**' ^ 
 
 3 vP 
 
 Vl Pa 
 
 ** .v^fek \/ .-tffe'. W .v&lfcfc V 
 
 
 
 ♦ o 
 
 - ^W •*, 
 
 
 «**_ 
 
 o * • 
 
 *V 
 
 
 1 * ♦" ^ 
 
 
 
 
***. -life ' ^ '**Wm? : > *^ '-33^/ ^ 
 
 V*^>* °V^V° V'^V °c 
 
 
 
 a- \/ 
 
 j, '^iSr* ■ay C» *7*^.* ft v 
 
 
 v* .*; 
 
 o 8 
 
Second Edition. 
 
 SOLEMN PROTEST 
 
 AGAINST THE LATE DECLARATION OF WAR, 
 
 
 DELIVERED 
 
 ON THE NEXT LORD'S DAY 
 AFTER THE TIDINGS OF IT WERE RECEIVED. 
 
 BY DAVID OSGOOD, D.D. 
 
 Fastor of the Church in Medford. 
 
 CAMBRIDGE 
 
 PRINTED BY HILLIARD AND METOALF. 
 
 1812. 
 
 H 
 
A 
 
 SOLEMN PROTEST. 
 
 II CHRON. xiii. 12. 
 
 children of Israel, fight ye not against the Lord God of yont 
 fathers; for ye shall not prosper. 
 
 As the dreadful calamity of war has just befallen our 
 country and oppresses all our minds with grief and concern, 
 a discourse upon this subject is, of all others, the most sea- 
 sonable, as meeting your most anxious thoughts and sure to 
 engage your most earnest attention. The feelings of every 
 man, capable of the least reflection, must be shocked beyond 
 measure by so sudden and unexpected a fall from peace and 
 plenty, ease and comfort, security and enjoyment, into all 
 the privations, the hardships, the burdens, the perils, the 
 distresses, the complicated horrors of war. At this mo- 
 ment, your minds are harassed and your bosoms tortured 
 with the idea of your sons, your husbands, your brothers 
 reluctantly torn from all the scenes and occupations of peace, 
 from all their domestic connexions, enjoyments and pursuits, 
 to be exposed in the tented field, subjected to the rigors of 
 a military life, liable to the numerous and fatal diseases of a 
 camp, and occasionally, to stand as so many marks for the 
 sharp shooters in the hostile army. You anticipate the ting- 
 ling of your ears at the tidings of one, and another, and 
 another of these your beloved friends and relatives fallen in 
 battle, mangled with wounds, groaning and expiring on the 
 crimsoned field, or lodged in military hospitals, there to lin- 
 
4 
 
 ger in torment for a little space, till nature be exhausted,, 
 and they give up the ghost. Your bowels sound with pain 
 and yearning at the expected accounts of garments rolled in 
 blood, and the extensive carnage spread by contending ar- 
 mies. Nor can you forbear thinking of what must imme- 
 diately take place, the incalculable loss of men and of treas- 
 ure upon the mighty waters. The Immense property of our 
 merchants at this moment floating from all quarters of the 
 globe is, by this one word, war, given up an unprotected 
 and almost certain prey, together with the thousands and 
 thousands of our seafaring brethren, having this property in 
 charge, to be all made captives, crowded into jails and on 
 board prison-ships, or constrained to man the fleets of the 
 enemy, and replenish with hands his thousand cruisers. You 
 are in daily expectation of the ravages which these cruisers 
 may make, their plunderings and burnings in the ports and 
 harbours of our coast from one extremity to the other j 
 while on our western frontier through its whole extent, the 
 forces of the two Canadas, injunction with the numerous 
 tribes of hostile savages, are laying waste our new settle- 
 ments, bringing pillage and death on the defenceless inhabi- 
 tants. You cannot suppress your sympathy in the perils to 
 which this portion of our population is, even now while I am 
 speaking, exposed. Some of you, my brethren, still remem- 
 ber what your own feelings were on that day when almost 
 every breeze of air brought to your ears the alarming report, 
 " that the enemy was at hand, that you must instantly leave 
 your habitations and fly for your lives." My eyes have 
 witnessed, and by personal experience I know, and those of 
 you who are my coevals, by the same experience also know, 
 that the particulars in the description now given are the 
 fruits and effects of war — were fully realized, most dread- 
 fully exemplified in that war in which we ourselves were 
 formerly involved. 
 
Look at this picture, ye self-called true republicans ; con- 
 template its variegated features ; then go and advocate the 
 war now proclaimed ; extol to the skies, the wisdom and 
 patriotism of its authors j'with your accustomed zeal and 
 vehemence electioneer afresh in their favor j and again fill 
 your gazettes with increased floods of abuse and slander on 
 the few surviving friends of the Godlike Washington, on 
 Strong, Pickering, and Jay ; in short, on all the enlightened 
 lovers of peace and of their country : hasten a new edition 
 of those farragoes of excitements to war, and of malignant 
 calumnies against its opposers, contained in the speeches 
 arid proclamations of your admired Gerry. 
 
 But the subject is too serious and awful for irony. I 
 have not forgotten, nor can I ever forget, while conscious- 
 ness abides with me, my own n\ ital sufferings during the 
 period of our former war. Through those eight long years 
 whose slow lingering pace, while hope was deferred and the 
 heart sickened with pain and anguish, seemed without end 
 — a burden lay upon my spirits by day and by night, almost 
 too heavy for frail mortality to sustain. During the hours 
 of repose, visions of horror rose in my imagination and dis- 
 turbed my rest : through the long lived day, the distresses 
 of my country and the dangers and disasters of my friends 
 harassed my thoughts. In the mean while, the course of 
 nature moved on tranquil and serene, without suspension or 
 interruption. The delightful vicissitudes of day and night, 
 and the cheering rotation of the seasons, were what they had 
 been before, and what they have continued to be since ; but 
 to my feelings they were not the same and brought not the 
 accustomed pleasure. If in an early morning walk at the 
 rise of the orb of day, in the splendour of his beams I be- 
 held the vast creation around me and exclaimed with the 
 
 poet, 
 
 " These are thy glorious works, Parent of good! 
 Almighty ! thine this universal frame, 
 Thu6 wondrous fair ;" 
 
instantly my wounded spirit urged the remonstrance, " yet 
 why, thou great source of beneficence, is thy chosen crea- 
 ture man, for whose sake this ample provision has been made, 
 why is he given up to those passions and lusts, those strifes 
 and contentions which fill the moral system with disorder, 
 with confusion, and every evil work ! Why do I hear the 
 sound of the trumpet and the alarm of war, the proud and 
 clamorous shouts of discord and battle ?" — If again at even- 
 tide, on the adjacent hills I meditated on the starry firma- 
 ment, on the planetary systems there hung forth to our ad- 
 miring view, the unnumbered worlds rolling over our heads, 
 and reflecting on the perfect order and harmony with which 
 they continue their unceasing movements, their respective 
 revolutions, each in his own destined orbit, without any per- 
 ceptible deviation, and regularly, from age to age, shed their 
 benign influences on this abode of mortals — prostrating my 
 soul before their great author and regulator, my heart prompt- 
 ed me to pray, " O thou God of order and of peace, send 
 down, I beseech thee, from thy eternal throne, a portion of 
 the celestial harmony to guide the counsels and pursuits of 
 thy rational offspring here on earth'. In giving them exist- 
 ence, thou hast deigned from thine infinite understanding to 
 impart to them some rays of intelligence. Crown, O crown 
 thy gift of reason to them by penetrating their hearts with a 
 portion of thy love. Give them to know and to fee) how good 
 and pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity." 
 Thus daily lamenting, and praying against, the miseries of 
 war, I passed through that most gloomy portion of my past 
 life from 1775 till the transporting sound of peace in 1783. 
 Abhorrent as my nature and all my feelings then were 
 from war, I entertained the sentiment in which my fellow- 
 citizens universally, almost to a man, were agreed, that, on 
 our part, it was necessary, and from this conviction I com- 
 posed and preached frequent discourses to animate and en- 
 
courage its prosecution. Our oppressors had explicitly avow- 
 ed their purpose to wrest from us our dearest privileges, to 
 bind us in all cases whatever, subjecting us to their will and 
 to whatever burdens they might see fit to impose. They va- 
 cated our charters, changed the form of our governments, 
 and answered our humble petitions and remonstrances at the 
 mouths of their cannon. Their fleets and armies invaded 
 our country, seized our property, wantonly shed the blood 
 of our people, and themselves commenced the war with eve- 
 ry mark of ferocity and outrage. Thus circumstanced, like 
 the children of Judah in the context, rue cried unto the Lord \ 
 to him committed our cause, and in a humble reliance upon 
 him girded on the harness in our own defence. 
 
 In the motives for the present war, who can discern the 
 least shade of resemblance to those for the former ? And 
 what christian, under the influence of christian principles, 
 can dare pray for success ? In order to the least hope from 
 God, we must have a clear and perfect conviction that the 
 war is just and necessary ; I say necessary, for if it be not 
 such as is forced upon us by absolute and dire necessity, it 
 cannot be just. Its very nature is violence against the lives 
 and properties of our fellow-beings, our brethren, the chil- 
 dren of our common progenitor on earth and common Fath- 
 er in heaven. On this account it is denounced, even when 
 most just and necessary, by M. de Vattel, in his law of na- 
 tions, as " but a wretched expedient against those who spurn 
 at justise, and refuse the remonstrances of reason. It is (he 
 goes on) in extremities only that a just and wise nation or a 
 good prince has recourse to it. — Those who run to arms 
 without necessity are the scourges of the human race, bar- 
 barians, enemies to society, and rebels to the law of nature, 
 or rather to the common Father of mankind. Humanity is 
 shocked at a sovereign who lavishes the lives of his subjects, 
 whp exposes his people to the havoc and miseries of war, 
 
'when they might enjoy an honorable and salutary peace. — 
 Besides the misfortunes drawn on his subjects, for which he 
 is accountable, he is guilty also of those he carries amidst an 
 innocent people. The slaughter of men, the pillage of cit- 
 ies, the devastation of provinces, are his crimes. He is re- 
 sponsible to God, and accountable to man, for every per- 
 son that is killed. The violences, the crimes, the various dis- 
 orders attendant on the licentious tumult of arms, pollute his 
 conscience and blacken his account, as he is the original au- 
 thor of them all." 
 
 Such being, in the judgment of this wise and good 
 Frenchman, the horrible guilt of those who engage in an un- 
 necessary war, is it not the incumbent, the indispensable du- 
 ty of every subject of these states, capable of the exercise of 
 reason, in the fear of God, solemnly to inquire, whether the 
 present war be necessary, whether the pretences for it be 
 founded, and in that case, whether they be of such mag- 
 nitude, so immediately urgent and important, as to jus- 
 tify the adoption of so awful an expedient ? This ques- 
 tion is forced upon our immediate consideration. Our con- 
 sciences, if we have any, compel us to the discussion. Its 
 late decision by our rulers does not exempt us from the ob- 
 ligation of giving it our most serious and impartial examina- 
 tion. Our rulers are men, and as such, are liable to err 
 through misconception. To them applies the interrogatory, 
 xv ho can understand his errors P They partake of the com- 
 mon depravity of our apostate nature, and, of course, are li- 
 able to corrupt prejudices and passions, and from such de- 
 praved principles may form wicked decrees, and establish in- 
 iquity by law. It is the glory of a free government, its chief 
 and main excellence for which it ought to be desired and 
 sought, comprising all that is meant or that is valuable in lib- 
 erty itself, that it constitutes the people a check upon their 
 public servants, and, in the last resort, gives them the pow- 
 
er of correcting the mistakes and of remedying the evil and 
 mischief, which the weakness or tho wickedness of their rul- 
 ers may have produced. They may displace such rulers, 
 and commit the management of their affairs to better char- 
 acters. If through their own weakness and wickedness they 
 fail of doing this, they forfeit all their privileges, offend 
 against God, the giver of them, and expose themselves to his 
 heaviest judgments, not only to the calamities of the present 
 life as a community, but individually, to the danger of ever- 
 lasting punishment hereafter. If at the command of weak 
 or wicked rulers, they undertake an unjust war, each man 
 who volunteers his services in such a cause, or loans his mo- 
 ney for its support, or by his conversation, his writings, or 
 any other mode of influence, encourages its prosecution, that 
 man is an accomplice in the wickedness, loads his conscience 
 with the blackest crimes, brings the guilt of blood upon his 
 soul, and, in the sight of God and his law, is a murderer. 
 War is hatred in its fullest and highest expression, and St. 
 John explicitly affirms, that whosoever hateth his brother is 
 a murderer, and that no murderer hath eternal life. At the 
 last day we shall be judged, not by the laws of Congress, but 
 by the law of God now mentioned, and Him we must 
 obey, to the neglect of all opposing human laws, and even at 
 the risk of our lives. Whether to obey God or man, is the 
 question upon which we are to make up our minds. In this 
 awful dilemma, my brethren, you and I, all the men and all 
 the women in these United States, are now placed. Each in- 
 dividual, after consulting his conscience and availing him- 
 self of all the information within his reach, must determine 
 for himself, and according to his own ideas of responsibility 
 to God, at whose tribunal he must give an account. Nor 
 has he much time for deliberation. In obedience to the law 
 of God, that law, the fulfilment of which consists in love, be- 
 2 
 
10 
 
 nevolence, and universal goodness — we afe now immediate- 
 ly to act and to suffer either in supporting, or, by all consti- 
 tutional means, resisting that law of our rulers, which pro- 
 claims liberty to the sword, which calls us to rob and slaugh- 
 ter our feilo.7-men, our brethren, with whom we have ties 
 of blood, of interest, of manners, of speech, of opinion, and 
 of religion, incomparably more near than with the men of 
 any other nation on earth : Against this nation we are com- 
 manded to wage war, doing them all possible harm and 
 mischief, while they do all possible harm and mischief to 
 us. Into this most horrible state of things our rulers have 
 brought us : In these dreadful circumstances they have plac- 
 ed us by their declaration of war. 
 
 Their pretences for this, as stated in their manifesto, af- 
 ter being stript of much false colouring, many unproved 
 assertions, and an abundance of verbal exaggeration, may 
 be chiefly comprised under three heads. They pretend that, 
 in a war of almost twenty years' duration, and of a nature 
 and character different from any other that has ever happen- 
 ed in modern times, some of our seamen have been pressed 
 on board British ships — that British cruisers have some- 
 times insulted our coast ; but that the main pi-ovocation is, 
 that the British Orders in Council were not repealed, after 
 our President had proclaimed the repeal of the Berlin and 
 Milan Decrees of France. — With respect to the two first of 
 these provocations — the impressment occasionally of some 
 of our sailors, and an instance or two of outrage in our har- 
 bours — it has never been pretended that either of these was 
 authorized by the British government. In every instance, 
 they were the irregular, unwarranted acts of individuals, 
 subordinate officers, whose rashness and folly no govern- 
 ment can at all times and every where restrain. The re- 
 dress of these grievances however, and compensation for 
 
11 
 
 such injuries, after proof of them has been fairly and fully 
 exhibited, have never been refused. Our great and almost 
 only controversy with England, respects her Orders in 
 Council, restricting our trade with France, because France 
 had first prohibited our trade with England by her Berlin 
 and Milan Decrees. As the British Orders were profess- 
 edly occasioned by the French Decrees, it was expected that 
 they would be revoked on the repeal of those Decrees. Our 
 government, having proclaimed that repeal, demanded the 
 revocation of the British Orders. England replied that we 
 were mistaken in our assertion of the repeal of the French 
 Decrees, and, in proof of our mistake, produced official 
 documents of the French government explicitly contradict- 
 ing our proclamation, and affirming that those decrees, so far 
 from being repealed, were the fundamental laws of the 
 French empire, and therefore were not and never could be 
 repealed. She urged further, that ourselves knew that they 
 were not repealed, by the almost daily loss of our ships and 
 cargoes in consequence of their continued execution ; as 
 since the period of their pretended repeal, scores, if not hun- 
 dreds of our vessels had been seized in French ports, or 
 burnt at sea by French cruisers, while many of tAeir unof- 
 fending crews were manacled like slaves, confined in French 
 prisons, or forced on board French ships, to fight against 
 England. In opposition however to all these proofs, ctir 
 government, with an hardihood and effrontery at which de- 
 mons might have blushed, persisted in asserting the repeal, 
 and, in revenge against England for not believing them, 
 passed their non-intercourse law, laid their embargo, and 
 now have declared war. 
 
 My brethren, if we have any regard for truth and right- 
 eousness, what must we think of such pretences for war ? 
 The apathy and indifference with which some persons among 
 
12 
 
 us seem to receive the annunciation of it is, to me, matter 
 of amazement. Considering that we are the subjects of the 
 Prince of peace, the professors of that religion which 
 breathes peace on earth and good will towards men, the dis- 
 ciples of the meek and lowly Jesus, who have taken his 
 yoke upon us, and entered into the most solemn engagements 
 to imitate and obey him, having in us the same mind that 
 was in him, I am amazed that a general shriek of horror at 
 this deed of our rulers has not been heard from one extrem- 
 ity of our country to the other. For myself, from the mo- 
 ment my ears received the tidings, my mind has been in 
 a constant agony, not so much at the inevitable loss of our 
 temporal prosperity and happiness, and the complicated mis- 
 eries of war, as at its guiit, its outrage againsf Heaven, 
 against all truth, honesty, justice, goodness — against all the 
 principles of social happiness. As a teacher of righteous- 
 ness, as a minister of Christ, I feel myself under obligations 
 infinitely superior to all human laws, most solemnly to testi- 
 fy, both in public and in private, every where, in the hearing 
 of all persons, rulers and subjects, against this atrocious 
 wickedness, and to lay down my life, rather than cease this 
 testimony. To you, my brethren, and to all my fellow citi- 
 zens 1 say, in the language of the text, " FIGHT YE NOT 
 AGAINST THE LORD GOD OF YOUR FATH- 
 ERS; FOR YE SHALL NOT PROSPER. 
 
 No recent injury has been done us, no new provocation 
 has been offered ; nothing has happened of a nature to in- 
 flame the passions, and to bring on the prest nt phrenzy. It 
 is therefore the more wonderful, and can be accounted for 
 on no other principle, but the imperceptible influence which 
 the author of all evil, the spirit that worketh in the children 
 of disobedience, has been permitted to exert in the hearts of 
 dark-minded, cool, deliberately wicked rulers. They hav^ 
 
13 
 
 acknowledged themselves caught and entangled in the toil3 
 of Bonaparte, that rival of satan himself in guile and mis- 
 chief, and his most conspicuous agent here on earth. He 
 twisted and prepared the slip-noose which our rulers, in ful- 
 filment of prior engagements to him, have put about the neck 
 of their country. Thus strangling us, snug in their lucra- 
 tive places, with the calmness of French philosophers, they 
 enjoy our agonies. " The king and Haman sat down to 
 drink, but the city Shushan was perplexed." 
 
 Were not the authors of this war in character nearly akin 
 to the deists and atheists of France ; were they not men of 
 hardened hearts, seared consciences, reprobate minds, and 
 desperate in wickedness ; it seems utterly inconceivable that 
 they should have made the declaration. Their pretensions, 
 in my judgment, are either glaring, unblushing falsehoods, 
 or for things so trifling and unimportant that it may be que- 
 ried whether they would not be wickedly obtained at the 
 hazard of a single life. The trade of France is confessedly 
 the main object. That trade in its very best state, before 
 the restrictions on either side, it has been abundantly prov- 
 ed, amounted net to the tenth part of our trade to England 
 which France first prohibited ; yet we go to war against 
 England in favor of France, and this too at a time when 
 France has so encumbered our trade with her by d- es and 
 restrictions as to render it worse than nothing, and its pro- 
 hibition by England no grievance. What object then is 
 there for the war, which is the destruction of all trade and 
 of all the persons who depend upon it for their support ? 
 How black must be the motives to such a war ; a war in re- 
 ality against ourselves, our interest and happiness. Is there 
 not room to fear that its authors may have secretly formed 
 their plan after the model of the French revolutionists ? 
 
 Circumstanced as the country now is, divided into tw© 
 
14 
 
 great parties, the present rulers cannot feel themselves se- 
 cure in their places, before such a phalanx of opposers as 
 their past provoking conduct has embodied against them in 
 all the mercantile states. Conscious of their guilt and dan- 
 ger, but destitute, as fallen angels, of any heart to repent, 
 party spirit and rage have so worked them up that they have 
 at length become desperate, and in a ht of desperation have 
 proclaimed war. They we'll know that in a free govern- 
 ment like ours, war cannot be carried on without the gener- 
 al and almost unanimous consent of the people, and that a 
 great body of opponents must occasion a civil war. Situat- 
 ed as the country now is, this they must expect ; but as they 
 have the power in their hands and count upon being on the 
 strongest side, having the great Bonaparte for their ally, as- 
 sisted by him, do they not mean to rush on to the war against 
 England over the dead bodies of its vanquished opposers ? 
 Is there not, at least, room to fear this ? 
 
 If at the present moment, no symptoms of civil war ap- 
 pear, they certainly will soon; unless the courage of the war 
 party should fail them. The opposition comprises all the 
 best men in the nation, men of the greatest talents, courage 
 and wealth, and whose Washingtonian principles will com- 
 pel them to die rather than stain their hands in the blood of 
 an unjust war. Prudence leads them at present, to cloak 
 their opposition under constitutional forms. Provoked at 
 these obstacles, the patrons of war will have recourse to vi- 
 olence. Attempts will first be made to bridle the tongues 
 and pens of the opponents. This has been done in Congress 
 already, while the war question was under debate. It was 
 by gagging the mouth of a Randolph and other enlightened 
 patriots that the act passed. The mouths of the opposition 
 abroad must next be gagged, their hands tied, and their feet 
 made to move at the will of the war-party. When in the 
 
15 
 
 course of their progress, the enemy shall be coming as a 
 flood, and the distresses of war shall press heavy, all their 
 losses and misfortunes will be attributed to their present op- 
 ponents. Against these a popular clamour will be set up, 
 a deadly hatred excited. They will be called enemies to 
 their country, traitors, the friends of Britain and of monar- 
 chy, opposers of a republican government, and insurgents 
 against the laws. Whoever robs or murders them will 
 think that he does God and his country service. At length 
 they will be proclaimed rebels, and force used to subdue 
 them. As no considerable number of men will tamely sur- 
 render their lives, force on the one side will produce force 
 on the other. Thus a civil war becomes as certain as the 
 events which happen according to the known laws and es- 
 tablished course of nature. 
 
 In New England, the war declared cannot be approved 
 by any but here and there a furious party leader, a few ig- 
 norant, deluded fanatics, and a handful of desperadoes. It 
 must be abhorred by more than nine tenths of the people in 
 the mercantile states, and by every sober, good man in all 
 the states. In the face of an opposition so numerous and 
 formidable, how desperate and sanguinary must have been 
 the views of its authors ? Their chosen master, Bonaparte^ 
 however, must be obeyed, at every hazard. They could 
 not endure his reproaches, that " they were without policy, 
 without spirit, without principle, and inferior to a colony of 
 Jamaica." 
 
 My brethren, the blood runs cold in my veins at the 
 prospect of the heart chilling scenes before us. The thing 
 which we greatly feared is come upon us. Standing by the 
 bed of death, I have often exhorted the dying, as a temper 
 suitable to their awful situation, to be thankful for the mer- 
 cies of their past lives, and that they have lived so long. A 
 
16 
 
 like temper now becomes us all. We have abundant rea- 
 son to be thankful to the God of our fathers, that this dread- 
 ful calamity has not sooner overtaken us. It is within the 
 recollection of many of you, that in 1794, eighteen years 
 ago, it would have befallen us, had the man by whom it has 
 been now proclaimed been able to effect his purpose. At 
 that time indeed we had received much greater provocation 
 than any of which we now complain. It is well known that 
 Mr. Madison exerted his utmost influence in Congress for 
 a declaration of war, and in all probability would have ef- 
 fected it, had not the great and good father of his country 
 stood as a bulwark against him. To the administration of 
 Washington he was inveterately hostile ; and whoever, with 
 an impartial eye, has observed his official conduct, especially 
 toward England, from that day to this, must be constrain- 
 ed to believe that he has been uniformly seeking what he 
 has now obtained. 
 
 In the mean while however, notwithstanding all the spo- 
 liations of the powers at war, we have been growing, be- 
 yond all former example, in riches and in whatever consti- 
 tutes the prosperity and happiness of a people. Wealth has 
 flown in upon our sea-ports, every foot of ground belonging 
 to them has risen in value more than a thousand per cent, 
 the number of buildings has doubled and trebled, many of 
 them have risen spacious and splendid palaces, and our mer- 
 chants have become princes in opulence, while every class 
 of tradesmen, mechanics, and labourers, have had full and 
 constant employ, and more than double wages. This pros- 
 perity from trade has extended and diffused its salutary and 
 enlivening effects over the face of the whole country, into 
 every town and village, and to the remotest settlements in 
 the wilderness. This full tide of prosperous and successful 
 experiment was principally occasioned by Jay's treaty with 
 
17 
 
 Great Britain ; and it continued without abatement to the 
 expiration of that treaty. Of all the nations on the globe, 
 we progressed incomparably the most happy and pi'osperous, 
 up to the period when our own Jeffersons and Madisons, 
 with their adjutors, commenced their depredations upon us. 
 From that era, we have been as rapidly declining, as we 
 were increasing before. Already real estate, both in town 
 and country, has lost nearly half its value in consequence of 
 the laws against commerce. The great body of our mer- 
 chants will not hesitate to declare, that they have experienc- 
 ed more embarrassment in their business, and have sustain- 
 ed greater losses in consequence of non-importation acts, 
 embargoes, non-intercourses, and other absurd laws of our 
 own government, than all that they ever sustained in the 
 same time from the nations at war. I believe it too to be 
 a fact, that the execution of those iniquitous laws has occa- 
 sioned the loss of more lives, than the country has ever lost 
 amidst the collisions of the warring powers. By the enact- 
 ment of such laws, the vessel of state was run aground, un- 
 rigged, and various hands employed in hacking it to pieces. 
 But even these methods of destruction were too tardy to sat- 
 isfy the impatience of the great enemy of human felicity, 
 the tyrant of France. At his nod, we have now in a mo- 
 ment been thrown into a gulf of misery, whose bounds and 
 bottom no eye, short of omniscience, can discern. 
 
 One hope only remains, that this last stroke of perfidy 
 may open the eyes of a besotted and most wretchedly delud- 
 ed people, that they may awake, like a giant from his slum- 
 bers, and wreak their vengeance on their betrayers, by driv- 
 ing them from their stations, and placing at helm more skil- 
 ful and faithful hands. Indignant as I feel towards the 
 present rulers as the guilty authors of the public calamities, 
 I wish them no other harm but a speedy return to that pri- 
 3 
 
18 
 
 vate condition, from which they have only emerged to pom- 
 blasting and mildew upon their country. If they have not 
 sinned beyond the reach of divine mercy, I can still pray 
 for them, and that they may soon be placed in that retire- 
 ment which is the most favourable to consideration and re- 
 pentance.— For myself, according to the course of nature, I 
 have but a short time either to mourn or rejoice in the af- 
 fairs of men ; but while it shall please God to continue me 
 in this tabernacle, by his grace, no fear of man shall deter 
 me from discharging what in my conscience I believe to be 
 my duty, in testifying against wickedness in high places, as. 
 well as in low. 
 
 o Q 
 

 *o. 
 
 
 
 -<k - • ■ ° 
 
 O . l * /V 
 
 * ^ -: 
 
 >~ . » * 
 
 
 
 ^, 
 
 .* 
 
 «*< 
 
<\ 
 
 
 1 * A V <^ - ' 
 
 
 
 
 
 ^ „ „ » . « 
 
 1 <V, c* 
 
 
 °^. * • - 
 
 
 ^ ... 
 
 
 ^n<F 
 
 
 C, vP 
 i * * f*^ v5 * * o 
 
 > 
 
 
 
 C,tP 
 
 v oV* 
 
 ;♦ <> 
 
 \P<5 
 
 
 ^^ ^ '^ 
 
 ,0 v*. - ^