WASHINGTON CITY WEEKLY GAZETTE...........501

To the Senators and Representatives of the United States of America.

LEGISLATORS!

IT IS MUCH EASIER TO PREVENT AN INJURY THAN TO CORRECT IT!

The eyes of the world are upon you. Every word that escapes you has in it the seeds of life or death. Let me conjure you to think, and weigh well each sentence before it be uttered; for sixteen millions of men are now in the suspended balance of happiness or misery. If you throw into the scale of misery the power you have derived from the Most High, and endeavor to rivet the chains with which your brethren of the south have so long been shackled, Hell will leap with joy; for slavery, ignorance and crime are in unison! Are governments established for individual power? Are the children of the earth born for the services of distant rulers, and to be transferred with the soil on which they have been reared?--Thus do you treat the beasts of the forest, but the sons of men call on you for natural rights. You were once weak. You called on the French, the Spaniards, the Dutch: they aided you. We call on you; but alas! you turn a deaf ear. We send respectable deputies; but you will not even admit them to your presence. We call upon your citizens: they know nothing of the artificial trammels that royal negotiations impose; they are kind; they feel for us as brethren; they tender the hand of friendship; they rejoice at the prospect of our emancipation; they offer us every assistance in their power; for they cannot see oppression without generously endeavoring to relieve: their battles are over, and they have offered us the arms obtained by purchase from the government, when they thought themselves entitled to sell them, but the government have now interposed, and threaten to prohibit their sale: they have furnished vessels which they conceive they had also a right to sell, but the government threaten again the interdiction of this natural right!

Washington, the immortal Washington, once sat with a steady hand at the helm of affairs. He was assailed with all the arts of intrigue, with all the false rhetoric of diplomatic ingenuity and skill; but his firm soul was unmoved, when he was tempted to invade the rights of the people. Colonel Pickering, his secretary of state, wrote the 16th of January, 1797, to general Pinckney, your plenipotentiary at Paris: "Perhaps no rule is now better "established, than that neutral nations have a "right to trade freely with nations at war; either "by carrying and selling to them all kinds "of merchandize, or permitting them to come "and purchase the same commodities in the "neutral territory; in the latter case not refusing "to one power at war what it permits "another to purchase; with this exception in "respect to articles contraband, that if the "cruizers of one of the belligerent powers "meet at sea with neutral vessels laden with "such articles destined to the ports of their "enemies, the neutral vessels may be captured, "and the contraband goods will be lawful "prize to the captors: but the residue of their "cargo, and the vessels themselves, are to be "discharged." This is the general law; but it is also stipulated in the 23d article of the treaty of Versailles, that the United States have the liberty of freely carrying on commerce with the enemies of France. The 24th article of the treaty with Holland, the 10th article of the treaty with Sweden, and the 13th article of the treaty with Prussia, contain the same stipulation: But Spain will not allow you to sell articles to her enemies, even in your own ports; and would you humbly submit? Hear what Hamilton also wrote, (when secretary of the treasury under the great Washington) in his CIRCULAR letter to the collectors of the customs, dated at Philadelphia, August 4th, 1793:--

"The purchasing within, and exporting "from, the United States, by way of merchandize, "articles commonly called contraband, "being generally warlike instruments and "military stores, is free to all the parties at "war, and is not to be interfered with. If "our own citizens undertake to carry them to "any of those parties they will be abandoned "to the penalties which the laws of war "authorize."

By the laws of nations^* the citizen cannot be restrained from sending out for sale to belligerents, arms and the munitions of war, or vessels even ready armed; but if these should be captured out of the limits of your territories, by either of the belligerents, for whom they were not intended, they are liable to be condemned as contraband; but neither the unarmed merchant vessel carrying arms as merchandize, nor the remainder of the cargo, not contraband of war, is thereby infected or rendered liable to confiscation.

The United States acknowledged the republic of France immediately after the trial, condemnation and execution of the king: before it was acknowledged by any other power on the globe;^* yet France had hesitated a year and a half in acknowledging the independence of the United States. The independence of one of our regions of the south, containing five millions of men, has been declared six years, and yet you have not held forth the solicited hand of friendship!

We wish not to infract the laws of nations: we give no commissions within your territories; for that would be a violation of your sovereignty; but your citizens may enter into the service of any nation abroad. The Swiss and Irish are constantly in the service of the French and Spaniards. It is an acknowledged right, among even the most jealous nations; and, my brethren, will you hesitate to allow it? We wish not to support pirates. Let them suffer the heaviest penalties of offended justice: but I pray you to distinguish between the voices of assassins, and the plaints of misery from the children of the south: be careful, while preparing snares for the wicked, who feed on misery, that you involve not in dangerous toils the virtuous and the good, who would relieve oppression. I know among you many stern souls; but the heart of the American is only steel in the battle. It melts with kindness at another's woe. Read what your great Washington wrote with his own hand!

"^†Born, sir, in a land of liberty; having "early learned its value; having engaged in a "perilous conflict to defend it; having, in a "word, devoted the best years of my life to "secure its permanent establishment in my "own country; my anxious recollections, my "sympathetic feelings, and my best wishes, "are irresistibly excited, whensoever, in any "country, I see an oppressed nation unfurl "the banners of freedom." What nation would not be proud of such a man! Many of you, who yet live, were his companions in arms; many of you his beloved friends! Imitate your great friend, and instead of becoming the time-servers of monarchy, move at once your determination to receive the deputies of the south. I know there are among you great and manly characters, who would not hesitate a moment in tearing the royal bandage from the eyes of reason, and declare yourselves ready to receive the delegates of our rich and extensive regions, repeating the noble sentiments of your beloved chief! I anticipate the happy, the approaching and glorious day, when the five flags of five potent nations shall be presented as the pledges of fraternity to the august assemblies that I have now the honor to address!

A SOUTH AMERICAN.

City of Washington, January 30, 1817.

* See Gallieni.

* See Mr. Pickering's letter to Mr Pinckney, above quoted.

† Written on receiving the national flag of the republic of France.

**********

Let's take a look at some other statements by Washington and Hamilton, shall we?

"That no man should scruple, or hesitate a moment to use arms in defense of so valuable a blessing [as liberty], on which all the good and evil of life depends; is clearly my opinion; yet Arms...should be the last resort."

- George Washington, 1789 letter to George Mason. [The True George Washington, 10th Ed. By Paul Leicester Ford.]

*****

"A free people ought not only to be armed, but disciplined; to which end, a uniform and well digested plan is requisite: and their safety and interest require that they should promote such manufactories, as tend to render them independent of others, for essential, particularly military, supplies."

- George Washington, Journal of the Senate of the United States of America, Jan. 8, 1790.

*****

"If the representatives of the people betray their constituents, there is then no resource left but in the exertion of that original right of self-defense which is paramount to all positive forms of government . . . The citizens must rush tumultuously to arms..."

- Alexander Hamilton, Federalist #28, Independent Journal Dec. 26, 1787.

*****

"This is what is called the law of nature, "which, being coeval with mankind, and dictated by God himself, is, of course, superior in obligation to any other. It is binding over ALL the globe, in ALL countries, and at ALL times. No HUMAN LAWS are of any validity, if CONTRARY to this; and such of them as are valid, derive all their
authority, mediately, or immediately, from this original...." - Blackstone...

"Upon this law, depend the natural rights of mankind, the supreme being gave existence to man, together with the means of preserving and beatifying that existence. He endowed him with rational faculties, by the help of which, to discern and pursue such things, as were consistent with his duty and interest, and invested him with an inviolable right to personal liberty, and personal safety.

"The sacred rights of mankind are not to be rummaged for, among old parchments, or musty records. They are written, as with a sun beam, in the whole volume of human nature, by the hand of the divinity itself; and can never be erased or obscured by mortal power....

"Had the rest of America passively looked on, while a sister colony was subjugated, the same fate would gradually have overtaken all. The safety of the whole depends upon the mutual protection of every part. If the sword of oppression be permitted to lop off one limb without opposition, reiterated strokes will soon dismember the whole body."

- Alexander Hamilton, The Farmer Refuted, 23 Feb. 1775

 

An American Time Capsule: Printed Ephemera