LIBRARY OF CONGRESS DDDD5Da3H4Q ^^ :^^ ^Vv^ '^ '^. <^. vP. - ^5^ ^^, -.^ ^5^ ^^^. . r. V .■^' ' J' , s » » - '^■t ,*^' .V »•''. '*b J^ .^' ^^ .0^ i • • • ' - o " • ^'^. ^:. .V ■V> 1^-. •'c *"'. ^•;^ "^^-t- ^% >iy^* ^> ^O. ,. ' • o- •^.■ c" ^ ^. ' . » « .^ ^N ^ ^^r^-, • vj * ";^ vw^.v -^ --^^z^'^' ^^;'.:: V • 7- WORD TO FEDERALISTS AND TO THOSE WHO LOVE THE MEMORY OF WASHINGTON. »-A^ ,- n t) . -H'^"^ \« A WORD, &c, ^'■British Injiueiice r '-'■ French Infiuence T'' War with England /" " War with France /" " our sea coast ravaged /" " the treasury exhausted /" " oppressive taxes /" forced contributions /" " our Liberties arid Inde- pendence threatened /^^ THESE are words which we daily hear. What do these things mean '? Who is to blame ? What are the real dangers ? Row are we to meet them ? — Friends of Re- publican institutions ! Real Patriots ! 'tis time that you should make these inquiries. Some men are yet living, who took part in the conflict, which freed us from England, and made us a nation. Some are yet living, who helped to form our excellent constitution, and that of the union. All who are li\ing know, what benefits such forms of government may yield, when rightl}' administered. When our conflict for freedom was past, we put at the head of our nation the man who conducted our armies in the days of j^eril. We sent him companions and as- sistants from among those who fought by his side, and those who then served in the councils of the people. National embarrassments disappeared. Public credit was restored. Confidence between man and man retinn- ed. Commerce revived. Our lands were cultivated. The fruits of our industiy commanded their price. The }oung looked forwai'd to rational and solid blessings. The middle-aged felt no fear, that their families would want cloathing or food. Declining years A\ere comforted, and cheered- We had schools and easily supported them. Every man's oflfspring might aspire to the first offices ot state, if nature and industry had given suitable po^^'ers. We worshipped God as conscience dictated. Taxes were light, and were easily paid. We heard of the tumults, the commotions, the revolu- tions of Europe, but they did not extend to us. If com- 4 - , mercial men sometimes came in contact with those who made war, our rulers negotiated, or sent forth our infant navy, which insured respect, and commanded peace. While other nations were familiar with the wretchedness of warfare, we were neutral. Our farms gradually grew better. Our dwellings improved. Our villages became towns. The chief towns of tlie states were advancing to rivalry with ancient cities of Europe. How is it now ? The national councils are distracted by contests concerning European politics. We do not now ask whether our rulers ai-e American in their politics, but whether they favor the French or the Eitglish. — In two years our revenue has suifered the annual loss of NINE MILLIONS AND AN HALF OF DOLLARS. We are informed by Mr. Gallatin, fa foreigner J secretary of the treasury, that a loan of four millions is already necessarj^ notwithstanding the government have sold lands to the amount of thirty two millions of dollars. Is our commerce dead ? Has our navy disappeared without meeting a foe ? Have a million and an half of dollars been expended in building gun boats, which are not only use- less, but subjects of derision? Besides the six- TY THOUSAND DOLLARS which democratic Skinner took from the state treasury, the United States have lost above a million of dollars by frauds of men whom Jefferson put in office. Are many places of honor, and profit, fill- ed by foreigners and hirelings — by men who had no re- commendation but a willingness, and a power to revile the conduct of our Patriots? Has every man whom Wash- ington put in office, becR dismissed without reason, and without excuse ? Are our yeomanry, and our land hold- ers, soon to be called upon to give up their hai'd earnings to support such measures, and such rulers ?-^ — \\ hat has become of the respect and honor rendered to that Ameri- can character, which Washington founded ? More pro- perly, what has become of that character itself? — How fell we into this sad, this deplorable humiliation ? Who are they who have brought these evils upon us ? Men of Massachusetts ! Freemen ! True Republicans ! You reverence the forms of government under which you have been happy beyond example. You love rational lib- erty. You abhor despotism. You wish to labor for your- selves^ and not for task-masters. — Dismiss your prejudic- es. Pluck the beam from your eye. fF/io are they that have blasted the American name, palsied the national arm, and shaken the foundations of our Empire ? Wretches, who like Satan, could not endure the glor}', which beam- from above them. Men, who like him, envious, jealous, and malicious, would destroy the blessings which they could not create. They began with calumnies and libels on Washing- ton. Freneau, Bache, Callender, and Duane, were paid for libelling the saviour of his country. The measures which restored public credit, and private confidence, ^vere denounced. Slanders were forced, and circulated at^rainst men, who risked their fortunes, and their lives, to make us free. The navy, and the militaiy, were held up as in- struments by which our chains were to be put on. Men, whose young families, whose property, whose daily bread depended on peace, and tranquility, were accused of plots to establish monarchy. The men who did these deeds of shame, and of dark- ness, obtained their object. We were deluded. We withdrew our confidence. We changed our rulers. We see, we feel, and our children's children will Jeel, \\ hat has been done within the last ni?ie years ! Look at the men in power, and their friends. Com- pare them with the men, who were in power, and with federalists. Are the republicans fas they call themselves J more honest, more charitable, more capable, more religious, more moral, than federalists ? Do they honour the Sab- bath more"? Are they better husbands, fathers, sons, or neighbours '? Do we prefer them for jurjnien, or for ref- erees, or for agents in monied institutions ? Do we pre- fer them for executors, and for guai'dians of our chil- dren ■? Have they had our welfare, or their own most at heart? Have they intended pure administation, and faith- ful service to the people ; or hostility to federalists, and office for themsch es ? Are we wiser, richer, or more safe, than when Washington and his friends governed '? li holding office were the only object of democrats, let them have office. The federalists do not covet office. They ask onl}^ to be governed by the constitutions, and laws made agreeably to them. They ask that property, civil liberty, peace and freedom may be protected, and pre- served. But our infatuated rulers ai'e this moment plung- ing us in war. We are on the point of hostility with the only nation which can now injure us. We are rushing into the ai-ms of the only nation, who has the disposition and the power to enslave us. At the distance of three thousand miles from Europe we are about to share in all its dreadful calamities. It is with England that we must have war. It is with Napoleon that we must form alliance. Why ? Why ? we demand. The French and English are at war. They interrupt our commerce. They have taken our seamen. So was it in the days of Washington. But we went on as a nation, and grew rich and great. But *' an En- glish ship attacked the Chesapeake.'*'* " The King would not ratify Mr. Erskine^s agreement.^'' " Mr. Jackson has 'insulted our government.''^ The king of England has sent two ministers across the ocean to declare to us, that the at- tack on the Chesapeake was unauthorized and disavowed. The British never meant to take American citizens, but, in common with all other nations, they must exercise the right of taking their own. They have always been willing to release our citizens when known to be such, and to agree on a mode of distinguishing them from their own. Will christians, will men of honor, and honesty, persist in hostility, when atonement for wrongs is offered ? The agreement with Erskine was so made, that England could not ratify it. — Would any man in his senses take a deed from one, acting as an attorney, without first knowing whether he had power to make a deed. — " But Jackson insulted the government." How did he insult the gov- ernment ? No honest man can justify Mr. Madison in that measure. — The attempt to impress the public mind, did not succeed. Even democrats are ashamed of this political manoeuvre. Admit that England has done us wrong ; and that if she justified the acts of her inferior agents, war might be pro- per, even though its end . should be national ruin. But England ofFers to negociate, and be at Peace. Our gov- ernment seems determined to provoke a war. Jcft'ersoji would not renew the treaty M'hich Washington signed and approved. He would not submit to the senate, the treaty which his own ministers, Pinckney imd Mirnroe^ effected ; and which those ministers considered as settling all our difficulties. He rejected and sent it back. When Jackson was dismissed, and without cause, Mr. Giles proposed, Congress passed, and Mr. Madison signed, a set of Reso- lutions, approving his own conduct. Let any man read these resolutions and judge for himself whether Mr. Mad- ison and his friends, do or do not intend, to bring on a war. Whatever WTongs and injuries Englishmen may liave done to us, England well knows that France has done us fai- greater wrongs and injuries. Our government do not resent these. There are no complaints to Congress. The people of the United States are kept in profound ignorance of the correspondence with France. — The French have burnt our ships on the ocean. Ha\'e forbidden us to trade with England or her colonies. Have declared that we should not be yieutral. Have imprisoned whole cretvs of ships in dungeons ; have seized and confiscated American property, without the ceremony of a triiil ; and ha\c no^\ under sequestration millions of dollars belonging to our citizens. Mr. Madison says nothing !! ! Such determined hostility to England, such base partiality to France, must rouse the English to \viir, unless the peo- ple of New.England lift up their voices against it. Mr. Madison, and his blind and submissive adherents pretend, that England seeks war with us. — Why ? — Does not she prefer our commerce, to our enmity ? If she wanted wiu*, why have not her thousand ships swept our commerce from the face of the deep ? Why does she permit the American flag to float on the salt wave ? Why has she not laid our seaports under contribution ? — Why does she convoy and protect our commerce ? England wishes peace, and iiuendship, with the United States ; she neither loves, fears, nor hates us. But in glancing over the desolation, wiiieh the French are spreading througli the globe, she sees that t^he Brit-rsh IsHes, aixi this western. 8 world, alone remain unsubdued. 'Tis her niterest to wish us well. 'Tis ours to wish her well. She would not add us to the number of her foes. It were madness in us to enlist against her. England has resisted, and will con- tinue to resist the destroyer of nations. Her power on the ocean equals Napoleon's on the land. She wages war in which there is no discharge. Her people kyiow and Jeel, that peace can never revisit their shores, till the nations of the eai'th burst the shackles of Napoleon^ or Frenchmen riot in London. Does Mr. Madison say, as Jefferson often did, with de- light and triumph, that England will soon be conquered by the French ? That bankruptcy and revolution are near at hand ? — If so, how is it that her power, her commerce, her revenue, her manufactures, are greater than at any former period of her existence ? How is it that her sub- jects are industrious, cheerful, loyal and united ? That her merchants are the bankers of the world ; that even the subjects of Napoleon deposit their money in England for safety ? It is such a power as this, that Mr. Madison desires to make war with. The chief of a republic composed of husbandmen, of merchants, of mechanicks, unprepared for, and unused to war, demands of a monarchy wrestling with Napoleon for liberty and life, the concessions, and the punctilios, of equal powers, in times of tranquility and peace. Already perhaps tlie power of England is let loose upon us. — Already we may be doomed to years of profitless and impoverishing \var. When these sad scenes are pass- ed, the same difficulties which now exist must remain to be settled, if we should then be a free people ; for Eng- land cannot conquer us. Even Jefferson cannot hope to conquer England. The evils of this war are ably and truly set forth, in the Resolutions passed by our Legislature. Yet taxes — pri- vations — the loss of property and of lives are trifles when weighed against the effects of such a war. One effect must be alliance with France. Alliance with France must, place us where k lias placed all otiier people., who have been her aHies.— Here is our danger. Americans I If we should look on these things as they ai'C, ^vc should see our- selves placed like one who climbs in his sleep, to a place of frightful danger, from which his awakened powers can hardly rescue him. Let us calmly and honestly look on the character of these allies. Let us judge of their conduct to us, by their conduct to others. If Napoleon ever hated one people more than another it is us. — He hales us because we imq. commercial. He hates us because we are republican. He despises us because we are pacific, and because we cUT de- luded by his arts. The French have half a million of men in arms, intoxi- cated with conquest, and the love of glory. Tliey are guided by an individual whose genius 7?f/. Alexander the Emperor of Riissia, surrounded by Frenchmen, obeys the will of Na- poleon. In a few more moons he will announce to his mock legislature, that he has planted his eagles on the walls of St. Petersburg. When Frenchmen become our allies, they will pour in upon us, to save us from British troops, all their soldiers, who can escape the British fleet. They will come to us in the name of friendship ; and to protect us against our enemy. Open your ai'ms, Americans ! to your great and good allies ! Frenchmen, dreadful in battle, are among you, as brothers. Are they come ? Then, like *SJ&c;zi«r^^, harden your j wrists, and your imcles for chains. Take leave of the deal' delights of home. Frenchmen sit at the head of your tables. Your daughters, and your virgins, are taken to their iirms. They send you, with their legions, to gain glory and renown. If you murmur, you will only be s h o t ! The French have long had their agents among us. They foment party di^ isions. They excite and animate 11 our hatred against England. They seize our prejudices. They set up their presses. They deceive the credulous. They corrupt the weak, and the needy. They have already commenced the conquest of this countr^•. Universal dominion is their design. They be- gin by treachery. They are not prodigal of blood, when corruption will do as well. The secrecy of our rulers, their submission to France ; the perfect knowledge which Napoleon has of what is to BE DONE by the American Cabinet ; the umiecessary and most impolitic hostility to England ; the cry of British gold, and British Influence, against every man, who says there is danger from the French ; the open admiration of Xh^ '■'' republicaji'''' papers of all the French conduct and chiu^acter ; the joy which is expressed, in them^ \\'hen an- other, and another people pass under the yoke of Napo- leon. The fervent pleasure with a^ hich they announce his victories ; their reproaches of England ; their apologies for France ; their open demand of alliance Avith her — All these things too surely prove, that France already extends her empire to our land. This is not all. — That Diiane^ who under the name of Jasper D wight, dared to attack the conduct of ^VA s h i n c - TON ; a foreigner ; the editor of a newspaper ; the des- potic ruler of the democracy of Pennsyhania ; a Colonel, by Jefferson's appointment^ in the American ai'my, and one of the most profligate of men, lately published a selec- tion of \'erses from the scriptures, by which he announces that "Napoleon is our King !" Another printer in Baltimore, a foreigner too, and doubtless ^^'ell rewarded for his serAiccs, coolly proposes in his newspaper, that the present system of govcnmient should cease ; and that Thomas Jefferson with a council composed of a member from each State in the union, should be President for life ! ! ! So began Bonaparte his rule in France. Within a few days a French privateer has airived at. Baltimore from France, bringing a man, \vho passed as her captain. The vessel is gone. The captain remains. He takes a magnificent house ; and commences a course of splendor. On his passage he was Ciilled " the minister." 12 He is the visitor and companion of the Smiths,^ and the friends of Jefferson and Madison. Who is this man ? What miaisler is he ? Why ib he here ? Even this is not all. — There 7s noiv a French Prince of the blood of Napoleon in or near the capital of the United States. When Jerome, now King of Westphalia, was in Baltimore, he married an American lady. She ^^ent with him to France. She was not permitted to land there. She was divorced by a decree of the Emperor. She returned to America with her infant son. Lately she has been rais- ed to the dignity of a French Duchess, and allowed a re- venue of thirty six thousand dollars a year. Her son is made a Prince of the House of Napoleon. His governor, with a salary, suited to his high calling, is a Frenchman ; and was lately an officer in the service of the United States. Why is this boy ?nade a prince in America ? Why., being a prince^ is he kept in America ? Is he to rule in Europe, or rule over us ? Is Mr. Jefferson to be President for life, to learn us how to obey the nephew of Napoleon ! He who laughs at these things, laughs like a majiiac. Already a motion has been made in the Senate of the union to amend the constitution, and prevent this prince from hold- ing office under it. When the French tiger springs upon us, as he did on Spain, he will not leap the wall of our AMENDED Constitution! Do these things startle us? Well, they may. Did we toil, and fight, and strew our land with dead to make an empire for a Frenchman ? Have our labors come to this ? Are we free from England onh^ to bend beneath the weight of French military despotism ? No — we will not submit. Up ! Freemen from your slumbers ! Let us swear to transmit our independence to our offspring. Let us not be deluded, nor dismayed by the cry of British Influence. If it be true that England fights the battles of America, in fighting her o^vn ; if the valor and the strength of England, stand between us and * General Smith, (a warm democrat,) is Senator from Maryland. Robert Smith, Secretary of State, is his brother. General Smith's daughter, is the v/ife of the brother of the Duchess. This Duchess is daughter of a si.ster of General Smith's wife. The Duchess is connected by affinity with the family of Mr. Jefferson, and t-he Attorney General of Virginia. Wilkinson is the bosom friend of the Smiths Burr was domesticated among thctn, 13 danger, God forbid ! that we should arm to cut her sinews. Let us call to office men, who look at England as she is, and at France as she is ; imd av ho would resist, to the last struggle, the dominion of either. Let us repose con- fidence in those, who delight in republican institutions ; who reverence the graves of our warriors, and our states- men, and love the fame of those who made us free ; men who have e^•er been faithful to themselves and to the con- stitution. ^OT those who cripple our strength, diminish our population, waste our resources, and corrupt public morals ; but those Avho will build up our navy, train our citizens to arms, revive our commerce, replenish our treasury, and abhor that foreign politics should rule the councils of our country. It is the enviable happiness of Massachusetts that such men are now its rulers. May every thing dear and valu- able animate us to keep them in power ! So mild, jo just, so able, so constitutional has been the administration of His Excellency Governor Gore, that even the base spirit of democracy has hitherto found nothing to chiuge against him but the crime of visiting, and mixing among the people. Able, conscientious, and tolerant, he commands our respect, esteem, and confi- dence in all times. What then are his services worth to us, \\ hen the cunning chief of the French strives to blast us \\ilh a wai', that he may the more easily number us, on the long list of his triumphs ? Of Mr. Gerry we would only ask ho\v is he now en- titled to our confidence ? Compare his talents, his years, his disposhions, with those of Mr. Gore. During the last thirty \ears, the most we know of him is, that he was a zealous opposer of the Federal Constitution, and did all he could to prevent its adoption ; — that \\hen sent on a mission to France, with Marshall and Pinckney, he diftcr- ed from those gentlemen, and continued in France long after they left it, very little to die benefit of himself or his country ; — ^lastl)', that he has been picked up, and laid down by the democrats just as suited their convenience. We cannot but ask, with some emotion, what entitles Mr. Gray to displace his Honor Lieutenant Governor 14 Cobb in the confidence of the people ? Of Mr. Gray, all we know, or can know, is, that during our revolutionary- contest he cautiously avoided taking any part, for or against us. He was lately a federalist — he is now a de- mocrat. His instability and uncertainty are measured only by his wealth. His single pretension seems to be, that he is rich, and is excelled by no one in cool calcula- tion of interest and of chances. But of Ge neral Cobb we know with pride and pleasure, that his hair has whiten- ed in the service of his country. His name stands high, and often highest, in the councils of his country. He fought by the side of Washington the battles that won our freedom. His heart is often warmed by the remem- brance, that Washington loved him as a faithful and affectionate friend. Come then, sons of Massachusetts ! Let us truly value our place upon the globe. Our voice has been lately heard.* We trust, in the purity, and the righteousness of our motives, that it is never heard in vain. It has con- secrated anew, as the temple of liberty, the place where our freemen met. We have to perform a solemn duty to ourselves, our country, our posterity, in the coming elections. It is every man's duty. Let no man say, " / shall not be missed.'''' "/ shall not be ■wanted.'''' Our cause deserves, and surely has, the favouring regard of that Almighty Being, who searcheth the heart, and who will punish crimes. On the day of our exalted privilege, let us show by our zeal and our patriotism, that our eyes are opened, that the schemes of Frenchmen are defeated, that we are willing and able to be free. I Massachusetts Resolutions. ( 146 *' S' 4<^^ . . ^^.^ <£ 'O ^i X^ .0^ .0^ "(k*^'' -^i^; C 0-.,^ 'O^ t"n>- < '_ , >.i_ ,^' "'^n.^ E^"'. **^ cv »:<:^,>^<^»* -0 o. • '^^% k.^ A^ o -^.^ ' . . s '