety, *' and therefore we would not, if we were left to our own ** option to decide, ourselves consent that one particle should ** be loosened from its supposed fountlation, lest the whole *' concrete mass might give way." March 9, 18 11. 1 ' i i mm I 1/ AtJ INQUIRY, ^s. TVfxvva;. T( trt f r* tSto ; 'Avi^-lx. Txvmv ^uXurrtn* TauTrij civTs;^ta"^£* lay TawTriv o-m^ute, i*^£y ^sivoy /x^' wa-^cTe. T/ ay ^miTn ; s^ny* sX-.v^^;./** J E»t' U)^ opars «l'A«7r:roy dx^oTp/wraTaj TayVjj xa/ t«.; '!iTfO(rnyifix(; t^.tra. \ paeriiKiVi ya^ %«< Tti'payys; »tx,-. i^vfoj tXEi/^tp/a, ;ia/ v'ju,o»f iyayr/cf. •« There is one common bulwark with which men of prudence are naturally " provided; which is the guard and security of all people, paiticularly of free *' states against the assaults of tyrants, and that \sJistrusr. Of this be mindful; ** to this adhere, and you will be piotccted from disaster. Is it liberty that you " seek? And do you not perceive th^it nothing can be more l.ostile to this than " the very titles ot the man? Every despot isanenemy to liberty and a contenancr " of laws. Will ye not then be careful, lest, while ye seek to be freed from war, ** ye find yourselves his slaves?" Demost. against PHitif. It is correctly asserted in some of our newspapers, that a serious alarm has been kindled in the breasts of many of our most enlightened men by the laie extraordinary and unex- pecied news fram France. The letter of the fifth of August from the French minister to general Armstrong is fitted to strike dismay into every intelligent and patriotic American ivho reflects upon the history of our past relations with France and England, — and upon the gross delusions which prevail among us with respect to the character and views of these two powers. This rapid transition on the part of the Trench emperor from a language of contempt and menace to one b( admiravion and frisniiftbip} wears a most portentous ffv i 2 Past and present Rclallons of aspect, — and is to be viewed as tlie most dangerous of all the modes of attack, — as the most skilful of al! the cvoliuions which he could have devised in the real and implacable war which he wages against this country. There lurks in the honey which he now presents to our lips a most deadly ve- nom, — and aUhough we may not be able to compreliend all the motives and the entire scope of his present policy, we may be assured that his new decree is intended to produce a train of consequences which may involve our destruction. We consider it as the lirst duty, — as the immediate, — the personal, — the highest interest of every man among us, whose (acuities qualify him for the purpose, to toll the alarm- bell without delay, and to summon the American public to an attentive considcTation of the steps which they are now invited to take by the French government. A person acquainted only with the series of outrages which Bonaparte has commit ted u])on us during the last three years, — with the tenor of his previous langu-igc, — and with his characteristic habits and passions, would be dis- posed to ridicule all apprehensions such as those which we now profess to entertain, on the ground, that a declaration of love from him to this nation, must necessarily appear to every description of politicians, in the light either of a plea- sant burlesque, or of an insulting mockery. But to one who knows all the circumstances of our condition, and the variety of interests and prejudices which conspire among us to second the designs of Bonaparte, no fears will seem extravagant, and no admonitions superfluous. We can discover, already, melancholy symptoms of the success which may attend this new decree, although it is, without doubt, a tissue of the most impudent falsehoods and the moet contumelious irony that any state-paper ever embraced, or that any enemy, however insolent or insidious, ever dictated. At its first appearance the predominant party was exhila- rated beyond measure, and our merchants were generally credulous enough to suppose that the golden era of an un- shackled and universal trade was about to be revived. A little reflection since has damped the expectations of both. The merchants, prone as they must be to credit the possibility of any state of things conformable to their seeming interests and their eager wishes, lose confidence as they reflect upon the contradictions which it is necessary to reconcile, before any reliance can be placed upon the declarations, or any positive opinion be formed concerning the intentions, of Bonaparte. The well-meaning members of our majority,* France and the United States. any of '.vliosc infatuation on the subject of France extends only to a most extravagant admiration, as well as panic-fear of Jut power, were j/crplcxcd by the duplicity of the I aiuiiagc, anJ somewhat disgusted with the grossnes.'? of the fialtery, which are but too apparent, even to their own eyes, in this d/plofnaiic i'illct'doux. But the active and designing spirits, — those who, either from treachery or bhndness, arc so industriously labour- ing to convert our mild republic into a furious democracy, and our free country into a province of France, exulted in the opportunity which this new vicissitude seemed to aflbrd them, of ripening the popular discontents against P^ngland, and of confirming their own dominion. They saw at once the ntilitv of the crisis for their elections, and the inmicn=c advantage to be obtained over their antatronists by aHcctinf:; to credit the benevolent professions of Bonaparte. The same belief is to be imposed upon the multitude ; and they arc then, before the sequel is known, to be represented as tlic saviours of the country, in having thus, as it were, miracu- lously charmed down his antipathies. The chief source of elation for them, and the most im- portant consideration for the public, is the tendency of the new decree to widen the breach between this country and Great Britain. It is n torious that there is not wanting here a multitude even of intelligent men so strangely infatuated as to de?ire a war with England, and to hail, almost with trans- port, every incident calculated to promote that object. 'Jo manv, the destruction of the land ot our forefathers would be the most satisfactory of all public events, and in the estimation of not a few, the great modern drama could have no oiher catastrophe more conformable to the interests of the United Sfates. — S!"ioii!d Great Britain now refuse to abandon her sys- tem of blockade, — from which we are, for many reasons, in- clined to suppose that she will not depart, and which our demaixogues are very far from wishing to see relinquished, no efforts will be omuted, — no passions or prejudices left un- assailed, — that mav reconcile the public mind to the most tlesperate of all measures — a war with that power. The country has been more than once drawn to the brink of this fatal precipice, and it is now sanguinely expected that we will cast ourselves headlono- into the abvss. S'i<,li is the doctrine which is already urged in the democratic gazettes, and we must confess that we are not without 6ur fears with regard to its success. Unless the majority be enlightened on this ques- tion, and roused to a just se^ise of the dangers to which they will be exposed by any form of alliance with Fraaccj, oui: 4 Past and present Helations of folly may swell to the pitch which her cmisfsarics and her dupes have in view. Men of weak underFiandings and warm temj^ers may be heated and blinded by arguments plausibly urged ; and the person who is now the ostensible head of the prevailing party may either suffer the moderation of his tem- per to be overborne by the violence of his associates, or con- sent to espouse their passions. We are filled with dismay at this prospect, because vie arc firmly of opinion that any close connexion wiih France will seal the ruin of the United States. We know certainly and cir- cumstantially that this country has a mortal and indefatigable foe in Bonaparte, and that our destruction is already sys- tematically planned and industriously prosecuted. We know also the character of this foe, and that his resources of ar- tifice are not less abundant and destructive than his instru- jnents of coercion. We will not hesitate to pronounce that our fate is indivisibly united wiih that of England, — and if she falls, or should be provoked to consign us over to ihe irre- sistible force, or to the still more ** hostile amity " of France, we may bid adieu not only to the blessings of freedom, but to ^he common comforts of existence. In the gradation of servi- tude we shall be the least favoured class, and may expect to be oppressed and bruised to the utmost limits of human en- durance. It is irksome to utter these verba male ominata — these ill-omened presages j and it may not be unattended with danger. But there is no consideration of false delicacy, or of peril, which should deter an honest politician, either at this tnoment, or in any similar conjuncture when the best interests of the country are at stake, from proclaiming the truth, and showing the whole compass of the evil. It is therefore, vhat we now propose to submit to our readers an examination of the late letter to general Armstrong; to- gether with some observatipns op questions in which we hold the safety of this country to be vitally concerned. We shall commence by a review of the deportment of France towards the United States anterior to that date, in order that we may l)e better enabled to §t iiie the spirit and to fathom the motives of the new decree, 'lo ascertain the previous state of the tniifld of a party on a particular subject, is to advance very far iki the discovery of tfie true characier and object of his de- clarations and proceedings at any time on the same subject, provided no adequate cause have existed in the interval lo produce a revolution in his opinion or feelings. If our country has been for the last three years habitually insulted, menaced, *nd ^bused by *he Fr^uc^ gpYcr^mept, ^nt) is hq\v, withom ~ I France and the Vniied Stales* 5 any conciliatory submissions on our part, suddenly applauded and carcL'Scd — common prudence suggests that we should construe this unaccountable change as a new form of hostility, until Nve have the most convincing p oof to the contrary Sudden, unsolicited overtures of frundship from a power which for a scries of years has practised against you every form of wanton and opprobrious enmity, should, so far from bemg greedily accepted, operate tt) keep you at a more cau- tious and jealous distance, and to fortify you in your distrust of his intentions. Since the commencement of her revolution, France may be said to have existed by rapine and injustice, and by the very condition of her existence to have been at war with all mankind. The present government piirtakes in the nature of the revolutionary usurpations, and is essentially hostile to the whole human race. It can only continue to flourish while it continues to devote the Hnest countries on earth to ravage and to desolation : — while it proscribes all the moral virtues and all the charities of the heart : — while it pursues at home, under the guise of legal justice, and upon the plea of stat^ necessity, a system of administration the most shamelessly immoral and the most cruelly oppressive, with which it ha» ever pleased the Almighty Providence to scourge any people. Blood and plunder constitute the nourishment ot this rapacious and homicide despotism. Both from necessity and appetite, it must be constantly engaged in odious usurpations, and in acts of the most atrocious violence. There is something as stupendous in it,s profligacy as in its power. To gratify the ambition and the cupidity of the ruler of France, the whole habitable globe must be ransacked and enslaved. In order that mankind may be habituated to one scheme of polity alone, and that the spirit of liberty may be utterly quenched, every free government must be extirpated. All the state-papers and the public acts of France which have any relation 10 foreign countries, correspond to the spirit and the views with which we represent her to be animated. In pretensions as well as ia fact, she trangresses all bounds of moderation and of equality. Her public documents of every description insult and degrade all independent governments. They uniformly challenjre obe- dience from the rest of the world, and arrogate a supremacy «»f power and of dignity*. They assert, without qualificatioa * Among the most ignominious badges, as well as the most inextricably fetters, of the servitude to which the tributary powers of the Nonh of Europe are subjected, is t^ic compulsory establishment of the new FreAcH jurisprudence \x\ t^cif dominionst Aq elaboiat;; v/oik bas rcccntlj been piub^' T i^^ 6 Past and pracfit Rdallom of or reserve, the grossest falsehoods ; and when they do nol menace or calumniate, tl;ey either wonnd hy sarcasms, or, — as in the case of the papt^r wliich we shall analyze, — indulge in professions of good-will, the hypocrisy of which is not less vile, than the intention is malignant. In ihe person of every foreign minister at Paris, let his pri- vate character be what it may, the majesty of an independent government is habiiually insulted and dcgradt-d. At this court of ** upstart p'ide and plebeian insoKnee" he receives no attentions or cour wi but in the sh;)pe of alms, and must learn to ?uhmit throughout all the forms of diplomatic uuer- course, to a lone of haughty superiority, and to an air ot over- weening arrogance. Neither in Rome during her most inioxi- r.iting successes, — nor at the levee of ihe barbarian Attila, — Tior under the dominion of the still more savaiie directory of France, — did foreign ambassadors ever appear more like *' plenipotentiaries of impotence," or undergo more humili- «ling indignities, than at the imperial audii nee of theTuillerie.s. The impetuous sallies of passion, — the ferocious menaces, — and the petulant reproaches to which they are alternately ex- posed, are not more incompatible with the temperate and natural majesty which belongs to regular and civilized mo- narchies, than utterly irreconcilable to the dignity and to the independence of the governments whose rcp:eseulativcs arc thus brutally assailed. There is not one of the diplomatic corps to whose unfortunate lot it has fallen to solicit i\\c restoration of property violently ravished from his country- men, who has not daily experienced the most mortifying neglect or the most insulting repulses. Scarcely one dares expostulate on the violation of private rights — which are, however, public wrongs in almost all instances. This system of degradation is now invested with the authority of pre- scription, and is submitted to universally as to an established order of things ; — as to a body of peculiar customs ;•— just in the manner that we view the tribute paid to Algiers j or that the ambassadors of Europe consent to prostrate themselves aV lished in Paris, the purpose of which is to refute the objections which had Iwen occasionally made, and which might ari«c, against the admission of the ^apolcon code into the tribunals of Germany. This code hu5 been already made the municipal law of Westphalia, and will soon bccor.ie that of Sweden and Dtiimaik, and perhaps of ihe whole continent of Europe. It is an in- 5trunient of dominion scarcely Ic-s powerful than the sword. We shall sooi\ t- abk to apply to France what Claudian said of Rome, Armorum legifm^ut parens, qui fundlt in omnes ]:!>pcri«in. lis. Cgrtbul. Sli-ic. i France and the United States, not ihc footstool of an oriental nmnarch ; — or that the Dutch, ill the prosecution of their trade with Japan, were said to trample on the cross. Hefore \\c cojnnionce the particular discussion of Bona- parte's deportment towards us, we will make, with regard to Ids govcrnnjent, another general observation — which was originally applied by Mr. Burke to the revolutionary banditti, and which is equalb'jus^ in the present case. It is this; — tliat no arrangement can now be made with France in the pacific si)irit ot the conventions oi former limes, Tlicre are no elements of good failh remaining in her cabinet: — '.iicre are no tics of interest, accordintr lo her system, which can prompt or bind her to a durable pacification. She has no connnon modes of action or habits of policy, — no confrji-mities or sympathies, with the rest of mankind. IJer plan of univer- sal conquest insulates her, and makes all compacts or treaties which she may form, cither weapons of annoyance, or a pre- paration for more destructive hostility. The passions, — the habits, — the necessities of h.r rulers confine them to one in- variable system of v.ar on the human race. If we were to form a solemn trcatv, or to arm in co-operation, with them, what is it that would serve as our guarantee? Surely not any resemblances, or sympathies, or feelings of attachment between the individuals of the two nations ? Surely no muliial dread or respect between the two governments? Surely no sentiment* of charily or gratitude on the part of France in favour of a weak but devoicd ally? There is no man in his senses who can sely upon any of these considerations for the national safety. Since, then, there are "noobligations written in the heart," — no principles of fear, — which could restrain France hereafter from violating her engagements with the United Slates, wc must depend upon her sense of interest alone, the sole spring, fts it is sometimes contended, of the actions of ail govern- ments. But who is it that will affirm, that six months or a year hence France will deem it her interest lo be at peace with the United States? Are we quite certain that her government, notwithstanding its present declarations, does not mean to waije a systematic war on commerce in every quarter of the globe? Is it probable that Bonaparte will consider it as his interest to foster the political institutions of the United Stales? Or rather does not every argument which analogy or facts cant furnish, lead to an opposite conclusion ? There are, we think, the most irresistible proofs to be deduced from both, which show that it never will f^dl within " the views of his policy," to promote the trade, to iucrcr.sc the power, or even lo it 8 Past and prcient I^elations of tolcr:;le the con^siitiuion of this country. If wc were to ad- mit that it would remain the obvious interest of France to cultivate and preserve our friendship, there are circum-* stanccH in tfie rehitive position of the two nation?, which would render the coutinuance of a good undtrstanding be- tween us at all limes extremely doubtlul. — ** Wc trust too ♦* much," says Mr. Burke, " to the interests of men as gua- ** rantcesof their cngngcmonts. The interests frequently tear <* t(j pieces the engagements, and the passious trample upon ** both." The passions of the French government are domi- nion, — hostile intrigue, — military glory, — contempt of trade and traders, — haired to whaiever is ICnulish ; — and these pas- sions will inevitably smother its true inleresi.s, *' and trample " upon" its most soleiim engagements. It is universally admitted that our national dio-nitv has been grossly outraged, and our right-- repeatedly invaded, by the soverument of France. The robberies and the insults to which we have been subjected during the last three years ^Vould seem quite sutHcient to have exasperated, roused, and determined any high-minded people. Until the promulgation of the late lullaby from our imperial lover, liis proceedings had almost conquered that obstinacy of unbelief with regard to his real dispositions, and that code of absurd and pernicious opinions, by which the understandings of our majority were fettered, and of which the tendency is no less fatal than the foundation is weak. Even our administration — as timorous as women in their relations with France, as froward as chil- dren towards Great Britain — were compelled to acknowledge the lutiiity of their humble efforts to propitiate their rapa- cious ally, and announced to the public the possibility of €ome further intelliiience from Paris still more distressinir than the confiscation of all the American property within his gra.';p. They did not, it is true, disclose this ominous catastrophe in that sirai.i ot lofty indignation and of manly resentment which became the guides and guardians of a powerful and magnanimous nation, — but in puling regrets and piteous la- mentations, which, however unsuitable to the dijrnitv and ob- ngatuns ot iheir trr.st, were still calculated to startle the mere dupes of party, and to testify the hopelessness of our long and eager pursuii after the ruinous fraternity of French despotism. On reading the wailings of the National Intelligencer, wc bc^ gan to hi'pe well for the good cause, and were even grateful to the French emperor for having, by his intemperate rapa- city, forced upon all parties the conviction that his cannibal I France and the United States. to ad- nce to rcum-< which ncj be- ust too IS gua- ily tear c upon domi- irade se pas- trample ity has dcd, by suits to e years ;d, and ilgalioa eedings I regard rnicious ity were ban ihe imoroas as chil- o\vleds;c ir rapa- bility of stressing ithln his astroplie icntmcnt irfnl and teous la- and ob- ihe mere long and !spotism. r, we be^ grateful ate rapa- cannibal iViendship was not to be conciliatcii by any importunily of so- licitation, or by any nunjber of pious diplomatic pilgrimaircs. But it seems that we were too san?;ninc ; — that the iiK.joritv are about to relapse into that pre|)()sterous (Tedtiiily froin which they were but imperfectly reclaimed ; — that a nuic de- claration of Bonapanc, full of palp;il)lc falsehoods ami of ar- rogant pretensions, is to outweigh all the sail experience of the past, a»id to heal all the wounrls wliieh he has »o reccntiv inflicted both on our commerce and our honour. \Vc call upon the reflecting men of this country to pau.se befori.' they give full expansion to the fancy on this Fuhjcet, and to determine, upon a comparison of the past language and coiuluel of l'n)na- parte with his present professions, whether there be any ra- tional grout^.ds for exultation at this crisis; — wlieilur the cha- racter of the present French government, such as v.e liavc portrayed it, justifies the hope that wc can, without certain destruction, ever form any close connexion with France wlule that government endurca, We shall commence an investigation of the p»'\st deportment of Bonaparte by a review of the Berlin decree; lujt because it is the first in the long funeral procession of our wrongs, but be- cause it forms an epoch in the history of French injustice, and was the preface to a general plan of politics with respect to this country and to the continent of Europe. The leading object of this plan we suppose to have been, — the extinction of trade in all the countries subject to French influence, and as a conse- quence— ••the decay of the commercial spirit and of the genius of freedom. We mean however to consider the Berlin decree merely In the light of an unwarrantable invasion of neutral rights, and of the independence of all neutral nations. On this point also, little nerd be said, as the most zealous advcycaie« of French injusfice do not now hesitate to admit that it de- serves to be so described. It was at first liberally intei^pretcd as an act of territorial sovereignity alone; but this constructioQ, so soothing to the fears and hopes of our administration, wai soon invalidated by a solemn declaration of the frj^niers*.. * It is rat}]er singular that this decree should at my time hive been con- sicl* ".^, did tonsider everv ^cutral vessel {oifig Trance and the United Slafeu II fnnciing h cabinet ilit;itc tlir :. Wiuut (»t cd an)bi- :alrul;W('(l was in- un of our I to save le to llie orders in je wishes ly remov- lic severer he whole d againirt ;cipitated, with that issmentof rl in decree the parti- States and ided from '■ade with e on our )roceeding sed in the ; — by the Iter of the iclarations ity of the I and can- ubsequcnt , dated Nov. trifle with St of August e : "As the iai decree of marine, and )me obscrva- , I asked him ccond letter, he had suh- ; minister .of isions of the ''rench cruisen fanJ, al/hugh bird letter of vessel (oirij; ftlations with France, and etninenlly in the lalc procccd-'igf — not only has our independence been trampled upon, aitu onr jiropcrty plinidered, hut we have been treated like children and dotards — at) pohroons and dupes — alternately bullied antl cajoled, spurned and caressed. The justification alleged for the Berlin decree by the franiers, and the palliation offered in ihis country by the friends of France, rest upon the system which the British cabinet had antecedently pursued with respect to neutral coinnici'cc. We will not hesitate to allow that this system was notuhvays liberal or just, and that it has often savoured more of ** the waywardness of will llian of the steadfastness of *' law •." Nor are n« more backwuid to assert that, it has uoi deserved all (he invectives with which it has been alternately overwiitlmed by every commercial nation ; and that the acts of rigour and oppression with which it is charged may be as frequently traced to an erroneous conception of right or to th© pressure of a seeming necci^.sity, as to the lust ot plunder or the spirit of lawless ui>urpation. But it ii not necessary to investigate the injustice of Biitish claims, or the abuses of British power, in order to show that they afforded no solid platform for the Berlin decrte under the circumstances in which the world was plaeed at the period of its enactment. Nor will it, we trust, be deemed incumbent upon us to trace the previous history of Bonaparte in order to make our readers sensible with how poor a grace, or rather with what matchless effrontery, he now undertakes to inveigh against the abuses of powJLT, and to proclaim himself the aveng'^rand the cham- pion of neutral rights. It cannot be denied but that our trade was in a most flourishing condition at the period when the Berlin decree " from Kn^li-ih ports wuh car^oc? vi V.nFX\i.h merchandise, or English origin, " as lawfully ^ciz3'.'lc by I'rcnch iirnici vcssfh." * Ii tiif world were in any oihcr state tluiii the present, wc vrould remind the British nation of the following p:issaj^e ironi Mr. Burke: " Among precautions ajjaiiist ambition, it may not be amiss to take one pre- " caution against our revn. I must fairly S'ly, I dread our oww |;owcr and our " own ambition; I dread our being too much d'tu ltd. It is ridiculous to say " wc arc not men; and that, us men, wc shall never wish to aggrandize our- " selves in some w:iy or other.— Can wc sav, that even at this very hour vre " arc nut invidiously aggramlizcd .' We are alie^dy in possession of almost " all the Commerce of the world Our empire in India is an awful thing. }i " we shoulil come to be in a condition not only to have all this ascendant In •* commerce, but to be absclutt.ly able, without the least control, to hold the *' commerce of all other nations totally dependent opon our good pleasure, we •' may say that we thall not abuse this astonishing and hitherto unheard-of •' p MWI 1^^ i;t /\/ji and present Relalions of was proninl'j^Atf.'d. Our cocQjjicrcial procpcrity was in " ii;* ** liigli ami palmy state," notwithstanding the vexations and losses arising from the Briti^sh sj stem. France and the coun- tries subject to her control were as abundantly supplied with articles oC foreign produce as was consistent with the character of the war which ihcy waged, and with the nature of the of- fensive means employed by their enemy. After Great Britain had annihilated the marine of her antagonists, it followed of course and of right, that the active foreign trade of the latter xvas to cease, and thpt their ports were to be blockadeil when an actual force couUl be provided for that purpose ; — that the field of V. Uerprisc for neutral trade was to be narrowed, and the number of ports for its reception greatly curtailed. These were the natural and legitimate consequences of a maritime superiority achieved with a vast expenditure of blood and treasure, in a regular course of fair hostilities. These were the consequences which we were to expect. Of these nei- ther this country nor France had a right to complain They were not breiichcs of the laws of nations, but the natural am' necessary effects of naval force vhich, from time i:time- morial, had been so applied. The emperor of France could not but be sensible of these truths, and therefore, in order to make out something like a ca^e against Great Britain 'n his official vindication of the Berlin diorf'.', he is compelled to assert quite a new code ot public law which never existed but in the distempered fancies »uul wild iheories of the revolutionary madmen of France, and in the abiJurd v.rilings of some of our own visionary poli- ticians. It- is declared that none hut fortresses can be lawfullv blockautd ; and England is stigmatized as the tyrant of the seas, and accused of trampling upon the public law of Europe, because she exercise^ the right of search, and captures even il'.e merchant-ve.v'els of her enemy at sea *. We had once at "the head of the councils ot this nation a speculative and philo- ;sophic friend of Bonaparte, and, consequently, of the human race, who it is said had adopted this novel scheme of maritime war; but we presume that there is no man now engaged in the direction of our affairs,— ^no sober-minded person in thi-. country, — who would consent to light the British, or who ■would defend the Berlin decree, on such grounds as these. As well might England have announced to the world that the public law of Europe was violated, whenever continental war- * Sec the Reports made to the emperor and to the French senate on the sub- ject of the Berlin decree, and the lettei of Champagny to general Armstrong dated August asd, i3og. fw Fran'-Q and the United States* n <( it.4 1)3 and coun- i wilh aracter I lie of- Brilnin »\vcd of e latter .1 when [lat the d, and These aritime )d and ?e were se nei- They natural hnme- )f these y like a ' of the code ot fancies France, iry poli- lawfully t of the Europe, res even once at d philo- f human narikimc ;d in the in thir. or who is these, that the ital war- on the sub- Airastrong '^m I 1: % fife was extended beyond the mere rencounter and capture or destruction of troops, and have issued and justified her orders in council upon the ground t'^at the unfortified towns ot her allits were occupied, — contributions levied upon them, — and soldiers billeted upon their inhabitants ! If our disputes with the British concerning the impressment of seamen, the right of a direct colonial trade, or the affair of the Chesapeake, — questions in which France had no real interest, — could justify the intrrfcrencc of Bonaparte by the Berlin decree, then might the British have enacted their orders in council upon the ground of our separate altercationi wilh France, — upon t!ie conllncincnt of American seamen in her prisons, — the arbitrary detention and seizure of American vessels in her ports; the burning of 'hem at sea, — the bounda- ries of Louisiana, and a host of etceteras. There is a perfect parity of reasoning in the two cases, and a much broader basis of analogy for the British. That which appears to the eyes of our public as the Strongest point of defence, and the most plausible pretext for the Berlin decree, is, the manner in which the British arc said to have exercised the right of blockade, even according to tl>eir own definition. VVe must confess, that, after a very diligent researcii into this matter, we can find but few in- stances in which the principles of blockade were enforced for any length of lime under the avowed authority of the British government, without an actual investiture. Certainly the cases wliich have occurred were not a sufficient ground for war ; nor can the most extravagant advocate of France con- tend that the general practice under this system was such iS to warrant so tremendous a retaliation as the Berlin decree. The leading case of constructive blockade which Bona- parte, knowing well how insufficient it was for his purpose, forbears to spicify in his official vindication of his decree, is ihat of May i8o6, comprising the whole coast from the Elbe to Brest. It may be well briefly to cxatniu'C this case, in order lo a^^eertain what foundation it affords for the Berlin decree. It is not avowed as a constructive blockade, nor is the right of blockading without actual force arrogated, by Mr. Fox in his official notification of this measure to Mr. Monroe *, His Britannic niiijcsty is declared to have ordered V • The notification is as follows. M \ FOX TO MB. M1VR0E. "The undfrsijnst?, his majesty's prin,-.ipi'- s'>:rcraiy of stdte for foreign affilrs, has rcve;vVj his iiiaji^siy's' cunnr.aaJ: r. a.;qu4i;r.i Mr. Monroe, ihat Ill iir'll' f . 14 Past Andpres^Jit Illations of the necessary measures to be taken for blockading the entire coast, and it is correctly stated that a considerable part of that coast (frool Ostcnd to the Seine) was then actually and strictly blockaded. It does not operate like ordinary blockades, as a prohibition of all trade with the ports or coasts so block- aded, but merely interdicts the ingress of vessels trading di- rectly from a port of the encmyi or laden with enemy* s goods. We know not whether the British admiralty board could station on this coast a force sufficient for the object of a blockade, — but of this we are sure, that the British govern- ment had a right to interrupt the trade with which alone this nominal blockade interfere* *. The inducements to this measure on the part of the British cabinet arc alleged by Mr. Fox to be the extraordinary mea- sures taken by France to distress the commerce of British subjects, and (he might have added) of neutral traders also. These measures, on which we propose to say more hereafter, were indeed extraordinary ; and if this transaction, or any other antecedent anil supposed abuses of maritime power by tho British, be deemed sufficient to justify the Berlin decree, the former might afford, by the same mode of argument, the fullest justification not only for the blockade in question, but for the orders in council. Tl>e measures of France in ques- tion were no other than the usurpation of an authority in all the cities along that coast, — many of them nominally free and neutral, — to harass and annihilate the trade in British com-* niodities, and to confliicatc .>st, both inclusive ; and the said coast, rivers, and ports arc and muHt be consideied as blockadixl; but that his majesty is pleased to de- clare, that such blockade shall not extend to prevent neutral ships and vessels, hderl' with goods not being the property of his majesty's enemies, ans the first and most indispensable maxim of public law, founded *♦ indeed upon the immutable principle; of justice, that no violence should " be offered by one state to another, noi ;|ny intru'-on made upon the rights, *' property, ir^rtepender:c, or security of its inhabitai^ts, txctpt up^it an agg/rs- *' stem by such state, and the refusal ot adequate satisfaction ( or in the rare m- " stance of indispensable necessity, involving national destruction, such us in •* the case o'' an individual would justify homicide i^er self-preservation; and *' the observance of this rule should, if possible, be held more sacred l)y great * " and powerful nations, it being the very end and object of universal law to *< give perfept security to the weakest communities, under the shadow of an •• impartial justice. " Such a principle would be utterly subversive of the first elements of ' " public law, being destructive of the independence of weaker states, ina'- f much as it would create a jurisdiction rn the stronger nations^ to s^bstitute *' their owrt security and convenience for the general rule, — and ipvott them ■ " also with the sole privilege of determining the occasions upon which ttx:y . *' might consider them to be endangered. To justify the attack and plunder of ^ " a weak, unoffending power, upon the assunnption that ■ "stroiiqer belligerent •• might otherwise attack and plunder her, would be to erect a new; 'public law ** upon the foundations of dishonour and violence, making the tyranny of one *' nation, a warrant for substituting the dominion of oppiression for the sticred *• obligations of morality, humanity, and Justice." Mr. Madison hat argued this question with great force and prc^riety in his tetters to Mr. Pinkney on the orders in council.— The argutnents on this subject vrhich are contained in a note of the former to Mi. Erskine, dated Z5th March i8o9, are, wc think, altogether irresistible. Trance and the United Siates, i: nations may — if this new principle of retaliation should pre- vail, — give lip their rights in despair, as it wil' scarcely ever happen that war will not be waged between the great mo- narchies of Europe, — and that one of the belligerents will not be found sufficientiv profligate to break through the fences of the law of nations, in order to secure some temporary advan- tage, or to gratify some momentary resentment. 'J'he Berlin decree first asserted this mischievous doctrine of retaliation, which, unsound as it is in its essence, was emi* neutly futile in the case it was adduced to support, and almost ludicrous in the mouth of a pother so notoriously regardless of the principles of justice and of the rights, of nedtrals. Evri if we admit the validity of the general doctrine, the injury which France herself had sustained—or to which our com- merce had been subjected by any tmlawful exercise of the maritime power of Great Britain, furnished nd matter of reta« liation to warrant a measure, which, if it coulual strain, proceeds in this way : " Against a power which forgets to such a pitch all ideas of jus« *' lice and all humane sentiments, what can be dune but to forgtt them for •• an instant ont's-vclf, in order to constrain her to violate ihcm no longei- ? *' The light of natural defence allows of tlie opposing an rremy with the " arms he makes use of, and, if I may so express myself, to react against " him hit new furlit and /ally " G t8 Fait and present Relstions of crec was the first great, sweeping invasion of th^ commercial interests and iudependcnce of this country : — that it struck at the root of ail commercial intercourse in time of war : — that it 'vas the source and fountain- head of all the evils — " ot " that Iliad of woes" — which have since afflicted this country, and the continent of Europe : — of the embargo — that miserable subterfuge of folly and pusillanimity — which as a defensive system resembled — to employ a comparison of Bolingbrokc — a suit of armour too heavy to be borne, that wasted the vital strength of the wearer; which under the imposing aspect of an heroic self-immolation, was, in fact, but a ruinous and dis- graceful flight from difficulties which our administration had not the courage to face, nor the wisdom to avert, and which, as is happens to nations in all cases where they prefer a sacri- l^ce of honour to the risic of danger, have multiplied upon us and besieged u8 ever since *. '• The emperor of France has rendered himself justly re- aponsible by his decree for the mischievous effects of the orders in council ; of which, — as he intentionally provoked them, — the malignity may be imputed to him, and the folly to the British ministry. We think that every good citizen should detest and combat the spirit with which that decree was framed, if, — as it appears to be almost universally ac* knowledged,— -it had for its ulterior object, the kindling of a war between the United States and England ; — an event which, as Bonaparte well knows, would infallibly induce our ruin. Above all, — we hold the Berlin decree in utter abhor- rence, and so should all patriotic Americans, as the original cause of that state of things in Europe, which has led, in- cidentally, to an exposure before the world, of the imbecility of our public councils. Had not that decree been issued, our administration might not have fallen, for want of an excitement, into that policy of degradation, by which we have lost " the high flavour and mantling" of our revolu- tionary honours, and all estimation in the eyes of mankind. Since the epoch of the Berlin decree, humiliation has been our element — our valetudinary habit. We have grown,-*— as Mr. Burke said of his own government in consequence of its for- bearance with the directory, — " more malleable under the " blowsof France." Fortune, ** that common scapegoat of poor .' * " Nothing," says Mr. Burke, ** is so rash as fear. The counsels of pQ- " sillanimity very rar;ly |'ut off, while they are always sure to aijgravate, the " evils from whiuh they would fly." Regtcidc i'race. i II France and the United States* »9 merclal struck war : — s— <* ot ountry, iserable efensivc jrokc — he vital spect of md'Jis- ion had which, a sacri- jpon us stly re- of the rovoked he folly i citizen ; decree ally ac* dling of n event uce our abhor- original led, in- ibecility issued, of an lich we rcvolu- lankind. )een our —as Mr. its for- ider the It of poor els of pQ« avate, the 4 "politicians/* — has become our chief reliance. After having been for a scries of yea^^» buffetted and plundered, mocked and insulted by a military despot, we seem transported with joy at the first smile which he deigns to eive us, although our reason dictates that it is still more fatal than his frowns ; and our honour exacts from us an indignant rejection of the cm- braces of a tyrant who is the implacable and indefatigable foe of that freedom which we profess to adore, and who presents himself reeking with the blood and bloated with the plunder of innumerable victims, whose only crime was resistance to his insatiable ambition*. We have dwelt so long on the Berlin decree, that we ar« enabled to add but a few words on the subject of that which was afterwards issued from Milan. If the former had even been strictly just, the latter, which was declared to be a sort of supplement or corollary, would, on account of the unpa- ralleled violence of its character, have rendered Bonaparte — if we may so express ourselves — a trespasser ah initio on the laws of nations ; — as in municipal jurisprudence, the abuse of a legal privilege sometimes operates retroactively to taint and vitiate the vv'hole course of action. The Berlin decree, upon a fictitious plea of retaliation, interdicted to neutrals all trade with England and her posses- sions ; and although the efficacy of it was not coextensive with the design, it was, in its partial operation, of very serious injury to our interests. The orders in council, built upon a mixture of truth and falsehood, as to fact, and upon what ap- pears to us a gross error in doctrine, — the pretended right of retaliation, — allowed us no trade with France and her depen- dencies, but upon condition of paying a toll or tribute to Eng- land. The Milan decree, as a system of reprisal again, tran- scended all bounds of justice and moderation, and aimed, in fact, at the total banishment of neutral commerce from the ocean. It subjected to capture and confiscation every neutral . * ■.•■•■ . , ,. , ,-f . . , J • I i » * When wc reflect upon fbe elevation to which this individual is exalted, — " Ilia head «^^triking the heuvcris •" — ui)oii his private character, which is :;l(iomy, unsocial, and taciturn in the extreme ; upon the unhallowed spoilt which he has heaped about him, and on which he riots in sullen complacency and in " grim pomp," we are forcibly reminded of the tlcjcjipiion which Virgil ^ivcs of Polyphemus in his cave ; If'<:e tirJwn, ahitqiie puhat * ' i ■; , , ' SUitr.i : (Di, tiilftn Urrit avertilt pfitem !J -' .. Nee visit J'acilii m-c diclu aJfabiHi ulli. - - : . ,. yisccrihus mlscrert^m «■/ sanguint ■vruUur afrv •" ' ■'' yUi egomet.— >' »•♦ ■ « Mt» . ' . ?./ C 2 *? Past tnd p^etmi Rtlatwns of VMsel which submitted to the opcratioii of tlie orders in couu- cH, or consented to be searched or visited by a British cruiser; leaving thus, — if it could have been executed, — no ahernative to the neutral, but the total relinquit^htiKiit of navigation* If the tnarine of France had been soeti as to enable her to execute her decrees, a neutral ship would have been almost as certainly exposed to encounter a French or English cruiser as to feel the winds of heaven, ^s the case was, the extent of the British navy reduced it to almost the s^nic ceriainty. — By a refinement of injustice, cur merchants were rcndcrvd responsible for the pressure of an unavouUble necessity, unless they chose either to condemn themselves \q total inaction, or to make war upon a nation against which we pojsess no meftns ejther of annoyance or defence, and of which the hostility wquld be less fatal than the alliance ot France, There was in the Milan decree much of Impotent fury indeed, hut not less of rancorous malice. Whatever impe- tuosity of temper may belong to Bonaparte, ue know well that he has an equal share of sagacity and craft. Those who imagine that he issued his decrees merely with a view to the pr6x^mate effects which his physical means enabled him to give thera»— pr in a paroxysm of rage, without weighing well the absurd disparity between those means and the cuds which he professed to have in view, bavcattentl'^d but vei-y superfi- cially to the course of his actions, and are but ill informed with respect to the acutenegs and sangfroid of his counsellors. Having the result of our own personal observation b«'l*>re us, and the transactions of bis reign in our eye, we can never image him to ourselves as a madman in his eel) fancying himself to be Jupiter, and hurling paper bullets, in the persua- sion that they were the unerring thnnderbohs of the monarch of Olympus* In laying his mterdict on the navigation of the oicani and pronouncing a solemn sentence of excommuni- cation against England, he resembled the popes of the six- teenth century, when they attempted to exercise an impotent authority, and to revive an obsolete clain^ only in the rldicii- lous disprpport'ion between his meaps and pretensioiio. Bonu^ parte never would have exposed himself to the derision even of his own subjects, by declaring England to be in a state of blockade, if his pbject had been simply to assert an abstract right of reprisal, or to prevent the circulation of British mer- chandise throughout his dominions. y/e do not know an instance- in which the spirit of rodo- montade natural to the French character, or the impujses «s '^ •> Trance anS the Umted StaUs, at f}( rage, have hurried him into measures not conducive to some politic and deliberate purpose ; and we are well assured that it was not under such influences that he issued his impracticable, and seemingly vain-glorious menace against England. lie involved neutral commerce in one sweeping prohibition, and drew an imaginary circle about England, not with the sole view of interruf>ting her commerce with the coix- tinent, but in order to furnish the British cabinet with a mea* sure of retaliation suitable to the latitude with which he wished them to act, and also to rouse such feelings, either of indigna- tion or of false apprehension, as would impel them torctaliatc in practice to the full extent of his theoretic provocation. • He thus achieved two important ends, which we must sup* pose him to have had in view, in order to be enabled to furnish a rational explanation of the seeming extravagance of his con- duct. The one was to obtain from the British an efficacious co-operation in hisplanof extinguishing the whole trade of the continent, and to shift the odium of the event from himself to them : the other, to provoke a war by the same means between us and Great Britain, — an event which would not only injure his enemy in her most vulnerable points, but contribute more than any other state of things to deprive the continent of Eu- rope of trade, as the British would, in that case, soon sweep all foreign commerce from the ocean. The Milan ^ccree was but another step in the prosecution of the same plan. It pro- ceeded neither from irritation,— nor from any view tq th« accomplishment of the avowed purpose ;— nor was it intcnUei as a mere assertion of right in order to coavince the world that France did not mean to admit the pretensions of her rival. The Milan decree was destined to confirm the English ministry ia their policy of retaliation; and to kindle new alarms^ in the people of this country on account of the new dangers apd pro- longed imprisonment with which it seemed to threaten th^ir trade. A\i these clamorous declamation^ against British in* justice ;T~these vindictive but ineffectual denunciations agaiqit the supineness of neutrals ; — -this blustering and licentioufi violence of doctrine ', — were, in fact, pi> the part of Bona- parte, mere theatrical parade ;— a well-wrought veil to blind the British to bis real views ; — so many stimulants to exas- perate us the more against his enemies, and to alarm our timid statesmen into submission. , lie knew well that our nat'onal irritability was connected with a strong principle of calcuiation, and a lively sensihility to pu^ ipimedi^te interests. He I'^resaw that iht United Statcf^, il 22 i Past and present Relations of forgetful of the malignity of the chief juggler, would be ready to wreak all their vengeance on his shortsighted foe, who, in blind subservicney to his schemes, cruslied us with the weight of her power. Uv reasoned from an aecurale knowledge of the public mind of this country, when he supposed, that, smarting under the deep wounds inflicted by the misguided but potent ministry of England, it would ascribe to them, and couple with the exercise of their maritime superiority, all ihe rancor- ous malevolence and profligate cupiditvby which he himself was animaU'd. He drew no false conclusion concerninff the combined operation of our prtjtuiices and our fears, when he argued that all the indignities and outrages which he might heap upon us would, — while the causes of our resentment against Great Britain continn(d to subsist, — be but faintly re- sented, or perhaps overlooked. — lie nianilested correct views of human nature when he calculated that even the nations of the continent, perishing from the want of trade, would forget the true origin of their privations, and reserve their hatred for the British, the immediate instruments of their distress. He anticipated, that, seeing no hope of relief from within, they might co-operate the nmrc cordially in his plans for the de- struction of England, — the apparent obstacle to tl e revival of their commerce. After having trampled upon our dignity and (iur rights, and gratilied his love of plunder at our expense, he now tliscov<;rs that, from the operation ot various causes, the people of this country are not to be driven or terrified into a war with England; an^ he has, therefore, on this ac- count, and for other reasons which we shall discuss in the sequel, resolved to employ another tone, and to make ^seerri' ivg change in his policy. About the period when the Berlin decree was promulgated, measures were taken by the French 'government for the seizure and confiscation of all merchandise whatever of British origin, without any exception in favour of neutral owners,— in various ports of the Mediterranean, and of the North of Europe. *' I *^ find," says the American secretary of state, in one of his letters to general Armstrong, " by accounts from Hamburg, " Bremen, Holland, and Leghorn, that the trade and projierty " of our citizens have been much vexed by regulations subal- ** tern to those of the original decrees of November." The regulations which are here, in the mezza voce — the soft lan- guage of Mr. Madison, said to have vexed the trade of Ame- rican citizens, amounted to nothing less than the absolute contjscalion, in ports noviinalhj independent of trance, of a vast I'ratwe and the UmCed SiaCis. 23 quantity of tncrcbandise and colonial produce allcg:cd to lie of British origin, although acknowledged and known to bt: the bona fide property of Anicncan merchants. The trade in these commodities was warranted by the law of nations, — it had been before regularly carried on under the authority and im- plied protection of the governments to which the ports n)en- tioned above were ostensibly in allegiince, — it was j^rosccutcd by our merchants without an apprehension of dauL'i r, and without a suspicion that it was held to be ilicLrnl even l)y the French governnjent. — Yet the seizure wa.>5 made without any formal prohibition of the trade itfclf; without any previous intimation of an intention to proscribe it ; dm\ in direct op- position to the wishes and to the interests of the governments within whose jurisdiction and under whose protection our citizens l)ad placed their property. Deputations were sent both from Tuscany and Naples to Paris, under the auspices of the sovereignties of those conntrioSy humbly to solicit the restoration of the plundered merchandise. Kxcrtions to the same eft'ect were made by the American minister in the French metropolis ; but their united entrcattes and remonstrances were unavaihng, and no restitution whatever has as yet becft made for so wanton a robbery. There is no principle of the law of nations more firmly established or generally recognised than this; — that it is the dut)' of a state, when about to discontinue even an indulgence accorded to the subjects of another, to give due notice to the latter of the intended change, if it be of a nature materially to affect their interests. To attach penal consequences, suddenly and without any previous intimation of an ofi'ence given, or of umbrage taken, to a course of action either generally admitted to be lawful, or lony; indulged with impunity, is on the part of a govenmient, if done with regard to its own subjects, the rankest tyranny, and — when practised in relation to those 6f another state, — a gross violation of the principles of public law. If France had lung tolerated in her own dominions a neutral trade in commodities either the produce of British manufac- tures or the growth of British possessions, believing it never- theless to be contraband, she could not, without infringing our rights, have taken our merchants engaged in it by sur- prise, and ii^iJicted upon them the penalties of guilt for a commerce supposed by them to be innocent, and never da- clared by herself to be criminal. But to stretch the arm of her military power to the territories of other states ; and there to plunder our citix«ns of a large amount of property as a punish^ i 't4 Past and prtseni Relations of ment for the prosecution of a trade not repugnant to the lawi of nation!!, or to any municipal regulation, was an outrage of a much more flagitious character, and one in which our go- vcrnnient never should have tamely acquiesced. If there could be any indignity more overwhelmins than thie, it is the burning of our merchant- vessels at sea by French crui;ierfly without the shadow of right or real necessity* We beg leave to call the attention of our readers to this topic for a moment, and for our opinions shall claim the support both of iMr. Madison and of general Armstrong, whose sentiments have been strongly expressed on this subject. Various instances of the kind have occurred, and arc specified by our minister in his official letters. Mr. Madison, in a communication made to the latter on this point, holds the following language : " The '* burning of neutral vessels detained on the high seas is the " most distressing of all the modes by which the belligerents ** exert force contrary to right j and in proportion as it is desti- ** tute of apology, ought, at least to be the promptitude and ** amplitude of the redress. If it be contended that the de- ** struction in these cases proceeded solely from the dancer, *' that otherwise intelligence might reach a pursuing or a no- " vcring force, it may be answered, that if such a plea were of ** greater avail, it would only disprove an hostility of intention, *' without diminishing the obligation to indemnify on the most '' liberal scale, the injured indivldnals. It may be added, that ** if the outrage on the individuals was not meant as a hostility ** towards their nation, the latter might justly expect a tender *' of such explanations as would leave no doubt on tins sub- " jcct." General Armstrong is then instructed to make for- cible representations, in order, as Mr. Madison expresses himself, " to awaken the French government to a sense of " the injury, and to the demands of justice." The French government did continue to deepy however, notwithstanding a note of expostulation trom our minister j and our own administration also have been, since, content to slumber over the affair, although this, ^* the most distressing of all the modes ** by which the belligerents exert force contrary to rights** re- mains without redress either for the individual sufferers or for this nation. General Armstrong, in a note addressed to the French minister of foreign affairs, states, '< that the property saved '' from four American ships burnt by rear-admiral Boudin "was placed under the jurisdiction of the imperial council '* of prizes, to be ju^d of of c French government had (ondcscendcd to justify this act of extnme violciue by tlic* i)lca of that necessity to whicli Mr. Madison ailudt's in the paragraph quoted in the hist page, it must liavn not only surrendered without hesitation to the sufTirtrs, the property saved, but made them ample conipunsaiion lor the loss vvliich they had sustained. The cause ofjusticc required this rclrihulion, and the dignity of the United States de-nKUKled stiil more. Tiic United States, as Mr. Madison himself renvirks, had a right to expect full proof, or at least a very respectful explanation, of the urgency of the motives by which the French cruisers \vc\c retuclant/i/ driven to so mischievous an exertion of su- perior force; for it \i in this view of tlie case only that the act could be at all defensible t. IJut this "just expectation" was disappointed, and with an aggravation of injury of the most mortifying as well as unexampled kind. The question was placed by the French government on a ground which they who are " to vindicate the liberty of the '* seas" should have been the la-t to adopt, and which must to every mind appear strangely incon«;ruous in the mouth of the professed champion of neutral rights. The burning of a neutral ship at sea was, by the clamorous apostle of neutral privileges, classed under the head of maritime caj)ture in that regenerated and tolerant code, in tlie propagation of which we are so strenuously invited to co-operate. It was ai once made a question for the determination of his court of admirahv, whe- ther the commander of a French cri/iser could not lawftilhj iurn on the hiefchants, hundreds of whose ships nii^iu In rncounietcd on the occun by a iiiiglc squadron o<' his impeii.l r.K!Jesty? ih Past and present Relations of It was not merely in the case of the vesstls mentionccj by ccnera! Armstrong that thi? doctrine was nuintamt"^, but in several oihcr instances. There is no exaggeration in any part of the above statenient. We have now in our hands a very able niCmoir, or plaidoyer, on ^his \ioiiJi, presented to the council of prizes at the instigation of the American prize agent in Paris, and drawn up by the late charge des affaires of France to thi rountrv, viho was then an advocate or solicitor in that court. The case which he discusses is that 'A an Ame- rican schooner, the Jefferson, l)urntat sea in 1809 by a French squadron under the coninvuid of vice-admiral Troude. The matter was referred by {he minister of the marine to the council of prizes; and the justification ofieved by the vice- admiral was simply 'his — •' that tlie vessel had an unlawful ** destination, and carried false pa ler?.*' This allegation as to the fact is satisfactorily refuted by the solicitor, but the legal argument is what should claim our attention particularly. The counsel resolves his argument into two points, the first of which is as follows : '* Can the armed vessels of his im- ** perial majesty lawfully burn neutral vessels on the higl^ f* seas, and does this act cov^stitute a regular capture?" This is a very curious subject, indeed, for grave discussion nnd del' , Iteration in the courts of a power which so ostentatiously pro- claims the liberality and philanthropic fastidiousness of its ma- ritime code ; and which now afilcts to be struggling for the emancipation of the seas from the arbitrary dominion of the BritisI:. We should like to know vih^it language sir William Scot would hold to an advocate of Doctors' Commons, who mi2;ht propound to him for formal adjudication ,< question of a similar tenour; or whether the archives of his court, so ofter^ stigmatized as the mere organ of British despot.. ;m, afford m example of solemn argument on i^iich z. point in relation Iq British cruisers*? * In th» couTse of his argument, tlie hte French c^ijrf^e Jes "^lirts mtrt- tions a cifc«n:stance M considerable inttrest to this country, and which has never been puLilicly announced to us Speaking with reference to s.oiub papers ♦oiind on !;oar(J the Jelierson, and signed by one of the .Spanish Coii.« »uls ir> this country, he says, " Wc know that his majesty the kiu^' of Spaili •' (.fcscph) nom'natcd about a ytiar ago anew miniter to the United States *• of Amerioa, — Mr San Yvancs, — that place being vacar.t by the recall made •* under Ciitirjcs IV. of the marquis d'Vrujo. But tl c new minister still *' remains in Paris in the capacity of secretary to the Sp.vnish embassy, and " has >ubiless this new minister still retains his credentials in his pocket. He watts only for the pi^riod when a pretext for his r.'Cept-on may be afforded, to our cabinet by the spectacle of a nation breithmg tortli the last sigh of y France and the United States, a J It may not be decmeJ impertinent if ve here recall to ouc readers some of the maxims enjoined by the conventional law of nations, and adopted by '* the tyrants of the seas" — with respect to the forms of capture, and to the duty of cruisers in the exercise of this beUiecrent right- The American public will be then better enabled to judge how far their neutral privileges have been infringed, and their national dignity has been outraged, by the summary process of conflagration, to which the cruisers of his imperial majesty have thought proper to subject their vessels on the hi^h seas. Wc cannot advance on tliis subject doctrines sounder or any language stronger than those of the French advocate whose memoir we have cited. He is now, we trust, before a tribunal with whom his reasonings may be more successful than they were with the French council of prizes. " To obviate the inconveniences incident to the right of '* search/' says this distinguished civilian, — '* "ery positive ** rules of conduct have bee« prescribed in the various treaties ** of commerce, to the officers whose p.ovince it is to exer- *' cise this belligerent privilege. By the conventional law of ** nations also, certain duties arc imposed upon the neutral, in< ** order that if, on the one hand, the discretionary p3wers of " the naval officer are circumscribed within the narrowest " bounds, he mav encounter, on the other, no unnecessary ** impediments tc -he discharge of liis duty. It is enjoined ** n;,on the neutral to give him every facility for this purpose.— ** A refusal to obey his summons ;— the conceahnent or de- ** struc* on of the mnsi inconsiderable document; — a sensiblft " deviation from the route prescribed by the destination indi- ** cated on the face of the papers; — are suffi :ient causes either " of suspicion or of condemnation. If the cruiser have serious •* doubts concerning the truth of the statements made to him, •* or the genuineness of the r«vifiwi»^»'"VW s* Past and present Relations of same government, still advancing pretensions to dignity and independence, had, within a few months after, consented to open a mangled, oppressed, harassed, precarious trade with the power from whom it had sustained this outrage, without pre- viously obtaining reparation for the insult, or full restitution of the property confiscated! He would then, we think, begin to imairiiie that a singular change had been wrought, not only in our ideas of national dignity and cqualily, but in our no- tions of common prudence and decorum. He would find something cxtraordinarv and not at all edifvina, in the spec- tacle of one nation brooking from another ail the depreda- tions of war, and yet leaving her assailant to enjoy all the ad- vantages of a state of peace. It cannot be denied that this ij exactly the situaiion info which we have been thrown by our administralion with regard to France, nnd it requires no great share of sagacity to discern that it is precisely the attitude most ELIGIBLE AND DESIKArJLE t'OR THAT POWER. • '■ t'. . Ai'TKR this investigTi'iion of the acts of Bonaparte towards this cor.ntry, let us now examine what has been the tenour of his language. Mis feelings and intentions are to be collected as well ironi the tone of his olficial notes as from the exertions of his j)ower. If a succession of wanton robberies and deeds of xinparaiieled injustice and violence be accompanitd by a cor- respondent series of unwarrantable pretensions and contume- lious expressions, there is wanting no external indication at least, of the most inveterate contempt and hostillly. In the former intercourse between governments, decorum of language was held to be as necessary to a state of amity as an abstinence from violence in aciion. Insolent or taunlinnf re- flections, — menaces or reproaches, — arrogant counsels from one to another, — dictation of any I^ind in questions, the deter- Tpinaiiou of which is among the attributes of independence, were universally received as demonstrations of hostility, and apknowledged as good grounds of war. They were in fact almost as frequently the causes of the wars of Europe, as actual usurpations by arms. The honour, and, consequently, the best interests of every nation, were supposed lo be vitally concerned in resistance by force to insults of language ; anU that government was held to sacrifice its dignity and indepen- dence, which suffered them to pass with impunity or without retraction. This code was found to be as useful and as ne- cessary to nationsj as it is to individuals i-n the common inter- Trance and the United Stated 33 course of society, in order to preserve a chaste self-estimation, and to keep alive feelings of mutual respect and good-will. We are sorry to be compelled to say, that our rulers seem to have forgotten all the lessons of experience on this head, and have suffered themselves to be vilified with atameness no lets abhorrent from the usages of former times, than opposed to true dignity and sound policy. The specimens which we shall now adduce of the tone and language of the French govern- ment towards this country, will serve to establish this posi* tion, while they afford unerring indications of the hostile feeU ings of Bonaparte. If our limits would permit, we would recall circumstantially to the recollection of our readers the correspondence between the American and French governments on the subject of the trade to St. Domingo. The haughty dictatorial style of the notes of general Turreau; — the dogmatical assertion of prin- ciples of national law, to which an unquali6ed assent was im* periously demanded, although they were far from being clear or unquestionable ; — the peremptory, trancliant language of Talleyrand's notes to general Armstrong, wherein he de« clares " that the trade should last no longer*,** were but art accumulation of insults which a magnanimous cabinet would have repelled with indignation. The scope, however, of thif article will permit us to do no more than merely refer tht reader to this extraordinary negotiation, in confirmation of cur remarks. We shall proceed to examine a correspondence of a more recent date, which must be fresh in the recollection of the American public. One of the first and most remarkable in the series of the opprobrious addresses of the French ruler to this country, was the letter of Champagny, dated January 15th, 1808, tQ general Armstrong, In answer to various remonstrances which the latter had made concerning the Berlin and Milan decrees* Those remonstrances, although 8tr9og and in general firm, suitably to ihc character of the writer's mind, were, however^ t-nctured with the spirit of his employers here, and were* therefore^ not merely respectful, but almost supplicatory. Tht return made to them was in no flattering style.-^Thc lett«x of Champagny, after declaiming, as usual, against England, and arrogating to France the right of overleaping all limits of law and justice in imitation of the supposed example of her eneijsyi proceeds ta enumerate the wrongs which England baft- deiM [\ k\ -« « Cda w fcvtpas durei davantage." 34 Past and present Relations of c< ns, — to dictate the measures which we were to pursue,— anci to personate, as it were, the government of the United State*. The following is a part of the text t <* In the situation in which England has placed the con- ** tinent, especially since her decrees of the nth of Novem- " ber, his majesty has no doubt of a declaration of war against " her by the United States. Whatever transient sacrifices war ** may occasion, they will noi believe it consistent, either ** with their interest or dignity, to acknowledge the monstrous •* principles and the anarchy which that government wishes to *' establish on the seas. If it be useful and honourable for all ** nations to cause the true maritime law of nations to be re- " established, and to avenge the insults committed by England ** against every flag, it is indispensable for the United States, ** who, from the extent of their commerce, have oftener to complain of those violations. JVar exists then in fact, be- tween England and the United States; and his majesty con^ siders it as declared from the day on which England publish- ** ed her decrees. In that persuasion, his majesty, ready to ** consider the United States as associated with the cause of " all the powers who have to defend themselves against Eng- ** land, has not taken any definitive measures towards the ** American vessels which may have been brought into our ** ports. He has decreed that they should remain sequestered ** until a decision may be had thereon, according to the dis- ** positions tuhich shall have been expressed by the govern* ** ment of the United States." The United States are thus told, that unless they consented to act as his imperial majesty thought fit, they sacrificed their interests and honour ; — and that our merchants were to lose their properly fraudulently plundered, unless the country sub- mitted to declare itself to be in that position in which he thought proper to consider and pronounce it. We are forcibly, as it were, dragged into his offensive alliance against England, and have no alternative left us but to acquiesce ni his mandate, or to be wantonly robbed. — In tbe records of presumptuous pride knd overweening licentious power, we know of no inter- ference in language more insulting and humiliating than this. In the iteries of the arrogant declarations of the Roman senate, or of the revolutionary governments of France, addressed to nations into whose territories their armies had already pene- trated, there is none more arrogant or authoritative; and we jcnow not in the whole course of history, an instance of a power, receiving a message of this Unour or tone, which di4 'H Frame and the United Statts. 35 (( not prepare either for an unconditional surrender or an active war*. It was impossible for any government styling itself inde- pcndenty or wishing to preserve the semblance uf independ- ence, to suffer this letter of Champagny to pass unnoticed. Even Mr. Jefferson) therefore^ spiritless and ductile as he wat in all his relations with France, found himself compelled tu instruct his minister at Paris to make some complaints on the subject, or rather merely to express the sense, — the transitory sense, — of the government with regard to its contents. — U may be well to quote the language of the secretary of stale to general Armstrong : " The letter of the 15th January from Mr. Champagny to you, has, as you will see by the papers herewith sent, pro- " duced all the sensations here which the spirit and style of it ** were calculated to excite in minds alive to the interests and " honour of the nation. To present to the United States the " alternative of bending to the views of France against her *' enemy, or of incurring a confiscation of all the property of *• their citizens carried into the French prize-courts, miplied ** that they were susceptible of impressions by wliich no ho- ** nourable and independent nation can be guided ^ and to pre- ** judge and pronounce for them the effect which the conduct •* of another nation ought to have on their councils and course ** of proceeding, had the air at least of an assumed authority, •* not less irritating to the public feelings. In these lights, the •* president makes it your duty to present to the French go- " vernment the contents of Mr. Champagny's letter, taking ** carCf asymr discretion will doubtless suggest, that whilst you ** make that government sensible of the offensive tone employed, »* you leave the way open for friendly and respectful explanai- •* tions, if there be a disposition to offer them ; and for a decision ** here on any reply which may be of a different character t," it • *« The Lacedemonians," says Pericles, in a sprech delivered to the Ath«f r.iiins, " have signified their wishes to us impciiously, *nd leave us no chuict: *' between war or submission : they announce to us, that peace with them *• must depend upon our decrees with re^jard to Mcgara. Yet many of yod " cry out, that this is not a sufficient ground for war. Athenians, such propo^i- *' tions as these of the Lacedemonians, are but a snare laid to entrap you : yolz. '< should indignantly reject them, until we are suHiered to treat upon a footing *' of perfect equality. This concern,' trifling as it may appear, includes withih *' it, the full proof and demonstiation of our spirit. A nation which prctcnt 9 *' to dictate laws tn another, ojfirs chains. If you yield upon this point, yoi t /< compliance will be construed intqjf«ar, and more humiliating conditions Wi}| " be imposed upon you." Such were the maxims of a republic of aniiquit)*. ^ce th.e >vhole speech in Thucydides, lib. i. t Who would have expected to see subjoin(4 to the first phrasas of tl tV S 2, «i fast ioii present Relations »/ Let us now extmine how general Armstrong executed hii commission. — Hi» note toChanipagny on the subject doe» not Certainly convey all the soft dallying accents, — all the centle, pathetic reproaches, and the suppliant hints which Mr. Jeffer- son could have wished ; but it cautiously abstains from any expression of strong indignation, or any vigorous pledge of the spirit which his government would display, in case of the tepetition of a language which he is compelled to describe MS ** derogatory from the rights, and dishonourahle to the *• character of the United States.'* ** The undersigned must remark, with regard to the official ** note addressed to him on the fifteenth of January last by his ** majesty's ministe): of exterior relations, isi, That the United ** States have a right to elect their own policy with regard to ** England, as they have with regard to France ; and that it is '* only while they continue to exercise this right, without suf- ** fering apy degree of restraint from either power, that they ** can maintain the indcpL-ndent relation in which they stand to *' both : whence it follows, that to have pronounced, in the ** peremptory tone of the preceding note, the effects which the ** measures of the British government ought to have produced ^' on their councils and conduct, was a language less adapted ?' to accomplish its own object, than to offend against the f* respect due from one independent nation to another : and. letter the instructions which we have marked in italics ? They amount to this ; that general Armstrong was to beware how he dealt with edge-tools ;— that he was not to appear seriously angry, but merely pout, ami th«n smile Uiid cheer up ; — that our rulers could not pledge themsclyes to resist (trenu- ously any language, however outrageous or opprobrious ; an^ that their mini- liter was to be cautious hovv he involved them in any bold or manly decUra* " Die neutrum, die ipale, die aliquando *'Etbene." let tts place by the side of this inculcation the language of Mr. Burke, s statesman whose doctrines on this subject our administration must be willing to respect, after having enjoyed so many practical lessons of their flUth: " It '» estalflishpd by experience, that contempt of the suppliant is not the • ** best forwarder of a suit,— that national disgrace is not the high road to P seeurity, much less to ppwer and greatness. Patience indeed strongly in- •* dicatcs the love of peace, but mere love does not always lead to enjoyment. *' It is the power of winning the palm which ensMrps the wearing of it. Vir- «* tues have their place, and out of their place they hardly deserve the name. •♦They pass into the neighbouring vices. The whining tones of common- ^' place beggarly rhetoric produce nothing but indignation. They indicate the •' desire of keeping up a dishonpurablc «kistence at any sacrifice ; they aim at f* obtaining the dues of labour without industry ; and by frauds would draw *• from the compassion of others what men ought to owe to their own spirit if »n4 to their own ezemonsf^' Rvgicide Fckc Fra7ice and the Vnlied Stclet. n it «* adiy, That the alternative to be found in the last para- graph, and which leaves the United States to choose be- ** twecn an acquiescence in the views of France against Great •* Britain, and a confiscation of all American property feques- •* tcred by order of his imperial majesty, is equally offensive •* to both goNTrnmcnts : to France, as it would impute to ** her a proposition founded on wrong to individuals ; and to " the United Slates, as it would imply, on their part, a sub- ** jection to pecuniarv interests totally inconsistent with their ** principles, and highly dishonourable to their character." If, in the intercourse of two independent nations, anterior to the French revolution, one of them had held towards the other a language such as that here ascribed to the French government by general Arnistrong ; — a language which im- plied that the party addressed was susceptible of impressiona by which no independent aiul honourable nation could be guided, and which prejudged and pronounced for that party the effect which the conduct of another nation ought to have on its councils and course of proceeding;— which accused it of a subserviency to its pecuniary interests at the expense of its honour, — a recantation in some way or other would have been deemed an essential preliminary to negotiation of any sort ; and, perhaps, the only coiuliti(>n upon which peace could be maintained. An high-minded cabinet, alive to the dignity of the nation, would be no more satisfied with a mere fruitless expostulation in such a case, than would an indivi- dual of spirit and honour in society, to whom another had applied the epithets of scoundrel and poltroon. The question of expediency in both instances is exactly the same. What is the particular interest of the individual in the one case is the general good of society in the other. Human passions work precisely in the same way. Submission to affronts dastardizes more and more the spirit of the suf- ferer, and emboldens and sharpens the unpunished insolence of aggression. To overlook an insult is to provoke an injury. The transition is natural and inevitable from itnrcsisted in- dignities of language, to acts of brutal violence. If the. history of mankind clearly establishea any one point, it is this, — that honour is to a nation what the locks of Samson were lo him ; — and the experience of the last eighteen years proves incontro- vertibly, that whatever power yields to the blandishments, or reclines on the lap of French sorcery, whether crowned with the lormet-rouge, or disguised in the imperial mantle, will ea- founter the. fate of the credulous Israelite. Nations are strong in propoj:tion to tjieir daring : — fossmit qiuapos\e videniur*-^ >6 Past and present Relatwtii of There is no mode in which left-handed wisdom or spurious prudence can be exercised «() unprosperously and fatally as by the sacrifice of glory and dignity lo any temporary or pecuniary interest. Such a sacrilicc, however, will become habitual with a nation which sufltrs its afl'airs to be long managed by men without real ability or virtuous ambition, or in which popular clamour, in lieu of some great, central, presiding power, is allowed to influence and control public measures*. What was then the issue of this repicst.ulalion concerning the light in which the prtsidcut viewed the contents of thitt letter of Champngny, and the feelings which it was alleged to have aroused in the people ? Alier an aflVont so serious as that which the language of Mr. Madison himself implied, it would seem naturally to follow, that lh»* angry cloud would not have been soon dispelled from the brow either of this naiion, or of its rulers; that even no further communication of a very cordial or amicable nature would have been suffered, until full ex;!iation was made; or, at least, until the obnoxious phrases were so qualifud and explained as to assuage the wounds of the national pride, and to calm the alleged efferves- cence of the national feelings — The insulted majesty, t violated sovereignty of a great people, required the at liicnt of kind and respectful professions, before they could deign to resume the commerce of. courteous diplomacy, Oi even before they could, in negotiation on other topics, re- aycend to the level of a fair and dignified equality. — So would have thought a speculative politician, reasoning on the nature of true dignity and public interest, and drawing lessons of practical wisdom and prudence from the experience of • " Woe to that countrv," says Mr. Burke, " v.liich would maHIy and im- " pioubly reject the service of the virtues and taltnts, civil, military, or tc- •' iigious, that are given to grace and to scrx'c it ; and would condemn tp o\)- " '?.uiity every thing loimcd to diffuse lustre and glory around a state. Woe " ) that omntry too, that, paising into the opposite extreme, considers a low *' education, a meun contiactcd view of things, a -sordid, nicicenary occupation, " as a preferable title to command. Evi-ry thing ought to be open ; but " not indifferently to every m;tn." And as;:iin--" The people oujjht to be " persuaded that they arc not entitled, and far less (;ualified, with safety to •'themselves, to use any arbitrary power whaffocvcr; that therefore they ff arc not under a false show of liberty, but in truth, by tlie exercise of an un- " natural inverted domination, tyrannically to exact, fioin those who officiate " in the state, not an entire devotion to their interest, which is their right, " but an abject submission to heir occasional will ; extinguishing, thereby, •' in all those who serve them, all moral principle, all sense of dignity, 4II *' uie of judgment, and all consistency of character ; whilst, by the \ciy ** same process, they give themselves up a proper, a suitable, but a most *' contemptible prey to llie servile ambition of ponuUr sycophants and fJ^t- f icrcis." Prance and the United States, s» o( im- )r Tc- to ol?- Woe low ation, but to be ty to they n un- ciate right, reby, y. all very most fltvt- mankind, nntl the authority of all tlic statesmen, historians, and jurists who luvc discussed and decided such questions. Not so, however, our political Palimirus and his coadjutors. They appear to have abjured all the •' heresies and errors ** ot experience and observation," and to have formed a code of honour and of wisdou) altogether peculiar to themselves, and imknown to the rulers of other nations. After transmitting their few phrases of mendicant remonstrance, thcv continued their relations of deprecation and entreaty, as if they them- selves and the nation had boon uniformly treated with all the solemnity of oriental complaisance. They received no apo- logy.— They exacted none ; and the consequences were such as mi^hl have been expected, and as yield an additional con- firmation of the maxims which we have advanced above. " The Gaul that throws his sword in the scale," did not, like his prototypes of old, in their deportnicnt towards the patrician senate of Home*, first gaze on and bend with reverence to our immovable rulers, and then pluck their beards ; but he first reviled, and then trampled them under foot. Fortunate would it have been if they had then aitated the resolution of the fathers of Home, or if they would now take as their manual the history of that extraordinary power which fur- nishes eminently to us in our present situation, so many salu- tary and apposite lessons with regard both to our foreign and domestic policy ; — so many illustrious examples of true state- wisdom and enlightened patriotism, and, above all, so many awful admonitions concerning the nature and circcts of that most portentous of all combinations, — an irresistible military force directed by a spirit of insatiable ambition, and steadily applied to the attainment of universal empire. So far from being prompted by the representations of gene- ral Armstrong to make reparation for the offence of which our administration complained, the French ruler pursued the course most congenial to his character, and to which he was naturally invited by the pusillanimity of our government. The same offensive insinuations were repeated in the notes, which by way of reprimand, and instruction, and exhortation, the imperial minister subsequently addressed to general Arm- strong J — and not long after, a most signal illustration of the legitimate influence of the truly neutral forb'^arance of our cabinet was afforded in the absolute confiscation, upon which we have already dwelt, of all American property within the grasp of our soi-disant protector. We were here at war indeed, * Plutarch's Life of Camillus. 40 Past and ffresent Relations of according to the signification formerly aflix^rt to the term, and nothing was wanting to give ii all the new and savage features with which Bonaparte has invested that state of things^ but ihe imprisonment of all the American citizens within his do- minions, as in the ca&p of the British, — or the repartition of them, as slaves among the peasantry of France, as in the case of the Austrian and Spanish prisoners whc» had fallen into his hands by the chance of battle*. While he chastised us on the one hand, he read us a lecture on the other, — a sort of homily from pride and power to obse- quiousness £^nd fear, — which should be ingrossed for the in- struction of our temporizing politicians, and hung on tlie wall of every public edifice in this country. We allude to th« memorable letter of the duke of Cadore on the subject of the confiscation of American property. Instead of being molli- fied by the soothing aspect and language of our ;*dmini»irat tion, and commiserating the pprpTcxities into which they were thrown by the desire of keeping terms with himself, he treated them with that kind of pc^tical justice which he dis» played towards Prussia and every other continental state that connived at his usurpations, and crouched under his frowns. He upbraids them and this nation, in terms of the most over-* whelming opprobrium and ihe most biting sarcasm, for the very policy which we had pursued only in our relations with J * It is remarked in the letter of Champagny, of Aagust i-.jd, 1809, addressed to general Armstrong, " thac if the English had had on knd that superiority •' which they have obtained at sea, we should have seen, as in the times of *' barbarism, the vanquished sold as slaves, and their lands parcelled out." Whoever reads this passage vvould do well to examine the French gazettes of about the same date, and those of the last six months, and he will find various •* bulletins" from the prefects and municipal authorities of the French tmf'te, inviting the peasantry and f, rmers to call for a.y number bf the Austrian and Spanish prisoners thai they might deem useful for their domestic and agricultural labours This is, in fact, making slaves of the prisoners ; at least a? long as they remain unexchanged, which will probably be the case with the Spaniards for some time. It is observed by Grotius, lib. 3, cap. 7, that this nsaere which the French have now renewed, was universally abolished a: long CAr/i/iii« nations. Byn'^rshoek iepei>ts the same idea iu his first chapter on the law of war (see the excellent translation of ihit work by Mr. Du Ponceau of this city) ; and Vattel retnarks that *• this opprobrium ♦• of humanity, the enslaving of prisonsrs, was happily banished from « Europe." ** We adffiire," fsys this writer, " we love the English and French for the ** manner in which these generous nations treat their prisoners of -war." If he were now living, what wo-ild he say to the treatment of the Spanish and Austrian p isoncrs, and to the detention of the Engiish found in France at the btv^aking out of the war ; or to which nation, in reviewing the transactions of Ihe ^ast cif hteen year?, would he affix the stigma of having substituted the usages, of barbarism for those rules of eternal j'osuce and iof refined humanity wnich he bai so admiiably expounded ? France and the United Slates. 41 France — fi)r :in ribject, cringing, in)j;rovicIe.it, fruitless for- bearance under the grossest insuhs and injurir s. He applies to this nation, aud to those who administer her affairs, epithet?, of disgrace and contumely, such as no indepc'ident people ur spirited government ever before received, and such as r.o government, pc-haps, had ever before so well merited. The whole oF this letter is but a compound of impudent falsehoods and degrading invective, — a bitter mockery ir its professions of friendship, and an atrocious lampoon in its insinuations and taunts. 'Ihc declaration with which it c )m- Jiiences, that *' the imperial decrees would be conforma'uie to ** the ctrrnal princi|)les of justice, even if they were not \he " necessary consequence of British provocations," is insulting and impudent in the highest degree.— The lesson which it in- culcates that " those who refuse to (ight for honour may be *' at length compelled to fight for interest," is, in the applica- tion, no less insulting. The grounds upon which the contisca- tion of our property is vindicated, are frivolous and false. The following passages which cannot be too often quoted, speak too strongly for themselves to need a comment. " Men without ** policy, without honour and without energy, may well al- " lege, that they will submit to pay the tribute imposed by " England because it is light ; but will not the English feel ** that they would rathei have the principle admitted, than ** increase the larif ? because if this tribute, though light, *' should become insupportable, those who had refused to *' fight for honour must then fight for interest." What when compared to this were the letters jf Philip to the Athenians, ---or tl>c sarcasms of Mr. Caniiing, about which we raised so jrreat a clamour? And what should be the feelings of every good citizen of this country, when he reads at the conclusion of the note from which we have taken these ex- tracts that it was written '^ in order that the president of the *' United Slates might better know the amicable intentions of ** ^^rance, and her favourable disposition toivards American '• commerce,'* In one paragraph, a hollow panegyric is pronounced upqii those who accoiTsplished our revolution; only for the purpose of instituting an invidious comparison between their magna- nimity and our degenerate spirit.— Nothing but his eagerness to degrade and vilify thin generation of American politicians, could have extorted from .he month of Bonaparte a commen- dation upon the assertors of freedom of any age or country. But whatever may have been his motive for the eulogium, there is but too much cplou'" for the reproach. We must t , 42 Past and present Relations of '^e indeed strangely altered since our revolution, or we never could have provoked from any power, however profligate or arrogant, such an address as this of Champaguy.---A distant observer of these events would scarcely believe that we are the same race whom Mr. Burke describes in his speech on the conciliation of the colonies: — with whom, *' the fierce spirit of ♦* liberty is stronger than among any other people on earth j *' whose institutions inspire them with lofty sentiments ; — who " do not judge of an ill principle only by an actual grievance, ** but who anticipate the evil and judge of the pressure of the *' grievance by the badness of the principle;--- who snuff the ** approach of tyranny in every tainted breeze.*' It could scarcely be credited that we, who have patiently endured the lash of this address of the duke of Cadore, and the robberies of his master, possess the soul of those stubborn colonists, so jealous of their rights,— so full of spirit,-— so full of resolu- tion, — so much alive to the purity of their honour, — who, with means apparently so inadequate., persevered and triumphed in a struggle like that of our revolution*? * We hold jn the highest veneration the memory of tlicsr who s\v,iyc<1 tin: counciiii unci i'uughl the battles of this country m the war of our indapendcnco. There was a loftinesii of spirit about them as well »s an energy of dtiibernticn and of action, wliich never can be too nmch admired or too warmly applauded. Theii s were " Virtues that shine the light of human kind, " And, riijod thiongli story, warm remotest time." We never think of them without enthusiasm, and without being ready to apply to them the beautiful and animated verses of Churchill on the subject of tiie fathers of English liberty. " Hail those old patriots on whose tongue " Persuasion in the senate tiu'ng, " Whilst they the sacred cause maintained : " Hail those old chiefs to honour trained, " TITio spread when other melhodt failed, " War's bloody banner and prevailed !" And, without calling on the despot of France for a commemoration of their Merits, yre would proceed to exclaim with the same poet. Shall men like these unraentioned sleep Promiscuous with the common heap. And (grntitude forbid the crime) Be carried Iunge us into hostilities with the latter: that she had rctused — until she discovered that her aim was not likely to be accomplislutl, — to give a full and f'ornml explanation ot" the latitude in which she meant to en- force a decree studiously ambiguous in its terms j — that in the interval, she bad cajoled our minister in London with a partial interpretation of her meaning from the hand of the first lord of the admiralty, and then impudently annulled it a.s extra-official, and substituted another in its stead, which, while it set at defiance all principles of national justice and swept away an existing and solemn treaty, operated as an ex post facto law of confiscation upon x\merican property of con- siderable value which was wafted to her ports upon the security of the first interpretation; — an interpretation which, as was universally known, could never have been written w ithout the concurrence and express authority of the whole J3ritish cabinet. Let us suppose that our merchants had, in the course of a trade which she had never before prohibited or declared un- lawful, accumulated in her ports and in the ports of countries nominally independent of her, a large amount of properly consisting in commodities the growth of the possessions of her enemies ; and that she had, concurrently with the promul- gation of her decrees, suddenly, treacherously and by the strong arm of military force, seized and conliscated all mer- chandise of this description " to whomsoever belonging " and wheresoever accessible to her power: — that she had uniformly turned a deaf ear to all our remonstrances on this subject, and had as yet made no reparation for this outrage; — that all hope of indemnification was ever abandoned by the sufferers. — Let us suppose that she had burnt numbers of our vessels at sea, and had not even condescended to offer an explanation, much less restitution, for so lawless an outrage ; but had impri- soned for an indefinite period, and treated as malefactors and captives taken in war, not only the crews of the vessels thus destroyed but those of every American ship which, under the auspices of national law, — r.pon the pledged security of public \ France dnd the Unitsd States. 49 fsiith, and by actual invitatiun->-had unsuspectingly been placed within the sphere of her power. Let us suppose that, instead of offering a mere speculative proposition to enforce our non-iutercourse laws by the cap- ture of American vesssels surprised in the violation of tho^e laws, she had,— upon this very pretext of punishing the disobedience of our own citizens to their own governmentj— • actually laid violent hands upon the American vessels in her harbours and forfeited them to her treasury, and had, when called upon for an explanation of her conduct, insultingly and sneeringly offered to our cabinet the same pretext as the mo- tive and justification of her conduct *. Let us suppose that she had at length— by one sweeping decree of rapine— stripped us of every atom of our pro- perty which lay within her grasp j— confiscated it to the amount of many millions of dollars, as a droit of the ad- miralty ; — put a considerable portion of this amount " beyond " the reach of negotiation f," by public sales and a transfer of the proceeds to her treasury, and until this moment con- tinued to execute vigorously and insolently, this act of con- fiscation — and that this, the most comprehensive scheme of robbery which it was in her power to practise upon us, was adopted and carried into effect, suddenly and without the al- legation of any immediate provocation either real or ima- ginary ; but upon pretences radically vicious in principle and notoriously false in point of fact ;— upon the ground of acts which, after having been made the subject or eulogy, were then only for the first time converted into causes of com- plaint and motives to the severest vengeance :---upon the plea of injuries of which the existence did not appear to be sus- pected for many months j — an interval during which overtures of accommodation were made to this country, and a regular intercourse of diplomatic discussion maintained with its mi- * Extract of a letter from general Armstrong to the s^fcfetary of state, dated Paris, April 1808. " Orders were given on the 17th instant, and received yesterday at the inipcia! *< customhouses, ' to seize all American vessels now in the ports of France or which " ' may come into them hereafter.* " " Postscript. April 25th, 1808. — I have this moment received tlie following ex- •' planation of the aboVe-meniioned order, viz. that it directs the seizure of vessels •• coming into ports of France afifir its own date, because no ve.-sel of th i United " States can now navigate the seas, without infracting a law of the said States, and " thus furnishing a presumption that they do so on British account, or in British con- nexion. t See general Armstrong's letter on the subject of tbt confiscations at Naples. tt fi I public V^W^^VFWW w^WT^w 50 Past and present Rektiont of ■4; nistcr, by the very government which at length rose in its might to avenge these pretended wronffs. Let lis again suppose, that instead nf addressinj; us uni- formly in a language oF that grave and respecthri tone of solemn, elevated equality, which in the commiViiion of two independent and friendly nations can never be abandoned without a derogation from the dignity of the one, and a violation of the rights of the other,-— instead of distinguishing the representative of our government by the refined and politic courtesies which belong essentially to the constitution of every truly august and civilized court, and which, while they dcco- ratethe rorms and ennoble the intercourse, serve to facilitate the true ends of diplomacy, — she had, in all her official notes and ill her public declarations, employed towards us a language of arrogant superiority, of imperious dictation and of unw.irant- able interference in the functions of our private sovereignty,— that she had treated our minister in London, as France treat» all foreign ministers at Paris, like despicable, imf>ortunate duns sometimes scowled upon and ignominiously exiled from the audience-chamber of the imperial robber :— sometimes caressed and cajoled as the purposes of meditated fraud, or projects of violence, or rancorous enmity might make it convenient :—- that, while she continued to pursue her system of depredation upon our property, and when she had despoiled us of the last shilling within her reach, she not only advanced, in her official justification, abstract doctrines fundamentally subversive of all real or seeming equality between us, and destructive to our riahts and interests ; but had employed against us such topics of abuse as could, with any shadow of justice or decency, be applied only to a nation that had, by the most abject, truckling policy, notoriously forfeited all pretensions to independence and consideration. Let us suppose that she had formally, and in terms, accused us of prostituting our honour to our pecuniary interests — of degenerating from the spirit and tarnishing the memory of those who shed their blood in our revolution ; — that she had compared our situation with that of Tuscany or of Holland when nominally independent, and had pronounced us to be still lower in the scale of humiliation ; still more subservient to the will of France, than either of those wretched and emas" culated states j — that she had reviled us in the face of the world as a body of juggling poltroons and fraudulent smug- glers, intent alone upon tne acquisition and indefatigable in the search of gain, but careless about the means by which it was ^ Fr(mc9 find the United States, 81 to be acquired;-- -that she had finally left us no choice be- tween a most open, active, rancorous hostility on her part or a war with lier enemy ;— -that she had made this the sine aua non, not of her cordial friendship, but even of the semblance of pence or amity between u8---that she had de- clared it solemnly, and uniformly proved it to be her fixed unalterable policy to extinguish our trade as far as her power extended, unless we pursued the plan which she had chalked out for u**, and consented to enter into a league for the destruction of the only free constitution now remaining in the other hemisphere. If England, we ask, had done all this and more, what would have been the language of our government and the tone of the people ? It is impossible to assert that there is any thing exaggerated in this representation, as it rests upon the express authority of our administration, and of general Arm- strong*, and is supported throughout by recent facts of un- (]^uestionable notoriety, and officiaTdocuments of a tenour irre- sistibly clear and unequivocal. What banner would have beca spread,-— with what cry would we have been deafened, if all these accumulated insults and wrongs had proceeded from Great Britain ? Can any candid man assert,— -does any intelli- gent man believe — that the effect would have been the same? Judging merely from the haughty tone of resentment which ;. « lused I— of jry of had >lland Itobe •vient :mas- if the muff- in the It was • The public has not forgotten, we trust, the following meinorubic passage front one of goiieral Armstrunt^'s letters to the secretary of state. " Nothing UnH occurred here wince the date ol my public dispatchei (the " 17tii) to give our business an aspect inoro favourublo than it then had ; but on " the otlier hand I have come to the knowledge of two facts, wliich I tliiuk suf- *• ficiently show the decided character of the emperor's policy with regard to us. " These are, iiriit, — that in a council of administration held a ftw days past, " when it was proposed to modify the operation of the decrees of November " 1806, and December 1807 (though the proposition was supported by the " whole weigiit of the council) he became highly indignant, and doclarcd " that these decreet should tuffer no chaatge — and that the Americans should ht " compelled to take the positive character of either allkt or enemiet ; gd^ " that on the 27lh of January last, twelve days after Mr. Clianipagny's " writton assurances, that these decrees should work no change in the pfo- " perty sequeatered until our d'ucuaions with England were brought to a cloie% " and se9eH days before he reported to me verbally these very assurances, tlia " emperor had, by a tpecial decition, confiscated two of our vessels and their " cargoes (the Junius Henry and Juniata) for want merely of a document, not " reqnirtd by any law or usage of the commerce in which they had been en- " gaged. This act was taken, as I am informed, on a general report of setpietlered " caset, amounting to one hundred and sixty, and which, at present prices, will •' yield upwards of one hundred tnUlions of franks, a sum whose magtntude alone " renders hopeless aU attempts at saving it — Danes, Portuguese and Americans, " will be the principal sufferers. — If I am right in supposing the emperor has de- " fmitively taken his ground, 1 ciuinot be wron^ iu concluding tluit you will immC' " diately tahe yours" i I n :i ■ H! .S9 Past and present Relations of our administration have uniformly csmployed towards England upon every rtul or imaginary atifjression : — tVon) the bitterness and steadiness of their compfanits; — from the (juick, hvely sensibihty which has always been displayed to injuries coming from thai quarter, — Iroin the cry for war which was vociferated from one end ot the United States to the other on the occasion of the attack of the Chesapeake, and in which all parties con- curred ; wc shouhl not hesitate to conclude that, upon the foregoing hypothesis, notwithstanding prudential considera- tions of a nature infinitely more urgent and imperious than those which dissuaJe us from a contest with France, and be- fore we had endured one half of this long category of wrongs, we should have let loose all the reins to our wrath, and that our administration woidd have sounded the charge and in- dignantly pointed the way to the most active and vindictive hostilities which it might have been in our power to wage. — In the case of France, however, the murmurs of the executive were scarcely heard until her last attacks, when the provoca- tions were such as no human patience could silently endure, and no government, however pusillanimous, decently forbear to resent. Even then the accent was querulous ; not spirited ; — not manly ; and, in fact, all the complaints which have been at any time uttered against France by our cabinet, have been as it were studiously coupled with and drowned in still louder intonations against the other belligerent. It would not therefore be surprising, if any English minis- try, or we, who are neither heated by the passions nor warped by the prejudices of any party, should, upon this view of the case, think that there are to be found in the conduct of our administration, unerring, staring indications of partiality for France, and a decided predilection for her alliance. We confess that we cannot discern in this state of thintjs that strict, con- scientious, disinterested neutrality to which we so osten- tatiously lay claim, and upon which we found our pretensions to the most circumspect indulgent moderation, and to an in- jurious self-denial on the part of a nation which is now, with her " Ailantean' shoulders vast," laboriously supporting the cause of freedom and cf civilization. True neutrality has another character and other attributes. ,.,^5. ma ,,,,,, The ancients in their Iconology, represent Justice with a bandage over the eyes,— with a sword in one hand, — with the well -poised scales in the other, — with a sun upon her breast as the emblem of purity, — with a serene, but courageous aspect,— -with the volumes of jurisprudence heaped about her as the rule of her decisions ;-— with the horn of Anoal^beus by France and the United States. M her side as the Kymhol of (hat prosperity which must crown the career of every state of which she and " warhkc Honour" guide llie liehn. if we were disposed to indulge in a pcrsoni* fication of Ncuirahiy, just such would we pourlray her: — not panic-slruck and overawed l)y the grin* aspect of war or of ty- ranny ; — not trampling upon tiic sword und the balance and grasping the caduceus and ttie purse; — not surrounded by volumes of impracticable theories and spurious codes of pub- lic law, instead of that body of inuneniorial customs and those profound digests of universal legislation which, by the com- mon consent of mankind, were heretofore consecrated as the only safe guides of action, and the only puie sources of illunuT nation. Neutrality may indeed exist, where Justice is notori- ously with one belligerent; and it is therefore that we should place in her train, a figure which Justice can never have as a companion. We mean Prudence in our sense of the term, with Honour as her guide and her counsellor: but then »/., would alter the aspect of our image, and instead of the placid coun- tenance, we would give her what was frequently assigned to Justice, — a severe and sorrowful physiognomy j eyes full of fierceness and indignation against the oppressor; and, — if we could go farther and animaic her heart, — it should be the op- posite of her exterior character and should glow with anxious hopes and ardent wishes fur the cause of the oppressed. iP: ^Lm We shall now, after some digressions, which will not, wc trust, appear tedious to those who comprehend the scope of this investigation, proceed to analyze the late correspon- dence of the French minister of foreign aflfairs with general Armstrong ; a question which will naturally lead us to a con- sideration of our future prospects with regard to tVance. We enter upon this part of our su^-^ect with a postulate of the utmost importance to the elucidation of the true spirit of her late proceedings, and which should be kept in view to aid the solution of any seeming difficulties connected with this sub- ject. The general conclusion to be drawn from the preceding pages and the ground upon which we mean to take our stand IS — that Bonaparte, until the period when he thought proper to announce the conditional revocation of the Milan and Berlin decrees, was, as far as human language and conduct can enable vs to judge of human feelings, animated with sentiments of sovereign contempt and virulent animosity towards the United §tatcs. :,•:.:-:•' -■Wip WW'iMl WW" -• 1^ llstvllHli.^ HHI!«IM,»,l|fW()l( ,«^]fl«»!l»*W(f||M|lf»^;W 34 Pa5< anrf present Relations of We think we have established this point beyond the possibility of a doubt, and arc supported in it bv testimony, the validity of which no partizau of our administration at Jeast will venture to deny.--- Under the auspices of this con- clusion wc shall premise three maxims suggested b)r Mr. Burke, in his " Regicide Peace/* of which the application is obvious and which when our countrymen are disposed to indulge in visionary hopes with regard to the sincerity of the professions of Bonaparte, it would be well for thv^m to call to iTiind---lst, That a disposition to peace and amity is the only sire basis for any pacific or amicable arrangement. — 2d, Fhat if we have reason to conceive that our enemy, who as such must have an interest in our destruction^ Is also a person of discern- ment and sagacity, we may be quite sure that the object be pursues is the very thin^ by which our ruin is likeJy to be most perfectly accomplished. — 3d, That an adversary must be judged not by what we ourselves are, or what we wish him to oe, but by what we must know he actually is; unless we choose to shut our eyes and ears to the uniform tenor of all his discourses, and to his uniform course in all his actions. At a period when Bonaparte seemed to have discarded even the affectation of forbearance towarils this countiy, and had excited absolute despair in the minds of his blind wor- shippers here, general Armstrong was greeted with a letter from the French minister of foreign affairs in which a com- plete revolution both of policy and feeling in our regard was announced, and an invitation tendered to our merchants to commit their property once more to the justice or the mercy of the French ruler. The change >vas no less wonderful than unexpected to common apprehensions. Some even of our most sagacious and incredulous politicians, forgetful, as it appears to us, of the fust maxims of common prudence and inattentive to t.-c". contemporaneous language and deportment as well as to the previoi^s dispositions and acts of Bonaparte, have sought for solutions to the fancied enigmas of his letter in motives of interest which imply the sincerity of his present declara- tions. VVe hope to dissipate this strange illusion by assigning adequate causes for his present conduct, derived from his hostility to us, and to commerce in general; or if we admit motives of interest extraneouf to these feelings, we hope to convince our readers that they can be but merely temporary in their operation. We have asserted in the outset of this discussion, that the iettui of Cadore was a tissue of glaring falsehoods, and of bitter sarcasms, and wc are confident of Being able, from an France and the United States. $5 to ;rcy lost itive IS (o jght lives ung bis Imit to [rary that Id of an examination of the text, not only to support this opinion, but to prove, at the same time, from the conditions which Bona- parte has annexed to the revocation of his decrees, that he himself must have foreseen the utter futility, as far as regards the interests of trade, of this new stroke of policy, if we allow him to possess any knowledge of the fundameiital, un- changeable politics of the British cabinet. — We ourselves are confident that this pretended effort in favour of commerce, and these ludicrous professions of amity towards the United States will either soon evaporate in mere empty speculation, or entail consequences, not advantageous, but in the highest degree prejudicial to our best interests. In any event this in- vestigation will be useful, and when the determination of time shall supersede all conjecture, it will still be important as an illustration of the genius of the French government and an additional lesson of caution to this country. The letter of the French minister of foreign relations com- mences by a declaration, of the falsehood of which every man who reads it must be at once sensible. It implies '* that '* his imperipl majesty had then only (the 5th of August) been " apprised of the act of congress of the 1st of May, and that " most of our official acts had been tardily communicated to " him: a circumstance from which there resulted serious in- " conveniences that tuould have been obviated by a prompt " and official communication*," We cannot consent to believe that the French government remained ignorant tor the space of three months of a measure, which within six weeks after it took place was announced in all the gazettes of Paris and no- tified by the arrival of our vessels in the ports of France within that period, and which it it had not been so announced must have been collected from the English newspapers which are regularly received at the French office of foreign affairs f. —We cannot believe that general Turreau was so negligent, * Lettre du miiiistre des relations extirieures, a M. Armstrong. Paris, le 5 Aoat, 1810, Monsitur, J'ai mis sous les yeux de S. M. TEmperear et Roi I'arte du coiigres da 1' Mai, extrait de la Gazette des Etats Unis, que vous ih'avez fait passer. S. M. aurait d6sirfe que cet acte et tous les autres actes du gouveruement des Etats Unis qui peuveut int^rcKcr la France,* lui cu5?int tcujours e\k nolift^* oincielJemeut. En g^n^ral, el''; n'en a eu connaissance qu'indirrctenient et ipres Ufi loner intervalle de »p*. II rcsu/te de ce reUrd des inconvenient graves qui n'awaient pa)i Um, s. ,es acUs ctaient jjromptement et officiclicment com- munixpiis. t We have in our hands a Monileur of the 24lh of June, which contains a trans- lation of th« act of the first of May. i, pii. iiii II wwiw. ■^■jwdivii P 40 Pa*< and preseni "Relations of of his duty as to omit to communicate instantaneously to hi^ government a measure of so much importance in itself an(> upon which his master now affects to lay so much stress. It was incumbent not upon general Armstrong, but upon the French ambassador, to make this noti6cation, inasmuch as the act of the first of May was not of a nature to be made the ground of an application from us to the French government for a change in its policy. A foreign minister is bound by no law either of reason or usage, to communicate formally and officially to the jiower near whom he may be placed, such of the public measures of his own government as are not of a character to serve as the foundation of a demand, or likely to operate as an inducement for a change of attitude. But it falls within the province and is part of tlie trust of a minister to communicate, without delay, to the power whose representative he is, whatever public acts may come within his knowledge which are of a tendency to affect its interests or to regulate its policy. That understanding must be weak indeed which can be so far influenced by the authority or persuaded by the rhetoric of the French minister of foreign affairs as to credit the mira- culous effect ascribed to the act of the first of May. The assertion that it produced the revocation of the Berlin and Milan decrees is ludicrous when we consider all the circum- stances of the case. This statement is directly in the teeth of a fact notorious to all the world; — that as early as April 1809, the very measure or scheme of polic\ adopted in the act of the first of May was proposed to the French goveriiment as an inducement to the revocation of the Milan and Berlin decrees. From that period until the moment when congress issued the act, this proposition was still held out to France, and answered uniformly by a declaration from the latter, that no such revocation could take place, until the English first rescinded their orders in council as well as their principles of blockade. If then the present revocation be unconditional, as we are told, how can we admit that it was produced on the 5th of August by a measure which, although constantly and long before proffered to the French government failed in producing any effect ? We cannot suppose that the mere incorporation of this particular scheme of policy under the form of an act of congress could have given it this unexpected and novel efficacy. If the revocation be conditional — as it most unquestionably is,— if it have the same qualifications as were before declarea to be inseparable from it, — we are placed by this letter of the \ in France and the United States, 61 5th long being Ion of :t of Iv llare^ If the duke of Cadore in a situation, not indeed exactly the same as before but much worse as we shall presently show. The French minister, in alleging the act of the first of May as the motive to the revocation of the decrees of Bonaparte, involves himself in a gross contradiction. The enibanro was lon^ since warmly commended by the emperor,-— and is, here, agam declared to have buen acceptable to him. Yet we are told that the removal of all restrictions on our trade, — for such was the effect of the abrogation of the non-intercourse act — was so satisfactory to him as to induce a change in his policy, which the embar<:;o itself and all our other measures of real hostility against England, were insufficient to extort. It cannot be said that the engagements into which congress entered concerning the revival of the non-intercour*c, could have rendered the abrogation of it so wonderfully operative : since, as has l:cen above stated, we had long before professed our readiness to give the same pledges, and always without avail. If the em- Dargo was grateful to the French emperor, a fact of which there can be no doubt,-— it is quite incomprehensible how the very opposite course of policy — under the same circum- stances as to the position of neutral trade, and with the same dispositions on our part,— -could have consummated the work of propitiation. The removal of the non-intercourse was here considered as a triumph obtained over the partizans of France; -—as the deathblow of a system adopted and pursued in con- formity to her will, — and therefore as fitted to exasperate the resentment of the French emperor. We are quite sure that this was the light in which it was viewed by our administra- tion; and the tardiness with which it was conmiunicated to the government of France arose perhaps both on the part of general Armstrong and of our executive from that reluctance which men in all situations feel to communicate unpleasant information to one whose power is dreaded and whose temper is irritable. The Berlin decree was issued before our embargo was im- posed: — that of Milan before it could have been known in Europe that we had adopted this preposterous measure. Neither of these decrees had any the most distant connexion with our embargo and non-intercourse laws. They were correlative in point of time, of principle, and of profession, with the British blockades and orders in council. They were repeatedly and solemnly declared to depend solely on one of these two contingencies, — the cessation of the provocation oa the part of the British, or an open rupture between us and Great Britain, — -All connexion between the imperial decrees H . ( i; wi I ij i)uijiiivf^riy>^ip«r^«qr'<*«irr 38 Pasi and present Relations of I and our measures was (iisclaimcd but this, and a most Im- portant one it is; — that they were to cease to operate upon us when we began to resist by force the pretended aggressions of England on neutral rights. Nothing could have been more foreign to this the only relation which was admitted to exist between them, than the removal of the non-intercourse ; — a measure which has been here so justly branded by all parties as the submission ac^.— And yet we are told that in conse- quence of " the new state of things*' which that removal has produced, the imperial decrees are revoked ! In order therefore to preserve even the shadow of con- sistency, the French government must mean by this *' new ** state of things'* — an engagement on our part to make war on England in case she should not abandon h»th her orders in council and her alleged principles of blockade. — We shall pre- sently show that Bonaparte has actually declared this to be his meaning. Nor can France, without a most direct contra- diction of her declarations contained even in the letter now under examination, consider a mere non-intercourse with England as tantamount to a redemption of our pledge. She well knows that such a state of things is far from being in- jurious to Great Britain, or in any manner an assertion of our neutral rights. — bhe has positively declared it to be a state of things highly injurious to herself. If France wishes to preserve even the semblance of dignity or consistency, she must consider this revocation as subject to the condition of the repeal both of the British orders and of their principles of blockade, which as we have said, she has so often and so solemnly'pronounced to have been the sole inducements to her decrees*. The letter of the duke of Cadore proceeds to state that our embargo had occasioned the loss of the French colonies of Guadaloupe, Martinique, and Cayenne, — an assertion alto- gether false, but which it does not comport with our limits to refute circumstantially. — Nor do wc think it necessary to • " The present decree shall be cniisidcreil a-^ the fitndavicntal law of the " empire uittil Englnnd lias acknowledged tliat the rights ot" war are the same " at sea as on land ; that wj\,r cannot be extiiidt'd to any private property " whatever, nor to persons who are not military, and tnitil the risiht of blockade be " restrained to I'orfifi'd places actually invested tiy competent t'urce.'' Preamble to Berlin decree. And again in the body ot" the Milan decree it is declared " that the measures " of France shall continue to be rigorously in force as long as the Rrif^li govern'' " ment doo not return to the principles ot the laws uf nations." The same pledges are given in all the public documents ui France which have any relation t* eitiuT of tlie decrees " li in France and the United States, 59 It our les of alto- lit s to Iry to of the lie same Vroperty [kadc be lecree. liieasuTCS govern'* llie same llation t» dwell upon the statement which immediately follows con- cerning the motives by which our government was actuated in imposing the embargo ; — a position no less true than the preceding one is false. The correspondence between the se- cretary of state and general Armstrong as well as many of the communications of the latter to the French minister, prove it to have been the intention of our Executive to im- press upon the m>nd of the French emperor the idea — that the leading if not the sole motive of the embargo was the an- noyance of England." -Conformably to his knowledge of the fact, derived from this and other sources, he has in several of his public addresses ascribed our embargo to the same spirit which dictated his ** continental system" and now re- peats this idea in the letter of the duke of Cauore*. This assertion however well-founded, is repugnant to the lan- guage which our administration has thought proper to em- ploy in all their official statements at home, and in their cor- respondence with the British ministry. It is therefore to be viewed as a direct contradiction to their formal declarations; and the repetition of it is grossly insulting. — But we have not heard that general Armstrong has been instructed to protest against the reiterated imputation of motives so formally de- nied by his principals, or that the s:.me indignation has been expressed on this occasion as was njanifested when Mr. Can- ning indulged in a mere insinuation to the same effect. The next paragraph of the letter is of a curious import, and inculcates lessons of prudence from which no small benefit might be derived if we were governed by men who moved under the direction of reason and experience, and not under the discipline of their prejudices and their fears. The very circumstance which was attached to the non-intercourse act with a view, as it has been said, to accomodate his Imperial majesty is here stigmatized as the object of his particular re- probation ; we mean the exception of Spain, Naples and Holland from the operation of that act. ---In the whole history of our administration, there is perhaps, no trait more disgust- ing or degrading than this affair, in which, with matchless « <( L'Empereur avait applaudi a I'embargo general, mis par les Etats Unis '* siir tous Icurs b^liinens, parte que cette niesure, si elle a et6 prejudiciable a Iti " France ii'avait an nioius ricii d'oft'eiisant powr son honneur. Elle lui a fait " perdre ses colonies de la Guadaloiipe, de Ja Martinique tt de Ca^/emie. L'Em. " pereur ne s'eu est pas plaint. II a lait ce sacrifice an princii»e qui avait " deturniinC- les Aniericains a i'embargo, en leur inspirant la nol)le resolution de " s'interdire les mers, plutol que de se soumettre aux lots de ceux qui veuleut s'en " faire les d^nuiialeurt." "^^^^si^t^r^i^mt^F 60 Past and present Relations of effrontery and in opposition to the evidence of their very senses, they affected to consider those countries as sovereign and independent. This declariJtion was received here and ii^ England particularly, where we witnessed its effects upon the party fnost friendly to this nation, with lively feelings of con- tempt and indignation. It met with the reward that the spirit from which it sprung so well deserved, and rarely fails to re- ceive. The British minister flung it from him with disdain, and r' roached our rulers with the disingenuousncss of the procfcCuing. Bonaparte n »w visits this sin upon them still more severely. He ostentatiously and purposely falsifies their declaration by affirming those countries to be under French influence. He implies most uiiequivocally that the fact was known to them at the time when they promulgated a law pro- voked, as they declared, in some (fegree by the outrages of France, but from the inconveniences ot which they yet thought proper to exempt ihosj countries. He offers this circumstance together with the confiscation with which wc threatened French vessels that should enter our ports, as his justification for the seizure of all American property within the reach of his power*. It is notorious, thai we confiscated no French ves- sels, and no less certain that the established privileges of ter- ritorial sovereignty, entitled us to refuse admittance into our harbours to the vessels of any nation. This prerogative of municipal jurisdiction, for the exercise of which the French emperor has chastised us by the confis- caiion of so many millions of property, is the very ground upon which his zeaV)us admirers in this country vindicated the Berlin decree, F e seems to take a malicious satisfaction in refuting all the arguments which we so ingeniously and kindly urge in defence of his measures, and in scourging us himself for every act of compliance into which we are betrayed by our eagerness to conciliate his favour. How either of the acts of which he here complains could have been offensive to the dignity of France we do not understand j but we sup- • " L'actB dji premier Mars a lev^ I'einbargo, et I'a remplac^ par one mesure " qui devait miire iuiiout aux interets de Ik France. Cet acte que I'Empereur " u'a bicn connu que tr^s-tard, interciisait aux b^tinieiis vVm^ricains le commerce "« de la France, lians le tems qu'il I'autorisait pour I'Kspagne, Naples et la Hollande, " c'e»t-tt-rfire, ■pour Us pays sous Vinjiuence Fran^aisc, et pronon^ait la con- " AscHtion contrij ics b^tiuiens Franyais qui entreraient dans Jes ports d'A- •* m^riijue. " La repr^saille ^tait de droit et command^e par la dignit6 de la France, circon- <' stance sur Inquclie il ^tait impossible de transiger. Le sequeitre de tous les « liatiinens Am^ricains en France a 6t^ la suite n^cessaire de la uiesure prise par I^ *' congres." T^ meiure Lmpereur jminerce lollande. la con- krts d'A- », circon- tous les ise pat 1^ France and the United States. 1 m i 61 pose that this phrase was introduced in order to afford au opportunity for the Just but sarcastic lesson which follows; — namely, that "dignity is a point which admits of no compro- *' mise." Fortunate would it have been for us and. for our administration themselves if they had comprehended $^iiet the truth and efficacy of this doctrine, or if they could feel the sting of the insolent and malignant application which is in- tended in this instance, and has been always intended, when* ever similar propositions have been directed to them from the same quarter. — But " these watchmen are bhnd j — they are ** shepherds who do not understand *." Never was the word, digniti/y more grossly prostituted ihan in the mouth of a power which could issue a state paper such as that which we have now under examination. — ^The falsehood and prevarication with which it abounds are suffi- cient to show what portion of real dignity is inherent in the French government. But the use of the term, besides con- veying an important hint, has moreover something ominous with regard to our future relations with France. It an act of mere territorial sovereignty and an exception from a public law, designedly made, as it has been asserted, to favour and gratify the French government, or (to admit the doctrine of Mr. Gallatin) intended as an indulgence to nations which we supposed to be independent, and from which we had received no injury, — were deemed so offensive to the dignity of France as to render necessary so tremendous a retaliation, what line of conduct can we pursue that may not be construed into a violation of that dignity, and held sufficient to authorize any act of violence ? If we take this instance as an illustration of the sense which France entertains of her dignity., by what standard does she rate it, or with what security could we adopt any public measure in her regard ? " it is impossible,** says Mr. Burke, speaking of the use of this term by the French directory — " to guess what acquisitions pride and " ambition may think fit for their dignity" So, — in this case, — it is utterly impossible to conjecture what definition pride and ambition and rapine and fraud may choose to give of their dignity, or what disposition of mind on our part they jnay consider as reconcilable with their honour. The considerations which arise out of the succeeding pas- sages of this letter are of much greater moment than any thing which we have as yet suggested. We come now to the terms ppon which the Berlin and Milan decrees are revoked. We Isuiab. i «J2 Past and present Relations of m must confess tljat we liave never fiicountered any conditions more unequivocal than those which are attached to this revo- cation, when we connect with the text, by an indispensable law of construction, all the circunjstanccs and declarations which belong; to the case. It IS notorious that the Berlin and Milan decrees were declared by France to have been issued in consequence of the British blockades and orders in council, and not in reference to any measures of this country. It is notorious that the French government has repeatedly and solemnly pronounced that its decrees should never be revoked, until the induce- ments to them on the side of the British were removed — or until we compelled the latter to admit a code of neutral rights comprising pretensions that we ourselves disclaim, and such as the British will never allow as Jong as their power shall endure. — It is notorious that by the phrase, " causing our ** rights to be respected," — the French government means-— the exercise of force on our part against Great Britain to effect this purpose ;---an actual league with France in the war in which she is engaged. The very men to whom the letter in question is addressed have declared this to be the meaning of ihe French emperor. They have heretofore uniformly understood him in this sense, and pronounced an aU'ianr.i with France to be the sine qua nun of his amity. He has frequently signified his willingness to rescind his decrees, provided we would consent ** to unite '* with the powers of the continent in their warfare against *' British trade," — a warfare which in the case of all those powers involved hostilities of every kind. — ^They have been told repeatedly that short of this concession nothing could be available for us. — \Vc think, moreover, that we have made it sufficiently apparent that the French ruler cannot, without re- tracting declarations as solemn and as ostentatious as any which he ever made, — without affording a complete triumph to his enemies, and without fallinii: into the grossest incon- sistenrics i)cfore the \Vhole world, consider his decrees as extinct, until the British shall have revoked not only their orders m council, but their principles of blockade, — or until we have engaged in an actual war with Great Britain. — It is known to us all, that the mere prohibition of trade with the latter would, if our ships were permitted to sail for any other part of Europe, prove only injurious to ourselves, and \ve must be satisfied that Bonaparte is fully apprised of this consequence. « " ! France and the United States. 6» be le it Itre- any Iniph Icon- ts as jiheir lunlil •It is the any and this With these facts before us, let us proceed to examine the text of the pretended revocation of his decrees, and sec whether it can, by any possibility, admit of more than one in- terpretation. " A new state of things," we are told, had de- termined the emperor to change his attitude with regard to this country. " This new slate of things" is thus described. ** At present congress retraces its steps. The act of the first *' of March is revoked. The ports of America are open to " French trade ; and France is no longer shut to Americans. " Congress, in short, engages to declare against (s'elever *' contre) the belligerent power which shall refuse to recog- " nise the rights of neutrals *." Here there is an enumeration of circumstances consti- tuting " this new state of things " — and of which the pre- tended engacemenl of congress is undoubtedly the most ma- terial. It follows of course that the emperor will hold himself entitled to withdraw his concessions, if he should find that this circumstance---the leading inducement to his present con- duct---did not exist conformably to his supposition. Canwc hesitate about the sense in which he understands this en- gagement ** to declare against," ^c, or about the nature of the immunities which he includes within the phrase neutral rights P Is not the phraseology declare against, perfectly un- ambiguous in itself? and has he not — as may be seen by the confession of our executive, — made the signification which he attaches to it fully intelligible to us all ? There is no rule of construction or of common sense which will warrant us in looking to the text or scope of our own act of the first of May for an elucidation of his meaning when he lias himself ex- pounded it so absolutely and specifically. He tells us that we have entered into '* a certain engagemen-t," not desig- nating clearly how, but, — as it is to be inferred from the context only — alluding to the act of the first of May. Upon that act he puts a general construction of his own, and pur- posely omits to quote the passage of it, or even to specify the act itself from which he deduces an engagement ^--An order that hereafter when it may be convenient for him to recal his pretended concessions, the terms of this act may not, after Its fulfilment, be objected, as susceptible of no other than a very limited interpretation. The act of May stipulates^ as it * " Anjourd'hui le congres revieiit bur ?es pas. II revoque I'acte du Icr « Mars. Les ports de I'Amerique sunt ouvei ts au cominerce Franyais, el la France " n'est plus iiiterdit« aux Am^ricaiuj. Enfin le congres prend reiigngement de " s'elever contre celle des puis»antes belligd'rantes qui reluserait de recunnaiire les " droits des neuues." ii Past and pr^^sent rielations of were, merely for the revival dF rhe non -intercourse against the power which shall not revoke her decrees ; — and can any in- telligent person believe that Bonaparte means nothinir more by an engagement to declare against that power P Will he consent to a Iniit that he was prompted to an abandonment of that which he has so often declared to be h\A fundamental and unalterable policy^ nierelv by the promise or pledge of the revival of the non-intercour!*e;--a measure which, as he knows, would be but Intle injurious to Great Britain, and which in the letter of Champagny, examined in page 45 of this discussion, he stigmatizes as a mere fraud upon France ? We now cnme to the revocation. — -'* In this new state of " things,*' says the F'-onch nnnister to general Armstrong, ** I am authorised to dv.clare to you, sir, that the decrees of ** Berlin and Mdan are revoked." — Even if the phrase had ended here we should not have been entitled to consider the revocation as absolute, or to rely upon the continuance of the system of lenity which it implies ; since that system, as we have seen above, is expressly stated to have been induced solely by the belief, and to be founH' (mi the supposition, that we had contracted certain oblig ions which, we trust, the event wilJ prove never to have entered into our scheme of action. But this part of the phrase is rendered mere sur- plusage by what follows, and is inseparably connected. It proceeds thus: ** and that from the first of November they •' shall cease to be executed, it being well understood that, ** in consequence of this r claration, the English shall revoke *' their orders in council and renounce the new principles of " blockade which they have attempted to establish, or that the " United States, conformably to the act which you have just *^ communicated, shall cause their rights to be respected by " the British *.** — We must confess that we are at a loss to understand how there can be a doubt entertained with regard to the sense of this passage, by those who will read attentively the considerations with which we have prefaced our examina- tion of the text of this letter. Tlie nature of this revocation must be palpable to one who has in his mind the uniform declarations of the French em- • " Dam ce nouuel etat de choses, je. suis autoris6 a vous declarer. Monsieur, " que lt>s d^crets dn Berlin et de Milan sunt r^voqu^si, et qu'a dater du Icr " Novembrc, its cesseront d'avuir ieur ctfet, bien entendu qu'en consequence de " cette declaration, les Anglait vevoqu^ront leurs arrtU du conseil et renonceront aux " noumaux principes de blociu qw'Ut out voulu etabtir, ou bicn que les Ktats-Unii, " conformement a i'acte que vous vcncz de communique)', Jeront respectvr Uur$ dreits " par les Anglais," )f\ France and the United States, 6$ neror on the subject of these decrees, and of our relations with Great Britain. It is not for our rulers to garble this passage conformably to the direction of their wi»he8,---to admit only the first part which implies an absolute revocation, and to re- ject the qualifications winch the writer has annexed so formally and in terms so explicit. In collecting the sense of this passage, and determining^ the course of action to which it may lead, they arc bound hy every rule of judgment and self-interest, to give full weight to the parts of it which are indivisibly united ; —such as the terms " bien entendu que,'* " new principles uf hlockade,** and neutral rights— &n(.\ to interpret the latter not only according to the common acceptation of the terms but in the sense in which they know them to be understood by the French government. We have now before us the original of this letter of Cadore, and we do not know in the French language-— in which we profess to be tolerably well versed, — a single phrase that could more emphatically imply a condi- tion than the one here employed— -i/ey* entendu quey—it being well understood that, &c.---On this point there can be no dif- ference of opinion. The first contingency upon which the revocation hangs is, that the English shall renounce not merely their orders in council but their new principles of blockade. The proposition is conjunctive. It then becomes a natural and necessary in- quiry to ascertain what is meant by these new principles of blockade without the relinquishment of which this revoca- tion is not to become absolute. We have, fortunately, from Bonaparte himself, a full exposition of his doctrine on the subject of lawful blockade. In a letter which we have already cited, addressed to general Armstrong, he proscribes all kinds of blockade as unlawful except the close investiture of a port destined as a co-operation with a besieging army on land *. All other torms of blockade are declared to involve new principles. \\ who em- bnsieur, iu lei- out aus fs-l7»i«. \t dr«its * The letter of Augnst 2'2d, 1809. The text is as follows — " The liglit, or ratJier " the preteuiiou, ot blockading by a prodaniatiuii, rivers and coasts, is as monstrous " (reroltante) as it is absurd. A place is not truly blockaded until it is invested " by land and sea : it is blockaded to prevent its receiving the succours which " niight retard its surrender. It is only then that the right of preventimr neutral " vctsels from entering itj exists — for the place so attacked is in danger of being " taken and the dominion of it is doubtful," &c. — This is one of those " invariable " principles" which, according to the first paragra[)h in this letter " have regulated " and will regulate the conduct of his imperial majesty on the grtat question of •• neutrals." One of the topics of accusation employed against ungland in the preamble to the Berlin decree is the following — " That she extends to ports not •• fortiiied, to harbours and to mouths of rivers, the right of blockade, which according " to reason and the usage of civilised nations is applicable only (o ttr-ong or fortified " port$." 65 PaU and present Belatiom of and the English are accused of introducing, and of tyrannit cally enforcing them l)y means of their siipreuKicy at tiea. As an cxein|)Iiricalion of the new principles — the case of the blockade from the LIhe to Brest has been frefjucntly cited by the Flench covernnicnt. General Armstrong informs us ju one of his dispatches to the secretary of state that on in- quiring otficialiy on what terms his imperial majesty would consent tr) revoke his decrees, he received for answer, " that ** the condition required by his majesty for the revocation of ** his Uerhn decree was the previous revocation by the British " government of her blockades of France or part of France *' {such as that from the Elbe to Brestf" &fc.) We cannot suppose Bonaparte so egrcgiously ignorant of the character and cardmal policy of the British government as to have imagined that they would ut any period renounce those principles which he stigmatizes as new — but which they de- clare to be a part of the immemorial law of nations, and con- sider as essential to the continuance of their power. He could have entertained no expectation of such an event, and there- fore, if he intended that his decrees should ever be abrogated in our favour, he must have relied upon the alternative — that we are to cmise our rights to be respected by the British. After ascertaining what he meant by new principles of blockade — it was mcumbent upon ouradmmistration before they authorized any sanguine hopes with respect to the final triumph of com- nicrce, to investigate the latitude in which he might apply the terms *' causing our rights to be respected." In the act of the first of May to which he refers, there is no such language held, and none from which any particular intention or views on ou. part could be inferred, other than the mere revival of the non-intercourse. We scarcely need repeat, because it must be obvious tO; every understaiulitig, that the revival of the non-intercourse merely, v.-iil not be, according to the meaning of Bonaparte, an accomplishment of the phrase *' causing our rights to be re- *' spected." We must then resort to some other source than our act of May for an explanation of the ideas which he attaches to this language. --On this point, as well as on all the precedingj^we have his own express, reiterated declaration to satisfy us. We have been invariably told, that the use of force against Great Britain in case she does not acquiesce in the imperial code of maritime law, is the only mode in which we can cause our rights to be respected. Thei?e very terms are employed in reference to neutrals in the body of the Milan decree, and are there amplified in this very sense. Piance and the tfnitcd States. 67 )US to bourse |ie, an )e re- than :h he ill the Ion to I'force In the Iwhich 1 terms )f the In the letter of r^iampagny to general Arm8trone> dated from Milan, SUli November 1807 — it is said ** that tne tede- ** ral covernmciu cannot justly couiplaiii against the meaHiircs •* of branco while the United Stales allow their vessels to be " visited by England---to be dragged into her ports and luni- •* cd from their destination ; while they do not otdige England ** to respect their Jiag atid the merchandise which it covers; ** while ll'.ey permit that power to apply to them the absurd ** rules of blockade which it has set up," &c.— -** In violating '* the rights of all nations," continues this letter---*' Great ** Britain has united them all by a common interest, and it is ** for them to have recourse to force against her: — she nuist ** be combated with her own arms :— -it is for them to forbid ** her the search of their vessels ; the taking away of their " crews, and to declare themselves against (s'clever contre) ** the measures Which woiuul their dignity and their indepen- " dence. All the didiculties which nave given rise to the ** complaints of the United States would be removed with ease •* if their government took, with the whole continent, the part ** of guaranteeing itself therefrom. England has introduced ** into the maritime law an entire disregard for the rights of '* nations. It is only in forcing her to a peace that it is pos- •' sible to recover them. The tenor of all the documents and declarations of the im- perial government both as to the nature of neutral rights and to the manner of causing them to he respected is exactly the same. Moreover, before all the limitations attached to this pretended revocation can be well understood, it is necessary to determine what comprehension is meant to be given by Bonaparte to the term neutral rights. We have on this head, the most indisputable evidence, — in the passages which have just been quoted from the letter of November 24th, 1807> as well as in the formal communication made by Champagnv to Armstrong of August 22d, 1809, on this very question, ^fhe neutral rights and the belligerent privileges which this coun- try is to cause to be respected, and for the' establishnient of which the whole continent is said to have combined, are sum- marily these, — " that free ships make free goods; — that even " enemy-merchant- vessels are to be respected; — that the un- ** armed subjects of an enemy should not be made prisoners; — " that no vessels of any description should be searched — that "none but besieged towns should be blockaded,** &c.— And these are said to be ** the invariable principles which have " regulated and will regulate the conduct of his imperial ma- ** jesty on the question of neutral rights." It is added also T 68 €( Past and present Relations of that it is for tlie United Stales by their firmness to bring oit *•■ these happy results." We ask now, whether the emperor of France, after having given so many solemn pledges to the world of the only condi' lions ipon which he would consent to rescind his decrees,— - after so many uniform declarations couched in such emphatical and unequivocal language concerning the belligerent immuni- ties and neutral rights, for the establishment of which, as he has often asserted, he wages his own war and has leagued in it all the nations of the continent :— -we ask, whe*her it is probable that he will now abandon the whole of this giound ; — swerve from all his ostentatious promises ; — and receive from us such an interpretation of his late letter of Armstrong as will justly expose him to the scorn and derision of his enemies and to the mockery of all mankind ? What then is the result? It is that the Berlin and Milan decrees will remain suspended over our heads until we enarage in actual h'^slilities against Great Britain, — an event which would render it a matter of indifference to this country whether a thcjsand such decrees were in existence. The supposition that the British will ever abandon their principles of blockade, or recognise the neutral rights to which Bona- parte refers, is too absurd and extravagant to require discus- sion or refutation. It is but too plain that the only alternative left to us, is a war with Great Britain. It is upon this hy- pothesis alone that we should be enabled to vanquish Bonaparte in the argument to which this question of their revocation may hereafter give rise^ Should we now acknowledge and accept this alternative, we shall have, at least, the consolation of being able to accuse him, on solid grounds, of treachery and falsehood, if his decrees should be soon after restored to their wonted activity, and if ths mendicant and fugitive trade which we mi«;bt strive to enjoy with his dominions, were then op- pressed by the same anti-commercial system. But if cither the salutury pusillanimity of our rulers . or the resuscitated judg- ment of the majority of this nation should recoil from the ruinous precipice of the war into which he is endeavouring to allure them, and we should yet persist tc act upon the suppo- sition that his decrees are in fact revoked by this letter of Champagny, we will never be able to assei t upon good grounds that we were deceived or betrayed. We will then, if we suf- fer at all, be the victims of something >vnrs(» than rrpdnli mg of our precipitate sclildhness,— -of ourowu unrtflectiug, blind cupidity. usitv, i2,bl T ^ ion lich >P- the tbe to lpo~ of ids 5uf- lind France and the United States, eg The measure nov mulcr consideration was, we arc satis- Ked, long since concerted by this indefatigable enemy of the human race. In that article of his treaty with Holland which contains a stipulation with respect to American property, and in his own particular orders for the seizure of the cargoes of American vessels, there is a sort of reservation which refers to a new state of things that mwht exist between us. General Armstrong's residence '• Pans w.>s protracted for many weeks in consequence of intimations often repeated, that a change might take place in the dispositions of his imperial majesty ; — that events might happed which would render the presence of our minister both useful and convenient. Insinu- ations of this kind were thrown out long before information of our act of the first of May could have been conveyed to France. The plan of the delusive revocation was then maturing, and that act of congress was deemed a suitable pretext, when it was officially notified by general Armstro: g. Measures of this kind are not suddenly adopted by the French government ;— and il must, we think, be sufficiently apparent, after all that has been said in the foregoing pages, that the act of the first of May was a cause wholly incommensurate with the effect which the French minister hypocritically ascribes to it. The assurances on this subject, extraneous to the letter of Cadore, which may have oeen given to our goverrme. t will not, we are persuaded, be contradictory to the .pirit of that letter; — and we can venture to predict that the policy of Bonaparte, in this instance, wil'. be ultimately found to bear the same stamp of perfidy and rapine which is imprinted on all his other cabinet deliberations. — To divine all the motives by which he may have been actuated in this, or which may ac- tuate him in any other scheme of policy, would require a mind almost a« fertile in the devices of mischief, and in the wiles of cunning as his own j out we are not at a loss to under- «tand some of the consequences which he anticipated from this measure. We discard, in limine^ the supposition which has b.^n somewhere indulged, that the .vhole is a matter of collusion between him and our administration, with the view of betraying this nation into a war with Great Britain. What- ever may be the opinions which we entertain with regard to their capacity, we cannot think them either so blind to their personal interests, or so indifferent to those of the stat;?, as to co-operate designedly in a plan of which the accompiir>hment would lead lO their destruction as certainly as to that of their country. 70 Past and present Relations of After exhausting the resources of violence against the United States, — with the exception only of the imprisonment of all the American citizens who happened to be within his grasp, — and glutting his rapacity at the same time with the spoils of our property, Bonaparte discovered that the body of this nation was not to be awed or coerced into a war with Great Britain. The people of this country, although they did not feel or display the resentment which the most enormous outrages of every description were fitted to excite, were, — nevertheless, — so far influenced by them as to recoil rather than to advance in that common highway of ruin, — if we may 80 express ourselves, in speaking of an alliance with France, — which so many other nations have been forced to traveL Violence with respect to us, although it indulged the imme- diate desires of rapine, was not found to promote the views of ambition and hate ; and another course was therefore to be devised which, while it tended to gratify all the voracious and malignant passions at once, might, also, answer exigent pur- poses of general policy and domestic plunder. After full deliberation, — as we are well satisfied, — after a calculation of all possible consequences, — after comparing them, and ascertaining their compatibility with his former de- clarations and with the anti-commercial system which he con- siders as one of the fundamental securities of his present and future power, Bonaparte resolved upon the revocation of the Berlin and Milan decrees in its present Jorm, as the measure best adapted to promote the ends and interests of his des- potism. We cannot admit some of the conjectures which have been hazarded on the subject of his motives ; such, for instance, as that he has been either prompted by humanity or urged by fear to attempt to mitigate the sufferings of his subjects. This reasoning argues but a very imperfect knowledge of the charac- ter of the individual, and of the genius of a military despotism supported by seven liundred thousand well appointed and well disciplined troops. His " mighty arch of empire" rests upon this foundation, — and the murmurs or even the struggles of civil life would be as ineffectual to shake it, as tears and groans to mollify the heart, or to alter the purpose of a tyrant to whose imagination and to whose eye scenes of blood and anguish are equally familiar, and who well knows that if they disappeared, his own power would not long survive. We need not, we trust, stop to refute another surmise bottomed upon the increased misery or disaffection of the nations of the continent who are not as yet nominally incorporated with France and the United States. 71 ice, by nis rac- listn /ell the French empire. The most extended operat'uyn of the pre- sent decree can by no possibility administer any substantial relief to them. Their ports are every day more and more in- dustriously closed, and there la \u fact, no profession on the part of the French emperor of an intention to allow them a free trade. By making France the dep6t of all foreign com- merce (for such is the erroneous construction put by many on his present measures) he will not alleviate, but obviously in- cumber the galling yoke which he has riveled upon them. With respect to the relation which this pretended revo- cation bears to his domestic policy y it was meant, in the first place, as a fiscal regulation to relieve the immediate necessi- ties of his exchequer; and if its efTects had ended there, — if it had been altogether momentary, — the profit of the measure would not have been inconsiderable. It was a policy conge- nial to the nature and useful to the temporary exigence of the French government, to hold forth a delusive and slender hope to Its subjects of the amelioration of their condition, by the importations and the traffic of even a refuse of com- merce, as a cover or douceur, for the imposition of enormous duties not only upon the colonial or other produce which might thereafter be sold in France, but upon an innnense quantity which was then selling and uponmuoh that had been sold. This stretch of despotism, without a parallel except in the history of the revolutionary governments of the same country, — was introduced with a palliative which, by placing the meteor of hope before the eyes of his subjects, somewhat diverted their attention from the oppressions to which it led, — and at the same time actually soltened those oppressions, at the ex- pense of the foreign merchant, by causing the price of colonial produce to fall. It was sagaciously calculated ihat the imme- diate gain to the imperial exchequer would be great, and the odium of the fiscal expedient lessened, whatever might be the ulterior result of the pretended revocation ; — whether it was immediately after recalled, or whether its operation was wholly defeated by the opposition of the British. The im- mediate effects such as we shall proceed to describe them, will prove the accuracy of this reasoning. We have now before us a list printed under the authority of the French government, of the imperial sales made in the month of September, of confiscated American property. Our limits will not allow us to quote them at lar^e; but whoever will take the trouble of examining them, will find, by a comparison of the duties with the amount of sales, that the former average two hundred per cent, and more ou 72 Pasi and present Relations of k ^ all articles of colonial produce. The article of cotton, for instance, sold for one hundred and eighty francs the cwt. — The duties are put doi»oy nas given to the notification of Mr. Pmk- \\ey on ihis ".ubject. His imperial majesty knew well that the British orders in council would not be rescinded until his own decrees were known to be vi-uolly inoperative and ex- 71 Past and present Relations of tinct. It is absurd to suppose that he is so iguorant of thft temper and policy of the British nation as to have imagined at any time that she would relinfpiish, for anv consideration he could offer, the principles of blockade which he affects to reprobate as new and uniatvJ'iiL Jf she lay prostrate at his feet stripped of her power and her spirit — ».his is a condition which he might impose — but, however great his arrogance, it woidd not dictate even a proposition of this nature addressed directly to herself, at a time when her resources are unim- paired, and when it may be truly said that . f >» " Her iiearts are slrcngtliciicd and her glories rise He foresaw then distinctly that the orders in council would not be withdrawn " until trade was restored to its former " footing oil the continent; " — an event which it was his full determination never to permit. He however provided against the remote contingency of the revocation of these orders as far as it might obstruct his anti-commercial policy, by the im- position of enormous duties, the operation of which we have explained above, — and by annexing conditions altogether im- practicable, to his own repeal, so as to enable him to retract it whenever policy or passion might prompt him so to do. He will, it mavbe relied upon, enter into no engagements, which might bv any possibility lead to the general prosperity of trade, or to the resurrection of the connriercial spirit on the continent of Europe. In the livpothcsis of the abandonment of the orders in council, he was not embarrassed as to the course which he was to pursue in our regard. If we consented to trade with him upon the ionominious and unprofitable terms now offered to us, Ke woidd tolerate an intercourse as long as it might be convenient for hnn to replenish his exchequer in this way, or to acconiplish any oihcr temporary purpose. When the motive of convenience ceased to operate, or when • It would not rf([uirt' iDany ypjii!> of ncniinal pracc witU lu-r tiicmv to iilncr Eiii;lanil in iin altiludi- inutciially ililFtToiil (roiu tliHl nuiitioi.co in llif icxt. Maii- kiiid inigiit then Iiuvc before their ryes a piti'np tlie very r< vii^e of ilie oi5c shij liuw exiiibits: " Her prihcfs sunk ; " Her Iii^li-huilf. honour nioulder'd lo Uu fh.vt , " rnrcrv'd her force ; her ^l)iril vaiu^hM quitt , " ^Villi lapid ^^i^ll.' li« r liclies fled nwii^v; *' Her iiidreqiienled porI> aK»«H' the yign " Of wliat she was; Kt tiurchants scaUer'd wid* , " Her hollow bhoj)s shut up ; «nd w her streets, " Her lields, woods, markets, viilat'os, and ronds, [lie clieerful voice of UUniur licaid nu irio It. Prance and ihn United Slates. 75 as ill Ihcc lau- vitws of general |)olicy or impulses oF private liatc suggested an opposite system, he would then have but to declare that the conditi(»ns wliieh he had amiexed to his repeal (such tor instance as the recognition by the British of neutral rights in Mi scrse of the term) ^ had not been fulliikd, and that conse- r;uently a renovated activity was to be given to his decrees. It' it so happened that his ports were filled with American ship- ping at the lime, — so much the better for the caisae d'arnor' iissement to which they would fall a prey. Nay, we do not hesitate to aver that the prospect of a large booty to be soaccpiired might have been oneof the leading in- ducements to the whole transaction. There is nothing in the character of the man, or in his previous conduct, which renders this conjecture either improbable or uncharitable. The gross hypocrisy displayed in his fulsome declaration of friendship towards a people whom he has so recently branded with every opprobrious epithet, and whom he so notoriously hates and despises, would alone justify the anticipation of any species of treachery however base or execrable, if we were not authoriz- ed to suppose him capable of every possible degree of guilt by the whole history of his life, comj)rising a series of crimes in comparison of which the voluminous catalogue of all former acts of perfidy and violence may be said to brighten to the moral sense and to shrink into a narrow compass. The calculations which we have just ascribed to Bonaparte looked to a state of things merely possible. It is, as we have already su^rgestcd, our private and firm belief that he did not expect the revocation even of the orders in council. He relied upon liis ow n measure merely as a fiscal device^ and as an ex- periment upon the United States, it unites both characters. The experiment was of the kind to which we have alluded in the commencement of this discussion. Violence he found ineft'ectual to drive u into a war with Great Britain. He was frequently told that if one belligerent revoked her decrees, and the other did not follow her example, collisions would be inevitable between the latter and the United States. We were therefore to be duped by an illusive revocation, which if it failed to produce the intended effect with us, would still be a lucrative job for his treasury. To cajole and blind our ad- nnnistration the more completely, he coidd easily consent to give anv verbal or other extraneous assurances of his good taith. Into this snare our executive has fallen, to the asto- nishment of every reflecting n»an in this country. The pre- sident of the United States in issuing his proclamation must have outstripped even the most sanguine expectations of Bona- I 76 Past and present Relations of parte himself- --as he has conFoutided and dismayed that por- tion ul our community which sees in an alhance with France, a train of images as appalling as any that ever passed before the imagination of a poet *. We arc utterly at a loss to imagine how our executive could have supposed himself authorized to issue his proclamation under all ihe circunistances of the case. The act of congress enjoins it upon him to take this step only when one of the belligerents has so revoked or niodilied her edicts as to cease to violate the neutral rights of tins cowitnj. The revocation or modification so (jualilied was to be a condition precedent : the violation of neutral rights under edicts of any descrip- tion, whether issued before or after the act ofcongressj was ac- tually to have ceased. It was not upon mere assurances from any one of the belligerents that the condition prescribed by congress luould be ftdjilledi or in contemplation of a future event of this kind, that the president was empowered to act. It was not a conditional revocation, prescribing terms to the other belligerent which were never contemplated by congress and which they knew to be utterly unattainable, that could have come within iheir meaning. They must have alluded to, and intended to comprise within the purview of their act, not merely the foreign edicts existing on the first of May, but any other of the same character which might be issued in the interval between that period and the first of March : — such, for instance, as the Rambouillet de- cree, no less solemn and public, and still more violent than any of the prect^ding. In short, the president of the United States was auihorized to act only when he saw proofs of the fact that one of the belligerents had ceased bond fide to violate the neutral rights of this country by the operation cf anv general law, — and that our trade was no longer exposed to lawless edicts either in aheijance or in activity. Let the act of congress be consulted and it will be found that neither its text nor the spirit of the whole transaction will warrant any other construction than the foregoing. On the supposition that the revocation of the French em- peror was to have been absolute after the first of November, it was still the duly of the executive to wait until he saw that this revocation had iictually taken place, and that the decrees of France were so repealed as to cease altogether to violate * 'roniMlt"* \iMi Ibrmae ; Lftuinquc Ir.lxirquc Tain roiiaiiii^uiiaus Leti sopor, tt mala mtnti» Gandiii, mortij'vrutrujiie advcrio in limine beilum. t h tl France and the United Slates* n lO Ite our neutral rights. It was not left to his discretion to enter into any com/!jfowi.V6' on the subject with either of the i)elli- gcrents. — It was not optional with him to accede to such an agreement as this, for example, — that France would notify to the world the revocation of her decrees, to take place however on a distant datj, provided the president of the United States would consent to issue his proclamation concurrently with that notification. — He possessed no authority to this effect under the act of congress. If he were then so restricted, what shall we say to his pro- clamation in the existing state of things, — notwithstanding the impracticable, and on our part unauthorized and unavotvedy conditions which have been shown to be annexed to the revo- cation of the Fre">ch emperor ; — notwithstanding the notorious fact that our neutral rights are still violated and trampled upon under the auspices of the very decrees which the preside at declares to be null and exanimate. — k is well known that in the course of the months of September and October, decrees were issued by the imperial cabinet, supplementary and auxi- liary to that of Rambouillet, — a decree which our adminis- tration considered as the jie plus ultra of French injustice and fraud, and on account of which they should now be the de- clared enemies of France. How could that decree be said to have been revoked when sales of American property were executed under it as late as the months which we have just cited ? As long as it continued to be executed^ it was living and potent, and we have but to examine its text to be satis- fied that the sale, no less than the seizure, of American pro- perty was in execution of that decree. If this were not the case, and the sale were effected in conse(juence of another supervenient regulation of Bonaparte, under what encourage- luents is it that our executive has ventured to " exert a *' vigour beyond the law," and to anticipate the period pro- scribed by the act of congress for his proclamation? ---The sales of Bayonne and Antwerp afford, indeed, a most extra- ordinary demonstration of a conciliatory spirit, and a most cheering augury of good faith in the future stages of this new career of friendship and indulgence !* • If \vc coul^l indulge in any J'c'elin{;s on ttie subject of this proclninntion bul. those of indignation and ulann, we should be dis|j.)?ct the sixiind diii) nf Xnveinhcr, let it be noted,) " tliat tiie snid *' edic'.s of France liuve been so revoked as tliat llury cetised on ilip first day of the " snid mo»t' lo violate the neulr.d commerce of the United States." Now in the nmiic if (jod we asii, how our picsidcnt could liavt- been informed (yi the stfcond tlay of iViviiiilicT, that, on the dtaj precediug " the edicts nf VruHce had ceased to " hui'3 effects" Tills i;r(i-s absurdity arose from the ilitficidty of reconciling in any otiicr w.iy the |trociaiiiiilioii witli ilie terms or spirit of the act of congress. Our admini.slritiion were conscious lliat iliey had no authority lor this ni/easiire unless the edicts above nientioiied had ceased to violate our commerce — a lad which c.iiild not, in llie nature of things, be dclermined or kau va until llj«r levccalii,'!! actually took cllVct. . , ..,.„.... France and the I ^n'lttd States. 79 ,'S- iu ire by sniil the Jtlu- lond M to \u\y lur kless ItilCl 1 li»r purchased. We sec his irresistible influence exerted every where on ihc continent to enforce a scheme of prohibition and confiscation exactly the same in substamc as tbc scjpe o} his Berlin and Milan decrees. If it be notorious,--- . ihe fact bfi avowed l)y hini3elf---ihat the nations both of tlu- north 'and south of Kurope nominally ind«|"endcnt ot Inni, are actine;, — at his instigation and by his command, ---(mi a plan utterly subversive ot all neutral rights, are not fheir edicts his in fact, and doe6 he not still continue *' to violate neutral "commerce?" Are not the occupation of the ports of the North by his troops, and the exclusion from, or the oppression of neutral trade in ihem, by the power of the sword, as much a blockade, in fact, and as reprehensible in principle, as the investiture of those ports by British men of war ? If Great Britain, when called upon to rescind her orders, should look to France alone for a confirmation of the fa»jt of the revocation of the French decrees, what will she find there ? Certainly not such a stale of things as to give even a colour of plausibility to our demand. If the picture wb:ch we have exhibited lie correct, she will hardly discover that the spnit of the Berlin and Milan decrees is extinct, or that they have been so revoked as to cease to violate neutral cummerce. She must remark that all the previous restrictions and regu- lations on importation are still in force, and if she found us trading . ith France, notwithstanding these regulalioiss and the operations of the new duties, and without having obfjined restitution of all the prr)jH rtv ravished irom us by the Kaiu- bouilk' decree, — she mis_'t'' be tempted to smiU at our blus- tering p ctensions to nice , 'lour, au'i to rigid im[)artiality. There - another consio -ration \vhich might aiFeo» the determinaf Jon of a British nnnister in this husines?, and for which a liberal and generous mmd eoulcl (ind some indiilij;ence. It might appear to him that Bonaparte submitted to relax his hostility to commei ' with a view to the more easy c- quisitionof supplies for hi.- armies in Spain, and in this way, to the acceleration of the complete < oncpiest of that it»uiitry, when he shall have obtained posses -.ion of ;he sea-ports. It might at the same time be imagined, that the PVench cinperor in relaxing his decrees had al ,0 in prospect the more sueee.ss- ful prosecution or <('s plans in South America, t()ihe advancc- meriV of which a momentary rcconciliatiou with the United Sta>.es might be .tf;eined necessary. If such were the persuasion of a Iii*ii;sh minister, we could hardly blame him for inter- posing the power of Britain to frustrate the accomplisiunenr. of these ini(iuitous schemes. If such should become our owu IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) .% ^"..^ v.. ^ 1.0 11.25 l&IM |2.S u 1^ 1.1 l.-^la = m i.4 mil 1.6 V] ^ /a ^/:. / / V /A Pliotogrdphic Sciences Corporation 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, N.Y. 14580 (716) 672-4503 1 • ^ ■. ' . 1 -' ■■ . '■ : ■ ■ ■'■' ■/ "',■■ ;' "^"' " ■■'■,;• .,, ',/': : ; ' ^ ^ i so Past and present Relations of persuasion, we could not, as the votaries of freedom and as a magnanimous people, for any temporary intere»t of gain, con- sent to lend our aid to rivet the galling chains of a savage, vindictive usurper upon a gallant nation, nor assist in extend- ing his sanguinary dominion over millions who arc now ready to shake off the yokcof their old despotism, and to pursue our own example in raising temples to liberty, and consecrating the rights of man. In the proclamation of our executive there is not only an unwarrantable stretch of prerogative, but a most indecent precipitancy. What effect this premature alacrity to meet the wishes of Bonaparte may have been intended to produce upon the two belligerents we know not ; — but of this we are firmly persuaded, that it will neither melt the grim despot of France into kindness, nor alaru) the British into submission. It can- not mitigate the contempt which the former must feel, both for our credulity and our pliancy ; — nor lull the suspicions which have long prepossessed the latter, with respect to the sincerity of our neutral dispositions. If there be any man in this country who pampers his imaoination with the hope that the British may now be either driven or wrangled into extraor- dinary concessions, — if there be any man who wishes to do justice to the motives by which they may be actuated in ad- hering inflexibly to their present system — let him look to the present slate of Europe, and to the prospects of war in that cpiarter. In contemplating the continent of Europe we may apply to Bonaparte the phrase of the Latin poet, concerning the master of the Roman world, — Toto jniii liber in orbe Solus C.Ciar eril.* .;> He is now establishing his generals on the thrones of the North, and ere long there may not remain a single monaich in that vast dominion, whose crown will not be of his gift ; — nor one atom of strength either physical or intellectual of which he will not enjoy the controul, and direct the appli- cation. When we call to mind the fell spirit by which this stupendous mass of power is animated: — when we advert to the evils which it has already produced, and of which we our- selves have witnessed a part, we find in this prospect " of the ** parallelism of the sword " something that overpowers and • Pliarsal. lib. ii.— Or ratlier, when \te fake into view ihc now barbarism no\» setlliiig upon ikat fjUiirt*T, I lie verse ot Euri|)ilie^', Ta hap&apa:* yip 5S>.« t»vt», irK'',vi:6;. France and the United States. 8! \Vc should l( illii for ihc ich Ibis to lur- llbe mci hio'." withers the Imagination. \Vc slioulcl lo«<" all nope servation of any of the true honours, or comforts, or enibclhsh- mcnts of existence, if we did not discern in the midst of an ocean of confusion and of horrors, one solid rock bravmg the fury of the tempest and invulnerable to the assaults oF the bil- lows. To this rock we look in part for our own safety, and therefore we would not, if li were left to our own o|)iion lo decide, ourselves consent, — that one panicle should be loosen- ed from its supposed foundation, — lest the whole voncrele mass might give way. England may be conscious of her strength, but she must also be diffident of her security. Her statesmen, ahhouyh they may have full assurance of the sufficiency of their re- sources, do feel that in this struggle they must not relax a nerve ; that they must hazard no experiments. Every eye in England is now broad awake to the implacable spirit, and to the exterminating views of her enemy — Every fancy is roused by the daily accessions made to his power, and by the multi- plication of the perils to which she is exposed. In this state of thin^s---when every measure of her foe is distrusted and dreaded as a new machination for her ruin ; — when she ima- gines that she can be saved only by keeping every nerve in the most rigid tension, is it for us, whose battles she is really fighting no less than her own, to feel surprise or aflTcct re- sentment, if she should refuse lo relinquish what she con- siders, — no matter whether justly or erroneously, — as one of the elements of her strength and one of the pledges of her de- liverance? How can we expect that in t!i(j midst of the vast interests and of the tremendous dangers which claim her at- tention, she is to enter into scholastic disputations and to write metaphysical theses upon abstract neutral rights : — to pause and weigh deliberately, as it were in a balance, her own great measures of defence against the interests of our rem- nant of trade : — to calculate so much posJiive advantage for the one, against so much contingent damage resulting to the other: — to sacrifice the first in case it should appear that the latter miglit be injured :— to hazard her own existence by fillmg the exchequer and gratifying the ambitious views of her foe, merely because it appeared probable to our administration that the concurrence of the United States in these objects might induce the insolent despot lo tolerate their commerce in his dominions ? We will now venture to dwell for a mon>ent on the last paragraph of the letter of tlie French minister to general L 83 Past and present Relations of Armstrong. Tt is that which states that " the Eirpcror of ** France loves the Americans," and dehghts in their pros- perity and aggrandizement *. Not much need be said on this point, as we think \vc have afforded, in the course of the pre- ceding- investigation, a superfluity of proof as to the real dispositions byvvhich his Hnperial Majesty is animated in our regard. There arc few persons, we trust, in this country, however bigoted in their admiration of the man, who can be the dupes of his awkward professions on this subject. There are as few, we trust, inclined to credit the incredible tale of his affection as there are to believe, what is at the same lime asserted by his minister, that *' the Kmperor has, ever since *' the epoch of our independence,** felt a pleasure in aggran- dizing the United States. If we reasoned only a priori, from a view of human nature itself, and from the invariable experience of mankind, we should be compelled to conclude that a military despot, habituated all his life to military law, and the most absolute monarch now in existence or perhaps ever known, must hate and despise all republican or democratical institutions. Such political systems as those of Great Britain and the United States are a constant reproach to a military despotism. They are etiually objects of dread and detestation, because they operate as correctives, in some degree, to the habit and ex- ample of slavery, and serve to keep alive the image and the desire of freedom even among the victims of oppression f. In this instance, however, we are not confined to general or ab- stract reasoning alone, but have this conviction forced upon us by facts of daily emergence, and of most irresistible evi- dence. The whole world has seen the Emperor of France waging an implacable war against the free governments of the continent of Europe; we all know that he has not left a vestige of republicahism within the range of his power. We have it * " 5. jVI. ahvc ks Ann' vicahis. l.eiir prnsftirite d Iciir commerce snnt dans lex " viies (le su po-itiqnc. Viitdi'pcudancc dc I'Aintriqiie cji un des princifnux tilrcs " dc f^loire dc la France. Depuis cette tpoqiic, I'Kmpcrenr s'cst pin « ai^randir les " Etats-Unis, et, dans toutcs les circonstances, ce qui pourra ci)ntriiu:r a I'indt- " pendance, u la prosptritt it a la llbertt dcs Amcriculns, I'Emp^rcur le rcgardera " commc conforme atix intirtls dc son Empire." ^ .. , ^, •' ^ Leitcr of Chainpagn^'. t Demosthenes in declaimlnj5 to bis coiintrj?men against Philip, addresses them ill this language. '• It is aL';iinst our tree constitution that his amis aie principally " directed; nor in all his actions has he any thing more immediately in view than its ** subversion. There is a sort of necessity lor this. lie knows lull well tliat his " dominion can never be secure while you continue free. He seei in your frcedoia '' a spy upon the incidents of his fortune." ^ -'-*»~j-««i-. •*•• "• France and the United States. from his own mouth that he despises us j we have felt tlie ma- lignity oF his hate m an unbroken series oF unparelled oul- ras2;es and indignities. VVIioevcr has been at Paris within the Few years past and has enjoyed any opportunities oF obser- vation, or any latitude oF intercourse with the Parisian so- ciety, must have learned that the American government and people were held in the utmost scorn and aversion not only by the ruler oF France, but by every functionary and retainer oF his monstrous system oF Fraud and rapine. On the score oF these Feelings there is no disguise affected; they arc not only distinctiv seen, but openly avowed. When the late French charge des affaires to this country returned to France and pleaded in extenuation oF certain oflences im- puted to him, his endeavours to effect a good imderstanding betweeen us and his employers, he was told by the head oFtho foreign department, that such services connected with his mission to the United States, would be just as available with the Emperor, as iF they had related to the Dey of Algiers, If there be any difference in sentiment with regard to the two powers, it is that his Algcrine highness is much the less ob- noxious oF the two. He is not oFthe same importance to the views oF Bonaparte on England. He has not so materiallv contributed to thwart them by a tenacious fondness for com- merce, that bane and eye-sore oF a military despot. The Dey has sent no gazettes to his dominions replete with accurate delineations oF his character and unsparing animadversions on his conduct. The Dey has lost him no island oFSan Domingo — a circumstance to which Champagny alludes with mucli bitterness in the letter supposed to be spurious. It is well known in the circles which eddy about the throne oF the Thuileries, that the emperor ascribes the failure of his at- tempts upon that island to our cupidity; — that he has often denounced vengeance against us on this account, and that this recollection still festers in bis bosom. Necduin eliani causa? irarum saevique dolores £xci(leraiit uniinu. These assurances of warm friendship from a determined enemy, and particularly from one of the character of Bona- parte, should, instead of inspiring confidence, excite the most lively alarms. The wretched and timeseiving king of Prussia s».ales in the manifesto which he published on the eve of the war which terminated in his ruin, that he had just then receiv- ed a letter from Bonaparte full of professions of esteem and rr 84 Past and present Relations of atfachmcnl. Who does not recollect the epistles'of the same affectionate ally to the imbecile monarchs of Spain imme- diately before he laid violent hands upon their persons, and commenced that ferocious war on their subjects which now traces, in characters of blood, the most awful lessons to us and to all mankind*? * We cannot rosi»t the temptation ot pincin;: bel'ore our readers tlie whole of Mie letter wliich Bouapiirte adilressrd Iroiii M.iyiiiinc ti< Fcnlinaiul lielore lliHt unhappy prince fell into the liaiuU of' tiiis pfrHilioiis ciu'iny. 'Ihe opinions wliicii \ve have cxpiesM'd in the lexl c Jitid opportunities to giee you proofs of affecti$n and high regard. — And so I pr'y God may keep you, brother, ^adc^ his holy aad wortlij^ protection." 8() Past and present "Relations of * but wc will protest against their ability to manage the affairs of this nation, and must express our fears for her safety and publish our warnings, " Wliilf sucli as lliese " Prcsuino to Iny lliuir Iiand upon ilic ark ; " Of licr lUiignificcnt and awful cause." Great Britain, we know, has heretofore often abused her power in her relations with the United States, and may, here- afier, abuse it. At any other time, we should be as vehement in our opposition to her, and as indignant at her injustice as the most clamorous of her revilers are now. But wc are over- powered by the sense of evils impending from another quarter inore formidable and pressing than any which she is either able or disposed to inflict upon us. The love of our own secu- rity urges us to feel a lively sympathy for her in her present struggle; — to waive the discussion or the wrongs which she may have done us,— even to make allowances for those which may spring out of the line of conduct which she may think imposed upon her by the necessities of her situation. We should,-— in laying claim to the most enthusiastic glow of pa- triotism, — feel like impostors, if we hesitated to acknowledge our firm belief that every other political consideration is now secondary, — nay absolutely insignificant, when compared with the evils with which France menaces the whole civilized world. The proclamation of the president has excited a very serious alarm in our minds. We cannot suppose that it is the intention of our government to revive the non-intercourse law, with a view to its continuance fo)' any length of time. This expedient has been already tested to the conviction of ail parties. Wc, therefore, can find no solution for the language held by our administration on the subject of the new attitude which France affects to have assumed, but in the conjecture that they are at least half inclined to risk the experiment of provoking a war with Great Britain. Against this ruinous experiment we shall exert our most strenuous efforts, careless of the epithets which may be applied to us ; and we earnestly exhort the minority in congress to do the same.-- ^-They should recollect that for- bearance in such a case is, in fact, treason to the country ; — t'lat the most animated opposition is not faction, but sound patriotism. - *' Whenever," says Bolingbroke, '* any scheme ruinous to *' the general interest of a nation is pursued, the best service •^ that can be done to such a nation, is to commence an carlv I at tar lall ich in or- France and the United States, 87 *' and vigorous opposition. The event will always show that ** those who thus act are the best patriots, however they may " be stigmatized with odious names. If the opposition begins " late, or be carried on more faintly than the exigency rc- " quires, the evil will grow until it becomes too inveterate for " the ordinary methods of cure. The most plausible objection ** to such proceedings, by which well-meaning men are fre- *' c^uently made the bubbles of those who have the worst dc- " signs, arises from a false notion of moderation. True politi- *' ciil moderation consists in not opposing the measures of " government, except when great and national interests are " at stake ; and when that is the case, in opposing them with *' such a degree of warmth as is adequate to the nature of the " evil. To oppose things which are not blame-worthy, or ** which are of no material consequence to the national in- *' terest, with such violence as may disorder the harmony of " government,— is certainly faction ; hut it is likewise faction, '* and faction of the worst kind, either not to oppose at all, or " not to oppose in earnest when points of the greatest impor- *• tance to th" nation are concerned.** PricieJ by Ellerton and Henderson, Johnson's Court, LoudoB.